Seniors reflect on experiences of racism

While growing up in Reading, Robert S. Jefferson saw some subtle discrimination due to the color of his skin, but it was not until he joined the Army in 1957 and was stationed in the Jim Crow South that he faced racial prejudice at its ugliest.

“I was taken aback,” recalled Jefferson, former president of the Reading branch of the NAACP. “In Reading, there was racism, but it was not as overt.”

Jefferson, 81, of Spring Township; Kenneth Fisher, 58, of West Chester; and Linda Burns-Glover, 69, of Reading recently shared personal stories in celebration of Black History Month. Though their life experiences vary widely, all have lived in Reading and understand what it is to be Black in a society long dominated by a white majority.

Jefferson, a retired corrections officer and youth counselor, said his first encounter with prejudice came at the hands of his third-grade teacher. The teacher

seemed to have it out for the Black boys in class, picking on them, calling them names and disciplining them more harshly than she did white children. The experience left him with a distrust for white people in general, whom he learned to approach with reserve

and caution.

“Whenever I give speeches now,” he said, “I advise teachers not to make racial statements that can affect children the rest of their lives.”

The childhood wounds left scars, but the worst for Jefferson

came later. After leaving Reading High School, he enlisted in the Army and was flown to Fort Jackson in Columbia, S.C., for basic training. He got his first taste of the South’s segregation as soon as he exited the aircraft.

Thirsty and in need of a restroom after a flight of over three hours, he looked around and spied a men’s room. But as Jefferson went to open the door, he noticed a sign reading “Whites only.” He finally found another marked “Coloreds only” tucked away from the concourse. It was the same with the water fountains.

He considered returning home immediately and recalled thinking, “There is no way I am going to serve my country and risk my life when I can’t even get a drink of water.”

But he stuck out a two-year stint in the Army that included six months in the South and 18 months in Germany, where he was treated better than in the U.S.

A trip to his father’s hometown in Virginia also helped open Jefferson’s eyes to the poverty and degradation of Blacks in the Jim Crow South.

“We were living poorly in Reading,” he said, “but not as bad as people in the South. African Americans in the South were really living a horrific life in a place where there were no opportunities for housing or employment.”

After bouncing around the East for a few years, Jefferson moved at age 28 to Los Angeles and enrolled in a junior college.

“I thought I was running away from racism and segregation,” he said. “What I found was racism was even more overt in the large

COURTESY OF KENNETH FISHER Kenneth Fisher performs in the cast of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Yeoman of the Guard.” “With opera,” he said, “if you can sing the part, you get the part.”

Jefferson