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pany with his mother and sisters. Like most city children, he loved dearly the boundless physical freedom of the country.

In comparison with the average lot of the Negro child in the Southland, it may be said that Jack had a happier and more normal childhood than is ordinarily the case.

Such were some of the experiences and influences that were characteristic events in the life of my husband's family circle during his childhood, which contributed to the molding of his character and helped determine the course of his future outlook.

School Days

Like most children's, many of Jack's early impressions were made in his first years at school. He attended the old Moore Street public school, the same dilapidated, overcrowded, elementary school for the Negro children of Jackson Ward that his father had attended as a boy. The textbooks used were ragged hand-me-downs from those discarded in the white schools. The "readers" and history books were interlaced with slanders of the Negro and glorification of the old slave-master South.  There was no such thing as hot lunches or free milk for the children. The biggest cause of absenteeism was the fact that many students did not have shoes or jackets to wear on cold days.

My husband excelled in his studies in grade school. Recently, his mother gave our daughters the "First Honor" ribbons which he received at the completion of each term. They are well used now-as book marks!

Youth's Struggle Against Unequal Odds

Among his classmates who also maintained straight "A" marks was a beautiful girl, a proud daughter of a poor chauffeur, who later won fame as a Broadway star, a celebrated singer and actress.
Then there were two boys with whom my husband was very friendly. Both were the children of very poor and hard-working

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parents. From earliest childhood they were a part of the bread-winning combination of their families. After school on weekends, they worked long hours selling papers, shining shoes, gathering junk, hauling groceries, with barely any time at all for fanciful and light-hearted play that ought to be the inalienable right of all children.

One of these boys, whom my husband considered the most talented boy in the school, gave up by the unequal struggle before completing high school. After leaving school he was unable to find employment at a job better than that of a janitor, in spite of his burning ambition and exceptional talent. He became a bitter and cynical youth who unhappily wreaked his vengeance upon himself through drink and excesses of self-pity.

This youth, who had once shown such promise, was caught up in this system that rewards the rich and punishes the poor, and it broke his spirit and mangled his soul.  Today, he is simply a panhandler, a useless shadow of a man, living on the generous hearts of neighbors and friends.

The other was a skinny boy, always dressed in ill-fitting, unseasonable, patched and tattered home-made pants and jackets. Yet, in spite of every disability, he conquered all obstacles to make a life for himself and render a service to society. Today this boy from such humble beginnings is a distinguished theoretical physicist and holder of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

But how many others might have emerged from among the children of Jackson Ward, had they had the chance to start life on a more equitable footing, with comfortable housing, abundant food and clothing; if their parents had enjoyed equal employment opportunities for jobs at decent pay!

High School Interests

In high school my husband had many interests. His father considered him somewhat over-zealous in this period, in his challenges to the truth of textbooks and the interpretations his teachers placed on them, but to no avail. His interests had greatly broadened and he scattered his energies quite recklessly - youthlike, testing his talents in a dozen different pursuits.

Athletics became a passion for him. He mastered the elements

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