Two outstanding Black people that were influential in my life: Milton

My father taught me how to survive in this racist world. He was a landowner, as was his father. He bought land off the road, which is what white people usually sold Black people. It was land that would flood easily, but if you had a good year, it would also make a good crop. He taught me to be creative because we did not have money to buy much, so we were always fixing up something or making new uses out of old things. I thought my father could fix anything with a pair of plyers and a piece of wire.

Even though his white grandmother was a school teacher, he did not finish high school; perhaps because his mother died when he was 13.

My parents taught me to reach high, but that there was a glass ceiling that you cannot pass. My mother reminded me of that ceiling when I was a small boy. When asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I replied, “I want to be a bus driver.”

My mother responded by saying, “You can go to Winston-Salem (N.C.) and be a city bus driver.”

I replied: “I want to be a Greyhound bus driver.”

She sadly replied, “You cannot do that.”

Yet, she encouraged me to be the first to apply to the all-white Gibsonville High School in 1964. My father had doubts about that, but did not stop me.

They encouraged me to aim high, but there was a glass ceiling up there. I learned as many did that if you try to go beyond the ceiling, you can get cut up pretty badly, like Martin and so many others.

My father let me in on how he handled his business affairs. I watched him when we were sharecroppers, which I call the second form of slavery in the United States. My father owned a white mule and an old shabby Ford tractor. Most Black people lived on the master’s land and used his equipment. They got half of the net, after expenses. Since the white man usually kept the books, the sharecropper usually ended up with little or nothing.

My father used his own equipment and kept his own books. He gave the landowner one-fourth, which did not make the landowner happy. After three years, we were blessed to buy our own farm. Yes, it was 44 acres and a four-room house with no bath. We had running water, because I was the runner to the spring.

Even though we had sub-standard schools, as compared to white people around us, our parents encouraged us to get an education, even though neither of them were able to finish high school. Although all of us worked on the farm, we also found time to get our education. All of my siblings finished high school and got some advanced training. Some of us were able to finish college and beyond.

My parents taught us a good work ethic. Work was a part of our life. Sometimes we did not get paid for our work. We were taught to work anyway. My father taught me that “Sometimes people will not treat you fair, but you treat them fair anyway.” My father used to say, “Right is right, even if nobody is doing it, and wrong is wrong even if everybody is doing it.”

What I have also realized is that my great parents were not too different from many of their peers around us. In fact, I have tried to teach many of the lessons that I learned to my children and all with whom I came in contact. I want to lift up all of those persons who helped to make me who I am, and I want to pass those lessons on to others.

The Rev. Ervin E. Milton is pastor of Union Chapel United Church of Christ, Burlington. He can be contacted at eem5050@aol.com.

This article originally appeared on Times-News: Two outstanding Black people that were influential in my life: Milton