Ron Klopfanstein interviews Cassandra Harris Lockwood for Martin Luther King Day “Hot Seat”
In our special Martin Luther King Day 2024 episode of “The Hot Seat with Cassandra Harris Lockwood,” I interviewed Cassandra Harris Lockwood about her experiences growing up in the Civil Rights Era. The interview is below in three segments (edited to remove commercial breaks.)
In part one, Cassandra recounts her experiences growing up in the racially segregated Mohawk Valley in the 1950s. “There were no restrictions,” she says, “there were cultural understandings.” When her parents moved to the area in 1954, “Black people didn’t walk up and down Genesee Street.” She describes how the local “culture made it really clear, we weren’t welcome.”
In part two, Cassandra tells how she had to stand up to a bully on her first day of third grade in all-white Whitesboro. “This one big boy…said, ‘oh we got a n*gg*r in our class this year.’” She discusses living during the early 1960s emergence of Martin Luther King, Jr. and how churches in Utica, NY were a focal point for the local civil rights movement.
In the final segment, Cassandra Harris Lockwood talks about hearing of the murder of Emmett Till and the assassinations of Medgar Evers, President John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, as well as Martin Luther King, Jr. She also talks about how the civil rights movement intersected with the anti-war movement, and of the importance of music to encourage and rally 1960s activists.
For the next part of this discussion tune into “The Hot Seat with Cassandra Harris Lockwood,” Monday, January 29th at 5 pm on 95.5 FM “The Heat” or stream it live at 955TheHeat.com
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