This is the first in a series of
feature stories during Black History Month. Stories will run each Tuesday in
February. Nominate an individual who is making an impact on his or her
community by emailing a brief description and contact information to living@decaturdaily.com.
Three years ago, Lucy Ford, dressed
in patriotic red, white and blue, watched in awe from her cream recliner at her
Eighth Street Southwest home.
The woman who worked in cotton
fields, sat in the back of a bus, drank out of cups marked with a black slash —
the designation for black customers — saw a black man take the oath of office
as the 44th president of the United States.
She heard President Barack Obama
issue a challenge:
“Let it be said by our children’s
children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we
did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and
God’s grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered
it safely to future generations.”
Obama received the “gift of
freedom,” a gift centuries in the making, from generations before, and people
like 104-year-old Ford, who endured the height of prejudice and racism.
“She never thought she would see a
black man be president,” said Mary Gilbert, great-niece of Ford. “Never ever.
She sat right here and watched the whole inauguration.”
Born on Jan. 13, 1908, 43 years
after the end of the Civil War, Ford grew up among former slaves — those
declared “personal property” by the 1857 Dred Scott Decision. She lived on a
farm in Colbert County with her four brothers, four sisters and mother and
father, who worked the fields.
At age 12, after eight years of
school, Ford, too, walked the rows of cotton, dragging a burlap sack down
Alabama’s red dirt.
“When it was time to chop cotton, I
chopped. When it was time to pick cotton, I picked,” she said. “I would pull in
about 100 (pounds) a day.”
When she got older, Ford cleaned
buildings and worked for a white family in Leighton. On Sundays, she sat in a
pew in St. James Mission Baptist Church in Leighton.
She worked and prayed. She had faith
the world would change, that one day blacks and whites wouldn’t have to drink
from a separate water fountains, ride in separate train cars, use separate
restrooms, live separate lives.
“There was a place in Leighton that
sold the best hamburgers. We couldn’t enter from the front,” said Gilbert, 62.
“There was an entrance in the alley we had to go through, even when I was
young. That’s just the way it was.”
Slowly, the change Ford prayed for
occurred.
In 1947, the woman who spent hours
listening to baseball games on the radio heard the announcers utter a new name
— Jackie Robinson, the first black Major League Baseball player.
In 1954, Ford watched as her nieces
and nephews, once designated to all-black schools, integrate with white
students.
And in 1965, she saw black voters
cast ballots.
The joys, however, came with sorrow.
Attackers firebombed a bus ridden by the Freedom Riders, James Earl Ray
assassinated Martin Luther King Jr. and the 16th Street Baptist Church in
Birmingham was bombed and four girls were killed.
“Back in them days, it was really
bad, that prejudice was real bad. It’s hard for us to understand today,” Gilbert
said. “One of Aunt Lucy’s brothers, a white man spit in his face. That stuff
happened all the time.”
Despite the advancements, the fight
must continue, Ford said.
“We are not where we need to be yet.
There is still hatred by whites and blacks, on both sides, and there’s no
need,” Gilbert said. “But God has brought us so far. Back in them days, the
white folks didn’t want the black folks and now it’s the Mexicans.”
Every night, Ford prays for her more
than 300 great-nieces and nephews and the world around them. It is a faith that
Ford passed down to her family.
“You know, in the Bible, God said in
the end nobody’s going to know whether you’re black, whether you’re white,
whether you’re Mexican,” Gilbert said. “Color shouldn’t matter, but for some
reason it did and still does.”
Lift
Every Voice and Sing
To preserve history and the stories
of individuals who built Decatur, the Decatur-Morgan County Convention and
Visitors Bureau created “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” The video profiles
noteworthy African-Americans and their contributions to the religion,
education, military, athletics, political and social scenes of Decatur.
Some of those profiled include:
Bertha Lee Polk Lyle: The first African-American female preacher in Decatur.
Herschel V. Cashin: Served two terms in the Alabama Legislature as a
representative of Montgomery County. He was Decatur’s first African-American
attorney and served on the city council.
Dr. Frank Sykes: Sykes attended Morehouse College and Howard University,
where he earned a dental degree. He played professional baseball in the Negro
Baseball League. After his baseball career ended, he moved back to Decatur.
Robert Murphy: Born a slave, Murphy received quasi-free status. After the
Civil War, he helped rebuild the city’s homes, churches and business district.
Athelyne Banks: Decatur’s first female principal.
Burrell Lemon: A grocer and the city’s first black city councilman.
Matilda Hall: A notary public and the first female pharmacist in Decatur.
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