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Charlotte Phoenix, PhD, was interviewed by Tina Harper.
Dr. Charlotte Phoenix, author, mathematician and Greenburgh resident, recently shared the incredible story of her family with Tina Harper, Recreation Leader, Department of Community Resources, in a recording for the African Diaspora Experience: Living Narratives of Greenburgh Residents project.
Charlotte’s story focused on her grandfather, who was given the slave name Thomas in Mississippi. With his unique access to education and later paid work as a freed man, “Thomas” was ultimately able to buy the very 400-acre plantation he was once enslaved on, give himself his own chosen name – “Mister Man” since he was “tired of being called ‘boy’,” said Charlotte – and serve as principal of a boys' school. But it was the 19-teens in the Deep South so his position, education, and the progressive way he conducted himself as head of a school was all very threatening to the local KKK, who unfortunately succeeded at scaring Mister and his pregnant wife out of town.
The couple became part of the Great Northern Migration that eventually brought them to follow the promise of Henry Ford who paid any man the same daily rate in his car assembly plant in Detroit, Michigan. That is not to say that there was no racism in the North, Charlotte explained. The racism her grandfather experienced in the North, and while serving overseas in WWI, was often just more covert than what they experienced in the South. After serving as principal of a school with multiple degrees in Mississippi, Charlotte's grandfather retired in Michigan as a head custodian in an elementary school.
The message threading the stories Charlotte heard growing up – often narrated by her blind great grandmother – was how the doors of opportunity would be opening someday for her generation, so she better get as much education as possible to be ready for it. Charlotte Phoenix, with her PhD, certainly embraced this lesson in her own life; and she’s an expert storyteller on her family history. Please listen to her vivid narration here: http://greenburghpublicaccess.com/local-programming/02102022-901 along with the other stories we're collecting over the course of Black History Month and beyond.
CHARLOTTE PHOENIX
Charlotte Phoenix, born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, describes her experience in a four-generational house with her great-grandparents, her grandparents, her parents, and the stories of her family.
Born 1947 as the youngest child with five adults, Charlotte described her life as paradise. She was always made the center of attention, allowed to ask any question she wanted, and people took the time to read to her. Often, her blind great-grandmother would tell her family stories of her grandfather and great-grandfather. Helping Charlotte understand that she came from good people, good stock, and a rich history that shouldn’t be taken from her.
Charlotte’s experiences start with the history of her family. Her grandfather was a slave named Thomas by his master. For Thomas to be the best use for his master, he was taught to read, write, and do math. But since that was illegal at the time for slaves, his master freed him but did not free his wife and child to keep him from running away. He was paid for his work, and he could buy his wife and child’s freedom when he had enough money. Thomas saved a ton of money but did not need it because his family was freed by the end of the Civil War. So, he used the money he saved to buy back the farm from his previous master's wife and become the owner of the 400 acres of land. After the war, wanting to change his name to illustrate his freedom, he became Mister and changed his last name to Man before adding Barry at the end. He was known as “Mister Man Barry.”
After their freedom, her grandparents moved to Mississippi. There, he was told that his family was corrupting the other black people with their progressive, educated nature. The KKK threatened her grandfather's life, threw blood on their porch, burned things on their lawn, and set crosses on fire all outside their house. When they threatened her grandmother and unborn child, that was the last straw that led the family to move from Mississippi in 1915. They went to Ohio, where her Grandfather fought for equal pay for black workers. Charlotte recounts that story: “History and the times shaped that experience because it was also the time when labor unions were on the rise. My grandfather had negotiated with the owner of one of the factories to pay black people the same as they were paying the white people before one of the first strikes. So for the second time within three years, he was run out of another town and finally made it to their primary destination, which was Detroit.”
In Detroit, Charlotte’s grandfather still faced tremendous amounts of racism and was denied a teaching job because they wouldn’t count his degree. So, her grandfather went to the Detroit College of Law at night and worked in a factory during the day to pay for his education and family. Charlotte’s grandfather only had half a year left to graduate at the time of Charlotte’s mother's graduation. So, he decided to let Charlotte’s mother go to college instead of him finishing his law school degree. Ultimately, her grandfather had a bachelor's, a master's, and two and a half years of a three-year law degree, but when he retired, he retired as head custodian of an elementary school. This story Inspired Charlotte to take her education seriously and get the proper education needed for a job so she could be whatever she wanted.
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