My Life as Living History

By Tamara Smiley Hamilton, MA

 As I head towards my 66th birthday, I am more appreciative than ever that I am an eyewitness to history. Witnessing the country’s worst urban violence in Watts in 1965 prepared me with a unique perspective for today’s turbulence. Who knew then that I would spend this part of my life helping senior leaders not only understand the promise and complexity of race and diversity, but I would also continue to grow deeper in wisdom and knowledge by returning to graduate school at the School of Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University? In this space, I am growing exponentially with perspectives of multiple generations in my classes and me being a real minority: a 65-year-old African American grandmother who can fill in the blanks of contemporary history, living history. I never dreamed I would be in a classroom and the events of my generation would be class discussion, the subject of CNN documentaries.

 The CNN special on Patty Hearst and the Symbionese Liberation Army is another chapter revealed. As I am glued to the television, my 28-year-old son walks by and I excitedly tell him what I know, the part my eyes saw.

 “Who’s that?” He asks. As I try to explain, I realize what a different world I experienced. To capture his imagination, I tell him the special is written by Jeffrey Toobin, the writer the award-winning O.J. series. Still no reaction.

 “They came to our neighborhood: 54th and Compton!” All I hear is “Sheez!” as he exits stage left. He didn’t know 500 LAPD surrounded a tiny neighborhood house and fired 1200 rounds of ammunition (https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/lapd-raid-leaves-six-sla-members-dead), killing six SLA members.

 It was May 17, 1974--a beautiful Friday in Los Angeles, the beginning of what I thought was an uneventful weekend home. I was driving on the Harbor Freeway, the 110 southbound, to 89th and Compton from Scripps College. Instead of 106.3 (Stevie Wonder’s station) blaring from my radio, I was following the news of the Patty Hearst case. The city and the surrounding areas were mesmerized by the case. Earlier in the day there was a report that the Symbionese Liberation Army (known as the SLA-- the group that had kidnapped the heiress Patty Hearst on February 9, 1974 from her Berkeley, CA apartment). As I approached the Slauson exit, I saw billows of black smoke east of the freeway—war zone type smoke. Instantly, I knew it had to be the house reported on the news.

 The next day, my friends and I drove to the burned down house and took pictures. Other than some rumble, you could only tell a house once stood there by the concrete slab. I looked in horrified wonderment. I thought of the trauma neighbors must have experienced during the commotion and violence right there on their street. Were children outside? Where did the old people go—the ones who sat on porches sipping iced water or Pepsi?

 My college years began with another historic event: the Angela Davis story. In August 1970, as I enrolled in Scripps College, Jonathan Jackson led a shoot-out in the Marin County courthouse where a judge was killed. The seventeen-year-old Jonathan used guns that were registered to Angela Davis. This tied her to the case and placed the UCLA professor on the FBI’s Most Wanted List (https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/08/home/davis-acquit.html).

In June 1974, I graduated from Scripps College with a degree in Black Studies—one of the first in the nation. I was admitted to Howard University’s graduate school to study African Studies and Research and was awarded an internship assignment with the Office of Black Concerns in the U. S. Office of Education. My duties included monitoring Title IX hearings. Title IX was the federal law passed as a part of the Education Amendments of 1972.

 By August of 1974, before classes began, I was in the crowd outside the White House when President Nixon resigned. During that same time, Charlotte Ridgeway, a new dorm mate across the hall from me in Slowe Hall (Howard’s off campus graduate dorm) was brutally murdered in her room. I saw the killer and spent a half day looking at mug shots and partial faces: chins, lips, foreheads—to help a forensic artist draw the dreadful face I had looked into the night before when Charlotte invited me to start the weekend (a Thursday night) by meeting her “friend,” her “homeboy,” she had said.

 A sixth sense, a guardian angel, and an excuse that I had homework kept me from walking those ten feet from my room to hers. On my way home on the bus from the Office of Education, each bus stop, every pole I saw had the artist rendition of my description.

 Living history in my formative years during the sixties and seventies shaped me: the Civil Rights Movement, the Watts Rebellion, the assassinations of John Kennedy, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr, and Bobby Kennedy. My life experiences prepared me to take on tough issues. My life experiences gave me a strong foundation to work towards racial peace, never knowing I was being equipped for times such as these. 

 Ten years ago, I became a Toastmaster. The rigor of public speaking ensures that when I give voice to the voiceless, I can be heard. It helps me to clear and concise when facilitating conversations on race and conflict.

 Last year I wrote about my return to school as a “white haired graduate student” https://scar.gmu.edu/news/444756. This year, I have mastered Blackboard and focused my academic writing on documenting Watts and my lived experiences. This birthday finds me vibrant and radiant on the inside, knowing that my living history is for a purpose much greater than me. I am glad I have discovered my purpose and how I can use my life and professional skills to facilitate deeper conversations on race in a safe space.

Note: I was born in Montgomery, AL on February 28, 1952. My parents joined millions in the Black Migration from the segregated south and settled in Watts, CA in 1957. For more of my story: https://www.kosmosjournal.org/contributor/tamara-s-hamilton/

Connect with me if you have questions on facilitating conversations on race, diversity and inclusion. Perhaps you can benefit from my life experiences.

Please visit my website and get a free copy of "7 Blocks for Building Bridges" https://tamarashamilton.com/