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Hi, I'm Vicki Davis Williams. I came to American University in 1968, and I graduated in 1972 with a degree in psychology. I did have a double major with education, but that last semester,

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when they assigned people to two schools, I couldn't figure out how I would get to that school. And my father, I requested my father.

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I need a car, dad. He wouldn't he didn't go for that. So I dropped the double major continued with psychology, knowing that I really was not going to go

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on to get a doctorate. So I decided to go to graduate school in education at Boston University. So my then boyfriend was in Boston, so I had a motivation to

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go to the Boston and then. Okay, we can pause. The film. She's she's right here.

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She just got she had to get something out of the pantry, and I'm taking stuff down to the downstairs. She's going to be right here. Okay.

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Sorry. Okay. Okay. Why don't you, um.

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Why don't you tell us about your your first experiences at AU and, and how how, uh, what was it like for you back in the day? Um, coming to American University was a slightly different experience for me.

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I came from Greensboro, North Carolina, and in 10th grade we the schools were integrated. So I was in an integrated setting here at American University. I remember I was on the the bridge between Anderson Hall and let's my

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I had a white roommate and I had a Jewish roommate. Um, my, my freshman year, um, the I had sort of a really strange experiences with both. That really led me to want to have

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an African American roommate. The the second year, I had never really experienced, uh, Jewish. I'm so sorry.

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Yeah. Sorry. Do you want to come in? Do you want to finish up? I'll finish it up.

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Okay. So just maybe have you go back to the beginning of that question. Or start over. Well, whatever you want me to do.

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Okay. Okay. All right. You want to hear the room?

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Yes, sir. I was like, oh. Did I, did I did I step into something? Oh, maybe I don't want to do that.

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But it really led me to the cultural floor too. So, um. What was the question? So, um, my freshman year at

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American University, first of all, let me say my mother had graduate courses here at American University when she was, uh, living in Greensboro, North Carolina, which was our home, uh, as a guidance counselor.

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So I had some experience or some familiarity, I should say, about, uh, about American University, uh, coming in 1968, at the time, with all of the demonstrations at Howard and in many schools, I thought, well, let me make sure

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that my application will not get burned up. And since I want to be in Washington, D.C., I'll go apply to American University. Fortunately, I was accepted.

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And, um, my experience with Washington was somewhat somewhat limited. But my first year I was on the bridge between Anderson and Lees Hall.

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I had a white roommate from Pennsylvania, and I had a Jewish roommate from Long Island. I was not familiar with, as they were called, Jewish American princesses.

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So what I experienced was, Um, the experiences I had really was I was feeling, um, insecure. I felt I felt as if that roommate was talking down to me.

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And so that that that was very unsettling. What I found out shortly thereafter is that she talked that way to everybody, to her friends.

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So I was like, okay, so I'm good, I'm smart, I'm here. I'm I'm good. Um, I that roommate had talked to about some people.

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Um, I talked to some friends. I overheard her because she at night, she would leave the door open while she talked. And my other my trying to go to

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sleep, and I heard her say, well, she might transfer it to another room. So in the last day of transfer, I got her an application and I put it on her desk.

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And then I left the room, and I said, you talked about she was coming down the hall, and I said, you talked about leaving, so maybe I put the application because, you know, today is the last day. And, uh, and she, she applied and she, she left.

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So then it was just the two of us, um, and I had I had some other experiences that were unsettling but affirming for me in that I was pretty good with math. We had one experience where I was

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studying with another student and she was beating me down. No, that's not right. This isn't supposed to go this way.

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This way. I said, no, no, no, it goes this way. And we went on for I said, listen, I don't have time to do this. You do it your way and I'll do it my way.

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We're going to be good the next day, she said, you were right. I was like, yes, I know I told you so. Two experiences that were very, um, affirming for me, for my self-confidence in a college situation.

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Um, but I decided that, you know, I would like to have an African-American. Um, and the roommate next year. And I was introduced to a Thelda Jones, AJ, she became my roommate,

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and we were roommates throughout. The opportunity came and for us to have a black cultural floor. We we just so we wouldn't have to

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go here to let's to Hughes to see other African Americans because we were very supportive of each other. So, um, we jumped at the chance once it was approved, uh, to, to do that.

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And we did that for the remaining years. I learned how to cook. Various foods.

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So it was it was great. It was great. So going back to that time, it appears that where you found community was that black cultural,

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that black cultural sort of center where you found community. You talked about some of the challenges along the way in terms of interactions coming in. Um, having left American

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University. Once you finish your degree and you left American University, looking back, what would you say were those seminal Moments for you?

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So let me let me share that after, um, before leaving here. Um, The Black Student Union group did tutoring at one of the local churches. I think it was around North

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Capitol Street. In addition to that, I did do some, uh, some teaching, um, part of that double major, uh, not the student teaching, but we would go in, in the classrooms.

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And I realized that that I started working with some African American students, and I couldn't understand why they were not understanding or capturing the concepts that I was trying to teach.

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And that helped me make the decision to go get a master's in education with a concentration in learning disabilities, because I thought that whether they had learning disabilities or not, there's a concept of teaching that

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would help me teach everyone. Um, after that year at Boston University, I came back to Washington because Boston was too cold.

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It was too gray. It was just not for me. I loved Washington, and I looked for a job, and I started working in the Head Start program in

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Arlington, Virginia, as the education coordinator, and then became director of the Head Start program for Arlington County, about 300, 300, 400 students. Um, did that for about 7 or 8

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years. And then I went to an organization called the National Black Child Development Institute as, um, administrative assistant, and then became, Deputy director for and

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vice president of the organization. Um, my current husband has said he's about that. I'm about the only person he knows who has never worked in a predominantly white environment.

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So. May have had to do with some experiences at American University, but I also think it has to do with my something, some information that I really learned when I was 19.

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And that is my great great grandparents, Ellen and William Craft, um, wrote a book about their escape from slavery from Macon, Georgia on December 21st, 1848 on the above ground railroad, and arrived in Philadelphia four

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days later by ship. By train. Above ground train and wrote the book running a Thousand Miles for freedom.

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That book was first published in London and reprinted after it sold out, but it was first published in the United States in 1969. So that's when I first got my copy

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of the book and really read it. Well, I kind of heard the stories along, but really read the book. Um, it was, um, my great great

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grandmother, Ellen Craft, looked white. She was the daughter of the master slave owner and his slave. Um, at 11 years old, she was given to by by the master and his wife, given to her half sister as a gift when the half sister got married.

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Because she was oftentimes thought of as the master's daughter, the his wife did not like that and did not treat her well at all, so sent her away. Um, at 11 she was able to.

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So during this time, you know, she's serving in the house and she's hearing this. She's hearing all about the travels of people because the house where she was working, they

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were rich, and she learned a lot about the railway. She could not read or write because, you know, that was, of course, against the law. My great grandmother and around 20

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or 21 and her husband decided that they did not want to have children in slavery because each one of them had experienced the separation from from parents and siblings. So they developed a theme, a scheme to run away.

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They knew that during the Christmas season they would get a four day pass. So she, looking white, posed as the master owner, property owner and she sewed pants.

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He got a jacket, they got a top hat, and she got green tinted glasses to sort of hide. Her eyes, put her arm in a sling, cut her hair.

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So and they, they, they put a muslim or something around her face because they wanted to show that she was sick and she was going to Philadelphia to, to get treatment.

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And her then husband was her slave accompanying her to Philadelphia. They left Macon. First stop was Savannah, Georgia.

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They their second stop was Charleston, South Carolina, which is my home where I live now. And they were We're going to take the steamship up north, but could not because it didn't operate in the winter months.

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So long story short, they found ways to go from the train to the to the to the steamship. They almost got caught 2 or 3 times because they were asked to sign.

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They were asked to confirm or verify that the. My great great grandmother had authority to have this slave with her, but they had people to to help them along the way. And then on December 25th, Christmas Day, in the morning,

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they got off the train free. They stayed in Philadelphia a short while because it was felt that they really weren't safe. So they went to Boston.

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And meanwhile in both places, because of their escape, they were asked to talk to the people, the guests, about their escape and the ills of slavery. So they joined abolitionists in discussing, you know, the doing,

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the anti-slavery conversations. They stayed in Boston a couple of years, had to leave there quickly because the Fugitive Slave Act was passed.

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Slave catchers were after them. The abolitionists protected them. The the president at the time had signed an order for 600 militiamen to come to Boston to arrest them

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and take them back, so they were able to get to Nova Scotia and take the ship over to London. And they were greeted and welcomed there and lived there for about 19 to 20 years.

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So my great grandfather, my grandmother's father was born, was 19 or 20 years old when, after the Civil War, they came back to the United States, ended up near Savannah, Georgia, to open up a school to teach slaves, the the former slaves how to read and

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write, and also to to have a co-op so that they could earn money, their own money, by growing crops. Ku Klux Klan burned their forest home down.

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I think a couple of years later, they were able to get another home and did the same thing. Um, so they ended up in Charleston, where with her, with their daughter, and that's where they spent their last days.

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So I think that because of that story and my experiences, I. Continued my effort to work on behalf of, uh, rights for African American children. And I stayed there until I

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retired. So I stayed there. National Black Child for about 20 years and retired. The last organization, National Black Child Development Institute,

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here in Washington. Yeah. Here in Washington. Downtown.

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So it was a it was a, Um. Great experience. It's, you know, it's hard work because folks said, well, why do you need to have a black organization?

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Why do you have to have a black child development institute? And I said, because somebody needs to advocate for African American children. So that's what we did.

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That's what I did. Last question is, um, what is the best advice that you could give to your 21, to your 21 year old self, current or future generations? What would you say to them?

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Sorry. Before you answer that, I'm just going to turn it out Intensity for a second. Yeah.

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I, I would say to them, you never know where life is going to take you. Um, during my time at American University, I developed, um, some very close relationships with, um, my classmates, African American

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classmates, I, my roommates, the white room. I don't know where she is. Um, but the my friends, male and female here at American University, we are still tight

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today and support each other. Um, and, you know, back then, you didn't know where people and when you look back or look forward. And I see that one of our, one of our classmates, maybe a year

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behind us, but, you know, became a federal judge. Um, another classmate became the editorial director for, I think it was channel seven. And another classmate, uh, gave

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birth to a son who was just elected governor of Maryland. I mean, you know, it's just and and the list goes on and on in terms of the people and what they achieved was great. But our friendship stayed strong.

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And I moved away from the area about eight years ago, moved back to to Charleston, South Carolina. But every time I come up, we get together when I'm not seeing also my son and his three girls.

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So, you know, I sort of spread my time there. But I would say follow your dream, but make, uh, form relationships.

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You know, form relationships. And you don't have to do it the way I did it. I say form relationships with everyone, you know, white, black, uh, other ethnic groups, um, just good people, you know, just good

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people. And reach out. Reach out and ask for help when you need help. So that would be mine.

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Thank you. Thank you again for another Trailblazer Changemaker. When you decided your life's calling was to make sure I did have the opportunity right, I did right, right, right.

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Thank you for sharing your story. Absolutely.