Hodgetwins

That's how I was raised.

And as a result, he became very independent when he got older.

And I had to leave home at 18, but I was ready for it.

I prepared for that.

And black people used to do that.

They prepared their children for that.

especially a boy to be responsible when you become 18.

Something got to be done about this, you know, and it's up to the men though.

Yeah.

Like when you was growing up for the civil rights movement, there was no, how often did you see a black family having kids out of wedlock?

It was rare.

If a girl got pregnant out of wedlock, um,

The boys were afraid.

We were afraid to make babies out of wedlock because we would have to have a shotgun wedding.

We would have to get married.

But what happened if a girl did get pregnant, she would have to leave town or go into hiding until she had that baby, right?

You'd be like, where's my children?

Well, she's up north because it was an embarrassment for black women to get pregnant out of wedlock.

It was less than 10% of black babies were born out of wedlock when I was growing up.

And if she got pregnant...