Richard Benbow grew up in a middle-class neighborhood in St. Louis, Missouri where his mother was a house cleaner and his step-father was a butler in the executive branch of Monsanto Chemical Company. Richard experienced the integration of his schools and neighborhood in St. Louis, as well as the resulting white flight that resulted from […]
Janet Clark was born and raised in Los Angeles. Her parents and grandparents were part of the Great Migration from the American South to Los Angeles to escape racial discrimination. Her early childhood was marked by instability and food insecurity before her parents separated and Janet and her brother moved in with her grandparents. Her […]
Bette Braxton was born in Evanston, Illinois, where her father worked as a painter and handyman. Her mother suffered from tuberculosis and had to remain in a TB ward, and after one particularly harsh winter when her father froze his feet, the family decided to move to California in 1945. They were part of the […]
Kathye Jenkins was born and raised in Los Angeles. After elementary school, her family moved from Central Avenue to West of Broadway, which was an integrated neighborhood. Her father was a router at Douglas Aircraft Company in Santa Monica and her mother worked in children’s clothing at The Broadway department store on Crenshaw Boulevard. She […]
Sylvia Drew Ivie was born in Washington DC in 1944. Growing up there, she attended segregated schools and experienced hostility from neighbors in predominantly White neighborhoods. Influenced by her mother’s Unitarian tradition and the Quaker schools she attended, Sylvia felt it was important to help her community. Her father’s early death meant that Sylvia and […]