At the recruitment center, he was told the Navy had an Electrical Engineering program and he would be recommended for it! Since he couldn’t afford college, he thought this was the answer to his prayers. Little did he know that Negros were not allowed in the program.
On board the ship, my father earned a reputation for being able to fix anything. Whenever a radio was broken, they brought it to my dad to repair it.
Then one day the radar to the ship went down.
It was down for three days. No one could figure out what was wrong with it. Finally someone said, “There’s a negro on board who can fix anything. Maybe we should call him.”
When my dad came out of the space, there was no doubt who had fixed the radar. The head of the Electrical Engineering program asked my dad how come he wasn’t in the program. “I was told Negros weren’t allowed in the program sir.”
After my mom and dad got married, they had me, and then tried to buy a house. Even though my dad was a veteran,
he was told by bank after bank he couldn’t use the VA loan program, since most deeds specified negros couldn’t own property.
Although he was a skilled electrical engineer, the only job he could find at the time was as a custodian.