St Rose Students Receive Message Of Diversity And Respect

By Tanjua Damon

“You may not ever find an angel like Mrs Merril, but somewhere down the line you will. It may be a school administrator, your teacher, or a friends,” Jefferson Wiggins said. “What angels do is provide a pathway from the darkness into the light. That’s what your teachers do, gradually move you from darkness into the light.”

New Fairfield author Jefferson Wiggins took time on Thursday to speak to St Rose sixth, seventh, and eighth graders about his life in the south, the importance of diversity, and knowing how to respect yourself. Mr Wiggins wrote a book in 1970 entitled White Cross Black Crucifixion. He also has a new book, Another Generation Always Forgotten, that is due to be released in April and is being considered for a screenplay.

Mr Wiggins was born in Alabama. He lived in a small shack with his mother, father, sisters and brothers, and other relatives. His life was not easy in Alabama with his father being a sharecropper, farming land that belonged to a white man. Mr Wiggins’ father had to receive permission in order to sell any of the crops he produced.

“The greatest concern I have is for young people. I am sure your background is very different than mine,” Mr Wiggins said. “I was born in the deep south in the state of Alabama. The opportunities you have, I never had.”

There was a time when Mr Wiggins’ father had at least six barrels of cotton he could sell, but the white man wanted him to wait until the market was better so he could get more money from the crop, since he received half of the profit, he said. The Wiggins family went almost a week without any food. But finally Mr Wiggins’ grandmother told her son that he had to make a decision – a decision for his family. The father decided to sell a barrel of cotton in order to feed his family.

“Usually the sharecropper is a poverty-stricken person with very little education and usually worked the land for someone else,” Mr Wiggins said. “Instead of giving us $100 for the crop, they never ended up even. We lived in a small shack on the edge of Alabama.”

When it was learned that Mr Wiggins’ father had sold some of the crop to feed his family, they received a visit from members of the Ku Klux Klan. The group had hung a rope from a tree and was going to kill his father because he had sold some of the crop.

“It’s one thing to be hungry and know the refrigerator is full, but it’s another thing to be hungry and know there is no food,” he said. “My grandmother was a very wise woman. Everyone listened to my grandmother.”

The crisis in the Wiggins family got worse. They were awakened in the middle of the middle by 30 people outside their home with a burning cross in the yard, Mr Wiggins said. The Ku Klux Klan wanted to kill his father for selling the crop.

“They had hoods and shotguns. There was a rope over a pine tree,” Mr Wiggins said. “They came to kill my father because he had violated the landowner’s order to wait until the stock market was up.”

His grandmother did all the talking to the Klan, Mr Wiggins said. She told them that her son was not there, but when he got back she would let them know. A 10-year-old boy that had come with his father to make Mr Wiggins’ father pay for not listening was very disappointed that he was not going to be able to kill a black man, Mr Wiggins remembers.

Mr Wiggins explained to the students that the treatment of African Americans in the south was very different when he was a child. Blacks were not addressed as Mr or Mrs.

Mr Wiggins later went into the Army, where he met a librarian, Anna Marie Merril, and a priest, Father Morelli, who both helped educate him and teach him how to respect himself in the world.

“White people always told me I was nothing and I would never be anything,” Mr Wiggins said. “You tend to believe that when it is told to you many times.”

In order for Mr Wiggins to move on, Father Morelli told him he had to deal with his past. So he took a trip back to Alabama to where he lived to deal with the issues that were keeping him from excelling in life.

“Father Morelli told me I was never going to be the same until this scene was recreated in my mind,” Mr Wiggins said. “I was back in Jerusalem, my Jerusalem.”

The Army also helped Mr Wiggins learn lessons in life that he passed on to the students throughout his talk. He told them that they are responsible for their actions and have to respect themselves before anyone else can learn to respect them.

“I had learned self-control. I had learned self-respect and set some goals for myself,” Mr Wiggins said. “If you use your brain you can survive anything. No matter what situation you find yourself in, you’ll always find someone who can help you. Try to do things for others.”

Mr Wiggins told the students that life is full of discipline and that sometimes it is better to walk away from situations than to add to them with a smart reply.

“Sometimes the bravest person is the one who steps down,” he said. “Improve your self-discipline and set some goals.”

Working together is much better than working individually, Mr Wiggins told the students. Helping each other will benefit everyone.

“When you get from point A to point B, you didn’t get there by yourself. There is always someone who helps along the way,” Mr Wiggins said. “We are more alike than we are different. We ought to focus on likenesses rather then differences.”