[Granville-Hough] 31 May 2009 - Otis Berry

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

Date: Sun, 31 May 2009 08:01:45 -0700
From: Granville W Hough <gwhough at oakapple.net>
Subject: OtisBerry - 31 May 2009

Otis Berry.

Most of our contacts with black people in my youth took place while we 
lived on the Hough farm, but we did have one family who sharecropped for 
Grandpa Jim Richardson after we joined him on the Richardson farm. 
Grandpa Jim did his business in Magee where his daughter, Emma, was wife 
to Ehrman McAlpin, who became a leading merchant. One day Grandpa met a 
black man, Otis Berry, who was one of Uncle EhrmanÆs customers. Otis was 
a big strong man, and he talked well; and Grandpa liked him. They made a 
deal, as it was called; and Otis Berry agreed to sharecrop for Grandpa.
Otis moved into the tenant house, and then looked around for a school to 
which he could send his children. He himself could read and write, and 
he wanted his children to have the same advantage. Grandpa had told him 
there was a school, but it had been stopped. Grandpa helped get it going 
again and soon Otis had his children in school.
Otis was a very diplomatic person in dealing with Grandpa. Even though 
Otis knew exactly what he needed or wanted to do, he discussed it with 
Grandpa. When Grandpa agreed, Otis would go do it as if it were 
GrandpaÆs decision. We always knew that whatever work Otis was doing, 
Grandpa had approved and knew about. So we had no conflicts. At first, 
Otis asked if he could have our old newspapers. Then we saw he read 
avidly, so we saved them for him.
On the weekends, Otis moved about in the black community so that he 
became known. We would see him with our old newspapers in his back 
pocket, and we realized he was taking news of worldly events to black 
neighbors who could not read. He also liked to go back to his home 
community on Skiffer Ridge, about ten miles southwest of Magee on the 
Jeff Davis County Line. I once took him there and read a book while he 
visited. From the rollicking sounds I heard, I think someone there had 
learned to make home brew.
Relationships went along very well, and indications were that Otis would 
stay another year. Mrs. Berry was a quiet mother, completely illiterate, 
but she kept a good garden and worked in the fields as well. We 
respected each member of the family. We had no child labor laws. We all 
worked in the fields, white and black.
What next happened to Otis illustrates the problem of race relations as 
we grew up seeing them. Otis went back to Skiffer Ridge for one of his 
visits and indeed may have imbibed too freely. He had bummed a ride 
(hitchhiked) from Magee to Skiffer and had to get back from there to his 
home on Sunday. He got to the nearest road and there was very little 
Sunday traffic. A log truck with trailer came by, all set to begin work 
on Monday morning, with a U-shaped rig for holding the logs in place on 
the trailer. Some young white men were moving the rig along when they 
saw a drunk nigger waving. They stopped and learned he wanted a ride to 
Magee. They filled the cab but told him he could straddle the U-shaped 
rig and could go as far as they were going toward Magee. So Otis 
straddled the rig and held on as best he could.
The young white men decided to have some fun with the drunk nigger. They 
would bounce him up and down on the rough road and watch him hold on for 
dear life. They could watch him through the rear window of the truck 
cab. They were having a gleeful time and decided to speed up over some 
rough places. Then Otis lost his hold and fell under the truck, with the 
dual rear wheels rolling over his head. He who had been a decent human 
being was an instant dead nigger, a nobody, and the young men reported 
it as an accident and were never charged.
However, as the young men told the story around Magee, they described 
how they bounced him higher and higher. Then when they got him dislodged 
and his head went under the real wheels, ôit busted like a watermelon.ö 
So everybody got a good laugh, or shook their heads in disgust, or 
expressed whatever emotion they felt; and we were left to deal with a 
distraught and orphaned family.
With great dignity, Mrs. Berry held the family together and then moved 
back to the Skiffer Community where relatives could help her. We never 
knew what happened later.
The young men who did the deed apparently felt no remorse. That is how 
it was for a generation of young white men just before WWII. After WW 
II, they attempted to gain and maintain dominance, and in some 
localities have been successful to the present day. ôSegregation 
yesterday, Segregation today, Segregation tomorrow, Segregation 
forever,ö of Gov. George Wallace of Alabama has been changed to ôNo 
Niggers today, No Niggers ever.ö
May God forgive us our sins, and give us racial tolerance, and equal 
justice for all!! Otis, 21 Jul 2005.