Growing up in Eastern Arkansas my step-father was pastor of one of the largest american african churches in the city of west memphis, so my mother, who by all accounts had married him to better herself and better the lives of Charles Hawkins and i was intrested in seeing us involved in the activities of our church. it was like we had to be in sunday school every sunday, chuch services every 1st&3rd sunday at Beautiful zion, our church. and we had to follow my parents to a little southeastern hamlet outside of marvel, arkansas by the name of Turner. boy did my brother and i hate making that trip. for one, it was about a hour plus by car. we had to get up earlier than usual so we could make it to sunday school there. then we were there for regular morning service, and there was always an afternoon service that lasted to almost dusk. wed get in the car, of course ours didnt have a/c, and usually it be my step dad, mom, one of her friends, some preacher friend of my step dad, and me and Charles Hawkins. then we would sometimes carry the pianist of church, so that ford fairlane would be full. we hated that trip and were not even upset when he decided to give it up. it was after mom got tired of always making that trip did we get relief.finally my step dad gave it up and the church started to around late 67, having service every sunday, just like churches were having in memphis. this was also the era of the mass meetings and wheather the meeting was at our church or one of the others we didnt want to miss. at these meetings information was shared about the struggle and to hear about the latest brutal suppressions from the other side. somebody always had a story to tell about living under jim crow. by summer of 1967, not a lot had changed for the american african community in west memphis. we still couldnt go certain places in town. definitely had to live in certain areas. a few of us went to schools out of our neighborhood but most of us attended wonder. some of our parents had decent jobs in west memphis, but most who wanted to make better, found jobs in memphis. my mother tried working at memphis furniture manufactures but the heavy lifting was hard on her.i for one hoped she would keep that job, it paid her more and since my step dad was never good at anything much but preaching, well that kept money funny in our household. we had essentials, we didnt have more than that.. i always held it against my step dad for not getting a job to help mom. preachers werent making the money they do today... anyway, just thinking back
Posted on: Tue, 22 Jul 2014 05:57:43 +0000
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