But first, a little Texas and American history for some of you who are too young to remember or just don’t know ’cause you ain’t from the “great” state of Texas, clearing my throat.
In 1970 Judge William Wayne Justice, Chief Justice of the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Texas forced Texas Schools to de-segregate. Mix. Combine black and white schools, etc. It was thought the rest of the Texas districts would follow suit and start treating black people better, not inferior or like animals. They were not thinking correctly, someone who was highly educated thought “the rest of the Texas school districts would follow suit.” Didn’t happen. Seriously, since the beginning of time all of the rulings and laws in the world have never been able to stop the hate.
White men were some-kind-of mad about the ruling. White parents didn’t want their children to be taught by black teachers or play with black children. Gus had a cousin with a speech problem. She couldn’t pronounce anything right that contained the R sound. Even though she had this problem since she started talking, it was quickly blamed on her black teacher. She was moved to a different class was the way the “problem” was solved. I bet it was fine with her teacher too.
Black folks weren’t too happy about it, either. They knew sending their children to school with white children would be dangerous. Maybe deadly. But in most elder black men’s opinion it was a positive start in the right direction. Prayers, nothing but prayers was needed for both sides. A whole race of American-born people who had almost been through what Egyptian Slaves had to endure. What could more hate do to them in order to provide a better life for their grandchildren? At every level of government there were a few strong white people who helped with the black struggle. At small-town levels too, not many, some. What about IN the schools? Who will protect the children from each other’s parents and prejudice teachers? Only The Good Lord can.
Would the good Christian folks of Texas follow suit with Judge William Wayne Justice? Naturally just like on June 19th, 1865, Texas had to be forced to free her slaves, why would this be any different? Texas slaves were freed two years later than all the other slaves in the whole United States. Would now be better than a hundred years ago? Hardly.
In June of 1865 Union Army General Gordon Granger arrived at Galveston Island, Texas with 2,000 federal troops to occupy Texas on behalf of the federal government. On June 19th, 1865, General Granger read aloud the contents of the General Order No. 3, announcing the total emancipation of about 250,000 human souls still being held as slaves in Texas. Juneteenth has been celebrated ever’ since in Texas and today in most old slave states.
It was no different this time either. Most of the good white folk in Texas had to be force-fed. Almost ninety-nine percent. “Civilization” in America has been anything but civilized at any given moment before 2018 for Native Americans already here or for the African Americans bought here against their wills. And there’s still many days “civilization” is questionable anywhere in America.
You also need to keep in mind the fact that Texas parents, black and white never attended school together. Ever.
Both were taught not to trust the other, many times, to hate each other. They only knew what they were being taught by their parents, who also didn’t know first-hand and what little they saw for themselves. In their respective social settings, each didn’t have much contact with the other, only as master and slave or employer and servant. Religious contact, laughable, only if some hypocritic slave owner led a prayer before or during a lashing of some kind, in front of the “big house” for all to see. I’ll always believe the Good Lord was never truly invited to any plantations by the owners or masters.
Our parents wanted us to go to school and learn, yes. However, this is how it went for us:
“you can’t be taught by a nigger teacher or play with that lil’nigger girl.”
“But she’s nice.”
“I don’t care. She’s still a nigger.”
“But you let me play with the little Korean girl across the street.”
“That’s different.”
“What’s different? They’re both nice.”
“She’s not a nigger.”
“You’re sayin’ because she’s black, I can’t play with her?”
“Yes, that’s what I’m sayin’.”
“But in Sunday school Sister Kathy said we’re supposed to ...”
“I don’t care what Ms. Kathy said.”
Confusing for a six-year-old. Us, children were stuck in the middle. Do what’s right in our hearts or do what your mama said.
Gus, never did what her mama said. She wasn’t with Gus at school. Many teachers, blck and white smiled at them, kind of like they were giving the children unspoken permission to befriend each other. Gus followed her heart.
Gus learned it’s easier to hate. Go along with the crowd. Easier than to step out, be strong and do the right thing. Weak people prefer crowds. For thousands of years, hateful crowds, armies, groups ruled. Some groups disbanded. The most horrible groups stayed solid, survived and sunk to the very bottom.
That’s where Frankie’s story folds out to. The very bottom.
Frankie was standing there holding her chin with her right hand and in the left she held her comb and her right elbow. Staring at the ceiling, she started laughing, thinking about where she should start with her story. She turned around looked at her client, the rich Ms. Johnson and addressed her still holding the comb but now both hands on her hips.
Frankie was watching the two of them whispering and she loudly asked them,
“Are ya’ll two still fightin’ or ya’ll gonna help me tell this dammed story?”
“We’re listening Frankie, go ahead,” Dee said.
Gus cheerfully said to Frankie,
“Yes ma’am, I’ll be happy to help you tell it!”
Odessa looked at Frankie,
“Go ahead, tell it. It’s your story.”
“No. It’s all of ours. And by the way, I’d like to thank you two for keeping this to yourselves all of these years.”
“No problem, Ms. Frankie.”
With her whiskey voice and deep-southern-ladie’s-drawl,
“Well, it’s such a juicy little secret and I kinda’ liked knowing we did something to Dale, he never figured it out.” Dee giggled to herself.
Ms. Tooley asked Dee,
“Odesssa! What-in-the-Hell did the three of you girls do?
“Don’t ask me. Ask Frankie.”
“Frankie? She ain’t gotta mean bone in her little body.”
No one knew what they did, and they made Gus swear she’d never tell. They were afraid Frankie would get a beating if it was ever told. Gus wasn’t going to cause anyone to get a beating. For many years she couldn’t look at Frankie and not giggle about it.
“Well, everyone in here knows Dale and how he’s treated me all these years.” Mrs. Johnson, nodded at her and answered her in a deep smokers voice,” I sure do, baby.”
Then Frankie dramatically turned around, back toward her main audience, the whole beauty shop and declared by sticking out her bootie a little toward Mrs. Johnson’s chair “and I don’t give a big rat’s ass anymore if he finds out!”
Mrs. Johnson deeply cheered her on. “Good!”
“Old bastard! He cain’t hardly walk no more. Serves him right! Beatin’ me all those years” Then Frankie stood up straighter, composing her stance as if she was a fashion model, in a toned down voice, as if she was an English teacher, without an accent, she clearly said, ”He cannot beat me anymore, either.”
Dee was laughing at Frankie, “That’s right, girl. Like to see him try”
Frankie stopped and suggested, “Gus, you start. I just don’t where I’d start. You probably have a better memory of it. You start it out for us.”
“I thought you was gonna tell it….”
“Well, I think you should go first.” Frankie looked over at Dee.
Dee nodded in agreement and winked at Gus.
Gus inhaled slowly and got up out of her lawn chair, folding it up as she walked over to the other side of Mrs. Johnson’s chair. Gus leaned back against the countertop and the big mirror. Frankie winked back at Dee. Gus turned her eyes right and you could see her thinking hard, trying to remember what they did twenty years ago and where to start.
“Well Mama, dropped me off at Aunt Dee’s house…As soon as Hazeline, my mama, pulled out of Dee’s driveway I heard Dee calling Frankie.” Dee’s next-door neighbor and lifelong friend.
"Okay, she’s gone. Come on over.”
I walked into the kitchen and asked,
"Frankie coming over?"
Aunt Dee was wrapping sandwiches up and puttin’ ‘em into a large brown bag and she said, "Yeah, honey we’re going somewhere but ya’ cain’t tell your mama. Ya’ hear me? In fact, sweet britches you cain’t tell anyone, okay? Can you keep this lil’ secret for me, baby doll?"
"Yes ma’am.” Of course I could. I didn’t know what the big secret was but I loved my aunt Dee and would do anything for her. Curious and needing more information, I asked
“Where are we going tonight?"
"To a meetin’."
I was thinking it was just another Tupperware party and was pretty disappointed,
"Okay. But what’s the secret?"
Hearing the disappointment in my reply, Aunt Dee grabbed me by my skinny shoulders, turned me ‘round and gave me a big-titty squeeze. I could feel her love and her big boobs in my face.
Dee was hearing something, she looked down at Gus.
“While I was being squeezed I mumbled something ‘bout it being boring. Dee stopped hugging me, then held me out to where I could see she was grinning like Satan. That’s when I saw that-little-sparkle in Aunt Odessa’s big green eyes. Which meant it was something Hazeline would not approve of. I thought Hot Damm!” Then Aunt Dee said,
“"Honey, it will be anything but boring tonight. Where we are going is the big secret. Cain’t tell no one. O.K.””
“I smiled. It changed my mind. Now I wanted to go to the meeting. Where ever it was is fine now because I knew they were going to have fun. Aunt Dee’s eyes always gave her away. Aunt Dee explained.”
“"The meetin’ will take a while, Honey. So I packed some Tuna fish samwiches and Frankie’s bringing the grape Cool-Aid."
“I smiled, trying to act happy about the meal plan. But I was thinking, great tuna fish, I hate tuna fish. Least I’ll have the Grape Cool-Aid to wash it down with. Then I heard Dee’s goofy-ass neighbor, Frankie open the screen door and yelled,”
“"Whoa-who. Dee, ya’ll ready?"”
“Aunt Dee was throwing the Frito Lays on top of the sandwiches, and she said,”
“"Yeah, got th’ samwiches ready."”
“With her cigarette hanging out of her mouth and squinting her eyes, Aunt Dee looked up at Frankie and then looked over at me, winked and smiled a devilish smile. With that, I knew then we were going to have a real good time. I thought, Aunt Dee ain’t telling me everything! Groovy, that means we’re gonna do something’ we’re not supposed to do. I don’t care what mama says about her, I love Aunt Dee to death.”
“Out from under Frankie’s shirt, I saw that snotty-nosed-littliest-boy of Frankie’s, Danny Ray. He was two and a horrible whinner.” Frankie never wiped the poor thing’s nose. Gus kinda felt sorry for him because he never got any real attention. That had to be why he whined so much. At least, she left the rest of her older Nazis at her mama’s house. Thank the Lord.” Frankie does not make them mind or even hear them when one’s got the other-one by the scalp. Frankie is so involved in herself and her soap-opera-life she never even slows down talking to make them get quiet, she just talks louder, over all they’re screaming and fighting. She doesn’t hear a damned thing unless she says it. Poor little savages.
“Frankie had a Tupperware container with frozen Kool-Aid in her left hand and a cigarette in her right hand. Frankie said,”
“"Got the cool-aide ready and four Dixie cups." The Cool-aid was frozen, that told me they’d been planning this for a while. Apparently, they thought I was cool enough to ride with them. Wow, I am getting older, I thought.”
‘"Good, let’s go.”” Dee was walking toward Frankie waving the smoke of both of their cigarettes out of her face as she passed Frankie.
““Get that whining kid of yours and put him in the back seat.””
“I thought, Oh my God! He’s gonna sit in the back seat with me? No, no! Please keep him up there with ya’ll. But they didn’t and we were off with me and Danny Ray in the back seat. This was not groovy at all.”
Then Gus realized Frankie was smoking too. Frankie was six months pregnant again for the fifth time. Gus thought “you stupid redneck, smoking, again?”
Gus was listening to them as well as she could from the back seat; trying to act like an adult and that nothing special was going on. She was anxious to see where they were going. Where is the meeting and what kind of meeting is it? Another Tupperware party? I hope not. Maybe it’s an Amway party. That would be different… but mama wouldn’t be mad about that. Mmmmm?
The car rode was like a boat. A Caddie no less. Smooth ride. Danny Ray fell asleep faster than I thought he would. He must be tired from fighting off all of those damned injuins, I mean, older brothers. Being the baby has to be rough in that house. “
Poor baby, I patted his pretty blonde head. I sat up slowly, inching closer to the front seat and started to put things together. They were laughing out loud about something. Frankie’s no good sorry-dog-of-a- husband-Dale was running around on her again, for the up-teenth time. Dale was her only means of income, so Frankie was stuck and he knew it. Dale’s always taken advantage of this since the 3rd kid. He knows Frankie cain’t afford to leave him, no matter what he did.”
Gus continued telling the great secret,” It was in an old cow pasture, or some might call a hay field off-of Interstate Highway Ten between Vidor and Orange, in Southeast Texas. A dozen men were working, cleaning off the part of the pasture that was used the past summer for a hay field. They stacked hay to the east side of a field, close to the brush and woods, to make room in the field for the Klu-Klux Klan rally they were hosting that night. The K.K.K. was strong here in the Southeast Texas and Southwest Louisiana areas.”
For over 150 years they were still feared for several thousand reasons. Most white people in the region didn’t like it their neck of the woods which was and still is a known stronghold for the K. K. K. We didn’t want any part of disrespect and murder, but we couldn’t do anything about it or we’d get hurt or killed as well. It was a fact in 1970 and the prior four hundred years. Bet ‘cha‘ tootsies on it.
“The Klansmen had already taken down some of the bobbed-wire fencing so new potential members could drive into the pasture and park their cars. They’d been working hard on all of the arrangements all summer. Even being so thoughtful and considerate not to let the cows feed off-of the field during the summer. Any cow shit would be dried up for tonight. The weather was cooling. Fall was here and the night was perfect for an outdoor family gathering.”
“Someone brought their goose neck trailer to use for the stage. It was ready. The speakers were in place and a nice hand carved podium set up in the middle of it. The carnival people were busy building some rides for the kids in the back forty, to the left and behind the stage. In order to draw in whole families, one of the world’s oldest terrorist organizations always had free carnival rides for the kids at all of their assemblies.”
“Oh yeah, it looked family friendly. The fact it was so-very public made it look friendly at first. Very public. With no fear of “the law” because “the law” was involved in some form or fashion in the small unseen details. Many were known members. Yeah, to the normal person it looked harmless, but it wasn’t. Once the wooden cross was saturated in diesel fuel, then planted, raised and braced it was very wicked indeed. It was a gathering to purely encourage prejudice and hate on to anyone who isn’t a “whole” white Anglo-Saxon American. That means no dagos, no “njuns, no wet-backs, no Chinks and especially no Jews.”
Gus stopped talking and looked at Frankie. Mrs. Johnson looked at Frankie too. Frankie takes the cue and takes a deep hit of her cigarette, blows out behind herself and starts talking…
“We’d been on the highway for only ‘bout ten minutes and I was smoking with that baby. Can you imagine? We were so stupid back then. And I was nervous, so I was almost chain smoking”
“I noticed Dee didn’t seem scared.
"Ain’t you scared?"
"Nah, just know there ain’t nothing to be that scared of anymore. Dee was laughing that deep smoker-drinker voice, “they ain’t as tough as what they used to be. Not the way they were a hundred and fifty years ago.”
“Aunt Dee was laughing loud enough for me to hear over the air conditioner. What are they talking about now? Dee lit a cigarette. She inhaled and blew the smoke out the window. Dee was holding it with her left hand on the steering wheel and fixing her hair in the rearview mirror with her right hand. Minutes went by and nothing was said.”
Dee was seriously thinking about admitting to something she never talked to anyone about. Not even to me. I could see it in her eyes. Finally aunt Dee said,
“"In 64 when I was over in Mississippi, I met a man that helped th’ F.B.I. find those four boys from New York city. Remember that?
"Yeah, I think I do. They found’em under something, right?” Pointing at Frankie as if to say you got it and answered back,
"Yeah!" Dee took another drag.
Frankie got a strange look on her face and she asked Dee,
"Wait. What do you mean by "helped the F.B.I.”, I thought th’ F.B.I. skinned their own squirrels."
"Not all the time. Sometimes other people have ta’ help’em get into places where they cain’t go and do things the FBI cain’t really do. You know? Like that song. The first sentence he says “Saturday night I was downtown working for the F.B.I.”” You know, things that are illegal.”
“Oh yeah, the Hollies song, “Long cool woman in a black dress”. Yeah, I guess that really does happen.”
“Yeah, it does. Always has, always will. The good guys have ta’ have some badass help or they have ta’ to get some blood on their hands too.”
Dee continued,
““It all started when the K.K.K. burned down a bunch of colored churches over in Mississippi.”
“Yeah, I remember.”
“If that wasn’t bad enough, then they burnt down some thirty-odd colored families’ houses. That’s why those four Yainkee boys came down to Mississippi to help’em.”
“I cain’t imagine the K.K.K. burning my house down. Oh, my Lord, the fear they felt.”
“Yep! Burned’em to the ground. No one did a dammed thaing about it. Partly ‘cause they were nigger families, you know some people really are hateful. But mainly ‘cause no decent white man from Mississippi wanted to challenge the K.K.K. to help‘em.”
“Yeah, that’s true. Sometimes, gotta save your own ass.”
“Those poor boys came down from New York City to help’em and then they come up missin’? ‘em white-yainkee-charity people didn’t know any better, I guess. Sent them boys down here to their deaths. Yes sir, they did.”
With an attitude Frankie asked,
“And you knewww one of the F.B.I. guys?”
““No. One of the good lookin’-I’talian-dagos that worked for the F.B.I.”
“Oooh! O.K. Think I understand. But I ain’t never heard ‘bout any dagos in Mississippi.”
““Yeah and you won’t hear about’em either. There’s so many things the Feds do that we’ll never know about.””
“You never told me about this before. I never heard anything about it either.””
““Yeah, well, Hazeline don’t know everything about me, like she thinks she does. Besides that, some things you just need to keep ta’ yourself. Some things in the past are better left in the past.””
““Yeah, you’re right. Woo, this sounds good. Girl, you know I won’t tell no-one.””
““Never have ‘til today, anyway.””
“Aunt Dee, it’s your turn.”