Amelia Bacon, Beverly Cooper, and Tammy Ruffin

[00:02] AMELIA CADE CADE BACON: My name is Amelia Cade Cade Bacon, and I'm 78 years old. Today's date is November 18, 2023. I'm located in Mobile, Alabama. My interview partners today are Beverly Cooper, who is a co founder with me of stand up Mobile, and Tammy, who is a person who is in the community as well.

[00:31] BEVERLYERLY COOPER: I'm Beverly Cooper. I'm 74 years old. Today's date is November 18, 2023, and we're located in Mobile, Alabama. My interview partners are Amelia Cade Bacon and Tammy Ruffin. And my relationship to my partners are. Amelia Cade and I are co founders, as she just said, of stand up Mobile. And Tammy and I have had a relationship for many years, but her organization, Little Angels, was one of the first that our foundation, the Cooper foundation, worked with when she decided that this was a direction that she wanted to go in. My name is Tammy Ruffin. I'm 37 years old. Today's date is November 18, 2023. I'm located here in Mobile, Alabama, and I'm interviewing with my mentors, Amelia Cade and Miss Beverly Cooper. Well, this is a great opportunity for us to sit down, which we never really have. Right. It's either text messaging or quick conversation by telephone with an appointment to Zoom. So I'm glad to see both of you.

[01:41] AMELIA CADE CADE BACON: It's good to be here, and I share your thoughts, Beverly, about. It's good to see each other in person for change. It's wonderful. Yeah, believe it or not, I mean, Zoom has its benefits, but also its disadvantages as well.

[01:56] BEVERLYERLY COOPER: That's right. That's right. Tammy was kind enough to give Amelia Cade and I a call and ask if we wanted to actually participate in a conversation with her for storyCorps, and we were both pretty excited about it. The challenge is always just like, we've just finished talking about finding the time, but the. As I started thinking about the relationships that we all have, it is probably just a little dive into our histories, really show that we're individuals who've been very involved in the mobile community from a nonprofit perspective. Amelia Cade was a good friend that I met when I moved here almost 35 years ago. I used to tease her about being the person who had a little black book with all kinds of contacts in it if you needed to know where something was or who a person was. We even joked one time about maybe we could sell that little booklet. But it's great when you meet someone, a family, in a community that knew so many people and involved in so many things about caring and making sure that people had information, opportunities, everything from clothing to funds, to be able to send kids to school. And then here comes Tammy, you know, 15 years later, and we meet. I guess we were both doing insurance at the time, right? We were from different aspects and then decided to partner and move around the community and do workshops on what was important about being able to have insurance coverage. And from there, we suddenly realized we also had a desire to be able to serve the community one more time. So I think our backgrounds are just folks who like to give, to love, give, share, and then try to answer some of those questions.

[03:58] AMELIA CADE CADE BACON: I think that's absolutely correct, Beverly. I think as we have matured in what we do in our community, we have. We see the needs out there. And I think all three of us have that drive within us to want to be able to do something about it or to help those individuals that we see who may need help and things that we can share with them and impart with them. Not only just numbers from the black book, but also our skillset. You know, we're there to be able to work through different situations as they crop up in our community. And I believe that that's something that is not very unique, but in some respects it is unique. Mobil is a very small town in comparison to some of the larger places, and we take advantage of utilizing the resources that we have for one another so that we can hopefully make life better for those who might need a helping hand to get on track or to help them and some of their family members. And that's been it, I think, many of our things with stand up mobile, our organization, that is the way we founded that organization because we felt that there was a need for our community to be more engaged in the voting process. And we've approached it from that way and, you know, to try to educate people what it means and how valuable that vote is to themselves as well as their overall community. And I believe that we're getting the results that we feel are needed so that we can get the change that we feel that our community needs and deserves.

[06:11] BEVERLYERLY COOPER: Yeah, absolutely warranted. So what's interesting to me is, from my perspective, you see the youth of the community kind of serving and you think, oh, one day when I retire, I'm just going to sit back and I'm going to relax. But you guys are not doing that. You're just going from one community outreach project to another. I want to know, how did you get started in community outreach, and what's the passion behind that, Tammy? You know, for me, it was always my mom. My mother was the kind of person who I grew up in Richmond, Virginia. Mother was. My brother and I were the. There ended up being five of us, but Freddie and I were the two oldest. Mother was working at the time. She was a nurse, so she worked all of these different shifts, but whenever she had time, if there was something going on in the community, at our church, she belonged to a couple of organizations. There was even an organization called the South Carolina Club, because the family was from South Carolina, but they pulled together people from South Carolina in Virginia. As a result of that, you know, there were all kinds of events. They were doing things exactly what we saw just as we came in here today, a group of people coming together to provide food for the needy, clothing, information. Mother was someone who, if she saw a sign that suggested that there was something that she didn't know about, we went. So you learn that reaching out, being a part of what's going on in the community. Mother retired. My mother retired five times. And the joke was, is she'll retire, and then next week she'll have two or three more jobs. Right. But she retired from nursing, and. And then before we knew it, she was working with the extension service and the city. The extension service was something they started in the city of Richmond. So mother was suddenly, she's going into homes, making sure that seniors knew how to shop on a budget. Okay, knew how to prepare meals. And mother loved cooking. So did I. So here we are in her kitchen, showing people how to make things, how to. To prepare a meal, also how to put it in bags and put it in the freezer so that they would have it and not. Not have the food go to waste. But it was really watching how she did things, what she did. And when I say she stopped one job and then start two or three more, it's just kind of something that you watch. And she got such great satisfaction out of it. I think Amelia Cade and I both, and we've talked about this before, one of the things we did was mobile has a strong nonprofit NGo background for services and needs being met. Okay. We pulled back, and our desire to pull back was so that we could make space for other individuals who wanted to step forward, because sometimes I think organizations get very comfortable with whoever the board members are and the volunteers, but if you. Which can sometimes prohibit others being involved. So we said, let's pull back and make way for some others. Right. But when we did that, we couldn't resist. We couldn't stay away. Stay away. We couldn't stay away. One of Amelia's closest friends was doctor Linda Carroll, who, unfortunately passed away this early part of this year, and she worked very closely with Amelia Cade And in a conversation I had with her that we were going thinking about starting an organization called Stand Up Mobile. And I explained what we wanted to be involved in, engaging the community, helping those who think that they don't have a voice, have a voice. Let them be the ones who express concerns that they have and ways to go about it and tools. And the first thing Doctor Carroll said to me was, why would you do that? We've got so many organizations already. And I said, yeah, but you know what? They're not local. And she said, well, a few of them are. I said, but when Amelia Cade and I talked about it, the one thing we wanted was something that was local right here, controlled by people right here in mobile, reaching into those communities and the needs of individuals right here. So. But you know what? It just kind of gets in your, in your spirit. You see your DNA, it's in our DNA, and I don't know how to back up. It's not natural to back up.

[10:45] AMELIA CADE CADE BACON: Once you get in, you find that it's not just the one thing that you went in for. There are so many other things that's there that you need to tackle or you feel you need to tackle or to assist other folks in finding their way to overcome whatever challenges may be presented at any given point in time. And I think that's what keeps you going, because it doesn't have an end. There's a beginning, but there's never an end. You know, you find things along the way that if you can't take it right there, then and there, you can come back to those things and find other ways to be able to provide service and help and assistance to other folks.

[11:35] BEVERLYERLY COOPER: Tammy, my mom used to say something like, she would hope that the. The words that she speaks never separates her. No, the life that she lives never separate her from the words that she speaks. And those are not quite her words, but very similar, because her involvement in things was what she had us do, we. And there was never a time when my sister Sonya, who I loved and always used to joke about being an older sister, you have restrictions, at least during the generation that I came along. So I had lots of restrictions of things you could and couldn't do. Sonia, who was like eight years younger than me, she comes along and she's just having a great time. I used to joke about, well, when I die and come back, I'm coming back as Sonia Martin. Cause I know, I know she had more fun. More fun and you know her, right? Amelia Cade knows her. She definitely had, had more fun than I did, but she was the one that mother would say, I've got five mounds to feed. The door would open. Sonya's coming in from school, and she's bringing three kids home with her, right. Or she's away at school, and she'll call mom and tell her that Amelia Cade has something to go to, but she doesn't have the right dress. And my mother said, well, what do you want me to do about it? I want you to send Amelia Cade a dress. And when you're in that kind of environment, you're right, it does get in your DNA, and you're not really. You don't begrudge it. You just, you go with it.

[13:08] AMELIA CADE CADE BACON: You move it. I've had. I grew up in a very similar environment. My parents had seven children, natural children. And being the people that they were, they adopted two. I was the youngest, and they adopted two after me. My father lost his brother and his, and his wife within a month of one another, and they had two very young children. So they came to live with us as if we didn't have enough in that household, right. Seven. And so that it became a household of nine, nine children. So it was a sharing and a giving and a taking, you know, all the way through. And we were always not waking up in the house with the same people you went to bed with. There were nine of us. And it wasn't uncommon that during the course of the evening, there were a couple of people who had come back. Both my parents were teachers, and someone, having had something that happened to them, were unable to overcome it. And my parents took them in for a while. So we had this house. Ironically, today was a big celebration in the inner city where I grew up. And the area that the celebration was taking place is an area that is predominantly black. Individuals there grew up in that neighborhood, and we come together once a year the weekend before thanksgiving, and we have this weekend that's called the central weekend, centered around our high school. And I bumped into several people at that event earlier today who came to me and said, oh, I'm so glad I saw you. I remembered all of those parties that you guys used to have at your house, and that was very true. And as they said, they were saying, we could never figure out. They were always well organized and everything, and everybody has such a good time and what have you. But your parents, I mean, how could they stand it? You know, I'm looking at myself with children trying to, you know, do the same thing in parliament. I said, well, my mother told me after I became an adult, she said it was her way of being able to keep up with all nine of us and know what we were doing. She said, I figured if I let everybody come to our house, then I knew where all nine of you were. So I didn't have to worry about who was going where and who was picking this one up, if the party was already here. We had a large backyard, large house, and so everybody just, you know, brought their friends home. So it was the place that most people, you know, hung out, and their parents loved it because neither one of my parents drank or smoked. So that made it even better because they didn't have to have to worry about anything harmful happening. You know, that was not consistent with what was going on in their homes. So it was a. It was a big deal, if you will, that these people and I met two or three people that reminded me of that time, and I just had to laugh. And I told each one of them the story. I said, the story in the clinch was that they were, in fact, trying to make sure they knew where we were. I said, it wasn't always that. It was just open house. So we share some of the same things, Beverly, as well.

[16:51] BEVERLYERLY COOPER: Well, how did you decide? You know, I think one of the things that we look at is always looking for young people and always looking for young adults, and we find them okay. We certainly don't find quite as many with the energy, the commitment, and the desire to do what you decided you wanted to do. You know, you had a new child. There was so much going on with you at the time, and then you. Here you are. I want to start a nonprofit. And you did, with your support. Where did that come from? Well, similar to what both of you mentioned, it's innate for me as well. So I grew up in community, in my family. We all supported each other. I grew up at a time where all the cousins were on the couch. We were all in one room. And I kind of worried because my childhood by himself, he's by himself, but we try to keep him connected. But as far as the nonprofit, for me, it was a personal. It was a personal story with Miles, actually. I wasn't supposed to be able to have children. And lo and behold, I was blessed to have him. And I was terrified at the time. I actually rejected the fact that I was pregnant. I thought, my body is going to fail this child. Why go through with it? So I wanted to abort at the time, but no one in my family supported that. They were like, no, God blessed you with this. Go with it. And so I did. But I called my mom crying. I'm like, my mom coming home. And she said, you're pregnant? Yeah. Well, come on. So we came, and at the time, you know, his dad and I, he said, let's go. If that's what you need to be comfortable, we'll move back home. And we did and had miles. Everything was fine. But at the time, I walked away from a good paying job because I was on my way up in the banking world. I wanted to move to the World bank and, you know, climb the corporate ladder in that arena, but it didn't happen. And I thought it was the best decision ever to come back and have support. And while I was here, I was a WIC recipient. I was a Medicaid recipient because I was unemployed, and his dad was also unemployed when we moved back. And then he became underemployed. So we did not have the income that we had walked away from in Georgia. And when we came here, it was just slower. It felt like we swimmed out of an ocean and jumped into a lake. The opportunities were not the same. It was devastating financially, and I wanted to alleviate the stress that was on us. And I was searching for her. I'm like, okay, I got vouchers for WIC. I got this. Where are the diapers? You know? And they didn't have any. And so I saw a young lady. She was trying to survive. Had I not been a mother at the time, I probably would have judged her, but she was actually still in diapers. And I felt bad. I wanted to pay for them, but I didn't have a job. You know, I'm operating off of savings and support from my family, which we had a lot of. We also had our savings, but when you stop working, your bills don't, you know? And so eventually we got down to nothing, but we still, God still provided. And I just thought, why does this keep nudging on me? I feel horrible about this. And lo and behold, little angels came. Literally an audible voice. I've never had that experience, so I knew that was God telling me about that, and I started it, but I was reluctant because how are you going to ask me to do this at this time when I'm dependent on my family and other support systems such as the government? You're going to ask me to do this at this time? Like, it was so unreal. But I was being stretched at the time. And eventually I talked to you about what I was thinking and what I wanted to do, and you were like, go for it. Let's do it. I was in total disbelief, though, as Tammy started to describe the diapers.

[20:56] AMELIA CADE CADE BACON: Yes.

[20:57] BEVERLYERLY COOPER: Now, these are, this is kind of something that you just, I don't think you give a lot of thought to, but people who have children need diapers. She starts to explain the. Not only the need, but the cost. I could not believe the expense that went from if you had a child and you could provide the diapers if you wanted your child to go into daycare. There were all of these requirements that you had to go through in order to be able to put your child in daycare. And they revolved around diapers. And I'm saying, tammy, nobody knows this. How can that be? I said, well, do we all have to go through having a baby in order to find out? In order to find out? But when she talked about what she wanted to do and how she wanted to approach it, not only her compassion, but also her desire to say, Beverly this is really needed. And she. Florence McElroy, Reverend McElroy was actually running the Cooper foundation at the time. And, yeah, Flo was her head, so organized. And she met with Tammy, but she understood. Flo had had experiences with parishioners and others in the community, but she had an understanding, and they proceeded to get together and start to work. And before we knew it, little angels was a real thing.

[22:33] AMELIA CADE CADE BACON: Absolutely. I know. And it does. When you first hear about it, you think, like, really diapers. I know I had.

[22:47] BEVERLYERLY COOPER: It does sound very simple. Yes.

[22:52] AMELIA CADE CADE BACON: We were brought, little angels was brought to my sorority, and the person who brought it explained the concept. And all of us were sitting around looking. This is a women's organization, the largest in the country, right? Like over 300,000 members nationwide. And we were looking, and they were explaining to us the need for diapers. And once it was explained to us, and then we had an event that was coming up very soon after. We had that explanation of what little angel's project and all of the things that went into the thought process of why this came about, why it was necessary. All of us went out and bought these diapers, and we came back and we said, did you know how much diapers cost? And I laugh because I have grandchildren, so I'm kind of in that world of knowing what they are costing now. I mean, my grandchildren don't wear them now. But I did have the experience of, you know, when I was helping my two children, doing their going through raising my grandchildren occasionally I would have to go to the store and do the shopping. And the diapers were. And these people are looking at me. They said, did you know that? I said, yes, I knew it. And so we collected the diapers, and that's the day that you came to. We had a conference, and you came to the conference, or someone came and picked the diapers up and we. I mean, all over the table, and it was priceless. I mean, the picture, you know, that we got from it was just great. And. But it was. It was something that left everybody in the organization really talking about.

[24:45] BEVERLYERLY COOPER: They did. They did. I'm forever grateful for the ladies of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated, for supporting little angels in that endeavor and giving me the opportunity to share my story and to support me because of organizations like you guys and everyone else in the community. It helps me to keep pushing the mission forward, you know, because you have to have funding and you have to have a tangible diapers in order to keep doing this. And so I'm grateful for that.

[25:14] AMELIA CADE CADE BACON: Yeah, well, we were glad that we had the opportunity to be able to serve because our organization itself is an organization about service to others. And once we learned about that, you know, we were right on it. And everybody, you know, brought their allocated amount, and some of us, you know, went beyond that because, you know, once you get started, you know, you just go on and do what you feel like.

[25:38] BEVERLYERLY COOPER: It was a diaper shower. It was. It was really nice. And if. And if the family is changing the baby like they should, because the baby go through eight to ten diapers a day.

[25:50] AMELIA CADE CADE BACON: Absolutely, absolutely.

[25:52] BEVERLYERLY COOPER: But they're having a stretch. And some of that, you know, the changes are not happening. And then the baby is susceptible to, you know, diaper rashes and other health issues. They're irritated. And then there's even been studies on child abuse and things like that. Yeah.

[26:07] AMELIA CADE CADE BACON: Yes, for sure.

[26:08] BEVERLYERLY COOPER: I think almost everyone that I knew that little angels was introduced to, they, you know, you sit there, you are wide eyed, but why does that happen? When you think about it, at some point in time, their family members or neighbors that people have children, but, you know, you just don't think of all of the. We think about educating and getting the kids clothed and to school. We probably think about all of the health things.

[26:36] AMELIA CADE CADE BACON: Right.

[26:37] BEVERLYERLY COOPER: But that whole diaper piece was really a true, just a real eye opener. And it is just kind of leaving you wide eyed with, like, you're kidding. What in the world? So now we grew up when you had cloth, cloth diapers. But I do remember my mother cut it, but because she was a nurse, the one thing that she did start to appreciate was when they came in with the disposable divers in the nursery. So that was kind of like a key piece. But, Tammy, it's a wonderful organization. I've seen how people respond to it, I guess, what, about two or three weeks ago, you were honored by the city of Mobile four little angels. The same thing happened in that room. I think, as Councilwoman Gregory was explaining and presenting you with the certificate, there was still there is this look, like, you know why. About diapers?

[27:40] AMELIA CADE CADE BACON: Yeah, like, why did I know about this? This is something I'm hearing for the first time that that is a need out in our community.

[27:47] BEVERLYERLY COOPER: I think because it's such a basic need, I think everyone assumes that it's automatically being met, and it's not. And it actually does kind of. It's a factor into early childhood education, because daycares, most daycares, they don't provide diapers, and so if you don't have the diaper that's needed, your child can't attend. Yeah. And, you know, that's another strong point, too, about early childhood education. I think sometimes we. That's a piece that you would overlook. We are concerned about children being able to have access to early childhood opportunities, but then some of the reasons that they don't go and what are some of the restrictions? But that's filling a need, kind of standing in the gap for things that are part of the kinds of communities that we deal with. Amelia Cade and I got started with stand up mobile, primarily because of the insurrection in Washington, DC on January 6, 2021. People started calling us and saying, can you believe this? What's going on? How can this happen? I thought the Bill of Rights did this. I thought the constitution did that. All of these documents that we knew existed, and suddenly they didn't protect us.

[29:02] AMELIA CADE CADE BACON: From something like that that we thought.

[29:05] BEVERLYERLY COOPER: And most of us did. Right. But it was interesting when we did good old Zoom, because we were into Covid at that point. I remember because you invited me to a few of them and now attended. We got on that Zoom call within a couple of days, and there were so many people on the call. But it was interesting when we said the reason we did it is because what we don't know and what we don't understand, and even though most of us have been educated, some at the doctorate level, you know, but educated in a variety of different ways, it's amazing the kinds of questions that we're asking, and everyone on that call, started to think about what they didn't understand and didn't know. And some of were, some of the conversation was around maybe a job that they were performing. There were emts. We had police officers, we had firemen, we had teachers, grocery store clerks, kids in school. But everyone started talking about things that they either wanted or needed to understand and have a better idea about. We said then what we all need to do is to get our heads together and figure out how do we educate ourselves. And education is a strong piece of everything that we're all about. And I know it's the same thing when you start talking about while you need the item, the diaper, but it's the education piece that really is the foundation. Exactly right. Here we are, another call to action. Help individuals in our community and places that we really want to be a part of to see if we can make changes. We want to see everybody thrive. So I'm even thinking we need to be doing a stand up mobile event with little angels, right? I'm with it.

[30:56] AMELIA CADE CADE BACON: For sure. Yeah. Well, I think you would definitely like being there. We had one not too far from here last week, last weekend, and it was amazing. Over 100 people showed up, and we were just going through some of the things that's happening, of course, in our country, and more specifically to the state of Alabama. We have just received the new congressional district that has been added, and it does impact the city of mobile. We're quite happy about that, that we'll gain a little bit more representation out of our area. It's been long overdue. And so we talked a little bit about that last week. And just overall, general things about voting, not only being registered to vote, but going out and getting out to cast that vote when it's time to vote. We've tried to improve the mindset of the individuals in our area. Most people. We learned partially on the calls that we had when we started to put the organization together that individuals looked at voting as being an event. And so we're trying very hard to let folks know that voting is no longer or never has been an event. It's been a process. So a part of that process, you know, would be registering to vote, but getting yourself educated on what you're voting for, whether there are amendments for the state or to things that impact you, or whether it's for a candidate. And because we are a nonpartisan organization, we do not get into supporting candidates at all or talking about the different parties or anything like that. But we certainly do provide all of the information that we believe would be helpful to our citizens in our community to be able to make a decision in their best interest about a candidate or about something that might be being introduced in our community. And so that's one of the things that we've been very happy about being able to do. And certainly, we could certainly probably learn a lot from little angels bringing that into the fold.

[33:42] BEVERLYERLY COOPER: And fans do it. Let's do it. And, you know, I definitely appreciate the work that you're doing, because I did some canvassing with Beverly a few times, and I was like, ooh, I'm tired. Just trying to penetrate the mindset where a lot of people that I talked to, it was, oh, it don't matter. They're not gonna count the vote anyway. You know, trying to penetrate that type of mindset on a consistent basis, it wore me out. I'm like, just put me on the administrative side. I'll sit behind the table. I don't know if I want to do this anymore. She said, I'll help. Tammy let me take the table down for you. Clean up. But that's been. That's probably exactly what the two of you are saying. The challenge has been trying to have people understand what's required and what's necessary. So we. They will always ask about how does something happen? They want to talk to a particular person about a policy or about a rule or regulation, and most of the time, it's right there in front of them. It's usually local, and there can be, but they don't know how to go about it. So we're spending a lot of time on the education side. Now, voting is important, getting you registered, but we're trying to have folks understand and go understand a process and how that process works and also how it could be something that raise all the boats in the river. Right. We're talking about a rising tide in Mobile. Stand up wants to be a part of it. So we are truly a call to action. Stand up, mobile.

[35:15] AMELIA CADE CADE BACON: Yes.

[35:15] BEVERLYERLY COOPER: Stand up.

[35:16] AMELIA CADE CADE BACON: Yeah, in a lot of different ways. You know, that stand up is a phrase, and the name itself, hopefully, will communicate to our community that this is what change looked like. You know, stand up. That's how you bring about change. You know, if you're silent, if you're sitting down, if you're staying away, that's not going to happen for you. But we can get out and we can stand and move forward. That is when you're really getting what you need to bring the change that's necessary for all of us to have a better life, and, you know, those things that we feel are deserving to anybody.

[36:01] BEVERLYERLY COOPER: Let's get together for a cup of tea later on, ladies, and continue this conversation. This is for sure. This has been wonderful. Tammy, thank you so much for inviting us.

[36:10] AMELIA CADE CADE BACON: Yeah. Thank you, Tammy.

[36:12] BEVERLYERLY COOPER: Thank you. Thank you. My sister Amelia Cade Absolutely.

[36:16] AMELIA CADE CADE BACON: Yes, absolutely. Beverly, I'm right here. Thank you.