- It's Mardi Gras today and we have King Cake as one of the selections for dessert, which means it's lent
- tomorrow and Ash Wednesday to boot. February is the shortest month, but filled with all kinds of interesting
- occurrences like Groundhog Day to make it pass more quickly. Let's see, we've had Valentine's Day,
- President's Day, Lincoln's birthday, Washington's birthday, no leap day. But I want to bring something
- else to your attention this morning. And I asked and was given this privilege of sharing it today. Today
- is also the first day of Ramadan, if the Muslim clerics read the moon correctly. I assume that we all
- know that the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah can sometimes
- come close to Christmas and Passover coincides often with Holy Week. But Ramadan at this time of year
- coinciding with Lent is very rare. Do you all know where the Muslim mosque is in Bloomington? Let me
- see your hands. Good. I'm not going to ask how many of you have been there.
- But when I was teaching at Ivy Tech, I asked my students in philosophy religion to go with me to the
- mosque for their Friday meeting. Some didn't want to go, but they always came away with a nice impression
- and improved understanding of the religion of Islam. Ramadan is a month of fasting and prayer, but it's
- a movable feast since it's different every year.
- My mother-in-law was raised in Egypt and she said that Ramadan during the summer months was extremely
- difficult in a hot and dry climate. Catholics used to fast during Lent and many still do, but it's not
- as important as it once was to the Catholic faith during the season of Lent. So what is the significance
- of Ramadan?
- and or lent for those who practice it and for those who just maybe observe it. They are both times of
- repentance, meditation, and prayer. Repentance sounds like a word from the Southern revival, but it
- means change of mind from two Greek words. I admit this is a time to change our minds, to think about
- things differently,
- This is a hard year for Americans and the world with no peace in Ukraine and in Gaza as well. We have
- divisions and polarization at a height seldom known in my life. And it stretches into clubs like ours
- as well. To say the pledge or not to say it, reflection rather than a prayer, politics,
- and religion are important but often divisive. I have not always been happy with the response of our
- club to current events, but I'm changing my mind. I plan to do better in the lengthening days of Lent
- and the approach I hope of an early spring. This morning I heard the news of the death of Jesse Jackson.
- Anybody not know that until now?
- Anyhow, appropriate for us to consider in the light of today's program. I'll tell you what I always
- found interesting about Jesse Jackson. He's my twin. Yes, I was born on the same day and the same year.
- So what does that remind us of? It reminds me of my mortality. It reminds you of your mortality.
- We are all going to die when and where and how we do not know. Ash Wednesday reminds us of that. Dust
- we are and to dust we will all return. At the beginning of two sacred seasons, Lent and Ramadan, let
- us change our minds to better than we've done before.
- and look forward to more light, more understanding, and yes, more peace in our little section of the
- world. Thank you. Tim, thank you. Leslie Kutsenko will introduce our guests today. Hi, everybody.
- Happy Fat Tuesday. So we have quite a few guests today. We have Alondra, which is an observer from O'Neill.
- We have Mrs. Bodie, which is guest of Mr. Sims. We have Doris Sims, guest of Jim Sims. And Elizabeth
- Mitchell, a guest of Jim Sims. Stephanie Daggett, a guest of Jim Sims. Vicki Roberts, not Jim Sims.
- Audrey McCluskey,
- Danya from Art Omic, and Becky Wan, Steve Engle, and it says Brad Meyer Campaign. And then Jessica Sims
- is just a guest of the organization. Do we have any online guests? You're muted. Peggy, you're muted.
- Muted. I am working on it. Good afternoon, everyone.
- Is anyone, I just asked, okay, we do have a guest, Audrey Moclosky, who I appear, I'm not sure which
- one you are, but welcome. Okay, thank you.
- Thank you, Leslie. For those of you who are guests, if you'd like to learn anything about Rotary, turn
- to someone at your table and ask away. I also want to mention that longtime club member, Peggy Frisbee,
- is hosting on Zoom for the first time today. So good for her. Rotary birthdays. On the 18th, past club
- president Jim Cryweigh. Also on the 18th, sitting in the back corner, Kyla Cox Deckard.
- and on the 24th, past club president, Glenda Murray. We have no anniversaries to celebrate this week.
- I have just a few announcements. Please join members of the Rotary Book Club following the
- regular celebration of service today. They will have a brief meetup to field questions that Rotarians
- might have about their group. They also plan to select their next book and meeting date.
- For those of you who occasionally experience parking problems here at the IMU, don't forget that during
- meeting times, club members can also park for free at the Henderson or Atwater garages if you'd like
- to learn more. I mentioned this last week, but I'll say it again. There are spam emails going around
- the club. If you receive an email from a club member stating that you've been invited, it's probably
- a fake. Don't click on the attachment. And finally, a former
- Rotary Global Scholarship winner Aubrey Cedar, now handling the Bloomington Volunteer Network. Aubrey
- is the daughter of club members Don and Melinda Cedar, and I'll try to get the link to the Bloomington
- Volunteer Network included in this week's roundabout. And then finally, happy news. So last week we
- met new club member Jeremy Graham. I'm proud to announce that late last week Jeremy's wife Anisha gave
- birth to their second son,
- Javin, Jacobi Graham, weighed seven pounds and seven ounces, and he is scheduled for his first doctor's
- visit during today's meeting. And Tyler, yeah. Okay, celebration of service. So this is a celebration
- of a club member's service. And last Friday, the
- My sister's closet had their annual gala. And if you remember, they've been at their location on South
- Walnut for years and years. And due to the growth that includes the convention center, they are now
- moving to a location on Second Street here in a couple of months. They're still raising funds. They
- need to raise more. But really fun time on Friday. And here's a picture of a number of us there.
- You'll see club members. You'll see some spouses of club members. There are some rotor actors. What
- you won't see is Sandy Keller and Marcy Hibbard from my sister's closet because they were working their
- tails off. Lots of club members were at the gala. Some couldn't make it and so they donated their tickets
- to the rotor actors. But once again my sister's closet still looking for money so
- If you've missed the gala, you still have an opportunity to give money. So our Rotary Club, our Rotary
- Club has many talented singers. And here is a picture of Kanye Chakalas performing Friday at Friday
- Musical. It was at Beltrace. It was well attended. She did a great job.
- But staying on the theme of the talented singers in our club, today's membership quiz this week. So
- which of these Rotarians is not a singer? So if you think of these five, four singers or vocalists,
- one is not. If you think club member James Wolfe is not the singer, put up your hand. All right, we
- have a few.
- If you think club member Tim Jesson, who did our reflection this morning, is not a singer, put up your
- hand. OK, we have a few. All right, it's pretty close so far. Mark Peterson is sitting kind of in the
- far back there. And he is our club secretary this year. If you think Mark is not the singer,
- put up your hand. Ah.
- So far, we have a three-way tie. And those of you on Zoom, you can raise your hand electronically. Next
- choice, Amy Osojima. And I saw Amy here. I don't know where she's sitting, but up there she is near
- the coffee. If you think Amy is not the singer, put up your hand. Oh, no votes for Amy. And finally,
- last choice, Wilson Shatandi.
- If you think Wilson is not a singer, put up your hand. All right, no votes for Wilson. So we have a
- three-way tie, and then Amy and Wilson, no votes. Okay. Okay. Well, if you voted Tim Jessen, you're wrong.
- Tim is a member of the Choral and Men's Chorus, and here's a picture up there of Tim singing. Okay,
- Mark Peterson. If you voted for Mark Peterson, you're wrong. Mark is a member of the Celebration Singers
- of Jasper. Here's a group picture, but Mark is there on the right, kind of in the middle. You can tell
- that he's really, probably really loud right here.
- projecting well. OK, if you voted for Amy Osajima, which none of you did, you're correct. Amy sings
- with Voches Nove. Here's a picture of the Voches Nove altos. You can see Amy on the left and club member
- Sally Gaskell, another talented singer in the middle. And then if you voted for Wilson Shatandi, which
- none of you did,
- Wilson Sings with Voches Nove is a picture of Wilson. It looks like it's taken at the UU church.
- And finally, if you voted for James Wolf, many of you did. James is a man of many talents, but he's
- not a singer. And here's a picture of James, I think, during a volunteer assignment at Teacher's Warehouse.
- So good job, all of you. Thank you.
- Rotary International, just remember our seven areas of focus. And February is Peacebuilding and Conflict
- Prevention Month. And a reminder that Happy Dollars proceeds in January and February will be given to
- Teachers' Warehouse. And we have some time for Happy Dollars.
- to have celebrated my mother's 99th birthday this past Saturday on Valentine's Day with six of our family
- from this area and two of our family from Illinois. I have five happy dollars just thanking all the
- Rotarians that showed up at the gala on Friday and all the ways that you support us always at my sister's
- closet. Thank you.
- some happy dollars. I just paid off my student loan. Good morning. I have happy dollars because my son
- is here and he had a sunny do list of 20 items and
- And when I left home, 18 of them were done. So I'm hoping for a total success before the day is over.
- Thanks. Good afternoon. I have five happy dollars as well because the gala is over. And it was extremely
- successful. So thank you to everybody who participated. We've got Raj online.
- Yes, I have $10 in honor of Tim reflection of today. What he covers subject uncovered before and the
- final message of unity for all of us with different background and thought. Thank you, Tim. I have 20
- happy dollars in honor of my cousin.
- Stacey Gaskell, who just finished competing in her second Olympics in the event Snowboard Cross. I have
- happy dollars for just being here. But I wanted to say I have two tickets that are free if you want
- them. Wait, wait, don't tell me. So let me know if you would like them. And I have them on me. And I'll
- give them to you today. Thank you.
- I have 25 happy wishes for my granddaughter who is a new psychiatrist.
- I've got some happy dollars here and the rest of my money, actually, because my black eyes almost completely
- healed. That's it. And I have some happy dollars because Connie Shaquellis' program was wonderful at
- Bell Trace last Friday.
- I think that's everybody. Can we have one final round of applause for Art Olmec finally finishing high
- school after all these years? I had never heard of student loans to finish high school, but there's
- always a first. OK, junior high. OK. I think we have one more happy dollar online.
- I don't know how to pronounce first name, but Haoxi Wang, you raised your hand. Haoxi? Oh, no, I was
- just doing the round of applause. Oh, sorry. Very good. Thank you all for your generosity. Connie Chakales
- will introduce our guest. Thank you, President Steve. My introduction is long, so I have asked Steve
- I know it is. I've asked Steve to cut me off because I don't want to run into Audrey's time. Author,
- editor, and IU professor Emerita Audrey McCluskey grew up in America's Jim Crow South. Her memoir is
- Girl Child, Growing Up Between the Pines and Palms in Jim Crow, Georgia and Florida. Some of you perhaps
- bought copies of Audrey's signing in September at Morgenstern's.
- Jim Crow was that hideous system of laws and practices, especially in the South, from 1877 to the 1960s.
- The name came from a routine by a white minstrel show entertainer, Daddy Rice, who blacked his face.
- Jim Crow became synonymous with segregation of African Americans, according to the National Association
- of Black Journalists. Audrey wrote Girl Child as both a legacy and a history lesson.
- In the book, she describes her life shaping girlhood, not her adult self. Although she is a scholar,
- she chose to include neither footnotes nor lectures. She also chose to release her book last year. I
- felt compelled to write this now, she said, explaining that she wants this history not only to be preserved,
- but told as our history gets increasingly erased.
- Audrey's childhood spanned two states, Georgia and Florida, both part of the past US Confederacy.
- In Georgia, she was the very first black baby born on the all white US Air Force base in Valdosta, Georgia.
- The Air Force considered this
- unusual gift and honor, extending it only because Audrey's father had served his country during World
- War II. Even so, mother and babe were relegated to a hallway hidden from the other women and staff.
- After all, the McCluskys were part of the Double V campaign, a victory at home and abroad. Double V,
- a project during World War II, addressed the racism that against Black people who had fought for the
- US, its goal
- was to win a double victory over fascism abroad and persistent racism in the US. Waiting for black war
- participants at home, however, were increased discrimination and low grade jobs. Tuskegee Airmen and
- all black squadron endured strong prejudice but grew to be some of the war's most revered fighters.
- Black people realized they had been called to fight and yet now their freedoms were squashed.
- Audrey writes about her aunt's neighborhood. Euphemistically, she said, they called it urban renewal.
- But black people referred to it as urban removal or simply black removal. Am I going too long, Steve?
- One more minute. OK, let me. This is long. OK, let me get to her good qualities. OK, there was so much
- I wanted to say. I'm sorry. Audrey edited a book of interviews with South
- African filmmakers and has written articles and book reviews. She served as a panelist in the city of
- Bloomington's women of color in the workplace roundtable discussion, and was a guest on WFHB's Bring
- It On. She spoke about her book
- Imaging Blackness, Race and Racial Representation in Film Poster Art at IU's Neomarshall Black Culture
- Center Library's 10th Annual Library Evening Extravaganza and Reviewed Black Women in the Ivory Tower,
- 1850 to 1954, and Intellectual History by Stephanie Y. Evans. This is my last paragraph. Audrey and
- her husband, John, were honored in 2016
- with the Black History Month Living Legend Award by the Bloomington Black History Month Committee. She
- served on the city's commission on the status of women and helped with a group that tutored and volunteered
- at Fairview Elementary School, among many other endeavors that I could go on for an hour. And I give
- you Audrey McCluskey.
- Maybe we can go home now, because she has wrapped it up, hasn't she? Well, first of all, I'm very delighted
- to be here with you Rotarians. And so shout out to the Rotarians. I know about the good work you do
- in the community. I know about the good work you do nationally. And you are a factor in the health of
- our community. So keep on keeping on. I really appreciate that.
- I'm really excited to have this close encounter, though, with the Rotarians. And as Connie has really
- set up a lot of things that I was going to say, I want to begin really by thanking Connie and thanking
- Jim Sims, my good friend, and all the people who have helped to put this program together. I think they
- deserve a round of applause.
- want to also mention that although I didn't bring books to sell, I do know and I want you to know that
- I have a website where you could buy this book. It's at Audrey T. McCluskey dot com and not only do
- I have that book, I have all my five other books there as well as some blogs. People always ask me
- How did I come to write this, and what does it mean at this particular juncture in our history? So I've
- written blogs, and they're all on the website that you don't have to buy anything to go and see. I also
- brought with me a poster of Jim Crow in America. A lot of people think that Jim Crow was a southern
- phenomenon, but actually it was American, American phenomena.
- If you have the time, you can just peruse the chapter. I mean, the poster that I have here. I also have
- bookmarks that have, and these are just for you can pick one of these up. It has some of the reviews
- and comments about the book. So with that, I want you now to engage in a little going back. I want you
- to think about your childhood.
- Now, what images? I don't need you to tell me, but I'm sure images come into your mind when you think
- about your childhood. It could be positive. It could be negative. But they are there. Although we grow
- up, do we really leave our childhood behind? William Faulkner said that the past is never dead. It's
- not even the past. It's in our ringing consciousness. And he grew up.
- in the Confederate state of Mississippi. And he had lots of memories that he wrote about. So thinking
- of that childhood, your childhood, I think can help you now come to my presentation about my childhood,
- because it still resonates with me. But I titled this Capturing Joy, because oftentimes we think about
- Jim Crow, we think about all the terrible policies and acts and lynchings and all of doing Jim Crow.
- But I'm more interested in how my family and other families responded to this. And that's why I call
- it capturing joy, resilience, resistance, and family in Jim Crow America. So with that in mind, Girl
- Child is something that I would like for you to all consider.
- And if I were Oprah, I would say, you get a copy and you get a copy. But you can get a copy on my website.
- So Jim Crow is actually rather recent in our history, less than a half century ago. But this historical
- context, this dreadful long practice that began after Reconstruction,
- Reconstruction was after the Civil War, but it only lasted 11 years. And after that, the South was going
- to rise again. And how did they rise again? With the Klan, the whites, Camellia, all of those really
- repressive groups. And even before that, discrimination against African-American was a long institutionalized
- practice in our Supreme Court. Some of you may know
- Dred Scott decision. In that chief justice writing for the majority, Roger Taney wrote that, quote,
- blacks have no rights that white men need to honor or recognize. Supreme Court, 1896, Plessy versus
- Ferguson. That established the separate but equal clause
- that I grew up under. But separate was never what? Equal. It never was. And that was the policy of the
- United States until Brown versus the Board of Education, 1954-55. And Jim Crow, as I said before, was
- not confined to the South.
- in law or indeed in every part of America, right here in Indiana, in Bloomington, Indiana. You all know
- of the Monroe County History Center. It was the site, the Carnegie School, the Negro or the colored
- school it was called. There's a historical marker that people like Liz Mitchell and myself and others
- helped to establish so that history wouldn't be forgotten. So this book celebrates how my family captured joy
- but then a confining and a sometimes very, very destructive environment. I will now use my PowerPoint
- slides to illustrate those. And it's a kind of a precognition about some of the things I'm going to
- talk about. So I'm going to introduce you to my great-grandmother.
- And one of the things she always said was, I was born in freedom. I didn't know what that meant. I was
- born in freedom. But her parents were enslaved. And from her, I learned independence and discipline.
- This is my mother and father, Eva Mae West Thomas and my father. They co-founded My Night Out Cafe and Barbecue.
- and they were high school sweethearts. This is my father in front of his cab company. He was an entrepreneur,
- a business owner, a World War II veteran, an American Legion and veterans of the foreign war leader.
- He was a commander of the Colt VFW. And I will talk more about him after I go through this
- slide presentation. So what does resilience
- and resistance look like in pre-civil rights movement America? What does it look like? Well, not knowing,
- but these are the words that I heard from people around me. My mother, Eva Thomas, she told me, and
- not just to me, this is things that she just said, she wasn't really lecturing, she just said it.
- She said, white folks are not as smart as they think they are. My father, the entrepreneur,
- He told us to buy some land. Land is the source of all wealth. Work for yourself, not the white man.
- And then he went on to say, I pay cash. I don't know. I don't owe nobody. Baby, he told me at the age
- of 14, take my car keys. You're smart. You'll figure it out. And then he added,
- just stay on the colored side of time. My grandma, Georgia, the opposite of my great-grandmother, who
- was all stern and disciplined, she said, come here, baby, and give me some sugar. And my grandfather,
- Cap, Joyce Thomas, senior, get your education, baby. They can't take that away from you. So those are the words
- that I grew up around. And now, military service was very, very important to my family. Three generations
- of military service. My grandfather served in World War I in Europe. My maternal grandfather, that is.
- My father and uncle served in World War II. My brother in Vietnam.
- And writing this book, a historian, I didn't want the footnotes and all, but I do want to know to broaden
- it out. And so I looked at how black soldiers were treated in World War II. And that is the origin of
- the Double V, Double V campaign. And this is a scene from Harlem. And they thought they were fighting
- for their freedom, not just American freedom.
- And you see the large turnout. And the next is a photo. He served as an honor guard at JFK's memorial
- site in Arlington. And you had to be of a certain height and build in order to do that. So that is the
- background. Also,
- That's me. I jumped to me. Booker T. Washington High School sophomore. I was on the yearbook staff at
- Booker T. Washington High. And I really, really, really honor Ms. Dorothy Shannon and Ms. Menci, who
- tutored me and guided me in my writing skills. And this last slide is my ride and die. I'll talk about
- them later. My ride and die girl squad.
- We called ourselves the CLAD. We thought it was so inventive to take the first letter of each of our
- names. So you have, going from the right to left, you have Katherine, Laura, Audrey, and Delores. And
- we were our right of die. Now, just to show you how Jim Crow was an impediment, but it wasn't a stopper.
- Katherine became a diplomat.
- at the State Department. Laura became a grade school teacher. I became a professor. And Delores became
- an attorney in Philadelphia. So that is the background that I want to begin to talk about for my story
- going forward. So I was born in post-World War II in that southern town, Valdosta, which is on the border
- of the Florida state line. A baby sister.
- in a family of five, plus our great grandmother, whom I've mentioned before. In the Good War, and that's
- what World War II was called, the Good War, Daddy served in the Quartermaster Corps, a segregated unit
- in the army that supplied the troops in Europe. In my expanded research, I found that the Quartermaster
- Battalion 4009 was an all-black truck unit that withstood enemy fire to supply fighting units in Normandy.
- Tuskegee Airmen that Connie has mentioned, who like the 4009 brothers, fought and served honorably.
- Black and white leaders on the home front saw that as
- an opportunity with the Double V campaign. And some of the people who were involved in it, some of them
- you may know and some of you not, were people like Mary McLeod Bethune, who I've written a book about.
- Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Humphrey Bogart, Gary Cooper, and Roy Wilkins, the president of National
- Association of Colored People. It was their belief that once Black
- soldiers proved themselves on the battleground, black Americans in general, they thought, would be welcome
- home with full citizenship rights. Didn't happen. My dad, whose job in the quartermaster battalion,
- along with other support tasks, was peeling potatoes. It inspired him, however, I surmise, to open his
- own restaurant.
- With his army pay and the money he earned in the barracks with his poker skills, he sent it back home
- to our mother and told her to save everything you can. He returned and with mom's help and land owned
- by his parents, he built, along with my mom, his first restaurant.
- My night out, cafe and barbecue. He was a successful self-made businessman in that small Jim Crow town
- without the benefit of the GI Bill. The GI Bill was passed in 1944 in the Roosevelt administration,
- but it was denied black soldiers, black returning soldiers all over, but especially in the South, well
- into the late 1960s.
- Paul Thomas Sr., however, persevered. Along with my mother, he opened several other businesses. A motel,
- a cab company. You saw him standing in front of the Owl Cab Company. A place that I consider the first
- generation arcade. It had pinball machines and pool tables. It sold snacks, all the while abiding by Jim Crow
- restrictions that with my child eyes, I watched him navigate. An example, cops, all white, would stop
- by periodically at his restaurant to see if they can find an infraction to cite him harassment. Daddy
- plied the cops with his famous barbecue ribs from the pit that he built adjacent to the cafe.
- And he watched them smacking their lips with barbecue sauce on their uniforms. After they left, Dad
- made this a teachable moment for his children as he cursed the departing grifters. He lectured us on
- owning your own land and businesses. You don't have to work for them, he said. And then my grandfather,
- who was a laundry worker standing nearby, he would add,
- Get your education, baby. Nobody can take that away from you. Similarly, although he could afford a
- Cadillac, which was the most prestigious car you could own, but in the black community, only preachers
- drove Cadillacs because they would not be harassed. So what my father did was every two years, he would
- buy a brand new Buick.
- And that became, you know, the Buick is a good solid car, but it's not flashy. He understood that under
- Jim Crow, owning a Cadillac would invite envy and jealousy and close scrutiny from the white power structure.
- I learned that by watching him. So Capturing Joy shows how my family and many others, despite the confining
- practices of Jim Crow and some personal family disruption,
- how we often survived and even persevered. There was joy in our lives. And I want to read just a part
- of the philosophy that I inherited. And this is directly from Girl Child. To wave off fits of nostalgia
- that too often prevail in writings that look backwards to halikon days of yore, I labor to show that
- no such days existed. Still,
- In most instances of both family and societal disruptions, I witnessed pride and faith that were never
- surrendered. It was as if people in this orbit of history, aware of the confining weight of white supremacist
- policies, deign to treat the inferiority negatives always flooding in our ears like puddles of water
- after a drenching rain.
- They tried to high step over it, living lives that focused on who they believe themselves to be within
- their own communities. They conveyed a sense of self-worth that repelled all notions of inferiority.
- So in living close to my grandparents was another joy.
- Grandparents on both sides of the family made us feel loved and protected. The most precious and cherished
- gift before adulthood that I remember, just like you probably remembered something very specific, was
- the orange and white bike with the white wall tires and orange tassel that my grandfather rode from
- his house across the street to surprise me one Christmas. At seven, I had just learned to ride my brother's
- high-seated boy's bike
- and was delighted to now have my own. I often sat with my grandfather on his front porch, listening
- as he told gripping stories about his younger life, working near the alligator infested swamps near
- Miami to make it what it did become, the global city of the South.
- He told stories about people working with him. They lived in tents and getting too close and the alligator
- would come up and pop one. So it wasn't funny, but it was something that he liked to really spice it
- up when he told these stories. The radio broadcast of the Brooklyn Dodgers game was turned down until
- Jackie Robinson came to the bat.
- full blast by the whole neighborhood. Those episodes taught me a lot. It taught me the value of listening.
- You can learn more listening than talking. Another joy was from my grandmother, Grandma Georgia, sending
- me to the neighborhood store to buy her a raw crown cola. Anybody remember raw crown cola? Raw crown
- cola, it was a competitor to Coke, but of course Coke won out. And then she would tell me,
- Honey, you keep the change and buy something for yourself. And my great grandmother, who was born in
- Freedom in 1873, was a stern disciplinarian. I watched her wring the neck of backyard chickens,
- pluck it, and fry it up for dinner. She also made her own soap and jam from our grapevine. We had a
- tree of three,
- pecan trees and they were high quality pecan trees. And my dad who was always saying, you know,
- be independent and get your own money. I would gather the pecans and take them across the railroad track
- in my red wagon and sell them to the pecan factory for 50 cents a pound. And my brother had a shoeshine
- stand and my sister did our job. So we all, you know, had to work. So I remember
- women like that being surrounded, including my own mother, who soon was to strike out on her own. I
- also remember the confusion of attending movies with my big sister and neighborhood friends. And I recall
- this in a poem that I wrote that's in the book. And I will read that.
- was named. Our joy came from people who loved us and plied us with shiny coins to go to the show. After
- chores were done, Saturday matinee at the Dosta Theater in downtown Val Dosta, our entrance via the
- side door led to the balcony. The downstairs entrance through glass plated
- double doors was reserved for children of a different skin tone. Known by nicknames, CC, Junebug,
- Little Man, Weezy, Black Boy, I was called Baby Sister. And I was lifted to the ticket booth by my big
- sister, Sweet Pea. With a performance of thumb sucking and cooing, my fare was waived, and I used it
- to buy popcorn.
- Lights down, movie starts. Was the movie Tarzan Conquers the Jungle? Or was it Cowboys Tame the Indians?
- As the action stalled, popcorn and spitballs rained down on the favorite ones below. Revenge? Resistance?
- The walk home was quiet.
- Lost in our thoughts, we wondered, are we the Cowboys or the Indians? Are we Tarzan or those of our
- skin tone who he so easily conquered? As we approach South Lee Street, our home, we put such thoughts
- aside for now until next Saturday when the balcony beckons us once again.
- out leaving the cocoon of a nuclear and extended family was disruptive, yet I experienced joy in having
- better educational resources. Never equal, but good teachers, as I've mentioned, and the taste of teenage
- life and possibilities, friendship, dating, proms, et cetera. So I will read just a little more from
- that high school experience at Boogatee, Washington.
- We took it for granted that black people owned property and stuff. We knew people who owned their own
- homes as well as renters and vagrants. The range, the full range of financial circumstances was normal.
- But business owners were special to me because of my daddy's example. I later learned that black ownership
- was not expected in the broader society. As students, we did not take note of it all
- until it was mostly gone. There was so much more that we didn't know or comprehend. We did not know
- the history of our community. We did not know the history of our school because it was not taught. We
- did not know that Booker T. Washington opened its doors in 1927 as the first high school for blacks
- in South Florida. It drew students from as far away as Key West to the South
- and West Palm Beach to the north. We did not know that the vigilantes, the white vigilantes who tried
- to smash the dream of education for blacks and had firebombed the original building, it was inspiring
- to learn that the community rose up and protected the building of the school with night vigils around
- the clock. We did not know any of this.
- Our teachers focused on the positive and stressed how we are getting a good education at Booker
- T. Washington. My close friends, my writer, Dr. N, and I exemplified that message and won their favor.
- So as I conclude, the story of my childhood is unique in special ways, I know, but emblematic of America.
- at large at this time. For all Americans, this is not just black history, it is American history. Yet
- for all the negativity, it did not supplant our spirit, our creativity, or our joy. Jim Crow was an
- assault on humanity and should have been vanished, but it lasted over 100 years. A whitewash history
- that we are now seeing
- corrupted form of this historical presentation is surely taking us back to reignite the embers of white
- supremacy. What makes America great is not an abstract slogan. Its greatness lies in the will, strength,
- and resilience of its people, like my family, who never surrendered their joy, their hope,
- or belief in themselves. I want to end with another line from the book. On graduation day, graduation
- from high school. My family, my whole family was there to celebrate with me. Daddy, mama, Georgia Ann
- Sweet Pea, Paul Jr., my older brother,
- A graduate of Pinevale High in Valdosta was there too. Graduation gifts poured in. Cash, checks, gaily
- wrapped boxes, money, a Polaroid camera, which was all the thing then, and a shoe box full of high quality
- pecans that my father had brought. After all, I was an honored graduate of historic
- Booker T. Washington Junior Senior High School, soon off to college on an academic scholarship. And
- four years later, the first college graduate in my family. Thank you.
- I understand that you do questions or comments. Does that happen? Or do you? Any online? Thank you,
- Audrey and everyone here. I just want to reiterate what Audrey said. Jim Crow was everywhere. I grew
- up in Indianapolis.
- And Audrey's story is my story. Luckily for us, we had a strong family that believed in entrepreneurship
- and said, buy land and get an education. Not everybody had families like ours. So we were blessed,
- weren't we? Thank you. Audrey, thank you so much.
- really appreciate your willingness to do what it takes to write the book. And I know what book I'm going
- to be recommending to the Rotary Book Club for our next selection. This is an opinion question. Do you
- really think Jim Crow ended
- Or did it just kind of become more subtle and whatever? That sounds like a trick question. Because it
- never ended. It went underground. It went underground. White supremacy has never been defeated. It has
- been suppressed. And now it's reemerging. So it was never, never, ever. I mean, America was born in
- white supremacist notions. Even though we had the Declaration of Independence that said all people are
- created equal,
- Jefferson owned slaves. And so that contradiction in America theory and principle versus its policies
- is always at agitation point. But we do have the principles. And that's what I think we focused on,
- like my schooling focused on the principles. Even though I think in the civil rights movement, I think
- those principles went to a broader kind of appreciation among Americans when they saw what was happening
- in the South.
- Now, I can't say that is happening. Perhaps it will. But to answer your question directly, it's still
- here. Thank you. Thank you very much.
- fascinating presentation, happy things, sad things. On a less serious note, when she was talking about
- the barbecue, it made me think of the scene and fried green tomatoes in the Whistletop Cafe. And I'm
- sure your dad's barbecue was much better than that. Yeah, exactly.
- On a more serious note, my father was a World War II bomber pilot, and after the war, he, like many
- other young veterans, started families and moved to the growing Levittown area in Long Island. Blacks
- were not welcome in Levittown. In honor of your presentation, a donation we made this quarter to Amethyst
- House, so thank you. I'd like to thank today's volunteers, Leanne Radcliffe, who greeted for the first
- time, Leslie Kutsenko,
- Connie Chakalas, Peggy Frisbee, Tim Jessen, Elan Barker, Michael Shermas. And I'd also like to point
- out Tyler, who did, once again, quick on his feet with the technology. So our next regular meeting will
- be next week, February 24th. We're here in the Georgian Room. Club member Cindy Brumbarger will speak
- to us about community health centers, the Lifeline, and the Canary of Indiana's Health.
- So Tyler, if you please share the graphic for the four way test and please stand if you are able. Of
- the things we think, say or do. First, is it the truth? Second, is it fair to all concerned? Third,
- will it build good will and better friendships? Fourth, will it be beneficial to all concerned?
- And fifth, is it fun?