UBEOC Class of 1982, 2013
At five years old, living in segregated Alabama in the 1960’s,
Mr. James Simmons witnessed the death of his father by the hand of a stranger. In 1971 Mr. Simmons and his mother moved to Buffalo to live with family up north. At eight years of age he felt that mental imprints of segregation and trauma made it very difficult for him to adjust; “I didn’t know how to talk with people of other races. I knew of cotton fields, not city streets. I was confused and scared.” According to Mr. Simmons these emotions turned into stifled anger and led later to many troubled years hanging around pool halls, shooting dice, stealing and not going to school.