Chars Kennedy interview recording, 1995 July 05

Download
- Rights
- Limited Re-Use
  CC BY-NC 4.0
  More Rights Info
- Files (1)
- MP3
- Please be patient with media downloads. They are often large files.
Share

Embed Code
<iframe src='https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r45h7q35w?embed=true' height='125px' width='100%' frameborder='0' marginwidth='0' marginheight='0' scrolling='no' loading='lazy' allowfullscreen></iframe>
Permalink

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r45h7q35w
Skip to Item Info

Loading the media player...

Files for this Item

Transcript

Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.

Kisha Turner	Again, please, just by you stating your full name and when you were born.	0:01
Chars Gamble Kennedy	Hello, my name is Chars Kennedy. Chars Gamble Kennedy. I was born November 6th, 1941.	0:06
Kisha Turner	And where were you born?	0:17
Chars Gamble Kennedy	I was born in Clarendon County, New Zion, South Carolina in our homestead. At that time, there were midwives, so I was not born in the hospital. And as a result of that, there was no birth certificate for me, so I had to get documents to get a delayed birth certificate. I am from a family of 10 children, eight girls, two boys. Well, two deceased, really, 12 and two deceased. We lived in New Zion in a home that my father bought. And as far as I can remember, I think he said to me that he started off with two rooms and he added to those two rooms. And our home now has eight, nine rooms.	0:19
Kisha Turner	Nine. Oh, let's see. Your father owned the land you lived on?	1:27
Chars Gamble Kennedy	Yes, he did.	1:35
Kisha Turner	Do you know how he came to acquire the land, when he bought the land and who he bought the land from, by any chance?	1:36
Chars Gamble Kennedy	I don't remember, I know the lady was somebody, Gibbons, but I don't remember her first name. And he bought the land and worked, farmed it, paid for it along and along.	1:46
Kisha Turner	What crops did cultivate?	2:01
Chars Gamble Kennedy	Well, we had tobacco, corn, cotton, soy beans. I've never seen rice, but he said that he did rice. I remember we did sugar cane. We did all kinds of vegetables. We grew all of our vegetables. We grew all of our meats and poultry. Everything was done, all of our resources, we got it right off the farm.	2:04
Kisha Turner	Okay.	2:35
Chars Gamble Kennedy	We did very little buying from the store, those things that we could not grow, like coffee, but basically we grew all of our foods.	2:36
Kisha Turner	Okay. And what were your task growing up on the farm?	2:54
Chars Gamble Kennedy	My task was pretty much anything that I could do. We helped with the tobacco. The girls didn't crop tobacco, but we strang the tobacco. We helped to put it in the barns. We helped too, but we really just helped to, we gathered our crops. We had chores. We had wood stoves, so we had to cut the wood. Our brothers would cut it. Sometimes we would help cut. We would bring the wood in, and that was our source of energy as far as cooking and eating.	3:00
Chars Gamble Kennedy	We milked our cows. That's how we got milk. And I actually did some milking.	3:45
Kisha Turner	Oh, okay.	3:52
Chars Gamble Kennedy	I even plowed the tractor. There were some kinds of plowing that you, I guess, the heavy kind you call it. But as far as getting on the tractor and whatever you call that thing, just, I don't know what's it called or not. It wasn't holding the plow, it was on the tractor going up and down the rows doing whatever that thing is called. But I did that and some of my sisters shared with the same concept. Chore. We did what we had to do, and there were no girl things, per se.	3:55
Kisha Turner	Okay.	4:36
Chars Gamble Kennedy	We did what we had to do.	4:36
Kisha Turner	And did your mother work in and out?	4:38
Chars Gamble Kennedy	My mother did not work in the field with eight children. She stayed at home. She did the cooking. She did most of the cleaning. Well, she took care of the household. She was never one to go out in the fields, but we also had to help with those children as well.	4:41
Kisha Turner	Okay. Do you remember your grandparents?	4:58
Chars Gamble Kennedy	I remember my grandmother, my maternal grandmother, but both my maternal grandmothers, but I do not remember my paternal grandfathers. I had step-grandfathers that I remember.	5:04
Kisha Turner	Okay. Just by chance, did they ever tell you any stories about just the way it was when they were growing up?	5:27
Chars Gamble Kennedy	Well, my maternal grandfather talked about the times that they had to go out and pick cotton all day long. They didn't even come in, didn't come for dinner. Their food was brought to the fields for them. A lot of times he said that they never saw any income. They didn't ever get paid, per se, for the work they did. I assumed the parents [indistinct 00:06:08] they were sharecroppers. All of my grandparents, as far as I can remember, was sharecroppers and that was their source of income.	5:35
Kisha Turner	Okay. And how about your parents? Did they ever tell you about how things were when they were younger? Were they born in New Zion?	6:25
Chars Gamble Kennedy	They were both born here in Clarendon County, but in Turbeville, South Carolina. My dad was a very hardworking man. He told us that he would work all day, sometimes late at night. And in order to, he would, what you call it, lumber coming out of the woods, how he would take the ox and hitch a chain to it, attach a chain to the trees and pull it out of the swamp. And he said sometimes he would be to his knees or to his waist in water, but that was the only way of getting it out. And then he was able to use some of that land, he said, to build our home. I mean, some of that timber to build our home to get started.	6:33
Kisha Turner	Has he ever talk about when they were building the lake? I guess, was it Santee or Marion when they were filling it in?	7:32
Chars Gamble Kennedy	I don't know.	7:45
Kisha Turner	Okay.	7:46
Chars Gamble Kennedy	[indistinct 00:07:47].	7:46
Kisha Turner	Several people mentioned.	7:47
Chars Gamble Kennedy	Could very well be. I just don't know.	7:50
Kisha Turner	Okay. And your mother?	7:51
Chars Gamble Kennedy	My mother was always the housewife. That's pretty much what she did.	7:55
Kisha Turner	Okay.	8:02
Chars Gamble Kennedy	That's far as I can remember.	8:03
Kisha Turner	Did they grow up sharecropping with their—	8:06
Chars Gamble Kennedy	They grew up as sharecroppers with their families as well. She told us about the times when they had to work in the fields all day. And it was basically the same thing for both families. They just worked. And I guess the parents, once again, received the income and that was their source of income.	8:10
Kisha Turner	So you were able to attend school as a child?	8:42
Chars Gamble Kennedy	Yes, I did.	8:47
Kisha Turner	And where did you attend school?	8:49
Chars Gamble Kennedy	Excuse me?	8:50
Kisha Turner	Where did you go to school?	8:51
Chars Gamble Kennedy	I graduated undergrad degree from Morris College, and I did a graduate degree USC.	8:52
Kisha Turner	Okay. And how about when you were younger? Elementary school?	9:00
Chars Gamble Kennedy	I went to Melina School before the Walker-Gamble School was built. But most of my high school education was done right here at Walker-Gamble. I graduated here in 1959.	9:03
Kisha Turner	Okay. And can you tell me about Melina School?	9:22
Chars Gamble Kennedy	Melina School was a school that was, to the best of my knowledge, was a school that grew out of the Melina Presbyterian Church. And it was one of the small schools in this community that only Blacks attended. One of the other schools in this area was Howard Chapel. They had a school there and there were quite a few schools in this area, Burnt, something called Burnt Branch that was at Oak Grove.	9:35
Chars Gamble Kennedy	What's that, friend? No, it wasn't Friendship, but it was done in the Friendship area. But then all of those schools consolidated and came to Walker-Gamble when it was built.	10:18
Kisha Turner	Were your older siblings able to go to school also? Did they all attend school?	10:31
Chars Gamble Kennedy	All of us graduated from high school. We have, in our families, we have teachers, nurses, seamstress, great [indistinct 00:10:49]. Some chose not to go on to college and they're in other areas.	10:35
Kisha Turner	Okay. Okay. And Melina School, was it very big or was it a small school?	11:01
Chars Gamble Kennedy	If I remember correctly, it probably had about five or six rooms. I remember where, when I was in fourth and fifth grade, both fourth and fifth graders were in the same room. One teacher had both classes. We had a separate little lunchroom that one lady provided. As far as I can remember, we had one cook that cooked for everybody at the Melina School. I don't know how the food was provided, the source. But in order for us to get there, we had to, most people walked. Because of where we are living, daddy would drive us there in the mornings, and sometimes we would have to walk back in the afternoon, which is about five or six miles. But there were no buses for the Blacks at that time. So most of them, if parents were not able to bring them, they walked.	11:11
Kisha Turner	What about your community? You mentioned a barter system or where you all helped each, can you tell me about that and what families participated?	12:31
Chars Gamble Kennedy	Okay. There was about, let's see, one, two, three, four families that was really, really close. The Gamble family that lives on the other side of us, the Howards, and the Walkers, we would help each others to gather crops. We would go and help them gather tobacco on certain days. And then they would come back and help us do the same thing. Our mothers would get together and they would have a quilting time each year. They would quilt at one person's house and then go to the next person and quilt. And that's how we got our bed things. We shared food from our gardens. When it was time to slaughter the hogs and we shared everything.	12:49
Chars Gamble Kennedy	We had what was called a smokehouse for us. And that's where we kept—My mother canned everything. And she canned them by putting them in jars. She would can fruits, meats, anything can-able. That's where our food was stored. We would kill our own hogs and dad would smoke it, whatever you called it. And it hung in the smokehouse for long periods of times. And we would go in and cut off what we were going to have for breakfast and that's how it was. If a family did not have something for breakfast, the mother would send one of the children, "Go and tell Edna, send me so and so." And she would do that. And my mother did the same thing. There were times when we didn't have certain things, and she would just say, "Go up and tell sweetie, send me." And she would.	13:51
Chars Gamble Kennedy	I think we were closer to the Gambles. We are a different set of Gambles, but I think we were closer to that family than the others. Even though we did bartering with the Walkers, we did bartering with the Howards. But the two of us, our families, I think were closer. And that could be because of the age range of the children. Our ages were pretty much the same as the Sweetie's children, but the Walker children were a little older than we were. And so were the Howards.	15:04
Kisha Turner	As far as church, where did you attend church as a child?	15:48
Chars Gamble Kennedy	I went to Hickory Grove Baptist Church in Turbeville. And I remained there until after I married. And then when I married, I joined Melina Presbyterian Church with my husband. All of us went to Hickory Grove Baptist Church.	15:52
Kisha Turner	Did you go every Sunday?	16:21
Chars Gamble Kennedy	Every Sunday. Every Sunday we went to Sunday school. We went to services, we went to evening services. We would have Wednesday night services. On Sunday afternoons, we would have what was called the Young People's Christian League that would be held before the regular evening services. But we went to services every Sunday, and our parents took us every Sunday.	16:22
Kisha Turner	Okay.	16:50
Chars Gamble Kennedy	I am so grateful. My father and mother were not educated people, but they had great wisdom and they were Christian people, which was very important to me. At that time. I couldn't comprehend that, but now I see the importance and I'm glad about that because it has inspired me to go in the direction that I've gone. Otherwise, I'm not sure if I were not steered in the direction that I was steered in, it's just no telling. But they were parents, I don't know if the word is stern, but when dad and mom spoke, that was the gospel pretty much. And that was really one thing that I do resent. We were not allowed to share our views a whole lot. They just kind of took control and that was it. And I think that was one thing that I really did not like, but that's just the way things went.	16:52
Kisha Turner	While we're talking about this, what other kind of values did they instill in you?	18:17
Chars Gamble Kennedy	Well, dad and mom always told us and always tried to instill in us the importance of getting a good education, because they said to us that they didn't have a good educational background so for that reason, they had to work extremely hard and they did not want that for us. So they stressed the importance of getting a good education. They also stressed the importance of respecting other people, being able to look at yourself and think positively about yourself, that you could do anything you want to do if you set your mind on doing it, but it wasn't going to always be easy. They stressed the importance of accepting Christ as our personal savior, because they always said they knew it was not going to be easy. But with God and with determination, things would work out for us.	18:24
Kisha Turner	How did they tell you to deal with White folks or racism or any of those? Or did you interact much with the White community?	19:42
Chars Gamble Kennedy	There was really not a lot of interaction with the White community. But even though we knew there were just certain things that we could do and things that we were not going to be able to do. We could not go to the movies. If we went to the movie, we sat up in the balcony area, and dad always just told us just to ignore. He says, just don't force the issue. We tried to do it that way as best I can remember.	19:51
Kisha Turner	So you didn't really, did you go to school with them?	20:34
Chars Gamble Kennedy	During high school time? No.	20:42
Kisha Turner	Okay.	20:43
Chars Gamble Kennedy	No, we went to Black schools all our lives.	20:45
Kisha Turner	All right. Briefly, this is kind of backing up, and then we'll go back to where we are. Did your families sell the crops or was it mainly just for your own?	20:49
Chars Gamble Kennedy	You mean foods?	21:05
Kisha Turner	Food, crops? Yeah.	21:07
Chars Gamble Kennedy	Basically it was just for our survival.	21:09
Kisha Turner	Okay.	21:10
Chars Gamble Kennedy	We did not. Our source of income was from tobacco, cotton, corn, soya beans and that kind of thing. But the food that we grew was just for survival.	21:13
Kisha Turner	So you did sell those crops?	21:25
Chars Gamble Kennedy	No. No. No. Now, I think the Walkers, Mr. Silas, he sold chickens. And basically, as far as I can remember, he sold chickens. But basically, our food was just for our livelihood.	21:27
Kisha Turner	Okay. I'm still with the tobacco and stuff like that, though, and cotton—	21:46
Chars Gamble Kennedy	That was our source of income.	21:56
Kisha Turner	You sold that.	21:57
Chars Gamble Kennedy	We sold that.	21:57
Kisha Turner	Okay.	21:57
Chars Gamble Kennedy	I see. Yeah. I guess I don't know what you—	21:57
Kisha Turner	Okay. Back to where you were talking about going to movies. Did you do that often?	22:06
Chars Gamble Kennedy	I would say maybe once or twice a month, we were able to go to the movies, and that was in Olanta. We had to drive there. There was really no recreation in this area for us. So we went to a little place still in Clarendon County, Olanta, where they had a theater. I think to get in, it was like 25 cents. And dad used to give us maybe 15 cents for a hotdog, I remember. And I think the drinks were 7 cents, something to that effect. And that was our treat, that was our outing. And basically, that's about as much as we did. We did not go to our local town that often. Mom and dad went in whenever they went to buy our clothing or whatever, they went, bought it and brought it home.	22:19
Kisha Turner	So you did buy your clothing?	23:25
Chars Gamble Kennedy	Yeah. Mama made a lot of our clothing, but like shoes, they would go and buy it, bring it home.	23:27
Kisha Turner	And if someone became ill or sick and had to see a doctor, needed some medical attention, who would provide that service?	23:37
Chars Gamble Kennedy	There was a doctor here in New Zion, and he would do home visitations. After he passed, our nearest doctor was in Manning, so we had to go to Manning. There was one doctor that stayed in Turbeville for a while and left. When we grew up, there was just no doctors here that I knew of. So our nearest visit was to Manning. And that was a forever wait once you get over there. And to me, it wasn't like going in and being taken care of immediately. It was just waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting.	23:50
Kisha Turner	Were you often overlooked if there were White people waiting?	24:39
Chars Gamble Kennedy	In my opinion, yes, in my opinion. I know a lot of times we did not go to the doctor. For instance, did you see this gash on my leg? I got it cut. We were playing, and I was in the pack house where we had our tobacco, and I jumped out and jumped into a pea planter, and it cut my leg open and my father did spiderwebs and put on it.	24:43
Kisha Turner	Did what?	25:12
Chars Gamble Kennedy	Used spiderwebs.	25:12
Kisha Turner	Oh, okay.	25:14
Chars Gamble Kennedy	And I think it was kerosene that he put on my leg, and I never went to the doctor. And it just, eventually, he wrapped it up and eventually it closed, but always left that scar.	25:15
Kisha Turner	Do you know what the spider webs did?	25:30
Chars Gamble Kennedy	They said it was to help close the wound. I don't know. That's what they told us.	25:33
Kisha Turner	And he cleaned it out with the—	25:41
Chars Gamble Kennedy	With the kerosene.	25:44
Kisha Turner	The kerosene.	25:44
Chars Gamble Kennedy	We used turpentine a lot. Just things that they did at home.	25:45
Kisha Turner	Okay. Do you remember what were the customs around for dating or that kind of thing?	25:57
Chars Gamble Kennedy	Most of the Blacks had no transportation. So basically it was, as far as I can remember, it was dating at school.	26:09
Kisha Turner	Okay.	26:19
Chars Gamble Kennedy	Or we just came into contact with each others, and then it eventually got better as we went along.	26:20
Kisha Turner	Okay. Okay.	26:29
Chars Gamble Kennedy	I remember hearing some of my cousins would say that they would have Saturday night dances, and they would all get together at certain places and just meet there. But transportation was just	26:36
Kisha Turner	Where did they live, your cousins?	26:50
Chars Gamble Kennedy	In Turbeville.	26:51
Kisha Turner	Oh, okay.	26:57
Kisha Turner	How about traveling? Do you remember as a child taking trips anywhere?	26:57
Chars Gamble Kennedy	The furthest that I ever remember going until, I think, probably 11th grade was Columbia was the farest that I had ever been. Sumter was a big deal for us.	27:05
Kisha Turner	You drove with the family?	27:20
Chars Gamble Kennedy	Daddy would take us. Yeah. But we didn't do traveling. In fact, we didn't do a lot of entertaining except in the community. We would go from home to home and we played that way. But as far as recreation, we just didn't have that in this area.	27:22
Kisha Turner	And what'd you think of Columbia?	27:48
Chars Gamble Kennedy	At that time, Columbia was like, what I imagined New York to be. I would always hear about New York and Columbia was just fabulous as far as I could remember. It just seemed so big because I was not accustomed to going to a place where there were stores right together, a street. And just to see the buildings, just was not accustomed to that kind of thing. And it was exciting to me, exciting to all of us. We would just, I guess, just stand and stare.	27:53
Kisha Turner	Okay. So how long did you live, well, did you ever move away from here before?	28:38
Chars Gamble Kennedy	I was born, this is the homestead next door. I was born there, and I've always lived in this community. I never moved away. I went for about six months, and I just didn't like the city life, so I came back home.	28:47
Kisha Turner	Where'd you go?	29:03
Chars Gamble Kennedy	To Washington.	29:04
Kisha Turner	Oh, you went to DC? Oh, you didn't like it, huh?	29:05
Chars Gamble Kennedy	Nope.	29:08
Kisha Turner	Tell me about it. When did you go?	29:09
Chars Gamble Kennedy	I graduated in 64, and I think 66 I went and started working at Hans Shoe Store. I was balancing their books, and I just didn't like the atmosphere of the hustle and bustle all day, every day. And I just couldn't get accustomed to that kind of lifestyle so I left and came back home. And I've been here ever since.	29:15
Kisha Turner	Now, did you have siblings who moved away from here?	29:54
Chars Gamble Kennedy	Yes. I have one sister that lives in New York now. One sister that lives in, two that lives in Maryland, one that's in New Jersey now. One is in Manning. Two of us, two girls are here, and the two boys are here. My sister that's here now, she lived in Maryland for a while, but she chose to come back home. In fact, all of them went away to live and the two of us came back to the country.	30:00
Kisha Turner	So when you returned from DC in 66, what did you do?	30:48
Chars Gamble Kennedy	I taught in the public schools. In fact, I graduated in 64 and I taught two years, went to Washington. That wasn't what I wanted to do. And I came back home and I taught right here at Walker-Gamble until integration. And then after integration, I went over to East Clarendon. And in 1990 I got sick and I got out on disability. I attempted to go back this past year, got sick. I couldn't handle it so I have to let it go.	30:54
Kisha Turner	Well, I guess we can talk about early civil rights, and particularly the school issue and what you remember about what happened here in New Zion, which I guess eventually they culminated in the construction of Walker-Gamble High School. Can you talk to me about that and your family and the other family's involvement in that movement?	31:37
Chars Gamble Kennedy	As far as I can remember, there was going to be a school built in this area, and we had a board that was trying to find a place to build a school. And there were White families in this community that would not sell land to build a school.	32:05
Kisha Turner	Now, why were they trying to build a school at this point?	32:33
Chars Gamble Kennedy	I think because we had so many little schools all over the community, and there was much need for one. There was not a Black school in this area. There was a White school in Turbeville, but all those schools was just here and yonder, all over Clarendon County.	32:36
Kisha Turner	So where did Black children go on to high school before Walker-Gamble was constructed in this area?	32:58
Chars Gamble Kennedy	Melina was high school.	33:07
Kisha Turner	Oh, okay.	33:08
Chars Gamble Kennedy	And I think the other schools, as far as I can remember, I'm not sure if they were high school, but when they got to that point where their school ended, they went to Melina as far as I can remember. And so my father and Mr. Silas was the two person that agreed to sell the land to the school so that the school could be built. This land was our, I guess, you call it the better land, but my father sacrificed. Mr. Walker sacrificed because they felt a need for a school. And so the land was sold to have the school built.	33:10
Kisha Turner	[indistinct 00:34:04]?	34:02
Chars Gamble Kennedy	I guess. I guess.	34:05
Chars Gamble Kennedy	When the school was built, it was predominantly, well, it was Black. Before we integrated, some of the teachers went over to Turbeville just to, I guess, it was like a trial integration thing. Some of us went over to Turbeville and just sat in the teacher's classroom. If you were a math teacher, you sat with the math teacher there. And then they came back over and sat in on our classes. After integration, there was not a whole lot of, well, it just didn't, after integration, we just had one or two children that went to Turbeville before we were totally integrated. We had, to my knowledge, there were about three or four children that rode the school buses to Turbeville. And from what I can understand from them, the situation was not pleasant. They were very uncomfortable.	34:16
Chars Gamble Kennedy	We did have one man in this area that he had no limits when it came to trying to get integration to be effective. And his name was Mr. Jay Wheeler. After integration, for the first, I would say four or five years, we were still separate because I remember sitting in the teacher's lounge, and at that time, I think I was the only Black teacher in high school. And when I would walk in, everybody would find a reason to leave, and I would be left in the teacher's lounge alone.	35:38
Kisha Turner	Where was this?	36:37
Chars Gamble Kennedy	At Turbeville, East Clarendon.	36:37
Kisha Turner	Okay.	36:37
Chars Gamble Kennedy	They would find reasons to leave and I would be left alone. But as the years passed, it got better. And we were, I guess, more comfortable with each others. I could never see total integration, because I still see Black kids in one little area, White kids in another area. And I saw a lot of that in the classrooms where Black kids would sit in little groups and Whites sit in another little group.	36:40
Kisha Turner	Walker-Gamble was still Black pretty much?	37:11
Chars Gamble Kennedy	No.	37:12
Kisha Turner	No. Okay.	37:13
Chars Gamble Kennedy	I think it's about 50 50 here now.	37:15
Kisha Turner	Really? So that's interesting because in a lot of places with integration, they closed down some of the Black schools. So these White students did come to Walker-Gamble?	37:17
Chars Gamble Kennedy	Yeah.	37:32
Kisha Turner	Okay.	37:33
Chars Gamble Kennedy	The Walker-Gamble became, it was the middle school at first, because at Turbeville they had grades one through three in one part of the building, and then high school in the other part. And then later on they changed and at Turbeville, now East Clarendon, it's grades six through 12. And Walker-Gamble is now the primary school, grades one through five. But all of the children from this area, Black and White, if they're in this grade, grades one through five at Walker-Gamble, or six through 12 at Turbeville, if they choose not to go to the private schools.	37:33
Kisha Turner	Okay.	38:25
Chars Gamble Kennedy	That's what happened over in Summerton. All those kids went to the private school.	38:25
Kisha Turner	Okay. Well, you mentioned Mr. Wheeler. What role did he play?	38:30
Kisha Turner	Because Mrs. Howard and Ms. Barley also mentioned Mr. Wheeler.	38:38
Chars Gamble Kennedy	Well, he would attend all functions for the county, and he was very outspoken as to what he believed. He was one of the forerunners of the NAACP that fought for total integration. Lots of times he did not have transportation, but that did not stop him. He would walk if he had to. He was just that committed.	38:46
Kisha Turner	When your parents got involved in this, did they have problems selling the cotton and tobacco and other cash crops?	39:18
Chars Gamble Kennedy	Not that I can remember, because that, as far as I can remember, I think they always sold their tobacco in Lake City and Timmonsvlle. There was no okay area here for selling, so I don't remember them having any problems.	39:28
Kisha Turner	So they went outside. Okay. You mentioned that Mr. Wheeler was a forerunner at NAACP. Do you remember any NAACP activity or just presence in New Zion?	39:43
Chars Gamble Kennedy	Well, I remember that the NAACP came to the school when there were concerns about issues that went on in the school. When there was concerns the parents had that they felt that the school board did not handle and would not listen to them, then the NAACP intervened on their behalf.	40:03
Kisha Turner	Was this in the fifties, forties?	40:36
Chars Gamble Kennedy	Probably the sixties.	40:36
Kisha Turner	Sixties, yeah. Okay.	40:36
Chars Gamble Kennedy	Now prior to the forties, I don't know.	40:36
Kisha Turner	Right. I forgot. That's my fault. Okay.	40:36
Chars Gamble Kennedy	Yeah, no problem. I just, I don't know.	40:36
Kisha Turner	Walker-Gamble was built in 1953. When was it when you tried the trial integration and when was when schools actually became integrated?	41:01
Chars Gamble Kennedy	It was in the late sixties that we had the trial integration, and that was first of all with teachers, the Black teachers going into the predominantly White schools just for observation. And then the White teachers coming back into the Black schools just for observation. And I want to add to that, whenever the White teacher came, well, one of the White teachers came to my class, she was escorted by another person because she said she was afraid to come. So she came with another school official.	41:13
Kisha Turner	Wow.	41:55
Chars Gamble Kennedy	And it was in the early seventies when we had a few Blacks going to the predominantly White school. But as far as I can remember, there were no Whites at that time. And sometime in the seventies we were integrated. And I don't remember exactly.	41:56
Kisha Turner	Okay. Okay. Did you ever take any African American history when you were in school, in high school?	42:22
Chars Gamble Kennedy	No. None.	42:27
Kisha Turner	When was it before you got a course or maybe took any classes?	42:29
Chars Gamble Kennedy	When I was in college.	42:34
Kisha Turner	College.	42:34
Chars Gamble Kennedy	Even since I have been working in the public schools, there were situations, well, I have to say, after I had to start working in 1990, there was an attempt there to have a Black history program and most of the White kids left school, would not stay fully function. When I was working, we were having separate junior senior proms.	42:38
Kisha Turner	Separate?	43:17
Chars Gamble Kennedy	Separate. And it was in the late eighties that I remember them having a junior senior prom together. And that only happened two years. My understanding this past year that they had a junior senior prom, I don't know the attendance of Whites and Blacks. I think there was one offered, but it's always been Black junior senior prom, White junior senior prom. And they were not held at the school, they were held at facilities elsewhere.	43:17
Kisha Turner	When did you go to Morris College?	44:15
Chars Gamble Kennedy	In 59 and graduated in 64.	44:16
Kisha Turner	And what did you study?	44:17
Chars Gamble Kennedy	Mathematics. I majored in mathematics, minored in biology.	44:26
Kisha Turner	Okay. And did you go to USC?	44:31
Chars Gamble Kennedy	I did graduate work at USC, Sumter.	44:33
Kisha Turner	Okay. When did you go there?	44:35
Chars Gamble Kennedy	Well, I did not complete my degree, but I did graduate work at USC in Sumter.	44:38
Kisha Turner	When you were at Morris, where's Morris at?	44:47
Chars Gamble Kennedy	Sumter.	44:50
Kisha Turner	Okay. In Sumter. Do you remember people organizing for any civil rights activities there or hearing about what was going on in other states in the south?	44:53
Chars Gamble Kennedy	Well, while I was at Morris, we were trying to integrate the facilities uptown. We had marches there. We were—	45:09
Kisha Turner	What facilities?	45:17
Chars Gamble Kennedy	Excuse me.	45:19
Kisha Turner	What facilities?	45:19
Chars Gamble Kennedy	We went to the, I remember there was a Crest, the cafeteria is there.	45:21
Kisha Turner	Okay.	45:30
Chars Gamble Kennedy	We were not able to go and sit down and dine. We were not allowed to use certain fountains uptown, hotel and motel facilities were not available to us. And so we attempted to use those facilities and we were arrested. Lots of us, by the busload. We protested. We did marches uptown.	45:30
Kisha Turner	Wow.	46:13
Chars Gamble Kennedy	But before I left there in 64, we were able to sit at the counters.	46:18
Kisha Turner	Okay. Okay. Well.	46:23

Item Info

Title:

Chars Kennedy interview recording, 1995 July 05

Date:

July 5, 1995

Creator:

Kennedy, Chars Gamble

Contributor:

Turner, Kisha

Description:

Name: Chars Gamble Kennedy; Date of birth: 1910-01-22; Place of birth: New Zion, SC; Occupation(s): educator; Residence: New Zion, SC
Informant ID: 1219; Interviewed by: Kisha Turner.

Occupation:

Educator

Location:

Format:

Language:

English

Digital Collection:

Behind the Veil

Source Collection:

Behind the Veil: Documenting African American Life in the Jim Crow South interviews, photographs, and project records, circa 1864-2011, bulk 1990-2004

Series:

Related Resources:

See below

Provenance:

The David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library acquired the Records of the Behind the Veil Oral History Project from the Duke University Center for Documentary Studies in 1997, 1998, 2000, and 2002.

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC 4.0

Rights Note:

Copyright for content created by the Behind the Veil project is held by Duke University and made available to the public using a Creative Commons Attribution / Non-commercial (CC-BY-NC) license.

Identifier:

RL00170-CS-1488
a95b5e40-85e8-4b96-b67e-1ec8c6224286
behindtheveil
0a04b6eb-8032-4bc0-9f6f-0632fd075676
ark:/87924/r45h7q35w
0a04b6eb-8032-4bc0-9f6f-0632fd075676

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r45h7q35w

Sponsor:

Sponsor this Digital Collection

Chars Kennedy interview recording, 1995 July 05

Transcript

Item Info

1. Chars Kennedy administrative file, 1995

John Hope Franklin Research Center

More Info & Options

Chars Kennedy interview recording, 1995 July 05

Transcript

Item Info

Related Items

John Hope Franklin Research Center

More Info & Options