About This Episode

Host Connor Kenaston shares an oral history interview he recorded with Lealure Tindall about her experience of growing up Black in small-town Missouri in the 1950’s.

“Every Black parent wasn’t for [integration of schools], and definitely every white parent wasn’t for it … My dad was determined that it was going to work that it was going to happen. One night, we had this car outside, so we went to the door to see what was going on because they were making a ruckus. They were burning a cross in front of the house ... It was in the paper [saying] ‘Oh they don’t know who it was.’ and Daddy knew the car. We knew the car ... Those men knew that he knew. ”

In This Episode

2:30 Integration of Schools
4:30 Growing Up in a Small Town and Identity
7:35 How Racial Identity Affects Our Memory of Events
10:30 An Interaction with the Police that Led to Positive Change