No, he was renting that house. And he had a couple of plots in the city for building, but he didn't own time we were living
[unclear] . Now when they were first
married, they probably lived in a smaller place. It was a different
section of Norfolk. It must have been an older section around Chapel
Street, because I think that's where I was born. And in talking last
fall with the present minister of Abyssinian Baptist Church, Dr.
Proctor, who is also teaching at a college in New Jersey, it so happened
he and I were born on the same street. That was a section, as it is
anywhere, and especially where the color line was effective. There would
be neighborhoods, and the older section where blacks were living was
down near what might now be called Queens Street. As the people moved
out to the more affluent sections, then those who were poorer moved into
the sections that they had vacated. So by the time they got to Norfolk,
in all probability there had been some exodus from the downtown section.
And that's where many blacks were, down on Queens Street, Chapel Street,
and places like that. And then they moved out to Huntersville, I believe
it was called. I lived then on what is now called Lexington Avenue. I
lived on the corner of Lexington and O'Keefe Streets, and it is now Lee
Street. I guess O'Keefe is still the same. That's in Huntersville. To a
large extent, that particular section was black when I grew up, and the
last time I was there it was still black. And most of the people owned
their homes there. And perhaps one of the reasons we were in the
purchasing business of a home at that point was because my mother didn't
like Norfolk. In fact, she had lots of bronchial difficulties. Norfolk
is equally, if not more so, surrounded by water than New York, and so
the truth of it is, she wanted to go back to North
Carolina. She said there was greater culture there. I asked some
questions about it, having moved there at the age of about seven. At the
point at which we moved, I think I was just coming out of a severe case
of typhoid fever.
So when we got there, we lived in my aunt's house. Her husband, who had
been in business in Lillington, North Carolina, had decided to move to
Philadelphia. She followed him, and my parents owned. The house was too
small for my mother. She would kind of fuss six-room house which carried
with it the business of living room (they called them "front rooms"
then), kitchen, dining room; bedrooms upstairs. That kind of
arrangement.