A Depression Era Story…
Our spotlight this month, Courtesy of NPR, focuses on COURAGE AND SURVIVAL.
Wanda Bridgeforth, who was from Chicago’s Bronzeville area known as the “Black Metropolis,” says she has rich memories of the depression years. It was a fairly affluent neighborhood, - jazz great Louis Armstrong lived there and so did Ida B. Wells - until hard times came. “In the depression, the men could not get jobs, and especially the black men,” Bridgeford says. “Here was my father with a degree in chemistry, and he could not get a job.”
Bridgeforth’s father was humiliated, she says. He fell apart, so her mother took what work she could find as a live-in domestic worker. Bridgeforth, who was in grade school, was boarded out. Bridgeforth was sent to live with relatives and sometimes strangers. One house we lived in, there were 19 of us in a six room house, she says. Bridgeforth did learn to share and cooperate, she says, but so many years of going without left a mark on her.
“The kids say that I’m a pack rat,” she says. “And they say, well, what are you going to use this for? And I say, “I don't know, but I'm going to use it.” Parents of my generation encouraged us to not waste and get an education. They preached that money and possessions can be taken away from you but, learning is yours forever and education will help you have a better life. Our high school years were in the midst of the depression. We were poor, but we banded together to survive and get the most out of life.”
Those were tough years. There was segregation, hunger, uncertainty and struggle but we survived and were made stronger and more resilient, says Wanda. Wanda was born in 1921 and lived until 2022, constantly helping, learning and contributing to the world. She was able to earn a college degree and continued to work for civil rights. She liked to quote Maya Angelou, “I wouldn't take nothin’ for my journey.”
~ National Public Radio 11/27/2008
