Participants: Yvonne Lewis (Host), Rick Blythe
Series Code: UBR
Program Code: UBR000156A
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00:01 Stay tuned to meet a man whose father
00:03 was the Alabama Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan. 00:06 My name is Yvonne Lewis 00:08 and you're watching Urban Report. 00:34 Hello and welcome to Urban Report. 00:36 My guest today is Rick Blythe, 00:39 Pastor and man with a compelling story. 00:42 Welcome to Urban Report. 00:43 So good to be here. 00:45 Thank you, thank you. 00:46 So I had the opportunity to meet you 00:48 at the General Conference 00:50 and I got just a little taste of your story 00:53 and I thought, you must be on Dare to Dream 00:56 on the Dare to Dream Network and on Urban Report 00:59 because your story is just so intriguing, 01:02 tell us about your journey, your childhood, 01:06 where were you born and raised? 01:08 I was born at home, delivered by a doctor 01:11 in Piedmont, Alabama, little, small Alabama town, 01:14 and I grew up in segregated South, 01:19 and that has a lot to do with my story today. 01:23 Hmmm... hmmm... and that was back in the '60s? 01:28 Well, I was born in 1951, and it was really a quiet time 01:35 so... so, so, you know, during the '50s 01:38 but then in the '60s it began to broil 01:41 and I grew up in that environment. 01:44 And was it an integrated town, 01:48 was it a very segregated town in Piedmont? 01:51 Like most of the South, it was very segregated. 01:54 Hmmm... hmmm... I can remember, you know, 01:59 even working at my Uncle's Dairy Queens, 02:03 it was a Mom- and Pop-type thing but I remember one time... 02:08 a Black man who had come by and he was from up North 02:13 and he went into the restaurant and I visualized in my own eye 02:18 my uncle jumping over the counter with an axe handle 02:23 and repelling him out of the store. 02:26 Because he wasn't supposed to be in the store? 02:29 No, he was not supposed to be in the restaurant. 02:32 Oh, in the restaurant. In the restaurant. 02:34 Hmmm... hmmm... hmmm... hmmm... 02:35 I remember, 02:37 I used to live in Alabama too 02:39 when I was... and that was in the '60s 02:41 oooh, I'm telling my age now, 02:43 and at the time, 02:48 it was very segregated, 02:50 I lived in Huntsville and I remember 02:52 my mom was very fair 02:54 and so she could go into the front of the restaurant 02:58 she would go in and get the food 03:00 and bring it out to us in the car 03:02 because Blacks could not, at the time 03:05 go into the front part of the restaurant 03:08 they have to go around the back, 03:10 and my mother was very fair 03:12 so she was able to go into the front 03:14 and she just brought the food out to us 03:15 but it was a very dark time for the South, 03:21 your family, was your family an intact family 03:26 you had a mom and dad in the home, 03:28 what was your family like... life like? 03:31 Well, we were an intact family 03:33 it was my mother and my dad 03:36 and I was the oldest of six siblings, 03:38 and it was intact 03:40 but my dad was in control, 03:44 it was one of those typical, you know, you've heard, 03:47 the wife is pregnant, barefoot, and behind the man, 03:50 Hmmm... hmmm... 03:51 my dad did not even let my mother have money, 03:56 she couldn't buy the groceries, 03:58 she basically just did whatever he said 04:03 and she had to ask him for money, 04:06 so we were intact but it was like 04:09 typical male chauvinist kind of thing 04:13 and he spent most of his time in Birmingham 04:18 where we learned later... that he had another family 04:21 but he lived in Birmingham 04:22 and he worked in the steel mills there 04:25 as a carpenter but then on weekends 04:27 he would come home but so many times 04:30 we dreaded for him to come home. 04:32 We have a picture of your family 04:35 of your mom and your siblings, 04:37 I don't think your dad is in that particular picture 04:41 but it's your mother, so which one are you now? 04:44 I'm the one... 04:46 In the striped shirt or... 04:48 The striped shirt. 04:50 Okay, all right. 04:51 Yes, that's me, I was red-headed, freckles... 04:56 Awww... and so your dad 04:58 was absent, even in this picture. 05:00 Oh yes, he wasn't there much of our lives, 05:04 just came home on the weekends... mostly... 05:07 And we have a picture of your father too, 05:11 we should put that picture up so that people can see 05:13 what your dad looked like. 05:15 Yeah, he was a handsome man and my mother fell for him but 05:22 you know, she just... 05:27 she was a good, Godly Christian woman 05:29 she just married the wrong man, Hmmm... 05:32 but she did say 05:34 the good thing that came out of it was her kids. 05:37 Yes, yes, so, your dad was in Birmingham, 05:42 you and your mom and your siblings 05:44 were in Piedmont 05:46 and what kind of life did you live in Piedmont, 05:50 were you affluent, were you... how did you live? 05:54 He was Middle class, he had a good Union job 05:57 and we could have lived comfortably 06:00 but he lived in... somewhat comfort... 06:02 while we lived in poverty, 06:05 I remember living in the houses up on the stilts 06:08 where the dogs run though the house 06:10 and I could see cracks through the walls and 06:13 we lived in poverty. 06:18 So, how did your dad get involved with the Ku Klux Klan, 06:23 do you know how he started with all that? 06:27 You know... I really don't know. 06:29 I don't know how he started but, you know, 06:34 people say that when you're isolated, alone, 06:38 you're bitter and you're angry, you're looking for belonging, 06:41 you're looking for a family, and I think that that's... 06:45 see, my dad had a bad childhood so I think that's partly why 06:52 but I began to listen to conversations 06:57 and I could hear and the things that he would say 06:59 and this is how I learned but when he actually became... 07:02 I remember he was involved, all my life 07:06 since I was a young thing. 07:08 So you don't really remember a time when he wasn't involved. 07:12 No, I do not... no... 07:14 And so, would he come... this is... 07:16 I'm asking these questions both from an interviewing standpoint 07:21 and also from a Black mentality 07:24 because I tried to wrap my mind around that kind of hatred 07:29 and bigotry... how did he... what was his perception 07:35 of Blacks at that time, 07:37 what did he think about Black people? 07:40 Well, you know, a lot of people don't understand 07:42 but he really thought... he really believed in his heart 07:47 that the Blacks were trying to destroy his way of life, 07:52 Okay. he really believed that, 07:55 now, but, you know, somehow 07:57 he never instilled that hatred in me 07:59 in fact the more hatred he showed, 08:02 the more secretly I felt the other way 08:04 and my mother felt that way, and his own mother felt that way 08:07 in fact the secret is... 08:09 I believe that most people I knew 08:12 did not feel that way, 08:13 they were just afraid to speak it up 08:16 Hmmm... 08:17 because they were as afraid of Klan as the Blacks were, 08:20 and so... in fact 08:24 my favorite President, was Abraham Lincoln, 08:28 and my hero, 08:30 my childhood hero was George Washington Carver, 08:32 and I love peanut butter to this day, 08:36 and... but I couldn't verbalize that, 08:39 I couldn't tell it, you know, 08:43 so we would always hear things, 08:46 you know... that the Blacks, 08:48 the Jews and the Catholics 08:51 were going to try to destroy this Country, 08:53 and so... that's kind of... 08:56 but he really believed this, you know, 09:01 he really believed this, it doesn't excuse it 09:03 but he really believed it 09:06 and I believed to a large extent... he was brainwashed. 09:10 By his circle? 09:13 Well, you know, sometimes I think that 09:17 when you grow up with something missing in your life, 09:22 you fill it with something, and unfortunately, 09:26 in his case, he didn't fill it with God. 09:28 In fact, he viewed himself as a hell-bent, backslidden Baptist 09:34 Okay... 09:35 and so I just know that 09:39 he was a bitter, angry person, and I believe 09:43 that that kind of person looks for a scapegoat 09:46 to blame their problems on. 09:48 Absolutely, and also... a person 09:52 who has low self-esteem looks to make someone seem lower 09:57 and so, that, I think, is an interesting factor too 10:03 but what's also interesting to me 10:06 is that you distanced yourself 10:09 from that, 10:11 you didn't want to be like your dad, 10:12 you didn't want to hold his attitudes, 10:15 you didn't want to have anything to do 10:18 with that kind of mind-set, and it's a blessing 10:22 that you didn't live with him, I think, 10:24 because you didn't have that day-to-day... 10:27 every day exposure to a hatred. 10:31 Well, one time when he came home, 10:34 we had gone to town, 10:36 and I was thirsty and so I just automatically bent down 10:41 and started taking a drink of water, 10:44 and I felt a slap up against my face, 10:47 and my ears were just ringing, and I was in pain 10:51 and I heard my dad say, 10:54 "Boy, don't you ever drink from that colored fountain," 10:57 except he used the "N" word, 10:59 and "don't you... you don't know how, 11:01 you could get sick, you could die from that, 11:05 and so, I was just a young kid and I'm like, 11:08 you know, my head is just spinning 11:11 so... but one thing I noticed that I wasn't hurt at all, 11:19 so I'm thinking... You didn't die after drinking. 11:23 so, I'm beginning to think, "Whoa... " you know, 11:26 I began to have doubts because 11:29 these things just didn't seem to be right, 11:34 Hmmm... hmmm... hmmm... I can remember 11:36 living in Alabama too 11:39 and I was from New York originally 11:42 and I'd moved to Huntsville 11:44 because my dad went back to college 11:45 and he was about 30, 11:47 and I remember that there was a white fountain 11:50 and a colored fountain, the white fountain was up here, 11:54 and the "colored" fountain was down here 11:56 and I... being from New York, I don't know where my... 12:00 my mother must have been in some part of store or something 12:03 but I called myself rebellious and nobody was going to tell me 12:06 where to drink, and I drank out of the white one 12:08 I had no idea that I could have been in danger 12:11 I had no idea that something could have happened to me, 12:14 I'm just thinking, "Huh, nobody is going to tell me 12:17 what to do, I'm from New York" 12:19 and I... I don't know what I was thinking but... 12:21 but it could have been a dangerous situation. 12:24 Absolutely, but to help in that thinking... 12:26 there were times that I went along 12:32 because somethings... 12:34 I had no other understanding 12:36 except what my mother gave me and so 12:38 there were a lot of things that I grew up 12:41 and my girls help me now by saying, 12:43 "Papa, you can't say that" and I was like, 12:46 "Why?" and they educate me 12:48 because see... I didn't mean anything pejorative 12:52 by some of the things but it's things that were just 12:55 engrained in me as I grew up but I didn't mean them in a bad way 12:59 but it was just... I didn't know any better 13:01 it was ignorance. 13:03 Right, and you know and I think that 13:04 that is a point that we really should unpack a little bit 13:09 because so many times we think that people 13:12 really mean something insulting when actually it's ignorance, 13:17 they really don't know better, 13:19 because that's all they've heard, 13:20 if that's all you've heard then that's all you know 13:24 unless you're horizons are broadened 13:26 and so at that time and maybe into adulthood, 13:33 there were still some things that you really didn't know 13:36 because of your upbringing. 13:38 Exactly. So I think it's important 13:41 to understand that and I think that's why 13:43 it's important for people of different cultures 13:47 to come together and to talk 13:49 because that's how you get to know 13:51 other people... as people. 13:53 And I think my dad didn't want me talking 13:56 because I might find out 14:00 things that he didn't want me to know. 14:04 Yes, yes, so now, let's go back to your dad 14:08 was in the Klan and people actually... 14:11 White people in the town were also afraid of the Klan? 14:16 Oh! That's was... 14:17 that's eye-opening to me. 14:18 Oh! absolutely they were. 14:20 So they were terrorized by the Klan 14:22 as well as... like Black people were? 14:25 My wife's parents 14:29 were Christians and no prejudice in the whole family 14:34 and they had a Black lady that would come in 14:36 once a week for housework and so forth 14:39 and they would invite her to sit down and eat with them 14:43 and she would never do it because she was like... 14:46 "No Mrs. Fitzpatrick, 14:48 I don't want to get you in trouble, 14:50 I don't want to get you in trouble," 14:52 so they had no problem with her sitting down and eating 14:57 but she wouldn't do it because she respected them so much, 15:01 so, yes, even they... 15:05 many of the Blacks in the South understood this 15:08 and so, yes, there were many that 15:13 just were afraid to speak up. 15:15 Hmmm... how did your dad treat your mom? 15:18 Well, I remember one time he was coming home from work 15:24 on the weekend, he was coming home, 15:26 and many times he'd stop off at the bar, 15:30 and be drinking heavily, 15:31 and so she would never know when he was coming home, 15:34 so she would try to re-heat the food and so forth 15:37 well, this one time, she wanted to surprise him 15:40 so she made pizza, which we'd never had before 15:43 and it was Chef Boyardee in a box, 15:46 and it had this parmesan cheese she made this 15:51 and when he came home 15:52 immediately he was wanting to know what that stink was 15:56 in the house from the parmesan cheese 15:58 and it was cold and he hit my mother so hard 16:04 that she had Bell's Palsy on one side of her face 16:08 until the day she died, and he said, 16:13 "Woman, I don't you ever to have wop food in this house again" 16:17 and at another time, 16:22 I've seen my father actually 16:24 stick a fork in my mother's leg up to her bone. 16:27 Oh my! 16:30 When I was a child, we would go to bed, 16:34 we'd hear gun shots... we would get up, we would run, 16:37 we would scream and go and see if my mother was all right, 16:40 and it was my dad... drunk... shooting at the ceiling, 16:43 mother would settle us all down and get us in bed 16:46 and then, as soon as we'd go to sleep, 16:49 he would do it again, 16:50 and so, we'd jump up screaming again 16:53 and this is the very emotional part 16:56 but this is how I grew up and this violence eventually 17:01 escalated until I was older, around 17-years old 17:07 and my father was drunk and he wanted my younger sister 17:15 who was unlicensed to take him to get more booze, 17:20 and, of course, the family objected to that 17:24 and he began punching and kicking my sisters 17:29 and then eventually he got a pistol which was a 25 magnum 17:36 and my mother had my baby sister in her arms 17:40 and my dad put the pistol down to her head 17:43 and pulled the hammer back and my house was full of guns 17:47 I mean... it was just full of guns 17:50 and so I had asked my... I knew things were escalating 17:55 so I asked one of my sisters to get me a gun 17:58 and I put it up on the Chifforobe 18:01 and so when my dad put the gun down to her head 18:05 and pulled the hammer back, I ran for my... the gun 18:10 and I came in to stop him and when my mother saw me, 18:15 she jumped in front of us and I went around like this 18:19 and I shot and it hit my father 18:22 and he passed... he went unconscious 18:26 and he hit the chair, and he was there unconscious 18:31 at that time my sister comes in 18:35 out of her bedroom and she's holding herself 18:38 and she says, "Momma, I have been shot," 18:40 she said, "No, honey, it was your daddy" 18:42 and she put out her hands and blood was running out of her 18:47 and what we learned later was 18:50 that the bullet had passed through him 18:52 and hit her, and it lodged in her spleen, 18:55 near her spleen, and... 18:57 How old was she at the time? 18:58 Like 15... no maybe... 14 or 15, I don't remember 19:04 but it was 13- to 15-years old. 19:07 And we have a picture of her on the screen. 19:09 That's a picture of her... yeah... she did survive 19:14 she does have a fragment of bullet still in her 19:18 and she actually was paralyzed for a period of time, 19:22 but she survived and we have a good, 19:25 strong relationship today. 19:26 Oh, praise the Lord for that so, you shot your dad, 19:33 that is a very... that has so many ramifications 19:39 first of all, how old were you when you... 19:40 Seventeen. 19:42 Seventeen, and how did your dad, when he came to... 19:45 did he die from this? 19:46 No, he did not. 19:47 So how did he respond to you when he came to? 19:51 Well, see... we went to the... 19:54 part of the other story is... 19:57 is that I had panicked when I saw my sister shot, 20:03 so I ran outside 20:04 and when I did, I hit my head on the low porch 20:07 and I fell backwards on the concrete and I passed out, 20:12 so... but I came to... and when I did, 20:15 my dad had revived and he was driving the car 20:18 my mother was in the passenger seat 20:21 and my "shot" sister was in the middle 20:23 and I was in the back seat, he had dragged me to the car, 20:26 and he had a rifle in my throat 20:29 and we were headed to the hospital 20:31 and he says, "If this girl dies," he says, 20:34 "I'll shoot you and then I'll kill the rest of us" 20:38 well, my one brother had... he had left the house 20:41 and he found the local Law and they stopped him 20:45 and when they did, he pulled the rifle toward them 20:49 and he said, "This is a family matter," 20:52 he said, "you better get out of here. " 20:54 And did they know, as policemen, 20:56 did they know your dad was from the local KKK? 20:59 Oh, absolutely, they knew him and so they let him go. 21:01 So they actually took orders from your dad, 21:05 you're dad said... Yes, they let him go. 21:07 Oh my! 21:09 And so we were going into the next county though 21:13 and when we got there the County Sheriff met us 21:16 and they pulled us out of the car, 21:18 they arrested... the threw my hands behind my back, 21:22 they arrested my father, and I basically said, 21:25 you know, "You can put me in jail 21:27 but please don't put me in the cell with him. " 21:29 Well, eventually, it's a long story 21:34 but eventually they let me out and they put him back in jail 21:40 and basically... all they did was 21:42 put a restraining order on him, 21:44 he moved to Birmingham with his other family 21:48 and there was some relative peace 21:51 but even during that time, he would still torment us, 21:55 he would come back to our house 21:57 and shoot at... toward the house 21:58 and I remember spending nights in a barn, 22:05 in the middle of January 22:07 and even my wife... after I was in the ministry, 22:12 after many years, 22:16 he would call my wife up at 3 o'clock in the morning 22:19 and threaten our children... his grandchildren... 22:22 It still evokes a lot of emotion in you now, doesn't it, 22:28 after all these years... 22:29 After all these years, 22:30 one thing my dad taught me though 22:32 and that was... what not to be. 22:34 Hmmm... hmmm... yes... 22:37 But, you know, the thing that kept me going was my... 22:43 this calling of God on my life, Jeremiah one talks about, 22:49 "I called thee before you were formed in the belly" 22:53 and my great-grandmother, when she first saw me 22:56 told my mother that this man is going to be a preacher 23:00 Hmmm... and so that calling was in me 23:03 and I just had that feeling and... 23:06 you know I never had hate or animosity toward anyone 23:12 Yes. 23:14 and I just felt the calling of God 23:16 and it was that... 23:18 that combined with a sense of humor 23:21 that's just kind of helped me cope through these years. 23:24 Yes, yes, and look at the contrast between you... 23:27 and we have a picture of your dad in his Ku Klux Klan gear, 23:32 look at the difference between you 23:36 and the way God has led you and where your dad was 23:41 I mean, he was full of rage and anger and hatred 23:46 and God has given you a spirit of love and of peace and of joy 23:50 that's what God does, how did you find the Lord 23:53 we just... I can't believe our time is gone 23:55 how did you find the Lord in the midst of all this, 24:00 I know your mom was a Christian 24:01 but how did you find Jesus really... for you? 24:05 Well, you see, my... I grew up early as a Baptist 24:09 Baptist-Methodist background 24:11 so I've learned about the beautiful grace of God 24:13 and then my mother had been studying 24:15 Garner Ted Armstrong and the Worldwide church of God 24:19 and she learned about the Sabbath 24:20 so I embraced the Sabbath, 24:22 so then I learned about the law of the justice of God 24:26 but when I became a Seventh-day Adventist, 24:29 I married the "grace" and the "law" together 24:32 Oh, come on... 24:33 yes, yes... Come on now... 24:35 but what was happening after all this happened, 24:40 I joined the Navy and I think there's a picture of that 24:43 but... kind of escape all this... 24:46 what I grew up with, everything was turmoil, 24:49 and I was escaping God, I was escaping the trouble 24:52 but what happened was... is that... 24:55 I ended up in the Navy 24:56 and my new boss was a Seventh-day Adventist 25:00 and so I ran from God right into God. 25:04 Look at God... look how He operates. 25:08 Amen and so he invited us to a series of meetings, 25:12 we went to two-and-a-half series, 25:15 and at the end of that, my wife and I accepted Christ, 25:21 we accepted this great message 25:23 and somehow after learning this message, you just... 25:26 everything just began to come together and I understood 25:30 because I understood good and evil 25:33 but I never understood the great controversy 25:35 and it just put the picture together 25:37 you just put it together you know. 25:40 Yes. 25:41 And I had lived in the great controversy 25:44 in my life. Yes, yes. 25:46 People say... you know... I hear people say 25:47 "Get ready for the time of trouble," 25:49 and I said, "Time of trouble doesn't worry me, 25:51 I have already lived through it. " 25:53 What would you say, Pastor Rick, to that person 25:57 in about one minute, that person who is bound 26:01 by hatred and bigotry and anger, 26:04 what would you say to them right now? 26:07 I would say that really, "God is inside of you, 26:11 if you would grab hold of His hand, 26:13 He'll lead you to victory and no matter how many doubts, 26:17 it doesn't matter where you're born, 26:18 what your station in life is, I was just an old cotton picker, 26:22 common Southern fellow 26:24 with no hope of ever reaching anything 26:28 and I have been a missionary, I have been a pastor 26:31 and I have traveled this world, 26:32 and I have seen God perform miracle after miracle 26:36 in my life, and you know, 26:38 I don't say that God will perform a miracle 26:41 just like He did for me, 26:43 but God has a miracle for each one of us, 26:46 if we just trust Him. " 26:47 Yes, yes, yes, thank you so much, 26:50 you know, your story is just... 26:53 it's so intriguing and so compelling 26:56 because people can be wrapped up in hate and bigotry 26:59 no matter what their race or nationality, 27:02 or ethnicity, you can be Black and bigoted, 27:05 White and bigoted, it's the character, 27:08 so we thank you so much for being so transparent 27:12 and for sharing your story and for being with us. 27:15 Thank you for asking me. 27:16 Absolutely, and I hope you'll come back some time 27:18 and tell us some more, 27:20 I have a feeling there's more to this story, 27:22 we didn't get all of it, so... 27:24 And I want to write a book about this and I wonder 27:28 if this will be of interest to others too. 27:31 Absolutely, I think you should absolutely write a book 27:34 and you know what, when you do, 27:35 we'll bring you back on to Dare to Dream 27:39 on to Urban Report and have you talk about it. 27:42 That's an incentive isn't it? 27:44 It is, it is, it is... 27:45 well thank you so much for joining us 27:48 you know, Pastor Rick showed us today 27:50 that you don't have to be caught up 27:53 into hatred and bigotry, just reach out to Jesus 27:58 and He will be there for you. 28:00 Thanks for joining us, join us next time, 28:02 because it just wouldn't be the same... without you. |
Revised 2016-04-12