'On Many Days, the News Carried Some Incident or Other'

Jim Frey | Chester, New York

In the summer of 1969, I arrived in Anniston, Alabama, to begin a new career as "Don Green" at WDNG radio. Only 21, recently out of the Navy, and a lifetime New Yorker, I had no idea about the adventure this would be.

As soon as I got into town, I stopped for gas. In the office, a couple of white men were talking, and when I went in, one said, "You comin' to the pep rally tonight? The nigras is gonna be there, and a bunch of us is bringin' our weapons." I quickly explained that I had just gotten into town to start a new job and would be busy getting set up. Then I left. There was no violence that night.

"The family lived in the back of the house so there would be an extra wall to protect it from bullets that were occasionally fired at the house by hostile people."

That was the first year the schools were integrated by court-ordered busing, and people were not happy with the ruling. There was a lot of racial tension, and not a day passed that the subject wasn't at least mentioned; on many days, the news carried some incident or other. Once, the city was hit with racial violence, and my best friend, Todd Michaels, and I, with the permission of the radio station's owner, Tom Potts, kept the station on the air all night (we normally signed off at midnight) playing requests so people would stay home and off the streets. We felt we were helping, at least a little.

I was invited to dinner by an African American minister who was a voice for the black people in Anniston, and I can still clearly remember his home. It was a nice, middle-class house, similar to the one I grew up in, but with one large difference: the entire front of the house was empty. The family lived in the back of the house so there would be an extra wall to protect it from bullets that were occasionally fired at the house by hostile people.

I returned to New York in 1972. The events of those three years in Anniston left an indelible impression on me and helped me understand the need to change the way things were.