How to Build a Home
The Jackson Five in their hometown Gary, IN / Photo courtesy of Michael Ochs Archive
Hometown is defined as the city or town where one grew up. But is that the true definition of a hometown? And how does it shape us into who we are today? “The essence of home resides in the essence of our hometowns.” [1] As The Honorable John H. Stroger Jr. (1929-2008) expressed, “…They [my father’s generation] were committed to try to make us better …The churches, the people who lived in our community… we were close together.” [2]
“You know, these, these different stories about being in the war and, and coming back home that story that you've heard of course. And being, feeling like men and then having to come back to this life but luckily my family came back to their own businesses. My family came back to a funeral home business, a construction business--we--and that's--I grew up with that. All the people in my--most the people in my hometown I'm related to--we laugh that, you know, everybody in my hometown is a cousin. And especially they've all come out of the woodwork, you know, when you have a movie come out everybody comes out so (laughter). They all, they all are there now, but it's great though 'cause I, I tell people I have a whole town behind me it's a very different thing.” [3]
Hairstylist and salon owner John Atchison, in his interview, provided insight into why the loss of the concept of home can affect someone’s current outlook: “So we went to school, we came back home, we went to church. We knew about going uptown but we didn't deviate off the path that was pretty much given to us…But in our world, we enjoyed what we were doing and we had fun and we had our own community... So we had our own medical clinic of doctors, barber shops, restaurants, drugstore; we had everything there in the community that we needed. We didn't have to branch out. I mean, if we went uptown of course, we didn't have a shoe manufacturer; we'd go uptown and buy the shoes. The primary needs were there in the community and then integration came and there is no more Liberty Street and there was no more medical clinic, things just left. I can go home now, the whole street's gone, it's not even there anymore. So you had a thriving, economic infrastructure and it just saddens me that that's just not there anymore.” [4]
The Clevedale Inn in Spartanburg, NC / Photo Courtesy of Bea Hill
Similarly, Wayne Watson talks about how the safety he felt in his hometown allowed for him to grow without the burden of fear. “I grew up, sure in a loving family, but I grew up pretty much in the streets, yeah. I guess there were not as many kidnappings and not as many abductions of children. I would hang out in the streets with my little buddies and we'd be playing in the dirt, playing in the alley, playing, you know, just totally, totally enjoying ourselves. Kids do not play the way we played back then. They just don't. You don't see kids playing the way we played. We'd run. We'd be jumping on things. We'd be climbing roofs, you know. We'd play baseball, play cowboy, play--you name it, and we'd play it. And dirt was our best friend because it was all--we were dirty (laughter). And, yeah, so I remember that, you know, grew up right there on 63rd Street, all my life.”[5]
Gregory H. Williams with his family / Photo Courtesy of Greg H. Williams
Gregory H. Williams, JD describes “Yeah well actually in the early years we would go back to Indiana. We were living in Virginia. That's where I lived the first ten years of my life. We would go back to Indiana and we would spend holidays with them. And I remember my grandmother and my grandfather. My grandfather was a conductor, well not a conductor, he was an engineer on the Nickel Plate railroad [New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad]. And so we spent time there. In fact, they sent me to Indiana to live with my grand- my mother's father and mother during my first year in school. So I did the first grade in Indiana. Primarily because my, my birthday is in November and so I was too--wasn't old enough when school started in September and I could go to Indiana and start school. And so I lived with them for a year. I mean that's the place away from my family and so I felt that we had a good, a real good relationship. But there was always some tension there as well. And there was always kind of like well I felt even at the time as a kid, you know, seven or eight years old, that there's something going on here. There's some, there's some great mystery that, that I was not privy to and I, you know I was a pretty smart kid. And trying to figure out what was going on. Something just didn't seem right to me and that I could--so it was a puzzle that I simply could not solve.” [6]
Two Black youths celebrating / Photo Courtesy of H. Armstrong Roberts
Sense of identity and sense of self play a large role in how we develop. Founder and director Frederic Bertley expresses, “And my childhood was the best, because my parents were the best. With that said, the suburb we lived in, we were essentially the only black family around. So I played hockey, soccer, basketball, baseball, skied, and I swam. And I don't even want to get to how the heck my parents did all of that for myself and my three other siblings, because I can't figure that out. But I did all the sports, and I was always the only black kid on the team. I was always the only black kid in my class for the first four years. And then in the fifth and sixth year, there was one other black kid. In high school, there were two or three black kids. So I was--you know, Pierrefonds was a non-integrated, not very much integrated, back then in the seventies and eighties. Today it is. There are a lot more folks of color. But it was not there when I was there. So, even though I said my childhood was the best, my childhood was the best because my parents were incredible and provided unbelievable opportunities. We never needed or wanted anything. So, that's very important, very important. They did not spoil us. We had a healthy respect of responsibility and money. And we had our own paper routes, and we would generate our allowances out of our paper route. So, yeah, so we weren't spoiled, but we just never wanted for anything. And yet, despite that--well, because of that, I was very secure in who I was. But I was raised in a very, very--for lack of a better word, you know, a racist microenvironment.” [7]
Resident of Little Liberia in Bridgeport, CT / Photo Courtesy of The Mary and Eliza Freeman Center
Malik Yoba discusses how his hometown influenced his perspective of economics, “So, again, growing up in New York [New York], going to school in the Upper East Side [New York, New York], and it's funny what you consider a lot of money, when you're a kid from Harlem [New York, New York] and your father makes thirty-five thousand dollars a year. Even though we always had what we needed. And, we were some of the (air quotes) better off kids. We lived in the doorman building with the duplex and the pool and all that stuff [at 199 Plaza; 1199 Housing Corporation, New York, New York]. My kids that lived downtown, their parents made six figures and they had houses in the Hamptons [New York], or one friend whose grandfather was a VP of General Motors [General Motors Corporation; General Motors Company]. And, General Motors had their building on 58th Street, where FAO Schwarz is in Manhattan [New York], overlooking Central Park and the apartment in the Park Five [5th on the Park] on 5th Avenue. Since the first time, you know, you walk in someone's apartment, there's a grand piano, and all white rugs and, you know, kids with duplex apartments on Park Avenue. I grew up with those kids and we all like ran around the city together, so. For me, it was always a sign. I remember I--'cause, a lot of the kids from Harlem where I grew up, they didn't hang with these kids. In fact, I was one of those black kids that like to do all the things white kids liked to do. I snowboard. I race BMX. I played football and basketball. I played hockey, you know. So, I was one of those people that even though I grew up with a very strong sense of, you know, my--the legacy of Africa, and who we are as descendants of kings and queens.” [8]
1980s Harlem / Photo Courtesy Unknown
In conclusion, hometowns are extremely influential to how we view the world around us and how we view ourselves. How we can recall those formative memories speaks to their importance, and it is beneficial for us to call upon what we have experienced to ensure that we are better for tomorrow.
Citations
Jiyofullest.com. “100 Hometown Quotes: Exploring the Heart of Home - Jiyofullest.” jiyofullest.com, May 19, 2024. https://jiyofullest.com/quotes/hometown-quotes/#.
The Honorable John H. Stroger, Jr. (The HistoryMakers A2004.006), interviewed by Larry Crowe, January 27, 2004, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 5, story 11, The Honorable John H. Stroger, Jr. talks about his grandchildren and his hometown
https://da.thehistorymakers.org/story/192642;q=my%20hometownCharles Randolph-Wright (The HistoryMakers A2006.129), interviewed by Denise Gines, November 5, 2006, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 2, story 2, Charles Randolph-Wright describes his father's family background, pt. 2
https://da.thehistorymakers.org/story/373006;q=my%20hometownJohn Atchison (The HistoryMakers A2001.001), interviewed by Julieanna L. Richardson, April 2, 2001, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 9, John Atchison describes his childhood hometown of Spartanburg, South Carolina
https://da.thehistorymakers.org/story/57060;q=my%20hometownWayne Watson (The HistoryMakers A2003.104), interviewed by Larry Crowe, May 13, 2003, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 8, Wayne Watson reflects on growing up
https://da.thehistorymakers.org/story/14926;q=growing%20upGregory H. Williams (The HistoryMakers A2007.176), interviewed by Julieanna L. Richardson, May 16, 2007, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 4, Gregory H. Williams describes his mother's family background
https://da.thehistorymakers.org/story/466186;q=hometown%20%2B%20birthdayFrederic Bertley (The HistoryMakers A2013.149), interviewed by Larry Crowe, June 18, 2013, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 2, story 7, Frederic Bertley describes growing up African Canadian in Quebec, Canada
https://da.thehistorymakers.org/story/26902;q=%22SENSE%20OF%20SELF%22%20%2B%20%22GROWING%20UP%22Malik Yoba (The HistoryMakers A2014.262), interviewed by Julieanna L. Richardson, December 9, 2014, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 2, story 8, Malik Yoba talks about his experiences with diversity in New York City
https://da.thehistorymakers.org/story/661096;q=%22SENSE%20OF%20SELF%22%20%2B%20%22GROWING%20UP%22