After four years of being on a genealogy hiatus, I have committed to organize my genealogy records and write a story a month this year. I am going to use the challenge #52ancestors to keep me on track. Thanks to Amy Johnson Crow for the format. Wish me luck!
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| S.H. Kress & Company, Market Street, Chattanooga, Tennessee Postcard found on Pinterest, unknown author If you know author email please. |
Week 1 / "start"
I
am starting my #52Ancestors #AncestorChallenge2018 with this photo. This picture is sentimental. It is the place of my humble beginning, where
my father met my mother in 1959. It
sounds like a simple enough event for a couple, meeting at the five and dime
store, but it was at the start of the Civil Rights Movement. You see, my father is African-American and my
mother is white. She worked at S. H.
Kress and Company at the “colored lunch counter” in Chattanooga,
Tennessee. This was a state where race
mattered and inter-racial marriage was outlawed. My father worked at a pawn shop across the
street from the five and dime store where he frequented for lunch. My mother was the only employee willing to
work at the “colored lunch counter” so she waitressed six days a week making
it convenient for my father to see her often.
One day my father very bravely asked my mother if he could see her after
work, and she very bravely said, “Yes”.
I am sure it was quite challenging for them to figure out how they were
going to make it happen since racial segregation was the law, but they
managed somehow to work it out.
In February 1960, my parents moved north because of the death threats on my father’s life. Around the same time, the lunch counter sit-ins began in the south including in Chattanooga. Countless young African-Americans very bravely sat at "white only" lunch counters to non-violently protest segregation. The protests led to the desegregation of lunch counters across the nation. A few years back, I searched for a picture of Kress in Chattanooga and found a copy of this old postcard. I wanted to capture the memory. The photo represents my narrative and the story of those very brave youth, including my parents, who put their life on the line for change. This is the place where it all started and a place I will always remember.
In February 1960, my parents moved north because of the death threats on my father’s life. Around the same time, the lunch counter sit-ins began in the south including in Chattanooga. Countless young African-Americans very bravely sat at "white only" lunch counters to non-violently protest segregation. The protests led to the desegregation of lunch counters across the nation. A few years back, I searched for a picture of Kress in Chattanooga and found a copy of this old postcard. I wanted to capture the memory. The photo represents my narrative and the story of those very brave youth, including my parents, who put their life on the line for change. This is the place where it all started and a place I will always remember.
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