Dolores Clark - On her great-grandfather (clip)

Dolores Clark: Tony was separated from his mother. His mother was taken from him to Hillsborough and put on the block in Hillsborough when he was only 7 years old. And after that, he stayed on the plantation until he was about 16 or 17, and left the plantation, did some work around. He learned how to do brickwork, so they got married in 1876 and that’s when they started their home. So my great-grandfather, they didn’t know how to read back in those days, they weren’t taught by the plantation owners because it was against the rules. So my great-grandfather, after they built the log cabin and additions to the home, he started, he read by the moonlight, and that’s how he taught himself to read, by the moonlight.

And my great grandmother told that story, also, she said he was a smart man. I think he was smart because he became a minister, he became one of the founders of Rock Hill Baptist Church, which is now First Baptist. He was a magister, he married people, he was a Sunday school superintendent, the choir director at Rock Hill Baptist Church, and was a very prominent person in the community. And he also did mason work, brick work, and he taught his grandchildren how to do the work, which my uncles and everybody had a part because my mother had 9 siblings and they all had the responsibility of learning to do things, you know, work, so they could take care of their families.