Description
Born in Coffeyville, Kansa, Othro Drew lived with his grandmother in Oklahoma until he was twelve years old, at which time he migrated to California to live with his mother who worked in the Kaiser Shipyards but ended up living with his uncles in Berkeley and Stockton. In this interview, Drew discusses his experiences of encountering racism, Japanese Americans, racism, and segretation. He also recalls the differences in curriculum in California and Oklahoma, Pearl Harbor, Nagasaki and Hiroshima, and Port Chicago. He goes on to comment on desegregation, Civil Rights, his involvement in the Congress on Racial Equity, police brutality against non-whites in the Bay Area, the Black Panthers, and the overall struggle to improve social conditions for blacks in America following World War Two.