Post 7

One day I was walking home from work and there was a riot going on. I was confused because people from the same color was hurting each other. I didn't understand why they would  do that. Then I finally heard that Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated. I was shocked but I wasn't angry. I couldn't believe it but I couldn't bring myself to cry about it. The people that migrated from the South wasn't as hurt as the people in the North. But five years ago, once I heard that John F Kennedy died,it  devastated me. He was a really good man. I just wondered why would someone kill our president.

Post 6

I finally reached New York. I am so tired. I forgot where my aunt lives. New York was so confusing for me. The streets were numbered. But I remember my friend's address so I went there. He told me that maybe I need to relax so I decided to take a bath. Once I got in the bath I remembered where my aunt lived. I hopped out the tub so fast and went to her house. I was staying in her living room until I got a job to earn money so I can get my own apartment. Fortunately, mostly everyone was away at war so it was easy to find a job. I worked on trains as a waiter. The white men called me "boy" but I didn't care. I was in New York and I was free. Free from Eutis, Florida.

Post 5

As I was on my way to New York, I couldn't help but think that my own people were mad at me because I was trying to help them make more money. I was angry. But most of all I was hurt. I was hurt because all I was trying to do was help them make more money. Now, I have to leave my wife and my father. I HELPED THEM EARN MORE MONEY IN  A DAY THAN THEY MAKE IN A WEEK. But at the same time I was happy I was getting out of Eutis, Florida. It is like I was getting a new life. I left for New York on April 15,1945 (my birthday.) As I was on the train dozing off, I said to myself that, I will never go back to Eutis, never.  New York here I come.

Post #4

As I was going to New York a bunch of emotions was running through my mind. I was so scared. But then I thought about it. I was thinking that I was running for a good cause. I wondered how Sam and Bud felt. I knew they had to be scared. I ruined their lives. I ruined MY life. I worried everyday about my father. I really didn't worry about Inez. I loved her but I had a bad feeling that something was going to happen to my father. I don't know why but it just came to me, it... it didn't feel right. Things were happening to fast for me. Just a couple of weeks ago I was picking fruit out the tree and now I am on my way to New York. I can't wait to reach New York. I think I am going to be safe again.

Post #3

When I came back home, I decided to use some techniques that I learned up north. Me, Sam, and Bud got together and started our own group. We would demand that the foreman give us more money. I would go up to them and say that we deserve 20 cents instead of 10 cents per box. Some of the foreman agreed but some of them didn't. The foreman that didn't agree, would get mad because I wouldn't stop. One day I went to one of the foreman and demanded more money. He said no, so I said "we gonna  leave." The people that I work with didn't want to leave. They said, "Well, we done warmed our pail." I told them to that they didn't have to cook, but they still didn't move. I just gave up. They got in the truck and went their way, I went my way. So word was going around that a group of people were going to have a lynching party for Mud, Sam, and I. So when it got back to us, we all decided to leave. I told my dad, he said it was best for me to leave, But on the other hand Inez was driving me crazy. She kept begging me to stay but I had to leave. So I told her that I would send for her once I got situated to shut her up. A couple days later I was on my way to New York with my aunts.

Post #2

I moved up to Detroit and started working there. Inez wasn't too happy bout it but, I have to do what I have to do to continue to go back to school and also Inez wants to go to school. I was making more money in Detroit than in Florida. But when I tell you, Detroit had some riots, man they had some riots. They were so crazy. They spread rumors that some white people got together and killed a black woman and her baby. Another rumor was that some black people got together and killed a white women while she was in the park. Neither one of those rumors were true. That is just crazy. So, one day I was going to work and my friend told me that I was crazy for going to work in this riot, I said, "Yeah, but I ain't got nothin' to do with it. I ain't in no gang." That night there were tanks going around. White people were beating up blacks when they were coming out the movies and black people were turning over white people's cars. It was so terrible. I went to work and I did my job. But I ended up quitting that job. They tried to make me stay, but man I got my butt on the next train and went back home to my wife Inez.

About My Life

My name is George Swanson Starling. I grew up in Eustis, Florida with my father Big George, as they like to call him. My parents split when I was about 8 years old. I used to steals oranges from the orange tree that outside the church. So, after they split, I went to live with my grandmother, my mother's mother, in Ocala. It was three of us that lived with my grandmother. My father used to send money to my grandmother but after a while the money stopped coming, and the same thing happen to cousins. My grandmother sent me back to my father in Eustis. Big George was a farmer.He was a very strict man. I went to school, then high school. I was Valedictorian of my senior class, by the time we graduated it was only six people in the senior class.