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Martha Brown
Imagine
growing up right here in Unionvile during the 1930's. You are a black
girl who lives in an unjust world full of racism and segregation.
Even when entering school the threat of segregation still occurs.
From the pencils she used, to the movies she went to, Martha Brown
lived through a second class life.
"The policy or practice of compelling racial groups to live apart
from each other, to go to separate schools, etc is called segregation."
In the 1960's, segregation was used mostly against African-Americans
and took place in the northern and southern United States. This took
place even in Chester County!
Martha Brown was a former student in the Unionville School from 1935
to 1947. She was born in Coatesville at the Coatesville Hospital on
November 28, 1929. Coatesville is where the last known lynching of
a black man took place in the area. She and her family moved to 418
Marlborough Road, in Unionville in 1934. Their home was an old farm
house. It did not have indoor plumbing and it was heated by an old
wood stove. They raised their own vegetables and fruit in a garden.
She had one sister who she loved very dearly. Her sister also went
to Unionville. Her mom and dad were great parents who worked hard
to provide for her and her sister. Her mother was a stay at home mom,
and her dad worked odd jobs to support the family.
Martha Walls attended Unionville Elementary. In this school, only
two rooms were reserved for the teaching of the black children. The
teachers in these rooms were usually African-American and under paid.
The supplies allotted to the children were one pencil and one pad
of paper per month. The textbooks they received were used, dirty and
torn. On the playground, only two swings and one seesaw were designated
for them to play with even if the rest of the playground equipment
was empty. Not only was that unfair and unconstitutional, but the
"union rooms" were the last classrooms to leave during fire
drills.
As a black student in a school of mostly white children, Martha always
felt out of place. She never fit in. She never participated in extra
curricular activities or field trips. She did not date and she never
went to the prom. Every day Martha went straight home after school.
Martha's sister had an emotional breakdown resulting from the stress.
They both felt angry, sad, and depressed most of the time. Martha
felt so angry that one day in class she acted out. While in class,
she took down a picture on the wall promoting segregation. Martha
was sent to the principal's office immediately. Besides that incident,
she did well in school, passing all of her classes and graduating
from high school, yet she did not go to college.
Her family life was difficult too. She had many chores to do. For
example, water had to be carried to the house from the well, clothes
were made by hand, work needed to be done on the farm. The Brown family
lived like pioneers. When the family was not working or doing chores,
they occasionally went to town, but going out was not much better
than going to school. They were treated like dirt. They could not
go to restaurants because the manager and waiters refused to serve
them. When they shopped for clothes, they were not allowed to try
on hats for shoes. To find the right size shoes, her mother would
grace their feet and compare the drawing to the shoes, and to buy
a hat, she would measure their heads.
After Martha graduated from high school and moved out of her home,
she became one of the first police women in the city of Philadelphia.
some more years passed and Martha was married. She stayed married
for sixteen years and then divorced, but sadly Martha Brown didn't
have any children. many years after her divorce, the house that was
built in 1840 and that Martha grew up in, was going to be demolished.
Martha fought to keep her beloved house and won! She then promised
to keep up with the renovations of the house on Marlborough road.
Currently(2002), Martha Brown has kept up her family's tradition of
living in Unionville for 69 years! She is still concluding the renovations
to her house while living in a temporary home next door. to this day
when Martha goes past her school, flashbacks instantly come to her
mind of the childhood she lived through. Even though Martha Brown
was not the top student in her class, she had her mind on success
and achieved a life worth living despite our segregated world.
Jeremiah
Bailey| Richard Banard | Bayard
Taylor | George Fox | Howard
Pyle
Martha
Brown |Pierre
Samuel Dupont | Wyeth Family
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