In our little town

The following is an excerpt from one of my Amazon E-book, "Spirits of Cibola County". It was recalled because I began thinking about the suffering in the news today. It is not new.

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            Always make room to change your mind, sometimes you need time to think. With the diversity in Grants, New Mexico one would assume color is not an important issue. It probably isn’t if one belongs to a majority group. Being black in a small town that mostly isn’t is a challenge Frank H. has faced since he first set foot in town.

            It was a December day in 1957 when Frank, his brother and a friend stepped out of a restaurant into the waiting arms of the local police department. He thought they were just being friendly. The group soon discovered jail was their destination.

            The next day a call was made to a preacher in Farmington, NM on their behalf. When the preacher was told they had been arrested for suspicion, he made some threats of his own, with positive results. He informed the officer that he would send in the National Guard if they were not immediately released.

            This was not the first or last time Frank experienced prejudice in his lifetime. As a young man he was drafted into the Army at Fort Bliss. At the time it was still segregated. He recalled living off base in a run down motel and being issued a meal ticket for food at a restaurant. Frank complained about the way he was treated, which attracted the attention of a commander. After talking about it, the commander saw his point and also recognized that he might be officer material.

            Frank told him that he really wanted to join the Air Force. He was granted a discharge and given a ticket home. Realizing that the Air Force was volunteer and noting Fort Benning, Georgia was having serious racial problems, Frank chose not to report for duty. He was arrested as a deserter. After checking out his discharge papers the judge released him. Because Frank moved to another state, mail had problems catching up to him. It took ten years for the Government to change his draft status.

            Frank and his wife Jessie have raised their five children in Grants.  He was a lead man for Kerr Megee and a crew leader at United Nuclear and at one point had two auto repair shops. Now he owns and operates his own auto repair business. He wanted a business partly to give his children a place to work if they had problems finding a job. One daughter is an expert mechanic. Frank likes to give people a chance to work and encourages education.

            He admits he has always stood up for himself as a human being. When he was a teenager his parents really thought he would be killed. He looked people in the eye instead of at the ground. He also had white female friends, which was not tolerated at the time.

            Frank has the unique distinction of having Indian blood. He is one fourth Crow and one fourth Cherokee. When his family lived in Hobbs, NM blacks could go places Indians could not. People were afraid of the Indians, who often stayed with the blacks.

            Frank is very active in his church and says he lives his life from Genesis to Revelations. He enjoys checking on the residents of Grants Good Samaritan Center, Visiting them makes him realize his life is not so bad after all.

             His goal for the future is to help people realize that they are all children of God and are brothers and sisters. He illustrated his desire with a true story. One day he was driving several of his grandchildren in a truck and they were fighting about who would sit next to him. One child announced he was her grandfather and another made the emphatic point he was her grandfather too.