Interview with Ailine Watterson

Shonetra Walker

I interviewed my Aunt Ailine Elizabeth Harris Watterson. She is a forty-five-year-old homemaker born April 16, 1954 and raised here in Johnson City, Tennessee. I chose to interview her on the Civil Rights Movement because she had to face a lot of obstacles her late childhood and young adulthood years. Here is a series of questions on the Civil Rights Movement that I asked her and the answers that she gave me.

Q: What do you remember about the Civil Rights Movement?

"I remember a bunch of white people cussing me every time I went down the street. I remember people getting beat up and bruised. Most of all I think that I remember when I went into University School as the first black female to ever enter that school. The very first day I went in, there was this guy named Leo Frederick and his daddy was what we called the "Grand Pupa" because he was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. And as I walked up in front of the school He (Leo) was leaning out of the first floor window and he harked and spit in my head. Well the whole school felt real bad about it, but what they ended up doing was they took me downstairs to wash my hair. Of course back then we used hotcombs (a.k.a. pressing combs) to press our hair. What ended up happening was I had an afro by the end of the day and I was totally embarrassed, crying. And um, I remember it was really hard because mom and dad had never raised us to be prejudiced, we had you know white friends and they came to our house. We had white people over and they ate with us and everything. You know, we didn’t know anything about being prejudice. We didn’t know anything about civil rights. We didn’t know that they. I think they (her parents) called themselves protecting us (she and her siblings) from it, but it really put us at a disadvantage because I couldn’t understand why these people were treating us the way that they were and it was kinda hard you know, I could tell you some real horror stories, things that I went through at school. They really pushed me you know trying to make me leave. And of coarse you know Gene, my older brother, he went (to University High), he quit he just left, he didn’t even graduate. My other older brother, we call him Mickey, he left and went to Science Hill cause he could not deal with it. But I was determined that they were not going to run me away from there because of the color of my skin. And during that time it was more like a semi-private place and you had to make a certain grade average to stay and all that. And you know, being black they felt that I was inferior. I was determined I was going to be there and I was going to stay and I did. I finally graduated from the University School. Those are the things that I think personally affected me as per the Civil Rights Movement. But if I said I heard about fights breaking out, I heard about people getting killed but I didn’t realize that it was about my skin color. I knew that there was a difference just because I could see it myself. You know I could see that they were white, I was black. But I never realized that you could be mistreated. You understand what I’m saying? And I didn’t know that that was what was going on until it hit me. When it hit me I realized I knew then what Civil Rights Movement was."

Q: How did it affect your family?

"Well I think it basically tore us apart, because I remember a time before integration when you know, we were all much closer than we were after the schools were integrated. Because I think there was so much going on within us, in our stuff in school and in our lives, that instead of it freeing, I think that somehow it chained us. Oh yeah it gave us the right to education, but it didn’t give us the right to life. Understand, it inhibited us because in the school we were in you know if there was a birthday party, everybody in the school classroom went, if there was a sleepover, everybody went. Everybody was included but at integration and even so now you’re excluded because of the color of your skin. And I think that we became chained within that system and it reflected in our household, because we began to dwell upon the pressures that we were under."

"My father, I mean he was on the forefront here in this area he played a very, very important role in integration and equal rights. He played a very important role, but of course then I was not even given that piece of information until I got older. And I knew that he was working on something but I didn’t know what it was. But I know that he was very, very proud of his accomplishments. He felt that now the colored children would be able to have the same rights as anyone else. But I don’t think that he realized at the time that that fight would hurt us and make us bitter. It would demean our self esteem, and it would cause us such bondage. I don’t think that he was aware of that at that time."

Q: Do you still think that there is still some division today, even though everyone is integrated?

"There’s always going to be division as long as we have eyesight. As long as I have eyes and I can look at you and can see that your skin’s like mine I’m going to be more comfortable with you. I can look at a white person and even though they could just be really, really close to me there’s always going to be, there’s always the time when they can and I can’t. When you feel inferior to them not because of your own esteem but because it’s an unspoken social standing. You walk into a room and you are the only black and everyone falls over themselves to make you feel comfortable, or they are too non chalant which makes you uncomfortable. And they try to make you feel comfortable and then you're uncomfortable because everyone is trying. You're in a job situation, the majority of jobs I've had, I had to work twice as hard as any white person on the job to keep my job. I'm not bitter, it's just the reality. I don't blame it on anyone. If I do place blame, I'd blame it to ignorance. I'd blame it to people who don't have an open heart and mind and can actually look at me and see that I am different from you on the outside, what you see but it's how I'm treated or how I am. What I am made of, the kind of person I am that makes me who I am. But yes I do believe that it still exists. I've been the brunt of it since I am older and that is something that I've tried to teach my children is yes you are different, but you are only different because of your culture. You do things differently, think differently, eat different. You can have really, really good white friends and you can think that you are in the upper echelon, but haven't seen the upper echelon until you go to the white culture. And the upper echelon white culture is something that will take your life time almost to achieve."

Q: Do you have any children that attend the University School?

" I sure do. I have a son that attends the University School. He is eight years old, he is in the third grade right now and he started in the first. He's been there three years now."

Q: Has he ever experienced anything being in school out there like you have?

"Yes, every since the first grade actually. Every since he has been in school out there. It's been sort of an up and down yo-yo. And it's been a really hard decision to keep him there, because he is very bright and I know that the one thing that he can get from the University School is the academia. We try to work hard though he is not accepted. They want him involved in the sports but not in other things such as sleepovers. "

Q: Do you think that the fight the African Americans went through during the civil rights movement was well worth it for the things that we have today?

"I think that it is well worth it when I see students like my foster children. I wish that there was some magic that could put love in people’s hearts and take away hatred."

Works Cited

Watterson, Ailine. Personal Interview. November 26, 1999.