Living Through History- ep.153

Born and raised in North Carolina during the Jim Crow era, Lester Patrick takes us through America’s history of segregation and restrictions imposed by the government for Black Americans. Mr. Patrick is a retired federal employee with a combination of over 40 years of experience as a Senior Telecommunications Specialist, Information Technology Management Specialist, and Technical Security Officer working for three federal agencies; designing, planning, developing, testing, and implementing national communications systems.

His educational achievements include an undergraduate degree from North Carolina A&T State University, Greensboro, North Carolina, and advanced degrees from Golden Gate University and Pepperdine University. He also holds professional certifications from CISCO Systems, and George Washington University, Washington, D.C. He has been actively involved in working in the community developing and implementing programs designed to improve the success of African American students, and also serving in capacities that support all students for over 20 years. Some of those activities have included the development of the Academic Review Committee in Lodi Unified School District. It recommended and implemented several major projects aimed at improving academic performance. Some of the projects included academic progress reporting, reduction in suspension and expulsion rates, improving parent /district relationships, and a mobile Urban Technology Vehicle. He served over 10 years as chairman and member of the Measures K and L School Bond Oversight Committees. Since 2006 he has directed a peer mentoring program for boys in junior high and high school, and serves as the co-chairman of the Superintendent’s Academic Advisory Committee. He also has served on other committees whose goals support children and families of San Joaquin County and California.

He currently serves as a Board Director of Family Resources Center; a past member of the Delta College Measure L Bond Oversight Committee; a current Commissioner of The Housing Authority of San Joaquin County; and, member of the San Joaquin Hunger Task Force; and a current board member of the Pacific Southwest Regional Conference (PSWRC), of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO). Mr. Patrick is the recipient of the following community awards; Dr. Steve Jacobson Enough is Enough Award (University of the Pacific); Man of the Town Award (Black Chamber of Commerce); The Super Star Award (Lodi Unified School District); Medgar Evers Freedom Fighter Award for Educational Advocacy (Stockton NAACP); the Etta Mae Ford Golden Heart Award; (Dome of Hope Organization); and, certificates of Special Congressional Recognition from current and former congressional members. He is the author of two published books titled, Weak Start Unapologetic Present: An unlikely journey through Jim Crow the Information Age to God; and Inspirational Momemts; Open and Meaningful Conversations with God. In this book he shares multiple life experiences, with emphasis on Jim Crow practices and its impact, his life-long involvement in community work and advocacy, and his spiritual growth to God. Mr. Patrick has been married to Linda Patrick for 50 years. He has two adult children, Kenitra and Nigel Patrick, and two granddaughters, Kayla and Leilani.

Melyssa Barrett:  Welcome to the Jali Podcast. I’m your host, Melyssa Barrett. This podcast is for those who are interested in the conversation around equity, diversity, and inclusion. Each week I’ll be interviewing a guest who has something special to share or is actively part of building solutions in the space. Let’s get started. Welcome to the Jali Podcast, where we explore stories of resilience, innovation, and empowerment. We are always putting our lens on diversity, equity, and inclusion because it’s in everything we do. I’m your host Melissa Barrett, and I’m thrilled to introduce you to a remarkable guest today, Lester. Patrick Lester has spent over 40 years as a federal employee working for three federal agencies as a senior telecommunications specialist, information technology management specialist, and a technical security officer. Throughout his career, he has designed, developed, tested, and implemented national communication systems, leaving an indelible mark on federal communications and technology infrastructure.

Lester’s educational background, equally impressive, holds an undergraduate degree from North Carolina, advanced degrees from Golden Gate University, Pepperdine University and professional certifications from Cisco Systems and George Washington University. His expertise spans across telecommunications, IT management, and technical security, but his impact doesn’t stop there. Lester is also a commissioner for the Housing Authority of the County of San Joaquin. That’s where I live. He’s also a member of the California Association of Housing Authorities or kaha, covering all housing authorities throughout California, and he serves on the board of the Pacific Southwest Regional Council of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials. His work extends to housing policy and advocacy, ensuring that communities across California, Nevada, Oregon, Arizona, and Hawaii have access to affordable housing solutions beyond his professional achievements. Lester is an author, his first book, weak Start, unapologetic Present, documents his family history and offers profound insights into life during the Jim Crow and segregation periods in North Carolina.

It is absolutely a must read. It will spark deep conversations about the past and its relevance today. His latest book called Inspirational Moments, open and Meaningful Conversations with God Further showcase his ability to connect with his audience on a personal level, offering reflections that inspire and uplift. Today, I figured I would start with a conversation regarding his first book, weak Start, unapologetic Present, just because I know how insightful the book and his conversation will be about growing up in North Carolina and some of the profound insights and connections to what is currently happening in the world today. So please join me in welcoming Lester Patrick. Okay, Mr. Patrick, you and your journey are truly inspiring. I’m just really excited about the book that you took so much time to put together. Can you share some of the defining moments which shaped who you are today, and how did growing up on a tobacco field influence your perspective and resilience for hard work?

Lester Patrick:  Okay, that’s an excellent question. And the tobacco fields did put a lot of inspiration because it was so rough. I spent every summer working in the tobacco. At the time I was 10 or 11 years old, and I worked on the farm doing what was called pudding in tobacco. I don’t know if you’re familiar with that term or not, but the activity continued until I graduated from college. I didn’t think that was going to happen, but it did. North Carolina was considered to be the world’s tobacco capital when I grew up and in the county, T County where I lived. So we were the tobacco capital of the world. So tobacco was first introduced in North Carolina, believe it or not, by the slaves. When they were brought to North Carolina, tobacco came along with them and the slave traders took them from the western parts of the continental, what are now the African countries of the Congo, Nigeria, Togo, Mali, and Cameroon.

My ancestors were from Nigeria, Togo, and Mali, which are the places that the slave traders brought them when they brought them to the Atlantic coastal areas of Eastern North Carolina and Virginia. And because of the climate, the tobacco became a really profitable crop because of the climate and the state didn’t last very long is because the farmers were able to see how profitable tobacco could be. And of course, with the free labor that came from the African slave, they started at the very beginning to treat them as slaves, even though they were indentured servants. That happened almost as soon as they arrived. But back to the working in the tobacco fields. In the book, I have a section, a brief section that I call summer slave work for black youth, and I named it that because working in tobacco was practically the only means that African-American teenagers had make of making money during the summer in that part of the south. As soon it became time to harvest the tobacco. Can you imagine that? And you didn’t make that much money, of course, working in tobacco at all. But anyway,

Melyssa Barrett:  Wow. I love the detail that you give because even though I knew that people worked in the tobacco fields, you describe the stickiness and all of the things that went with it, and I was like, wow, I didn’t know. I don’t really know what that was like.

Lester Patrick:  Oh, yeah, it was terrible. And I tried to relay just how bad it worked, including the pain that came along with your back being bent over at a 90 degree angle most of the day, a good deal of the tobacco Harvey harvesting season, the lack of rest that you got during the summer when you worked in tobacco, because it was typical for me to have with my cousins who were older than I, we would go out onto the farm and we would get prepared for going into the field at six o’clock in the morning and imagine sometimes working until six o’clock in the evening. It was extreme. It was very, very bad.

Melyssa Barrett:  So then you bring up the slaves and you talk a little bit in your book about the black codes and the struggles for the right to vote, and they’re such a critical part of our history. How do you see those historical experiences connecting to the challenges we face today, particularly in maintaining voting rights and civic engagement,

Lester Patrick:  African rights being restricted as soon as they came here? Going back as far as 1619, this took place between 1640 when the first slave law was passed up through the 1860s. But there were slave codes that were actually implemented prior to the first slave law being in 16 passed in Virginia. Slave codes forbid slaves from owning property from leaving their master’s premises without permission being out after dark, believe it or not, even congregating with other slaves, carrying firearms and doing things such as participating in the justice system by testifying. So if a white person, for example, was to strike a slave, then they could not respond. They could not defend themselves because it was illegal for any black person to strike. A white person is illegal to be educated. And of course, in many cases, even marrying each other, slave law was actually implemented in 1640.

By 1660, there were severe restrictions on the movement of slaves on their rights in general. But yeah, it was very bad. But I want to make a point about North Carolina, but in 1669, article 10 of the Fundamental Constitution of Carolinas, and I’m going to read this, stated that every free man of Carolina shall have absolute power and authority over his Negro slaves of what opinion or religious, however, was granted complete control over the lives of their negro slave. And one of the things that it means is that if a owner, slave owner wanted to kill that slave, he was protected against him killing his slave. That was his property. So this meant the power of life and death of their slaves.

Melyssa Barrett:  So

Lester Patrick:  Even being a Christian, and this is one of the things that they tried to use to keep slaves under control Christianity, to justify their behavior over their slave and to make a comment about the Black codes this took place up until the mid 18 hundreds and the black codes, they were laws that were passed by southern states, particularly after the Civil War and after the destruction period to further restricting African Americans rights. And these were in response of Emancipation proclamation because even though slavery ended legally in 1863, the former slaves still were not truly free. So this is true because very soon after the Emancipation Proclamation passage, the Southern Confederate states passed laws to institute slavery all over again, and they did this through the Black codes. Not much changed for them during that period. And remember, the 15th have not been repealed. Just think about that.

The 50 are still in place. But because of the black codes the states had implemented to take away the rights given to freed slaves under the Constitution, the United States Congress passed the Civil Rights bill of 1866. So they had to pass another bill. And I do mean the states had taken away the slave freedom. I’ll give you another example of the North Carolina of Constitution of section two of that constitution. It described the law’s purpose, and these are black code laws, and Jim Crow is making freed slaves subject to the same laws as they were subject to before their emancipation. Those laws of course were slavery. It had one intent, and that was to counteract what had been passed by Congress and then make them slaves again. You have to ask the question, could it happen again? The answer is absolutely it could happen again. And I want to read section two of what it from the Constitution of what it says, all persons of color who are now inhabitants of this state shall be entitled to the same privileges and are subject to the same burdens and disabilities as by the laws of the state were conferred on or were attached to free persons of color prior to the ordinance of emancipation.

Melyssa Barrett:  Let’s pause for a moment. We’ll be right back.

Lester Patrick:  So section two is so important because it applies to all enslaved people who had been emancipated in 1863, but again, these laws, these reconstruction laws, which is what they were called the 13th, 14th, and the 15th Amendment, they had not been repealed, but at the state level, they had simply been ignored. So the question of whether or not it could, again, the answer is absolutely yes, but even worse, what if we had a president who was willing to simply make an executive order simply an executive order to reinstitute slavery? You think about that,

Melyssa Barrett:  Is that even possible?

Lester Patrick:  It was not what we’re talking about right now because again, the 13, 14 and 15 amendments had been passed. They were ignored at the state level in favor of those laws, and these were the jump crow laws. The 15th Amendment gave male slaves the right to vote, and the amendment was ratified in 1870. And yes, it could happen again if Congress decides to do it. You mentioned earlier about the struggle of voting intimidation, African-Americans and white voting coalitions. This is really important because the slaves got the right to vote in 1870 until after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1966, and even in 1966, they could not exercise their rights fully without intimidation. This is really important. So as a result in the 1898 state election, as many as 80% of all of the eligible black voters participated in the state election, 80%.

Now, this caused the Democratic party to beef up its white supremacy campaign, and this effort was similar to what we see today in modern day Republican party. And the same thing today across the country with voter suppression only then, it was much more intense and extremely violent in paper, sponsored regular addresses and newspaper articles appealing to white voters about negro domination, about black men raping white women and other fearmongering. And it’s very much like what is done by Republicans today when they degrade African-American voter by accusing them of cheating and much like accusing people of African descent, of eating their neighbor’s pets, same derogatory attitudes like the previous president in tweeting nasty and demeaning things that we know that he tweeted about black people in public when he was president. All the same things as different people. The Democrats in 1898 devised a plan to attack the city of Wilmington, and this was if blacks to be successful in keeping control of the local government in Wilmington because of the Republican and black coalitions that had formed.

So Wilmington then was the most highly populated city in the state. They had a sizable black population and a black newspaper. Consequently, the black newspaper editor that the news and observer where they were calling black men rapists, they responded through news articles accusing white women of initiating the sexual contact this disabled white Democrats greatly. Meanwhile, the white supremacy campaign of the Democrats was very successful and resulted in the party winning overwhelming share of the districts across the state in Wilmington in 1898, blacks and Republicans combined to control all Wilmington elected offices and in response, white Republicans success and recently freed blacks in Wilmington. In the local election, the white supremacist on August the 10th, 1898 attacked and burned the office of the black newspaper. The daily record and the attack resulted in killing 36 blacks. All elected officials were forced at gunpoint to resign run out of town. Democrats filled all with handpicked white supremacists and this place fear into the hearts of blacks in North Carolina and for a very long time, and it had a tremendously negative impact on voter participation for years to come. As an example, in 1896, they were registered to vote how strong the impact was of the women turned massacre or insurrection. There were 125,000 black men registered to vote and make black just six years later. In 1902, there were only 6,000.

Melyssa Barrett:  Wow.

Lester Patrick:  Only 6,000. And they were fearful, especially since both the federal and the state government stood by and no intervention whatsoever. They just allowed the white supremacist to come in and do whatever they needed to do to put themselves in office. An example of a government takeover with government support.

Melyssa Barrett:  Oh, wow.

Lester Patrick:  Yeah. Well,

Melyssa Barrett:  How come we never hear about this one?

Lester Patrick:  And that’s why I wrote about it, because it’s not the only place that has happened that are little known historical facts. Some people don’t want us to know this history, but we need to know it

Because some people erroneously believe that this is something that could happen again. And I’ve said it a couple of other times, the reconstruction laws were never repealed. They were always in place constitutionally for those things to vote to participate and to congregate in public facilities and whatever we wanted to do. But the state laws prevented that from happening. And that is what we had better be aware of today, because the attitude today of many, this happened again. And that is the reason that you have not heard about it, but it’s real. But the bottom line is that even with the passage of the Civil rights bill of 1966, segregation was still very prevalent. When I graduated from high school in 1968, the high schools were still segregated. And you think about it, Congress had already passed the civil rights bill in 18 66, 18 66. Yeah. At a hundred years later, we still had not obtained true citizenship, even though the reconstruction laws were part of the Constitution.

And this was all done in the name of Jim Crow. And shockingly there are Jim Crow laws still on the books. When I grew up, Jim Crow laws were still on the book. And even today, there’s Jim Crow laws still in the Constitution of North Carolina. Yes, there’s a literacy requirement in the Constitution of North Carolina today, and they have voted on it. But I should also say that there are Jim Crow laws part of many states constitution, including California. It was put there in response to 80% of eligible black voters participating in the 1898 election to deter them from being able to participate a literacy law because most of the African-American did not read well, nor could the white of what they would do. It wasn’t just that a black person could not read, they would give them very difficult material to demonstrate whether or not they could read. And even the ones who could read could read what they gave them to demonstrate. So it was just like today with the voter registration for African-Americans in inner city who sometime require things like hunting license, same situations then and today.

Melyssa Barrett:  Wow.

Lester Patrick:  Yeah.

Melyssa Barrett:  That’s amazing.

Lester Patrick:  Yeah. So I’ll just say a couple of things about gem crow quats. Okay. There was a gem crow adequate. There was the laws, the gem crow laws, but then there was the expected behavior. So if you didn’t exhibit the behavior that was expected, then through the law, they used the law to enforce it. And I’m just a couple of them. For example, it was a law that a black male could not offer his hand to a white male

Melyssa Barrett:  To shake hands or something. It

Lester Patrick:  Implied that they were socially and in their view, they were not. And the same thing about offering his hand to a white woman or anything else. He could be accused of rape. Blacks and whites were not supposed to eat together, for example, but if they did, there had to be a petition, a curtain or something separating them, and the white people had to be served first. That was the law.

Melyssa Barrett:  Wow.

Lester Patrick:  Look, let me tell you something. That was another law was that white people had to right at an intersection. Can you imagine that white people had the right of way,

Melyssa Barrett:  Even if the light was red or green or whatever.

Lester Patrick:  It didn’t matter if you were white, you had the right of way. And that’s my point. That was so dumb as all. But yeah, they had the right of way. You were walking on the sidewalk, for example, and a white person was walking on the sidewalk. The law stated that you were required to get off of the sidewalk so that the white person could pass.

Melyssa Barrett:  And I know these were some of the same laws that we saw in different countries in Africa as well, right?

Lester Patrick:  That’s right. They got ’em from us in South Africa. They got ’em from us, and they implemented them there.

Melyssa Barrett:  Wow. Wow. Interesting.

Lester Patrick:  Yeah. It was Maxine Waters who had asked them a tough question. Tu he called her the dumbest woman in the world.

Yeah, dumb, intelligent. And he’d only do that to a black woman. But the point there is that she could not have asked him a question like that or any other question in public that could embarrass him or that could be a difficult question. She could not have done that under Jim Crow. It was ill illegal. There was a law against it, but he’s demonstrating modern dead Jim Crow adequate because he expects it to happen. He expects her to respond to him the same way she would have during the times when Jim Crow was legal. Same thing with LeBron James. I’m sure you remember when the things were going on between Donald Trump and LeBron James because LeBron James had built a school to educate minority kids. Isn’t that crazy? But again, Jim Crow, Marlon Day, Jim Crow etiquette, LeBron James not be behave the way that he wanted him to behave. And he would’ve, during Jim Crow, he could have just shut the school down. But now, I

Melyssa Barrett:  Don’t love what you’re saying, but I love the fact that there’s so much history here that people need to know about. It’s incredible how much we don’t know about our own history. We’ll wrap it up today and then I’ll circle back with you. I would love to hear even your take on your military service and technology and artificial intelligence and all of that. Oh, okay. It’s got a lot of history in there and there were so many things that I was like, wow, this is what’s happening today. It was just the continuity of information that you’re presenting, which is from years ago, but it that’s happening today.

Lester Patrick:  That’s why I wrote it. I’m glad you recognized that. That’s exactly why I wrote

Melyssa Barrett:  It. Yeah, it’s amazing. But I really enjoyed it and I look forward to your next book coming up as well.

Lester Patrick:  Okay, very good.

Melyssa Barrett:  Yes. I’ll circle back with you and we will set up some more time.

Lester Patrick:  Yeah, yeah.Melyssa Barrett:  Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Alright, bye-Bye. Bye. Thanks for joining me on the Jali Podcast. Please subscribe so you won’t miss an episode. See you next week.