Much of the subject matter I address throughout this series deals with events which took place in my home town Columbia, S.C.  Which in my opinion is one of the best cities in the country to live in. 

Back in early 50s in Columbia S.C.  the first house I remember living in what was known as a shotgun house.   These houses normally consisted of three rooms. The reason why these houses were called “shotgun houses” was because people claimed a bullet fired through the front door would go right out the backdoor without hitting a wall. 

This style of house was particularly well suited for the hot South Carolina climate.  Most of us in Columbia did not have air conditioning. To remedy this situation, these homes allowed us to open the front and back doors, and the breeze could flow through the entire house.

Little did we know it at the time but historians now tell us that shotgun architecture in an African American contribution to American architectural styles.   Wow just to think that out little house, with the bathroom on the back porch, was actually a contribution to American architectural styles. The shotgun house we lived in on Taylor Street was a mere three blocks from the governor’s mansion.  So I guess theatrically we were neighbors with the governor. 

The bathroom on the back porch only had a toilet stool.  The only bathtub we had was a tin tub.   We would hang the clothes outside on a line in the winter time and they would freeze.  We had a wood cook stove and I had to cut wood for the stove so mother could cook. Even though we were dirt poor, mother and daddy always managed to keep us well dressed and well feed.

In fact, there were three things I took note of in regards to mother (as we affectionately called her) She Always kept herself neat and clean, she always kept her children neat and clean, and she always kept her home neat and clean. (even if it was shotgun house).  This was all a part of the mindset of dignity and self-worth Mother sought to instill in us as children. In spite of us living under the harsh Jim Crow, guidelines of the time.

Looking at mother standing with one of her brothers who was visiting from out of state, (as well dressed as she was) it’s hard to believe that she cleaned other people’s houses for a living.  This picture was taken in an area known as College Place which was about four miles from Columbia College.

There were certain agendas that she had, that we were yet to fully realize.  Mother was determined that we know certain things, and neither poverty, segregation, or even the devil himself was going to hinder her children from fully grasping these things.  First of all, she was determined that we would get to know God.  Secondly, she was determined that we would know the difference between right and wrong.  Thirdly she was determined that we would know how to love and respect everybody regardless of the color of their skin. 

It is truly amazing in retrospect, to see how thoroughly and efficiently she was in accomplishing these goals in my siblings and I.   Little did I know it at the time, but what mother sought to instill in me by word and example in the 50s, would be severely tested, by the social upheaval and storms I would encounter, beginning in the mid-60s.

Having experienced the socially and culturally constrictive years of the Jim Crow 50s and 60s era, I know the hurtful feelings of indignity that came with it.   I remember having to sit at the back of the bus and not being allowed to use certain facilities because of the color of my skin.   I also remember the indignity of me and my family members being called the “N” word by those who hated and detested us, without even bothering to get to know us as human beings. 

Having been brought up in the deep south at the height of the Jim Crow era, I remember downtown Columbia on Main Street seeing the signs that told me what water fountain I could drink from and what restroom I was permitted to use and having to go upstairs in the movie theater. 

A MOST FEARFUL TIME.  I was once told a story from a very reliable person about an incident.  As the story goes, a young black man was traveling through a small, southern town and stopped and asked a group of white men, where did the black people hangout, to which they responded, “In the trees just outside of town.”   This story highlights the fears and concerns of many blacks who suffered the indignities of that era. 

The Ku Klux Klan experienced a regional resurgence across the American South during the late 1940s and 1950s as a violent backlash against early civil rights mobilization. [1]  Local Activity Around Columbia--Lexington County Parades and Rallies: Archival records from the University of South Carolina Libraries document KKK activity immediately surrounding the Columbia area at the turn of the decade, including a documented KKK-affiliated parade in West Columbia and cross burnings in Lexington County between 1949 and 1950. 

Intimidation Tactics: Local chapters utilized traditional tactics of open intimidation, public displays, and targeted warnings to suppress political and social organizing as desegregation pressures began building across South Carolina.

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“With liberty and justice for all.”  These last words of the pledge of allegiance is a reflection of much of what most people in our country have hoped for, in regards to themselves and others.   The Founding Fathers envisioned a nation wherein liberty and justice would be for all people.

 As we know, the rate at which this liberty and justice has been dispensed has been much slower for some than for others.  Being one who was raised up in the deep south 50s during the height of the  “Jim Crow” era,  I can attest to the fact that liberty and justice has not always been (nor even now) handed out in an equable manner.

 During the dark times of the Jim Crow era in which I grew up, a demand arose for true liberty and justice for all.  This was the birth of the civil rights movement.   This demand was largely based on the scriptural guidelines which emphasized the dignity and worth of all people.  During his civil rights speeches, Dr. King did not shy away from quoting the Bible as proof that a real change was needed.  Sadly, this is the same Bible that many have now become hostile toward. 

It is safe to say that the future that we have now arrived at had its origins in the 60s.  This was the time when the civil rights movement began to gain momentum.   Amazingly, I was actually a part of all these events as they were occurring.   As I have stated  Much of the subject matter I address throughout this series deals with events which took place in my home town Columbia, S.C., which in my opinion is one of the best cities in the country to live in.  I say this in spite of the Jim Crow era that was so prevalent in Columbia (as was the case in the deep south) back in the 50s when I was a child.   Much has changed for the better since that unfortunate time in our nation’s history. 

In retrospect, I now realize that the social, civil and sexual revolution that I began to witness firsthand in the 60s was unparalleled in American history.  In fact, it is safe to say that very few if any of my peers fully comprehended the true implications on the things that were unfolding before our very eyes. 

In the late 60s and early 70s, we were looking to the past in an effort to grasp the implications of our present-day situation and its future impact, but in reality, there were no reference points which could help us grasp just exactly where all this was leading. In fact, I labeled the 60s and the 70s as being “THE DECADES OF NEVER BEFORE.”

It was in the 60s that I began to witness radical societal changes in ways I never thought I would see.  Having grown up in the deep south of the 50s,  I was seeing and partaking of events in the late 60s and early 70s, the likes of which had never been seen before. 

Events were happening socially, politically, militarily, sexually, pharmaceutically, in ways which had never before transpired on such a level. There is no denying the fact that every generation, over the last century has had certain defining trends, by way of fashions, music, and social interaction.

But the monumental events which began to take place, during the advent of the 60s, went far beyond, fashion, music, and the status quo social trends of times past.  

During the late 60s and early 70s, my generation was facing a steep learning curb, about what it meant to interact, racially, socially, and sexually.  Many of us were desperately seeking enlightenment, while at the same time pretending, we already had arrived at the place of enlightenment.

For many of us, the late 60s and early 70s had indeed been dizzying times. We were experiencing radical changes, during a very radical time period in America. There were the political changes, the social upheaval, the novelty and variety of drugs, the sexual liberation, and of course the partying.

Never before in the west had a drug, other than alcohol, gained wide spread use until the 60s, when many of us were introduced to marijuana.   Never before in Columbia S.C. had we seen such racial and social interacting that the hippie movement ushered in.  It was on Evans Street, just off the Carolina Campus where I first met a group of long haired funny dressed young people. I soon found out that they were called “hippies.”  

It was there that I met a hippie by the name of Pete and others who had access to weed by the pounds.  Not only would they sell you weed, but they would sit around and smoke and share free weed with you. In my mind I felt like I had hit the mother lode. What I did not realize at first was that I had just walked into the heart of the hippie culture in Columbia. 

While it's true that many of us would frequent the five points area in Columbia to buy rolling paper and other drug paraphernalia at a head shop known at the Joyful Alternative, the real interaction for me took place on Evans Street.

 There we were on Evans Street just off USC campus, young whites and blacks sitting around smoking weed, and discussing the major social issues of the day.   Here I was in the deep south breaking down racial barriers as I sat with my white hippie friends, sharing a joint of reefer. 

Quite frankly, none of us in 50's foresaw what the full scope of the turmoil which began to brew in the 60's, was going to have going forward.  We could not fully comprehend the impact the radical events of the 60's and 70's would generate on society through the year 2000 and beyond. 

Having experienced firsthand the segregation of the deep south 50's, which included the social and cultural restrictions of the Jim Crow era, I was quite aware of the changes I saw taking place in the 70's.  

The hippie movement and the sexual revolution were intertwined cultural phenomena of the 1960s and 70s, both challenging traditional norms and values, but with different focuses. Hippies, with their emphasis on free love and communal living, directly contributed to the sexual revolution's spirit of challenging sexual norms. 

The sexual revolution, fueled by the birth control pill and feminist ideals, broadened discussions around sexuality, leading to increased acceptance of premarital sex, diverse sexual orientations, and challenges to traditional gender roles. 

The hippie movement, with its emphasis on "free love" and rejection of traditional social norms, played a significant role in shifting attitudes towards sexuality during the 1960s and 70s. This period saw a decline in traditional marriage rates and an increase in premarital sex and cohabitation. While the hippie movement didn't cause these shifts single-handedly, it was a major force in popularizing more open and liberal views on sex and relationships

Some say that the hippie movement died out, disappeared and or faded away.  In truth, it was the mindset and modes of conduct did not go away it merely blended into our culture. Indeed, a number of countercultural hippie practices that were once seen as fringe are now widely accepted parts of American life. Yoga, to name one example, was championed by hippies long before it became a mainstream phenomenon.

 The same goes for organic food and vegetarian, whole-grain diets, and hippies celebrated casual dress, especially blue jeans and androgynous styles, rejecting the conventional wisdom that clothing should be formal and gender-specific. Their fashion sense paved the way for our current era, when many Americans wear casual clothing for all occasions and fewer and fewer workplaces require employees to dress up. All of these things, once considered symbols of the hippie lifestyle, are now fully entrenched in American culture.

As time passed there was a drifting away from the hippie movement though its impact is still felt today. It was during this time when the Hippie movement was fizzling out, that I began to hang out a few blocks  from five points on Harden Street more and more.  To impress, I also began going by the name “Diego the Whip”.  Harden Street was where the pimps and drug dealers plied their trade in Columbia. During this time, Harden Street was the place to be if you were presenting yourself as a real big-time player, (which most of us only pretended to be).  

Harden Street runs parallel with Benedict college and Allen University, and it has long since been cleaned up.  The place that the drug dealers, pimps, and prostitutes hung out on Harden Street was across the street from these two college campuses. Again, it has long since been cleaned up.

The events which led up to me becoming friends with many of the gays in the Columbia area had their beginnings during my high school years. I entered high school in 1964, which just so happen to be the same year that the civil rights bill was passed.   It was at  C.A. Johnson high school  that I met several very colorful individuals, who though I did not realize it at the time, would become close friends.   

 It was also in high school during the mid 60s that I first became acquainted with Tharsha and Bridgett, who even in high school in the mid 60s, were off the chain gay.    I say this because their motto seemed to be, ‘you don’t have to ask, (if we are gay) cause we going to tell you.’   I initially only knew them in passing, and did not yet realize that our paths would later cross via our mutual drug use.

After graduation and via our mutual drug use I encountered Tarsha and Bridgettthe again, mainly because we all hung out on Harden Street, in Columbia, (back then this was the main hangout for the thugs, druggies and prostitutes). By the time I reconnected with them,  Tarsha’s and Bridgett's seemingly, wore full drag all the time.  

And amazingly, Tarsha and Bridgett, (I used these names so much, that I all but forgot their male names). were sex works, (prostitutes) who passed themselves off as females.  I once asked them how they could make this a workable situation, they did explain, but that’s another story.   Away from Harden Street a common meeting place for some of us, was at Tarsha’s and Bridgett’s place in the Blue Ridge Terrance section of Columbia.   Of all the places I frequented it was the late-night conversations and events which took place at Tarsha’s and Bridgett's place, which was the most revealing concerning the many shades of gay

With Fort Jackson, a major military training facility only a few miles away, there was no shortage of customers.  Of all the many shades of gay I encountered, I don’t remember anyone one who took their LGBTQ-ISM more seriously than Tarshia and Bridgett (back then I called them by their female names so much their male names have all but escaped me).

Yet even with them and their gayness, there were certain surprisingly complex issues, especially when it came to Tarsha (Tarsha had a live in biological female girlfriend)   It was at the home of Tarsha and Bridgett that many of us would congregate, late at night.  As I have said, these were the days of “NEVER BEFORE.” Never before in Columbia S.C. had transvestites in full drag, prowled the streets as ladies of the night. Tarsha and Bridgett actually had the audacity to unapologetically practice their trade in public.

Each night on Harden Street when a potential customer pulled up to the curb, Tarsha and Bridgett, along with the other all naturelle ladies of the night (regular female prostitutes), would scurry over to the car, vying for their business.  One would think that Tarsha and Bridgett without the natural accoutrement would be at a disadvantage when plying their trade.  Yet it never ceased to amaze me how much money they actually could make plying their trade. I was equally amazed at how much of it they would nightly spend on drugs. 

To visit the Harden Street area now is to visit a totally transformed area, from what I remember. The city fathers have done much to improve the area. There has been and still is a very positive and major transformation in the area.

As I often explain when telling my story, during the late 60s and early 70s, I developed several distinct groups of friends and associates in which one way or another was linked to my small-time drug sales and drug use. These associates were 1. My hippie buddies, 2. My gay friends, 3.  My drug friends and 4. My thug associates. 

It was my interactions with these different individuals that gave me much insight in regards to the things I share in this book series.   Regardless of which circle of associates, I interacted with I began to realize that there was an emptiness in me that needed to be filled, there was a tiredness in me that needed rest, and there was a thirst in me that needed to be quenched.   It was on May 21st 1974 that a personal encounter with Christ totally changed the trajectory of my life.”

I have been privileged to be married to Honey (Sandra) for forty years, honey often jokingly says that had she met me during my wild days she would have kept on walking.  Honey is the behind-the-scenes supporter, encourager,  in all the publication and ministerial work I do .

Sandra attended South Carolina State University, and she has a master of education degree from Cambridge she taught school in Columbia(keenen High School) for over thirty years before retiring.   In his semi retirement, I now serve as senior pastor of Full Gospel Word Church in Columbia S.C,  Where my son Justin now serves as pastor.  I am now focusing more of my time and energy on the publication ministry.

COLUMBIA S.C. TODAY—As I stated earlier in this series I still live in Columbia S.C. and have witnessed firsthand the radical transformation that Columbia has gone through since the Jim Crow era.  Though not perfect Columbia is one of the best places you can live in the nation. The pace of life is just slow enough that you can enjoy life at a meaningful and leisurely pace. The majority of the people are friendly, helpful and thoughtful.   It’s a place where the word southern hospitality is more than just a word.  I should know the church I served as pastor of for 40 years is in the heart of the city. I am proud to say that Columbia S.C. is still my home.