Hycel's Story

Most of the blacks in our community were not able to attend school during the planting, cultivating and harvesting season due to the fact that they were sharecroppers. My parents, however, made sure we received an education by making us attend school anyhow. There were four families residing on this rented land. All of us were related. I called it a village, because looking back, all the adults took part in raising all the children. In modern day language, whether near or far, I guess it really does "take a village to raise a child."


We all went to school together. Our school was one large room with a pot belly stove. It is where children of all ages gathered together to get an education. My aunts were all teachers, and it often seemed to me that they were harder on me and then they were on many of the other students. I understand now why, and I am grateful they didn't cut me slack because my name was Peterson. Even with the education I have received, it has been difficult at best to maintain employment. I can't imagine how difficult it would have been had I not been educated and motivated by teachers such as my "Aunties" as I call them.


I was raised during a time when the parents raised up children using the wise counsel offered in the Scriptures ... Particularly "spare the rod and spoil the child" located in the Proverbs of Solomon. Our parents were keenly aware of the importance of us having an education. I remember attending school at the beginning of the school year earlier than other children so that the teachers were encouraged to apply the "board of education" to the "seat of knowledge" lest we not take our education seriously. I can personally attest to the fact that they took heed to our parent's instruction.


When my father died of leukemia, I was only 14 years old. Although my oldest brother Eddie and my sister Esther were away from home attending boarding school, my education had to be put on hold. I had to go to work and support our family as every able-bodied male in the family was supposed to do. At that time, there were no social security benefits, and certainly no welfare benefits. So, Eddie and I began working at the same sawmill where my father had also worked to help support the family. Although we were all devastated by the loss of our father, by the grace of God, in whom we were taught to believe in from a child, we were able to survive.