Baltimore 1960-Eight: Childhood, Family, Fury and Then There Was the Purple Couch!

By T.C. James

Follow this eight year old child through the loss of innocence as he witnesses the war in Vietnam during the 60’s the ‘TET Offensive’ in the beginning of 1968, as he tries to adapt to Catholic school. Hear his thoughts and fears as he grows up in a black family during a segregated country and racially charged Civil Rights Movement while trying to maintain his innocence. Journey with him through nightly televised violence of Vietnam and racial battles of Civil Rights marches. Hear his thoughts of the changing times in music, fashion and art and then the susequent murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Terrible violence that follows during the riots in Baltimore City. Hear in his words how he felt, what he saw and his perception of the world as he grows up with the chaos around him.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 14, 2019
• ISBN: 9781796063295

T.C. James

T.C. James was born and raised in Baltimore MD. Graduated from the from high he joined the Army serving four years until honorably discharged. After serving twenty years in city Government he left to pursue a career in the private sector and moved to Atlanta Georgia. He is an award winning playwright and poet. He studied at the university while in Germany and upon his return home continued his studies at community college and adult continuing studies. He always considers Baltimore as home.

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Copyright © 2019 by T.C. James.

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.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.

Rev. date: 10/04/2019

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Contents

Acknowledgment

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Epilogue

To Selena, Dominic and Shallah, Mark and Jermel.

Raven, Samuel Christopher, Qiana Joy and David.

That the branches of our tree may bear fruit Forever

Acknowledgment

All my life God has sent Angels to guide me along the way, from birth to this very day. Those angels have been in the form of people who guided me, strengthened me encouraged me. They helped me up when I fell down, they fed me when I was hungry, wiped away tears when I was crying, bandaged my wounds when I was hurt and sometimes carried me when I could not go on. They prayed for me when I lost faith. They sat by my side when I was sick, and they surrounded me when I was lonely. They corrected me when I was going astray and applauded my every success. They gave me light when I was in darkness. There is no way I can thank them all because they are so many.

To my village, everyone that touched me throughout my life, you are part of my village. To my family, brothers, cousins, and sisters, blood and extended. To the entire Usher board of Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church, from 1930 to present who treated me as their own son. To the late Rev. Isaac L. Williams my first pastor. To Bishop Clifford Johnson, my pastor ever since and the entire congregation of Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church from 1930 to present. To Eugene and Betty Wright, Dave and Mary Montgomery, Ronald and Staci Hill, Jessie Rice, Denise Rice, John and Dorothy Cherry, Barbara Holmes, Chuck and Ray, Amini Courts and the Arena Players for a lifetime of smiles, love and true friendship. To Mrs. Cheeks and Lonnie for helping me bear an unbearable burden. To Robert Guy, Erik, George Balog and Caroline Dorsey, Shirly Williams, James Kaplan, Robert Smith, Shirley, Steve, Bill, Kathy and Felicia, Rufus Weldon, China and Morrow Basilio, Robert Smith, Joe K., Hilda Fuller, Donna Owens, Sheila Cutchember, and Leonard Addison and all my City village. It was my pleasure to work with you all.

To Captain Richard A. Ford, (Commander, A 4/73rd) the best Leader I ever had. 1st sergeant Freddie Purdue, SFC David (Stretch) Story, SFC Dawkins, James Davis (JD)., Billy, Cobb, Helen (H the Bear), LT. Jeffery Fry, Lamont Lundy, my best friend for life, Flannigan, House, Erskins, Walton, Danny Leonard, (Compton) ‘Flash’ Hastings, Berryhill, (Coolest Tank Commander I ever had) William and Wally Green, (California Dreaming), and Cornelia Henke. My village that led me and stuck by my side through thick and thin through the United States Army.

To my mentor the late Robert Clay, Bobby and Sharon Clay, I can’t thank you enough. To Chris Brophy, Ron Farugia, Lamar, Jason (Buzz) Buzby, Jason Cushman, Ray, Chino, Mary, Judy, Curtis, Lorretta, Robia and Susan, Kenny, Phil, Q, and My whole Airtran Philly village.

To Cody, Damian, Bart, Chandra, Monty, Griff, Otis, George, Dean, Shannon, Martha, Kevin, Mark Hughes and Rick Pelc, Corey, Tony and Jarvis, ‘the three Musketeers,’ Emily and Michael Walton, to Heather Burton, Johnathan Jackson, Corey (C-Mac) McMillan) DaVonda (Tupac) Howard, Derrick (Heavy D) Burgess, and Avon, Anita, Alonza, Gary Muff, Melissa Hines, Barbie White and my whole Airtran/Southwest Atlanta village.

To all the nuns and teachers in all the schools in Baltimore, Thank you. With a special thank you to Mrs. Whitman, Best English teacher I ever had, Mr. Cook (History) Booty was something pirates stole, and Melvin Rollins, that expulsion from school for lighting a firecracker in class was the best lesson I learned from you. My parents didn’t think it was funny either. It takes a village to raise a child. This is just a small part of the village that gave me the best chance to live and succeed, though they had to keep pushing me forward even if it hurt. Most of all they gave me all the love they had. I hope this work proves your giving was not in vain. Thank you. To the City of Baltimore I simply say thank you, Love, and I call you always, Home.

Chapter 1

Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth;

And let thy heart cheer thee in the days of

Thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine

Heart, and in the sight of thine eyes;

But know thou, that for all these things

God will bring thee into judgment.

Ecclesiastes 11:9

Christmas 1967 was a very one of the best I ever had. It was filled with all of my favorite things at that time of the year. From putting up our tree to the smells and colors of the season.

An assortment of nuts and candy on bowls around the dining room table, with a larger bowl of tangerines in the center, made the house smell like something was always cooking. Our red stockings were hung over the mantel in the living room, where our sparkling silver Christmas tree changed from blue to yellow to red to green. In 1967 artificial trees were the rage. With those wonderful colored revolving (better known to us as bobbing lights) lights were a child’s amazing wonder. I could lay on the floor in front of that tree for hours just watching the colors turn, occasionally hanging a toy soldier from it simply because it was fun. It was fun to put together, trying to figure out what aluminum branch went where and trying to hide the ones that were shedding at the bottom of the tree. My two sisters and brother could not wait until we got the ok to break out that box with that shinny mass of aluminum fun. Then the chaos would ensue as we put it together two or three times until we were sure it looked like a tree. My brother and I had the task of untangling the lights and find out which one light was killing the whole string and stopping them all from working; a thankless job to say the least. I think my parents got a kick out of watching us and wondered how many bulbs and ornaments we would break before a new box had to be opened. And, of course we always ran out of hooks. Whose job was that? Ornament supply. It was my older sister’s job to swirl the tinsel and my next oldest sister would hang the lights and hand my father the star and he would put that up. Once the star was lit it was officially Christmas. The last time we had a real tree I think I was four or five. I like the artificial ones better. Don’t ask me who thought of the color silver.

Our customary large, plastic candy canes filled with treats and toys were hanging from the tree also They were compliments of our insurance man; a nice old white man who dropped them all around when he came to collect on the policies my parents had on everyone. Those were the days black people were limited in their choices for such services, and people in general had a more personal touch with their customers. He was a nice enough man and never had a bad thing to say. The Joy of Christmas. We had some knowledge of the school change that was coming, From public to Catholic, but it was not important at the moment. So what, a new school. But it wasn’t Christmas until we heard the song ‘Fat Daddy’ on the radio. Then it was on. Come on tangerines! Come on Pecans! Oh, Oh yea! We were one of many of the black families living in America during a time of segregation, extreme prejudice, The Civil Rights movement and the upheaval that was the Sixties. We lived in Baltimore, Maryland; Bordering Virginia to the south and Pennsylvania to the North at the Mason/ Dixon Line all along the Atlantic coast. Baltimore having a harbor off the Chesapeake Bay, and nestled between Delaware and Washington D.C. For the record, at age eight, I could care less. Hey, how many people know where Delaware is? These three states were steel and shipping giants that had helped forge the weapons and transportation, not to mention manpower, that helped win the last great war. The sleeping Giant; Industrial, Manufacturing, Manpower, was as Isoruku Yamamoto had predicted, awakened in 1941. That was a time that only came around only once a in lifetime, all the right people, at the right place, in the right position in history, at the same moment in time. Good versus evil collided on what Carlos Constaneda called the Fifth Ring of Power and like Dwight D. Esinehower, who put together one of the toughest coalitions to ever fight a war. Winston Churchill, who defiantly took the tiny Island of Briton through the Nazi Blitz all alone, and George S, Patton III, who said all the wrong things but won all the right battles. He fought with more Negro soldiers than any other general. They created his supply lines, volunteering to drive the dangerous roads, day and night to keep his army moving. They called it the Red Ball Express. Things were again shaping into another once in a lifetime moments. I knew more about Patton because he was well loved by Negro tankers. He had Negro engineers building bridges, and black truckers who drove the Red Ball Express, keeping Patton’s Army supplied and tanks filled with gasoline. Future Senator Huey Long was there. The 761st all Negro tank battalion, ironically named, The Black Panthers saw heavy action and fighting across Europe and into Germany. Their Motto was Come Out Fighting, and they did just that. They were instrumental in relieving the siege at the Battle of the Bulge. They received The Presidential Unit Citation; 33 years later. They liberated numerous towns concentration camps, including Buchenwald, and saw firsthand mans inhumanity to man. They didn’t need to be reminded but they were. Lieutenant Jackie Robinson was a member of the 761st until he refused to give up his seat on an Army bus to a white officer and was brought up on chargers. They were later dropped allowing him to become the first Negro to play in the American Baseball league. My grandfather and great uncles served in Patton’s 3rd Army, and they didn’t have to tell us boys, preparing to go to war in Vietnam, that they shoveled shit in Mississippi. But ever since the Second World War life in America had begun to change. Black soldiers coming home from an unsegregated Europe were ever increasingly aware that being treated as a second class citizen in a country you sacrificed for was just not good enough. While Winston Churchill was relieved to have America as his ally, the British people did not share the same ideas and prejudice as the Americans. Churchill may have wanted to appease his American allies, but the people of Briton allowed Negro soldiers to go wherever they were welcomed. They did not share America’s views on segregation. Having had the experience of equal rights, upon returning to the states most black soldiers joined the Civil rights movement.

The Civil Rights movement had begun in ernest in the 1950’s with the Montgomery bus boycott. It had started out slowly with stubborn white America not wanting to give an inch. Since that time, it had become bloody, continuous, and very violent. Especially in the South. Then some things began to change slowly, and in came the radical sixties. Change was coming and the sixties would become the most important decade of the twentieth Century. It was a time of complete and utter turmoil. With 1967 looming in the rearview mirror, and having been one of the most contentious years thus far, 1968 was fast approaching and it too would be a once in a lifetime moment.

After World War II Eisenhower became president and led the country through a tranquil period of peace through stealth, secret wars and exploration. But Civil rights was largely ignored by a majority of states, who enjoyed all the benefits of a free and prosperous America but didn’t know a thing about the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States, in most cases didn’t care. The Korean war, which my father fought in, was mostly overlooked, but was the first time Americans had fought together as a desegregated military. When the Airforce split off from the Army and became a separate military branch someone with common sense must have asked, well what do we do with all the Negro pilots and support in the segregated Army Airforce? Good question. Integrate. That lead to the desegregation of all services in 1948.

Still, the disparity of treatment of Black Americans through Laws that kept black people from realizing the promise of the American dream through a still Segregated America had to be faced. In spite of the 15th amendment there were eight Civil rights acts passed over the years in order to specify exactly what the rules of the amendment were because every state and local government kept finding ways to ignore it. Jim crow laws, Literacy test and the grandfather clause just to name a few. Then there was that ever present threat of violence if you walked in this place or that, or drank from a separate but equal fountain. There was no such thing. Things were clearly marked whites only. You didn’t have to ask. So, the fifteenth amendment had to have Civil Rights Acts added because of prejudice and a total ignorance of the rights men had fought and died for.

The vigor of hatred was so prevalent, and the Civil rights movement became so powerful that by 1968 black people had been outright defying the laws of racism and segregation. The Civil Rights movement continued to gain momentum, but America was now focused on the space race, and the Cold War. The cold war, which was the time we were living in, was probably the most unforgiving, because no one died in combat. Everyone who died, died in a training accident. It was hard to explain the cold war when Vietnam was a growing hot war. The cold war would not end until the fall of the Soviet Union and the downing of the Berlin wall in 1990. However, it would take a lot of training accidents. Vietnam was as hot an issue as the Civil Rights movement. What about this equal treatment thing? But hey, I’m in the third grade, transferred to a new school, and the math is scaring the heck out of me. I would also learn the constitution, as written.

Plus, it was just not the time for stupid things. In the war to end all wars, it was Dwight D. Esienhower who led Europe against Adolf Hitler. Hitler was the type of evil also seen only once in a lifetime. In the name of racial superiority, he committed one of the greatest atrocities in history. You can never take for granted what horrors will happen to a whole race of people if the world ignores it. Those in the Civil rights Movement knew that all too well. Black people knew that all too well.

He fought against evil in Europe yet, at home he had his hands full with the cold war and the space race. He was a man of daring and destiny. He had a vision of the future and like a good chess player could see three moves ahead of his opponent when the opponent knows he is coming and still he comes, and wins; sometimes teetering on the brink of disaster. Even though Civil rights were on the perifpheri of life for him, it was fast becoming a powerful force. He signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957. He had to federalize the National Guard to integrate Little Rock, Arkansas high schools. It would not be the last time a president had to federalize a state’s National Guard to enforce desegregation law. This one legally established the Civil Rights commission providing equal rights for all citizens, specifically the voting rights act. Like Eisenhower, the Civil rights movement moved like a good chess player, planning three moves ahead and always moving strategically. They went into the southern strongholds that were staunchly against desegregation and buried deep in hatred. They went to Montgomery and Selma led by a young, unknown minister named Martin Luther King Jr. and other ministers who were pressed onto action by the people that wanted action. they knew he was coming, and he did. His life and the lives of many were always on the line. They took the beatings and the dogs and kept going. Wherever the resistance was strongest that is where they went.

I studied the history of the Civil war purely from a military historical point of view. The south which was agriculturely rich because the Europeans loved that damned cotton, with less men, and less resources at the outset, damn near whipped the North because General McClellan, commander of the army of the Potomac just would not fight. Of that once in a lifetime event came two of the most important documents of American history. The Gettysburg Address and the Emancipation Proclamation. Neither of which, for the past hundred years, seemed to matter to white America at all.

History was dotted with men of destiny. Since the 1950’s bus boycott, when the Civil Rights movement became more than a protest, Medgar Evers, Malcom X and Martin Luther King Jr., among others would be three of the key figures to stand out and lead this new movement. These three men would be meet their time of destiny. Like Churchill, Patton and Eisenhower these three would stand against injustice. What had started out as a boycott in the 1950’s in the South, soon turned into marches and sit ins, met with a viral hatred that would grow in size, scope and a momentum unseen before in American history. Leading to further Civil Rights Acts in 1960, signed by Eisenhower and again in 1964, proposed by John F. Kennedy who was assassinated before he could sign and was signed by his successor Lyndon Johnson. In 1968 President Johnson would sign yet another, all guaranteeing protections for voting and registering to vote, Fair housing, and employment and protection from the threats and violence and all matters people and states who wanted to ignore the constitution and keep segregation as a whole. The 1964 Act having taken a