Stories From the Eastside 1940 - 60 Riverside, CA - Sleeping With Former Slave Grandma Wilcox
The Emancipation Proclamation was the beginning of the end of slavery in America in 1863. However the first celebration by African Americans of Juneteenth, June 19th was in 1865. During…
Sleeping with a Formerly Enslaved Woman
Grandma Wilcox
The Emancipation Proclamation was the beginning of the end of slavery in America in 1863. However the first celebration by African Americans of Juneteenth, June 19th was in 1865. During that year Grandma Wilcox was no more than five years old. Still in bondage she was transported with a group of slaves from Virginia to Texas. Somewhere along the way she fell off the wagon. It was assumed that young children were not of significant value. And that may have been the reason there was no search to retrieve her.
A Mexican family found her and brought Grandma Wilcox home to raise her as one of their own. It was some time in the late 1880’s that she made her way to Blythe and eventually to the Eastside of Riverside California.
Around 1940 Grandma Wilcox lived her last twenty years on the Eastside with her daughter’s Family. Grandma Wilcox was Buddy and Wanda Jones’ grandmother. Wanda remembers sleeping with grandma in the early years in their Riverside home. Her brother Buddy always reminds her,
“Girl you may be one of the few, if not the only person alive who slept with a slave. “
Grandma Wilcox, survived into the 1960’s. During her later years she began sewing a quilt that combined old clothes and old memories.
As in the tradition of many African American families she passed the quilt on to the wife of her Grandson. Shirley Jones (bottom left) received this quilt from Grandma Wilcox as a genuine act of love and reconciliation. Although Grandma Wilcox had escaped slavery, she did not escape the abuse and discrimination from white Americans. Her enmity toward whites ran deep. \
Buddy Jones and Family - Buddy (center bottom) Grandson of Grandma Wilcox
Shirley is white. But because Buddy, her grandson, decided to marry a white girl, Grandma Wilcox moved past her hate to befriend Shirley. They became friends.
After sixteen years, long after Grandma Wilcox left us and two Jones children later, Shirley and Buddy separated. However, still friends, Shirley made a point of giving the quilt to Buddy and his new wife Lori. And when Buddy’s son married, they passed the quilt on to the next generation.
30 years after receiving the quilt, in the early 1990’s Buddy felt the urgency to keep the tradition of adding to the quilt alive. He invited Shirley, Lori and his daughter-in-law together to urge them to make their contribution. The women agreed. And now, more than sixty years later, the quilt represents four generations of this African American family. From slavery to successful business owners and professionals (please detail). Three generations of hardworking, optimistic people who have fought and overcome discrimination to live remarkable lives.
And so Grandma Wilcox’s life and her progeny brings a whole new meaning to ‘falling off the wagon’ in 1865.
“….. I would come on up even to 1863 and watch a vacillating President by the name of Abraham Lincoln finally come to the conclusion that he had to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. But I wouldn’t stop there.
…… Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain.
And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!”
Excerpt from: I Have Been to the Mountaintop
April 1968
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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