A Family Experience with American Racism: An Autobiography of Lloyd Allen Wright

By Lloyd Allen Wright

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 14, 2010
• ISBN: 9781453537657

Lloyd Allen Wright

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A Family Experience With American Racism

An Autobiography Of Lloyd Allen Wright

Lloyd Allen Wright

Copyright © 2010 by Lloyd Allen Wright.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Contents

Introduction . . . Who Am I?

A Family Battle Against Racism

Chapter 1—Parental Confrontation Re: White Racism

Chapter 2—Elementary & High School Days

Chapter 3—College Days

Chapter 4—War Time

Chapter 5—Mean Cruel Southern Racism in Cities and Camps

Chapter 6—Back to Family

Chapter 7—Back to College

Chapter 8—Job Frustrations and Battles to Survive

Chapter 9—Battles with Racist Lockheed and Racist Union Politics

Chapter 10—More Politics

Chapter 11—Social Work Battles

Chapter 12—Probation Department Battles

Chapter 13—Saving My Fellow Men

Chapter 14—New Director—Old Racism

Chapter 15—Astrology Buffs

Chapter 16—Back to the job at CAI

Chapter 17—White Cops

Chapter 18—My Wife and Her Debilitating, Racist-Oriented Job

Chapter 19—Our Two Sons

Chapter 20—More White Racist Facts

Chapter 21—My Broad-Based Battle against White Racism

Chapter 22—More of My Letters of Attack on Racism

Chapter 23—Black Racism?

Chapter 24—U.S. Secret Service Came Knocking on My Door

Chapter 25—Political Racists

Chapter 26—My Other Weapons against White Racism

WHO AM I?

MY DESTINY NUMBER IS 1

(It clearly defines my character.)

You Determine your destiny number by adding the numbers of the day, month, and year of birth. You then reduce them to a single digit. I was born on 4/24/1926. The date reduces to a single digit of 1.

If you are a number 1, "you must set yourself apart and develop a powerful personal point of view. If you follow the rhythm of your #1 destiny, you will be admired and respected for the uncompromising force of your convictions. No one will be able to accuse you of compromise. Everything you do will bear your incomparably personal stamp. You cannot blend in and get lost in the maze of the group. You and whatever you do will stand out as an original and intensively individual statement. This kind of individual strength is based on unswerving courage and the ability to stick to your guns when the going gets rough. It frequently will. The personal integrity you must develop can become a constant irritant to less confident individuals, and you will often feel the pressure of the group to conform. But the independence of thought and action that is the key to you destiny must be unassailable.

It may sometimes seem to be a lonely life. You may frequently have to go by yourself. You must make all the important decisions yourself and not depend on others to guide you. Yours is the role of a LEADER. You will have the opportunity to develop a sphere of influence over others. Your closest relationships will be with dependant and dependable persons who will not challenge your independence. You will need their cooperation and their loyalty, and their advice. But when it comes to a showdown, it is you who will ultimately be responsible.

You cannot run the risk of others holding you back. You will meet other strong individuals who will respect and admire you. These liaisons will be extremely satisfying for awhile, but it will be difficult to sustain the intimacy of the encounters for long. Competition will interfere. In the long run, the relationships you will find most gratifying will be those who trust and depend on you for their direction and will lend themselves to you as a role model for your ideas and creations.

Everything you do must be approached with originality. Your 1 destiny is to create, to initiate totally new concepts and to synthesize new direction from a variety of new ideas. Your success depends on the courage to think freely and to develop and pioneer new concepts, which may often be thought too risky or too avant-garde by others. You must be a source of creative inspiration. Put yourself in positions where you role as an independent thinker, originator, and leader is respected and unchallenged."

A FAMILY BATTLE AGAINST RACISM

Because white racism had such a great impact on our lives, I must let the whole world know how my family suffered in coping with the pervasive endemic mental illness, the malady of American white racism. My family did not bow to the mentally ill white racists. We always evidenced dignity, integrity, and pride of being, and never bowed to the mentally ill racists. Those blacks that acted contrary to our behavior were labeled as Aunt Jemimas and Uncle Toms, since they were spineless people who were willing to bow down to white supremacy, out of fear or for a few crumbs from the table.

My skin is neither white nor black, only medium brown. Regardless, I am considered black. Nature is full of color, from pure black to pure white, every color in the rainbow. All colorful things in nature are embraced by whites except blacks. Yet, people of color are eighty percent of the world population. I had a tendency to think that this small white minority of the world population was suffering from some type of physical, genetic affliction, since they were practically devoid of color. Yet, many white-skinned people, like my mother, maternal grandfather, paternal grandfather, maternal aunt, and brother were not afflicted with white racism. Accordingly, I came to the conclusion that if racism was a disease, it was primarily mental, psychological, and/or cultural in nature, something that was taught.

Yes, racial prejudice is taught, imposed on others by their ignorant fellowmen. Their fellowmen embrace the false belief that white skin makes them supreme. They believe that white skin is a blessing that should give them racial preference. Their children would be at risk of losing this blessing through intimate relationships and marriage. They stay away from people of color because the genes of colored people are dominant, in regard to skin color. Because of the color dominance, they prefer an average child with white skin rather a genius with colored skin. It is interesting to note that the blood of all creatures, including mankind, is solid red. As you travel with me through the misery of racism, I am sure that you will agree that the behavioral problems exhibited by racists are symptomatic of a cultural disease, a mental derangement that prevents one from seeing beyond the color of the skin.

CHAPTER 1

Parental Confrontation Re: White Racism

My maternal grandfather, Edward Everett Graves, was born in 1857 in Madison, Virginia. He was employed as a waiter prior to his enlistment in the U.S. Army on February 3, 1879 at the age of 22. He was inducted in Memphis, Tennessee. He was described as being five-foot-eight inches tall, with black eyes, black hair, and yellow complexion. Actually, his skin was white like most Caucasians. His hair was kinky, typical of most African Americans. He remained in the Army for five years. He was honorably discharged from Company E, 24th Infantry on February 2, 1884. After his discharge, he entered Lemoyne Normal School, a college in Memphis. Tennessee. He received his college diploma on May 31, 1889. As per his college diploma, His knowledge of science, his scholarship attainments, industry and moral worth entitled him to this diploma. Although my grandfather was born during slavery in the slave state of Virginia, his family escaped enslavement because their skins appeared to be white like most Caucasians. It is believed that his father, an emigrant from Germany, was a Caucasian who married a light-skinned black woman. I do not have any factual information regarding their history. Although some people thought that my maternal grandfather was white, he never attempted to pass for white.

In 1897, while employed as a teacher at the Industrial School of Reform, Louisville, Kentucky, he met my maternal grandmother, Alycia Allen, who was a science teacher. She was approximately the same height as my grandfather, five-feet eight inches. She had medium brown complexion, as well as brown eyes and black hair. My grandmother was born in Louisville, Kentucky on July 7, 1875. Her father was Henry Allen. Nothing is known about his history. Although he was born during slavery in a slave state, there is no evidence that he was a slave. He was married to one of the original inhabitants of this continent, Elizabeth Johnson, a Seminole Indian. These original inhabitants were named Indians by the white European invaders of this continent. They believed that this land was India, a part of the continent of Asia. They renamed these people just as the other European whites renamed black nations of the continent of Africa. An example was Rhodesia, which was named after Rhodes, a European white invader, an arrogant white supremacist who engaged in imperialism.

Alicia Allen and Edward Graves remained in Kentucky until approximately1903, at which time they were married. They moved to Topeka, Kansas, where my mother, Katherine was born on April 5, 1904. In 1906, they move to Muskogee, Oklahoma, where they remained until 1908. While in Oklahoma, my grandmother was a self-employed hair dresser, catering primarily to the Indian population. She explained how they were exploited by white people because many of them couldn’t speak the English language. When they would pay for her services, they would hand her a fistful of money and tell her to take whatever they owed. She indicated that white racism was extremely pervasive and endemic in Oklahoma. There was no respect whatsoever for Indians or African Americans. They always sought an opportunity to demean or harm black people. For instance, while stepping down from a street car, a young white boy ran into her with his bicycle by accident, and knocked her to the ground. Instead of apologizing and helping her off the ground, he just stood up and screamed, Nigger, you got in my way. My grandmother got up and proceeded to pound him with her large purse. She ripped his face to shreds with the metal handles on her purse. He then fled on the bicycle. She said, I beat his face until it was bloody. She added, I tried to beat him to death. From my earliest years, she would discuss the hideous experiences of black people. Hanging blacks from trees and castrating them, as well as burning them, were white people’s favorite pastimes. At times, when blacks were burned at the stake, whites would take parts of the dead body home with them, and place them on the mantel piece over their fireplace. Five years after, in 1908, my grandparents moved to Chicago, Illinois, where they remained the rest of their lives. My maternal aunt, Alycia, was born on April 24, 1915. April 24 is also my birth date. The family resided in a two-story, four-bedroom house. It was located at 3122 Rhodes Avenue. They remained at this location until my maternal grandfather deceased. The home was located several blocks from Lake Michigan, where the infamous bloody riot of 1919 occurred. This was only one of the many race riots that marred the image of Chicago.

My grandmother was injured during the 1919 race riot. Both she and my aunt Alycia, who was four years old, were on the beach at Lake Michigan. My grandmother suffered a serious injury to her left elbow. One of the rioters had thrown a rock that struck her during the melee. As she and my aunt were fleeing from the rioters, the police drove by. The police stopped, put them in the police car, and took them to their home, possibly saving their lives.

Facts of the race riot compiled by Ellen O’ Brian and Lyle Benedict, reference librarians of the Chicago Public Library, are as follows: On the afternoon of July 27, 1919, Eugene Williams, a black youth, drowned off the 29th St. beach. A stone throwing melee between blacks and whites on the beach prevented the boy from coming ashore safely. After clinging to a railroad tie for a lengthy period, he drowned when he no longer had the strength to hold on. This was the finding of the Cook County Coroners Office after an inquest was held in the cause of death. The William Tuttle Jr. book, Race Riot: Chicago in the Red Summer of 1919, includes an interview with an eyewitness. This witness was one of the boys swimming and playing with Eugene Williams in Lake Michigan between the 26th Street and 29th Street Beach. He recalled having rocks thrown at them by a single white male standing on a breakwater, 75 feet from the raft. Eugene was struck in the forehead, and as his friend attempted to aid him, Eugene panicked and drowned. The man on the breakwater left, running toward 29th St. Beach. By this time, rioting had already erupted there, precipitated by vocal and physical demonstrations against a group of blacks who wanted to use the beach in defiance of its tacit designation as a white beach. The rioting escalated when a white police officer refused to arrest the white man, by now identified as the perpetrator of the separate incident near 26th Street. Instead, he arrested a black individual. Anger over this, coupled with rumors and innuendos that spread in both camps regarding Eugene Williams’ death, led to five days of rioting in Chicago that ultimately claimed the lives of 23 blacks and 15 whites, with 291 wounded and maimed. The Coroner’s Office spent 70 day sessions and twenty night sessions on inquest work in examining 450 witnesses. Those findings were reported in the Coroners report of 1919, recommendations to deal with the underlying factors of the riots.

As early as five years old, I was confronted with the mental and or emotional problems of these sick white racists. One day, while walking down the street with my mother, I noticed several people staring at us in a very disdainful manner. They reflected a great amount of scorn and hostility. My mother observed me staring back at them. She quickly grabbed me by the hand and redirected my attention. She said, Don’t pay any attention to those people. They are sick. They have problems with colored people. They were probably asking themselves what this white skin woman was doing was doing with this black skin child. My mother was small in stature, only five feet two inches tall, But she was big and strong in spirit. She had gray eyes and light brown hair. She could have easily passed as a white woman. My brother Frank had white skin, blue eyes, and kinky light brown hair like mine, typical of many blacks.

At the age of five, I still didn’t know that white people used skin color to determine the value or worth of human beings. Further, at one time, white people deemed blacks to be only two thirds human. How in