Chapter 6 The Move to the Big City
Missy continued to sit closely near the head of the bed of Emma Johnson as Emma slept quietly with soft light breathing. Missy set watching her grandmother sleep as she began to look more closely at the wrinkles in the face and the wrinkles on her hands. Her grandmother had lived a long and hard life. While she knew little of the early life and even less, she knew without a doubt that her grandmother loved her. She had raised her from as long as she could remember for she had known no other mother. Emma Johnson had lived through seven decades. She has seen the rise and fall of dictators, World Wars, Korean War and Vietnam. She had seen the coming and going of almost more presidents then she had fingers on her hands. Through it all she had always been strong and bowed to no one. She had lived through an era where Coloreds were told to stay in their place and through the era of the Civil Rights Movement of the Negro led by Dr Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X to the days of Black Pride as shouted by Jesse Jackson… I am Black and I am Proud. But at this moment none of this mattered because she lay in the hospital bed far weaker than she had even been in her life.
Missy leaned over to fix the pillar under her grandmother’s head when Emma’s eyes opened and she smiled at Missy. “Honey did I finish telling you the story? I am just so tired but I must finish the story for it is important that you know the whole story”. Emma Johnson then picked up the story just where she had left off with telling Missy about her ride on the bus to Washington DC where she was to begin a new life. Emma arrived in Washington DC during the spring of 1928 pregnant with her daughter Naomi. As she got closer and closer to the bus station she looked with amazement at the number of houses and number of Colored people. She had never seen so many Colored people in her life in one place. In fact she had never seen so many houses so close together. She wondered how they could live so close together and where are the out houses and where did every one keep their pigs and chickens. As she got off of the bus she looked around at all the faces, looking for her aunt and uncle until she finally saw her aunt who was her father’s sister who had come up North like many other Coloreds, looking for a better place to live away from sharecropping and washing White people’s clothes.
Emma took her small suitcase and followed her aunt out the door. She had no idea of where she was going for she had not seen her aunt in 5 years and had never been outside Riverside. While she had heard people talk about how good it was to live up North, she could only imagine. After sharing hugs with her aunt and uncle, she then went with them to their house. She found that their house looked just like everyone else’s house on the block. How was she going to remember the house in which she was to live. It was what they called a row house.
Upon entering the house she saw a small living room and a couch and pictures on the wall. Her aunt then took her to her room which was on the second floor. There were two bedrooms on the second floor with a bathroom between them. She looked at the bathroom in amazement as this was the first time that she had seen an outhouse inside the house. She now knew why she had not seen any outhouses on her way from the bus station. While she was still somewhat unsure of how she was to feel so far away from her home in Mississippi, she said to herself at least she did not have to use a pot in the night but could go anytime she needed to go.
Her uncle and aunt looked at her with smiles as they knew that this was the first time for her away from home. While Emma was pregnant she told herself that this is not so bad. She had a bed that she did not have to share with anyone. She did have to share the room with her cousin but that was not so bad after all she had shared her bed with her sisters all of her life. While they did not have a yard and she did not see any of the red clay she was used to seeing, she felt like she could stay here for a while. For it was her understanding that as soon as she had the baby she would give it to her aunt and she would go back to Riverside where she belonged. No one would know that she had been pregnant and she could pick up her life just where she left it. While she missed her mother and father, she again thought that this is not so bad.