Annie Levison

HUNTLEY: This is an interview with Mrs. Annie Levison for the Birmingham Civil Rights lnstitute's Oral History Project. I am Dr. Horace Huntley. We are at Miles College. Today is July 5, 1995.

Thank you Mrs. Levison for coming and sitting with us today.

LEVISON: Thank you Dr. Huntley.

HUNTLEY: I just want to start by asking just a few general kinds of questions. Tell me a bit about your parents. Where were your parents from?

LEVISON: Well, my mother was from Montgomery, Alabama and my father was from Huntsville.

HUNTLEY: Where did they meet?

LEVISON: Well, they met around 1928.

HUNTLEY: In Birmingham?

LEVISON: In Birmingham, yes.

HUNTLEY: Oh, so they met half-way?

LEVISON: Right. They met on the southside of Birmingham where my mother was staying.

HUNTLEY: Tell me just a bit about their education. How much education did each of them have?

LEVISON: Well, my mother, like I said, she was born in Montgomery but she came to Birmingham at an early age. And, she went to Cameron school and she went part-time to Industrial. She didn't finish high school. She went to the 11th grade. And, my father only had an eighth grade education.

HUNTLEY: What kind of work did they do?

LEVISON: Well, my mother worked in the laundry and she was a meat cutter. My father was a truck driver.

HUNTLEY: Where did she work?

LEVISON: Well, she worked at American Peerless Laundry. And she worked at Mira's Grocery Store.

HUNTLEY: American what?

LEVISON: Peerless.

HUNTLEY: Peerless Laundry?

LEVISON: Yes. There were two laundries that were joined together.

HUNTLEY: And your father drove a truck within the city?

LEVISON: Yes. He drove for Kirkpatrick in later years. But in his early years he worked at Moody's bicycle shop repairing bicycles and fixing new bicycles so they could sell them. Then, he went on to driving a truck.

HUNTLEY: How many brothers and sisters did you have?

LEVISON: I have one brother and one sister.

HUNTLEY: And where did you fit in there?

LEVISON: I'm the oldest.

HUNTLEY: Where did you go to elementary school?

LEVISON: I went to Cameron School.

HUNTLEY: And where was Cameron located?

LEVISON: On 14th Street and Avenue H.

HUNTLEY: And Avenue H at that time was what?

LEVISON: It was Avenue H, but now it's 8th Avenue South.

HUNTLEY: 8th Avenue, University Boulevard. Right where the Student Center sits?

LEVISON: That's it. That was Cameron School.

HUNTLEY: And what do you remember about Cameron School?

LEVISON: Well, I remember my school being very good. I had some good teachers and good meals. Because Mrs. McClung could cook. And I loved to eat her macaroni and cheese. But mostly, too, I remember Mrs. Sheehi. She was my favorite teacher, and Mrs. Jones. I was a pretty good reader and I was a pretty good talker, so I used to kind of bluff my way through and Mrs. Sheehi would let me go from class to class and carry the plays. We didn't have auditoriums in school then. We would have to go from room to room to present plays. And I would go and I would give the briefing of the play. I loved that.

HUNTLEY: So you started at an early age being rather outgoing and your teachers recognized that and sort of that enhanced your capability.

LEVISON: That's true.

HUNTLEY: That's great. And then you went on from Cameron to Ullman?

LEVISON: Yes.

HUNTLEY: And you were at Ullman for two years and, then, to Parker where you would graduate?

LEVISON: Right.

HUNTLEY: How did you compare Ullman and Parker? In later years, of course, they became rivals.

LEVISON: Yes, in later years. But, in my time Ullman was a good school. Mr. Bell, my favorite principal was very nice and Mr. Whetstone, I'll never forget those two. They were good. Mr. Whetstone taught biology. But, Ullman was a good school because see, the Whites had had it. And we went in right time the Whites got out. So, therefore, it was clean school and they had everything in there we needed. Where otherwise the schools didn't have them. Because even in going to Parker, some of the things we had at Ullman, we didn't have them at Parker.

HUNTLEY: Was that because it was a white school?

LEVISON: Right. And some of the equipment was already in there, such as your chemistry class. You had all your apparatus and all of these things. Now, we had 00:05:00those at Ullman, but Ullman was newer and more than Parker.

HUNTLEY: What was your most vivid memory of your days at Parker?

LEVISON: Oh, those were the good days. Well, I liked Mrs. Tate because I used to go to Home Ec with her. And, Mr. White, was a business teacher. He was very, very good and he taught me business, how to file and all. And I'll always remember that and I kept it in my head. In whatever I do, when I go to put anything together, my mind goes back to him and I can balance books and things. That would help me when I started to work, that business course that I took from Mr. White, it stands out with me very vividly.

HUNTLEY: You seem to have fond memories of your days in school?

LEVISON: I do. Now, I treasure my school days. I really treasure my school days because, I was telling a young lady today that when I was a child coming up, we had good times. You weren't afraid of anything. And we associated with people. 00:06:00In the neighborhood, everybody was everybody's mother, and I enjoyed that. And I just wish it was today, but, you know.

HUNTLEY: What neighborhood did you live in?

LEVISON: I come from the southside. As we always say, the lower end. I come from 13th Street and 12th Street, that's where I was raised up at. And everybody was everybody's mother. And, when my mother worked and she would leave in the morning and Ms. Mary Sanders would make sure that I would get out and go to school on time. And when I come in in the evening, I stayed in that house until my mother came. And you and nobody else couldn't get in because I knew better. And the neighbors weren't going to let nobody come. And that's the thing that, you know, I liked. And, when she would come in, well, then I would go out in the neighborhood and play with all those children and everything. And we just had a good time. We played baseball and we played marbles and hopscotch and jacks and 00:07:00all that. And we skated a lot and I enjoyed that.

HUNTLEY: How would you compare your days in school with what you see happening today with children?

LEVISON: It's a vast difference. Now, if the teachers had their way and they were dedicated now, you got to have dedicated teachers. And in my day, we had dedicated teachers. They didn't tell you "I got mine, you got to get yours." They said, "Sit down and get this." And when they said it, you listened. And from the experience with raising my own child in the schooling now, no. The children are just out of hand. They don't listen to nobody. And when they found out that the teachers couldn't whip them, they just walked all over the teachers. The teachers can not teach because the parents are not doing their jobs at home.

HUNTLEY: You attribute the differences is basically lack of discipline?

LEVISON: A lack of discipline now, as compared to when I was coming up. We had 00:08:00discipline. They would send home by you and you better carry that note home. And, if you carried that note home and you had misbehaved in that class, you were going to get a whipping. And you parents didn't have to bring you back to school because the teacher knew you had your whipping.

HUNTLEY: Well, we always thought that prior to desegregation of schools, when the schools were "integrated" then the schools would be better. How do you view that?

LEVISON: Well, I know we said it would better if they were integrated. But it has hurt us a lot too. Sure, I like the integration of schooling to the point that we have better books and we get the lessons that they are getting now in science. We didn't have science until we got to the 9th grade. They are having science in the 4th and 5th grade. Now, that is the part that I like. But, the 00:09:00teachers and integration it just don't work together. To me it don't. I feel like I have run across some White teachers in the classrooms, even with my grandson, and they show me anything. They don't have any spunk about themselves. They come in the classroom with old joggly, nasty pants on and their hair standing up on their head. How can you teach a child when you look like you just come out off the field somewhere yourself. And, then, they don't communicate with the children well. Johnny, you just go on. Whatever you say, it's all right. That's not communication.

HUNTLEY: Are these Black and White teachers?

LEVISON: Black and White teachers. But mostly the teachers that I run across that do this, is the White teachers. Now, I had this experience out here at Bush School with my grandson. I've ran across that. Now when my son went to Wilson School, Mrs. Rucker was very good with them. She was afraid of us because that's 00:10:00when integration had first started out.

HUNTLEY: Was she a White teacher?

LEVISON: She was a White principal and she was afraid of them, but they had some good teachers there. They had some very good teachers because my son was slow with math and this teacher, Mrs. Ford, she told me the book to go and get and she went back to the basics with him on this book and this enabled him to help himself and she pulled him up. But now, the teachers don't seem to want to pull the children up. They are afraid and they just let the children do what they want to do.

HUNTLEY: Why do you think they are afraid?

LEVISON: Because, we as grandparents, the parents are not doing the jobs at home. We are letting the children, if he say, "I don't want to eat." "Okay child, you don't have to eat." But see, instead of saying, "Johnny, go in there and eat," and be firm with it, we are not doing the job. It all stems from home. 00:11:00And, like about this civil rights thing, they just don't, I don't know, we don't teach them at a early age, how we got what we got.

HUNTLEY: Are you suggesting that the kids know little about the Movement itself?

LEVISON: That's right.

HUNTLEY: Why do you think that's the case?

LEVISON: Because the parents don't talk about it at home. Because the younger parents don't even know anything about it themselves. Anyone that's past 25 now, even I'd say 20, they don't know anything about the Movement because we are not educating our children at home about these Movements. They don't know anything about it.

HUNTLEY: Do you think that the school system has a role to play in passing this information on?

LEVISON: Yes. Because just like we learned the White history, learn the Black history also. Now, I listen all the time to the TV and the radio when people are talking about and read the editorial section -- we don't need to know anything 00:12:00about Blacks, you see it everyday. But, your textbooks are all about White people.

It's everything the White man wrote. Nothing is in there about the Blacks.

HUNTLEY: Birmingham school system now, is about 90 percent Black. The Administration is primarily Black. What's the problem?

LEVISON: They are just not teaching the course. They do not have a Black history course. See, when we were coming up, we had a Black history course, because that's where we learned about Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver and all. You remember this little red book? I think Woodrow Wilson wrote that book, I believe. But, anyway it was a Black history book. We studied that book. We knew all about all of those. DuBois and all of them, we knew about them. But do our children know about them now? No.

They don't know poems and they don't even read the poetry in the book. They don't read these Black backgrounds. They don't do that. You ask them who Booker T. Washington was and they couldn't tell you. They couldn't tell you nothing. Why? Because it's not being taught. And half of the young Black teachers don't 00:13:00even know about it themselves. That's why it's not being taught.

HUNTLEY: So you then are suggesting that the educational system at the University level as well as the high school level are wanting for this kind of information?

LEVISON: That's right. Do you know I find out who are asking you about the Black history? White people. They are studying our history. We are not studying our own history. You know, they will see you in the store and things and some people can have friendly faces and things, but they will start talking and bring up a conversation and they are worried about the Black history. And they start talking and asking you questions about Black history.

HUNTLEY: You mean they are interested in learning the history?

LEVISON: That's right. They are interested in learning our history.

HUNTLEY: And you are saying that Blacks are not interested in learning their history?

LEVISON: No we are not. We are interested in the rap. And interested, like I see them with these pants all half way down and I want to grab everyone of them. I get on my grandson all the time.

HUNTLEY: You went on to Parker. After you graduated from high school, what did you do?

LEVISON: When I graduated from high school I was so in love. I got that diploma and I wanted to go to college. My father said he didn't have any money and at that time I didn't know about grants and all. There wasn't any grants rather. So I went on and I married. Then, after I married, he said, "Well, if you and your husband can't make it, I'll send you to college." I said, "No, I'm married now." So that was the end of that and I didn't worry about any more school.

HUNTLEY: So did you go to work after that or were you a housewife?

LEVISON: I was a housewife for awhile.

HUNTLEY: You actually left Birmingham and moved to -- where did you move?

LEVISON: St. Louis. I left Birmingham in '51.

HUNTLEY: How long did you remain in St. Louis?

LEVISON: I remained in St. Louis until '57.

HUNTLEY: You returned in 1957. In 1956 the Alabama Christian Movement for Human 00:15:00Rights was organized because the NAACP had been outlawed from operating in the state. So the Movement was organized to sort of fill that void. Did you get actively involved with the Movement at that time?

LEVISON: Yes, I did. Because of my pastor and my church, we were involved.

HUNTLEY: Who was your pastor?

LEVISON: Rev. N. H. Smith, Jr.

HUNTLEY: And your church?

LEVISON: New Pilgrim Baptist Church. And we were highly involved in it because our choir was singing. When they would meet at our church, we would open up and they would have a hallelujah good time, shouting, singing and praying and talking about the Whites and talking about how we got to pull up by the boot straps and we are going to break these laws and everything. And they would take up money.

HUNTLEY: Is this in the mass meetings?

LEVISON: In the mass meetings, yes. And we would go from church to church, New St. James and all of them to the mass meetings.

HUNTLEY: Well, why did you feel it necessary to get involved when you returned to Birmingham?

LEVISON: Well, because it was a vast difference between St. Louis and Birmingham. In St. Louis at that time, you were freer than you were in Birmingham. I could afford to ride the buses and go. And I saw the young people with jobs, waiting on people in the stores and all. In Birmingham that wasn't happening. You could go to any water fountain and drink. Well, in Birmingham we had the Black and White water. So, that's why I said I can go help and break some of these laws and things.

HUNTLEY: Some of the segregationists were suggesting that everything was okay in Birmingham until some Black people went north and, then, was influenced by the NAACP and came back with these foreign ideas. Are you suggesting that he was correct?

LEVISON: No. I am not going to say he was correct. I said there was a vast difference in the two cities. I was used to drinking the White water and the Black water because that's all we could do here. But we are not going to say 00:17:00that the Blacks come back and just wanted to change. It was time for a change in Birmingham.

HUNTLEY: When you returned, were you a registered voter?

LEVISON: No, I wasn't. When I returned I became a registered voter in 1957.HUNTLEY: Can you tell me about the experience of becoming a registered voter?

LEVISON: Yes. We had to go down there and fill out a long questionnaire. I think it filled about two and a half pages. They were asking questions about the government, about your people, a whole lot of nonsense questions.

HUNTLEY: Do you remember any specific questions that were asked on the questionnaire?

LEVISON: Not right now, I can't because that was a number of years ago.

HUNTLEY: Were all of them valid questions or were there any that was...

LEVISON: No. They were like they wanted to know who your grandmother was, who your great grandmother was. And, where did they originate from. They wanted to know all your family history and had any of them ever been in jail and all of 00:18:00this stuff. And, then, you had to put down some of the amendments and everything. They would ask you about that. And they would ask you questions out of the Constitution.

HUNTLEY: Were these all written, or did you have someone to...

LEVISON: They were typed on a piece of paper. A long piece of paper.

HUNTLEY: You had to actually write the answers to the questions?

LEVISON: Right.

HUNTLEY: No one was asking you these questions verbally?

LEVISON: No. You were writing. And, then, you had to pay some poll tax, $1.50 before you could become a registered voter.

HUNTLEY: Did you pass the first time?

LEVISON: I passed the first time.

HUNTLEY: You became active in the Movement, you told me why. You thought it was just that time, were you ever arrested?

LEVISON: Yes, I was.

HUNTLEY: Can you tell me the circumstances of your arrest?

LEVISON: From riding the bus. I believe we were around the first ones to ride the bus. We had boarded the bus. Our pastors carried us, Rev. Smith carried us downtown. So, then we boarded the bus at Second Avenue and we met up with Rev. 00:19:00Phifer, the Hendricks brothers and Mrs. Brown. The bus was full of people and we sat right on the front because I sat on the side opposite the driver. You know they had the two long sides, and Rev. Phifer and Hendricks sat on one. And Mrs. Brinson and all and we just set right up to the front. So the man looked back and said, "I'm not going to move this bus until you all move." And we didn't move. A lot of the Blacks on there said, "Why don't y'all get up and come on back?"

HUNTLEY: Now, this is immediately after you returned from St. Louis, so you are talking about 1957?

LEVISON: That's right, in '57. It was October or the first part of November

HUNTLEY: Was this as a result of what had taken place in Montgomery?

LEVISON :No, Montgomery hadn't had there's I don't think then.

HUNTLEY: Yes. They had there's and there's was over at the time. And the court had ruled that segregation of bus seating was illegal.

LEVISON: I was in St. Louis when Montgomery was going on. Well, I guess it was prior to that then. Rev. Smith and the others said they wanted to test the bus out. So that Sunday he asked for volunteers and didn't many people come out there. And I was supposed to be teaching school, kindergarten at the church and I left the job, Pete and I, we went on and got put in jail. We didn't know we were going to jail, though.

HUNTLEY: Tell me about that. The bus driver said that he would not move the bus. Did he threaten you?

LEVISON: Yes. He told us, he said, "If you don't go back to that back, I'm going to take all of y'all and put you in jail." So we still didn't say nothing. And Rev. Smith got off the bus because he saw there were going to be some problems so he was calling the head people so they could come. Rev. Phifer stayed on the bus so we just started singing.

HUNTLEY: What about the people in the back, the Black people?

LEVISON: Well, they got angry with us because they wanted to go to work Over the Mountain. And they was telling us to get off the bus and come on to the back or get off that bus. So, we just ignored them. And we just sat there and we just sang. So finally, they emptied the whole bus. The whole bus was emptied and the people from the car bond came down and they begged us to get off the bus and we didn't move. So, then they called the policeman and we didn't move for him. There were some nasty police during that time because they would call us niggers. They told us, "niggers, go to the back of this bus." And we didn't move. We just went right on and sat there and sang. And Rev. Phifer prayed. So they told us "We are going to carry y'all to jail." So they brought us on to the bus barn, it was on 4th Avenue then. And, they brought us down on 4th Avenue and 13th Street to the barn, and, then, they brought the paddy wagon and put us in and we went to jail.

HUNTLEY: Where did they take you?

LEVISON: To the city jail.

HUNTLEY: Downtown or southside?

LEVISON: Southside.

HUNTLEY: Southside. And how long did you remain?

LEVISON: That was on a Monday and it was about 12:00, so we stayed there until about 3:00 that Tuesday morning before day. And when brother Shaw was rich and he put up his funeral home because the Movement didn't have too much money then. And they had to take up whatever they could and that wasn't enough. So they got us out and we came home. And, then, we had to go back to trial that Friday.

HUNTLEY: You were released at 3:00 in the morning?

LEVISON: In the morning. 3:00 that morning.

HUNTLEY: Why do you think you were released at 3:00 in the morning?

LEVISON: They were being nasty. They could have released us earlier but they were just being nasty. They had come up to get us around about 10:00 that night.

HUNTLEY: So you were released and, then, you went to court that same week?

LEVISON: That same week.

HUNTLEY: Tell me about that.

LEVISON: The court was set up for 11:00 that night and it was around about 12:30 or something to 1:00 when they tried us. They locked us back up because the judge was out of town or somebody was out of town, whoever they were supposed to get a writ of habeas corpus from. And lawyer Billingsley and

Shores were the lawyers for us then and they locked us back up and we had to stay in there until Monday. And, when we come back there that Monday night to trial, it was 12:00 again that night;.

HUNTLEY: So you were actually locked up after you had returned for your court date?

LEVISON: That's right.

HUNTLEY: And you spent the weekend in jail?

LEVISON: That's right. A whole weekend in jail.

HUNTLEY: Tell me about the experience. What was it like being in jail?

LEVISON: It's an experience nobody wants. It was a nasty place. It was filthy in that jail. And the food, the trays they give you to put the food on it, they 00:24:00were just as nasty as they could be. They wasn't washing those trays and the food wasn't even fit to eat. They come around and cut the lights out. It just was a miserable thing. And those little hard beds in there.

HUNTLEY: Someone said that they were attempting to teach you a lesson?

LEVISON: That's it. They say you won't come back no more. They said, if we teach y'all a lesson, y'all won't come back here no more. But, that didn't stop the people.

HUNTLEY: It didn't stop the Movement at all.

LEVISON: No, it did not. They went by throngs later.

HUNTLEY: This was obviously very early in the Movement and that was really just the beginning, laying the foundation at that time. After that, were you involved in the Movement?

LEVISON: Yes. I would continue to go to the meetings and pay money and things like that. I would do that. I marched with some signs. But then I stopped 00:25:00marching with them. I would just go to the meetings. I left and went back to St. Louis and, then, I came back home. I stayed in St. Louis again about one year.

HUNTLEY: Can you tell me what the typical mass meeting was like?

LEVISON: Well, they would be packed. You could not find standing room. And they would have a lot of singing, hand clapping and shouting and all. And, then, people would get up and tell different things that had happen to them and, then, they would map out strategies of what to do in order to break segregation and everything and how to get your rights and things together. They would tell you that if a policeman approach you, don't try to resist him. Just be humble and go along meekly. Because at that time that's when they were beating you and everything. So they would tell them not to resist. And, when you go places, do 00:26:00not go alone but go in groups. So that way you wouldn't be attacked by yourself. You would have somebody to be a witness if anything did happen to you.

HUNTLEY: Were other members of your family involved in the Movement?

LEVISON: Well, my brother got arrested. He went out there with them when the school children was being arrested. He got arrested, too.

HUNTLEY: He was one of the school children?

LEVISON: Right.

HUNTLEY: Where did they take him?

LEVISON: To the fairgrounds.

HUNTLEY: At that time what kind of work were you doing?

LEVISON: Well, I was an insurance worker then. I was working for Protective Industrial. was writing insurance.

HUNTLEY: I see.

LEVISON: I had left the kindergarten at the church and I started writing insurance.

HUNTLEY: So you were writing insurance during the '63 demonstrations?

LEVISON: Yes.

HUNTLEY: Were you a participant during those demonstrations?

LEVISON: No. I was not.

HUNTLEY: When you saw your brother going to jail, what kind of emotions did that 00:27:00bring out in you?

LEVISON: Well, it disturbed me very much. And mother told me go home. Rev. King and them almost missed me when they was saying ....

HUNTLEY: What do you mean "almost missed you?"

LEVISON: I couldn't see myself turning the other cheek then. I couldn't. And I couldn't stand for White people to touch me and I not hit them back. And, so he just about missed me because when they turned that water on those children out there and all, and when they was herding them like they were cattle or something and had those old prongs with them, well I got angry with them about that. Because it wasn't right.

HUNTLEY: But you decided that you would not participate, but were you still attending the mass meetings?

LEVISON: I was attending the meetings, yes. But I could not participate because I would have fought back and he said he wanted non-violent people.

HUNTLEY: Were there other activities that you participated in? Were you 00:28:00supportive of the Movement?

LEVISON: Yes. I was very supportive by paying the money and going to the meetings. was very supportive of that. And, if they had any programs or something, I would go to that, but other than that, marching, I didn't do any more.

HUNTLEY: Now, you are still a member of New Pilgrim?

LEVISON: Yes, I'm still there.

HUNTLEY: So your pastor was still actively involved and your church was actively involved.

LEVISON: Very much so.

HUNTLEY: From your perspective, looking back on this period of the Movement, how would you, if you had the ability to change, for instance the day that you were arrested and the method that was utilized to get you all arrested, or other things, other methods that were used during the Movement, would you change any 00:29:00of those things if you had the ability to change them and maybe do something different?

LEVISON: Well, during that time, no. That was effective. But now, it's not effective. We need to sat up other strategies now because going to jail don't mean anything anymore to them. And, it's going to come from the power structure of ourselves and our monies. This is where you will hurt and this is what I would change now.

HUNTLEY: How do you mean?

LEVISON: I would teach the Black people how to keep their monies in their pockets and keep it in the Black areas. I would. If you notice now, Birmingham, the Whites, because we got a Black mayor, they all moving. All of the businesses are moving out of Birmingham. And, we Blacks are going over there to Hooverr, I don't go to Hoover, and I would teach my dollar not to go to Hoover. I would 00:30:00teach my dollars to say right where I am in Birmingham.

HUNTLEY: Are you suggesting then that economics is the key at this point?

LEVISON: That's the key.

HUNTLEY: How would you do that? If you keep your money in Birmingham, then you wouldn't go to the Galleria.

LEVISON: No, I would not. I would go out here in Five Points. But we, this has always been my theory. We need to get our own factories. It's plenty of people in Birmingham can sew. Black people can really sew. We need to set up and we can give our people jobs. We can create ourselves, within ourselves and we as Black people need to buy from one another. But, first, we the Black people got to know how to treat each other. Then, when you can treat a person right, they will come into your business. If you can do that, you'll have it made. Let the White man I don't have to depend upon you. Like you get your material from Japan, I can get 00:31:00mine, too. Because the field is open. That man in Japan will sell you material just like he would sell it to that White man. All he's looking for is that all mighty dollar. And when we learn that and we plant our own vegetables and things and grow them and put our stands up and, then, we buy from these stands, we can make it.

HUNTLEY: In 1963 we were searching for a change in the status quo. That change came about. Something though, since then, went wrong. What happened that we are no further along economically today than we are?

LEVISON: Education. We didn't continue to educate our Black children in the way of letting them know from whence they came. Like we were saying before. When the children got up, nobody was there to tell them anything. Okay. The older people 00:32:00were going to the Movements, but we didn't bring our young children to the Movement, so this is what broke down. Because we did not continue to educate our children in mass. Just like they went to jail in mass, we should have kept them into the Movement in mass. And we older ones move off the scene, but be there to lecture and let one of them become a president of the Movement but we be there to kind of guide them if they need our guidance when we see that they are going to the far left. So this is what we do, we get into the position, and we stay there instead of passing it own. So, the young people say, well they are not going to let me do anything, I'm not interested, I'll do my own thing. So this is where the break down come in.

HUNTLEY: Do you see any changes in that mentality today? Are we moving in that 00:33:00direction? Are we stagnate? Are we moving backwards?

LEVISON: Well, we are kind of stagnate and some of the young people are taking a hold and coming on into the business. Gaynell Hendricks and them, I noticed they are just young thriving people.

HUNTLEY: Who is Gaynell Hendricks?

LEVISON: They have the daycare centers. They are in Homewood, Bessemer and Birmingham. She is a young lady and she is pushing. She is striving hard. And we got a lot of Black business, but I just brought her up because she's out front. And, I noticed, when I went to this Black business chambers, they had a lot of Black business in there, but a lot of Black business is not known to us.

Now, this Mahogany Card Store, I go to it out in Fairfield, because I know that the only way they are going to get up is by the Blacks pushing them, and this is 00:34:00what we need to do. Now, some of the young people are moving forward, but we old ones, we still, sit back and won't go out there and help them. This is what we got to do. Now, if I want a hat I just as soon go out to Western Hills Mall to Eva's, a young Black girl, and I just as soon give her $150.00 or $300.00 for a hat as to give 5th Avenue $300 or $400 for a hat. See what I mean. So this is what I'm saying. We need to go and cater to our Blacks. The young people who are trying to bring us up by the bootstraps. Help them to come on up.

HUNTLEY: So, although we did accomplish some things during the civil rights movement, we simply didn't go far enough?

LEVISON: No. We did not go far enough. When we got that little freedom, it kind of went to our heads. Instead of sticking right there and going on, like when we 00:35:00boycotted that bus and all, they got what they wanted. Like I say, if they keep their money in their pocket, they can get what they want.

HUNTLEY: Do you see that happening today?

LEVISON: No. I don't.

HUNTLEY: Economic boycotts?

LEVISON: I don't see any. See, we don't have any going.

HUNTLEY: Is there a possibility? Is anyone talking about that kind of thing?

LEVISON: I haven't heard anybody say anything, but if they got in there, I would sure give them my soap box because this is what we need. It's enough Black people in this city that has money to start a business. Get those manufacturers and things going. Venture out. Stop so many funeral homes and get something else. You got too many funeral homes in Birmingham. Every time you look on the corner it's a new funeral home coming up. Put that money in something else so we can stop killing each other. The ones killing each other is because they don't have jobs. They are sitting at home with nothing to do. They are walking around in the streets and they want these gold chains and things so they are going to 00:36:00rob and steal and kill to get it. We can stop that. And the White man is bringing the dope in. He's bringing the dope into us and we don't have no better sense because in my neighborhood it's one right around there in a red truck and if I could just get him one time, he wouldn't come back in Titusville, no more.

HUNTLEY: You just need to get his license plate and give it to the police.

LEVISON: Well, they know it. They know it because every house he goes to, is a Black house. And they know that's a dope house.

HUNTLEY: It's known what is happening, it's just not that effort to change those things.

LEVISON: That's right.

HUNTLEY: Well, Mrs. Levison is there anything else that we have not covered that you would like to briefly talk about that's related to the Movement or to 00:37:00Birmingham, or maybe even solutions? Anything we have not touched on?

LEVISON: Well, I think we've touched on just about everything. Like I was saying, we got to come together to put Birmingham on the move. What hurts me about Birmingham, we see what's happening but it looks like nobody is getting the solution to help it and to move it on. And, we got to help our mayor. Now, we got a good mayor and we got to get in there, stop fighting each other and fighting him and trying to be on the top and all this stuff and put our ideas with him. If he was to call a community meeting in Titusville and wants some ideas, I would sure be there to help give him some. And, like the policemen, they haven't come to Titusville yet to have their meetings, but I'm waiting on them to come so I can tell them about these trucks and things come through the neighborhood. They need to know. And, our children. I just look at Washington School. That's a school that really needs to be closed.

HUNTLEY: Why?

LEVISON: It's no discipline in there. Those little old boys that sell drugs are there. And the policemen sees them when they are not in school and it's a bunch of them. They wear red and black and they wear white and their clothes half off of them. They walk up and down the street when school is in. And I know they see it and the policeman stay there all the time. So get them old boys, they are not going to school and children are scared to go to school because they are going to jump on them. A child can't get his lesson and he's scared to go in school. And, Ms. Yarber and them just can't seem to handle it. So they need some stronger men. We need some men in the school system. Some men who are not afraid to handle some of these people and things out here. Because the ladies, they know these boys and things will jump on these lady teachers. So we need to revamp that. And we just as a community need to come together. And I am a very religious person. I pray all the time about things, but the Lord tell you to get 00:39:00up off your knees sometime and do something about it and it's just time for us to do something about it.

HUNTLEY: Thank you Mrs. Levison. You have been quite a help to us today.

LEVISON: I hope so.

HUNTLEY: We will be in touch with you. Thank you.

LEVISON: All right. Thank you.