Time Bring About
a Change
Time Bring About
a Change
A memoir by
Tony Carr
Copyright © 2012 by Tony Carr.
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-0715-9
Cover Design by Mill City Press Design Team
Typeset by Wendy Baker
Dedication
This book is dedicated to Francesca, Gionna, Eden, and Carmen. All I ask is that you keep the family legacy alive and be true to the values of your ancestors. Be proud of who you are and never feel that you are inferior to anyone. Always remember to treat people the way you want to be treated. Remember that you are sisters and always love and watch over one another.
I thank you, Amy, for choosing me as your husband and for standing by my side through the challenges and struggles. I thank you for being a loving wife and a wonderful and spiritual mother to our children.
I thank all of my family for the love and support you have always given me. You have always been there to pick me up when I am down or bring me back to earth when my head was way above the clouds. Thank you for keeping me humble.
I thank all the people, too many to mention, who have touched my life in both positive and negative ways. I have learned many lessons from them all.
I thank God for putting me on this journey, for through Him all things are possible. I will continue this journey by faith and purpose, and I cherish the spirit that guides and lives in me.
Foreword
This book was written first and foremost in honor and memory of my grandparents and parents and countless others in our nations history who faced injustices and dehumanization while not having the voice or support to speak up for what was right. The struggles of the past should never be forgotten; we must understand our past to create a better future.
We as a society have become more tolerant, but we still have many obstacles to overcome. We must unite to ensure a brighter tomorrow for our children and their children. The chain of generational ignorance and racism must be broken. Rather than be divided by race, we must become simply the human race.
Some people may find it difficult to change their prejudices—and the truth is, we all have them—but I challenge people to just try to become more sensitive to people’s differences and to think carefully before speaking. If more of us would put those two simple actions into practice, our society would be on the way to becoming far more positive and unified. The title of my book comes from a hope expressed by my grandfather. I heard him say many times from my youth into my adult years: “Time bring about a change.”
Peace,
Tony Carr
Chapter One
Coming of Age
It was a very hot July day in 1969 when my mother said she had something important to tell me. What she shared with me on that day would change my life.
I grew up in Beloit, Wisconsin, a small industrial city in the southern part of the state. My neighborhood was predominantly African American, but there were whites that lived in our community, too. I can remember looking out my bedroom window at the nearby railroad tracks and waving at hoboes who caught a ride on the back of a slow-moving train car. It may not have been the greatest neighborhood, but for me, it was a fascinating place to grow up. My family was loving and compassionate. I was fortunate and blessed to have both my mom and dad at home, along with my older brother. My grandparents and aunt lived just three blocks away on the other side of the railroad tracks.
The late 1960s were a time of turmoil and change in America, and I remember that during my childhood, the television news was full of protests and riots, civil rights demonstrations and reports of the Vietnam War. That was a lot for a young boy to take in. But none of it had really touched me personally—until that day in July of 1969, when I was nine years old.
My mother told me she had received a letter from the school district notifying her that in August I would have to attend a new elementary school. I didn’t understand. I loved my school, Burdge Elementary. It was only two blocks from our house, and all my friends were there. The new school that I was to attend, Royce Elementary, was at least a mile away. I wouldn’t know anyone there. There was something else about the new school that would be different: Royce was an all-white school. All my friends at Burdge looked like me—black.
I thought my mom was joking.
“Are we moving?” I asked.
She replied no.
“Why do I have to go to a new school?”
My mother tried to explain that it was due to re-zoning of the school district. The re-zoning did not affect my older brother because he was at the junior high where all students from the school district went. I didn’t understand that at the time, but when I look back now, I believe that I was a part of an integration mandate. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964, which made racial discrimination in public places illegal. Supreme Court rulings between 1965—1971 made it clear that schools must desegregate. In many cities the desegregation was being accomplished through court-ordered re-zoning and forced busing.
So many emotions went through me. I was sad, angry, and scared of the unknown. I couldn’t imagine having to leave all my friends. I told my mother that I was going to take a knife and kill myself if I had to go to Royce. That was when my mother and grandparents sat me down and gave me a serious lesson about life. They explained how throughout American history, black people had been treated unfairly because of the color of our skin. In the South, all aspects of life were segregated by law. Blacks and whites were not allowed to eat in the same restaurants, attend the same schools, or even drink out of the same water fountains. The recent events of the civil rights movement had brought about change, but it was a slow and painful struggle. My mother and grandparents, who were from small towns in Mississippi, had experienced this racism firsthand.
My mother went to a colored-only school in Mississippi, and although she learned the basics, the education standards and school supplies were far inferior to those of the white schools. In her small one-room school there were children of different ages. My grandparents’ educational opportunities were even bleaker. Like many black people in the South at that time, they were sharecroppers—poor farmers who grew their crops on someone else’s land. Sharecroppers had to give part of their crop every year to pay their rent, which meant they were rarely able to save any money, and had to work hard to survive. The
