Ernestine Williams & daughters Roniece & Rojean

“One of his mantras was always, we can, we can give a man, a fish, he'll eat for a day but if we teach him how to fish, he'll live for a lifetime. And that is how our father and mother raised us. And to the point when I was 10 years old, I got so sick of hearing that sermon at dinner time. Okay, here we go again, self-sufficient, independent, self-sufficient, independent. And then by the time I got maybe out of college and went through a divorce, and I was like I know what self-sufficient and independence really means. I don't care who I'm working, I work for the federal government, but I am self-sufficient and independent where I have my, my day job that pays my retirement bill. But I also have revenue streams that's going to survive with me and also generate generational wealth and I think my dad was like: our grandparents give us the knowledge to learn how to live and take care of ourselves and if they gave us a piece of property, it wasn't meant for them to go sell it to somebody to spend the profits from that, but teach your children how to do that same thing so for generations you can pass down generational wealth.”

“Most of these teachers have passed on, but that was one of the luxuries of living in Brownsville. Is that these teachers, they taught your mama, your sister, your uncle, your cousin and the grandchildren, and children after that. So that generation of education that, that generation of what would you call it? Life skills, and all of those things were consistently threaded through the family network, when you had those teachers that taught your mama and daddy, they taught your kids too.”