Triggering the Memories

By Dr. L. Jordan Jackson

The author depicts a broad journey search for her ancestors that led her search to Argentina, West Africa, America's slave, Jamaica, and the United States Indian Choctaw Indians Reservation and the signing of Emancipation Proclamation. It reveals a story about how her father's parents left Argentina to come to the United States to make a better life but were horribly treated because of their enthnicity, with acute present-day racism taking on a pathological dimension, and where her father took on a life of crime in order to survive as a child in a racist society but turned his life around for the sake of his children. This book gives details of the life of her mother's family escape from slavery to jamaica and their struggles after their return as free men back to America.

Her life is told as she grew up on one street in Greenville, Mississippi, where she attended a segregated school, graduated, and left the state of Mississippi to find nothing more than racism at many levels of life.

This is a story that is published as nonfiction because of the secrecy that lies in the heart of white America and because of its depressive mentality when it comes to persons of color, free or bound. Throughout the book, the author expresses her joy and disappointments while negotiating through a racist education system while earning degrees in higher education as well as in the workplace of the Unites States. She emphasized her perseverance as a university student, elementary education schoolteacher, principal, and college and university professor in higher education, where she found that life comes in all phases, grounded in human triumph without integrity for many.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 21, 2012
• ISBN: 9781477102602

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Copyright © 2012 by Dr. L. Jordan Jackson.

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

FOREWORD

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1    DADDY’S LIFE STORY AS A YOUNG BOY

CHAPTER 2    AFTER THE DEATH OF DADDY’S PARENTS AND HOW HE RAISED US

CHAPTER 3    SPEAKING OF FAMILY HISTORY ON MY MOTHER’S SIDE

CHAPTER 4    THE LIFE AND SECRETS OF MY MOTHER’S

FATHER’S SIDE OF THE FAMILY

CHAPTER 5    CHOCTAW RESERVATION

CHAPTER 6    MY LIFE ON EDISON STREET

CHAPTER 7    MY RETURN TO EDISON STREET

CHAPTER 8    THE DAY MY MOTHER DECIDED TO TAKE A CHANCE AT SHARECROPPING ON MR. BOOMERANG AND NARCSIS-JOHNSON’S FARM

CHAPTER 9    MY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL EXPERIENCES AND

THE LAND WHERE OUR NEW HOME WAS BUILT

CHAPTER 10    THE MAKING OF THE CLASS OF 1962 AT

COLEMAN HIGH SCHOOL

CHAPTER 11    MY SHORT STAY IN NEW YORK CITY AND ON TO ILLINOIS

CHAPTER 12    NAVIGATING THROUGH A RACIST EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

CHAPTER 13    SWORN DEPOSITIONS FOR COURT HEARING

CHAPTER 14    CONCLUSION OF THE MATTER

CHAPTER 15    MY INTERVIEW BY A LOCAL NEWSPAPER WITH MY PERSONAL COMMENTS

CHAPTER 16    EDUCATED BLACK WOMEN IN

HIGHER EDUCATION THAT I MET

CHAPTER 17    MY THIRST FOR THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD

CHAPTER 18    WHEN BLACK PARENTS WERE

IN CONVERSATION

CHAPTER 19    MANY PERSONAL PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS

A QUEST FOR IDENTITY    PORTRAITS OF A FAMILY REUNION

FOREWORD

Dr. L. Jordan Jackson’s brilliancy has rewardingly assisted her throughout her life and careers; furthermore, her excellence to execute ambitiously in various situations does not only doubtlessly but also eligibly rank her name among other successors. Over the years, Dr. L. Jordan Jackson has strategically tackled her way through many obstacles during her quest to modify beneficially the cognitions of the world. Not to mention her mission to succeed determinedly in life has perfectly pitched, like a Les Paul guitar chord, numerous opportunities, such as traveling from various cities, states, and countries. Dr. L. Jordan Jackson’s restless nature is mind-blowing; furthermore, one must become a true eyewitness to sincerely believe her constant work ethic. This book deeply entails one’s perseverance and black empowerment in America. This book indeed has the potential to effortlessly become a New York Times Best Seller.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. L. Jordan Jackson was born and raised in Greenville, Mississippi. After graduating from high school, she moved to Hollis, New York, where she worked in a toy factory as a seamstress, earning enough funds to attend Deluxe Beauty College in Greenville, Mississippi. After graduation from Deluxe Beauty College, she moved to San Antonio, Texas, where she landed a job in a beauty salon and worked there for a short period and later moved to Illinois. It was there that she became the proprietor of her beauty salon. Still, with an extreme thirst for knowledge, a few years later, she entered a local junior college, where she earned two AA degrees: one in elementary education and the other in general education. In the fall of 1982, she attended UB University, where she majored in elementary education, with a minor in language arts and elementary math, still using her expertise as a cosmetologist to continue earning funds to provide for her family. During the following year of studies, she changed her major from elementary education to philosophy and graduated in 1984 with a BS degree in philosophy. She returned to UB University for a master’s program in counseling, and later, she decided to transfer from UB to a more prestigious counseling program at Liberty University, where she graduated with a master’s degree in educational counseling in 1987. From there, she attended Chicago State University to complete her elementary degree in elementary education. In 1994, she attended UWH and studied abroad during an intense research in education at Brighton University, University of London, Farmer University, Cambridge University in England, Paris, and University of Munich in Germany. She earned her doctorate degree in 1999 in Curriculum and Instructions and later, in 2009, earned a PhD in African American studies from Belford University. Dr. Jackson is not very tall, standing five feet six inches in a seven-foot hole. She holds her own when ostracized by many of her coworkers in higher education for her generosity as an educator.

She is a university professor, researcher, tutor; a former elementary schoolteacher and principal; and an author of four books. Dr. Jackson’s generosity as an educator goes far beyond her expectations. She speaks the truth about power, and power fights back. She fights with perseverance by using obstacles placed before her as stepping stones for victory.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First and foremost, I want to thank God for giving me the perseverance to write this book from the lips of my daddy and other members on my mother’s side of the family, including my life from my childhood to becoming an adult.

My daddy told us his children about his life as a child, and I keep all that he told us in my memory bank. I keep all these memories of my daddy’s childhood struggles and my own struggles and success. However, when my daddy told me and my siblings of his trials coming from one country to make it as a poor immigrant, it was something I had to digest without expulsion for many years. To keep his memories in perfect connection, I had to, on many occasions, regurgitate my thoughts for memory’s sake. I want to thank my husband, Edward, for his continued support in all my endeavors as a writer and educator. To Pennelbe (Pennye) Norfleet-Taylor of Chicago, Illinois, who kept reminding and encouraging me to write the book since 1983. To all my sisters Margaret, Dorothy, Mary Louise, Annie, Hazel, and Ellanor, and my brothers, John, Earl, James (Bennie), and Larry, who also assisted me in the completion of this book. To my eldest sister, Louise, for her artistic expertise in the portraits of our great-grandparents on our daddy’s side of the family.

Special thanks to all my first, second, and third cousins who assisted me as well in collecting and organizing the families’ genealogy for this book: Mary Helen (Ronnie), Ora, Archie, Earline, and her daughters, who are my second cousins, Lexcie, Doris, and Angie; and my third cousin Archies’ daughter and son, Jeannie and Jeffery Allen, respectively.

INTRODUCTION

I have learned, listened, and loved throughout many years of my life; although there was much to be told, much was better left untold. I simply wanted to share some of the hardships and joys of my life to students who think they cannot succeed when hardship is met down the road of life. It is to those students or others whom I have taught and met over the forty years I have to the present as an educator that life is what you make of it.

As an educator, it gave me the power to lift students above many circumstances and to inspire their hearts. To me, teaching is a magical ability to transform students into another world of adventure where they can perform worldwide with self-confidence.

I have reached the age of full maturity. I have never read nor have I every seen the term retirement in the Holy Bible because I know God knows there is always something to do on earth that would benefit mankind until it’s time for one to return to dust.

Life and learning have their longevity, and I aim to live my life with prestigious performance as an educator and writer. Writing this book comes from my memories and from what others have related to me. My memories are not in chronological order. I want my work to reflect the way I remembered them, coming from four different cultures and four different backgrounds. It was an extraordinary journey to find my ancestors and to learn how I became a part of them. My journey leads to the Africans, Argentineans, American Indians, and Jamaicans, all of which gave me a paranomic view of who my ancestors were and what their struggles were in this world.

I left the Mississippi cotton fields with no intention of returning to the scorching sun, state of illness with heat stroke, and back-breaking work with its low wages that kept blacks poverty-stricken. I left with a sense of hope and with a desire for better things to come, not only for myself but also to help others, particularly students. Students today have a more difficult road on which to travel in order to accomplish their goals in life just as I did when I was a child and as an educator, but I found ways to reach my goals, and so can they. I knew it was not going to be easy because of the many obstacles placed before me. And I understood the circumstances as to what our descendants endured in the past so that I could accomplish my goals through education. Students today must study their history so they will know where they came from because not knowing one’s history will surely repeat one’s blows of blissfulness without a doubt.

Today’s students must understand that education is a sense of security. They must learn to keep their history as a reminder of what our ancestors endured so that they become productive citizens of tomorrow.

The book is dedicated to my grandchildren,

Regina and her brother, Dominic

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CHAPTER 1

DADDY’S LIFE STORY AS A YOUNG BOY

My daddy’s family history can only be stitched together like some sort of patchwork quilt of memories. A few dates here and there, if any at all.

He was born in Positos, Argentina. He came to America unshackled, bringing with him the hope from the heart of his grandpoppy, who sent them to America with the desire to be successful. My daddy and his family met many hurdles in life after coming to America, especially as a young child growing up without parents. This was not the hope of his grandpoppy or his parents. My daddy told us that his family was so poor that they had to eat simple porridge made from corn husk juice. His mother would take the husk and corn, boil it until it was soft, season it with herbs, and cook it for several hours to form a soup. This soup with other vegetables was their main meal, which was very filling for the family. It seemed at the time to him that she could make a meal from any type of vegetable. She would take a plant with a yellowish flower and make a meatless loaf, which was very delicious. He explained, All our cooking was done in the back of the house. We did not have an inside stove because of the way our house was built. There were no chimney flutes.

When he told us that his country treated his family less than human beings because they were of the poorest stock, I felt the humility. When his family arrived in America and were treated worse, I still felt the same humility just as I did while writing this book. He told us that while they crossed the ocean to America, they had to hide in the hull of the large freighter that carried many types of cargo other than human cargo who were escaping the poverty from one of the poorest countries in South America. A friend of his grandpoppy, Jose, was paid to bring them to America. They were afraid to leave their grandpoppy, whom he called Papa, because there was no one else to care for him. His grandmama had died; her name was Roscita. His grandpapa was very old and sickly and wanted his son and my daddy and his sister to have a better life in America. My daddy told us that he did not think that his grandpoppy lived too much longer after they left. After arriving in America, they were placed on a fishing boat and journeyed to Chicago, Illinois, and later caught a ride to Gary, Indiana, on the back of a wagon. Before their arrival, his daddy acted as if he was employed by the large freighter that hauled the cargo of human beings and other type of supplies. By being a child, he did not know all the supplies that the freighter carried; all he saw were people and large boxes. The way things were happening in my head while he was telling us of his journey, I thought that he might have been on a pirate ship; this is what I thought as a child. My daddy was just a child, and no doubt he probably was afraid because they had to hide in the hull of the freighter. After traveling for miles over the ocean, they could only come up at night for fresh air. When they arrived, my daddy said he and his sister were very hungry, and he remembered that he and his sister had to wait until the next morning before they could get one ear of boiled corn to eat, and it was cold. They had to wait a long time after eating their first ear of corn before they could eat anything else, but it did not matter. He said, We waited with pride, each carrying our own small bundle of clothing. They soon left after they arrived at a rooming house in a slum area where there was no running water nor an inside bathroom; they had to go outside and use a hole elevated above the ground that had four walls and many cracks in its sides. Really, to me, he described an intercity outhouse.

He continued to tell us of his difficult challenges as a child. We would all sit around him when he told us things that he encountered as a child living on the streets of Gary, Indiana, after the death of his parents. I never thought to look at my siblings’ faces to try to read their facial expressions of his demise because I was too busy digesting his every word.

He would tell us about his life because he said he did not want us to grow up as he did, so he was going to do his best to see that things would be better for us. He was from the town of Positos, Argentina. It was located near Bolivia; actually, it bordered Argentina. He said, This town [as he remembered as a little boy] was about one block long, where many buildings sat in the middle of the town on a one-way street, and at the end of that one-way street was a bridge that crossed the border. The day came when his parents took them across and never returned. It was a family of four. His sister’s name was Marieo, and his name was E’mond Achillus. Anyway, this is what I remember. His family came over to this country when he was seven years old and his sister was twelve. They had lived here for about three years when his mother and father got hurt on a wagon in Gary, Indiana, on their way home from a long hard night of work as laborers; he was a dishwasher, and she was a cook at a popular diner in the lower part of the town of Gary. While en route from a hard night’s work, someone hit them from the rear of their wagon while they were on their way home on a cold winter’s night. His father’s back was broken, and his mother suffered from a terrible neck injury. His father and mother suffered for a long time from their injuries and later died. He said his mother died first and later his daddy. But during their nights and days of suffering, the two were called to their bedside and was given clear instructions as to how things were to be carried out if the two parents should die. Their parents told his sister, Marieo, to take care of her little brother if they died. She would have to quit school, find a job, and take care of him so he should continue to stay in school. She told them that God would take care of them while they were away, and they were not to worry about anything. He stated, When my mother told my sister to take care of me while they were away, I thought they were coming back so I did not worry when they died because at the time of their death, I was ten years old and she was fifteen. About three months later, they both were dead.

Before the death of his parents, Daddy said, We were treated as if we were not human beings or U.S. citizens. Other people were treated better. I could not understand its reasoning. This is the first time that I had ever heard the term citizen. His parents would go seeking employment, and just because they spoke broken English, they were denied employment. Sometimes when work was found, whites would refuse to pay his father. His mother would walk the streets of Gary, trying to find work as a cook. We were told there were many days his mother would return home and cry from the lack of finding work. She would cry because the two of them could not find work to support their family. Daddy said, I have never seen my daddy cry. He would just hang his head in sorrow. But approximately three weeks of his mother’s last cry of her disappointment, things began to look bright. He said, Mother found a job as a cook, making $10 every two weeks, $5 a week, 72 cents an hour. We ate dried beans for a long time before things seemed to get a little better. Things started to get just a little better before their death. They managed to add a little meat to the beans.

They could not deny being foreigners because they had had to register at some immigration office in order to become American citizens, which they did in about two years after their arrival. When speaking to us as children, on many occasions, our daddy would speak in his native tongue. We would laugh because it sounded funny to us. Sometimes after we grew older, having conversations with us, he would speak in his native tongue. Sometimes, later, we could still hear an accent when he would converse on one subject, saying how it might have been if they were living as blacks in America. Would it have been any worse or better for them? He said, On many occasions, my father wondered if they could keep it a secret that they were not foreigners. If so, would life have been any better for them if they spoke fluent English? But at that time, blacks were having their own problems and trying to pass as a black person would just be as hard because things were so difficult for both races.

CHAPTER 2

AFTER THE DEATH OF DADDY’S PARENTS AND

HOW HE RAISED US

For two children living in a strange country, having lost both parents had to be a tragedy. When my daddy talked