Sumner Hutcheson lll

“My dad taught us a lot about blackness and the pride of being black. He was involved with a lot of political activities. We were fortunate enough as an example to go with him to meet President Kennedy.”

“Teachers talked about the importance of doing well, exceeding, doing better than always. And so that was drilled into us. That's one of the, I think very positive things about Brownsville. Not only did it have all of these different individuals who were doing well, were economically not only doing well, they were teaching in life, but we also had their own businesses there. So, we had a pharmacy, we had grocery stores, we had tailors, we had dry cleaning businesses, all within Brownsville at the time. And so, you know, you got reinforced as you walked around people who you saw were successful, they were doing well. And so therefore that life experience, experiencing those kinds of positive images, those positive reinforcements, all of that was important.”

“Politically my father was also involved with an organization called The Dade-County Young Democratic Association. And what that group did. I think that was actually very powerful is that they became a powerhouse in the community because even though African Americans could not run for office or did not run for office or could not run for office. What they did was that they made sure that, they really, the African American community really knew who were the people who they should vote for, so many times they got to the point where literally they would interview candidates for office and they were all white candidates but they were interviewed. Then they would publish right before the election in the Miami Times, a full-page article, a full-page ad with all the people who they recommended for office. The people that. So, they became quite powerful organization in supporting, making sure that at least those persons who were not black really were people who were going to at least be fair in terms of black issues in Miami.”