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Biography

Frederick Seay is at least a third generation Keokuk citizen, although as a military child, he grew up in a variety of places. In the South he had to sit in the Crow’s Nest of the theater and experience prejudice in the form of unequal justice. He participated in sit-ins and marches in the ’60s. He is a veteran, a former firefighter and police officer. Currently he works as a certified drug counselor. When as a citizen of Keokuk he say the same inequality starting to happen, he formed the United Americans for Community Change organization which deals with injustices within Keokuk, civil rights issues, and diversity situations. He is Vice-President of the area’s NAACP, a member of the Iowa-Multi-Cultural Advisory Coalition, and of SCLSC. He worked diligently on the Obama presidential campaign. He is a gifted speaker often speaking about his incredible collection of Civil Rights Movement memorabilia including books signed by members of the King family including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. himself.

Transcript

Date of Interview: 2010

Kira: Hello, I am with Upward Bound and my name is Kira Seay and I’m from Keokuk High School. Today I have my grandfather, Frederick Seay. OK, first of all I want to thank you for joining us today to answer some questions for this project. I’m going to start you off with a few basic questions; where were you first born?

Frederick Seay: I was born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1949.

Kira: And where do you live now?

Frederick Seay: I currently live in Keokuk, Iowa

Kira: OK, what was it exactly that brought you to Iowa?

Frederick Seay: Well, my mother got a divorce from my father, when I was approximately age seventeen and therefore she was raised here in Keokuk as a kid, so we moved back here.

Kira: OK, so where did you go to school, for the majority of your high school and middle school?

Frederick Seay: My father was in the Air Force, so we traveled around different states; a lot of my schooling was in Kansas City, Shreveport, Louisiana, I also went my last year of high school here in Keokuk but also went two years of junior college at Southeast Community College.

Kira: OK, so how was your over all experience during school?

Frederick Seay: I enjoy school quite a bit, more so as I got older because I still continue to go. I did go ahead and get a degree as a drug counselor from Southeast Community College later on in life. I participated in sports; I basically went out for everything, but I did letter in wrestling.

Kira: Wow! I didn’t know that! At any point in time during your career in classes and school, was there segregation?

Frederick Seay: Yes, when I was living down South there was in a lot of different areas. There was an incident, we went to, believe it was Shreveport, Louisiana and we went to the theater after we got there, we went with a group of kids, and we went to the show and the first thing I did wrong was I went up and put my mouth on the water fountain to drink some water, remember a white kid slapped me on the back of the head and said you couldn’t do that, you have to get a cup, so I had to get a paper cup, fill the water up and drink out of it. So we went up into the balcony, which was the only place where we were allowed to sit, which at that time it was called “the crow’s nest”. To go on with the incident, they had a wall that it went between us, so there was white kids on one side of the wall in the balcony and black kids on the other side. There was an incident where we were sitting there and some soda pop came over the top of the wall, sprayed on me. So I got angry, and I threw mine back over. The other kids were saying, “no, no!”, but by then it was too late, I’d already thrown it over. So then they started throwing more back over. Some got on my other brother, Clifford, so he threw his over, so pretty soon it got out of control-the black kids start throwing theirs over. So then the guy that runs the show came up and said that we had to leave. Now the white kids got to stay, the black kids had to leave. Then it came out in the paper, “Black Kids Riot at Theatre”, so we weren’t allowed to go back for like a month, so kinda blamed it on me. (Chuckling)

Kira: So was it all of the black kids couldn’t go back, or just the ones that were there that evening?

Frederick Seay: All the black kids, they weren’t allowing any blacks in the theatre for a month.

Kira: Oh, Are you involved in any organizations within your community?

Frederick Seay: Yes, I belong to the NAACP, which is actually out of Burlington, Iowa. I’m also a member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference which Martin Luther King started. But, I also started an organization, a committee, here in Keokuk, called “United Americans for Community Change”, which is what we deal with injustices within the community, civil rights issues, diversity situations, things like that.

Kira: So you personally started this committee?

Frederick Seay: Yes

Kira: Was there a specific incident that made you think to create this organization?

Frederick Seay: Yes, there was a racial situation in a local bar in town; it was actually on Halloween night, where several blacks and whites were involved in what was labeled a riot. In which, they say there was from two to three hundred people were involved. Rioting charges were placed on, I think, seven of the blacks, I’m not for sure, and five of the whites. One of the kids was tasered, and I just felt that the situation wasn’t handled properly. And that, there were very few black kids in the bar at that time, but some of them were involved in altercations which they say were initiated by the whites, that they were calling them a bunch of racial names. This was about closing time at two o’clock, so I felt something needed to be done to try to make sure they got equal justice in this situation. Later on they did get the charges, a lot of them, dropped from rioting to disorderly conduct.

Kira: Oh, OK, so how does your family feel about you getting involved in these civil rights organizations?

Frederick Seay: I think they feel it’s a good thing; I kind of wish more of them were involved in it. But civil rights stuff has been a kind of way of life for me. As a young kid, even back as far as in school, and protests, I’ve been involved in marches, in protests myself, in some cases with my parents. So, I think it’s a good thing that they see me in this, it gives them pride, plus it gives them also someone to look up to.

Kira: I agree, and would you like to explain to us how the Civil Rights Movement has affected you?

Frederick Seay: I think that it has affected me a lot; it’s not only me but a lot of the minorities. Where now you can vote, what at one time that was something that people got involved in, trying to get…that was a big thing with Martin Luther King, the marches and the protests, in some cases people died just to try and get that right to vote. So I feel that’s the motivation for me to be involved in a lot of the voting process. I’ve been a delegate with the Democratic Party in Des Moines; I worked on Obama’s Campaign; I’ve been on committees and stuff like that. So I look at the Civil Rights Movement gave us a lot of opportunities: integration, better housing, there’s a lot of things.

Kira: In terms of opportunities, educational wise,

Frederick Seay: school

Kira: Yes, definitely fond of that one. What are you doing for Civil Rights now?

Frederick Seay: Well, like I said, I started this organization to try to make sure that some of the issues that are associated with us still continue. We try to look at jobs, employment, that’s one of the issues that we’re going to focus on in the next meeting because the unemployment rate is so high amongst minorities. Let’s see if we can influence some of the businesses at least give minorities a chance to be considered. Like I say, I hear discriminations, being with the NAACP. One of the things that we do is we look at discriminations within the communities and we try to address them and we try to turn them on to organizations like the Civil Rights Commission, or something like that , that can possibly help them make sure that it’s a fair and just society.

Kira: Right.

End of First Video Beginning of Second

Kira: Why do you collect items from the Civil Rights Movement? Because I know you do that because you’re my grandpa.

Frederick Seay: I’ve been doing that for a long time. I put on presentations for different communities, churches, colleges, and I talk about the Civil Rights Movement. I have quite a bit of memorabilia, but one of my pride and joys is this book collection, which I collect books too, but I got all the books signed that everyone in Martin Luther King’s family, including Martin Luther King, which is a rarity, his sister, which I contacted and talked to her on the phone, his kids, anyone that wrote a book, I got their books signed. I’ve also met a lot of people that are involved with the Civil Rights Movement, which kind of motivates me to stay involved in things, like Dr. King’s son, the third, and Joseph Lowery, he talked at Obama’s inauguration. I go to hear these guys speak and if I get a chance I try to get them off to the side to talk to them. It just excites me just to be around people that are trying to do things or have in the past. But it just gives me of part of history; I feel like having it, I’m part of it somehow.

Kira: So what do you feel is your biggest accomplishment yet, along your journey?

Frederick Seay: Kids! You know, and grandkids, which I got twenty grandkids and four great-grand kids. Besides that, on the Civil Rights thing and other things, teaching has been good for me, but I think the one highlight of my life was helping Obama get elected and I feel the first black president, and I think him being there motivates a lot of blacks and minorities, just to know that they can go out with education and be able to obtain things. So I worked on his campaign: I’m talkin’, walkin’, knockin’ on doors, phone calls, setting up tables, whatever it took to help get him there. I’ve got several pictures with me and him, which I prize, too.

Kira: I actually have a couple of you two together at my house, and I also worked for the campaign, so I know a little bit of what it is like. Knocking on doors and getting doors slammed in your face…

Frederick Seay: That does happen, just gotta keep on pushin’!

Kira: Definitely! So what is the most important thing that you have seen change over the past twenty years? I would guess maybe the Obama election, but is there anything else you want to add to that?

Frederick Seay: Well, like schoolings, more offered; there is better employment, more opportunities for minorities than there ever was, but I feel that there is still work to do. If you look around, you see on TV, you see blacks in different organizations; the head of different organizations, even the Republican Party, there’s a black person in charge. So, in that way I see a lot of improvement, but I also see other things going on, where there is still discrimination that goes on. It might not be as broad and as out in the open as it was like the Klan working, but you can still see the racial stuff even in Obama’s stuff when you see the signs some of the people have and the remarks that they say, even some of the remarks I got, like you say, knocking on doors.

Kira: Yeah, I got a few bad ones!

Frederick Seay: So there’s still some change to come, but I think we’re going in the right direction. As long as we keep working and educating ourselves and being aware of things I think it will be a better world.

Kira: I agree! Do you have any stories or other experiences that would help others visualize your experiences in Iowa, specifically throughout the years?

Frederick Seay: I’ve been a fireman, here in Keokuk that was an experience. They hadn’t actually had a black fireman there; they did have a guy there he was mixed, but that was an experience. It took time for them to get used to each other, I think it’s a close knit thing in the fire department, but me being black I won some of them over and some of them I didn’t. That was an experience for me. In a small town, coming from a big city, in most cases most of the places we lived were big cities. That in itself was a change. I remember the freedom to walk around in Keokuk, down the streets at night, where in the city you had to be fearful of gangs, or people you didn’t know, or being hurt or robbed, where that’s less in a small town. I thought it was a good place to have kids, and I always felt that I could go back and visit the bigger cities with you all. Overall, I think, with my wife and I, it’s been good. Like I say, I still see discrimination. Sometimes it can even be an eatery, you know where you eat at, you’re looked on or not served, but I think it’s been a good experience. It’s been a learning experience and I call Keokuk, Iowa home, so that’s the only thing I can think of.

Kira: Yeah, that works! What advice do you have for those people, young ones, who are watching this video?

Frederick Seay: Stay motivated. Get as much education as you can. Stay off of drugs and alcohol. I’ve been a drug councilor for eighteen years and I’ve seen the effect it has on families and kids, and I don’t think people realize how fast it can catch up to you where you become an addict and you lose control of your life. Like I said, get as much education as you can, try to treat people fairly, enjoy life as much as you can because you only get one run at it. Now that I’m sixty I kinda look back and wish I’d done things a little different, but it’s all about the experience and it’s one that you should enjoy.

Kira: All right! Thank you so much.

Frederick Seay: Thank you, Kira.