This isn’t a story about me. Rather, a story about all the reasons why I am here. Stories about the people who gave me life. Stories about the strength instilled in me. Stories to explain the importance of family and understanding, truly, where I came from. Knowing that my grandparents were both pushed down, to only get right back up.
A White woman. A Black man. In the 1960s. A societal stigma not allowing these two races to be together. Taking away the right to free choice of a spouse which allowed a limit on who to love. It didn’t start nor end there, laws have been passed to protect but do not serve. It didn’t happen just once, but hundreds of thousands of times. Teaching some that is ok, while teaching others to get back up when they’ve been shot down.
M E R L E H E N R Y W H I T E
My grandfather, Merle Henry White, was born in Imperial, California, on December 20, 1939. Growing up on a farm with his six brothers and six sisters along with his parents, Freddie White and Bessie Love. He never explains his upbringing as tough, but from the outside looking in the picture is painted differently. Starting work from a young age, no running water for Black people in his city, and attending a segregated school where the students were mostly his siblings and cousins. It wasn’t tough, that was life for Black people.
S A U N D R A J U N E S I M P S O N
My grandmother, Saundra June Simpson, was born in Ringwood, Oklahoma, on August 23, 1941. The population at the time was around 250 in the small county, Major. She was the third of six children in her family, spending the first eight years of her life were surrounded by gardening, helping around the house and playing with her siblings. In 1949 her father's job uprooted the family to El Centro, California, where she finished elementary, middle and high school.
E L C E N T R O , C A L I F O R N I A
El Centro sits as the largest city in Imperial County which borders Mexico. The city is known for its booming agriculture and record-breaking heat waves during the summer. With occupancy rising since the early 1940s, the desert city stretches 11 square miles where 99% of that makes up land. El Centro has been known for producing spinach, potatoes, cauliflower, sweet corn, broccoli and onions. In order for the city to maintain land that massive they gather water from canals that lead to the Colorado River. This system has been in use since the city was founded in 1908, meaning water wasn’t always the cleanest through the 1900s. The city has grown exponentially since 2005 by creating new job opportunities, becoming the center for shipping exports and agricultural industries.
E A R L Y S C H O O L D A Y S
When my grandmother and her family arrived in California, she attended a school that was mostly White, Filipino and Latinx people but not a single Black student. She was aware that Black people went to a segregated school on the other side of town. Her life didn’t change much from Ringwood to El Centro. She remembers playing softball, shooting baskets and spending time with her siblings and the lifelong friends she made.
On May 17, 1954 the U.S. Supreme Court in Brown v. The Board of Education overturned Plessy allowing the desegregation of public schools. Brown v. The Board of Education declared that under the 14th Amendment the segregation of schools was unconstitutional and violated basic human rights. This insisted all schools across the nation to desegregate and for it to happen at deliberate speed. Although this happened in 1954, the last school to be desegregated was in 2016, which allowed the continuation of segregated schools.
When my grandparents went to high school it was the first time, for both of them, that the school was desegregated. For my grandmother this was the first time she interacted with a person of color, which made the school still feel slightly segregated. But when it came to the social setting my grandparents explained it was still separated. Although the classes were merged, during social outings around at school and town, races unconsciously segregated themselves.
W H E N W E F I R S T M E T
Los Angeles during the '60s was filled with vibrant colors, high rises and new music from all over the country. The dream of Los Angeles centered around the infamous Sunset Strip, where famous singers, actors and musicians would do their best to find the Hollywood dream. It being known for the cars, beaches and girls, my grandparents decided to settle down in Leimert Park, just north of South Los Angeles. Towards the end of January in 1961 they learned of their pregnancy with their first child. Their marriage followed four weeks after in the courthouse where papers were signed to legally certify a Black man and a White women together as one. There was no ceremony, no white dress and no family members in celebration. They got married on February 11, 1961, quickly and quietly.
Black people didn’t choose low income neighborhoods. Those neighborhoods were chosen for them. In the 1920s, President Herbert Hoover created a federal zoning committee that targeted Black families which prevented them from moving into middle-income neighborhoods. Then followed red-lining, which began in the 1930s, and not ending until the early 1970s, which outlined Black communities and labeled them as “hazardous.” Before that could come to an end in 1963, 65% voted YES on Proposition 14 in Los Angeles County, which gave Realtors the right to decline to sell, lease, or rent property at their discretion.
My grandparents didn’t have trouble moving into their first apartment, which sat in Leimert Park. They both learned quickly how to navigate life as an interracial couple. They knew that they would be facing new problems in a world where on paper their marriage was okay, but society didn’t want them in their neighborhoods. It wasn’t until my grandparents moved to a neighboring city, Ladera Heights, where they came across Realtors with racial prejudices. My grandparents had set out for a neighborhood in their budget, commuter- friendly and had growing diversity, despite realtors telling them they couldn’t afford it, or that there was a better option.
In 1961 my grandparents welcomed their first daughter, Kimberly Kay White, my mom, born in Los Angeles on August 23. Sooner than later followed my aunts, Jill Ann White, was born in 1963 and Robin Jennifer White, was born in 1965. Racial injustices surrounding the Civil Rights Movement were prominent in the nation during this time while my grandparents were bringing a person of color into this world. My grandfather didn’t have many fears for his daughters other than your usual ones of boys coming over, whereas my grandmother's worries were new to her.
My mom and her sisters didn’t grow up knowing they were being raised by an interracial couple, they just knew it was mom and dad. At the time their family, knew of the existing racial injustices but never to the fullest degree. My Aunt Jill explains this not as sheltering but rather, protecting the girls from something they didn’t need to know. They are the kids of two people who were told for decades that their love is illegal and immoral, creating a new precedent of hope for the generation to come.
My grandparents didn’t want a life for their daughters that was centered around the idea of race. The way that my grandparents were raised, separation, limited on who to love, was told who they could and couldn’t talk to, when and where they could eat, shop and drive. They wanted freedom for their kids. My grandparents didn’t teach them you're strong because of the color of your skin, you're strong because they are built to handle these difficulties. When people stared my grandparents didn’t lie to protect them, they told them the truth. They were starring because they are beautiful, not because it was the color of their skin. It was life that people didn’t know how to comprehend at that time, but that didn’t mean it was their fault.
It was 1965 when Los Angeles came face to face with the Watts Riots. On a warm August summer night, a California Highway Patrolman pulled over stepbrothers Marquette and Ronald Frye for reckless driving. When Marquette, the driver, soon realized his chance of going to jail heightened, a small fight broke out between the CHP officer and Frye. The brawl had caught the attention of surrounding civilians, drawing a large crowd crowd of people resulting in police backup. Before ones eye's, riots broke out in the predominately Black neighborhood of Watts, where LAPD Chief Police Officer William Parker called them “monkeys in a zoo."
Tensions were high for Black Americans prior to the Watts riots, one being an issue of housing for Black people in Los Angeles. In a recent Time Magazine article it discussed the riots and stated that only 13% of homes in predominately Black neighborhoods have been built since 1939, meaning the rest were barely standing or falling apart due to the riot. The feelings Black people shared across the nation were raw due to the fact that this wasn’t the only riot happening in the U.S. The year before, eight riots were caused due to the racial injustice, then following the Selma walks and the Watts in 1965.
M O V I N G F O R W A R D
The Civil Rights Movement was making waves in the year 1962 up until the tragic assassination of our 35th President John F. Kennedy. He played an important, but cautious role when it came to the Civil Rights Movement. Kennedy’s Attorney General was his brother, Bobby Kennedy, who began to speak up on injustices people of color faced across the nation. Bobby was one of the many who stood behind Dr. Martin Luther King when working on diminishing discrimination for Black people in the U.S. In 1968, Bobby Kennedy announced his candidacy for president as a Democrat, easing many fearful hearts back to hopeful knowing another Kennedy was there to support.
In April of 1968 Dr. King was assassinated on his motel balcony in Memphis, Tennessee. This news shook millions of Black Americans and induced fear of who will carry on the Civil Rights Movement. Black people were alarmed that when they did speak out they would be assassinated in broad daylight for the nation to see. It left thousands wondering what can they do right?
It started with one question. I never wanted this to be about me, I wanted to know what made me, me. What makes me walk away in certain situations. Why I’m so stubborn. Why I need to be completely understood. I got it from the people who did walk away, who were stubborn for the right reasons but sadly, still can’t be completely understood. New information comes in frequently as I am consistently pushing out new questions. This journey of uncovering the many layers of history within in my family is never ending, but I am ready to continue.
-RACISM IN THE 1970s
-RODNEY KING & THE L.A. RIOTS
-O.J. SIMPSON & THE NEED FOR JUSTICE
-MODERN-DAY POLICE BRUTALITY
