Oh man I got a nice lady on the channel today y’all going to like what she’s got to tell you she smiling she’s on time too everybody we I’m super excited about this interview you going to like this my friends I’m Anthony Brogden and I don’t play with you because I am getting
Luckier and luckier by the moment finding these people to share this good history with you it I it’s my mission to get it to you but the people want you to know it they want you to hear what they know uh from all facets of
History and this is what I do here so come on hit the Subscribe button on strong Inspirations it don’t cost no money uh it don’t ask no information it just let me know you like me cuz I like you and they nothing you can do by it
It’s no way around it because you have taken time out of your busy schedule to watch or what is on strong Inspirations and what I’m going to do to you my friends is give it to you straight no chaser I’mma try to intoxicate your mind through the guests
That come on this show let them do the talking it’s mindblowing stuff hit the like button on this video there is no love button button hit the notifications Bell for when the videos come up you get a ding a shock uh uh the lights flicker
Uh you get a tingling in your in your brain uh your dog gives you a a nudge something to let you know that there is new content for this past Black History Month I released a video every day at 700 p.m. we got that much kind we over 500
Videos on here and we are growing this the the train has left the station my friends did you see the one I did with uh Madame CJ Walker’s great granddaughter and she says that Madam Walker only operated her business for 13 years watch that video did you see the
One I did with the uh with the lady who says that they assume they don’t have no proof that they’re great-grandfather was lynched he was headed back home to uh I don’t know what state it was uh to go to his father’s funeral and he never made
It to the funeral they never saw or heard of him again watch that video did you see the one where I talk with the guy who was in the music hip hop industry in the early days and he talks about the history of Hip Hop watch that video did you you see
The one I did with the guy who spends his time this has become his mission finding former enslaved cabins Across America and he sleeps in them and he Chronicles this watch that video you going you going you like strong Inspirations oh this is good stuff and I got a couple more
Housekeeping I’m a filmmaker everybody I’m not playing with you in terms of giving you some history that I know of and I put it in this documentary it’s called business in the black the rise of black business in America it is streaming on Amazon it is good not just
Because I did it but because I did it I know it’s good it’s 75 minutes long how enslaved black folks went to college and how enslaved black folks owned businesses and so much more is in my film again it’s streaming on Amazon watch that and then I have this book out
Titled black business book it’s over 200 amazing black history facts similar to the movie but even more so I tell you all the ways enslaved black people gain their freedom some of the unique uh escapes of that institution that black folks did all the HBCU all the fraternities and sororities over 40
Black owned Banks and black newspapers black organizations how we networked among themselves it’s all in this book you got to get you a copy it’s on Amazon but it’s also on my website business intheblack domnet and let me tell you I got one more because I’m
Thorough I want your kids to read my new book they did it I got 30 black business owners in here who lived in the 1800s I got a picture of them their name the year they were born and what they did your kids need to know this get you a
Copy of this and this at present is only available on my website business intheblack domnet I’m not I’m serious with y’all my friends and I’m and I did a lot of speaking uh this past month and I’m still speaking uh and if you uh need
A a speaker to tell you some what I like to call good black history look me up all right it’s all my information is on the website and now you know I use that word strong a lot it’s it’s in everything I do in my world strong stands for strength tenacity resilience
And a sense of Oneness nobility and grace and grace and that is my introduction to the strong sister on the channel today come on she ready to rock and roll with y’all all right thank you for being on thank you for having me yeah uh tell us your name my name is
Lynette Jackson love and uh where are you uh okay well since you said that uh and I gotta ask a couple questions if I let the audience get to know you you’re located where where were you born I was actually born in Chicago Illinois uh part of uh my
Parents were part of the black migration my father’s family was from Mississippi my mother South Carolina she ended up in Chicago and uh we the first part of my life was really about uh my parents marriage um we were in Chicago and then we were in
Camden New Jersey and then my uh parents split up and my mother packed us up we were in Camden and moved us to Mount Pleasant South Carolina into her parents home in 1961 and basically I finished school there and I’ve lived different places since then okay when you talk about
Chicago how old were you in Chicago uh we we stayed in Chicago until I was three years old then you don’t know much of Chicago okay oh I used to go back in the summer time oh my parents split divorced and I used to spend some
Summers with my father in Chicago so U I had Big Fun in the Summertime in Chicago what about candom but is that where you went to school mostly well I started school in Camden New Jersey when my uh parents moved to Camden they moved to a
Branch of our family that had moved to Camden to work in the Campbell Soup factories um I laugh about that Branch because I said uh most of our family from South Carolina they went to New York City or DC and I think this Branch they were on their way to New York City
And when they got to cam and they said this is it we’re not going no further so we were there uh with that branch of our family until my mother moved us to South Carolina in 61 how was uh how was it growing up in South Carolina that that’s a whole
Different Dynamic than kandon oh my gosh I I talked about it in my book I was nine years old when we arrived in Mount Pleasant South Carolina Jim Crow era Jim Crow had a vice on that area and it was very confusing to me because I had grown
Up in a mostly integrated setting in Camden had gone to integrated schools and I don’t even think I realized I was black until I moved there in 61 now I’m not saying everything was perfect in Camden but as a kid none of that stuff was evident to me but it was so evident
In 61 when I arrived in South Carolina and I was kind of upset with my mother initially because I couldn’t figure out why she moved us down there in all of that craziness she herself had left the South to finish High School her parents
Sent her to New York City to an aunt to finish High School in New York City and then she joined the army she joined the army in the 40s and she lived out west and up North but then in 61 she had to go back home because she you know economically yeah I
Understand okay okay let me ask you this we’re gonna stay on that as that gets into the book but for you as a kid you said you didn’t know uh uh too much about being black because the white kids accepted you and you could play with them real
Easy yeah I I think I just it wasn’t really on my radar as much as when I went down south and everything was separated and segregated the water pools the neighborhoods everything and as a kid I thought wow somebody they actually sat down and designed and Drew all of
This up and you know Anthony I think one of the things that was most striking to me was the economic disparity um you know other people had everything the big homes the cars the jobs and everything and black folks were scuffling because at that time we were
Kind of um relegated to service jobs and you know low paying jobs and that kind of thing but you know I can’t generalize that to everybody because some black folks have made it and we’re doing well not every person was wealthy but the economic disparity to me was so
Glaring all right I I want to go back to candy though for a moment when you say that uh was it easy playing with the white kids you know I don’t I don’t I I I don’t remember a whole lot of about that I just know that in school I had I don’t
Think I had even had black teachers uh but yet when I moved to Mount Pleasant all my teachers were black after that and I went to school it was integrated and I don’t remember having any problems with okay this did did you said you didn’t know about BL did you wish you
Were white at that point oh no I I just you know was a kid I didn’t have anything about it one way or the other I was just a kid in school yeah enjoying life yeah when when you went down to South Carolina did did you all of a
Sudden now have to did you all uh get a fear of black people no did that did that happen absolutely not I had a huge family my family Mount Pleasant was uh right outside of Charleston it was full of plantations and uh you know during that era and my family were descendants off
Of those plantations and I had a huge family very loving and uh welcoming and that’s what really my family helped me to adjust and grow to love growing up in that area just despite all of that craziness that was going on at that time did how about a couple more when
You went down there did you have to change your habits uh the way you spoke you know because maybe in in when you in canum you spoke more for lack of a better word proper and then you go down there and the dialect has changed uh the attitude maybe the aggressiveness
Towards education I’m not sure did you have to do something a a cold switch as it might be called that you I feel like I did that now if you’ve ever been to Charleston in that area you know there is a dialect gulla dialect that’s people sound like they they’re from the
Caribbean because kind of they were you know that’s right y all came in on the same boat and there was a strong emphasis on education in those black schools my teachers um saw that I was smart and they insisted that I do well and that’s kind of where I got the seeds
Of uh that I should go to college they they felt like you’re smart you need to go to college so in that era in those segregated schools even though the facilities might not have been uh equal uh the resources the teachers I think overcame all of that because of the they
You know they were concerned about you they inspired you they pushed you I love it I love what you’re saying you yeah yeah I love what you’re saying I want to St on this just a tad bit more so when you went down there you saw the difference between the schools in candom
And the schools in in in Mount Pleasant give me an example of what that difference was like and what did it look like well for me uh first of all everybody was black everybody all the students all the teachers that was the first difference the facility that we were in our school
Was pretty good it it was um it was old uh the busing was it during that time could would they yeah they would pick up black kids and take them to school on the bus because there was a time when they wouldn’t do that kids had to walk black
Kids had to walk to school and look at the buses pass you by but um I think one thing I do remember is the books were used uh we got the books that were used in the other schools and we kind of knew it because people had their names in the
Book and we knew everybody in the town you know so we knew you know we got the hand me down stuff okay and I think if you looked at the numbers you’ll probably see the spending was probably much lower on our schools than the other schools Charles had a long history of
That well I got one more these keep coming up did did the kids down there when you got this oh you a big city girl and you had a a a big city kind of Swag because I must admit I when I go down south I was born and raised in Detroit I
Don’t I don’t I don’t dress like they dress I just be honest uh I got a certain quicker walk I think they just know I don’t I’m other than they had never seen me before they know I’m not there from there did you get some of that that they
Were not not really because I think uh one reason was because so many people from that area had gotten caught up in the migration The Great Migration and uh what I saw and this was even evident in my hus husband’s family one sibling would go up north New York DC whatever
Then they’d send for the other one and then they’d send for the other one then they would always come back they would come back for homecomings okay there was always a lot of interaction and I I didn’t I didn’t really sense that no okay I didn’t now
One concern was you had to be careful where you went what you said and there were safety issues you know because if you if you did the wrong thing or said the wrong thing you know there could have been some violence that came against you I didn’t experience that I
Think Charleston in that area was not as violent as some other places and the reason why I believe that is because the numbers were so high there were so many of us there that uh you know the the black population in South Carolina was the majority population in South
Carolina from the antibellum period after the Civil War well into the 1900s because they it was a epicenter of slavery and they brought so many slaves into Charleston right and they were out on the rivers and islands all these there were 300 plantations in Charleston
County alone at the end of the Civil War so there were just so many of us I think that’s one reason why we didn’t experience the level of violence that some places did further in the South deep down okay I got you but but but did
Who told you how to be careful then when did you learn because see you come from where you don’t have to right you know and then how do you who who tells you oh okay well let me tell you don’t call him boy don’t don’t say this to him how they
Sit you down and give you the the rules of the land yeah my mom somewhat but you know so at that time I I don’t know what your situation was but I was raised by a whole village all the adults had input into the children and they were always
Watching you know I I laugh and say that you know before there were satellites that had were eyes in the skies where I grew up there were eyes on the children so you always had adults watching encouraging you loving on you you telling you what to do correcting
You if you’re wrong and also my friends they kind of knew the deal there and they would school me on you know it wasn’t really uh a lot of that but it was there it was there okay so on one hand did they tell you don’t go
Downtown uh uh don’t and you eluded to this don’t go in that store uh that kind of thing you could go uh in like say for example the movie theaters were segregated we had to sit on the top and and then we couldn’t sit in the bottom if the restaurants were um
You couldn’t you couldn’t even eat in the restaurants they you had to go around to the back door and order food and take it out the doctor’s offices La waiting room white waiting waiting room I mean just everything so you kind of knew that well that’s where you have to
Go you have to go to the back door but you know one of the results of that is with that huge population of um black people in Charleston and that area there were a lot of they they started their own businesses you you have a book out you know there were uh hotels
Restaurants bakeries so we just went and and um you know used those those businesses we those business uh so often we uh people will say that integration hurt the black community did did what what as you looked at it did you want to get integrated or and say oh man I wish
I could go into that store or do this or do that or I don’t care what could have been that and what and so I’m getting that is why did we fight for integration in those areas so much to the detriment of our own Community yeah I think well we we were
Americans we were paying taxes and we should have access to everything and why should we be uh bottled up in one Community but yes there were disadvantages to that and I think uh one of the really great disadvantages was the schooling um in some ways now when I
Consider going to school in Camden New Jersey which was integrated I didn’t have any problems I I I I didn’t have any issues uh and I don’t know that I would have so in that environment you know integrated schools work in the South there was so much going on with
Jim Crow that I think the communities we understood that back then we had to ban together you couldn’t get money from the banks so if anything went wrong uh you people in the community would would come to you and help you and give you money
Because a bank was not going to give you any money and so we had to band together and the schools were and as I talk about the school today Lang school it was kind of like a safe place for children where children could grow and flourish for over 150 years during racially
Challenged times and even though the facilities may have been less than I think the teachers made up for that the teachers encouraged you they pushed you they disciplined you and really uh most of as I’ve researched this book most of the children people who went through this Lang school that I’ll talk about
And uh in that segregated system have done well they’ve been successful yeah attribute it to the teachers what what in that in that in in that City what was the black neighborhood called what was the white neighborhood and was there a railroad track that divided
Them well I think you have to look at the history of Charleston in that area you know Charleston was the epicenter of the American slave trade it is estimated that 40% of the Africans that came to the shores of America came through those ports in Charleston and it’s a city and so there
Weren’t really any plantations in Charleston proper the plantations and I I said earlier there were like 300 of them in the county they were over in the town that I grew up in they were on the waterways the rivers the inter Coastal waterways the islands because that’s what is in that area it’s
Right on the ocean and so in Mount Pleasant there were always plantations and after emancipation people sometimes they stayed on the plantations for a little while but then they came off of the plantations and they went and developed built their communities right not far from those plantations and they continue to work on
Those plantations some of them and and you know over time that evolved and so in in the town that I grew up in Mount Pleasant they have maybe they call them settlement communities where the enslaved people came up off of the plantations they built their own plantations those communities had
Schools and churches the those the first things they did was they built churches first of all and in all those commun ities maybe seven eight 10 of them in in that area and then uh they built schools and then that kind of all evolved where these were uh fredman schools is what
They called them right after the war and shortly thereafter and and a lot of them didn’t last and later on they were merged into one big school but the school that I’m talking about L was uh it lasted 150 years and different it evolved in different ways and eventually
All the descendants from those plantations followed through Lang High School I got I got one more to give us an idea you said settlements where you lived where was the uh uh the the the the um the store where you bought your furniture uh what what street were those
What was there a Main Street that all the Commerce went down that you had to go to you know you follow what I’m asking you King Street King Street was the was the main street and that you know we were like a suburb I think back in the early days more of a
Country okay down and um people went into Charleston to shop and you know there were some businesses right there in the town as well I got you majorly uh you had to go over into the City of Charleston to shop yes I got you now how
Far was the school uh that you speak of from where you lived and how did you get there two blocks I walked two blocks lay Elementary it it was uh right in the heart of the black section of the community our community was a settlement community and it was
Called the the Old Village settlement community so people there came from the plantations that were right there in in the town of Mount Pleasant and uh I excuse me for diverting around you say plantations what what is a plantation how how does that look Mo in your community is 300 of
Them are they all these big houses with the pillars in the front uh is it all fenced off what what does a plantation look like that you see and so on and so forth well I say that I kind of grew up in the shadow of plantations a lot of
Them were destroyed uh during a civil war um but there are some that are still left um and they are been they’ve been restored and they are huge tourist attractions people come to Charleston it’s a his you know tourist town and that’s one of the things that they come
To see but in the town that I grew up as well as other areas even though there isn’t a plantation now uh there are subdivisions so these plantations were huge tracks of land and so now they have these huge subdivisions but they were formerly plantations golf courses um there’s so
Many things name Plantation I hate that really uh but in uh Mount Pleasant uh Boon Hall Plantation is the one that is left it is very well restored they have have probably 600 visitors a day that come to visit it a thousand in the summertime and and I have to tell you
That just this past month for the very first time uh Boon Hall Plantation worked with collaborated with the black community and celebrated black history month so now they’re telling and and we they we came in the group came in and they did um a lot on the history the
Black history in Mount Pleasant and so now I think that Plantation is going to um alter uh their presentation and bring in more about the descendants what what happened to The Descendants where are they now and you know that was this just historic that that collaboration and and really wonderful
Because I got to tell you the history in my hometown is a motherload it’s just a motherload of history for example the uh everybody knows of the Massachusetts 54th uh colored Troops right okay from the movie Glory they were headquartered in my hometown in Mount Pleasant they were
Garrison uh near the street that I grew up on they mustered out of Mount Pleasant um so so you know that’s just one aspect there’s just so much history there oh okay now uh now the uh you have a book show us your book okay um here she is okay it’s called smashing
Obstacles and building legacies I don’t know if you can see I’ll pull it back so see it yeah y yep yep and it is about this school but it’s also about the Freedman schools movement which this school was really born of the freedom schools freed men schools movement which
That particular movement after it it kind of it really started during got it but after the war there were about 2,000 over 2,000 schools that were built in the former Confederacy and uh many of those schools didn’t survive okay I got you I see it so what is that
On the cover that’s a picture of what or the school itself it’s a collage the school uh actually occupied about a half dozen places in its it in its 150 year journey and uh it’s a collage of all the places where the school that the school occupied what that mean they had
Buildings but then they moved to other buildings yes they they um started out in a Presbyterian Church this young Quaker girl she was 26 years old and she came to Mount Pleasant alone one year after the Civil War and she decides she she came down there she said
She was sent by God and she she decides I’m going to go over to mount pleason I’m going to start a school for the first treat she didn’t have a real plan she had limited resources but she started that school and that school went on to last for 150 years she started it
In a Presbyterian Church which had been serving as a Confederate hospital and it was bullet riddled you know when she went in and then she stayed in that school and the town like the town of Mount Pleasant like the rest of the South was under Union occupation after
The war so the Provost Marshall and uh the freedman’s bureau was located there they helped her uh move into another building and then they built a school the freedman’s bureau built a school uh in 1868 and then later on uh a hurricane came through and damaged it and the next year an earthquake destroyed it so they had to rebuild that school and while they were rebuilding it they held the school in the uh am Church friendship am Church very small cramp situation but
These people were very resourceful and they made that thing worked for two years so then they moved into another school and then you know during this time the Quakers uh were overseeing that school and pouring resources into it you know something Anthony I think that’s reason why that school survived because
They poured resources into it and then in the 40s they turned the school over to the um School Authority in the town oh then okay built a new school and they built a new high school so it’s occupied you know a lot of different places you say uh for the people who
Might not know the Freeman’s Bureau what what do you what’s their history what is that okay you know the freedman’s bureau was started after the Civil War um the abolitionists really they are the ones that uh agitated for that Bureau they did a survey they sent a questionnaire
Out and they ad you know they they um are the ones who convinced the government to start the freedman’s bureau because four million people were going to come come out of slavery what what they didn’t have anything what was going to happen to them so right right
So the freedman’s bureau had a kind of a mixed Legacy they did some things well and they did some things not that well but building schools they did well and they helped to build um several hundred several right uh now uh and I can chime in the B was a a
Governmental agency right uh and so that’s that’s that was their efforts uh at at um at the links huh that uh the the freem men’s Bureau uh from what I read uh the people that worked in it were came from the Army you know they were military so they kind of had a
Military based approach to things and sometimes that worked and sometimes that didn’t work and then they were from all over you know they had different opinions and attitudes about the some were you know did good job some you know were corrupt well when you when you said
Going to the school why they why why is it called Lang well it was named after a gentleman Henry Lang he was a Quaker from Philadelphia and he was the treasurer of two Quaker organizations that funded Lang school and you know he was an abolitionist okay he um and he was just
An incredible advocate for the school uh he took uh charge of sending the money to the school the uh the teachers salaries and the money that they needed and then uh one thing that I discovered is that because the Quakers back this organization and canelia Hancock who
Found it was a Quaker they had a lot of patrons from Quaker patrons who would put uh barrels together and they would send clothes and Aid and books and uh school supplies every month and sometimes they would get 10 barrels I got you and so Henry Lang was responsible for um overseeing the
Shipment of those barrels of supplies every month to the school and plus he the teachers he was one who really took care of the teachers and I got you looked at their needs meeting their needs and helping them they loved him uh I would suspect that in the early days most of the
Administrators the lady who found it and the teachers were white when when do you suspect that might have uh converted to where black people uh actually you know ran the school the teachers and things of that sort well the first two um women who ran
The school were white and a lot of the teachers were because um there weren’t there wasn’t a huge supply of uh you know black men and women who were trained to teach so um but after the first two administrat left there were 10 principles of Lang School the additional
Eight were African-American and one of the one of the um objectives of the uh Freedman School movement and the missionaries and the Abolitionist who helped work with the free in the found those school was to build a Cadre of black teachers and that was what they worked
On they uh Avery School andur Charleston right um and so by the time uh the second lady left her name was Abby Monroe she ran that school 37 years 37 years she was from RH is and by the time she died you know there were there were teachers who had been black teachers
Who’d been to Avery and other schools who were ready to step in and be teachers and administrators uh what was there uh a lot of times the schools have specific uh uh subjects and and and areas that they specialize in to teach was was there was there that in the earlier days
Like let’s teach farming or let’s teach this let’s teach that to to get the students prepared for life right right um one thing that was so interesting to me was that this the Quaker lady Cornelia Hancock that founded the school when she came came to Mount Pleasant of
Course you know the South had been devastated everybody was struggling and black people were struggling they had nothing and they came to school in rags and no shoes so she started um classes uh for dress making and and and the shoes and then the Quakers uh and the benefactors from up
North would send clothes send material send um the the supplies to make shoes so the cobbling and the dress making that was what they focused on I it was never really farming but they did have shops and um other schools may have but this was not you know Lang situation and
They were I read later on there was this kind of like tension between classical education and Industrial education you may know about it sure versus other people and that tended to be a little bit of attenion there at that school but they they uh started out uh grades one through five
And then as the time went on it went to seventh grade and until it finally became a high school right um uh did they ever uh have any strife uh where the people you know because of racism tried to shut them down or anything like that you know I I didn’t
Uh read anything about it like that I know that at the very beginning um the people in the town didn’t like the school they didn’t like the teachers they called them Yankee teachers teachers the ice them um that was a stress that the teachers you know coming
From the North had to deal with yes um you know there were a couple of race riots in the town but I don’t know what that the school was caught up in any of that I think the school you know they protected that school the church one
Thing about uh the fredman schools if you read anything about them not just in that in that town the black churches were like the overseers the protectors the covering they they they uh looked out for their those schools and they protected them and U highly Valu them I
Mentioned how this one Church uh allowed them to come into their church when the earthquake leveled it but also for many years the graduations were held at that church so there there was that um symmetry where the freed men uh they valued those schools and they uh
Protected them and the church was kind of like at the center of that and one thing I did uh I read uh many in many many places they the the freed men wanted schools they they they were demanding schools they were asking for schools they started schools even when
There wasn’t a buildings they would have you know and outside in in in the in a barn anywhere they would come together there’s a lot of references to that and they felt like our ancestors felt like of all the things that was done to them that withholding education was the one
That caused the greatest harm to them that’s right uh now you had the Lang school that like you said might have went up to the fifth grade uh so it taught some math some reading some writing and some skill set uh what would happen after that
Uh for the most part uh was there another school that kids could get maybe go up to high school and so on and so forth right if you were in Mount Pleasant you there wasn’t a high school in in Mount Pleasant until probably in the
40s and it went up to maybe 10th grade 11th grade so people would send their children other places to finish high school for example in my family my aunt went into Charleston to Avery Institute which turned out many of the black teachers in that area okay and and my
Mother they uh my my grandparents sent my mother to Harlem in New York to finish high school so you know that’s what a lot of people did until that high school was built but you know the school itself uh L school was highly regarded uh people came sent people moved to
Mount Pleasant so their kids could go to L and I’m talking early days they would the kids would come and they would board in the town during the week so that they could go to school so it was um you know highly regarded plus I think it was all
A part of that that mentality that they had that we we got to get schooling we got to get our kids in school and and they need to learn and they need to work hard at it uh once after lay did other schools pop up uh did the school system
When did when did there be like a a normal set of educational opportunities right yeah right well um you know I think as I mentioned before the the the enslaved formally Enslaved the emancipated people came off those plantations and formed their communities and they built School schols
First they built churches and then they built schools a lot of those schools were built with the support of the freedman’s bureau the the AMA American missionary Association was huge in helping to build Freedman schools um later on there were philanthropists like uh like ju Julius rosenwall the rosenal
There were a couple of Rosen wall schools in our town okay another Quaker Lady by the name of an jeans in the early 1900 she donated $1 million to build uh Freedman schools in rural areas in the South so um these schools were built but the continued funding of them
Tended to be a struggle because once they were turned over to the the school local school board that funding disparity situation a lot of them to fail right now as I mentioned I think it survived because it had that Quaker backing the Quakers poured money and resources into that school they sent
Doctors down every year they uh when that school was uh leveled by the earthquake they raised ,000 doll to rebuild that school they that backing was such a blessing and that’s why that school still stands today in my opinion yeah um I I think that they built those schools in all those different
Communities and then in my hometown in 1953 because they were sued uh uh you know the state was taken to court about the disparities in funding they Consolidated the schools that were left uh some of them fail some of them closed but they can sign idated those schools into one school Jenny
Moore Elementary that’s the one in our town plus there was Lang still going and then those two schools all the African-American people in the area came to those schools and then when they graduated they went on to Lang High School oh I got you uh a couple more uh
One of the things that we’ve heard uh people say that he only had a fifth grade education or he only you know what I mean or he only had a ninth grade Ed education uh and then we we we come to learn that a lot of it because they had to help the
Family they had to go to work uh what’s that Dynamic you know the dynamic yes that did occur but the dynamic that I saw was that parents wanted their kids to get an education they wanted they wanted you to go to school wanted you to do well they
Expected you to do well and they expected you to respect those teachers and listen to those teachers so that was what you’re speaking about was there but I think the other Dynamic I saw more than anything else uh did you go to Lang I went to Lang Elementary and when I finished Lang
Elementary I went to a Catholic school but it was was a segregated Catholic school there was a black Catholic School in Charleston and a white Catholic School in Charleston and I went to Immaculate Conception School and in 68 they closed it and merged the two schools the the black Catholic and the
White Catholic and then I came over to MRI high school during this kind of like the beginning of integration and so I got caught up in that stuff and I finished two years uh at MRI and came out and then that that’s when they really kind of closed Lang
High School oh and it became a middle school and and that’s you you see that I think a lot too with those schools where the uh the segregated schools became middle schools oh okay if they still survived you know yeah uh my ask this did you go to college yes I went in
North Carolina Central University in durm North Carolina and HBCU yeah sure sure so from that from the high school you went to college uh did did did you feel you were prepared for college yes I I think I was um I definitely was I I felt like
Um I was a little bit behind in math a little bit behind in math but you know I had to work hard I I majored in chemistry oh really oh okay so I was taking high level math and I felt like when I got into those high level math
Courses I could have had more you know but some of that was my own fault in terms of what I chose to take in high school yeah yeah uh and so you go to college uh uh were a lot of your classmates from the high school did they
Go to college or if they didn’t what else would they have done what’s what’s uh some other options educationally or otherwise large percent went to college uh mostly to HBCU uh uh the area that I came from if most kids if they were going to college went to South Carolina State College and
Orberg Benedict or Clin I I chose to go to North Carolina Central University but there was also a lot of uh par participation in the military oh really okay lot of well you know in the 60s uh people were being drafted you know because of the Vietnam War and some
People you know they they they got out ahead of it the draft and chose you know where they wanted to go but uh in in that Hometown in fact this past month as we were uh they were celebrating Black History Month there they did a display
They did some research and and um that participation in the military goes back to World War I okay I got you what what uh is there uh something that they uh celebrate of L is there a founding day that a lot of students might come back to or uh that’s one question yes
Well you know Lang school today exists as a an integrated Middle School of uh stem school science technology engineering okay so the old lang high school was demolished in 2020 and that the Alumni Association they they would have um every year they’d have reunions class reunions they celebrated you know the
100th year anniversary the 150 year anniversary okay when the school was um being before it was demolished and this just shows you how much that how much loved that school was the alumni school had a a gathering where they walked the building one last time before it was
Demolished and then they had a they wore their blue shirts I have this picture in my book and they took a picture in front of the school and then really even before it was demolished they had a historical marker ceremony in 2020 I love it where they they went all out
They they you know they went through the history they celebrated each principal the teachers I love it the love for that school was something that well I got it because of I’m of that generation and I understood I remember parents talking about it because in that town if you didn’t go to
A lang school so like our children now they because of integration you know didn’t go to a lang School even though my kids didn’t weren’t raised up there but if you didn’t go to L School your mama went to a lang school okay probably went to lame school I got you great
Grandma so it it and it was much much beloved I got you a couple more uh is there a a Model A lay song what’s the colors of the school did they have a mascot any of that kind of thing the mascot was a Wolverine and the the um
Theme I believe I hope I get this right was strive to achieve and as I I interviewed four of the graduates of Lang School Lang high school that went you know these were people that went all the way through from Lang Elementary to Lang high school and one thing that they they talked
About was the teachers how wonder they thought they were the best teachers in the world and that they motivated them and they pushed them and they constantly constantly talked about achieving and getting out in the world and making their mark and it worked you know
Because uh I want I got couple more what what means you decide to write this book well in 2020 they had that historical marker ceremony and I wasn’t in town I wasn’t there when it happened but I watched it online and they started talking about the founding and they
Talked about Cornelia Hancock I had never heard of her and I’m like well who is this why haven’t I heard about her and then I start I started researching and uncovered this story this Rich history this Quaker woman this woman from Road Island uh the Quakers and earthquakes
And hurricanes and um and I thought this is a story I’m gonna try to write it I love it have have uh have you had book signings there in town and alumni uh come out and you know celebrate you Chronicle the history I just released it and guess where I where
I launched it Boon Hall Plantation of all places if you had ever told me I would be launching my book at Boon Hall Plantation but the people there were very welcoming and very helpful we had a big turnout and they are ready they they they’re indicating that they’re ready to
Tell a more full story of of Boon Hall Plantation and The Descendant so the book is available where how do people buy the book okay selling directly to the consumer from my website I have a store there lyet love.com lyet love.com okay yeah we’ll we’ll put all that in the
Description uh uh you proud of yourself this is a big accomplishment how long did it take you to do it and stuff three years okay and and I had times when I thought I’m done I’m not doing this no more you know the rejections kind of
Really mess with my head you know like maybe nobody is interested in it but it really is a fascinating story it’s it’s Rich history it’s it’s you know one thing I got out of it the most is the perseverance of our ancestors yes there you go there you go I understood that
But this kind of brought it to me in a fresh way I’m thinking did they have steel coursing through their veins right you know because you know didn’t really talk yet about the the Freedman schools movement it was born during the Civil War so during the Civil War you you may
Be familiar with this the uh enslaved people when they you when they they heard they thought they believed the Union Army was nearby those that could ran they ran plantations to the tune of 500,000 to 800,000 of them yes and in these camps and initially it was pretty tough going they didn’t have
Anything I mean the Union Army they were following the Union Army the Army didn’t really in their plans you know for this war to have thousands of people following them so food and clothes and then sickness the small poxs hit really hard um children it took a heavy toll on children
And then you know the uh emancipated people started working for the Union Army uh doing labor all kinds of labor for them 200,000 of them joined the army and they were in these camps and especially in the west and on the Eastern Shore like in the sea Islands
The union just kind of occupied those islands but in North Carolina coast and Virginia Co but in the west you know Grant was systematically marching down freeing up that uh Mississippi River and um the slaves the the the emancipated people sometimes had to pick up and
Follow the Army and so it was chaos and the country didn’t kind of know what to do it’s like what are we going to do with all these people they need something so they sent a call out to the nation the North and the west and those people responded they sent tons of
Clothes and AIDS and and then they started sending books and then they started opening schools in there you go I love it oh man uh everybody I tell you he is strong Inspirations we give you all forms of black history and at the end of the day in any instance you can
Come up with a good storyline and here’s a good story line throughout the story despite The Strife of the institution of enslavement we’re gonna learn how to read and write and come up with this one how about this there were white folk who helped us absolutely and and I I learned more
About that than I that I knew because I’ve been in Jim Crow and that’s what I saw growing up but them Quakers they my new Heroes and the Abolitionist they were like slavery is wrong and we’re gonna get rid of it there you go they were Fierce and they were
Unrelenting so yes we did have Advocates did yeah yeah that’s the that’s the last word everybody uh again hit the Subscribe button on strong Inspirations hit the like button on this video hit the notifications Bell tell somebody about us and and and I go to her website
Uh spell your name uh so that people make sure they got it spelled correctly and how they can get the book l y n TT love l v lyet love.com everybody go there and get that book it’s good it’s very well written uh it’s got that lane education that you know
That it’s grammarly correct and so on and so forth and and are there some pictures in the book pictures too I have 45 pictures most oh there’s even pictures of probably graduating classes and so on and so forth learn about that history as it is similar throughout the
Country uh I thank you so very much for coming on strong Inspirations everybody go to my website businessin theblack and to you my sister I say this and I mean this With all sincerity I want you to stay strong stay safe stay on your grind I’ve love what
You’ve done you took that experience of the the the the the the New Jersey uh New Jersey the the going down there in South Carolina which I’m sure at points you were like oh man why you doing this to me and it worked for you it made you
Who you are today you listened to the teachers you got that education and then you said let me Chronicle some of my experience because of this and you’ve done it so eloquently thank you so very much for that thank you for coming on the show thank you for the good work
That you’re doing in terms of keeping our history in the Forefront and keeping it alive hey keep doing it and it’s people like you to help me uh uh thank you and I’ll say byebye okay
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