Progress Through Struggle

By Henry R. Leggette

Progress through Struggle

In this story, Progress through Struggle has been an important part of my life. I moved from mule and tractor plowing on my daddy's farm to repairing the control equipment used by air traffic controllers to control aircraft over my daddy's fields. This was accomplished by prayers and believing and loving God! This is the power in prayer!

This book is written about an African American man that was supposed to become a cotton and corn farmer. The main part of the story was to demonstrate how the young man did not allow cotton farming, cutting pulp wood and logs, and other things with low-paying jobs stop him. At the time of my boyhood, these were going things in Kemper and Lauderdale counties. I was one that slipped through the crack!

Progress through Struggle started long before I was born with my great-grandparents, grandparents, and parents. You will see my grandparents struggle to make ends meet and then almost fail. I will discuss in this book how I got started and struggled as my great-grandparents, grandparents, and my parents and I was determined not to fail. As I started my electronics career in the US Army Signal Corps, I prayed and studied. I didn't want to fail, and to keep from failing, I studied much harder!

You will see several times I attempted to learn something and was turned down or said it was not true information. It was much segregation occurring in the late '40s, '50s, and '60s. I was not going to allow that change my course of action.

As I was getting older and out of high school, I was turned down many times. After obtaining a job out of high school, I was not allowed to train in a job of the highest pay. That didn't change my mind because God will get me in the right place at the right time. After getting in the US Army Signal Corps was an assignment from God! The US Army was the beginning of my electronics training and career. After receiving the electronics job, I became well qualified because I studied to pass the licenses. After my first electronics job, I was ready to move on because I had master skills within the job. On the second electronics job and after learning it, I was ready to move on after mastering the skills. These jobs were not top-of-the-line electronics analysis or an in-depth level. After receiving an electronics job with FAA, it was a challenge! No, I will not fail because of a challenge, and I studied more, more to pass the courses required. I noticed I am sitting beside electronics technicians and electronics engineers with more experience than me. This required me to study harder because I was doing as well as them and sometimes better, and I was an African American man.

I felt some of the FAA managers thought the Africans American would fail. I determined this would never happen in my case! The word was out on me as once I was assigned to courses, I start studying before I depart Memphis for the FAA Aeronautical Academy. Failure was not in my DNA, and I knew the solution was study and more study. I completed 162 weeks of electronics equipment and analysis courses at the FAA Aeronautical Academy. Yes, I believe God was in the plan! Yes! John 3:16!

Progress through Struggle became my book title because of the video I saw Christ carrying his cross to where he would be hung and nailed to it. This is why I wanted the word struggle in my title because I did most of my career. I chose the title Progress through Struggle. Read about how my complete career was nothing except Progress through Struggle!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jun 22, 2024
• ISBN: 9798889438625

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Progress Through Struggle

Henry R. Leggette

ISBN 979-8-88943-861-8 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88943-862-5 (digital)

Copyright © 2024 by Henry R. Leggette

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Without the input from these people, this book would not have been a success. This book is dedicated to my wife, Irma (who was deceased before I completed this book); my daughters Angela and Marceia; my brother Taft; all four grandchildren Kolby, Maya, Elayna, Kyra; and my sons-in-law Keenan and Equan. Thanks to Alexzine, Esther, my cousins, and my well-known boyhood friends, William (who was deceased before I completed this book) and Rev. Robert Coats for their encouragement to write this book. Finally, I dedicate this book to Kemper Springs Community, my boyhood community!

Within this dedication, I can't write only one sentence about my wife, Irma. Irma was a dedicated wife and desired the best of the best. She was a strong Christian lady with many ties to Christian life as a wife, daughter, mother, grandmother, sister, cousin, and a friend. Most of all, she was a dedicated teacher in several school systems.

My wife and I chose Progress through Struggle because of many related incidents in my life. I saw a program of when Jesus was going to be nailed to the cross. He carried his own cross to be nailed and hung on the cross. As he was going to be nailed to the cross, he was falling, getting up, and walking farther and getting up and walking away and failing again. Oh, how he was beat down carrying his cross. Jesus struggled to be nailed to the cross and hung up high.

As an African American boy/man, I never could walk into some schools and select the majors I wanted. I was told, You can't enroll here. The jobs were never as good or as high quality as my counterpart or never drew the same pay. I know I could never be compared with Jesus! It was always a struggle to advance!

I was in my home community at a Black History celebration about twelve years ago. Everyone spoke that night and was saying it was a struggle to get as far as we have. This is the reason I chose my title Progress through Struggle.

It was never without a struggle until I became a journeyman electronics technician with FAA and I had more than proved myself.

Preface

Introduction

Some Information/Location

Good and Bad of Others

Great-Grandparents', Grandparents' and Parents' Legacy

Kemper Springs Community

Learning at Home on the Farm

Kemper Springs Post Office/Mail House

Kemper Springs Mason Lodge

Kemper Springs Community Center

The School and Community Developments

Growing Up in Kemper Springs/Mississippi

Another Income Source

Others Growing Up

Establishing of the Church

Church Additions

My Recollection of Porterville Consolidated High School Porterville, Mississippi

After High School Graduation

Another Goal after High School Graduation

Start of Military Tour

The Light Finally Came Open

Walking Guard as a Soldier

History Repeating

Overseas Assignment

Daddy's Death

Returning to Duty after Daddy's Death

Military ETS

The Start of My Electronics Career

My Brother

Transferring to Memphis

Entering FAA as an Electronics Technician Trainee

Solid-State Devices Course

Digital Logic Principles

Communications Equipment Course

A Trouble in Navigation Aids

Memphis Tower Departure to Memphis ARTCC Arrival

Wickes Clocks

Memphis ARTCC Communications Certification

The Real Thing at Work

BUEC (Backup Emergency Communication)

Second Course for Memphis ARTCC Coded Time Source Training

Third Course for Memphis ARTCC

Regular Routine

Other Duties as Assigned

Going Back to College

Using Technical Knowledge

Electronics Troubleshooting Enjoyment

Electron Tube Fundamental Operation Exercise

Another Air Ground Frequency Problem

Intermitting Transmitting Dropout

Technical Knowledge on Display

Problems Develop in Different Ways

Hard Work Pays Off

Learning Technology

Other Detail Problems

Another Example of Progress through Struggle

After FAA Retirement

Greater Middle Baptist Church Sound System Upgrade

Amateur Radio and ARRL Experiences

Chevrolet S-10 Interference/IC-706MKIIG

Some Other Things Along My Career

Hard Work Pays Off

Proclamation

Bible Study Fellowship

What Was My Success (Summary)

Some Black History of First African Americans over the Years

Conclusion

About the Author

Without the input from these people, this book would not have been a success. This book is dedicated to my wife, Irma (who was deceased before I completed this book); my daughters Angela and Marceia; my brother Taft; all four grandchildren Kolby, Maya, Elayna, Kyra; and my sons-in-law Keenan and Equan. Thanks to Alexzine, Esther, my cousins, and my well-known boyhood friends, William (who was deceased before I completed this book) and Rev. Robert Coats for their encouragement to write this book. Finally, I dedicate this book to Kemper Springs Community, my boyhood community!

Within this dedication, I can't write only one sentence about my wife, Irma. Irma was a dedicated wife and desired the best of the best. She was a strong Christian lady with many ties to Christian life as a wife, daughter, mother, grandmother, sister, cousin, and a friend. Most of all, she was a dedicated teacher in several school systems.

My wife and I chose Progress through Struggle because of many related incidents in my life. I saw a program of when Jesus was going to be nailed to the cross. He carried his own cross to be nailed and hung on the cross. As he was going to be nailed to the cross, he was falling, getting up, and walking farther and getting up and walking away and failing again. Oh, how he was beat down carrying his cross. Jesus struggled to be nailed to the cross and hung up high.

As an African American boy/man, I never could walk into some schools and select the majors I wanted. I was told, You can't enroll here. The jobs were never as good or as high quality as my counterpart or never drew the same pay. I know I could never be compared with Jesus! It was always a struggle to advance!

I was in my home community at a Black History celebration about twelve years ago. Everyone spoke that night and was saying it was a struggle to get as far as we have. This is the reason I chose my title Progress through Struggle.

It was never without a struggle until I became a journeyman electronics technician with FAA and I had more than proved myself.

Preface

As we go into the twenty-first century, I often see other books written in the past years. I read some of those books, and it caused my mind to wander back in time. I asked myself the question, What did my parents, grandparents, forefathers, and other community leaders go through here in Kemper and Lauderdale Counties in Mississippi? Some of the readers of this book may not care!

Progress through Struggle is my second book regarding the journey of my community, my people, cousins, forefathers, schoolmates, and my neighbors. This story contains references of individuals that impacted my life along the way as a young African American boy. At times, we were known as Negroes. These people, like my great-grandparents, grandparents, daddy, mother, aunts, uncles, my many cousins, and community people had a great imprint on my life, teaching me important lessons that continues to impact me even today.

An eighteenth-century statesman Edward Burke once said, People will look forward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestors. This perspective has guided my story of my ancestors and community people for over one hundred years. I believe over the years, we were given an equivalent to a blank check needing a signature. The check has gained many signatures as generations grow and develop and prove their knowledge in many other fields.

How did we, as African Americans, initially go wrong? Was there one apple in the barrel that spoiled the complete group and all others followed behind? Maybe we did not go wrong or maybe the way it was planned. Let us all be joyful and sing the song We Shall Overcome Someday!

In additional, I have included some African Americans as the first to make American life easier. In this story, I am including some Kemper and Lauderdale counties residents who may not have ever been noticed for some remarkable challenge or know-how they contributed to the community, state, and America. While some may be surprised about the many things discussed in this book, I am in hopes this book will not be uncomfortable for some to read. This is not a fiction story! This is a true story in the African American communities in the southern part of the United States and how I grew up from that day until today! I must point out over 90 percent of the residents of Kemper Springs community owned their homes and real estate. Thank you for your time and interest in reading this book!

This story is a snapshot of my life as I came through all the rough places to get where I am today. In this book will be a snapshot of some of my great-grandparents, grandparents, and parents and how they struggled. The struggle for my great-grandparents, grandparents, and parents was especially made difficulty for them to fail! I also covered some history within my boyhood community of which I considered especially important. This is the reason I selected the title of the book Progress through Struggle. This has been a struggle after leaving a lowest graded high school in this country and less ability to learn in any place located in Mississippi or the United States of America. I pray and hope no one in our country will ever go through the things I experienced over my lifetime. Despite all the setbacks, I worked and retired from the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) as a GM-14. No, it was not all easy!

I was successful because I love God, have faith, was blessed, trusted, and prayed many times each day! My prayers were answered! My parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents all prayed! I believe and love the Bible verse, John 3:16! May God bless each of you!

Introduction

Once I looked back over my years in life, I feel I have been blessed and successful! I attempted to define and allow the reader to understand my point of view. This is further defined to give you a good vision of where I am coming from to discuss the subject: progress through struggle. I hope you will understand and determine why I wrote this book!

Let me indicate here as my progress through struggle was not all man-made! I believed I was tested by God, Son, and the Holy Ghost! I believe with prayers from my parents, myself, and all, my progress was answered!

Let us look at progress as means to move forward from some point. Struggle is to make strenuous or violent efforts against opposition.¹ Let me put the pieces together in a puzzle. Strength grows out of struggle, and your successes are based upon how well you overcome your struggles in life. Now, life is the unbroken chain from birth to death! Let me start the measuring cycle from some point in my life. Is it because a strong desire to overcome or is it a miracle?

A miracle is the achievement by an individual or group of persons of what is believing to be an impossible goal through thought, motivation, and action. The achievement of impossible goals is possible if the goals and the methods of reaching them do not violate University Laws, the Laws of God and the rights of your fellow man.²My first measurement of my life cycle started when I was about twelve or fourteen years old. That is a time in my life I recall as things were happening. At that age, I knew what I wanted generally and maybe I have not determined how to get it at that point.

This can be a desire to overcome obstacles, and this could come from motivation. Why am I motivated? This is due to high esteem! Let me explain to you an exceptionally good example. What would motivate you more after working in the cotton, corn, vegetable fields in Mississippi with the temperature being 100 degrees Fahrenheit plus daily? This is an unthinkable ordeal and a magnificent experience! There is no other way to explain the experiences without the actual experiences!

There were many motivation examples in my home as I grew up. If something went wrong in the Kemper Springs community or a nearby community, my parents always said, You can do better than that! Examples were set higher and higher goals each time. If one goal is reached, then set another one! Anything you are doing, make sure you are satisfied with the outcome! If you are not satisfied with the outcome, everyone else should be satisfied! These ideas were not only stressed by my parents, and that was the concept of Kemper Springs community! This is how and the reason Kemper Springs community received the name years ago to become one of the top-rated communities in the country! I hope this story will motivate some young boy or girl, whether African American, white, or any race!

Some Information/Location

I am describing Kemper Springs community location in Kemper County and Mississippi. Kemper Springs community is currently a predominant African American community. No, it was not always with this ratio of African Americans to white. It was one white in the community until about 1950.

I stated in an earlier paragraph of being uncomfortable for some to read this book. I believe most people will agree with me that the '40s, '50s, and '60s were low points for Negroes, Blacks, or African Americans. It appeared right after the Great Depression in the late '30s, and no one had very much extra money. Especially the African Americans, we were at one of our lowest points.

Kemper County is one of the eighty-two counties in Mississippi. Kemper Springs is in the southeast portion of Kemper County, about eighteen miles southeast of DeKalb, seven and half miles northeast of Lauderdale, and eighteen to twenty miles north of Meridian. It is also located about sixteen miles west of the Mississippi/Alabama state line. Kemper was first discovered from the more than one hundred and twenty springs used for healing in the early settlement.

In Mississippi, many African Americans sharecropped with someone. Ninety-nine percent of the sharecrop owners were white. In the meantime, many African Americans could not read or write. In most cases, I feel this was man-made to slow African Americans down. I don't know all the facts; however, it appeared many sharecroppers may have had someone taking advantage of them. Unfortunately, after I was in school, I heard the students say sharecrop owners attempted to disallow children to go to school. However, I cannot believe this was true because I never saw a sharecropper owner come to carry children to their farms to work. I remember some students living on a sharecropper property missed a lot of days from school. This was extremely disadvantageous for the African American living with these sharecropper owners. My great-grandparents and grandparents had the ability to read and write and some beyond that. My great-grandparents, grandparents, and parents never had to sharecrop with anyone.

The leaders and politics leaders in Mississippi and other Southern farm states failed to see the big picture. The big picture would be educating these people with some kind of training or trade and they will not need help from them. A better example of teach a person to fish and he or she can supply their own food. Rather than that concept, they wanted to keep them on their farm as sharecroppers to work for less money and be less educated.

Here is another example which is hard for me to agree with. We had separate schools in the Southern states until about 1964 when the US government required combining the school systems or integrating. Before that time, we rode on different school buses going to different schools. The worst part of this, some African American buses to my school was made of a wood box with bench seats for the students to sit. The white students attending another school in the same small town rode in school buses manufactured by Bluebird for school buses. Some of the African American buses broke down, and the white buses would always pass the bus without offering help when going to the same community. Kemper Springs community was a loner; we were an African American community.

Another thing that really bothered me was the books. Somewhere within Kemper County, the word got around about new books. The new books always went to the white students, and African American students received the used, beat-up, and extremely nasty books. I never liked nasty books! I would get brown-paper grocery bags and wrap my book to make them have a clean appearance. Sometimes, the pages would be missing, and I always attempted to swap that book for a better-looking book. I wanted the best I could get out of anything!

I heard a quote going around in Kemper County among the adults: If you want to hide something from an African American, insert the wording within the pages of a book. That statement may be partially true. That being said, the sharecropper owners attempted to keep his tenants on the farm without going to school. In my case, the statement is incorrect. My parents' property came from back in the day after slavery, when African Americans were given or donated a property. My parents and grandparents were able to hold on to the property with hard times in the Great Depression. This fact is true because my great-grandparents, grandparents, and parents raised all the food they consumed. However, my paternal grandparents lost their property attempting to educate their children. They never gave up! In fact, I believe they worked much harder! There is another paragraph discussing this in more detail.

I was not planning to mention this in the above statements in this book, and I wanted to ensure to the young African Americans that life has not been like it is now always. This is my take on the situation; the period immediately after the Great Depression carried African Americans back fifty years! Maybe we as African Americans and the United States are on a move forward currently. With the help from God, we will move forward as a generation of people.

For too long, in the history of Western civilization, many persons of African descent have been stereotyped in negative ways which have caused them to question not only their own identity but also their part in God's plan of salvation.

I believe it is important to stress that our research is not presented from a racist viewpoint, but rather from the viewpoint of racial pluralism and inclusiveness, seeking to bring forth the truth from a story which has had many dubious interpretations. We all pray and continue to serve, loving, most gracious God!³

Good and Bad of Others

After seeing and hearing my coworkers discuss how difficult life was for others, I thought about my own experiences. I felt I needed to tell someone. I wanted the younger people in this country, both white and African Americans, to understand it was not always easy. I felt the desire to tell my daughters and my grandchildren how life was as I grew up. Afterward, I decided to write my second book. I plan to capitalize on my ancestors and other important people in my community. This story will start with my community of Kemper Springs, and I grew older, I will gain more experience and include other subjects in this book. I felt it would be more knowledgeable to the reader to include some other events about the same time as my focus on progress through struggle was occurring.

This book will contain some references of my everyday heroes who shaped my ethical and moral compass as a young boy growing up in Kemper Springs Community. These people, like my great-grandfathers, great-grandmothers, great-uncles, great-aunts, grandfathers, grandmothers, uncles, aunts, and my parents had a considerable imprint on my life, teaching and learning the important things that continues to impact my life even today. The community people also had an impression on my growing up to be a young man. In the older days, they always said, It takes a community to raise a child.

Before making a full decision to write this book, I decided to interview one of my African American friends to see if his life was impacted as a young boy growing up. At times, this book may be a little uncomfortable for some to read or for some readers to simply comprehend. However, this is a true story!

I decided early in my life, I should and would make some notes. I decided to maintain these notes in case I come upon the same or similar subject in life. These notes will be used in many statements I am making in this book. This is what I am relying on a large amount of my paragraphs as I assemble the parts of this book.

Within later years of my life, the month of February is always a celebration of Black History in the United States. I attended a Black History celebration in my native home community of Kemper Springs in Mississippi on Saturday, February 19, 2011. It never fails; home people like to discuss the old times and have great laughs! The reader should know Kemper Springs is a predominately black community at the present time.

I often think about our school and the procedures used in maintaining the school operational. Kemper County School Board offered five schools for African American students to attend school. It was one school for each beat in Kemper County, and there were five beats. I questioned some African American students from one of the other Kemper County School Districts. Their replies were close around the same thought pattern as our Porterville Consolidated High School in Kemper County and Beat 2. Somehow, this allowed me to believe the Kemper County School Superintendent and the Kemper County Board of Education were the authors of that pattern. I questioned students from other school districts in Mississippi, and their procedures were more toward educating the child. We know there were two school systems in Mississippi, and they were the white and black or African American.

When I say the lowest-rated high school in the country, I am comparing it with schools my grandchildren attended. When all four of my grandchildren completed the sixth grade, they had more knowledge than me after graduating from Porterville Consolidated High School with a high school diploma. I had very little introduction to algebra and nothing higher than adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing numbers with three and four digits. In the ninth grade, we were given a mathematics book, Mathematics at Work, and I worked every problem in that book during my high school years and after graduating.

I want to give the readers a tour of what it was like growing up in rural East Central Mississippi on a farm owned by my parents. It was always plenty of work to perform on my parents' farm. As a young boy, I often had great dreams in school and on the farm. Some of the dreams I would attempt to reach. I always dreamed of having my bank account. I opened my first bank account at the age of ten years old at First National Bank in nearby Meridian, Mississippi. Another dream I always wanted to achieve was to excel above the average in a field I chose for my career path. I did not have any idea what career path I would take or what my desire would be to accomplish my dream. Why? Mainly because our Negro, Black, and African Americans students were not offered much experience to determine what career field a student desired. That was a dream/goal I chased for many years. I wanted to do something above the average person initially from my community, my state, and my country. After meeting other people as I traveled throughout this country and overseas, that goal grew larger and much more difficult to accomplish. This dream/goal finally was determined after entering the US Army. I took test upon test, and it was determined I was best in electronics and cryptography. After that point, I chose a career in electronics full force! However, at this point in my life, I feel I have accomplished this dream and excelled beyond the high average in my field. As I studied electronics, I never had a desire to be at the bottom or middle of the