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Oral History Interview with Octavia Briggs
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Oloye Adeyemon: Brown versus Board Oral History Collection, Clarendon County School Segregation Desegregation Interviews. Interviewee: Mrs. Octavia Briggs. Interviewer: Oloye Adeyemon for the National Park Service. Interview conducted on August 1, 2001, in the home of Mr. Reese Briggs in Teaneck, New Jersey. These interviews are made possible through the Brown versus Board Oral History Research Project funded by the National Park Service in the summer of 2001 as part of the Brown versus Board of Education National Historic Site Oral History Project. Mrs. Briggs, what is your full name?
Octavia Briggs: Octavia Alameda Briggs.
Oloye Adeyemon: What is your maiden name?
Octavia Briggs: It’s Octavia Hilton.
Oloye Adeyemon: And when is your birthdate?
Octavia Briggs: Um, September 7, 1948.
Oloye Adeyemon: And where were you born?
Octavia Briggs: Summerton, South Carolina.
Oloye Adeyemon: What are your parents’ names?
Octavia Briggs: Uh, Joseph and Senovia Hilton.
Oloye Adeyemon: How does your mother spell her name?
Octavia Briggs: S-E-N-O-V-I-A.
Oloye Adeyemon: And where were they born?
Octavia Briggs: Summerton, South Carolina.
Oloye Adeyemon: Do you have brothers and sisters?
Octavia Briggs: I do.
Oloye Adeyemon: What are their names?
Octavia Briggs: I have two brothers, Mondale 01:17 Hilton, Troy Hilton, two sisters, Joanne Hilton, and Senovia Margery Hilton.
Oloye Adeyemon: And were they all born in, uh, Summerton as well?
Octavia Briggs: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: And what is your—what-what-what is the occupation that your father was?
Octavia Briggs: Uh, my father was a farmer, uh, in Summerton, and my mother was a homemaker, and she also was a cook in the Clarendon School System.
Oloye Adeyemon: Did your father own land?
Octavia Briggs: Yes, he did.
Oloye Adeyemon: He owned his own land?
Octavia Briggs: He did.
Oloye Adeyemon: And what is your occupation?
Octavia Briggs: Um, now I’m a retired Bell Atlantic employee for 32 years.
Oloye Adeyemon: Bell Atlantic?
Octavia Briggs: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: What did you do for them?
Octavia Briggs: I was a Senior Service [unintelligible 01:53].
Oloye Adeyemon: And when you were growing up, uh, you said you were born in 1948?
Octavia Briggs: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: Uh, Sum, uh, Summerton was a very segregated place.
Octavia Briggs: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: Mm-hmm. Did you have, uh, instances that you can remember from your early childhood of, um, that you could say, um, things affected you, um, as a result of segregation in the system and things that happened to you as a small child?
Octavia Briggs: Um, I-I had one incident that I, uh, used in an interview with Bell. Um, we were doing a diversity, um, I say interview, and someone asked, uh, how had I ever, um, faced prejudice face on, and I explained to them that, um, my father was a farmer, and he also farmed for other people. And there was this white gentleman who our father was planting potatoes on his property, and as a child, I wasn’t in the field. I was, you know, um, at the end of the field, and this man who we were—my father was working for, his daughter was my age, and we were playing together and fine. And when it was time for her to have lunch, um, her mother called her in the house, and when she told me to come, her mother told her that I couldn’t come in. And that was just something that I never thought about until someone asked me, you know, about my experience with, say, racism. And, um, I didn’t live, um, I-I lived in town when I was going to school, and we had one movie theater. We couldn’t sit with the white children. We had to a separate place to sit, but other than that, I don’t—I can’t really say that you know.
Oloye Adeyemon: Mm-hmm. Now, when you said your father was working for this person, um, he was not sharecropping. He was actually—
Octavia Briggs: Yeah. No.
Oloye Adeyemon: - hired to do this.
Octavia Briggs: No, no. They-they knew about his potatoes, sweet potatoes and how great they were, and he asked him to come and plant sweet potatoes on his property for him. They weren’t from our own—
Oloye Adeyemon: Right. So, he was paying him to plant them—
Octavia Briggs: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: - as opposed to the sharecropping system—
Octavia Briggs: Oh, no. He was not a sharecropper.
Oloye Adeyemon: - where he raised crops and he had to, you know, share the money—
Octavia Briggs: Yeah.
Oloye Adeyemon: - with ‘em, and you also had to pay money for things that you might have had to buy during that [unintelligible 04:20].
Octavia Briggs: No, he was not a sharecropper.
Oloye Adeyemon: Yeah. Okay. So, but he was well known for-for his farming ability.
Octavia Briggs: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: The—when you, uh, started school, uh, let me back up, was your father one of the petitioners in the Briggs, uh, decision?
Octavia Briggs: Yes, he was.
Oloye Adeyemon: Uh, are you aware that there were—there was more than one petitioner?
Octavia Briggs: I didn’t know about it, just the one.
Oloye Adeyemon: So, the one that you’re speaking about is the final one that had the 20 signatures where they went to court and ended up in the Supreme Court?
Octavia Briggs: I don’t know. I-I know that we have a copy of the one that my fa-my father’s name was on.
Oloye Adeyemon: Okay. And as a child beginning school and going to school, ‘cause you-you would’ve been entering school actually around the time that the South Carolina court, um, refused it, turned, you know, they lost.
Octavia Briggs: 1954.
Oloye Adeyemon: Mm-hmm. Yes. Well-well, that-that—yes, that would-that would be the point where the Supreme Court decided in favor of it, but now you—uh, that’s right. You started in ’54.
Octavia Briggs: Mm-hmm.
Oloye Adeyemon: So, during the years of this case, uh, you were—it-it was preschool for you.
Octavia Briggs: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: Did you hear about it afterwards, you know, during the later years as an older child? Did you hear about—‘cause you actually lived through it, but as a toddler, so—
Octavia Briggs: Mm-hmm.
Oloye Adeyemon: - you know, did anybody, your father or anyone else talk to you about it?
Octavia Briggs: Well, I would hear them talking, and they would have meetings at the church, and as a child, you know, I went with my parents.
Oloye Adeyemon: Even before school started?
Octavia Briggs: Even before school. Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: So, you remember that.
Octavia Briggs: Mm-hmm. I remembered, um, Thurgood Marshall coming to my church.
Oloye Adeyemon: You do?
Octavia Briggs: I do.
Oloye Adeyemon: What church is it?
Octavia Briggs: Liberty Hill AME Church.
Oloye Adeyemon: Okay. That was the church you went to.
Octavia Briggs: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: And this was before you started school, but you do—
Octavia Briggs: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: - remember it.
Octavia Briggs: Mm-hmm.
Oloye Adeyemon: Uh, was-was-was it because of the way people treated him or the excitement that helped that to stand out in your memory? What was it that made it stand out so long in your memory that you met Thurgood Marshall?
Octavia Briggs: Um, well, I know that, you know, they were announcing, you know, for everyone to try and attend this meeting, that he was coming to try and help us, and, um, I remember it so well is because the church was so proud that we couldn’t get in on the first floor.
Oloye Adeyemon: So that it-it was a different day for you as a small child—
Octavia Briggs: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: - than the normal day.
Octavia Briggs: Right. And, um, we couldn’t get in on the first floor, so my mother and I went to the second level, and on her way down, she fell. That’s how I—
Oloye Adeyemon: She fell?
Octavia Briggs: Yes, that’s how I remember it, even as a little girl.
Oloye Adeyemon: Wow.
Octavia Briggs: Mm-hmm. You know, she wasn’t, you know—
Oloye Adeyemon: She wasn’t hurt.
Octavia Briggs: Not then—not at then. I mean, you know, things now, but, um—
Oloye Adeyemon: Yeah. Are either of your parents alive?
Octavia Briggs: My mother’s alive.
Oloye Adeyemon: Where does she live?
Octavia Briggs: Summerton, South Carolina.
Oloye Adeyemon: What is her name?
Octavia Briggs: Senovia Hilton.
Oloye Adeyemon: Do you think, um, wow, do you think that she would be willing to do an interview?
Octavia Briggs: I’m sure she would.
Oloye Adeyemon: Because I’m going back to that area this weekend.
Octavia Briggs: You are?
Oloye Adeyemon: Mm-hmm.
Octavia Briggs: Okay.
Oloye Adeyemon: How old is she?
Octavia Briggs: Um, she’s 72.
Oloye Adeyemon: Mm-hmm. So, she would know a lot more about your father’s involvement.
Octavia Briggs: Yes. She’s suffered through—
Oloye Adeyemon: Yeah.
Octavia Briggs: - more.
Oloye Adeyemon: Yeah, I never heard her name mentioned.
Octavia Briggs: No because her name wasn’t on the petition. My father’s was.
Oloye Adeyemon: Mm-hmm. So, but she does have aches and pains to this day from the fall she had on the day when Thurgood Marshall spoke, so she probably would remember it—
Octavia Briggs: Oh, yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: - from 1960—
Octavia Briggs: Believe me.
Oloye Adeyemon: - as well.
Octavia Briggs: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: Yeah. So, that, um, that activity, it was-it was—there was quite a bit of activity going on, I mean a lot of meetings and a lot of excitement. Uh, either during that time or later, did you get a sense that people, um, recognized the threat that their action—how-how-how—but the-the in—the intimidation and-and reprisals that they might have from what they did?
Octavia Briggs: Well, I was a little girl, but I remember my father coming home to tell my mother that they had burnt down Reverend DeLaine’s home, and, um, you know, they thought that was the fault, that it was.
Oloye Adeyemon: Did you get a sense that they were afraid because—
Octavia Briggs: Um—
Oloye Adeyemon: - of what they did?
Octavia Briggs: Um, I’m sure they were. Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: Were there things that they did to protect themselves or to take precautions?
Octavia Briggs: Well, like my husband said, I don’t ever remember no one to tell me about, you know, not to—well, we lived out in the country, and they lived more in town. I lived out in the country with my grandma.
Oloye Adeyemon: Now, that was in the-in the Saint Paul area, right?
Octavia Briggs: No, uh, it’s still Summerton but a little further out than him. My father never—
Oloye Adeyemon: So, you-you didn’t remember where the church was.
Octavia Briggs: No.
Oloye Adeyemon: Liberty Hill.
Octavia Briggs: No, I had to travel to the church.
Oloye Adeyemon: Okay. But you lived closer to Summerton.
Octavia Briggs: Yes. Mm-hmm.
Oloye Adeyemon: Uh, but you-you-you do-you do remember there being of some concern—
Octavia Briggs: Of course.
Oloye Adeyemon: - uh, for the safety.
Octavia Briggs: ‘Cause the-the teacher you spoke of, Mitch Reagan 09:36, was my godfather.
Oloye Adeyemon: Okay. Now, that was one of the petitioners as well.
Octavia Briggs: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: And he was a teacher.
Octavia Briggs: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: And he was told don’t sign this petition. By-by we, that’s what I was told—
Octavia Briggs: Right.
Oloye Adeyemon: - that he was asked not to sign the petition because they’re gonna single you out because you’re a teacher by firing you, and he did it anyhow—
Octavia Briggs: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: - and give you a trial.
Octavia Briggs: Mm-hmm.
Oloye Adeyemon: And that was your godfather.
Octavia Briggs: That’s my godfather.
Oloye Adeyemon: Or I imagine that a lot of the petitioners were either relatives of yours or closer committee—
Octavia Briggs: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: - closer community.
Octavia Briggs: Believe me. A lot of my relatives are on that paper.
Oloye Adeyemon: So, do you have a sense of, um, other than just wanting to change the conditions of-of your father’s reasons for signing the petition?
Octavia Briggs: Say the question again.
Oloye Adeyemon: The reasons for your father signing the petition other than just that he wanted to make a change, do-do you have any-any idea either from him or from others as to some of the things that were going through his mind?
Octavia Briggs: Well, they wanted, um, he-he was one of those people that had to walk to school.
Oloye Adeyemon: He had to walk to school—
Octavia Briggs: Yes—
Oloye Adeyemon: - as a child.
Octavia Briggs: - and in that same school, Scott’s Branch School. That’s where he went to school.
Oloye Adeyemon: Now, by the time you came along, you were living close enough to the school, that wasn’t an issue.
Octavia Briggs: Right.
Oloye Adeyemon: So, he was one of those people that did as your husband’s father—
Octavia Briggs: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: - father did—
Octavia Briggs: Mm-hmm.
Oloye Adeyemon: - that did it for the good of other children.
Octavia Briggs: Of the other children.
Oloye Adeyemon: Not necessarily just his own.
Octavia Briggs: Right.
Oloye Adeyemon: Uh, he owned his own land.
Octavia Briggs: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: So, he wasn’t afraid of being put off his—
Octavia Briggs: No.
Oloye Adeyemon: - put out his house.
Octavia Briggs: Mm-hmm.
Oloye Adeyemon: Um, do you know of any, uh, economic handicap or hardship that the family suffered in other ways because of their involvement with the case?
Octavia Briggs: Well, once, um, they found out that my parent—my-my father’s name was on the list, uh, my mother was, um, dismissed from her job. She had—
Oloye Adeyemon: What was she doing at the time?
Octavia Briggs: She was, um, working at a Summerton diner as a-a cook, short order cook.
Oloye Adeyemon: Is that-is that located still where it is today?
Octavia Briggs: It is there today.
Oloye Adeyemon: What street is that?
Octavia Briggs: It’s, like, on the main street going in. It’s a little, small diner.
Oloye Adeyemon: At that time, blacks couldn’t eat there.
Octavia Briggs: No. she was just a cook there.
Oloye Adeyemon: They could be—blacks could cook—
Octavia Briggs: Cook there.
Oloye Adeyemon: - the food, but they couldn’t eat it.
Octavia Briggs: Couldn’t eat, yeah.
Oloye Adeyemon: So, uh, she was a—she was working there. As soon as they found out, she was fired.
Octavia Briggs: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: And do you know of other relatives or-or, you know, besides your godfather that were fired as well from their jobs?
Octavia Briggs: No, not really. No.
Oloye Adeyemon: But you-your-your family suffered, you know, like—
Octavia Briggs: Like my mother did, I know.
Oloye Adeyemon: She was not a petitioner. Just your father.
Octavia Briggs: No, just my father, but if your name was on the list, you might as well have been on the list.
Oloye Adeyemon: Yeah, yeah. Right. Yeah. Uh, I understand that there had been a list of as many as 104 that Thurgood Marshall wanted to narrow it down to 20. Uh, was there—and I-I—and I-and I guess, you know, your father may have been one of those that was chosen ‘cause he couldn’t be as easily intimidated. Did you ever get the sense that, um, your father specifically, uh, was a petitioner where others might not have been because he was better able to stand up against the pressure that he knew was gonna come from the signing?
Octavia Briggs: I’m not sure what list my father was on, but I knew that he was independent enough to stand—
Oloye Adeyemon: Mm-hmm.
Octavia Briggs: - because he owned his own land, and, um, my grandmother, Bessie Hilton, if he needed cotton seed to plant his cotton, you know, she had ways of getting his seeds so.
Oloye Adeyemon: Did—do you know if there was any, um, hesitation when your mother was fired, do you-do you feel like if they had known that was gonna happen, they’d have done the same thing?
Octavia Briggs: I’m sure. Our mother wasn’t the only one in my family affected, even further on down in the years. Um, my brother tried to drive a school bus, and once they found out my father’s name was on the list, they wouldn’t even let him substitute driving the bus.
Oloye Adeyemon: What year was that?
Octavia Briggs: Um, he graduated in ’65, so I’ll say in the early 60s, ’62, ’63, in that area, like, in the 10th and 11th grade.
Oloye Adeyemon: Mm-hmm. But your mother, you don’t get the feeling—I guess I’ll be able to talk to her, but you don’t get the feeling that she would’ve changed her mind if she knew she could keep her job.
Octavia Briggs: I don’t think so.
Oloye Adeyemon: How do you feel about what they did, I mean the fact that they were willing to do that?
Octavia Briggs: I’m proud of my parents, both of them, because it’s because of them, I was able to get, um, a better education. I-I knew I had something to strive for because at that time, I didn’t—I knew mis—of Mr. Briggs, but to know, you know, how I ended up being his daughter-in-law, and what he was fighting for. Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: Mm-hmm. So, when you started school, uh, were you aware during the early years in school that there was a difference? ‘Cause some people have indicated that they really didn’t have that much contact with whites, and they just knew that this was the way the schools were and didn’t know.
Octavia Briggs: I didn’t—
Oloye Adeyemon: And—
Octavia Briggs: - as far as my school.
Oloye Adeyemon: At what age did you realize that you were getting a different education, a different-dif-different—you were—you didn’t have the same resources than white students?
Octavia Briggs: Um, I would say not until I got to the ninth grade because, um, I didn’t have a kindergarten as you would say. You started off in the first grade, and then—
Oloye Adeyemon: One through 12.
Octavia Briggs: Yeah.
Oloye Adeyemon: One through 12.
Octavia Briggs: Yes, and the teachers that I had, um, they pretty much—some of them even taught my father, so they knew, you know, I was to get what they had to offer. And they would often tell me, you know, your father this or your father that, but until I got to the ninth grade, and that’s when, um, they really tried to integrate the school, and I lo—not a loss, a cousin, two cousins, as a matter of fact, they were the first two that went to the white school.
Oloye Adeyemon: What were their names?
Octavia Briggs: Rita McDonald and Charles Hilton.
Oloye Adeyemon: Now, when you say the first two, there were only two in-in that first class?
Octavia Briggs: Only two.
Oloye Adeyemon: One of ‘em was your cousin.
Octavia Briggs: Both of them were my cousins.
Oloye Adeyemon: And their names again were?
Octavia Briggs: Charles Hilton and Rita McDonald.
Oloye Adeyemon: Okay. And when you say you lost somebody.
Octavia Briggs: No when I-when I said—I didn’t mean—they-they less got picked and—
Oloye Adeyemon: So, you—they-they were no longer going to school with you.
Octavia Briggs: No.
Oloye Adeyemon: Did you, with them being close to you, did you have a chance to talk with them about it?
Octavia Briggs: Um—
Oloye Adeyemon: Did you know what it was like, what they experienced?
Octavia Briggs: Rita never talked about it. She never—
Oloye Adeyemon: Indirect?
Octavia Briggs: No, not Charles really. I know it wasn’t, you know, they never, just say, had a discussion about it.
Oloye Adeyemon: Mm-hmm.
Octavia Briggs: And for Rita, um, she would be some of my cousin, but I would only see her on Sundays when we went to church, and it’s the same thing with Charles because they lived out in the—
Oloye Adeyemon: In that area.
Octavia Briggs: - further out in the country.
Oloye Adeyemon: So, you really don’t have a sense of what the education was like that was even see—even after the ninth grade, you’re not getting direct—
Octavia Briggs: No.
Oloye Adeyemon: - information about what.
Octavia Briggs: No.
Oloye Adeyemon: But you just know that, you know, it wasn’t—
Octavia Briggs: I know she graduated one of the top in her class, even from that school.
Oloye Adeyemon: Even with all the-the situation.
Octavia Briggs: Even with all the controversy, she stayed and still came out, um, you know, one of the top of her class. Mm-hmm.
Oloye Adeyemon: Um, so her-her having been—having-having been enrolled in the segregated black school did not disadvant—it was not a disadvantage when she went to the white school. She was able to keep up.
Octavia Briggs: She kept up, and I guess that was because she knew she had to keep up.
Oloye Adeyemon: Mm-hmm. ‘Cause I’ve interviewed someone that was in the second class—
Octavia Briggs: Mm-hmm.
Oloye Adeyemon: - and they said that they really didn’t get a lot of, uh, bad treatment, but they were ignored. They were literally sat in a spot and ignored, and that would suggest that if her experience was like that, that she had to be really self-motivated because—
Octavia Briggs: Yeah.
Oloye Adeyemon: - the white teachers were not encouraging them.
Octavia Briggs: She was, and that, like I said, that’s a conversation that they never had.
Oloye Adeyemon: Because she did graduate and with—
Octavia Briggs: Oh, yeah. She did.
Oloye Adeyemon: - with honors.
Octavia Briggs: Mm-hmm.
Oloye Adeyemon: What did she do after she graduated?
Octavia Briggs: Um, she moved to New York. She worked in the postal system.
Oloye Adeyemon: So, you know, by junior high school, you were aware—and it—and-and the point that you’re talking about now would be, uh, what year, ninth grade?
Octavia Briggs: Um, oh, I graduated in 1966, so oh, it would’ve been ’62—’62.
Oloye Adeyemon: 1962. So, did the fact that—‘cause you did not go to the Summerton and the integration?
Octavia Briggs: No, [unintelligible 18:46]. No.
Oloye Adeyemon: So, you remained at what was still a segregated school.
Octavia Briggs: Yes, I did.
Oloye Adeyemon: Did the fact that this had happened with just a handful of black students going to Summerton, did it have any impact at all on what was going on in south at Scott’s Branch?
Octavia Briggs: Um—
Oloye Adeyemon: Was there any change that took place after that?
Octavia Briggs: Yeah, as teenagers we just felt that her father was making her go, that, you know, that wasn’t her choice, and maybe it was. We just felt that, you know, since he had stepped out and put his name on the petition, you know, he had to follow through with what he had started.
Oloye Adeyemon: Were there any changes in the resources that were provided to you? Uh, was it the case, for example, that you had had old books that were given to you, you know, where the white students had finished with them?
Octavia Briggs: I’m sure there was. I mean at that time; I didn’t even think of it as that.
Oloye Adeyemon: I guess I was asking about questions like that. Um, were-were—was there any attempt after integration to improve in any way the resources that were available at Scott’s Branch? Did you see any changes in the paint and new books or anything to suggest that not only were things changing where, you know, black students could go to Summerton, at least a few, but that there were also changes in what was being provided to students at Scott’s Branch?
Octavia Briggs: In Scott’s Branch? Um, I could speak for myself. Um, and you interviewed her, Mrs. Darsey Choice 20:12. When she came to Scott’s Branch, um, she incorporated a lot of curriculum I guess that she brought from wherever she came from. I was able to take TV French, and that was because of Mrs. Choice, and, um, I don’t speak French but at Lakewood 20:31, I did ask the course. And, um, they brought in, um, oh, I think music teachers, someone to teach us the piano, and that was something that we didn’t have before.
Oloye Adeyemon: So, there may have been a funding for additional classes as a part of integration to make—
Octavia Briggs: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: - because they were under pressure, and they really didn’t wanna integrate ‘em. They-they—I-I understand that in South Carolina, they made the attempt to equalize it more than it had been before, and that’s one thing that changed, too.
Octavia Briggs: Mm-hmm. [Unintelligible 21:05].
Oloye Adeyemon: With the, um, later years, you know, when you were graduating from high school, did you—you-you—were you still there at the point when the court said it’s not good enough for Clarendon County to just admit a few black students, students that have to go to the closest school, and I understand at that point, white children were pulled out of the school altogether. Do you remember that? Do you remember the point where you—when—or was that a little bit after you graduated?
Octavia Briggs: I left Summerton in, um, June of ’66.
Oloye Adeyemon: So, you—it happened afterward. Were you aware that that had happened?
Octavia Briggs: I heard about it.
Oloye Adeyemon: When you left Summerton, where did you go?
Octavia Briggs: Uh, I moved to the Bronx with my parents.
Oloye Adeyemon: So, your parents moved.
Octavia Briggs: My father came here, um, in ’63 because, um, he was, you know, planting a crop, and at that time, um, they weren’t doing that much cotton anymore and the soybeans, so he decided to move to New York.
Oloye Adeyemon: Okay. So, he was not run out.
Octavia Briggs: Oh, no. No, he left because of the, um, the farming system.
Oloye Adeyemon: So, your father left for economic reasons.
Octavia Briggs: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: He had stood the storm and even though they were pressured against people that had been involved, he-he did not leave because of that.
Octavia Briggs: No.
Oloye Adeyemon: Well, your-your brothers and sisters were older than you?
Octavia Briggs: No, they were younger.
Oloye Adeyemon: They were younger.
Octavia Briggs: My brother’s older than I am so.
Oloye Adeyemon: Mm-hmm. Uh, do you know what effects this had on him?
Octavia Briggs: Um, he was affected—um, quite a bit. He couldn’t drive. He had friends that, you know, during the school bus that he qualified. He took the test and he passed, but just the idea that, um, you know, he couldn’t drive a bus. That affected him.
Oloye Adeyemon: Did he come to New York at the time?
Octavia Briggs: He came be, uh, yes, he did.
Oloye Adeyemon: The same time?
Octavia Briggs: He, uh, no, behind my father. I think my father came here in ’60, uh, 4. My bro-my brother graduated in ’65, and when he got out of school, he came here, too.
Oloye Adeyemon: What did you think about the education that you received at Scott’s Branch?
Octavia Briggs: Um, I think I received a good education and stuff, but I graduated among the top 10 of my class also.
Oloye Adeyemon: Okay. And what did you think about the teachers?
Octavia Briggs: Uh, I liked all of my teachers.
Oloye Adeyemon: Were they strict?
Octavia Briggs: I had quite a few strict teachers.
Oloye Adeyemon: Mm-hmm.
Octavia Briggs: [Unintelligible 23:46].
Oloye Adeyemon: And these were people that you knew. These were people that either relatives or lived in the community and went to church with you.
Octavia Briggs: Well, some of them came from another town, Sumter, South Carolina. Um, my chemistry teacher was from Sumter. My math teacher was from Sumter. Um, my physical education teacher was from Sumter, and as a senior, my typing teacher was from Columbia. So, they-they came from all different areas.
Oloye Adeyemon: Mm-hmm. But some of them were from, uh, Summerton.
Octavia Briggs: Summerton? Yes. Well, Mrs. Joyce had moved to Summerton and Mrs. Reagan, who is my godmother, she lived in Summerton. Um—
Oloye Adeyemon: So, your—Mrs. Reagan was your godmother and Mr. Reagan was your godfather?
Octavia Briggs: Yes, and, um, my aunt, Mrs. Mary Hill 24:33 came. Um, you know, they were relatives, but they didn’t-they didn’t, you know, there was no favoritism. You know, I had to plu—as they say, plumb the line for them just like everyone else.
Oloye Adeyemon: How did your parents feel about education?
Octavia Briggs: Oh, both of my parents were, you know, they were all for it. My father was not a high school graduate, but he also—he wanted us to, you know, go as far as we could. My mother graduated from Scott’s Branch also.
Oloye Adeyemon: Mm-hmm. What was your minister’s name at [unintelligible 25:04]?
Octavia Briggs: Um, Reverend Mitch [unintelligible 25:07].
Oloye Adeyemon: Do you remember his first name?
Octavia Briggs: Um, I think it’s Joseph. I’m not sure.
Oloye Adeyemon: And so, he was very active in—
Octavia Briggs: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: - this whole movement?
Octavia Briggs: Mm-hmm.
Oloye Adeyemon: Uh, did you know Reverend DeLaine?
Octavia Briggs: Yes, I did.
Oloye Adeyemon: Mm-hmm. He-he lived across the street from your school?
Octavia Briggs: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: Okay. Did his wife teach at the school?
Octavia Briggs: I don’t know his wife. I remember her and her dad.
Oloye Adeyemon: Now, did you just know Reverend DeLaine, since he wasn’t your minister, as a neighbor, or did you know him as a leader in the community?
Octavia Briggs: A leader in the community and hearing friends talk about him.
Oloye Adeyemon: Did he did other things than just work with the school desegregation?
Octavia Briggs: I really don’t know.
Oloye Adeyemon: So, you didn’t have any—a lot of direct contact with him.
Octavia Briggs: No, he kind of [unintelligible 25:52].
Oloye Adeyemon: Were you aware that his house was burned?
Octavia Briggs: Yes, I remember my family was talking about it.
Oloye Adeyemon: Were you in school when that happened?
Octavia Briggs: No.
Oloye Adeyemon: You had already graduated?
Octavia Briggs: Hmm-mm. I was much younger then.
Oloye Adeyemon: Okay. So, it-it burned when you were a small child.
Octavia Briggs: A small child. Mm-hmm.
Oloye Adeyemon: Um, what do you remember your parents saying about that?
Octavia Briggs: I just heard my father, you know, came in, and he said that they burned down, um, house last night, that he had to, um, you know, during the first night.
Oloye Adeyemon: Mm-hmm. He talked to you. He talked to you about that.
Octavia Briggs: Mama. He was talking to my mama.
Oloye Adeyemon: With the—have you-have you—or have you kept up with the conditions in Summerton as far as the school system’s concerned? Do you go back and forth or talk to—
Octavia Briggs: Yes, of course.
Oloye Adeyemon: You know, what do you think about the education today in comparison to then? How do you think your father would feel about the outcome?
Octavia Briggs: Um, I-I think he would be pleased in some ways, but, you know, in others, he wouldn’t, you know, be because really when you think about it, you don’t—you still don’t have white, um, too many white kids in the Scott’s Branch school.
Oloye Adeyemon: Because they pulled all the whites [unintelligible 27:15].
Octavia Briggs: You-you have the—some teachers, but you still don’t have, you know, the students.
Oloye Adeyemon: Was—do you—what do you think your father was hoping to achieve? Was it just to get the same equal resources, or was he also interested in integration?
Octavia Briggs: Um, equal-equal resources and I feel integration.
Oloye Adeyemon: Mm-hmm. So, are the resources that the children are receiving in Summerton you feel more, uh, equitable in terms of what other state schools are receiving today?
Octavia Briggs: Um, I-I can only speak just by going back visiting. Um, I think we have advanced so much.
Oloye Adeyemon: Mm-hmm. So, he would be pleased, do you think?
Octavia Briggs: Oh, yes, I do.
Oloye Adeyemon: Now, in this other area of integration, uh, there’s hardly a white student in the Summerton school district, period.
Octavia Briggs: I don’t think so.
Oloye Adeyemon: How do you think—you-you said you think he would be disappointed in that?
Octavia Briggs: Yeah, that, you know, it was a struggle, but you still don’t see, you know, as many results as you would’ve liked to see by now.
Oloye Adeyemon: Do you think that integration would’ve been a benefit for both whites and blacks?
Octavia Briggs: I think we would’ve understood each other’s culture much better than we do right now.
Oloye Adeyemon: Mm-hmm. So, the whites that continued to choose to send their school students to an all-white school are—I think they may have a black student now at Clarendon Hall.
Octavia Briggs: They do?
Oloye Adeyemon: I think I understood, uh, Joe [unintelligible 28:53] said that. He said that they’re not—there’s no kind of, um, special recruitment, but that they would accept black students that come.
Octavia Briggs: Mm-hmm.
Oloye Adeyemon: But I guess my question is, um, wh-what do you think—there will always be parents that would choose to send their children to a particular school for a variety of reasons, maybe because they choose to send ‘em to a white school, but it’s almost as if, um, people still don’t consider there to be choices. I think the white parents many times just automatically do that.
Octavia Briggs: Mm-hmm.
Oloye Adeyemon: What do you think would need to happen in order for parents, white and black, to work to change the condition that blacks are going to one school, like, and is it important? Is it important—
Octavia Briggs: Right now—
Oloye Adeyemon: - to go to the same one?
Octavia Briggs: - I truly don’t believe that, um, they feel that it’s important. I-I think the main concern in Summerton right now is that, um, the kids get a good education.
Oloye Adeyemon: So, you’re saying both whites and blacks are probably not, uh, spending a whole lot of time thinking about that.
Octavia Briggs: I don’t think so. That’s my personal opinion, but I don’t think they’re losing sleep over that anymore, you know.
Oloye Adeyemon: What, um, do you think about the education that you received? Now, if I’m-if I’m understanding you correctly, you moved. It was not long after graduating that you moved.
Octavia Briggs: Um, it was, like, maybe the next week.
Oloye Adeyemon: And you were working here as an adult.
Octavia Briggs: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: But you have children.
Octavia Briggs: Yes, I do.
Oloye Adeyemon: And they went to New York schools.
Octavia Briggs: My-my children went to school in Teaneck.
Oloye Adeyemon: How would you compare the education that—oh, I’m sorry. New Jersey, you were working in New York.
Octavia Briggs: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: But living in Teaneck. Uh, how would you compare the education that they got, your children? You-you had one son?
Octavia Briggs: I have two, two.
Oloye Adeyemon: Two.
Octavia Briggs: Mm-hmm.
Oloye Adeyemon: That they received here in, uh, New Jersey with that that you received in South Carolina?
Octavia Briggs: Oh, I’d say, um, you know, they received an excellent-excellent education in Teaneck.
Oloye Adeyemon: What—it—was it better than the education that you received in Summerton?
Octavia Briggs: Oh, yes, definitely.
Oloye Adeyemon: What were some of the things that you feel were better?
Octavia Briggs: They had—they were opened to so much, you know, things—more things that I was, you know. Um—
Oloye Adeyemon: What do you-what do you—how would you compare the issues that they had here and the teachers that they had that you ha-that you had in your school?
Octavia Briggs: Um, [unintelligible 31:26] the teachers in South Carolina, they were concerned about you, and you knew that they were concerned, but you didn’t have parent-teachers conferences and stuff like that in South Carolina. You knew, you know, that if you didn’t do what the teacher said or you misbehaved, your parents would be summoned to school. Here in Teaneck, we met quar, you know, like, quarterly with our teachers, and, um, we knew where our children were going.
Oloye Adeyemon: Was that something you chose to do, or was that something that—
Octavia Briggs: That was a part of the curriculum.
Oloye Adeyemon: So, you said earlier you knew that the teachers in South Carolina were concerned about you.
Octavia Briggs: Oh, yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: Did you get the same feeling that the par—that the teachers here, same concern maybe?
Octavia Briggs: I’d say some of them did.
Oloye Adeyemon: Would you say it was more common or less common?
Octavia Briggs: Um, uh, I’d say more common, more common.
Oloye Adeyemon: Here or there?
Octavia Briggs: Uh, here.
Oloye Adeyemon: And how did they show their concern?
Octavia Briggs: Um, if they met you in the street, they would tell you how well your child is doing or, you know.
Oloye Adeyemon: So, the teachers that your children had were residents of Teaneck?
Octavia Briggs: Um, most of them was.
Oloye Adeyemon: I see.
Octavia Briggs: Some of them lived in [unintelligible 32:45].
Oloye Adeyemon: So, it had a little bit more of that community sense—
Octavia Briggs: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: - than some other places?
Octavia Briggs: Mm-hmm.
Oloye Adeyemon: ‘Cause your—did your husband, he went to school in New York—
Octavia Briggs: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: - and I got the feeling he didn’t have the slightest idea where his teachers lived.
Octavia Briggs: No, hmm-mm.
Oloye Adeyemon: Okay. So, there was a little bit more close knitness.
Octavia Briggs: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Oloye Adeyemon: Uh, did you have many black teachers in Teaneck?
Octavia Briggs: We have quite a few.
Oloye Adeyemon: Mm-hmm. Uh, did you know some of them that taught your children—
Octavia Briggs: Um—
Oloye Adeyemon: - outside of the school, outside of the classroom?
Octavia Briggs: Um, not-not personally, as friends, no.
Oloye Adeyemon: Mm-hmm. But some of—wa-was it both the white and black teachers that took the kind of interest that you’re talking about in your children?
Octavia Briggs: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: Mm-hmm. So, for you, that was a positive, uh—
Octavia Briggs: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: - experience here [unintelligible 33:26].
Octavia Briggs: Yes. I don’t feel that my-my kids faced the kind of racism that I did, and they-they have, um, kind of say—they have a balance of both. They have good relationships with all races, many.
Oloye Adeyemon: Because there were a number of different ethnic groups here in Teaneck, right?
Octavia Briggs: Every-every—this is a-a United Nations in Teaneck.
Oloye Adeyemon: In Teaneck.
Octavia Briggs: There’s every race here, and they want every race in that school, and they all get along.
Oloye Adeyemon: Mm-hmm. What, um, what—your-your—what are your sons’ schoolteachers’ names?
Octavia Briggs: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: Uh, are things as far as education and generally—in general and some—are things getting better, and using teenagers as an example, uh, with him being a teacher, uh, what, and particularly with African American children—
Octavia Briggs: Mm-hmm.
Oloye Adeyemon: - what is-what is the current situation that, uh, student—African American students face, and what do you think about the education?
Octavia Briggs: Um, my son did his student teaching in Teaneck, but now he’s a teacher in Englewood, which is a little less [unintelligible 34:42]. Albany is a little lower than the Teaneck community.
Oloye Adeyemon: More poverty.
Octavia Briggs: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: Because it’s down toward the coast.
Octavia Briggs: No, it’s here.
Oloye Adeyemon: Oh.
Octavia Briggs: It’s 10 minutes away, but there’s a difference in the Englewood school system and the Teaneck school system.
Oloye Adeyemon: Okay. So, Englewood is in along I-80 also.
Octavia Briggs: No, it’s right here, and, um, he works with the special education children. And, um, he’s very displeased, and sometime he’s very disheartened about, um, the con-the-the concern that the parents have for their children.
Oloye Adeyemon: The lack of concern?
Octavia Briggs: The lack of concern.
Oloye Adeyemon: Now, you said special education.
Octavia Briggs: Mm-hmm.
Oloye Adeyemon: Uh, what kinds of children get put in special education classes in Teaneck?
Octavia Briggs: Um, in Teaneck, it was everyone. It was—
Oloye Adeyemon: Wait a minute. He’s not in Englewood. I’m sorry.
Octavia Briggs: Yeah, in Englewood.
Oloye Adeyemon: And what kind of, uh—
Octavia Briggs: Um—
Oloye Adeyemon: - children get put in special education?
Octavia Briggs: The kids that are, um, say, overactive or they have, um, you know, problems in the home, I think.
Oloye Adeyemon: And what percentage of the students in the school are African American?
Octavia Briggs: Um, I’d say, um, 90-90 percent.
Oloye Adeyemon: So, both the school and the special education classes predominantly have ‘em.
Octavia Briggs: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: Uh, is the-the—he-he’s—he—because of the lack of interest or lack of involvement in the part of the parents, uh, he has a concern. Does he have any other concerns in addition to that as far as, you know, teaching in the system?
Octavia Briggs: Well, let me just speak for the time that just passed. Um, he had five young men. Of the five, three was on medication, and, um—
Oloye Adeyemon: What kind of medication?
Octavia Briggs: I guess medi—when you’re overactive, they give you something to keep you quiet down.
Oloye Adeyemon: Such as Ritalin.
Octavia Briggs: Ritalin or I guess that’s what it’s called, and, um, some of them, he feels that with working with them, they really don’t need it.
Oloye Adeyemon: Mm-hmm.
Octavia Briggs: They just needed that individual attention, and when you have a class of six children, it’s-it’s much easier to give them individual attention, and you get to know each person different.
Oloye Adeyemon: So, he has a small class.
Octavia Briggs: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: So, he feels that if he had an opportunity—
Octavia Briggs: Mm-hmm.
Oloye Adeyemon: - he could work with them, they’d-they’d be able to perform better without the medication—
Octavia Briggs: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: - than with the medication.
Octavia Briggs: Mm-hmm.
Oloye Adeyemon: Does he have any ability to-to influence that decision to give the medication? Is he able to get them off the medication on a trial basis to see if it works?
Octavia Briggs: Um, I’m not sure, but my-my son is not soft-spoken. He speaks what’s on his heart, and, um, he’s very vocal. When he goes to, um, Board of Education meeting, he lets them know what’s on his heart and what he’s experiencing in his classroom and, you know, his method of-of trying to help them to change it.
Oloye Adeyemon: So, those are two of the struggles that he’s fighting.
Octavia Briggs: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: Mm-hmm. Um, does—do—are there any conditions that he faces in Englewood that—are there any of—any of the conditions that he’s facing when you think of yourself of the fact that the school is, you know, heavily African American? Does that make a difference in the decisions that made by the school or whatever teachers or parents, or you already said the parents are not as involved.
Octavia Briggs: No.
Oloye Adeyemon: Uh, I’ve heard people say in these interviews that African American parents are not as involved in their children’s education [unintelligible 38:46].
Octavia Briggs: And they’re much harder.
Oloye Adeyemon: And that obviously would in some cases make a teacher work a little harder than when the parents are watching everything.
Octavia Briggs: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: Uh, can you help me understand, you know, not just what’s happening, but if there’s any connection in any way to the struggles that occurred both in the north and south when parents were very much involved and wanted their children to get a better education? Is any of this somehow connected to that?
Octavia Briggs: Um, let me just say, um, I don’t know about in the south with kids being suspended that much, but I can tell you in the Teaneck system, if your child had a problem and he was gonna be suspended from school, um, they have a class in the Teaneck system where your child is not at home. He’s still being taught, but not by his teacher. The teacher that suspended him or all of his teachers give you this child’s curriculum, and he’s still being taught in school, but in a special—
Oloye Adeyemon: Special class?
Octavia Briggs: - class. In the Englewood system, if these fifth graders are suspended, they have to go home.
Oloye Adeyemon: And they don’t get it. They don’t get it.
Octavia Briggs: They don’t get—and that bothered him—
Oloye Adeyemon: Mm-hmm.
Octavia Briggs: - so much.
Oloye Adeyemon: Because he saw it as a distinction.
Octavia Briggs: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: Now, was he feeling that that was because it was predominantly African American or—
Octavia Briggs: I think so because, you know, I’m his sounding board, uh, as his mom. When he has a problem, he comes home, and he talks to me about it. It bothered him that, you know, he would try to intercede before, you know, things happened, and parents would come to the door, and they would see it was him and they wouldn’t open the door.
Oloye Adeyemon: Because he was trying to get the parents to get involved with that—
Octavia Briggs: To get their attention before.
Oloye Adeyemon: - the situation but—
Octavia Briggs: - ‘cause, you know, come to a head.
Oloye Adeyemon: So—
Octavia Briggs: It makes him appreciate us as parents so much more.
Oloye Adeyemon: Mm-hmm. And—
Octavia Briggs: He knew that Nathaniel and I wanted the best for him, and we tried to give him all that, and it-it upsets him that, you know, all parents I guess don’t feel the same way.
Oloye Adeyemon: Mm-hmm. And do you think that your experience growing up and what happened helped to instill that in you and your husband?
Octavia Briggs: Oh, yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: So, he’s a product of that, and so in some ways, this whole experience of the family is in fact—
Octavia Briggs: His grandfather, he—it-it is impacted in his heart. He teaches his children his grandfather’s history.
Oloye Adeyemon: He does?
Octavia Briggs: He—yes, he does. He has that tape, Separate but Equal, and that’s a part of his curriculum. You know, one day we have popcorn, and we sit and we watch this movie. And I’m gonna tell you just how I know, and it has nothing to do with this, I went to a baby shower about two weeks ago, and I met this young man, and, um, he was telling me what school he went to. And, um, he doesn’t know—he didn’t know me. He doesn’t even know my last name, and, um, his father said, “Her son teaches in your school.” He says, “Mr. Briggs?” And I said, “Yes.” He says, “Oh, he showed us a movie about his grandfather and his uncle.” And it just—it made me as his mother feel so proud of him that somebody else is learning about his history, you know, that didn’t even know me. But anyway, he went to tell me something good about my son, and it makes me as a mother feel very proud.
Oloye Adeyemon: Have you thought about how, uh, ‘cause a lot of people when they think about this whole story, they think about the court case.
Octavia Briggs: Mm-hmm.
Oloye Adeyemon: And there’s gonna be a-a commemoration in May of 2004, and we’re doing this collection of oral histories as part of the commemoration and part of the research on this. Do you feel that your father at the time, uh, realized before he—before—I don’t—what year—
Octavia Briggs: My father died, um, eight years ago.
Oloye Adeyemon: Mm-hmm.
Octavia Briggs: In ’93.
Oloye Adeyemon: Had—so he did have a chance to realize—
Octavia Briggs: Oh, yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: - how important it was.
Octavia Briggs: And all of his grandchildren.
Oloye Adeyemon: Mm-hmm.
Octavia Briggs: And I remember when, um, my son was graduating, and, um, he was the president out of his class, and he said to me, “Mommie, if granddad-if grandad, both of my grandfathers could’ve been here to see me,” and I said, “They know. They know what you’re doing.”
Oloye Adeyemon: What do you—
Octavia Briggs: [Unintelligible 43:42].
Oloye Adeyemon: Did he say anything at all during those last years about it?
Octavia Briggs: My-my friend—
Oloye Adeyemon: Your father.
Octavia Briggs: Both of my—both of them—
Oloye Adeyemon: Your-your father.
Octavia Briggs: My—
Oloye Adeyemon: Did he say anything, and did he have anything to say that you can remember about during the years this happened when you were in school, but in his later years, did he ever talk about it, and if so, what did he say?
Octavia Briggs: Um, Mr. Briggs, Harry Briggs, he told me to do my best to make sure that my children got a good education.
Oloye Adeyemon: This is your husband’s—
Octavia Briggs: My husband’s father, and so did my father. He told me to get ‘em involved in as much things as I could, to just expose them to, you know, whatever was open to them, to make sure that they got—
Oloye Adeyemon: Mm-hmm. Did he ever talk about the case in-in his later years or say anything?
Octavia Briggs: No. My son didn’t learn about that until my father-in-law’s funeral.
Oloye Adeyemon: Really?
Octavia Briggs: You know, just how a—what an impact my father-in-law made on—
Oloye Adeyemon: How old was your son then?
Octavia Briggs: Um, he was a little boy. I can’t remember just what age, but he was little.
Oloye Adeyemon: What was the impact it had?
Octavia Briggs: Well, just to see the church was packed and so many people talking about it.
Oloye Adeyemon: This was at Liberty Hill.
Octavia Briggs: Saint Martin.
Oloye Adeyemon: Saint Martin’s.
Octavia Briggs: Yes. Mm-hmm.
Oloye Adeyemon: This is-this is, um, Mr. Briggs.
Octavia Briggs: Yes. Mm-hmm. And so many people, you know, speaking, and then he had the experience when he went to Morehouse—
Oloye Adeyemon: College?
Octavia Briggs: Yes, and—
Oloye Adeyemon: In Atlanta?
Octavia Briggs: Yes, and one of his, um, instructors was teaching about the class, and after the class—
Oloye Adeyemon: Teaching about this history?
Octavia Briggs: The his—this history, and, um, he went to her, and he said, “That was my grandfather.”
Oloye Adeyemon: Mm-hmm.
Octavia Briggs: And she didn’t believe him, and he had to bring it, you know, to prove that, you know, this is true.
Oloye Adeyemon: Mm-hmm.
Octavia Briggs: This is my grandfather.
Oloye Adeyemon: Okay. Well, you know, I knew when I came today that I’d be able to meet you and your husband. I had no idea that both of you were involved. Did your meeting or-or marrying have anything to do at all with the family’s involvement in this or just the fact—
Octavia Briggs: No, I—
Oloye Adeyemon: - that you were both—
Octavia Briggs: No.
Oloye Adeyemon: - from Summerton?
Octavia Briggs: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: You married here.
Octavia Briggs: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: So, he had already come. I had asked him earlier if the people from Summerton kind of were close and, you know, your meeting was because your families were close. Is that correct?
Octavia Briggs: Yeah, he left when, um, he was in the sixth grade. Him and my brother-my brother were, like, playmates.
Oloye Adeyemon: Mm-hmm.
Octavia Briggs: And, um, when I graduated from high school, I came here even though we were living here.
Oloye Adeyemon: Did you already know him?
Octavia Briggs: I knew him as a young boy, yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: Right. How did you guys—
Octavia Briggs: But I started—
Oloye Adeyemon: - you know, run into him?
Octavia Briggs: I started going to the church that his family attended.
Oloye Adeyemon: Okay. Were a lot of people in that church from South Carolina?
Octavia Briggs: Um, you know, his immediate family members, not anyone that I can let go, um, just Mrs., um, Montparser 46:32. His name might have been on the petition.
Oloye Adeyemon: He was.
Octavia Briggs: He was a member of that church, too.
Oloye Adeyemon: Okay.
Octavia Briggs: But, um—
Oloye Adeyemon: Well, thank you very much for—
Octavia Briggs: You’re quite welcome.
Oloye Adeyemon: - taking this time with us.
Octavia Briggs: You’re welcome.
Oloye Adeyemon: It’s a fascinating story, and I hope that future generations will be inspired by this so much, like his students—
Octavia Briggs: Yeah.
Oloye Adeyemon: - and will continue to tell the story. Thank you.
Octavia Briggs: Yes. Thank you. Thank you.
[End of Audio]
Description
This interview presents a detailed history of her life and family history. It also presents a unique view regarding the depravations that she and other children of color faced while living in segregated South Carolina.
Credit
NPS
Date Created
08/15/2024
Copyright and Usage Info