Harold White

Harold writes of how proud his father was of his job at John Andrews Hospital on Tuskegee’s campus. He was proud of how meticulously his father dressed and how he read the newspaper daily. Harold was also proud of his father’s persistent resistance to racism through his PTA and Tuskegee Civic Association work.  Watching his father influenced Harold’s own reactions to prejudice and discrimination.

Harold writes of how a White salesman came to the door once and asked for his father by his first name. Without hesitating, the teenage Harold told the salesmen that no one by that name lived there, but if he wanted to speak with a Mr. White, he would get him.

Harold discusses how during Jim Crow, Black parents wanted their children to stand up for their rights but also wanted them to “be careful around White folk”, a phrase most Southern Black children heard often during Jim Crow.

Harold left Tuskegee to attend Miles College in Birmingham, but returned to live in his hometown.  He served in the Peace Corps, taught at Tuskegee University, and was invited by Auburn University to travel on a special mission to Australia.

Harold became a School Board Commissioner in Macon County.