Paulette Isaac Napper and Tomeka Napper

Paulette (P) talks about a book she has written for Joshua her grandson mentioning growing up in the 1960s, black history month and Black Wall Street. Then P shares that her mother managed the only black movie theater at the time.

P talks about not seeing black people in the movie. She references Roy Rogers and seeing a black person as a maid or butler. She talks about not realizing what was going on in their world until seeing Dr. King on the news hour. P shares that her mother protected her from Jim Crow.

P talks about segregation and the family tradition of traveling to D.C. and preparing food for travel and eating in the car to feel safe.

P talks about President Kennedy and some of what she describes as Florida's low spot regarding segregation. She mentions the contrast of Florida being a tourism state and not as much marching and protests as in Mississippi or Georgia. P describes the desegregation in Florida as done quietly.

P shares her family holiday tradition of buying clothes through Sears' Christmas catalog instead of the store and going over to her grandmother's (Big Mama’s) house after church. She talks of her grandmother as the matriarch. P describes the tradition of getting ready for Sunday church on Saturday and the importance of that and clothing.

P talks about the traditions of big bows, hair plating, press and curl then talks about why the tradition of dressing up on Sunday was important to grown ups during the 1960s and mentions community pride, Essence and Ebony magazine.

P describes the church being the first restaurant she ever ate in where she sat at the table with the adults/family at church, and how she and others had to be on their best behavior, had to use proper instruments to eat, and couldn’t get involved in adult conversations.