Growing Up in Martin County

and this is Marion Clark she's our guest speaker she's a steward native she has wonderful experiences to tell us about growing up here in Martin County she's also an educator as I was an educator too of course I never made principal but she was principal of Fort Salerno Elementary so she's going to have some fascinating Tales to tell us okay everybody let's give her a nice round thank you for inviting me here this evening my name as she said is Marion McKinney Carpenter I am the 11th of 12 children six boys and six girls she's about a dozen right born in Martin County in the tiny little fishing Village now called Fisherman's Paradise 83 years

ago tonight I will share with you my story of growing up in Martin County during the years of segregation and Beyond I'm proud to say that I am a product of Martin County I am sometimes given the name a fixture in my County a badge that I wear with honor I owe my sincere thanks love and appreciation to my heroes my parents my dad Melvin McKinney senior and my mom Margaret Josephine Poitier McKinney both born in the Bahama Islands my dad from the island of Africa and my mom from Cat Island both with a grade school education yet they instilled in us every one of us a love for learning the importance of a good

education to be respectful and responsible and to do our best every day that we should love and not hate they came to this country when they were teenagers they were married in Miami Florida they lived in Miami for a while but the economy was so bad jobs were very hard to find so they decided to relocate to Deerfield Beach Florida where my mom's mother and some of her siblings live the economy was still bad in search for a better life in which to raise the family my parents made a decision that my mom would stay in Deerfield with that support group and that my dad and his cousin would continue to search for a better

livelihood my dad kept a promise to us and to himself that he would never ever stand in a welfare line my dad and his cousin continue their search for jobs stopping in every town in every County and search for jobs no jobs but they didn't give up they continue their Journey and finally they came to a place they had never heard of called Salerno based on a small grocery store named Earl's grocery they told of their desire to find jobs to support their families they were offered fantastic jobs of grubbing up Palm Meadows for 50 cents a day they accepted the jobs they gladly accepted it they were allowed to stay on the premise there

in an old farmhouse and when land became available for sale in the new Monrovia area they purchased the property in which to build homes for their families my dad and his cousin were the first two families to settle in new Monrovia in Port Serrano that was the beginning of our village more family purchase property to build their homes mostly from the Bahama Islands then the Carolinas Georgia some in Florida Etc it was a very very close in community everyone shared Everyone Cared for one another if one hand we all had very close my dad was a farmer and a minister in those days his livelihood was in farming he saw vegetables to the local stores

and he also shipped vegetables away never knowing when he would be paid for them until he received a check but that was my dad he'd never give up my mom was a midwife trained under Dr J D Parker and after every delivery he would come and check on the babies to be sure that everything was all right check on the moms and see that everything was fine and that was one of my mom's way that she gave to the community and if you think my family with 12 that was one of the smaller families growing up in Martin County during the years of segregation I was fortunate enough to have been brought up in new

Monrovia we call it our village where we valued people as they were not as we thought they should be together the community created a kind safe and loving environment that taught us to love and not hate in fact we never heard the word that you hear today in our home if my mom and my dad talked about anybody we didn't know we never heard it always Pleasant always loving and I could appreciate that through my life to make me the person I've been for 83 years I will share with you some of the signs of segregation in Martin County at this time that time the drinking fountains the signs that said white only and colorful

it's amazing about these points that I'm giving because I never heard a bad word about those things my mom and dad that I started every job are not pinpointing things that was not positive we just never used them because if you want to um get some good food in those days you go to those beginning of women they can cook and the men they can fade them and we don't have need to worry about anything else better Max was a restaurant the blacks were served outside the back of the restaurant to a window with a sign that red colored then by the rest you know my mom's cooking better than that then the trains and

the buses blacks had to go to the back of the bus or train regardless of how many vacant seeds were at the front of the bus could you imagine us in our car truck and sometimes they had to travel by train because my grandmother was there we had this one trade going north was 29 and coming back in the afternoon it was named 30. that's the that's the train but they travel on that sometime but most time we've got everything together our food our water our parties whatever and we traveled in the car to go where we wanted to go the dentist I recall one dentist in town but the dentist had a back door

for black people to go and it was a utility room you would go back there there were mops and mops buckets and supplies and one day I went to the front door I saw everybody else going there so I went and the lady came to me I guess a receptionist and I said oh to myself that I was wedding you know that the doctor the dentist was ready for me only for her to escort me to that back but not even a book to read there was still mocks buckets and cleaning supplies and Storage then we have the movie creative the blacks could go but they had to use another entrance not with the whites

the blacks had the black sat upstairs in the balcony and the white was on the bottom floor but we never discussed that in my house my brothers would go to the movies and if they if we went which I'm not a movie person they would just take us there Jolly up the stairs and then bring us back home and that's the way it was in my house and then there was an Ashley gang I don't know if they were racist or just out like crazy were they trying to get into our neighborhood that we call our village they were running behind my second oldest sister and she was running so hard that she fell and

she broke her arm and my mom The Fearless mom you should know her and she was so happy my dad wasn't in town because he would have mellowed her down but she went out to meet them she went out to confront them and they threatened my mom that they would be back that night and my mom says come on back dad was out of town but that Mom was something else and she had her friends was Fearless also so they decided it was a big tree in our front yard and we were upstairs and the her friend was going to get up in the tree with her gun her loaded gun and my mom was

going to sit at the top of the stairs where car loaded God and then the house was going to be dark and mom was going to say only two words the door was going to be opened and Mom's only going to say come in and she did and they stayed a little while but they got out of there she didn't tell any of the men in the neighborhood but they would probably be out there a little bit of a ride but my mom would have taken him on in her and her friend all of my life grades 1 through 12. I successfully attended segregated schools in Martin County in Martin County for some reason I

don't know about the other counties but Monica County had a good design uh because in the elementary schools we have every County every city had their own School and that was pretty neat to me because I love my teachers and and the black teachers not only taught academics but they taught life skills yes how to walk how to talk how to dress how to sit uh they taught just a little bit of everything you kind of like like that and then they were in your community and they would come to your house to eat so you and that there were no discipline problems because if you got in trouble at school you got a double

one and then when beside that the teacher's gonna come home and eat at your table so we we have that community and the teachers would go to your church the teachers would leave the choir so it was it was a community thing so I didn't feel we didn't feel we didn't know that we missed something but we have this one room scoop house I don't know this how many rooms were in the other schools because it didn't bother me I was a happy camper the last girls that spoiled with my father I thought the sun rose and sat in him um so we we really didn't didn't miss anything because you can't miss what you

don't have time but going to nellahan and what was good about my bringing up that we didn't hear it at home you know a lot of our behaviors of learned behaviors and shame on us if we let our children now I just say grandchildren and great-grandchildren hear us talk about negative things because that's what you're growing up I never ever had hatred in my heart for white blacks or anybody else in fact I didn't pay that much attention but I would never disrespect someone and of course I speak up for myself you won't disrespect me either but that's just the way it is respect all right you received I knew I would get all script

here in our little building of our school house we had there were grades one through six and each Rose signified a Class A grade it was very neat we had one teacher and we had like two doors and the front and the boys would stand up at one door and the girls the other and there was a back door and the teacher could go outside ring that Bell you'd go out and have your little break and then she ring it and you come back in your time for you she ring it once for you to get your water use the restroom and then this the second time she rents it that means you supposed to

stand up in your spot now the teachers had it made with the Behavior because my mom would make you go out and get your own cherry switch and if it wasn't good enough strong it matches she breaks it in the front of you and tell you to go back and get one she was tough but she was loving and kind and I appreciate her today because the value she had we knew she loved hers but could you imagine uh having 12 children that you couldn't do anything with I told her when my daughter was young I said Mom I think Sheila has a hearing problem could you say no she doesn't she just knows that

you're gonna repeat it she said I never I just and she was soft-spoken but she would say Marion I heard that and we got there very loving in kind well we kept our Schoolhouse so very clean was neat hardwood floor shellac and uh all the good things with it a teacher we really like our schools the one thing that was never received was a new book even though it signified segregation but we never never thought of that we never thought of it that way you know what we did when we got the books there was a man that delivered the books and a red truck that we had fun with him and on the books

each book it says like color to learn a color to learn a white a whole sound color o sound like well and the color the black amenities we always had the old books but you know what we did my mom our parents didn't run up to the super dinner someplace else I don't think they ever thought we could add new books at home they always want us new books for every gift you receive there was a new book but they never made any fuss about that but what we did we were so excited because we wanted to know the group that the teacher was going to call that was going to erase the books the

writing and the books that meant a lot to us the group that's gonna scrub the the books and the group that was going to cover the books whether it was with the brown paper or with the uh um newspaper those are kind of things we won over we get called am I going to get a call actually got a very very quiet and still hoping that the teacher would recognize how nice we are and how good we're behaving so she'll call on us for one of those jobs because you know what the teachers never said oh these dirty books because you know and from that I learned it's not the color of the book it's

the content that's right even though we didn't get a new book but we got the same learning we got the same information and that was a story and I think I think those kind of experiences that's what you're gonna take the lemon and make lemonade we didn't worry we don't worry about that but one day the the uh the man that came with this red truck with bringing the books he was so funny because most time he he preferred alcohol over coffee you know you could smell it but this day this day he was staggering he really was so the boys gonna play a trick on him that day and the teacher wasn't going to

be able to say anything he was going to be after he left and trying to so they went on to the back of the truck he was really in bad shape she ran the back of the truck and they moved the where they say Salerno color they put that sign was to learn a white box and they did the reversal and that was the first and the last we had them they had something fun and the teacher just to look at them and she's known that before he left she was made him take it back but she didn't know that thank you but through everything we were blessed extremely blessed this how my teachers that

we knew without a doubt loved us our parents with Allendale loved us our church and our community we felt so safe and sold the love that we have no fear of nothing to worry about really we really didn't and sometime another time and we did not know I mean I think I was grown before I realized what they were trying to do I really was because my girlfriend and I would they would sometimes would send us extra books funny little books I guess you're kind of Bill at the library I guess that was but they had this book that they called Saturday for Samuel and we would run to get that book it's a funniest

book because we never saw any but anybody like that but we didn't realize that they were depicting somebody that was black anymore and we did so this this guy had on some overalls with one strap on and one down and he didn't have on any shoes and he had big feet and the the uh the toes standing up and his hand was like kinky and his lips were very big and they were red and he had a slice of watermelon in it that was the funniest thing to cook we have never seen anything you know we had never seen anybody looking like that and a real haircut we didn't know what that was supposed to

have been insinuating but that was just funny to us we're just innocent and loving and kind never thought never thought anybody's making fun when I left elementary school I went to school at training school to complete my education in grades 7 through 12. and I graduated from Stuart training junior high school and June 10th 1948. second in my class I have a sister the year I finished I had a sister that was a senior in her senior year at Claudine M University so we knew that Mom and Pop we only know that God help us through because they knew how to manage everything was in our yard we wanted the Ducks the chickens the rabbits

the Gophers that but uh and fish we got everything we needed there and the farms and my mom was so she was she both ladies could make a dress we another thing we ate a lot of bread because they can make yeast bread like you've never tasted before and so they bought the flower in a hundred pound sack and we would see in the sense of beautiful every sack was a different design and we was wondering so to get that dress they took that sack without pattern and made the beautiful dresses and we were so glad when Mama finally called me or call somebody to try it on because she would have finished it already

with the Sash and everything else so we renewed those parents our parents knew how to make it and we had like um for the community my dad had pigs so they would get big and matured and then all the guys will come they picked them up I could tell when they're going to do that because they raised it up on the ground so it could be clean and even certain kind of food but everybody would come the men and they would kill that pig and they would clean them and drain them and then everybody gets some of the meat and sometimes you may look at points and learn them back there because you said oh

those Fisheries but I tell you those we didn't have any trouble with those Fishermans we really didn't in fact we all my brothers work down at the fish dock sometimes two and three o'clock in the mornings so they pay so you can't always look at people and and put a label on them and say what and you would say oh Point somebody but we never I can walk to town I can remember only once in my life I was walking to town and I uh those groups of white children would come in a group of black children and I tell you I could I don't know who said first or not but we didn't tell

our parents because they would have probably heard but however it was somebody said they couldn't somebody said cracker bigger cracker you know and there was a lady a school teacher why school did she walk out of her house across the railroad and she said now you don't go that way and you all go that way and we were I guess everybody was glad they turned and we turned I mean we we just I mean you know it's so so innocent to say you know to do things but nobody stirred up and never had a fight in my community between races we didn't have the marching and the carrying on and all that kind of stuff

everything went extremely well our plan B completion of my education I was offered a job as I was on internship as a teacher and book apart in Indian Town in the book of Park section we said we all went there to be trained but they were the nicest people you could have imagined the parents the children were well behaved the parents respected the teachers you know if if today and I say to parents you need to talk to the teacher you can't if your children think that you're going to believe everything they say they're going to tell you more they're going to spread it on another question you need to go to the teacher and

find out so I know you may not have young children there but the grandparents and the parents it's not all what you what you think and then you need to go there and let them know that they have somebody and that they can depend on you to come that helps the children and and building that bond between um your child or your grandchildren and the teachers means so very much the model County School System Was preparing for integration and I'm going to say it may not have been a hundred percent but Martin County did an extraordinary job gentle training their school system I was in the midst of it and I know I I believe

I believe in the system they started by asking parents who would voluntarily enroll their children into an all-white School and there were some parents I know they asked me and I said no not now only because you're my girl of the first grader and she'd always been in school with me and I said no when they when they made the change I will make it but some of the parents didn't work and they could monitor that you know and make a difference the next year they selected five teachers find my teachers and five white teachers all with master's degree all with a good track record I mean they stood up I know they still in

your classroom you didn't know they were in there but see I always thought I was a good teacher I I worked hard and it didn't bother me whether you were there or not I was going to teach I believe in it and I love every child in my school classroom everyone but they got us that had the master's degree and all of those and a good record been in a system for a while and then the five white teachers went to the all black schools which went to a different school after that black teachers went to the all white schools you know said five and five the one the superintendent called me and he said

well Mary I'm going to move yeah I said why he said well you can handle it I said Hannah what I don't know what but I was moved to um port Savannah Elementary and I only remember one parent so the principal that she didn't want the child in my room and I don't know whether he's frightened or he has I don't know what he said but he was going to tell her that well she was going to block that then we were all on a page trying to make it happen that's why someone kind of did an excellent job they really were were they spent a lot of years and a lot of time working

on integration in Martin County so I thought thirdly and my principal could not wait till the holidays he went to every place someplace that I think he wanted to go to the bars and every place to see what he can get a report from me on me I'd be evaluating so when it came back I could have had every third grader in Port Salerno in my third grade class that's black white and all people just want to know you can teach in fact I was surprised by one teacher and said she was from up North so I asked her why did she come and she's so unhappy because she asked me a question I couldn't

believe she said how do you teach black children I said well where did you come from foreign never heard anything like that I said you teach children from where they are and take them as far as you can go with success and you love them and you keep working with them you keep working with there's no manual to say you teach this child is playing it's it's no manual for that but I couldn't believe she said that but I'm glad and I said yeah man I'll see why the superintendent sent me because I could you know I could talk to her I mean I just tell them you know one I ever heard but she

wasn't there when I first went but she came late and I think she was serious because so often I did have to talk with her but it was okay because she was I uh I call her my sister she is a she was a um she was a teacher and we help each other and we should help each other if we can so when I I had this little boy he was cute as he could be uh red face purple red hair Freckle face he was he went out to PE with the coach and he said uh went out you know and I was in my room because I like to catch when they go

out to pee and all that kind of stuff so he came back to me he was sobbing like he was would not believe all of my suit he was carrying on me was hugging me and I was caressing him and I said what's the matter sweetheart what's the matter he said hey baby hit me I said that what he said nigga hit me I said what calm down I said I said the word is New Growth can you say that negro so we worked on that a lot he didn't see me as a nigger yeah because he loved me he said he saw me as his teacher see that's what I say these behaviors are

learned because even the superintendent when I first went there he felt my hair and I finally got them all calm down because he just loved me so much and I said you see he's just like me we have more pigmentation in our skin you know and I went to you know to explain that and I could see when I put when they select these teachers because some teachers would have had him by the neck but he said no I was says did you love me and he didn't see me as being black and they would rub my legs and I wouldn't say anything because they wanted to see what the Black coming on laughs very

good time they were innocent so I I've done a lot so you don't have to laugh but I got I got a proposal out of that the next week he wrote me a letter will you marry me so I said I called him up I said you know I've already married he said that's okay I I was extremely blessed to have been brought up for the parents I have and that little Village that I grew up in and at my church family that believed that you should love and not hate in my community I was so pleased I had a lot of opportunities not you kind of gave me a lot of opportunities I I

was a teacher and then I became a assistant principal and I got a superintendent in here now he was here he was so good to me Santa is going to escape and I was able to just to move up move up move up and when uh you know even when I retired I I was appointed to the school board and they asked me you're going to run out to no I don't want anybody telling me what to do like that hard to say to me if you ever vote for me hey I may not vote for you no I I didn't like that part of it but we all had fun but I appreciate being

with you tonight and um I hope that you're going to lose something at what I'm saying and what I'm saying that those of you who may not have children right now but don't do all the way through school I'll tell my grandchildren that all the way through school I was always on the honorable at finish college magna cum laude you got the you gotta study I said school is your job and I I finished with my bachelor's degree in Bethune Goodman college is now University and my Master's and um Florida NM University and then I went to for my certification in administration and supervision at Florida Atlantic University and I got all of my training

through listening and learning so don't make that excuse that I'm not I can't do because I don't know see when I went to school my mom my mom gave us four years a lot of us so we don't even have to go to school or you want to take a trade you're going to do something she gave us four years and one summer she was so funny four years in one summer that means that if you some reason and I needed that one summer because I got a job and I wanted to go back but my mom and dad would kill me if I didn't take that job in Indiantown because assured me that when

I got out of school I had a job so I did and I went back that summer and finish it thank you for letting me share with you have a story I do have a statement okay and you know I've had a lot of years to think about this since I retired and uh you know through the state and through the country are there there have been problems with immigration Barton County was so easy to see the reason why uh it was just a feeling of mutual admiration and it was a realization that there's a resource that the benefit to both parties was was really you know the desired outcome and the real reason was

that they made me the first white principal of the black schools anyone else Sandy okay your daughter Sheila right right your daughter Sheila didn't she go to Pine School yes she did what was the what was that okay what why Sheila went to Pine School she had always been in school with me every school I attended she was right with me and then when they was putting all the seven all the six or the all the seventh grade I think sixth or seventh grade was going to be in Stuart Middle School at that time from all over and just the numbers right here and I said well I can't just put my child out like

that so I told my principal if you let me work summer school I could send my childish and you know so and I was telling the neighborhood that so the neighbor turned me up I always talk with my principal I always talk about my super Dental home ever because I mean what am I afraid and I'm going to tell you so you won't hear it so I told him that if I could get if I worked summer school have enough money I have to put Sheila Empire School because Pine School was the smallest school and you got to do what you can to adjust your children if you can and so this lady and I

knew who she was but she didn't know the principal she didn't call her name but he recognizes do you know that Marion is teaching um Marion is teaching in a public school and sending her daughter to private school tomorrow you know what he said he said yes I know that if I had me some money I'll do this and so I had to make her comfortable to my channel that's right thank you you're right any other questions thank you everybody thank you Mary