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?