Medical Social Worker

When you were a child in Roanoke, Virginia, do you remember segregation?$$I do remember well. I was very fair, compared to my sisters [Lucille Woods and Evelyn Woods] and brothers [William Woods, Jr. and Gregory Woods]. They were light-skinned, but I looked like white. And so the--I remember when my friend, we would go to deliver laundry in the white neighborhoods. They'd say, "What are you doing with that white child? Why don't you take her back to her folks?" (Laughter) And she, and my friend would say she's--of course they didn't use the term black then; they used the term Negro: "She's Negro." "Oh no, she's not." And they would start fighting, and I would run and hide (laughter). I was a real coward (laughter).$$Now how old was your friend, and how old were you?$$Well, she must have been about nine. I was about seven. But I, I was not going to stay until the bitter end (laughter).$$Did you understand what was going on? Did you understand that you were (simultaneous)--$$(Simultaneous) Well--$$--light-skinned black?$$Not really. I--that was the closest that I came to--because, actually, as you know, there are many very fair blacks in Virginia, in Washington [D.C.], wherever, so that it was not a revelation. And many of my relatives, they ranged in color from snow white to jet black (laughter). So I had a very close association with the color, not in an unfriendly way, but I was not fazed by it.$$Were there any other family members who, that you know of that passed for white who went off and lived their lives in an--$$Actually--$$--easier way?$$--in, in, in later years, some members of my family are passing right now for white (laughter). But they, they married white; their children are white; and to all intents and, and purposes they are white because that's how they look, and that's the association that they have grown up with. It's not a purposeful removal from the black race, but it's like a, what shall you say (unclear) the state of the art that brought about this state of things.$$Did you ever consider living white?$$I really did not. It never occurred to me. Because many times I have been mistaken for white, and they say, "Oh, you know, those other people--," (unclear) oh, and when I went to work for the Department of Welfare [City of New York Department of Welfare; City of New York Department of Social Services] in New York City [New York, New York], I was asked, "Do you object to working with--," at that time it was Negro people. I said, "Well, I can hardly object. I'm a Negro myself," (laughter). And the lady turned about twenty colors (laughter). So it's been a source of, of amusement I think more than anything else. But I don't--it never occurred to me that that--because all of my friends--I mean I, I was black. I grew up black. My traditions were black. I knew very little about the white race.$You're going to just complete the story you were telling me about your days as a social worker in Williamsburg, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn [New York].$$Yes, I was assigned to a territory in Brooklyn known as Williamsburg. And I did not have any black people on my caseload, which is a surprise to many people, because they thought that blacks were the primary recipients of, of welfare. I had Polish; I had Italian; I had Jewish; and I, I think I had may, out of seventy-five, I might have had one black family. But among other people, I had a Mr. Newman [ph.], and Mr. Newman looked very able bodied to me. So I said, "Mr. Newman, why aren't you working?" And he grumbled and mumbled something. So I said well, "I'm gonna close your case because I think you are able to work, and you are unlawfully on welfare." So I closed his case, and all hell broke loose (laughter). I think Mr. Newman was with Murder, Incorporated [Murder, Inc.] and politically well-connected. And then the supervisor came to me, and she was trembling; she was white and trembling, and she said, "Oh, you shouldn't have closed his case." And so the--I think the political group demanded that I be fired, so temporarily she let me go [from the City of New York Department of Welfare; City of New York Department of Social Services]. But they investigated, and they found that I had not accepted bribes, and therefore they had to reinstate me. But anyway, it was--and so later someone told me, another supervisor who inherited my caseload, she said, "You know you were servicing Murder, Incorporated (laughter), and the man whose case you closed was a member." See, they would get on welfare to substantiate their way of live, living, that they were all, that they were indigents, blah, blah, blah.