Ezekiel Hameen interview recording, 1994 June 20
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
| Paul Ortiz | Mr. Hameen, I wonder if we could start with telling me where you were born, and a little bit about the community that you were raised in. | 0:05 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | I was born here in Birmingham, Alabama, raised in this area, what is known as the north side of Birmingham. At the time of my rearing, I was raised approximately about 12 blocks from here, from my business. During those years, I was going to school during segregation times and all, I would have to walk past high school to go to all-Black high school, because we only had one major Black high school in the city which is known as Parker High, for all Blacks of the whole city to go to within the city area. Then we had another school which you'd go two years there, and then you go to the Parker High, it was more or less the junior high. | 0:14 |
| Paul Ortiz | What was the name of that junior high school? | 1:20 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | Ullman. | 1:21 |
| Paul Ortiz | Ullman. | 1:21 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | That's the school that I finished. Before I entered there in 1949 and I graduated 1953, it became a four-year school before I finished. | 1:22 |
| Paul Ortiz | You graduated from Parker? | 1:41 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | Ullman. | 1:41 |
| Paul Ortiz | Ullman. | 1:41 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | Ullman High. There during my years of— married at an early age, about the age of 20, and I had two children in my marriage, and lived in Texas for about four years and then I came back to Birmingham. In Dallas. Came back to Birmingham, and this was during the time of the '50s, segregation was at its highlight, and I came back to Birmingham in '59. I am Muslim, so during the days of segregation and integration, bringing about integration, we didn't have too much— we didn't participate in the integration part of it as far as the marching, and because we were there at all times. Because I used to send in articles to Muhammad Speaks newspaper, I was more or less one of the people who helped wrote articles and sent to Muhammad Speaks newspaper. | 1:43 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | During the time of the marches and all, I was there taking pictures, writing and sending to our headquarters, which is in Chicago, Illinois, and seeing all the incidents far as the fire hose and the dogs. Me, myself, personally, I was never sprayed with water and all, because I was more or less standing back, maybe writing. The policemen, there were very few at that time known as Black Muslims, we were known as Black Muslims, and they didn't give us too much a problem because we had no fear, but we didn't intimidate them either. What we did, they knew what we were doing as long as we didn't try to integrate. | 3:15 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | I think the main issue during the '60s was the people who were trying to integrate. We wasn't against more or less trying to fight against those who were trying to integrate, but at that time our program was teaching more or less do for self, which it still is. This gave me the drive to go into business for myself. Even during those years I didn't have a business, but I always wanted to own a business and work for myself and employ other people, also provide jobs for them. During the time of the '60s, we as a group opened one business across the street, it was a restaurant. | 4:17 |
| Paul Ortiz | What was it called? | 5:15 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | It was called Shabazz, S-H-A-B-A-Z-Z, that was owned by the Black Muslims at that time, that's what we were referred to, as the Black Muslims. We operated there for about two or three years— two years, and we finally shut down. We as a group owned another business on 17th Street and 5th Avenue North, it was known as Your Fishbox. It was owned by the church at the time or the Muslim group, but I bought it out personally myself in 1973 and I operated it '73 until '78, and they tore the building down. In the meantime I had opened another business on 23rd Street and 8th Avenue South, it was known as Your Fishbox Two, the number two. | 5:16 |
| Paul Ortiz | Was that your, Y-O-U-R? | 6:38 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | Right. So we operated there from '78 until 1981, and then I sold out to another person and they stayed open I guess about six to eight months, then they closed down. I bought this business, there's always been a restaurant here at this spot ever since I was a boy, it had always been this spot here was known for some of the greatest entertainers, and it was known for the best eating spot in the city as far as Blacks is concerned. During those days, during the days of segregation, this was the most populous eating spot as far as home cooked meals. | 6:40 |
| Paul Ortiz | What was it called? | 7:36 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | At that time it was called Roscoe's Number One, in the '50s it was called Roscoe's. Another guy, he bought Roscoe out in 1972, his name was— everybody called him Jabbo but his name was Cleveland, and the place was called Silver Sand. He operated from '72 until 1988, I bought him out and he closed down, he began to get old and couldn't work. So I bought him out in 1988 of October, bought him out and remodeled because it came under new city code and all, and you'd have to go all the way with the wiring and the plumbing and everything. I opened up in 1989, January the 26th, that was the grand opening, although we bought them out in '88 of October, October 15th. | 7:37 |
| Paul Ortiz | Now I've heard that during '30s, 40's, and 50's, there were many other Black owned businesses. | 8:59 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | Many, many. | 9:20 |
| Paul Ortiz | Could you tell me a little bit about some of those businesses? | 9:20 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | Yes. In the '40s, '50s, 60's before integration, they would strive for integration in every community, but 4th Avenue was the main focus for anyone to come as far as Blacks to, say, get away and entertain themselves. You had clubs, bakers, photo shops, you had everything just like another little city right down here in the 4th Avenue area. You had many bars, theaters, there was about four theaters in the area, one up here with the Jazz Museum, it was known as the Carver Theater. We had the Frolic Theater, which they used to have burlesque shows on Mondays and Tuesdays, they used to have dancers and comedy, just stage shows or comedians every Monday and Tuesday. We had what is known as the Champion Theater, I said the Famous Theater, thats fourth. Then that was all Black in this area there. | 9:20 |
| Paul Ortiz | Now, the Carver Theater was also? | 10:47 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | Yeah, Carver Theater, that was number one, it was the most nicest during those days. Then we had bakeries— a bakery, you had several clubs, the main club in the area was known as Bob Savoy. | 10:49 |
| Paul Ortiz | Bob Savoy. | 11:08 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | It was real nice, then you had Zanzibar, Blue Note Club, Tiwana Club, and you had— | 11:09 |
| Paul Ortiz | How do you spell that? | 11:24 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | Tiwana, T-I-W-A-N-A, Tiwana, then you had many bars, small bars, Monroe Steakhouse, he was known for his steaks. You had many barber shops, which as you can see we've still got many barber shops in the area, beauty shops, clubs, photo shops, a bakery. This was the main place where Blacks at the time would go for an outing to get away from home or go to, say, have fun. You had taxicab stands in the area, and it would just be hundreds of people you would see down here in the area. Everybody during those days, Blacks, they only spent money with Blacks because they couldn't spend money with Whites, so Black people who were in business, they did good. | 11:28 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | The clubs and all, they made plenty of money, also the restaurants, you know, they all were full because this place here, I know during the '50s and the '60s, people would be lined up and they would have orders stacked up, carry-out, call-in because you had nowhere else to go. That means that they made money, they kept the doors open. In a way, here in the south, Blacks more or less supported each other more, because that was the only way. If you wanted something, you had to buy. He had the hotel, AG Gaston, which is a landmark in the city where all the civil rights activists had to live, just Dr. King, Shuttlesworth, he lived here, but every major person or comedian or entertainer, whatever, they had to live at the AG Gaston Motel, it was the nicest around here. | 12:53 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | He had other hotels around in the area, but nothing like that one, it was the most nice. It was the most recent built and it was the best. You ask me. | 14:14 |
| Paul Ortiz | Do you remember the names of some of the business proprietors in those days? | 14:31 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | Yeah. Monroe Steakhouse, the guy's last name was Monroe, then you had Alexandra Cafe, I think her name was Mrs. Leela Alexandra, and you had Parker Hotel, the guy who owned that was named William Parker. It just recently burned down, and they was going to restore it but— | 14:36 |
| Paul Ortiz | Heard about that. | 15:20 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | Yeah, some transients had been staying there, they set it on fire. You had the Carver Hotel which was owned by Jessie Nelson, he owned Nelson's Cafe. We had what is known as Hollywood Tea Room, I believe the guy was named James Long, he was a real fat man, I can remember that. | 15:24 |
| Paul Ortiz | James Long. | 15:59 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | I believe that was his name. The guy who controlled all the theater, he was known as Monice M-O-N-I-C-E, I done forgotten his name though, but he had control over all the theaters in the area. On Mondays we used to have what's known as Vaudeville Day, and the main entertainer was known as Snake. Some of the older people, if you talk to them later they'll remember Snake, he was a real character. | 16:00 |
| Paul Ortiz | Was he a musician? | 16:50 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | He was a comedian, but he was the emcee of the show, and he brought people here like Little Richard and James Brown. I remember when he first played over here at the Masonic Temple, they got an auditorium over there. The Masonic Temple building is the oldest place that Blacks used to have to come to have the big dance, other than the city auditorium. Over there at the Masonic Temple building, they got an auditorium up on the second floor, and that's where we used to have most all the dances. If you'd bring some of the main entertainers, like I said, like James Brown or Little Richard, I could name a few of the older— | 16:52 |
| Paul Ortiz | Jazz guys, yes. | 17:51 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | A little jazz, but most of the guys who played jazz, they played there, and some of the top entertainers, they made it big and so they moved, like Erskine Hawkins. There's quite a few I've seen in the Jazz Museum, I can remember them a long time ago. I like jazz now, but as a young man I didn't care too much for jazz. Over there used to be a skating rink, over where Bugsby at. | 17:52 |
| Paul Ortiz | Then what was that skating rink called? | 18:26 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | You might have to ask somebody, that's been so long I can't think of it right off, but there used to be a skating rink right there. | 18:30 |
| Paul Ortiz | Right on the corner of that— | 18:35 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | Where Bugsby is at, I mean where that restaurant at over there, it's a club now, but there once was a skating rink. It was done in the '50s, it was a good skating rink right there. I'm trying to think what else we had down there, a newspaper, there used to be a bottling company right here across the street. AG Gaston owned it. He made a soda called the Joe Louis Punch, it was good, and an all-Black bottling company right over there, they made and distributed the sodas from over there. | 18:37 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | He had a newspaper company, The Birmingham World, it's the oldest Black newspaper in the city, it's right around the corner. We had one called The Times, it's over here on 3rd Avenue, he was writing then, the owner of that's Jesse J. Lewis, he probably could give you a whole lot of information there, the other guy around here can too, Jesse J. Lewis was the owner of Birmingham Times. The owner of Birmingham World was known as Joe Dixon, he was very active in the civil rights struggle. I've forgotten the name, but it used to be a newspaper coming right next to this building, but I done forgotten the name of it now. | 19:23 |
| Paul Ortiz | It was another Black newspaper? | 20:14 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | Yeah, small, but it was weekly I think, weekly about or every two weeks, but it was another Black newspaper. We had the newspaper, and during those days newspapers sold good, because people would want to read about what's happening in the Black community. | 20:15 |
| Paul Ortiz | What was it like to grow up around here? | 20:40 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | I would say coming up here in Birmingham, Alabama, most Black people knew the places they could go and they couldn't go, but there were times when even at that, there were White kids who would play with Black kids, just like myself. We played baseball right up here, what is known as Metropolitan Garden now, in the project area up there. See, it used to be all-White, and I lived one block beyond that, I was raised up maybe two blocks from there, a block and a half. There was a certain group of White guys we used to play with, and in fact the coach, he was kind of liberal, he let us play baseball there in the park, the Black team against the White team. | 20:48 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | This happened during the '50s, wasn't no recourse behind it because the guy, he really understood. I think there's a guy who brought some stuff for me, I catered a wedding the other day, it looked like he came across. There were many things happening during the '50s and '60s. There was a castration where a Black man was castrated by the name of a Jud, J-U-D, Aaron. They castrated him over past the Tarrant City area, it four Whites, they said they just went looking for any Black man to castrate. | 21:46 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | They found this man and picked him up and they castrated him, cut his testicles out, and poured turpentine in him and left him lying in a ditch. Instead of the turpentine, they was doing it for more affliction, but it was more or less an anesthetic because it cleansed the wound, and it helped him instead of hurting him. Really it hurt and burned I guess when they first poured it on him, but this man after this happened, he would be talking to himself and he'd get on the bus. During those days, you had the Whites sit up front and the Blacks sit in the back, and he would get on the bus, and they allowed him to carry a pistol after then. | 22:42 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | He never did nothing to nobody, but even Blacks was more or less afraid of him because he would be talking to himself and he got this gun, they could see this gun in his pocket or something. He would just be saying things like people were around, and I'd seen him, I don't know whether he's still living or not, but he would be saying, "Why did they do this to me? Why did they do this to me? I didn't bother nobody." That was one of the most, I would say, worst things that a person to be able to live and talk about it that happened to them, besides I was right there with the fire hose and dogs, like I said, but we were writing instead of getting out there in the water and all. | 23:42 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | My wife and her family and all— her father, he was a civil right activist. It was just in the south, it was just hard for Black people to live as a human being, to consider themselves as a human being. We more or less did among ourselves, but I guess we wouldn't even think of such thing as when you say "human rights", we knew we were human, but we weren't treated like humans. Most people learned how to accept it, so you could ask me. | 24:47 |
| Paul Ortiz | How did you come to join the Nation of Islam? | 25:40 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | In 1957, I was living in Dallas, Texas and I happened to come in contact with some brothers, and they began to teach me about Islam and the Nation of Islam and about doing for yourself, and it sounded good. I had never heard it before. During those years in the '50s, this was during the time where many African countries was asking for their independence, and they began to get some attention on the TV and all. They would tell me, "The Black man is on the rise everywhere, the Black man is crying for freedom, justice, and equality everywhere, so why don't you?" | 25:47 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | They would teach me like how, "You have been deprived, you want the same thing as the other man," and it all made sense. There was never no teaching like go out and kill nobody, it was all about self-respect, do for self and use just as good as the other man, and go for it. It all made sense, but then after I left Dallas and moved back to Birmingham, I stayed here two years and I never did run into— Muslim was here, the Nation of Islam was here, and they were teaching at the Masonic Temple building over there upstairs. They rented the space every Sunday, but I never did run into them, but when I did in 1961, I joined the Nation of Islam. | 26:42 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | After being in maybe a month, I was the person chosen to open up the meetings, after maybe a year or so, I became the assistant minister. In the Nation of Islam, I went all the way through the ranks as far as official duties from the assistant minister, the captain, lieutenant, secretary, correspondent secretary, and as I say, I went all the way through the ranking. At one time I was a Muslim minister, until I resigned, I was a Muslim minister in the city of Anniston, Alabama, but I was commuting from Birmingham to Anniston. During those years, as I said, we'd travel everywhere, some people considered us as hate teachers, haters of White, but I never had no problem with Whites. | 28:00 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | I always was able to get along with everybody, I mean that was my philosophy. My whole life has been about maybe opening a business, I never dreamed of getting rich. I mean that's the last thing in my mind. I get a joy out of being able to provide jobs for other people, so I mean everybody has something in life that they might like, and that's what I like. | 29:38 |
| Paul Ortiz | Can you talk a little bit about your family and your upbringing? | 30:15 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | Yes. My mother and my father, or are you talking about my immediate family? | 30:20 |
| Paul Ortiz | Yeah. | 30:26 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | My immediate family? | 30:27 |
| Paul Ortiz | Yeah, mother, father, grandparents. | 30:29 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | Well, my father and mother, they were from a small place called Luverne, Alabama, and as I said, I was raised right here in Birmingham. I had three brothers, two more brothers and two of my sisters, and we were raised not too far from here, like I said, about 12 blocks on the north side of Birmingham, which is 26th Street and 7th Avenue. We was just more or less reared on the north side of the city. My father, he worked at the Birmingham News until he retired, my father's living, he's 85 years old, very active, sharp man. | 30:34 |
| Paul Ortiz | So we should interview him. | 31:41 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | Nah, he more or less, he stay gone all the time, he might be gone out of town now, so he's doing well. My mother deceased in 1982, but I have one brother and two sisters who's living. My brother, he lives with my father, and my two sisters, they live in the other end of town which is known as East Lake. I'm married, I've been married 27 years, this is my third marriage. First marriage I had two children, they were reared in Los Angeles, California. Second marriage, no children, third marriage my wife gave birth to four but we lost the first one, so we raised three. | 31:46 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | We only have one daughter who's married, my wife is named Barbara, I have three children, two boys and one girl. My daughter is the oldest, her name is Latasha, my son, one named Corey and the other one is named Jidari. My daughter is 26— 25, she's going on 26, and my other son, he's 23, and the other 21. | 32:48 |
| Paul Ortiz | Do you remember your grandparents? | 33:19 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | Oh yeah. My grandfather, his name was John Woods on my mother's side, my grandmother, her name was Ella Woods, she was from a little town called Goshen, Alabama, it's around near Troy in Pike County. My grandfather, he died at the age of about 54 or 55, my grandmother lived to get 88, very active until she died, very joyful, she kept it laughing. | 33:20 |
| Paul Ortiz | When you were growing up, did you have an extended family household or did you just live with your parents? | 34:06 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | Just with my parents. | 34:14 |
| Paul Ortiz | What kinds of values or child rearing practices did they have for you? | 34:17 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | You said values? | 34:23 |
| Paul Ortiz | Yeah. | 34:24 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | In my upbringing, we were all taught to just obey, more or less we was under the control of my mother mostly. My father, he was there with us but he was a very easygoing man. Always in my upbringing, we was like the average Black family, but my daddy always was blessed to have a job and he was the type of man who provided for his family, gave us food, clothing, and shelter. Growing up I can remember, we more or less took a role after our father as far as working, we started working at an early age to help ourselves in school and all, to buy school clothes and things like that. | 34:29 |
| Paul Ortiz | Where did you work? | 35:33 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | Growing up I shined shoes at the barbershop at the age of 12, saved my money, sold popsicles with popsicle wagon, they had the push kind. Started work at an early age, not by choice. This was just a trend among some Black children at that time, some caddied, but I never caddied. I didn't like seeing a big bag on my back, I always liked to be selling something. I can remember during those days most Black people had ice boxes, you'd buy a big block of ice, and we didn't have refrigerators so you'd put this big block of ice, it was just like a refrigerator to you, it kept the food for a couple of days or something. | 35:34 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | Then the ice man would come every day, but I would strive to— I'd say there was a Western Auto about two blocks from here, and I would come by and see this pretty little refrigerator in the window. I said, "I'm going to buy my mother that for Mother's Day," I was 12, 13 years old, and I had saved this money to buy my mother this refrigerator for Mother's Day. I told my father, I said, "I seen this refrigerator, we're going to buy this refrigerator for Mother's Day." I took him and showed it to him, he said, "I don't have no money to buy that." Back then it was maybe $110 I think, and I had saved this money in a high top shoe, I took this and I had it up under the house, I had hid it for maybe over a year, maybe two years. | 36:53 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | I brought this money out and counted to my dad, and we went and bought this refrigerator. In the little community that I was living, we had what we called a shotgun house, a little three-room house, this was where the average family lived back then. If you had four children, you lived in a little shotgun house, little three-room house, if you had 10 children, you lived in this little three-room house. You made room some kind of way, and families were able to survive. I bought this refrigerator for my mother, and everybody was shocked, "Where did you get the money to buy that?" My brothers and sisters, they were shocked, and my father would tell my children the same story. | 38:08 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | Sometimes he wanted to scold them a little bit, he said, "I remember when your daddy did this for your grandmother, and he wasn't but about 12 or 13 years old, and you all don't—." I've always I guess tried to work if I wanted something, like I said, I never even dreamed of being rich, no, I just like to live. | 38:58 |
| Paul Ortiz | Did your mother work? | 39:27 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | Did my mother work? | 39:30 |
| Paul Ortiz | Yeah. | 39:31 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | Yes, she worked at a place called Home Bakery, it's a bakery right down the street here now, but at that time they had a sweet shop that made cakes and pies and stuff like that. | 39:31 |
| Paul Ortiz | Was that Black owned? | 39:44 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | No, Greeks. Greek people owned it. | 39:45 |
| Paul Ortiz | Your father, he worked at the Birmingham News? | 39:51 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | Right, he retired from Birmingham News. | 39:56 |
| Paul Ortiz | Did he ever talk at home about what it was like doing— | 39:58 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | Working conditions? | 40:02 |
| Paul Ortiz | Yeah, working conditions. | 40:03 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | Oh yeah, I worked there too, I worked there three years. Just the typical way with everywhere else, Blacks had their place, they had their certain jobs that they did, and the Whites had their certain jobs. Blacks more or less was paper loaders, they'd load the big rolls of paper for the press, and the Whites were the pressmen, they set up the press before them. As the time went by, although there were many Blacks who knew how to do it, but they couldn't. My father, he was fortunate enough to get a pretty good job, he used to mix the ink for the press. | 40:05 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | He learned how to do that, and that's what he retired doing. When he retired he was, 20 years ago, 21 years ago, 64, he was making pretty good money back then compared to other people, what they were making on jobs. Basically that's what— in the South, I guess life went on because some people might say, "Well, you know your place and you stayed in it, you know what you could do and couldn't do to get along peacefully," and that's what you did. | 40:55 |
| Paul Ortiz | What was Parker High School like? | 41:46 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | Parker High School was a very good school, because it was the center of attention for the Blacks in this city. With a larger population, you had as many sometime graduating 80 or 90 people, and sometimes you had classes with maybe I'd say 60 or 70 people in one class, but they were able to grasp them even at that. You had other schools in the county area who would accommodate, but if we're talking about as far as the city is concerned, Parker was a very good school, it had one of the strongest athletic programs in the city, you know, for Blacks, and they produced many Black athletes who went on further. | 41:49 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | That was the school for Blacks, you could say you're going to Parker. At that time they had us to wear a uniform, those who went to Parker. I didn't go to Parker, I had a sister who lived in the same household, she's two years older than me, but she went to Parker. | 42:56 |
| Speaker 3 | Y'all not serving dinner? | 43:14 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | I'm closed. Parker was the school that they had to wear a uniform. The girls wore blue and white, maybe a blue skirt and white blouse, the boys wore khaki, you know like the army khaki, they wore the dressy type khaki and a white shirt, everybody was in uniform. Some schools said they were going to get back to this because, with all the fads they got today, there have been some cases where children have been killed about these name brand jackets, athletic jackets and all them caps and things, but they never did. They said they was going to try to get that back into the school system. Basically Parker High School was the school for Blacks during the days before integration. It was the main school, Parker and then Ullman. We had streetcars and buses, they used to come down in the area, back in those days whenever you had streetcars and buses. | 43:40 |
| Paul Ortiz | As a young man, did you notice changes occurring in this area, say in the '50s and '60s, it seemed, or were things not changing much? | 45:03 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | Me, I read, I like to watch the news, I always have, and I could see things happening in the other cities especially in the south, and I knew it was going to come here. As a young man being in the Nation of Islam, I traveled all over the South distributing the Muhammad Speaks newspaper, and maybe getting a story here and there and sending it in to the newspaper. We could see some changes, because there are many cities especially in Mississippi during those days, even up to the '70s even after integration, there were some cities especially in Mississippi where Blacks really just kind of stayed to themselves. They spent their money down in there, and on Saturday they would come the old traditional way, they'd fill the town up on Saturday, and then go on back home. | 45:27 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | We could see those kind of changes coming about, but I could also see that integration coming about with— | 46:41 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | Like many business had to go out of business, like hotels, Black hotels, motels. They just had to shut down. Because surely most White businesses was, they were much much nicer. And so who wouldn't want the nicer thing? As far as if you traveling or something, I'd rather live in the Holiday Inn or anybody, I'm just saying anybody would rather than come down here maybe and live in a little hotel down here. It's not up to date. And so if you couldn't keep it up, you had to shut down or get out. So the same way with many other Black businesses, like restaurants and so forth. | 0:05 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | But here, as you can see, the people that come in, mainly we are kind of more or less in the business district and people come from everywhere here because this have been a landmark as far as being an eating place. And I've been here, like I say, opened up in January the 26th, '89. And we've always tried to maintain and serve quality food. And I wouldn't serve nothing to nobody that I wouldn't eat myself. And this is home for me. So that's basically it, so you asked me. | 1:02 |
| Paul Ortiz | Would you say that there's any continuous theme that's run through your life? | 1:55 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | Repeat that. | 2:08 |
| Paul Ortiz | Is there any kind of theme in your life or any set of beliefs that you've kept with you from? | 2:10 |
| Ezekiel Hameen | Yeah, I have always believed in treating others as I would want to be treated, and I've always taught my children that when they were growing up. Treat other people like you want to be treated. And I said, "Life will be good to you if you do that." So that's what I believe in. | 2:21 |
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