Chapter 5 The Good Times Even During the Depression
Pearl continued to comb her grandmother’s hair as they waited for the newest Taylor to enter the world. Pearl could only imagine what was going on in the head of the family matriarch. For as long as Pearl could remember it was obvious that her grandmother was in total control of this family and also controlled many of the other Black families in Riverside. She could never remember any decisions of any importance being made with out the consent of her Grandmother. Even the Whites in the town came to see her.
Pearl began to think of the stories her grandmother told her about when she was young and had first married her granddaddy. She told her how her granddaddy Thomas had gone to Howard University and came back to Riverside to run the family business and to become only the second Black attorney in Riverside. Granddaddy Thomas had gone to Washington DC in 1930 to study law and to follow in the footsteps of his father. While at Howard, Granddaddy Thomas met Dr Charles Hamilton Houston and the now Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. This was the same Thurgood Marshall that would argue the right for Donald Gaines Murry to be admitted to the University of Maryland Law School for Thurgood Marshall had been denied entrance to the University of Maryland’s Law School in 1930 after graduating from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. He also was introduced to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). This introduction was to change the life of Thomas Taylor. Up until this time, Thomas Taylor had been satisfied in being just the soon to be Colored Attorney in Riverside and the soon to be manager of the family supply store. His only desire was to come back to Riverside, marry his childhood sweetheart and live a comfortable life. However, while in Washington DC, he began to question the way things had always been in Riverside. He began to question, why his family had to pay more for their supplies than the white store owners in town. He began to question why he had to sit in the colored section of the train when coming to Washington DC. He began to question, why he and his father still could not eat lunch in the courthouse lunchroom like all of the attorneys who happen to be White. Yes he was Colored but did that make him less than the Whites?
Thomas Taylor began sharing his thoughts with Grandma Taylor in the many letters that he wrote. He told of her how he would have discussions with Thurgood Marshall and Charles Huston and he began to mention this organization known as the NAACP. He also talked about the number of individuals who were homeless and had no job. He knew first hand that both Whites and Coloreds were hurting and lined the streets to receive any handouts that they could get. Part of this thinking was due to his reading the writings of Harlem Renaissance writers like Langston Hughes and James Weldon Johnson. It was during this time that Thomas Taylor read God’s Trombones and began to sing the words to Lift Every Voice and Sing which was written by James Weldon Johnson and put to music by Johnson’s brother J Rosemond Johnson. He began to feel a sense of racial pride that had been bottled up in him every since he was born. What seemed funny to him was that even with all this talk, things were really no different in Washington DC and his home of Riverside. Outside of the school, there were still department store counters where he could not order food. There were still water fountains that said White only or Colored. However there were some changes as the long lines for people looking for food was becoming less and less. This new President Franklin Roosevelt talked about something called the New Deal in 1933. Roosevelt started something called the Civil Works Administration (CWA) that became the Works Progress Administration in 1935. While this was made out as some big deal in the newspapers, it did little for Coloreds for Thomas heard of many times where Coloreds were fired so that Whites would have a job and the talk made Thomas Taylor question even more the plight of Coloreds in the United States.
By this time, Thomas Taylor and his father were beginning to be at odds as to what the role of the family was to be in Riverside. His father having lived the good life of being respected by all the Coloreds in the town and for the most part had been left alone by the Whites did not see anything wrong with what was going on. In fact he began to think that it was a mistake that he had sent his son to Howard.
During the time that Thomas Taylor was in school, he did come home to Riverside for holidays and summer vacation where he worked in the family supply store. Grandma Taylor had stayed home and was teaching in the Colored school even though she had not gone to college. She was able to do this because she was the daughter of the Rev Mims and was engaged to Thomas Taylor. It was the summer of 1934 when Grandma Taylor became Ms. Thomas Taylor. It was the finest wedding in the county. The First Baptist Church of Riverside was all decked out with white and red flowers everywhere. Grandma Taylor beamed with pride when she spoke of that wedding day. She had said “There were more than 200 Colored people at the wedding and even some Whites came to hear the choir and see us sing and dance. Of course they also wanted some of the fried chicken and catfish stew”. There were some Coloreds who also came looking for chitterlings but Rev Mims would have none of that at such a fine occasion. Him with his white double breasted suit that he had ordered especially for the wedding. Grandma Taylor had on a dress that cost $100 and her hat cost $20. They also were special ordered. Any of the old people still around are still talking about that wedding. Pearl had tried to picture her grandparents in her mind as Grandma told the story over and over.