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22 four Home Sweet Home The example of good men is visible philosophy. —English proverb The Great Depression hit the nation in 1929 when I was nine years old. My dad’s workload greatly increased, and the Colemans always had food on the table, decent clothes on our backs, and a comfortable home. Dad worked with many families on relief, encouraged boys to join the federal Civilian Conservation Corps, and undertook additional charitable work. For example , he persuaded many of the Wissahickon Boys’ Club’s directors, who were wealthy people with large properties, to make some of their sizable backyards available to jobless people to grow food for consumption or sale. Through his many community activities, Dad was well known in Germantown and almost as well known in the greater Philadelphia area, yet he never had any interest in political or public life. He did meet Hugh D. Scott when Scott first ran for Congress from the Sixth Congressional District, where we lived, and they developed a close alliance, each providing valuable support to the other through the years. In 1958 Hugh was elected to the U.S. Senate, rising to minority leader and, at one time, the Republican Party chair. He provided invaluable help to me when I was secretary of transportation, guiding me through the Senate’s byzantine rules and arcane customs as we worked for legislation to advance the country’s transportation system. Despite my father’s many activities, he always made time for the family. He was friendly, humorous, gentle, and patient but, when necessary, a tough disciplinarian . Rarely would a few months go by without my getting a whipping, after which, of course, Mother would console me. We went to the Episcopal church every Sunday. By the age of twelve, I became an acolyte. Sunday dinner after church was a special occasion, usually including one or two guests; either chicken or lamb, the choice of “cultured” families, was served. One Sunday my father abruptly left the table when my 01-0488-1 part1.indd 22 9/9/10 8:27 PM Home Sweet Home / 23 mother served ham. The conversation would be wide ranging, although if one of the club boys had achieved a significant success, that would be the first topic to be discussed. When we got older, our parents would take us to the theater or to hear an army or navy band. My aunt Emma Mason Groves, my mother’s oldest surviving sister, was a special delight. She and her husband, Lovett B. Groves, lived in Boston. In the 1930s Emma would take a trip south twice a year to Baltimore and Washington, visiting us on her way home. Lovett Groves held two jobs. From 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. each day, he was deputy secretary of the Massachusetts Bureau of Motor Vehicles. After an early dinner he slept from six until eleven, and from midnight until eight in the morning he was an official in the U.S. Post Office in Boston. While Emma and Lovett cherished their weekends together, Emma’s active mind and outgoing nature kept her busy during the week. W. E. B. DuBois, a good friend, would often visit and escort her to social events during the week. A graduate of Fisk College and the first man of color to receive a doctorate from Harvard, DuBois was well known among colored intellectuals for taking an aggressive stand on race relations and serving as a foil to Booker T. Washington , who held more docile views.1 DuBois’s energetic discussion of race with my parents on one occasion when he visited our home left an indelible impression on me, an impressionable young boy. The Groveses knew many of the leaders of emerging colored organizations , such as Walter White, head of the NAACP, and Lester Granger of the National Urban League. The intellectual ferment created by such men gave rise to the civil rights movement and helped shape my attitudes and resolve growing up. When Aunt Emma visited us in Philadelphia on her return trip to Boston, she would bring us the latest news from the lawyers, professors, doctors, and other professionals who were leaders in the Negro community. She would bring us up to date on the happenings at Howard University in Washington, Morgan College in Baltimore, and Lincoln College in Oxford, Pennsylvania. She was our own special precursor to CNN, bringing us the breaking news, the gossip, the cutting-edge issues, the controversies...

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