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Biography

Pastor Jewel Sanford is a native of Council Bluffs, IA. A break dancer and break dance teacher in his younger days, he is now a pastor and owns his own dry wall company.

Transcript

Jewel Sanford: Hello my name is Jewel Sanford I attend Thomas Jefferson High School and I am interviewing Pastor Sanford.

Pastor Jewel Sanford: Hello, my name is Jewel Sanford, Pastor Sanford, and I am a dry wall finisher also, by trade. I own the company.

Jewel: What was it like to be the first break dancer group to come out of Council Bluffs, Iowa?

Pastor Sanford: It was a lot of fun; it was a lot of fun. I have to say it was easier because there was not much competition back then. Not a lot of people knew how to break dance, and certainly no one around here, so it was a lot of fun. I went on to teach break dancing lessons and I really enjoyed it.

Jewel: What was the name of the break dancing group?

Pastor Sanford: Fifty-second Street Breakers.

Jewel: What was it like to live in Council Bluffs, Iowa during the ‘70s and ‘80s?

Pastor Sanford: Well, I can remember the seventies. The ‘70s wasn’t quite as much fun as the ‘80s. There was still some racism around. I can even remember times walking home from school and having adult white people come by and screaming obscenities and racial absurdness at me.

Jewel: What was it like to see the growth from then now-a-days in Council Bluffs, Iowa?

Pastor Sanford: You know, Council Bluffs has come a long way. There’s some racism still here, but it’s nothing like it was and it is a lot more fun to live in this town probably as an adult, but Council Bluffs has come a long way.

Jewel: What is it like to be a black professional in Iowa in general?

Pastor Sanford: First off in drywall, it went really well. I had a lot of opportunity, but I still had to face some racism, but I won’t say it was like what it was in the beginning. But those obstacles were easy to get over if you just keep pushing forward because it wasn’t blatant but it was a little. Now, as a pastor, I can remember church being predominantly black and mostly African American but it has become a lot more diverse. As I have been pastor at Mt. Zion we actually have some African Americans; we have Caucasians, as well as Hispanc Americans at our church now.

Jewel: Thank you for your time.

Pastor Sanford: You’re welcome.