In the early 1960’s there was a young African American girl named Angela, Amelia, Kalula, Lizet, Taneguchi, Uchiomi, Machimola, Knackawhatic, by her mother; who had named her after her d-o-l-l, (I usually spell it, because it is a word that is hard for me to pronounce properly) after her classmates and friends that she cherish in her schools in Chicago, IL. This young girl lived in Junction City Kansas during the school year and would return to her hometown Chicago where she was born during the Jim Crow Era.
Jim Crow was an Era here in America where the Dominant Culture, which were the White population were making laws that would continue the legacy of White Supremacy. Jim Crow legalized the separations of the other races of people and forced them into being Second Class Citizens. Unfortunately, what that exactly meant was not taught in our schools per se, only the subtle degradation of the moral decay of humanism was expressed and children didn’t get the memo. African American children were taught that you must respect your elders, even if they are wrong because there is a lesson to be learned even in that, like of what you don’t want to do or the way in which you should act towards others.
Well, we will just call the young girl Angela as we move forward with this story. Angela’s thoughts did not give any notice of the “colored only” signs as they had always been just part of her life. She didn’t fully understand what they meant, so when she would go places and see the signs, she never questioned why they were there. When other acts of discrimination by her teachers presented themselves, like them making her to go to the end of the line when it was time to drink water from the fountain after a long hot recess, and then being told that the faucet in the bathroom was also off limits to her, which only left the toilet water for quenching her thirst. While in the bathroom stall, she rationalized that, “dogs drink from the toilet and they are fine”, therefore it must be alright for her to drink too and that became her water fountain.
Angela didn’t think about how when Mr. Ludwig would spit plaque covered erasers on her desk that that was not appropriate because it was a regular occurrence. Instead of speaking out about it, she would stick big thick pins in her gums, and she and her other classmate who looked like her would flick the erasers back and forth to each other as a game. She knew that she couldn’t tell her parents because they believed that the teachers were always right because they were adults and they would beat her and blame her for not getting good grades in school, not knowing that the teacher would not give her the credit she deserved. These subtle acts mounted up and as she went into higher grade levels the abuse became worse and the teachers were pushing her down the stairs.
Unaware of the covert actions by those in charge, she began to rebel by fighting other students which did not help the situation. By the time she reached eighth grade the Civil Rights Movement was well on its way, and she was definitely apart of it. She would march home from school with the rest of the students that attended shouting James Brown’s lyrics to songs like “say it loud, I’m Black and I’m proud.” When she asked her Social Studies teacher about being taught Black History that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. When the teacher told her that he was only teaching about the few pictures and captions that were in the book and she told the teacher to take the book and he then responded by giving her a pass to go to the Office. That was the last of her formal schooling for more than 30 years.
During that time Angela made education and learning a lifelong journey, especially of Black History. She became pregnant during her early teens and experienced a lot of the world through her experiences of being a victim of domestic abuse, molestation, insets, gang violence etc. because her father was a gangster, a pimp, and a whole lot of other things that weren’t legal or healthy. By the time Angela was 17 she had three children and a husband and lived in Mannhiem West Germany.
When she arrived in Germany, on her first day on the Kaserne she met people that knew her in Junction City. Angela’s husband was in the 63 military battalion, and he spent a lot of time in the “field” where they practiced maneuvers. She stayed in Hemsback in a hotel at first and then her husband took her to a place closer to Benjamin Franklin Village where he worked. Upon arrival at the prospective apartment the host greeted her and her family with gifts. She was invited for tea and shown the basement apartment that was for rent. It was two rooms that were divided by a shrunk. The landlord seemed nice and even promised to teach her German in exchange for her teaching her English. The landlord wife Helen and Angela got along great, while Helen’s husband Hans Phifer never said much and was not home most of the time. The two women would go shopping together and exchange rations for rent and spent a lot of time on lessons.
The U.S. dollar was strong, 4 Marks to a U.S. dollar. Cigarettes were $2.40 a carton and you could buy 4 cartons per adult, coffee, tea, and alcohol were also rationed and could be sold for enough to pay rent.
One day while Angela was upstairs, she noticed a picture of the couple with white bands on the arm with a funny looking black symbol, so she inquired about it. Angela had no idea what Nazi’s were or about the Holocaust. The good old U.S. education neglected to mention that during any History class as well. Helen never went into any real details about the Holocaust, but she did bring it to her attention about the ways that the U.S. treated African Americans. For instance, she made it a point to bring Angela upstairs to show her the television when they were talking about a pet cemetery and she noted, “look, they treat their pets better than they do Black people.”
Angela still did not know or understand about Hitler, or the many people that were gassed and starved and the whole ugly inhumane system that allowed millions of people to be exterminated. As a result, Angela attended a Retreat organized by her husband’s company to go to Berchtesgaden. She stayed at the General Walker Hotel and was given a tour of the facility which included a short history lesson about how the infamous Adolf Hitler came from a short distance away in Austria with an eighth-grade education and had built this facility which the Americans knew nothing about until Hitler’s plane took off from Berlin and landed there.
As the tour bus climbed the mountain Angela noticed many holes in the side of the mountain path and inquired and no one responded. During the tour, however, all was made clear. There was a tour of the hotel that started at the restaurant whereas you left out of the side door you were taken to a door which had stairs leading down and as you stood at the top of the stairs you looked down and there were 3 long holes which were holes where guns would have been to shoot you as you approached. As you turned there were 3 more holes which did the same thing of providing opportunities for the shooter to kill anyone who escaped the first set of guns. To the side of the wall to your left was a door where an elevator could take you down 3 floors. However, the Nazi regime were in the process of building it 5 stories down when they were discovered. As the tour descended, they were shown Hitler and Stallings apartments, and they were described of the luxury by the guide who had the opportunity to see it before the details were stripped away. The holes that Angela saw as she was going up the mountain were described as air holes that were designed to pump in fresh air into the building for the 300 people who were expected to live there on the food and provisions that were enough to house them comfortably for six months.
While Angela had learned a lot about history and people, she still did not know about propaganda. Propaganda that had been instilled into the German minds about Black people and the lies that the White U.S. soldiers would tell Black soldiers about the German customs which were so outrageous they were laughable such as, the Germans were told that Black people grew tails at night, therefore without Angela having a clue about this her landlord Helen thought that it was logical to ask her, “when do you grow your tail?” She would also want to touch her children and call them “Sugalatten” meaning Chocolate babies and see if their color would rub off. Angela also did not understand what culture was or ethnicity because she had never been taught, so when her neighbors saw Angela’s son with his hair braided into many small braids, they assumed that she was mentally unstable and asked Helen about her mental capacity.
Today, Angela understands more about the impact of ignorance and how lies and misunderstandings can affect the lives of so many people partially because you can’t teach what you don’t know, and you can’t lead where you won’t go. These lessons have made a huge impact on her life. She understands that not knowing your culture or heritage can deny you joy and freedom. As the Jewish Holocaust is a narrative that is imperative that is told as often and as loud as possible, I agree with “Poppa,” Dr. David Anderson who always told me to tell our stories. We are all a people with a proud heritage, and we all have stories to tell of our lives and we should share them as often as possible.
Yes, I am that young African American girl and after watching the movie “Origin” directed by the fabulous, Ava DuVernay, whom I admire very much, how the Jewish Holocaust, the African American Slavery and the Untouchables in India were all connected reemphasized why we should tell our stories because it is not about Racism as the dominant culture wants us to believe but about Caste. I truly believe that when we know better, we are able to equip ourselves to do better. Keep telling your stories, you never know the lives you will change, and it is never too late.
©by Angela Waters Bamford godsfemaleservant@gmail.com. All Rights Reserved. Written Permission required.
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