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It was this kind of a childhood. After a certain point, you took it for granted. You know, you just did it. But you knew at certain times that this was a critical thing, because every now and then, there would happen a crisis. You'd have a lynching, somewhere, either in your town or a nearby town. That would be a cause of great aggravation and concern on the part of everyone. So you were always aware of it -- always.

Then, as you got older, you began to read, and you began to be aware of the total situation, the much broader scope of this thing.

I was never really harmed by it, I don't think. You can't tell. But you did have to learn the protocol of it.

Now, how much of this did you learn from instruction from your parent and how much did you learn, or be conditioned by your school mates, other children, just being conditioned by being outside?

I would say I learned most of it from my parents, because we had to be prepared before we were sent out, you know, on our own. I'd say most of it from my parents. Nothing was a surprise, about some of the outside behavior, in the environment of my family. I was never surprised.

I knew for instance, when we went to football games, which were out of town, you know, that we would have to take our own lunch, or that we would have to find our own bath room facilities. You know, I knew that all the time. And everybody knew that. So that you just protected yourself. That's what you did.