Kohen and Albert Nelson’s “The Great Thanksgiving Listening Project”

00:05 All right, my name is Cohen Nelson I'm 17 years old, and today's November 22, 2023, the day before Thanksgiving. And I'm speaking with. Introduce yourself.

00:24 You speaking with your grandfather, Albert Nelson

00:30 That's right. And then we're recording in Vestavia Hills, Alabama, for the Great Thanksgiving Listening Project. So for the first question, I just wanted to ask you, well, where'd you grow up?

00:47 Where did I grow up? I grew up in Perry County, Alabama, in a small town known as Uniontown, Alabama, in the 1940s.

00:58 Okay, and what was it like growing up?

01:01 Well, Cohen, I had a difficult time growing up. We came from a very poor family, and we were farmers, but we had our own land, and whatever we had, we had to make it ourselves. We did not depend, depending on other people to help us. Most of the food that we had eaten at that time was food that we grew, and we got our money from the farm, from cotton, selling cotton milk and okra and things like that. So I did not have a very good child's life when I was growing up, but I did the best I could, but we were a happy family.

01:56 Okay, and what would you do for fun as a child?

02:01 We played for fun. Mostly we just played little games, and I played a little baseball, and we used to hunt, and we hunted rabbits and squirrels at that time and booze, things like that. And that was fun for me.

02:22 Okay. All right. And were the. What were the best things you learned from your mom or your grandparents while growing up?

02:33 Okay. When my. When I was growing up, I learned from them that to always work hard and be independent, I think that is the best thing I learned from them. And to treat your neighbors right and try to treat everyone right.

02:56 Okay, so could you tell me about some historical events you witnessed growing, growing up or coming up, like civil rights or military service?

03:10 Okay. Cohen. I grew up doing what they call the segregationist era in Alabama, and we could not vote or anything. I witnessed a lot of things that was a disadvantage to us, but we made it through during the civil rights area. One of our greatest leaders, his wife is from Perry County, Alabama, and I had the opportunity to meet her on two different occasions. Her name was Color Scott King, and that was the wife of Dr. Martin Luther King. He was a great man who served his people and the United States well. Even though he had a lot of enemy. Anytime people are doing something great, they're going to have enemies. He was very instrumental in talking about how wrong the war in Vietnam was, which I served in that war during Military service. And I spent nine months and 23 days in Vietnam. In several places in Vietnam that I was stationed, I was in combat, and I managed to come back home. And the greatest thing or the greatest homecoming I ever had was when I left the military service and was able to come back home in one piece, even though I was slightly wounded. And when I got back home, I only weighed 130 pounds. And when my mother saw me, she cried. But that was all right. She was so glad to see me and that I had made it through the wall, which is a lot of my friends and associates in the service at that time did not make it back home. I guess I was. I guess you could say I was one of the lucky ones.

05:24 So. So coming back from the war, were you. Did you serve to the end of the war, or.

05:31 No, I did not serve to the end of the war. The war didn't end until 1972. I came back from the war in January of 1969. And shortly after the war, after I got back home and got myself situated again, I started going to college. I went to college at Alabama State University in Montgomery, Alabama, where I was able to finish and get my BS Degree. And after working for a few years and right before my children were born, I was able to go back to school at the University of Alabama and Alabama State, where I got my master's degree in school administration. And I served in school administration for approximately 26 years. I only taught school for seven years. The rest of the years, I was a school administrator, I was a principal, and then I was assistant to the superintendent until I retired in 2005.

06:49 Okay, and what brought you to that field of work?

06:55 Well, I was influenced mostly about my sister. I had an older sister who had gone to Tuskegee University, and she was an rn and she encouraged me to go back to school. At first, when I first started, I didn't know what I wanted to do. And then during my sophomore year, toward the end of my freshman year, I decided I wanted to be a teacher so that I could try to help my people and help other people to do the right thing. And I knew the importance of education. And I want to encourage young people to go to school, do their very best, and educate themselves to the best of their ability so that they could receive a reward for that. And your reward being if you do a good job in school and learn, you would always be able to find good employment. And that was my greatest thing that I think that I learned from my older siblings.

08:10 Okay, if you could tell me about some concerns you had growing up and then some concerns you have for, like, younger generations in our coming up.

08:27 Well, I guess my greatest concern when I was coming up was being able to help my family and do all I could because as I said before, we were very poor and I wanted to be able to take care of my family in a way better than I was taken care of. Now, don't get me wrong, they did the best they could, but I didn't want my children to suffer as I had done. And the greatest thing I would like to tell, I say to young people of the younger generation is that to work hard and treat people right, never hate, don't ever hate anybody. Because hatred is one of the worst things to me that could happen to a young person. So you treat people right. And most of the time, if you treat people right, they'll treat you right. But you have to at all times make sure you do what's right. And go to church, go to school, obey your parents, obey your teachers, and do what they tell you, and then I think you'll be successful.

09:45 Okay. All right. And if you could go back and give a piece of financial advice to your younger self, what would that be?

09:56 I would tell everybody when they start working to save, if they make a dollar, save or dime, don't ever spend all your money because you never can tell what will happen in the future. And you need to always be able to sustain yourself. So my what I would tell all young people, when you start working and start making money, always save some of your money. Do not spend it all. And always realize that you can't have what other folks have. You have to do for yourself and do the best you can for yourself and be able to take care of your family.

10:41 Okay, and question number six. What are. What are you most proud of? What are you proudest of?

10:51 I'm proud of my children, first of all, because I think both of my children are. All my children has been successful, and I was glad that I could help them when they were coming up to be successful. And I'm most proud of my children and my grandchildren because I think my grandchildren are on a good road to become good citizens and concerned citizens about them themselves and also about the country where they live and their concern for other people.

11:35 Okay, and then on the number seven, how would you. How would you like to be remembered?

11:42 I would like to be remembered as a person who treated people right, went to church, voted to help get people in office who I thought was worthy of it, and who would have concern for all people, not just some people. And never to hate. Never to hate. Always remember that. Do the best you can to make other people respect you. If you hate people and do bad things, then people won't respect you as a person. I think the Bible will tell you to treat people right. And by that I mean don't do things to try to harm people. If you're going to do anything, try to help people.

12:35 Okay. And then do you have any. Any regrets?

12:43 Well, I regret that I could not do more for my family and my children and grandchildren. I wish I could have done more, but I did the best I could, and I always did that. And I think that's a blessing from the Lord.

13:02 Okay. All right. And then what were. What were the best times of your life?

13:11 Oh, that's hard to say. I would say the best time of my life was when I was in college where I got to meet so many people from so many different places, and I got to learn about them and learn about other cultures. When I was in the military, I was in service with a lot of Puerto Ricans. Puerto Ricans are American citizens, but they just came from Puerto Rico, and they always joined the military service. I got to meet Native Americans, which y'all now call Indians, but I call them Native Americans. And I learned things from them. I learned how they came up and about their family. And I guess that's some of the things that I really remember. And I think they were great times when I was in college and I got to meet all kinds of people and in college and military services.

14:12 Okay. And could you tell me about your religious or spiritual beliefs?

14:21 Okay, I'm Christian. What I will say, I was raised up in the church in the country church. Our church was very unique. Black religion was somewhat different from white belief. We believe strictly in the Bible, and we don't believe that anything in the Bible that tell you people are different. They say God loves all his children of all of mankind in the same way and that you can be forgiven for your sins, but try to sin as less as you can, and then you won't have to ask for forgiveness all the time. Try to just try to be what your parent and what I've tried to teach you to be yourself and treat people right and never hate. Jesus Christ did not hate people. He did not hate the people who crucified him.

15:38 So with that, growing up knowing that you're reading from the same Bible is, you know, white churches in the segregation era, how would you reconcile, like, you know, you're reading from the same book, and, like, there is no hate. It's all love. How would you reconcile that with, like, what you were reading and how you were being treated at the time?

16:03 Well, you think, let's have two sides to it. You know, sometime I thought people of different races, if you. Especially if you was black, they didn't look at you as being human beings. They look at you as some kind of servant to them. And I always tell children, when I was coming, children I worked with, and I worked with many children, they was not in this world to live up to other people's expectations or to be their servant. You're only a servant to God, and if you do his will, you will be good. But now I was mistreated, but I still did not hate. I never learned to hate people. I learned to try to understand them. And somewhere in the Bible, I don't remember the passage, it says, get knowledge, get wisdom, but above all things, get an understanding. And I always try to understand people and not pass judgment on people. I think God will be the judge of all of us.

17:25 Yes, sir. And then you may have briefly touched on this, but what's the most important thing you've learned in life?

17:35 To treat people right and right will follow you? That I think that one of the things that my grandmother always emphasized, to love, not hate.

17:50 Okay?

17:50 To love, not hate. So that's just what I believe, and I believe that today.

17:58 All right. And would that be the. The wisdom you'd like to pass on to. To younger generations?

18:03 Yes. To love, not hate. When you could help someone, help them. And I'm not gonna tell you that if somebody hit you on one cheek to turn the other. But I tell you, try to understand and get an understanding. And always think that before you make a decision, if you think before you make a decision, most of the time, you'll make the right decision.

18:32 Okay.

18:34 All right. My grandson.

18:36 All right. Well, thank you, Granddaddy. I. I enjoyed the interview and getting to listen, listen to you and hear about some things I never knew.

18:45 Yeah.

18:45 All right. Thank you.

18:46 Oh, you're quite welcome, man. Anytime. If I. I can do something to tell you something, I'll be more than happy to do that.

18:54 Okay.

18:55 And thank you. Thank you for interviewing me about things, because sometimes if you ask questions, you'll learn a lot of things by just asking questions.

19:07 Yes, sir.

19:08 Okay.

19:08 Thank you.

19:09 Very good.