by Moneé Bratcher
“Mother was the most important aspect of my life. As far back as I can remember from the first day I was born, my mother was always the center of my life. At the early age of three I noticed that my mother was a loving, caring, and a hard working woman. She loved my father, sisters, brothers, and I,” said my 56-year-old grandmother, Mama as I called her, as she looked me in the eyes reminiscing about her past.
“Moneé, I was taught at a young age to be independent,” said Mama. Either you become independent or you might get lost in the daily family-school shuffle. There were a total of seven children in her family, five girls and two boys. My grandmother was the third child of five and because there was a huge gap between four older siblings and her, she had to learn quickly in order to keep up with them. This might have been her first lesson in becoming independent and developing her personality.
“I remember my mother, my older siblings, and I had to get up early in the fall mornings to catch a truck to go pick cotton in Scotland County. It was cold and rainy on the back of the truck to the cotton farm and we had to use quilts to stay warm,” said Mama. My grandmother said that once they arrived at the cotton field they had to check in at the Masters barn and gather sacks to pick the cotton. The cotton industry was significant in the South during the 1950s because it was large part of the agriculture system.
“As a five-year-old I didn’t think that cotton picking was important. I considered it hard work for my family. We did not receive much money for our daily work on the fields; we were only paid 25 cents per 100 pounds of cotton. Backbreaking work and no money,” said my grandmother in frustration. Today that cotton plantation has become a productive well known winery, Livingston Winery.
From my grandmother’s perspective cotton picking taught her that getting an education is the key to a better life and a way out of the South. However, getting an education in the segregated South was not easy. For example, my grandmother had to attend a segregated school, she received second-hand books from the white schools, and rode one school bus that for all K-12 students. In the late 1960s the southern schools began to integrate in the South. My grandmother integrated at Pine Forest High School with hundreds of other black and white students.
I asked my grandmother if integrating with white students made her feel uncomfortable or was it a challenge. She stated that she didn’t feel uncomfortable, but she knew that it was going to be a challenge to make good grades. “A challenge that I faced in the classrooms of Pine Forest was that a white teacher called on all of the white kids and refused to call on me. I knew that I had the right answer, Moneé, that was the first time I felt the sting of a prejudiced white teacher,” said Mama. Mama, how did you feel when the white students called you “Nigger”? “It didn’t make me feel good because no one wants to be called out of their name, but I didn’t let it destroy me because my mother taught me never to be afraid and to be my own person, and to speak what I feel and think.”
“Throughout my living experiences in the South of my 56 years, I have learned to live and be happy and take life seriously, realistically, and logically. At the end of the day I felt like I have accomplished what I have set out to due. With my educational experience I can now be a customer at the winery on that cotton plantation — and not a cotton picker.”
“Moneé, I was taught at a young age to be independent,” said Mama. Either you become independent or you might get lost in the daily family-school shuffle. There were a total of seven children in her family, five girls and two boys. My grandmother was the third child of five and because there was a huge gap between four older siblings and her, she had to learn quickly in order to keep up with them. This might have been her first lesson in becoming independent and developing her personality.
“I remember my mother, my older siblings, and I had to get up early in the fall mornings to catch a truck to go pick cotton in Scotland County. It was cold and rainy on the back of the truck to the cotton farm and we had to use quilts to stay warm,” said Mama. My grandmother said that once they arrived at the cotton field they had to check in at the Masters barn and gather sacks to pick the cotton. The cotton industry was significant in the South during the 1950s because it was large part of the agriculture system.“As a five-year-old I didn’t think that cotton picking was important. I considered it hard work for my family. We did not receive much money for our daily work on the fields; we were only paid 25 cents per 100 pounds of cotton. Backbreaking work and no money,” said my grandmother in frustration. Today that cotton plantation has become a productive well known winery, Livingston Winery.
From my grandmother’s perspective cotton picking taught her that getting an education is the key to a better life and a way out of the South. However, getting an education in the segregated South was not easy. For example, my grandmother had to attend a segregated school, she received second-hand books from the white schools, and rode one school bus that for all K-12 students. In the late 1960s the southern schools began to integrate in the South. My grandmother integrated at Pine Forest High School with hundreds of other black and white students.
I asked my grandmother if integrating with white students made her feel uncomfortable or was it a challenge. She stated that she didn’t feel uncomfortable, but she knew that it was going to be a challenge to make good grades. “A challenge that I faced in the classrooms of Pine Forest was that a white teacher called on all of the white kids and refused to call on me. I knew that I had the right answer, Moneé, that was the first time I felt the sting of a prejudiced white teacher,” said Mama. Mama, how did you feel when the white students called you “Nigger”? “It didn’t make me feel good because no one wants to be called out of their name, but I didn’t let it destroy me because my mother taught me never to be afraid and to be my own person, and to speak what I feel and think.”“Throughout my living experiences in the South of my 56 years, I have learned to live and be happy and take life seriously, realistically, and logically. At the end of the day I felt like I have accomplished what I have set out to due. With my educational experience I can now be a customer at the winery on that cotton plantation — and not a cotton picker.”
Work Cited
Ingram, Juanita. Personal interview. 2 Feb. 2012.
Note: Moneé Bratcher, who is from Raeford, NC, is pursuing an associate in arts degree at Sandhills Community College as a SandHoke Early College High School student.
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