THE SHARECROPPER’S GRANDSON

THE JOURNEY

The young boy nicknamed was known by the name “Flanki” was born April 1924 in rural Orrville, Lexington Precinct of Dallas County, Alabama to Ricy Jackson and Cawthorn Underwood, Sr. His mother, being unmarried gave him the name Joe Jackson and he gave himself the name after his father, Cawthorn Underwood, Jr. They lived with his maternal grandparents (Andrew and Amie Jackson) known to the family as Papa and T-Mama. The family lived on W.P. Molett Plantation as sharecroppers.

Under the sharecropper system, black families (tenant farmers) would rent small plots of land, or shares, to work themselves. Landowners provided sharecroppers with land, seeds, tools, clothing, and food; earnings were based on what was left after they paid the landowner at the end of the year.

It was in the mid 1930’s a wagon loaded with the Jackson family sojourned from the William Molett Plantation out of the “Molett Bend“ community to Dallas County Alabama 30 miles north to Selma onto Whitt Johnson’s place called “Martin Hill”. As the wagons entered the city of Selma, Martha, one of Flanki’s cousin blurted out, “T-Mama, I can’t see Selma for the lights”.

The Jacksons was a happy family, very friendly, very large, hardworking and very poor. They met no strangers and would help anyone with whatever means they had.

They moved several times until they finally settled on the Adam’s place. Andrew and Amie had eight children; three sons and five daughters and many grandchildren. Flanki was the younger of his two sisters, Mable and Amy. The children and grandchildren got little education because they had to drop out of school to help Papa on the farm. Flanki only got a third grade education at Lily Grove School. He was good mathematician (not on paper) in his head. Most of his uncles and aunts grew up, got married and moved away leaving the mostly the women and grandchildren to help Papa on the farm.

His aunt, Ina, passed away at age twenty five leaving her three sons, Stephen, Evan and Spencer, who were added to the already large family. There were eighteen family members in the Jackson house. When Flanki and his three cousins became young men, they moved to Bessemer, AL to work in the Steel Mill leaving Papa with the women and the younger children to do the share cropping. Papa was never able to clear any profit at the end of the year from his hard labor in the fields. He always owed the land owner at the end of the harvest year. Flanki returned home to help Papa in the field. He took hold of that plow and worked it until Papa was finally cleared of his debt with the land owner. Flanki never returned to Bessemer he stayed to help with the family. The family thought very highly of him because he was the “bread winner” taking care of the whole family. Ricy, his mother, died in 1944 and he walked all the way up Nickles Hill carrying the flowers to his mother’s funeral.

He got a job working with Mr. A.C. Jemison logging. Mr. A.C. was a black man who owned a logging business. Mr. Jemison became very fond of Flanki because he was a very hard working, friendly young man. Unfortunately for Flanki that there was an accident in the woods that almost crushed his leg. The truck dropped him off at the highway and his nephew, Sam, drove the wagon to get him. He was crippled for a while.

FLANKI'S FAMILY

In September1947 Cawthorn Underwood (Flanki) got married to Geneva Tyus, her family called her “Jennie”, the third child of Dan and Addie Key Tyus. Her family was “well to do”. When they first got married, they lived with ______________ They lived in the house with adjourning rooms with his grandparents on the Adam’s place. They had four daughters: Ernestine, Dorothy, Mary and Addie. Mrs. Mamie Jemison named his first daughter, Ernestine. By this time all the other family members had grown up and moved out and some moved to other states with some leaving their children with Papa and T-Mama. He went back to sharecropping. He was the “head hand” on the Adam’s place. His job was to drive tractor. Thank God tractors had replaced the mule now so the land owners could get more acres plowed in a shorter period of time. He was very committed to whatever he did. He worked very hard from sun up to sun down, most times six day per week. When he came home, he was so dusty in his face you could only see his eyes. The “Hill” lived other houses and they were all occupied by the Jackson family members with the exception of one, the Turnbolt family. The families were still share-croppers also. Along with the landowner acres, he plowed all the other sharecropper’s acres that they were allotted to use for their crops.

On the ‘Hill”, he was the first to get electricity and the first to get a television. It was like the “Hill’s” television. On the night when the boxing was on, the house was filled with men doing more mimicking boxing than the boxers on television. They yelled and laughed very loud. Those were some of the best times that they looked forward to. Sometimes the children came to watch the cartoons and cowboys.

THE JOY AND THE TRAGIC

In 1956 Dallas County built Brantley High School. Until then in these areas there were only church schools in the county. Almost every church had a “school house” built by the church. There were other public county schools in other areas of Dallas County but not in the north central area and there was only one public city school for the colored. There were other county schools in Dallas County for whites. Children had to walk miles to get to their schools. It was an exciting time for all the children because we were now going to a new school that had inside restrooms, central heat, inside water, different lunches, seeing other communities as the bus pass by that we never got to see, meeting children from other schools; there were many, many children and the comforts that we did not have at home.

The ‘Hill” on the Adam’s Place was located in the Manila Community where the train and the Greyhound bus would stop to load and unload passengers located on State Highway 14E. Now since Brantley High School was built children from the closes church schools could attend. Children from the Manila Community location could now ride a school bus. This is where the Brantley High School bus would stop approximately one half mile from the “Hill” community. All the children who lived on the “Hill’ were at that stop. They had to walk through a cow pasture, cross a barb wire fence and a railroad track. There were many children at this bus stop. There was a cousin’s house on the opposite side of Highway 14. Stepping on that big yellow bus was exciting to us.

Flanki now had three of his four daughters attending Brantley High School. This year was Mary’s, the third child) first year in school, she was six years old. On the chilly afternoon of November 19, 1956 the bus came to the stop to drop off the children. The other children went on across the highway on toward home after the bus went on. They were unaware that Mary had gone to her cousin, Ella’s (who was in her class), house to get her book that she had carried for her. The rest of the children assumed that all was in the group. On the way back across the highway Mary was accidently hit by a truck. Her oldest sister, Ernestine, as she crossed the wire fence, heard a white man called from the highway and asked “where is your mother” and told her to go get her. She ran up the hill as fast as she could to get her mother. Jennie and Dorothy, who didn’t go to school that day because she was sick, ran down the hill. Jennie told Dorothy to stay at the fence. She hurried to find her daughter, Mary, lying in the highway with the man standing by. Her mother bending over her crying and the ambulance came to pick her up. They went to the hospital to find that Mary was dead. That was the saddest day ever on the “Hill”. Jennie’s parents came in the wagon and others gathered. For Brantley High School their opening year two months earlier, that was the first tragic. The teachers in the Studebaker car came and people from other communities. In the process of making funeral arrangements the insurance agent came. All vehicles had to pass by the landowner’s house and stopped there. As Mr. Adam, Flanki and the insurance agent spoke. Mr. Adam told the agent that the children played in the highway all the time. Mr. Adam’s son was standing near and heard that statement and contradicted him and his father ran him in the house. This was very devastating for Flanki. Why would Mr. Adam want to hinder from him from getting the money due him from the insurance company. He always thought Mr. Adams would help him. He was already hurt about the accident and death. Now this? Even though this was a tragic, little did Mr. Adam know this was a lifetime turning point for Flanki that would also affect him. He had just catapulted Flanki to success.

FROM TENANT TO HOME OWNER

After the funeral was over and things had gotten a little settled, the wheels in Flanki’s mind was spinning. He and Jennie went to her parents who already knew how Mr. Adam had treated them and what was on their minds. Dan and Addie owned land and they allotted Jennie two acres of land to build them a house. Dan was well known in the city and with White people because he did business with them. He was a farmer who sold his vegetables to the grocery stores in the city.

With the money they had left from the funeral. They bought an empty house in the city, and tore it down. He, unknowing to Mr. Adams, used his truck to haul the lumber to their land. One evening when Flanki went to the site where the house was being built, Mr. Adam was sitting in the window seal of the house. Somehow he had found out that the house was being built. The house was finally complete and we moved off the landowners place into their own house. Geneva was more happy than anyone that she was now living in the community with of her own family.

He stopped working for Mr. Adam and found a job on the outside of the city working for a lumber company. He bought a truck. After a little time pass while working there his mind wheel was continuously turning. He always said, “Just think”. Having worked logging before, he used that experience he had gain and endeavored to continue moving upward by starting his own business cutting, and selling firewood. He did not have a power saw so, he went to his former employer, Mr. A.C Jemison and told him that he wanted a saw. Mr. A.C. told him “go get it”, he made that possible for him. This was a part time job he worked evenings and weekends. There was more work than he could keep up with. He always made sure the older people had firewood during the winter months even if they didn’t have the money to pay him at that time or could not pay at all. He was a well favored man and people were very fond of him because he had a loving, helpful, cordial personality and was a hard-working man who would help anyone, anywhere at any time.

As the wheels of his mind kept turning, he endeavored to embark on gleaning from what he had been doing for the majority of his life, farming. He used the skills that he had gained from working for the landowner and as a sharecropper. He learned that cotton was king in Alabama at this time and how much could be earned for farming it. He learned how to set the plows and disc for cultivating and planting, how much ammonium nitrate and fertilizer to use per acre, when to plow, how much cotton an acre of land should yield. He knew where to take it for ginning and how they graded the cotton. Meanwhile he was now acquainted with the people in this business and also knew where to go to pick up the check. Now he needed a tractor to start his own farm. He purchased a tractor. He started small by purchasing a tractor and renting land. He even rented land from his former landowner. He planted small crops in the beginning and gradually rented more land. For the small farmers who was getting older and still plowing their farm with a mule, he now plowed most of them.

This 5ft.5 dark completion small built black man was a God send for them because he was the first black man that owned a tractor in that area. He was blessed therefore; he blessed many others. Seemingly, whatever he set his hand to do was blessed. He still supported his extended family also. His father-in-law, house was filled with his grandchildren whose mothers had died early in life and left their children. His wife’s nephews were a great help in harvesting time for both Flanki and Dan.

THE FARMER

As Flanki continue to plant and his crops continue to yield more and more he became known to many people in the cotton farming business. By now his girls had grown enough up and learned how to help on the farm. He hired people to pick his cotton; Geneva and the girls worked right along with the workers. They had to pick cotton and learned how to drive the big truck and Ernestine learned how to drive the tractor. We girls would weigh the cotton of the pickers and on Fridays Flanki would go get money from the bank in all dimension to pay the pickers. Dorothy would handle that part of the business. We girls had to go pick up loads of fertilizer and ammonium. They also had to put the ammonium and fertilizer in the harper; therefore Flanki had to use the 50lb. sacks so we could handle them. Even people from the city picked cotton. They were taken to the store to get lunch time. We got no special favors; we were treated as the pickers. We came when they came, ate when they ate and we quit when it was quitting time.

He rented more and more land and began to buy more equipment, large trucks, cotton picker, corn puller and trailers. Now he had to hire tractor drivers. He planted cotton, sow beans, cucumbers and watermelons. The COOP would buy the farmers’ vegetables. Large trucks from Florida would come for loads of watermelons. He never failed to go to his County Agent for help in things that he needed to know and do. That person was a great help to him in keeping up with changes and/or grants available.

It was one of the largest black farmers in Dallas County. He picked cotton for some of the smaller black farmers in Dallas and surrounding counties. It was the County Agent who brought him to the attention Tuskegee Institute.

Flanki and Geneva after nine years had four more children: two daughters and two sons. Yes, sons finally!

THE DEACON

The Jackson family’s church was Lily Grove Baptist Church. Flanki was a grown man with children when he got baptized and joined the church. He became a deacon and was a faithful member who supported the church anyway possible. It was said the he would give the first bail of cotton that he sold to the church. His father-in-law, Deacon Tyus was the chairman of the Deacon Board.

Churches back then only met once per month, Lily Grove met the fourth Sunday. One Sunday morning Flanki took his pistol to church and told the deacons they better clear the bench because he was going to shoot Deacon Tyus. His sister and aunt was outside and was told what Flanki planned to do in church. They both start crying profuciously because they knew he meant what he said although he was not a violent man. There were many Sundays Geneva did not attend church because the contention between her father and her husband. Dan and Flanki couldn’t get along with one another, but when the time of need came they were always there to help each other.

Another Sunday after he left church and stopped at the local store. There one of his cousins, J.B. (a big man) approached and asked for some money and Flanki told him he did not have any. He picked Flanki up and threw him through the plate glass window of the store. Flanki just went to his truck and removed his rifle from its rack in the truck, went back into the store, and hit him with the butt end of the rifle and burst it up on his head. The owner did not call the sheriff and the incident was never mentioned. Although he had to replace the window of the store. Since Flanki was the bread winner for the Jackson Family because Papa was unable he was looked upon as the icon of the family and no one, absolutely no one would have questioned him about anything. However, J.B. probably got the scoulding of his lifetime from the whole family.

THE FOUNDATION

Cawthorn Underwood spent most of his lifetime a resident of Selma, Dallas County, Alabama. A legacy in his right, The Cawthorn Underwood Foundation was founded.

The Cawthorn Underwood Foundation is 501c3 non-profit organization dedicated to two main initiatives. One focuses on programs to help prepare at-risk youth to become successful adults and the other assists in the transition of former prisoners into law-abiding members of their communities. Programs include after-school enrichment activities, mentoring, and leadership development for youth. The re-entry initiative includes pre-release programs, mentoring, vocational training and work programs.