By Any Means Necessary Part 20

Sampson sat nervously in the waiting area of the bank,not knowing what the decision about his loan would be,it's been three months since he submitted his papers.
After about a hour of waiting Mayor Coop emerged from his office followed by  Billy Bob the Fire and Rescue Chief also a dear friend of Sampson.As Billy Bob pass Sampson his nod was the look that brought relief to Sampson.Billy Bob's role in Crackling was more then just fire and rescue chief,he was also the voice of reason for the powerful and rich,he had explain to the Mayor and the other powerful folk in town one way of countering this new movement to equality was to get ahead of the game.
                                                                          Bigmac

By Any Means Necessary Part 19

Spring 1960 in Crackling,NC was bustling with great expectations for many of the people of little means,a presidential race was heating up with a promising candidate who was talking about change and hope.
Sen.John Kennedy was making inroads to a population who since the civil war had voted for Republicans ,because it was said Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves of this country.
What many did not know was freeing the slaves was not the first option on Lincoln's plate,the Democrats were beginning to make inroads to people of color and other marginalized folks.Sen. Kennedy was making trips to campaign in places like Blue field,West Virgina in the heart of Appalachia coal country.
There were secret meeting with the leaders of the Civil Rights movement Martin Luther King Sr. father of  MLK Jr. met privately with Sen. Kennedy and his staff to offer support for his campaign and to seek changes for the conditions of his people.
The race between Kennedy and Nixon was a dead heat for  election day November 1960,it all hinged on a curial televised debate between the two candidates.The excitement of the Presidential race didn't escape the attention of the powerful folk of Crackling,there were meetings in the backrooms of the rich to find a way to control or minimize this brazen liberal Senator name Kennedy from up north!
Sampson nervously walked in to the front door of the Crackling Saving and loan on Main Street,he was clean as the board of health,dressed in his Sunday go to Church clothes,he waited his turn to speak with the loan officer Mayor Cropp.
                                                                              Bigmac

By Any Means Necessary! Part 18

The Christmas Season of 1959 in Crackling was coming to a close ,1960 was slowly being ushered in.
For Sampson it will be a year of transformation,the cobwebs have slowly dissipated from his mind,his determination was to take back his role as the man of the house.
This has been a burning issue for him,the embarrassment of having to beg,borrow and steal to make things work in the home was destroying his spirit.
Come spring Sampson was determine to again plant the forty aces of tobacco that had always graced the family land.
But he also knew he would need a farmers loan to purchase the equipment and materials for planting season.
And the only place he knew where he could get that kind of money was the Crackling Saving and Loan.
                                                            Bigmac
                                                  

And Now We Know Why!

I'm interrupting my story to post these thoughts about the killing of Troy Davis in Jackson,Georgia USA.
Now that the  protests are over and  the protesters of this legal murder  have gone home Troy Davis is still dead and the arcane death penalty is still alive and well,in the country that calls it self first world.
Most people in my community are so ignorant of what's occurring daily in the criminal justice system,that they didn't even know that this was going on in Georgia,seems the powers that be didn't give a hoot what Al Sharpton or many of the millions across this planet were saying about the injustice that was given to Troy Davis.
Who's next?
                                                                    Bigmac

By Any Means Necessary-Part 17!

On Christmas Eve everyone who profess to be a Christian or close to it,makes their way to Church,it didn't even matter that there was 12 inches of snow that had fallen on Crackling,N.C.,some said it was a hundred year snow storm,didn't matter the Missionary Baptist Church of Crackling was filled to the guild.
The   music from the choir permeated the church walls,"something got a hold of me "  the singing place a spell on the congregation,the spirit in the Church could not be control by any man God was in the house! 

By Any Means Necessary! Part 16

Many years of hard drinking had begun to show in Sampson,the DT's had set in on him a few days after arriving home  from the hospital,he even ask Billy Bob the Fire and Rescue Chief during one of his visits to stop down at the "Dew Drop Inn" and bring him a little taste.
Even though Billy Bob loved Sampson like a brother,this was one request he just couldn't do,but he did call Dr.Roan and suggest that he prescribe a sedative for Sampson to get him through the DT'S.
Christmas was fast approaching and Minny and the kids were preparing the home for one of the best Christmas in a long time,Robert Lee had gone out into the back forty acres and found a tall pine for the family Christmas tree,it was a glorious one.
Robert Lee had manged in the few short weeks working at the market to save $30.00 which he had given to his mother to buy gifts for the younger children and his father.
On Christmas eve 1959 a rare snow descended on Crackling,N.C.,just like Robert Lee had dreamed and prayed for.

Part-15 By Any Means Necessary!

Two days after arriving home from the hospital Sampson laid motionless in his bed,with his life spared from a self-imposed death sentence many thoughts whizzed by in his mind.
One of the orders from Dr.Roan was a change in lifestyle,no more drinking and no more smoking.at 35 years of age Sampson wasn't prepared to give those things up at this point.
For Sampson the alcohol was the engine  that eased his mind of any pain,Sampson started drinking out of control a long time before he went to war in Korea,drinking was a way for him to escape the realities of his life.
Many who knew Sampson didn't help by always explaining his behavior as a result of him being in the war.
But his wife and brother-in-law Rev.John knew the truth of his drinking problem,it was simple Sampson didn't know how to be a man.
Sampson's father had died when he was nine years old,he was killed in a industrial accident at the local feed mill where he toiled for ten hours a day,the same feed mill owned by Mayor Coop's family.
The truth of his fathers death was never officially told to the family,they were simply told there was a accident and he was dead.
The year of his death 1933 was a time in Crackling when the Coop family ruled the County with a iron fist and could get away with anything it saw fit.
Few of the other Colored workers at the Mill talked of Sampson Sr. death,many were afraid of losing their jobs if the truth of his death was revealed.
But there was one  Minny's father  who everybody called Bigdaddy simply because at 6'7 the name fit, quietly came to Sampson's momma one evening and told her the truth without fear or favor,that the grain elevator had exploded due to improper maintenance and Sampson Sr. had died while inside cleaning it.

Part 14-By Any Means Necessary!

Life was changing in Crackling,N.C. and America,Colored folks had begun to realize that they deserved more of this life then had been offered or given by the American society.
Folks were  questioning the status quo and refusing to accept crumbs,the sermons and prayers of Reverend John and the powerful work of MLK had awoken a sleeping giant in the Colored folk of Crackling,NC.
Just as Robert Lee slowly pulled the family 1952 Chevy pickup to the hospitals side door,Minny wheeled Sampson out the door for the joyful ride to the homestead,smiles and prayers were everywhere.
As Robert Lee turned the 52 Chevy into the long driveway to the house he could see cars and pickup trucks lined from one end of the homestead to the other.
The people of Crackling's Colored community cared for each other,no matter if you were blood related or not.
This mentality existed because of the social and economic realities for most of the population.
Billy Bob the Fire and Rescue Chief was milling around near the front door as the 52 Chevy rolled to a stop,many in Crackling understood the closeness Billy Bob felt for Sampson,Sampson had saved his life in a fierce firefight  in Korea.
For that heroic act Sampson was awarded a Purple Heart and a promotion to Sergeant First Class.

Part 13-By Any Means Necessary

Robert Lee came through the back door  out of breath he could hardly get the words out of his mouth,that he had been offered a job as a bag boy at the Piggly Wiggly.
His mother Minny stopped in the middle of dressing for her second visit of the day to see Sampson in the hospital to take in the good news in what had been a routine day of robbing Peter to pay Paul.
As Minny patiently listen to the joy and excitement coming from her oldest child,there was a certain amount of pride that she couldn't hide.
As Dr.Roan finished his daily assement of Sampson's condition,Minny and Robert Lee quietly walk into his room.
Dr.Roan had good news Sampson would survive his massive heart attack and was coming out of the coma and  would be going home in a few days.
This was the greatest news and Christmas present the Atlas family could ever want,the daily prayers of Minny's brother Rev.John had again produce miracles,that baffled the medical profession.

Part 12-By Any Means Necessary

Things were beginning to change in America,even slower in small towns and hamlets like Crackling.
The Mayor wielding the financial and political power he had,brought his board of directors of the bank together and convince them that they need to do business a little different.
One of the first things decided was to start to include the Colored population of Crackling in the economic system of the town,more then just being  consumers,but employees and stakeholders.
This was a win,win situation no matter how it was sliced for the powers that be,as Robert Lee took a seat in the office of Mayor Coop,he wasted no time getting to the point,he wanted Robert Lee to come work at the Piggy Wiggly after school as a bag boy,the pay was fifty cent a hour plus whatever tips he was given putting groceries in the cars of the customers.
Robert Lee was  smart  and tactful for his age and  explained to the Mayor that his school work came first and he would have to discuss this with his parents.
Even as he was counting up in his head how the extra money could help around the house,since there was no income coming from anywhere else regularly
Robert Lee bidded the Mayor farewell and thanked him for the job offer and ran down highway 441 towards home faster then a greyhound express bus..

Part Eleven-By Any Means Necessary!

There were very few Colored Folk in Crackling who believed the change they had seen in Mayor Coop was a come to Jesus moment,but clearly a realization that things were changing in America!
Spirituality and religion did pop up on the Mayor's radar for a minute,but after his son was healed by Rev.John's miraculous prayers,the Mayor had almost forgot about the miracle and was back to business as usually until Sampson's heart attack.
Martin Luther King had just paid a visit to Rev.John's Church three days earlier,he had heard through the grapevine of  The Southern Baptist Church Convention  of the miracles being preformed in his Church,
The last person the Mayor wanted to bring influence to the Colored folk of Crackling was MLK,he had heard and seen on the news the change MLK had brought to Montgomery,Alabama.
As Robert Lee nervously walked into the Crackling Saving and Loan,thoughts race through his head as to what the Mayor wanted to talk with him about,as he pass Ebb the Mayor's son who was back at work as senior teller,his healing everyone said was unexplainable,Robert Lee said hey to Ebb and told him he was here to speak with his daddy.

Part Ten-By Any Means Necessary!

As Robert Lee stumbled into the house from school,his mother gently reminded him to keep his school clothes on for the meeting this afternoon with Mayor Coop.
The walk up highway 441 would be a cold one,but Robert Lee has walked this road all his life,the Crackling Saving and Loan was a building he passed often on his way to school,he had  been inside  once with his father Sampson,when he went in for a farmers loan,which he didn't get.
Robert Lee can remember even as a child the hate displayed by Mayor Coop and the folks he runned with for the Colored people of Crackling.
Even though half of the population of Crackling was Colored,the money and political power was held in the hands of a few White folks,which included the Mayor.
It was December 19,1959,with Sampson in the hospital and money low,the thought on everyone in the Atlas family's mind was Sampson and Christmas!
Christmas was special for Colored folks in Crackling, going to church on Christmas Eve was mandatory ,the Crackling Free Will Baptist Church would be over flowing,even the heathens would come.Rev.John would preach the baby Jesus story every year,and admonish the ungodly to get right with Jesus,because we never knew when our own time was up!

Part Nine-By Any Means Necessary!

It had been five days since Sampson's heart attack,Minny was there everyday like clock work standing by the man she has loved for twenty years.
Those twenty years had been up and down,but as Minny knew all too well,that life is not always a bowl of cherries.
She knew every situation in her life was a call from the God she believed in to stay on point ,because there was a reason for every season.
As Minny and her youngest daughter Jennie Mae set quietly in the ICU praying for their husband and father,Mayor Coop respectfully knocked on the door,he knew he had to come visit,it was Minny's brother John who had reached out with some miraculous prayers that healed his son from his rare form of cancer.
Mayor Coop also own the local Piggy Wiggly Super Market and was President of the local Saving and Loan.
While stopping by to pay his respects,he asked Minny to have her son Robert Lee  stop by the Bank  tomorrow to talk with him!
Many thoughts ran through Minny's mine wondering why the Mayor wanted to see Robert Lee so urgently.
The Atlas family were a proud family and were not the type to take charity or pity,they had their God,who always  came through.

Part Eight-By Any Means Necessary!

When Rev John prayed and spoke it seem to many, like the world had stopped and what he had to say was the order of the day.
Even Dr.Roan lowered his head in respect for Rev. John's prayers Dr. Roan wasn't a religious man,but there was something about Rev.John's prayers that  even this religious cynic pondered.
Many stories abound about Rev.John's healing powers and prayers,there was one that everyone in Crackling knew to be true where the Mayor had asked for his help in asking God for direction in his own life.
You see the Mayor's  son had suffered from a rare form of cancer,they had taken him to the best doctors in the state up at Duke University Hospital in Durham,they had all but pronounce that there wasn't anything further that they could do.
It was hard for a White man like the Mayor to ask a Black man for help,years ago the Mayor was the Grand Dragon of the KKK and his attitude then was the only good Black man was a dead Black man.
But the Mayor had begun to change with the sickness of his son,he began to realize slowly how important life was,not just a white life but every one's life.
After returning from Duke Hospital with no hope of his son recovering,the Mayor picked up the phone and called Rev.John for his help!

Part Seven-By Any Means Necessary!

As Minny paced the hallway's of the Colored section of Crackling Memorial Hospital,the children sat silently on the hard wooden benches provided in the small but clean waiting area.
Segregation is the rule of the day even in the place you go to for health care,Dr.Roan the only Black Physician on staff came out to talk with the family.
The news was not good Sampson had suffer a heart attack and it was touch and go,just as Dr.Roan was giving the family his finding,Rev. John and his wife Mildred walked in to hear the news,Rev. John  was one of those preachers who could pray,he could create a moaners bench anywhere,his prayers were so deep and intense that if God couldn't hear them it was only because,God already knew what was needed!

Part Six-By Any Means Necessary

As Billy Bob the Rescue Squad Chief help roll Sampson out the Lee Family home,he remark that
" everyone seems to have forgotten that Sampson was a WW2 hero with a purple heart".
He also reminded them that war was hell and that but for the grace of god there go I.
As the rescue wagon speed down highway 441 towards the hospital in Southport,the lee family piled into their 1952 chevy pickup to make the twenty mile trip to the hospital.

Part Five-By Any Means Necessary

Minny called out to Robert Lee to run across the highway to Mr.Bryant's house to have him call the rescue squad not everyone had a telephone ,Sampson was still breathing but was unresponsive.
As the rest of the clan stood and waited for the rescue squad to arrive,tears were streaming from the faces,the faint sounds of prayers could be heard "lord help us to hold out".
The wailing of the rescue siren could be heard coming down highway 441,in a small place such like Crackling,N.C. when the rescue squad is call the whole community responses
Sheriff Taylor and his deputy Wilbur were the first to arrive,neither were surprise to find Sampson in the condition he was in ,often they would bring him home from the Juke Joint on friday nights after a hard night of drinking moon shine and dancing.

Part Four-By Any Means Necessary

As Minny move about her small cramped kitchen preparing breakfast for her family the smell of country ham cooking on the wood burning stove had awaken everyone.
Clem the youngest son stood smiling in the kitchen with his mother as she hurried along making biscuits and girts for the morning meal.
This would be one of those rare but blessed morning for breakfast food,about this time of the year the meat from the curing barn was ready to be eaten,the one and only hog the family had was killed a few months earlier and now it was ready to be eaten.
All of a sudden Billy Jean the middle child came screaming into the kitchen for her mother,something had happen to Sampson!

Part Three-By Any Means Necessary

Patches the nickname the other kids had given Robert Lee because of the clothes he wore,didn't affect his spirit or drive to do better with his life.
Like clock work no matter what time of the year it was Robert Lee would be up at the crack of dawn to fed the chickens and bring in the fire wood.
He often would hear the faint prayers of his Mother asking the Lord to help her  to hold out,which he realized years later was the catalyst that motivated him to be the person he grew up to become.
One of his favorite prayers was to ask the Lord to do something about his father's condition,because his belief in God was strong,he knew from reading his worn and torned bible that Jesus had fed 5000 with two loaves of bread,surely he could save his dear father.
A belief in God was a strong reality in the Lee household,for without that belief,there would be none!

By Any Means Necessary-Part Two

Robert Atlas lee,the  towering oldest son of Sampson and Minny who stood six feet at a mire 14 years of age.,slowly arose from his pall-ate in the parlor room of the house.
The de facto man of the house Robert Lee took his role seriously,
It was his responsibility to bring in the fire wood for the wood burning heater each morning during the winter season.
Life in Crackling,N.C. could be brutal sometimes for the Lee family,with Sampson's mood swinging from happy and jovial to deep manic depression.
The family sometimes didn't know which way was up,with his swing in moods,their lives had been stolen by the bottle!
Robert Atlas often prayed and dreamed for his father to be like Uncle John who interacted with his cousins with a love he never could realize at this point in his young life.
But one lesson his young mind and spirit had learned through all of this was,you can't give what you ain't got!
After gathering the firewood and bringing the wood burning heater up to full max,Robert would go and awaken his sister Jenny Mae.
Jenny Mae was the brains of the family she would read every book that she could get her hands on,it was her relief from the demonic forces that permeated her young life.