City League Sacramento President Cassandra Jennings displays on life throughout Civil Rights Motion

ACCOUNTS. USER STARTED TO REPORT THE OUTAGE ABOUT NOON TODAY IN THE SYSTEM IS STILL DOWN. WE HAVE COME A LONG WAY BUT MORE WORK STILL NEEDS TO BE DONE, THOSE ARE WORDS FROM A WOMAN WHO GREW UP IN A ONCE SEGREGATED NORTH CAROLINA. LISA: CASSANDRA JENNINGS SAYS SHE GREW UP ALWAYS ASKING WHY PEOPLE TREATED HER DIFFERENTLY BECAUSE OF THE COLOR OF HER SKIN. NOW PRESIDENT AND CEO OF AN ORGANIZATION, SHE DEDICATED HER LIFE TO ADVOCACY FOR UNDERSERVED INDIVIDUALS AND THEIR FAMILIES. BRIE JOHNSON TAKES US BACK TO WHERE IT ALL STARTED. >> I JUST REMEMBER GROWING UP IN THE SEGREGATED SOUTH, NOT REALLY KNOWING WHAT IT MEANT. I REMEMBER WHEN WE WENT TO THE RESTAURANT, WE HAD TO GO TO THE TAKEOUT. WE COULD NOT GO SIT IN. WHEN WE WENT T STORES, WE HAD TO STAY IN THE BACK. I REMEMBER GOING TO THE MOVIE THEATER WHERE WE HAD TO SIT AT THE TOP AND WATCH ALL THE OTHER PEOPLE THAT DIDN’T LOOK LIKE US SIT IN THE BOTTOM. >> WHAT WAS YOUR ROLE DURING THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT AND WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER ABOUT THAT TIME? >> THE ASSASSINATION OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING. I JUST REMEMBER WEEPING AS A CHILD. WEEPING WITH THE SENSE THAT THE HPE AND DREAMS THAT DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING TALKED ABOUT, THAT I HAD WATCHED THE MARCH ON WASHINGTON, THAT I HAD FELT THE PAIN THAT HE DESCRIBED, THAT MY MOM ALWAYS REMINDS ME THAT SHE COULD HAVE BEEN ROSA PARKS ON THAT BUS. THAT I JUST WEPT. AND I THOUGHT THAT I HAD PLEDGED TO MYSELF, AND MY FATHER KNEW THIS, PROBABLY MORE SO THAN MY MOM, THAT I WASN’T GOING TO GIVE UP BECAUSE I WAS IN AN INTEGRATED SCHOOL, BUT WE WANTED MORE I NORTHEAST TO BE INVOLVED. THE SELECTION COMMITTEE DIDN’T LOOK LIKE US, DIDN’T UNDERSTAND OR RELATE TO US. SO WE DID A POLICY AT SCHOOL THAT SAID ANY SELECTION COMMITTEE THAT YOU HAVE, IT WILL REPRESENT YOUR PEOPLE, AND IT WOULD HAVE SOMEBODY BLACK. SO WE PUT THAT POLICY IN PLACE WHEN I WAS A SENIOR IN HIGH SCHOOL. IT DIDN’T HAPPEN. I HAD TO GO DOWN IN A GYM FULL OF PEOPLE, 300 GIRLS DRESSED TO TRY OUT IN A GYM FULL OF SPECTATORS, AND WE HAD TO CANCEL THAT TRY OUT BECAUSE THE SCHOOL HAD NOT MADE TRUE ON ITS COMMITMENT. AND AS A RESULT I GOT A LOT OF PUSHBACK. PEOPLE VANDALIZED MY HOUSE, THEY THREW EGGS, THEY THREW A BRICK THE WINDOW. AT THE END OF THE DAY, WHEN WE CALLED THE POLICE, THEY ASK, WHAT DID YOU DO TO PROVOKE IT? I WAS LIKE, THIS IS NOT REAL. >> WHAT IS YOUR MESSAGE TO YOUTH? >> I LOOK AT THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF JOHN LEWIS AND I SAY WELL, HE STAYED THE COURSE. HE KEPT THE FIGHT. HE RAN THE RACE, AND HE NEVER GAVE UP AT ALL. SO WHAT IT TELLS ME IS TO KEEP GOING. WHAT IT TELLS YOU IS, GET ON YOUR JOB, DON’T BE AFRAID TO SPEAK OUT. DON’T BE AFRAID TO STAND FOR WHAT YOU BELIEVE. BE PROUD OF WHO YOU ARE, AND DO IT IN A WAY THAT YOU CAN SEE THE RESULTS THAT YOU WANT TO SEE. DON’T DO IT WITH VENGEANCE. DON’T DO IT WITH PRIDE FOR SELF, OTHER THAN PRIDE FOR WHAT YOU ARE TRYING TO DO. AND YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE SILENT. BUT YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE VIOLENT. YOU DON’T HAVE TO DESTROY THINGS. AN

‘We have made a lot of progress but we still have a long way to go’: Urban League Sacramento President Cassandra Jennings reflects on life during Civil Rights Movement

Updated: 5:09 PM PST Feb 26, 2021

Hearst Television is celebrating Black History Month by having powerful conversations with Black leaders in the community. We’re speaking with those who have lived through the Civil Rights Movement, to talk about their experiences fighting for justice, equality, legislation to end segregation, and so much more, and compare them with what we still struggle with today. KCRA 3’s Brittany Johnson spoke with Cassandra Jennings, president & CEO of Greater Sacramento Urban League, for this installment of Project CommUNITY: History & Hope.During the interview, Jennings reflected on her upbringing in Williamston, North Carolina, and how growing up during segregation would shape her life of community advocacy.Q: Let’s go back to 1956 in Williamston, North Carolina, where you were born and grew up. How did Williamston, N.C., shape your life?Jennings: Williamston, North Carolina, will always be my home. It was where it all began. It’s a small quaint town, the industries — cotton, and peanuts, probably still some of that today. It was a family town. My grandparents lived next to their sisters, my aunt, and my mother and father had a house a couple of doors down and my aunt lived right next to us. I was born in the segregated South. I had a sister at that time and then later came a little brother. There were three of us and my mom and dad. I just remember growing up in the segregated South, and not really knowing what it meant. I could go to certain places. When we went to the restaurant, we had to go to the takeout. We couldn’t go sit in. When we went to the stores, we had to stay in the back. I remember going to the movie theater where we had to sit up at the top and watch all the other people that didn’t look like us sit at the bottom. I remember this one time finding some money and then running down to give the money to the person who was manning the movie theater, who didn’t even say thank you when I was turning in money that I had found. But you know, it helped to shape me — that negativity, ugliness. Hate is not something that I wanted to be a part of whatever was happening, we had to see beyond that to a better day.Q: Did you ever ask why? Why do we have to go through certain doors? Why do we have to eat here? Why do we have to fit at the top of the movie theater?Jennings: You know, I would ask my mother and father that often. My father would always respond that people didn’t understand the color of our skin and they discriminated against us. My father being very, very light-skinned, and my mother being really, a darker complexion, had experienced those things when they were growing up and still today. My father would say that we’re fighting to make things better, that people, this hatred, and bigotry is not what we’re all about, that people should love each other and respect each other. He being in education was really at the forefront because people really looked up to principals and teachers, and would really just say, we can do better than this. And so, I would watch him by example. When people would get arrested, they would be calling the teacher, the principal to go and bail people out. And he was constantly giving up his time. And I kept watching him and watching my whole family just protect our community, while they were really in a struggle to try to make sure that it was better not only for them but for their families and their children.Q: What did your parents do?Jennings: My mother was one of seven children. Her father was a barber and her mother was a stay-at-home mom. They raised all their kids to get four-year degrees and beyond in Historical Black Colleges. One became a medical doctor and they all had different degrees. My father was the only child even back then, and his parents owned a store, had a tobacco farm. … But they both were educated through Historical Black Colleges. And they were educated. My mom was a math teacher, my father a science teacher, chemistry, and physics, and he was a principal at the time in the college school that was actually first-grade through eighth-grade because then we didn’t have kindergarten. So, I never went to kindergarten. I’m still sort of mad about that … They were also community leaders because, you know, the saying it takes a village to raise a child, they were part of the village, and in the South, everybody, and beyond your parents and your grandparents are responsible for raising you. And despite what you had to go through, they were there for you.Q: What were you like as a child?Jennings: Well, I was a sensitive child, but a deliberate one, and I was determined. I was determined to make things better. Even when I was a little child, I was always trying to see how I could fix things. And so, as you ask the question, what did I think about everything that was going on? I kept saying, why? Why can’t I go over there and play with those little kids that are right across the street from me? Why do I have the drink out of this fountain that is for coloreds only when there’s a fountain over there, that is in fact closer to me, that is more accessible to me. And so, I was always curious. And then I was always determined to make it better. So especially by the time I get to middle school in high school, I was carrying a sign, I was protesting. … I was setting up policies in my high school of how we could reach equality, how things could be equal, and, and certainly, even back then when I looked at it, I was doing it in a collaborative spirit. I didn’t just say, let me fix it. I’m saying let’s bring everybody together and figure out how we can do this together.Q: 1956, the year you were born, is the same year the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Browder vs. Gayle case. The ruling stated that racial segregation on buses was unconstitutional. It ended the year-long Montgomery Bus Boycott. I know you were just born in 1956 but were things still segregated after that?Jennings: Things were still segregated. And that’s interesting about policies. We put them in place and if we don’t get behind them, they never get implemented. And it took way too long to do it. In fact, when I left North Carolina when I was about 10, the schools were just desegregating. So that’s what 1966 and at that point where the white high school was, like three blocks from where we lived, we had to go like three miles in the other direction to school every day. Now, I got a ride, but others didn’t. And in fact, what did that matter when there was a school closer to me that had better facilities that had better books. And while I got a good education, we did not have the tools or the resources that the other. When I moved to Maryland was the first experience of desegregation and busing was just starting where they were trying to bus kids from one neighborhood to another to integrate the schools. And in North Carolina, it was just so far behind that that wasn’t even a gleam of hope at that time. So, policies are in place, but implementation and intentionality, and commitment to the success of it were really slow in my judgment.Q: Your entire life you grew up one way, right? You said, segregated. And then you go to Maryland, and things are starting to be different. What was it like when you first started to realize things were different there? What did you think?Jennings: Well, being a child and being and coming up in the family that I had, that was always with hope. I felt hopeful. But I’ll tell you, the year that we moved to Maryland, we bought a house in a neighborhood that was primarily white, it was right out of the suburbs of Washington, D.C. In one year that whole community changed. It was the flight to the suburbs. It’s like if they had come in, I’m leaving, right? And so, one, you think you’re coming into a new community. There are embracing differences and commonalities and you’re all living together. And in one year, the whole complexion of that neighborhood, as well as the school, just changed overnight. Then I knew that there was more work ahead. Q: Do you remember the very first time you were able to drink out of a water fountain that maybe you couldn’t have back in North Carolina?Jennings: Well, as I say, when we get to Maryland, it was integrated, although very segregated within the integration. I do remember that when I went back to North Carolina, and I still go back there often, but when we would go to visit our grandparents and our families, I would say probably if I left when I was 10, it was probably around when I was 12 or 13, I purposely visited some places just to really sort of validate the sort of freedom or the progress that we had made to go to those water fountains at the bus stop at the bus station, and take a drink. I also remember going to our favorite barbecue place, and still today when I go back, I refuse to go to the window for the takeout. And even though I’m ordering take out, I go through the restaurant, order at the counter, wait for my food, and then take it out. So that was important to me, every time to really acknowledge from where I’ve come from, but where I never want to go back and where I was at that moment. So, we did that often. And of course, years later, we were all shopping in the same places in the little town and certainly in Maryland and across the country. But I think what is always sort of top of mind is what’s underlining. Are we really at a point where we don’t go back to that again? Or have we just sort of sugar-coated it? And there’s still some issues that we need to deal with.Q: What was your role during the Civil Rights Movement and what do you remember about that time?Jennings: Now, I was still a minor and under, under great supervision of great family. I think I was more of the very asking a lot of questions of my parents, and then demanding that they do their part. When we moved to Maryland was when the riots had just occurred in Washington, D.C., when unrest was obviously at a peak. And then sadly to say later, the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. And as a child, I just remember weeping, weeping with the sense that the hope and dreams that Dr. Martin Luther King had talked about, that I had watched the March on Washington, that I had felt the pain that he described. My mom always reminds me that she could have been Rosa Parks on that bus. I just wept. And, I had pledged to myself, and my father knew this, probably more so than my mom, that I wasn’t going to give up. He knew that even when I went to college, that I probably wouldn’t be a pharmacist, because that wouldn’t go make my dream come true, right, that I was going to be more active in the community, into driving change. People were looking at me to step up. I was stepping up since middle school through high school, in asking the questions, being on the committees protesting at the school campuses, asking the questions why? Why is this? Why isn’t this environment more conducive to African Americans? And we called ourselves Black back then. It was a Black Power Movement, and similar to what we have now is Black Lives Matter. I mean, we were Black lives. We bushed our hair, you know, we did our homework, we looked at our heritage, and then we wanted to right the wrongs, and we could do that right in the schools. … We did a policy at school to say, in any selection committee that you have, it will represent your people, and it would have somebody Black. We put that policy in place when I was a senior in high school. It didn’t happen … I had to go down in a gym full of people, 300 girls dressed to try out, the gym full of spectators. And we had to cancel that tryout because the school had not made true on its commitment. And they didn’t need me to tell them every time that that was it. And of course, people were upset. They were upset that that happened. But I was more upset that it didn’t happen, the way they plan and the way the policy was. And as a result, I got a lot of pushback. People vandalized my house, they threw eggs, they threw a brick through the window. And then at the end of the day, when we called the police, they asked me, what did you do to provoke it? And I was like, this is not real. We have done all this work to get here. And one thing happens, and we reverted right back to where we were when we started.Q: Is there ever a price too high to pay to get justice?Jennings: We have to do all that we can for justice. I know some lives have been lost and I don’t want that to have to be the case. I do want us to stand up for justice. I want us to take nothing less for justice. And to do that, I think we really need to focus on the systemic changes that need to be done. In the institutionalized racism that’s just embedded in the real fabric of many institutions, some knowingly and some not purposely, but we got to dig that up, we got to get rid of it. We all pay a price every day that we work, and we go through injustices. We pay the price. I don’t wish any life to be lost. I do want us to put our lives on the line in a peaceful and respectful way because that’s when people take us seriously. That’s when we know that we have things, many things that need to be done. And then we all can be a part of that change.Q: What sort of images do you recall seeing on your TV screen and in the newspapers during the Civil Rights Movement and how did it make you feel?Jennings: It was horrifying to see people on the TV just peacefully walking for better opportunities, and then see the dogs just go at them, with the water hoses at them, fire hydrants, and then the law enforcement just unjustified, just beating on them. It was horrifying to see people that were in churches to be, to be marginalized, and to be just in bombings in, in basements of little girls. It was just awful. I tell you that we would just get on our knees and just pray to God that that would not continue. We knew that it wasn’t fair. We were like, horrified. We would be like, how could we be in a country that was founded on freedom and equal rights and, and humanities, and God, be treating each other like that? It was just inhumane. And the more that people try to justify, the more that it just burned inside that this can’t be.Q: Those images that you saw, that you experienced when you were growing up, are those similar to what we just saw in the global uprising after the killing of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in police custody?Jennings: Very similar images that are magnified by a number of reasons. One, is because of cameras and videos and all of that, that you can see more sides of the story. Obviously, many years ago, that wasn’t the case. But we certainly could see and then we could feel. We could talk to others. I think the similarities are, one is that people are standing up for what’s right, and what they believe. What we see now and what we saw even back then, was not only Black people, but all people standing up together to right wrongs, and to really address injustices that are in systems. And that was the same that happened before and then we think to ourselves, why do we keep repeating this? Why is this repeating now of what we saw before? We have made a lot of progress, but we still have a long way to go. I think the similarities are the same. Q: Collectively, as a society, we haven’t really wanted to acknowledge the existence of slavery, of a history of lynching and segregation. And people tend to skip over the apology or, when you talk about it, say get over it, that was in the past. But when I ride around today, it still seems like there’s some signs of resistance. You still see Confederate flags. Is what we’re witnessing today familiar to you in regard to resistance?Jennings: People are resistant to say there are some things that are wrong. I know some people apologize to me saying, you know that this is awful what’s happening and what they’ve allowed to happen. Others act like it doesn’t exist. And I think even in the state of California, with Proposition 209, and then the repeal of that with Proposition 16, all around affirmative action or anti-affirmative action, is that our state didn’t approve of that, at all. When after 25 years of saying we didn’t need any affirmative action. And this is nothing about free or giving people unqualified anything. It is about recognizing that a person and a people’s past matter. The fact that there was slavery and lynching, and discrimination, and redlining is real. Many of us know our heritage, and we embrace that. Many of us have lived through unfair treatment and total discrimination. Once we acknowledge that, then we can figure out how to get through it. You can’t change the past. You can change the way you address the future based on what you know about the past. I think that people are in denial, just like they were. When we would drive from Maryland, as a kid from Maryland and North Carolina, and see those Confederate flags flying and see them on the businesses, knowing how we needed to confront certain things, and stop certain places and not be stuck in certain places like the Green Book, you know, that stuff you can’t make up. And that’s the reaction that says that some people don’t understand that we’re all human beings, that we all deserve, equal, equal respect, equal opportunities, equal access. And we should not, as Martin Luther King, said, be judged by the color of our skin, but the content of our character. And so when we look at what’s happening today, and I think is all-around leadership, is that we have allowed that hatred and that racism to raise its ugly head and to put another cloud on an already environment that is suffering. And I think that is unconscionable. It is unconscionable that in the year 2021, that we’re allowing people to really say that it’s okay to have hatred in your heart to show injustices and not want to make right wrongs to make wrongs. We need to do that everywhere. First of all, leadership in institutions need to say, timeout, we can’t have this … and we won’t tolerate it. And then all the way down to what we teach our children. … And we need to help them make the change they want to see and make sure it’s sustainable.Q: The late representative John Lewis is sitting right over your shoulder, among others here on the wall. Over the last year, we’ve heard this quote, which he said a long time ago, but everyone is using it now, “Get in good trouble, necessary trouble and help redeem the soul of America.” What do you think about those words? And then what is your message to youth?Jennings: I love the message because it inspires us to do all in everything that we can do to make a difference. In that message when it says good trouble, what it means to me is it there are a lot of necessary things that we can do. It should be nonviolent, it should be respectful, but it should be purposeful, it should be intentional, it should be sacrificial, and it must be sustainable. I look at the life and the legacy of John Lewis and I just say, wow, did he stay the course. He kept the fight, he ran the race, and he never gave up through it all. What it tells me is to keep going. What it tells you is, get on your job, get on your job, don’t be afraid to speak out. Don’t be afraid to stand for what you believe. Be proud of who you are and do it in a way that you can see the results that you want to see. Don’t do it with vengeance, don’t do it with pride for yourself, other than pride for what you’re trying to do. You don’t have to be silent; you don’t have to be violent, you don’t have to destroy things, and do it where you can have the impact. All of us have sort of different ways that we go about things, and there’s room for lots of us. So if it’s yours through the use of spoken word, if it’s yours through carrying a protest, or becoming the class president, or having a community group to do something, or work in through your school, or in your home, there are so many things that can be good. But I see him saying, do something. Q: Growing up in the segregated south, did you ever see yourself as the president of a prominent organization?Jennings: It’s a great honor to now have the opportunity to lead a civil rights organization, as well as be a part of a movement of the Urban Leagues across the country. I couldn’t have imagined that this is where God had planned for me to be. I certainly take preparation very seriously, so lots of education, lots of experiences and opportunities. But now as I reflect on it, I think that I was being prepared for this, for my experience in local government, for my growing up, my background, even in the segregated south … was all preparing me for this day to now say, here’s a chance to make a difference. And when I look at the movement and look at all the things that have happened before me, and even the protests that is before us now, and say, what can we do to make it better? … In an Urban League, do we have an opportunity to educate people? Yes. No matter where you are, whether you have a high school diploma, or you’re trying to get one, and you’re older than that, you know, or going to college or getting a trade. We can do that. These are the kinds of systemic things that have all the things that have been systemically and institutionalized that have denied us. Here we are, the Urban League, we can make a difference. And then the economics is so huge. And we think that it’s about jobs and about businesses. I think of my grandfather, the barber in downtown Williamston, North Carolina, how he was moving and shaking. And he was saving a lot of money, because that man had a lot of money, you know? So, what about now? What about building wealth in our families and communities? Here at the Urban League we can connect you to jobs, we can prepare you for better-paying jobs, we can help you start your business, and develop your business and grow it and then build wealth and homeownership. I could have never imagined that all these bits and pieces in my life would lead me to this point in time. I take it very seriously. I take it very intentionally as to what I need to be doing now. To get in good trouble. To see our people be treated better. To be better. And this world would be a better place.

Hearst Television is celebrating Black History Month by having powerful conversations with Black leaders in the community. We’re speaking with those who have lived through the Civil Rights Movement, to talk about their experiences fighting for justice, equality, legislation to end segregation, and so much more, and compare them with what we still struggle with today.

KCRA 3’s Brittany Johnson spoke with Cassandra Jennings, president & CEO of Greater Sacramento Urban League, for this installment of Project CommUNITY: History & Hope.

During the interview, Jennings reflected on her upbringing in Williamston, North Carolina, and how growing up during segregation would shape her life of community advocacy.

Q: Let’s go back to 1956 in Williamston, North Carolina, where you were born and grew up. How did Williamston, N.C., shape your life?

Jennings: Williamston, North Carolina, will always be my home. It was where it all began. It’s a small quaint town, the industries — cotton, and peanuts, probably still some of that today. It was a family town. My grandparents lived next to their sisters, my aunt, and my mother and father had a house a couple of doors down and my aunt lived right next to us. I was born in the segregated South. I had a sister at that time and then later came a little brother. There were three of us and my mom and dad. I just remember growing up in the segregated South, and not really knowing what it meant. I could go to certain places. When we went to the restaurant, we had to go to the takeout. We couldn’t go sit in. When we went to the stores, we had to stay in the back. I remember going to the movie theater where we had to sit up at the top and watch all the other people that didn’t look like us sit at the bottom. I remember this one time finding some money and then running down to give the money to the person who was manning the movie theater, who didn’t even say thank you when I was turning in money that I had found. But you know, it helped to shape me — that negativity, ugliness. Hate is not something that I wanted to be a part of whatever was happening, we had to see beyond that to a better day.

Q: Did you ever ask why? Why do we have to go through certain doors? Why do we have to eat here? Why do we have to fit at the top of the movie theater?

Jennings: You know, I would ask my mother and father that often. My father would always respond that people didn’t understand the color of our skin and they discriminated against us. My father being very, very light-skinned, and my mother being really, a darker complexion, had experienced those things when they were growing up and still today. My father would say that we’re fighting to make things better, that people, this hatred, and bigotry is not what we’re all about, that people should love each other and respect each other. He being in education was really at the forefront because people really looked up to principals and teachers, and would really just say, we can do better than this. And so, I would watch him by example. When people would get arrested, they would be calling the teacher, the principal to go and bail people out. And he was constantly giving up his time. And I kept watching him and watching my whole family just protect our community, while they were really in a struggle to try to make sure that it was better not only for them but for their families and their children.

Q: What did your parents do?

Jennings: My mother was one of seven children. Her father was a barber and her mother was a stay-at-home mom. They raised all their kids to get four-year degrees and beyond in Historical Black Colleges. One became a medical doctor and they all had different degrees. My father was the only child even back then, and his parents owned a store, had a tobacco farm. … But they both were educated through Historical Black Colleges. And they were educated. My mom was a math teacher, my father a science teacher, chemistry, and physics, and he was a principal at the time in the college school that was actually first-grade through eighth-grade because then we didn’t have kindergarten. So, I never went to kindergarten. I’m still sort of mad about that … They were also community leaders because, you know, the saying it takes a village to raise a child, they were part of the village, and in the South, everybody, and beyond your parents and your grandparents are responsible for raising you. And despite what you had to go through, they were there for you.

Q: What were you like as a child?

Jennings: Well, I was a sensitive child, but a deliberate one, and I was determined. I was determined to make things better. Even when I was a little child, I was always trying to see how I could fix things. And so, as you ask the question, what did I think about everything that was going on? I kept saying, why? Why can’t I go over there and play with those little kids that are right across the street from me? Why do I have the drink out of this fountain that is for coloreds only when there’s a fountain over there, that is in fact closer to me, that is more accessible to me. And so, I was always curious. And then I was always determined to make it better. So especially by the time I get to middle school in high school, I was carrying a sign, I was protesting. … I was setting up policies in my high school of how we could reach equality, how things could be equal, and, and certainly, even back then when I looked at it, I was doing it in a collaborative spirit. I didn’t just say, let me fix it. I’m saying let’s bring everybody together and figure out how we can do this together.

Q: 1956, the year you were born, is the same year the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Browder vs. Gayle case. The ruling stated that racial segregation on buses was unconstitutional. It ended the year-long Montgomery Bus Boycott. I know you were just born in 1956 but were things still segregated after that?

Jennings: Things were still segregated. And that’s interesting about policies. We put them in place and if we don’t get behind them, they never get implemented. And it took way too long to do it. In fact, when I left North Carolina when I was about 10, the schools were just desegregating. So that’s what 1966 and at that point where the white high school was, like three blocks from where we lived, we had to go like three miles in the other direction to school every day. Now, I got a ride, but others didn’t. And in fact, what did that matter when there was a school closer to me that had better facilities that had better books. And while I got a good education, we did not have the tools or the resources that the other. When I moved to Maryland was the first experience of desegregation and busing was just starting where they were trying to bus kids from one neighborhood to another to integrate the schools. And in North Carolina, it was just so far behind that that wasn’t even a gleam of hope at that time. So, policies are in place, but implementation and intentionality, and commitment to the success of it were really slow in my judgment.

Q: Your entire life you grew up one way, right? You said, segregated. And then you go to Maryland, and things are starting to be different. What was it like when you first started to realize things were different there? What did you think?

Jennings: Well, being a child and being and coming up in the family that I had, that was always with hope. I felt hopeful. But I’ll tell you, the year that we moved to Maryland, we bought a house in a neighborhood that was primarily white, it was right out of the suburbs of Washington, D.C. In one year that whole community changed. It was the flight to the suburbs. It’s like if they had come in, I’m leaving, right? And so, one, you think you’re coming into a new community. There are embracing differences and commonalities and you’re all living together. And in one year, the whole complexion of that neighborhood, as well as the school, just changed overnight. Then I knew that there was more work ahead.

Q: Do you remember the very first time you were able to drink out of a water fountain that maybe you couldn’t have back in North Carolina?

Jennings: Well, as I say, when we get to Maryland, it was integrated, although very segregated within the integration. I do remember that when I went back to North Carolina, and I still go back there often, but when we would go to visit our grandparents and our families, I would say probably if I left when I was 10, it was probably around when I was 12 or 13, I purposely visited some places just to really sort of validate the sort of freedom or the progress that we had made to go to those water fountains at the bus stop at the bus station, and take a drink. I also remember going to our favorite barbecue place, and still today when I go back, I refuse to go to the window for the takeout. And even though I’m ordering take out, I go through the restaurant, order at the counter, wait for my food, and then take it out. So that was important to me, every time to really acknowledge from where I’ve come from, but where I never want to go back and where I was at that moment. So, we did that often. And of course, years later, we were all shopping in the same places in the little town and certainly in Maryland and across the country. But I think what is always sort of top of mind is what’s underlining. Are we really at a point where we don’t go back to that again? Or have we just sort of sugar-coated it? And there’s still some issues that we need to deal with.

Q: What was your role during the Civil Rights Movement and what do you remember about that time?

Jennings: Now, I was still a minor and under, under great supervision of great family. I think I was more of the very asking a lot of questions of my parents, and then demanding that they do their part. When we moved to Maryland was when the riots had just occurred in Washington, D.C., when unrest was obviously at a peak. And then sadly to say later, the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. And as a child, I just remember weeping, weeping with the sense that the hope and dreams that Dr. Martin Luther King had talked about, that I had watched the March on Washington, that I had felt the pain that he described. My mom always reminds me that she could have been Rosa Parks on that bus. I just wept. And, I had pledged to myself, and my father knew this, probably more so than my mom, that I wasn’t going to give up. He knew that even when I went to college, that I probably wouldn’t be a pharmacist, because that wouldn’t go make my dream come true, right, that I was going to be more active in the community, into driving change.

People were looking at me to step up. I was stepping up since middle school through high school, in asking the questions, being on the committees protesting at the school campuses, asking the questions why? Why is this? Why isn’t this environment more conducive to African Americans? And we called ourselves Black back then. It was a Black Power Movement, and similar to what we have now is Black Lives Matter. I mean, we were Black lives. We bushed our hair, you know, we did our homework, we looked at our heritage, and then we wanted to right the wrongs, and we could do that right in the schools. … We did a policy at school to say, in any selection committee that you have, it will represent your people, and it would have somebody Black. We put that policy in place when I was a senior in high school. It didn’t happen … I had to go down in a gym full of people, 300 girls dressed to try out, the gym full of spectators. And we had to cancel that tryout because the school had not made true on its commitment. And they didn’t need me to tell them every time that that was it. And of course, people were upset. They were upset that that happened. But I was more upset that it didn’t happen, the way they plan and the way the policy was. And as a result, I got a lot of pushback. People vandalized my house, they threw eggs, they threw a brick through the window. And then at the end of the day, when we called the police, they asked me, what did you do to provoke it? And I was like, this is not real. We have done all this work to get here. And one thing happens, and we reverted right back to where we were when we started.

Q: Is there ever a price too high to pay to get justice?

Jennings: We have to do all that we can for justice. I know some lives have been lost and I don’t want that to have to be the case. I do want us to stand up for justice. I want us to take nothing less for justice. And to do that, I think we really need to focus on the systemic changes that need to be done. In the institutionalized racism that’s just embedded in the real fabric of many institutions, some knowingly and some not purposely, but we got to dig that up, we got to get rid of it. We all pay a price every day that we work, and we go through injustices. We pay the price. I don’t wish any life to be lost. I do want us to put our lives on the line in a peaceful and respectful way because that’s when people take us seriously. That’s when we know that we have things, many things that need to be done. And then we all can be a part of that change.

Q: What sort of images do you recall seeing on your TV screen and in the newspapers during the Civil Rights Movement and how did it make you feel?

Jennings: It was horrifying to see people on the TV just peacefully walking for better opportunities, and then see the dogs just go at them, with the water hoses at them, fire hydrants, and then the law enforcement just unjustified, just beating on them. It was horrifying to see people that were in churches to be, to be marginalized, and to be just in bombings in, in basements of little girls. It was just awful. I tell you that we would just get on our knees and just pray to God that that would not continue. We knew that it wasn’t fair. We were like, horrified. We would be like, how could we be in a country that was founded on freedom and equal rights and, and humanities, and God, be treating each other like that? It was just inhumane. And the more that people try to justify, the more that it just burned inside that this can’t be.

Q: Those images that you saw, that you experienced when you were growing up, are those similar to what we just saw in the global uprising after the killing of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in police custody?

Jennings: Very similar images that are magnified by a number of reasons. One, is because of cameras and videos and all of that, that you can see more sides of the story. Obviously, many years ago, that wasn’t the case. But we certainly could see and then we could feel. We could talk to others. I think the similarities are, one is that people are standing up for what’s right, and what they believe. What we see now and what we saw even back then, was not only Black people, but all people standing up together to right wrongs, and to really address injustices that are in systems. And that was the same that happened before and then we think to ourselves, why do we keep repeating this? Why is this repeating now of what we saw before? We have made a lot of progress, but we still have a long way to go. I think the similarities are the same.

Q: Collectively, as a society, we haven’t really wanted to acknowledge the existence of slavery, of a history of lynching and segregation. And people tend to skip over the apology or, when you talk about it, say get over it, that was in the past. But when I ride around today, it still seems like there’s some signs of resistance. You still see Confederate flags. Is what we’re witnessing today familiar to you in regard to resistance?

Jennings: People are resistant to say there are some things that are wrong. I know some people apologize to me saying, you know that this is awful what’s happening and what they’ve allowed to happen. Others act like it doesn’t exist. And I think even in the state of California, with Proposition 209, and then the repeal of that with Proposition 16, all around affirmative action or anti-affirmative action, is that our state didn’t approve of that, at all. When after 25 years of saying we didn’t need any affirmative action. And this is nothing about free or giving people unqualified anything. It is about recognizing that a person and a people’s past matter. The fact that there was slavery and lynching, and discrimination, and redlining is real. Many of us know our heritage, and we embrace that. Many of us have lived through unfair treatment and total discrimination. Once we acknowledge that, then we can figure out how to get through it. You can’t change the past. You can change the way you address the future based on what you know about the past. I think that people are in denial, just like they were. When we would drive from Maryland, as a kid from Maryland and North Carolina, and see those Confederate flags flying and see them on the businesses, knowing how we needed to confront certain things, and stop certain places and not be stuck in certain places like the Green Book, you know, that stuff you can’t make up. And that’s the reaction that says that some people don’t understand that we’re all human beings, that we all deserve, equal, equal respect, equal opportunities, equal access. And we should not, as Martin Luther King, said, be judged by the color of our skin, but the content of our character. And so when we look at what’s happening today, and I think is all-around leadership, is that we have allowed that hatred and that racism to raise its ugly head and to put another cloud on an already environment that is suffering. And I think that is unconscionable. It is unconscionable that in the year 2021, that we’re allowing people to really say that it’s okay to have hatred in your heart to show injustices and not want to make right wrongs to make wrongs. We need to do that everywhere. First of all, leadership in institutions need to say, timeout, we can’t have this … and we won’t tolerate it. And then all the way down to what we teach our children. … And we need to help them make the change they want to see and make sure it’s sustainable.

Q: The late representative John Lewis is sitting right over your shoulder, among others here on the wall. Over the last year, we’ve heard this quote, which he said a long time ago, but everyone is using it now, “Get in good trouble, necessary trouble and help redeem the soul of America.” What do you think about those words? And then what is your message to youth?

Jennings: I love the message because it inspires us to do all in everything that we can do to make a difference. In that message when it says good trouble, what it means to me is it there are a lot of necessary things that we can do. It should be nonviolent, it should be respectful, but it should be purposeful, it should be intentional, it should be sacrificial, and it must be sustainable. I look at the life and the legacy of John Lewis and I just say, wow, did he stay the course. He kept the fight, he ran the race, and he never gave up through it all. What it tells me is to keep going. What it tells you is, get on your job, get on your job, don’t be afraid to speak out. Don’t be afraid to stand for what you believe. Be proud of who you are and do it in a way that you can see the results that you want to see. Don’t do it with vengeance, don’t do it with pride for yourself, other than pride for what you’re trying to do. You don’t have to be silent; you don’t have to be violent, you don’t have to destroy things, and do it where you can have the impact. All of us have sort of different ways that we go about things, and there’s room for lots of us. So if it’s yours through the use of spoken word, if it’s yours through carrying a protest, or becoming the class president, or having a community group to do something, or work in through your school, or in your home, there are so many things that can be good. But I see him saying, do something.

Q: Growing up in the segregated south, did you ever see yourself as the president of a prominent organization?

Jennings: It’s a great honor to now have the opportunity to lead a civil rights organization, as well as be a part of a movement of the Urban Leagues across the country. I couldn’t have imagined that this is where God had planned for me to be. I certainly take preparation very seriously, so lots of education, lots of experiences and opportunities. But now as I reflect on it, I think that I was being prepared for this, for my experience in local government, for my growing up, my background, even in the segregated south … was all preparing me for this day to now say, here’s a chance to make a difference. And when I look at the movement and look at all the things that have happened before me, and even the protests that is before us now, and say, what can we do to make it better? … In an Urban League, do we have an opportunity to educate people? Yes. No matter where you are, whether you have a high school diploma, or you’re trying to get one, and you’re older than that, you know, or going to college or getting a trade. We can do that. These are the kinds of systemic things that have all the things that have been systemically and institutionalized that have denied us. Here we are, the Urban League, we can make a difference. And then the economics is so huge. And we think that it’s about jobs and about businesses. I think of my grandfather, the barber in downtown Williamston, North Carolina, how he was moving and shaking. And he was saving a lot of money, because that man had a lot of money, you know? So, what about now? What about building wealth in our families and communities? Here at the Urban League we can connect you to jobs, we can prepare you for better-paying jobs, we can help you start your business, and develop your business and grow it and then build wealth and homeownership. I could have never imagined that all these bits and pieces in my life would lead me to this point in time. I take it very seriously. I take it very intentionally as to what I need to be doing now. To get in good trouble. To see our people be treated better. To be better. And this world would be a better place.