Viewing page 2 of 7

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

Transcription: [00:02:15]

..and what I began to see was that our lives evolved around two areas: I know, in my - in my home, it was either partying all weekend and - or - and in my - my grandparents' home, we'd be in church all weekend, during the week, so there was never any talk about going to college or going to university. In fact, um, my stepfather worked at Ford motor companies, he was a thirty-year man at Ford, and of course this was one of my first experiences with the whole labor movement and the quote on quote, so-called left movement.

[00:02:51]
And, um, if I was to get out of high school, I was to go to work at General Motors at Ford. And if my sister were to finish high school, which she didn't, by the time she was fourteen she had her first child. She was to, you know, get a good man, and that was it. So I'm just saying that, that in terms of the type of urban, uh, situation I was raised in, it was not very beautiful. It was very difficult, it was very harmful, and it was not a game, by any measure.

[00:03:27]
So once I was out on my own, basically, I left Detroit, I went to Chicago. I finished high school in Chicago, tried to get a job. But at that time, I was the same height - six feet, one inch, I was about 131 pounds - I couldn't find work in any place. {{There was nowhere to get a job,}} I don't care what it was, they would tell me, "Well, you're too thin,", you know.

[00:03:51]
I even tried to get into the Air Force, and I passed the mental exam, but I failed the physical exam. And that was kind of crushing. Because here, a young man, I was 17 at that time, I didn't have anything to do, and really no family to speak of at that time other than my sister, which she was younger than I. And I ended up joining a - a magazine-selling group, and all we'd do was, we'd go to these different homes and sell the magazines.