>>HAZEL WILLIAMS: Hi, my name is Hazel Williams and I'm so happy to be here at the digital media conference and to learn about your literacy project. It's one that I think is very appropriate for several of the communities that I'm involved in and most specifically ,as I was sitting in one of the sessions, I thought about language as an expression of culture. And I think it's much more than an expression of words that have a meaning, conveying a message to someone, it's actually an expression of culture. I think, specifically, about people that I know who were born and live in the South or perhaps migrated North in the Great Migration. I think about one person in particular who was initially a sharecropper. Her family was a sharecropping family and she had several siblings and they all worked on the sharecropping plot. Many of the children had to drop out of school early, perhaps in middle school or early high school, to help on the family plot and also to generate income for the family. But it's interesting to me that these folks, even with what many would call an abbreviated formal education, that they're still very educated in that they bring a depth of understanding to their lives and they're able to accomplish great things without the letters behind their names that indicate a particular degree. And then I think of language as an expression of culture. For instance in the South "Ma Dear" is a word that's used. And I asked about it and it's actually an abbreviation of "mother dear" and I look at it further as an expression of culture of how dear the mother is in the African American community and how dear she is especially in a community where often the men were threatened, where there was intense activity against black men in particular that often the woman was called upon to be the one who was the hub of the family or the one who had to hold things together. So I looked at those women, they were especially precious and called "mother dear" shortened to "ma dear". And even today I find that even in some of the popular culture, there's a movie that's popular, I think it's called "Ma Dear's Family Reunion". [Background commotion] >>INTERVIEWER: So, tell me a little bit more about when you were growing up, when you were a child, when you were learning. Did your mom read to you? >>HAZEL: Yes she did. And it's interesting, when I was talking to you about the people who came out of that background, I was actually speaking of my mother. My mother is "ma dear". My mother was the one who stopped her education in the ninth grade and worked on the family farm, first as a sharecropper, and then later on when her father was able to have enough money to buy his own farm that she was a small... they were small farmers and later were able to purchase more land where they grew tender and were able to take crops to the market. But yes, I remember her reading to me and also, it's interesting, she realized though that education was a form of freedom. It was looked upon, not just as a way of expressing oneself or being correct and polite society, but it was looked upon as freedom. I'm sure we've heard often that knowledge is power. I say that applied knowledge is power. So she wanted us all to make sure that we obtained an education so that we could write our own ticket or make our own way or to be free of the constraints of ignorance. Ignorance is really a prison, if you will. So she always emphasized that and it's so interesting that with a ninth grade education, my father did graduate from high school and then he attended some college. But it's interesting for my mother, such a push, all of her children attended college on academic scholarships. >>INTERVIEWER: And that was no mistake. >>HAZEL: No, it was by design. It was by design. >>INTERVIEWER: What kinds of books or reading materials did she keep around the house? >>HAZEL: She always had... >>INTERVIEWER: Read the bible? >>HAZEL: Of course she read the bible, being religious. But she also had other books that I think would be called academic in nature. We had Scientific America. We had scholastic journal. We had the World Book Encyclopedias. And of course we had to go to the library and read books and write reports for her. So it was very, very important for her for us to read and to read well. And it is so interesting. Even with, I think there's something else language as an expression of culture or literacy as an expression of culture. A lot of people assume or think that one with a limited formal education would be inarticulate. It is so interesting. My mother is one of the most articulate people I know. In terms of her use of words and language and she has a great stage presence as well... she and her sister were actually famous for performing plays as teenagers and then carrying that forward into the community and it's so interesting that she did that. So when I heard about this project today, I thought, wow, what a great thing, and I would love to record not only her, I'd love to record my mother, some of her peers that had similar experiences, and I just look at her journey from growing up first as a sharecropper to owning a farm to moving to the city to becoming a part of what we could call the commercial culture. But it's so interesting. It gives a solid foundation and a firm background to those of us who had the good fortune to be her children. >>INTERVIEWER: And here's something. So many of the black community that we have interviewed that come from the South, the very first thing that they remember in their house is a set of encyclopedias and often sold by somebody who would come and pound and sell encyclopedias. >>HAZEL: I'm sure that's how they were purchased because I remember that. I remember looking up subjects in encyclopedias as a footnote for a paper in school. >>INTERVIEWER: And that was a huge, that was an investment. Family investment in letters. >>HAZEL: Most definitely. And it was very important. Like I said, my parents clearly understood that education was freedom. Simply put, education was freedom. And I don't mean education for the sake of saying that you know something, I don't mean that kind of education. But education that could be put to use, that could be practical, that would serve a way of negotiating the world to achieve a positive result. >>INTERVIEWER: Now, your parents reward you for your literacy. They were so happy that you did it, they always give you good strokes and stuff like that. But, were you ever, in school did you ever encounter any time when you were told not to read and write or you were told not to read and write in a certain way. >>HAZEL: Yes and no. [Laughs] Yes and no. >>INTERVIEWER: Well, tell us the story. [Laughs] >>HAZEL: In my early years, I was born in the South, so I attended an all black school and there I even had a couple of my instructors who were actually my cousins. In other words they were my father's cousins. So they were my second cousins. So in school, and it wasn't just because they were my relatives, but that was just the norm. Everyone was expected to do well. Not do well, you were expected to do well and excel. >>INTERVIEWER: You said "excael"! [Laughs] >>HAZEL: [Laughs] I was trying to decide whether to use exceed or excel, so it kind of blended. >>INTERVIEWER: I thought it was kind of that southern comin' out. >>HAZEL: Oh, no. Well, I don't know, but I was deciding upon a word. >>INTERVIEWER: This is good. My husband has a southern accent that comes. >>HAZEL: Oh, really? I was deciding on a word, exceed or excel, which one would be most appropriate. But we were expected to do well. And we did. As I hear today that a lot of students say it's not cool or not hip or not whatever to be smart, but we were expected to be smart. And we lived up to what was expected of us. And it was encouraged. And then, my father's employment transferred him to Ohio. It's interesting, and then I was put in an all white environment, with the exception of myself of course. [Laughs] Or a few others. A few others. And I recall there, it was interesting, it was my first encounter with racism. Because in my community everyone was African American. My dentist was African American, my physician was African American, if you had to go to the lawyer the lawyer was African American. The people who came to pick up the dry cleaning, Mr. Christmas, I remember he owned his own dry cleaning store. He would come around and pick up your dry cleaning, give your receipt right on the front porch and clean your clothes and come back and deliver them. So, when I moved to Ohio I remember being in a predominately white school, middle school and high school, and there, of course I continued to do well. Because that was our training, that was our upbringing. You're supposed to do well in school. I remember in high school. Was it in high school? Yeah, I remember, it's interesting, my first encounter with racism. One of the white instructors seemed to be taken aback by the fact that we were articulate, that we were good students, and perhaps even sought to diminish our desire to learn. And it was very interesting, and I remember explaining this to my parents. Both of my parents went to the school, my mother and father went to the school and spoke with the teacher, I remember that. I'm sure it continued in more subtler and more covert ways. But that overt, well, cause I remember being discouraged from pursuing certain things. It's interesting that that exists because people talk about racism in the South but I would think that it's just as prevalent. For instance, my experience, I experienced no racism in the South but that's because I lived in an all black community. But, in moving to Ohio and being exposed to that type of environment, racism is still an institution in the United States. That's not what I meant to cover on this literacy statement but I think it's important to always keep one's own goals in mind. To always be clear about what we're seeking to accomplish and to continue marching that way regardless of the obstacles that one might encounter, be they from the teacher or from an institution or from whomever. And not forget history, which is why we do this work. >>INTERVIEWER: And not to forget history, which is why we do this work. >>HAZEL: Exactly! And it's so important because there are so many things and I'm so excited that you're doing this. Because I think of women at my mother's church now, and men too. I think there is a whole group of them who are about 80, some of them 90, I think there's one centenarian, I think it would just be wonderful to hear their stories and to hear about learning. So thank you so much for talking with me! >>INTERVIEWER: Thank you.