WEBVTT 1 00:02.000 --> 00:04.000 All right. Go ahead? 2 00:04.000 --> 00:17.000 Halloween. The children could dress up and go out. You can't do that now. People now put apples—I mean razor blades in the apples, and things like that. And the poor little children, they can't go out and trick or treat. 3 00:17.000 --> 00:19.000 Blacks used to do Halloween though? 4 00:19.000 --> 01:15.000 White children either, but especially Black people, you can't do it. Because grown people would dress up Halloween, just like the children. You can't do it now. And don't forget that time was nice, and the churches of course, but it's different. It's just different. People are just so mean. I mean, they shoot the young people as well as the old people. The old people can't run, walk down the street, go to the stores, go to the shopping center, they can't do that. You go, they'll snatch their pocketbook, they'll take the cars, you just can't do it now like when I was growing up, you just can't. It's absolutely terrible. 5 01:15.000 --> 01:47.000 And even in the school, young people is taking guns. They take guns to school, they shoot. I mean, people are just mean. They are mean. And when I was growing up, it wasn't like that. We get out of choir rehearsal, we could walk down Church Street to our house. We wasn't afraid, but I'm afraid to walk from here to the supermarket. And that's just down the street. And we've got another one down over there. And I don't walk to neither one of them. 6 01:47.000 --> 01:52.000 So would you go clothes shopping on Church Street as well? 7 01:52.000 --> 01:59.000 What's there for the—Oh, yes, yes. We had nice stores on Church Street. Sure, yes. 8 01:59.000 --> 02:00.000 And so Church Street was all Black? 9 02:00.000 --> 02:02.000 Oh, yeah. We had a lot of Jewish— 10 02:02.000 --> 02:06.000 Jewish owned stores. 11 02:06.000 --> 03:05.000 Owned stores, yeah. Because the Jewish people, they would have a store downstairs and they would live upstairs over the store until their children got grown. Then they would move out of the Black neighborhood. But at that time Black people needed the Jewish people because they would let them have a grocery book. And half the time the people didn't even realize how much they owed them. Because some of them couldn't even read and write. And they'd go and say, well, at the end of the week, "How much do owe you?" If they said $10, you pay them $10. You really didn't know whether you owed them $10— 12 03:05.000 --> 03:07.000 Or not. 13 03:07.000 --> 03:23.000 Or not. But they had to eat. And if you go in the store, or the child said, "Mama didn't have enough." "Well bring it to me later." They wouldn't let you walk out that store without what you went for. They would let you have it. But see— 14 03:23.000 --> 03:24.000 They would get it eventually from you. 15 03:24.000 --> 04:04.000 Oh, yeah. But see, White people, Gentile, we call them, they wouldn't do it. But a Jewish person will help you. Jewish people, they will help you. Now some of them is just like everybody else. But at that time on Church Street and Huntersville, that's where the Jews grew up in the Black neighborhood. Just like the China ones is growing up in the Black neighborhood. As soon as they get up, they move out. 16 04:04.000 --> 05:09.000 But that's—Well, you know what? Our Black people is doing the same thing. Now, once upon a time, Black people could not go to Virginia Beach. The only way they could go down Virginia Beach is to work. And they had to go in the back door. They could not go in the front door. Even in the hotel, anywhere they worked, they had to go in the back door. Now, when they get a little money, I'm moving to Virginia Beach, I move into Virginia Beach. Why can't they take that same money and live in the Black community, right here in the city of Norfolk? If they got some extra money, build some houses so that the Black people can move in those houses. 17 05:09.000 --> 06:13.000 Don't take that little money and take it down there, give it to the White people. The same thing about hotels, all these White hotels in the city of Norfolk. Black people save their money and come to these White hotels, take care of them. Why can't they pool their money together and build at least one nice hotel so that the Black people, say for instance, you coming from Jersey for a convention, bring it to the Black man. Will they do it? uh-huh. Because the average Black person don't patronize the Black people when they are in business, they don't do it. 18 06:13.000 --> 06:16.000 And during segregation, you had no choice, but— 19 06:16.000 --> 07:14.000 You had no choice, but you got one now. You got it, but use it. NAACP and the rest of these organizations come back to these White hotels. And at least they should have one, at least one nice hotel in Norfolk. Do they have it? No. We wanted to have a banquet next week and they had to go to a hotel, and they wanted to charge 18—Well, we had to pay $18 charge for the ticket. Now the church would get $3 and the hotel would get 15, because the tickets was 18. 20 07:14.000 --> 07:32.000 Now, I tried to tell them, "Why can't we have a banquet at our own church and charge a little less? And you still make some money." But they don't do it. We have this Black paper, the Journal and Guide, they don't patronize the Journal and Guide like they should. 21 07:32.000 --> 07:34.000 People used to read the Journal and Guide more often? 22 07:34.000 --> 08:32.000 Yeah, they don't do it like they should. They just don't patronize the Black people like they should. But what can you? In these organizations, you talk to them, but no. Now there was a hotel on Granby Street, it was owned by Whites, and they went out of business. And I tried to—Then we had a Black club here and I tried to get the members of that club to buy this hotel. It wasn't a elaborate hotel, but it was a hotel that the Black people could stay, and no. But they'll take their money down to all these White hotels from one year to the other and they think they're doing something. 23 08:32.000 --> 09:23.000 But one thing, our Black people don't want to trust one another. Everybody wants to be the boss. And you can't be the boss. You can work together, you should work together. But they don't work together. And we have a Black man right now, have a store, one I know. And the people patronize him because he does have nice grocery meats and stuff. But he could really build a nice supermarket. But he's got this little small store. As I said before, the Black people just don't patronize one another, and they're going to kill me talking about that Virginia Beach. "I'm going, I'm moving," "Oh, I lived in Virginia Beach." Big deal. 24 09:23.000 --> 09:27.000 Because we weren't allowed to be in Virginia Beach before. 25 09:27.000 --> 10:19.000 Honey, you go down there, the women go down there and be a maid in the back door. There's a district over here off Granby Street, in this vicinity, sort of, the Black people had to go in the back door. And well, some of them is moving over there. But build a nice Black neighborhood. Of course, I guess the Black people tear it up, because some of them do even. But I don't know. They just won't do it. They just won't patronize one another. They save their money and give it to the White man every year for these big conventions. 26 10:19.000 --> 10:27.000 So when Black people used to travel during segregation, was there a hotel for them to stay in? 27 10:27.000 --> 11:19.000 In New York, they had some Black hotels. Well, we had a little Black hotel here in Norfolk. It wasn't a hotel at first. It wasn't built as a hotel. Charlie had, they had that building. That building. Then when they moved from that building, then a Black lady opened a hotel, made it into a hotel and a little club. Well they did a little patronizing with that, but not long. But now, see, at that time the money wasn't like it is now. You've got good money now that you can do these things, but they won't do it. 28 11:19.000 --> 11:24.000 So if people traveled, they would stay with family or friends? If they came to the area? 29 11:24.000 --> 11:26.000 Yeah. 30 11:26.000 --> 11:27.000 There wasn't already— 31 11:27.000 --> 12:05.000 No, only the White hotels and everywhere, every time you look, they're building a White hotel, and the Black folks go there. The Black folks go there and have their meetings. And the ones in New York and Elder Place, they come down here too. See, if they stopped coming to these hotels, then they would—If they build one hotel, just one Black hotel in the city of Norfolk, they would do good business. They could do just as good as that Holiday Inn downtown. Just as good, because the people would know about it. 32 12:05.000 --> 13:15.000 I understand that one of the Black hotels in New York went out of business, and that was Hotel Teresa, that went out of business. I don't know if that was the reason, but it was a Black hotel. But I'm talking about Norfolk now. Norfolk is a place that they should build one hotel. And our newscasters here, honey, "Well I'm moving down Virginia Beach." They made the Black people move out of this place called Lafayette Shores. It's not too far from where I live. They told those Black people that the houses had gone down so badly that they were going to let them all move out, and they were going to build some nice houses for them, and they could move back and buy them if they wanted to. 33 13:15.000 --> 14:06.000 Well, the Blacks moved out, and sweetheart, they built some houses over there now in that vicinity that you couldn't buy because you don't have that money kind of money. We have a woman that works for television, channel 13. I understand that she had bought a house over there. Now, if I had money, I would not buy no house over there because they took that land from the Black people. But that's what they're doing. We have another Black man that moved over in that vicinity. He's got a fabulous house over there. It's true. But he could have built— 34 14:06.000 --> 14:08.000 Somewhere else. 35 14:08.000 --> 14:21.000 Somewhere, and he could have built a hotel from the money that he's paying to buy that house, he could have built a hotel, built a smaller house and built a nice hotel. But they will not pool that money. 36 14:21.000 --> 14:29.000 So in Virginia Beach, was there a Black beach that you grew up with? 37 14:29.000 --> 14:52.000 No. Well our beach, Black Beach was Seaview. That was Black. Sea Breeze. That was Black. And we had one over in Newport, that was Buck Row Beach. Now I have the history of Norfolk in some of those tapes up there. 38 14:52.000 --> 14:53.000 Oh, okay. 39 14:53.000 --> 15:26.000 And it tells you about Ocean View, the Black—And the beaches in Ocean View and Virginia Beach, the Blacks couldn't go there, only to work, that's all. But they can now. But it's gone down so badly. The Black patronize it more than anybody else. So it's just, this is the way the world is, I guess. 40 15:26.000 --> 15:27.000 Was it like a business area? 41 15:27.000 --> 15:31.000 Oh, yes, yes. They had hotels. Nice hotel for the Whites. 42 15:31.000 --> 15:32.000 Oh, in Seaview and Sea Breeze? 43 15:32.000 --> 15:43.000 Yeah, Ocean Breeze. They didn't have what you call a hotel. They had these little, what do you call them? They're not hotels, they little— 44 15:43.000 --> 15:43.000 Like cottages? 45 15:43.000 --> 15:49.000 Yeah, cabanas. Cabanas. They had cabanas they could stay in. Yeah. 46 15:49.000 --> 15:50.000 And were there some clothes— 47 15:50.000 --> 16:19.000 But they were nice. Yeah, it was nice. Buckroe was nice. Ocean Breeze and Seaview. But we don't have any of those now, because the Blacks can go to Ocean View and Virginia Beach, they can go. But most of the White people have moved out. It's just the lower class that's down there now. The high class ones had moved out— 48 16:19.000 --> 16:20.000 To a different area. 49 16:20.000 --> 16:23.000 Yeah. You heard about the riot that they had down there that time? 50 16:23.000 --> 16:24.000 Yeah. 51 16:24.000 --> 17:26.000 Yeah, yeah. I don't know. It seemed like to me, when our Black people go somewhere they've got to tear it up, just like on—Now I'm thinking about—In fact thinking about it, I'm going to do it. We have one television named Kelly Wright. I'm going to call Kelly Wright and meet with him. And I'm going to have a forum with our local television producers, and see if I can't, or we can't get some of this filth off the television, because it is outrageous. And they say, you can turn it off. Yes you can. But why turn it off? They don't need that. 52 17:26.000 --> 17:59.000 And our Black people, when they get on these talk shows, they get up there and I know you've seen them. They fight and that's terrible. And I did have a forum at our church on AIDS. I did. I sponsored it myself, and I did very, very well. And I had a good panelist, only a representative for the television, the paper, and the business. I had six. 53 17:59.000 --> 18:41.000 So my minister, we have a new minister and he said, "Mrs. Brickers, I heard about you before I came to this church, and I want you to help me." Well, shortly after he came, he's only been with us two years. Well, I've been sick almost two years, and I was with him Friday before last. And he said, "Mrs. Brickers, I'd be glad when you get so you can come out and help me." Because I want him to go into the neighborhood community and get those people to come to the church. 54 18:41.000 --> 19:12.000 And we could have different things together. Now for Bible school, they go out and they Candice and I told Reverend Taylor, I said, "Reverend Taylor, you ought to stop this." I said, because the mothers were saying, "They come over here and they canvas for you to go to Bible school, but they don't come over to get you to go to Sunday school, after Bible School, that's it." And they shouldn't stop there. But they do. And I don't know, I just like to work. I just like to work. 55 19:12.000 --> 19:17.000 I see that. 56 19:17.000 --> 20:04.000 And I like to get something done. When then you were young, I don't know if you know when Ben Chavis was in prison? Honey, I marched in Washington for each time for Dr. Ben Chavis. He's in the same denomination I am, for him. And he finally got out when Mandela was over here. I was there, and I taped all of that. I like to work. I do. But I'm going to get out there again. 57 20:04.000 --> 20:05.000 Okay. 58 20:05.000 --> 20:06.000 I'm going to get out there again. 59 20:06.000 --> 20:08.000 I'll let go. 60 20:08.000 --> 20:12.000 I'm going to try anyway.