Paul Taswell

And so it was just a part of our family culture that we were expressive in that way.

Your great aunt was also the president of Bennett College, which is an HBCU in Greensboro.

Because Bennett is a girls' school, and A&T was a boys' school at that time, or largely male, so they would work together.

But at that time, there was just a lot of navigating what was going on in the city and how to be an activist at that time.

It was a serious time.

I think that I was engaging with both, really.

You know, I remember when my mother cut her hair to become an Afro.

So making the decision that she was no longer going to press her hair and grow it long, but she was going to cut it and have it curl up into an afro and go with a natural style.

And my grandmother was, you know, completely against it.

I was against it even.

It was like because of that change.

But then, you know, that was a...

I think that it was just a romantic alignment with that long, straight hair and just how much white culture had infused itself into how black people were making choices about how they were going to show up.

But wearing jeans to school, I was in grade school at a time where you weren't allowed to wear jeans to school.

And girls weren't allowed to wear slacks unless it was snowing outside and they just needed to walk to school and then they would change out of them.

So I experienced all of that and then that shift into a much more casual style.

But I was still brought up by...

grandparents and parents who, you know, my dad was a research chemist at Firestone, and he dressed in a suit every day and tie.

We all dressed up for church.

You know, so there was a formality about what we were taught.