According to the 1920 census, Grandma Martha and Great Grand Ma Amy was living in Marengo County in or around Thomaston, Alabama.  Grandma Martha's birth  month and day was listed in her mother's bible (July 15).  The year was not  listed.

However,the census listed her age as being twenty-five, which narrows her birth year to 1895.  Great Grand Ma Amy's age was listed as sixty, which puts her birth at 1860.  "...of course census takers only put down what they were told," Celeste explained in response to the results of her research efforts.  Celeste further explained that, "...Uncle King was her youngest at the time, he was one and a half [years old]."

Grandma would later re-tell the story many times that, during that time,  parents did not believe in sharing too much information with their children.   They believed that you were trying to be too grown, if you wanted to know too  much.

Undoubtedly, this was a carry-over from the conditioning of slavery where it  was illegal to educate blacks.  Blacks, and some whites were murdered if  caught trying to educate slaves.   As a result of a couple hundred years of this mental conditioning, many African-American parents continued withholding information from their children as a form of protection - a sort of deniability in the event of questioning by whites.

Just 30 years prior to the birth of Grandma Martha, the 13th Amendment  (outlawing slavery) was ratified (1865), Grandma Amy would have been 5 years  old at the time.

In the years immediately following the ratification of the 13th Amendment, brought ruthless violence and hatred against blacks and the creation of many White Supremacist groups, who wanted to maintain the status quo of the slave institution.   The Black Codes were developed in efforts to extended many of  the restrictions of slavery.  Blacks had no freedom to move about town of  their own volition, without a note from their employer, lest they be subject  to arrest. Blacks could not choose an occupation outside of agriculture  without a judge's permission.  These and many other restrictions against  African-Americans paved the way for the passing of the 14th Amendment in 1868,  further ensuring that the civil rights of all citizens would be protected.

However, in 1896, one year after Grandma Martha's assumed birth, the Supreme Court ruled in Plessey vs. Ferguson legalizing "separate but equal" social and political clauses within the United States.  Jim Crow laws of the South were concretized to further subordinate African-Americans. Grandma  Martha's early childhood years (late 1890s to mid 1900s) took place during the  political period of two warring African-American intellectual giants:  Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Dubois.   Washington and Dubois were engaged  in powerful national debates regarding the most effective socio-political path  for African-Americans during those most treacherous and violent times.  Washington was more of an accommodator (Martin Luther King) type, while W.E.B. Dubois, was more of a radical (Malcolm X) type.  Washington believed that we needed to "cast our buckets down" where we were and pull ourselves up by our  own boot-straps.

This non threatening approached as a means for blacks to address their social dilemma appealed to most whites.  On the other hand, W.E.B. Dubois promoted political freedom and equality - now, immediately, not as a down payment but as a past due collector.  Which obviously, was much more of a threat to whites  
 Grandma Martha exemplified the passions and philosophies both of these great  Americans.   On the one hand Grandma Martha raise her young men and women to  be respectable, self-sufficient sharecroppers, who took care of their own  business.  However, she was also wise to the gamesmanship of politics,  misguided government policies, as well as underhanded tactics of landowners   who undermined sharecroppers efforts to take care of their families.

Grandma Martha had no formal education and limited resources, however, she always insisted on being treated with dignity and respect.  Grandma Martha passed on to her 15 children the value of being self-sufficient, the power of mother wit, and the strength of truth and principle.

As Uncle T.B. would later recall -- mother wasn't going to take too much of anything from anybody that wasn't right.  With great self-determination,  Grandma Martha refused to be taken advantage of.  She wouldn't hesitate to  pick-up her family and to move on principle rather than to stay on the  property of an underhanded landowner and be mistreatment.

There are many, many, stories about the Walton's -- some will make you laugh  and some will make you cry but all will give you a strong sense of Grandma's principles and legacy of honesty, self-determination, wisdom and wit.  Happy writing and reading in the family stories section of the family reunion website www.waltonfamilyreunion2006.com