On your paternal side, your grandpa Lever fled Columbia, South Carolina, at the age of sixteen. Your grandma Daisy said he left after his brother was beaten to death with a hammer for applying for a white man’s job. He journeyed to Chicago, part of the Great Migration of southern African Americans headed north in hopes of a better life. According to Grandma Daisy, your grandfather left Chicago after discovering that the establishment in which he was working as a dishwasher was a front for Al Capone and his illegal enterprises. Fearing for his safety, Grandpa Lever quit working there, and on April 7, 1924, he immigrated toCanada and became a porter for the railroad — one of the few jobs available to Black men at that time.
Recent Comments