family essay

My family has a lot of stories that were past down for a long time. There is one story that really

gets to me every time i hear it. It's the story my grandma told me not to long ago and i can 

remember it word for word.  The way in which my grandmother tells the story replays in my mind just like a movie.

My grandmother's grandparents lived in Texas. They where two school teachers who had about a 12th grade education. At that time in Texas for African American people that was considered to be rather high. My grandmother said that her grandfather was a very dark man and his wife was a light skin black women. her skin almost looked as if she was white. that was because her mother was raped by a slave owner that why her skin is so light.  so anyways back to the story, my grandmothers grandparents had this friend named Jim. Jim had been friends with them for a long time he would always help the children during school. That was because my grandmothers grandparents could use a little help every once in a while. so that is what Jim offered to them.

Oneday Jim had came running into my grandmothers grandparents house begging them to give him mercy and hide him somewhere. the reason in which he was needed to behind en was because he had been accused of raping a white women. in the state of Texas at that time would mean that a black man would be lynched. so my grandmothers grandparents hid there friend jim under theses floor boards. if Jim was to be found in my grandmothers grandparents house all three of them would be lynched because they where apart of hiding this man. For them to avoild that from happening they moved to the state of California.

When my grandmothers grandparents moved to the state of California they had lost their teaching jobs. they moved to a small town called allens's town which now is know as Fresno.in this small town their was a lot of black families moving in. now in a near by town there where white people in which they did not want black families to live next ti them. Now for them to stop black families from coming into this town they poisoned their water. that caused them not to be able to have clean drinking water which simply had met that they would have to move to another town. The town in which my grandmothers grandparents was down in southern California where they would own a farm.  

That is where my grandmother said her mother would move to a city called Bakersfield. That is where my grandmother would spend  her childhood. 

The reason this story has lasted so long in my family i think is because it shows the moral of friendship and also courage. What i learned about my self after hearing this story from my grandmother was i was not sure if i would be brave enough to do the things they did to save this mans life. i do not know if i would be able to handle that risk.In a way though i feel like if that was me back then i still would have had to do my best to save the life of my friend.