Throughout the formation and creation of the United States, African-American men and women have served in the United States military.

From Crispus Attucks to Colin Powell, from York County and Civil War veteran John Aquilla Wilson to the first African-American mayor of York, Pennsylvania, Kim Bracy, who served in the United States Air Force, their service to America transcends the military.

It has left an indelible, positive imprint on the lives of individuals and families in York County.

And through this film, that imprint will be magnified.

This documentary highlights the various oral histories regarding several individuals and their accomplishments and so honors their service and tells a more complete history of the role of African-Americans in York's history.

This program was made possible in part by the following.

AARP, Pennsylvania.

York College of Pennsylvania Center for Community Engagement.

The Powder Mill Foundation.

Shipley energy.

The York County, Pennsylvania, Office of Veteran Affairs.

And the York County Community Foundation.

My name is Damita Wilson, I am the great great granddaughter of John Aquilla Wilson.

John was born 15th April 1841 in Woodbine, Pennsylvania, to Nathaniel and Louisa Harris Wilson, his his parents were born in Harford County, Maryland.

But his father was not a slave, but he was known as a bound man.

By the age of 15, he joined a local militia here in Wrightsville and what they did was built trenches to prevent the Confederates from crossing the bridge.

It was late June 1863, that James Aquilla Wilson found himself in a position that no 15 year old should ever find himself that was in a rifle pit facing the Confederate onslaught of the bridge at Wrightsville along the Susquehanna River.

The Union line gave way, and he retreated with the rest of the union troops across the bridge to safety.

Some months later, he enlisted and served in the U.S.

Colored Troops 32nd regiment in the south where he saw battle.

And my greatest inspiration was when I went to Myra DeNeice DeShields-Morton's house.

And I seen the way that she put books together and everything on people's family history.

And it just drove me to do what I need to do for my own family.

So I was down at the Center for Community Engagement, or CCE, that's what we call it in college, and I was down there for something like completely unrelated.

I was-- I think I was co-founder of a mentoring program.

So we were down there redoing some brainstorming and doing some research.

And we were walking around the building.

And, you know, they how they have art of I think Ophelia Chambliss had-- was having like an exhibit down there or something.

And I was walking around the building and I came across this picture and I was like, this looks really familiar.

So I sent it to my mom and I was like, Mom, does this look familiar to you?

She was like, yeah, that's John Aquilla Wilson, your great great great grandfather.

And I was like, what are the odds?

It was just by chance that I kind of stumbled upon his picture.

It was interesting, to say the least, because I didn't really think that many people knew about him or knew who he was or knew the history.

So the fact that somebody who wasn't family knew his history was kind of a shock to me.

So I want to look a little more into it.

And I think I reached out to Ophelia like, hey, what's up with this?

To get some more information on it.

My name is Ophelia Chambliss, I'm a local artist and a community historian, Casting Shadows as a series of paintings that I did that featured some of York's black history and it focused on the positive aspects of it.

One of the paintings that I did is a part of that series was that of Aquilla Wilson.

The important part of that painting.

It wasn't your traditional portrait.

Was that in the photograph that I was using as reference, he had on some medals.

So rather than paint them and the vagueness of how they were represented in that photograph, I did some research to find out what those medals actually stood for.

So the one on the lower left is the Army Medal of Honor, and it was given to distinguished civil war veterans.

The one on the upper left is the American Civil War Medal, and it's also known as the Grand Army of the Republic or the GAR Medal.

And then the one on the right was the 75th anniversary Gettysburg Medal, and it was given to the 50th United States Colored troops.

And that's really an important medal.

It is, as it was given on the anniversary of that.

And a big part of the significance to these medals, especially for African-Americans, was because Frederick Douglass did a lot of Army recruiting and he did it on the basis of, you know, allowing African-American men to fight for their own freedom In 2017, Denise presented our family with a-- an in-memory honor of John Aquilla Wilson, and it was signed by President Barack Obama.

So when you come upon any piece of history, I think it's important for you to at least hold on to that, even if you can't trace back further.

It's important to hold on to that to know, hey, I do have a stake in this.

I do play a part no matter how small it may be.

I hope this encourages more people to want to look deeper.

You know, I mean, me personally, sometimes I get a little discouraged because it is so hard for me to trace it back.

I think we as African-Americans, we get curious sometimes, like where exactly do I come from?

And like I said, it's so hard for us to trace it back.

So once you find that little piece of history, it makes you feel a little bit more important and less insignificant, if that makes sense.

I know a lot of us, at least speaking for myself, have a tendency to feel insignificant because we can't we can't trace it back the way that we would like.

I am Thomas Washington, I am the great grandson of Aquilla Wilson.

My name is Beverly Brandon.

I am the great granddaughter of John Aquilla Wilson.

My name is Elsie Wilson, I'm the great granddaughter of John Aquilla Wilson.

My name is Damita Wilson.

I am the great great granddaughter of John Aquitta Wilson.

My name is Nakiyah Wilson.

I am the great great great granddaughter of John Aquilla Wilson.

My name is Kimberly Armstrong.

I am the great great granddaughter of John Aquilla Wilson.

My name is Chandra Beal.

I'm the great granddaughter of John Aquilla Wilson.

William James Wilson Jr.

I am the great great grandson, of Aquilla Wilson.

My name is Felicia Wilson and I am the great great granddaughter of Aquilla Wilson I'm Banita Washington.

And I'm so proud of my great grandfather, John Aquilla.

<i>♪"Pray on Just a Little While Longer" plays♪</i> First, let me tell you a little bit about William Goodridge.

He was born in Maryland.

His mother worked on the Carroll Plantation and when she was with child.

He sent her to Baltimore.

So that's where William Goodridge was born and about at the age of six, he was sent across the Mason-Dixon line to learn a new skill or to do some indenture work as a tanner.

The Dunns, he left with a reverend in Mrs. Dunn.

They taught him how to read they taught him how to write.

Part of the deal was that he would become educated and he would learn the trade well.

When the tanning business went under he was about 16 years old, they released him from his his duties.

Gave him a Bible and a set of clean clothes, and he went off to learn a new trade.

So we'll fast forward, he learned barbering and he came back to York and he turned a one chair barbershop into the tallest and most important emporium here in York that was on the square.

So when you think of William Goodridge you have to first think of a black man who was born enslaved, came across the Mason-Dixon line and became such a successful businessman in York.

This house, the very house that we're in now, was one of the stations.

He was the station master for the Underground Railroad.

And the house is its place itself is the I like to call it the artifact because we have the space for which the enslaves were kept there.

What we were finding out in our research that William Goodridge was probably part of every Underground Railroad movement or precursor to the Civil War in Pennsylvania.

You can connect him with so many individuals.

So when you think about the Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania to even try to leave William Goodridge out of the narrative.

It would be kind of hard to do.

The Underground Railroad here in York County was one of the key things in the eighteen thirties and forties and fifties in the development of the entire National Underground Railroad.

In fact, some accounts suggest the term Underground Railroad even originated in York and Lancaster counties along the Susquehanna River.

There are many individuals, whites, such as Quakers, African-American individuals that were involved in the Underground Railroad here in southern York County, the leading point of entry into the Underground Railroad.

The number one conductor in this region was a man named Samuel Berry.

Here at York County is estimated to potentially have assisted hundreds of potential slaves through the region over a 12 to 14 year period that he was active.

Samuel Berry's activities are remembered by an autobiography of his daughter, Amanda Berry Smith, who was a leader in the Methodist Church and the evangelism movement in Africa after the American Civil War.

One thing's for sure, though, the eighteen forties in 1850 is Shrewsbury was a hot bed and Samuel Berry was one of the major factors in the activity of Underground Railroad right here.

My name is Myra DeShields-Moulton I'm a family historian, what we call a genealogist.

My family name originate out of Maryland, then they migrated to Pennsylvania.

You can take a look at this inventory list.

It's actually a commodity list, along with cotton, rice and coffee.

Nancy Cordery was a slave holder and she owned my grandfather.

He was my three times great grandfather.

He was 17 years old at the time.

And if you look at this, see that he was worth five hundred dollars at that time.

This is a last will and testament of Nancy Cordery.

And in her last will and testament, it says, I give and bequeath on to my cousin Levon Walters, the following named Negroes, one Negro boy called Jerry and one Negro boy called Samuel to him, my cousin Levon Walters and his heirs forever.

Jerry DeShields was my third great grandfather and he was on her plantation.

And when she passed away, she left him to her cousin.

This is an evident of title a evident of title is a document showing that Levon Walters owned my grandfather Jerry DeShields upon him entering into the Civil War, he had to be manumitted.

And from this document on the right.

It shows that Jerry DeShields had been manumitted in order to enter into the civil war.

And when he did enter into the civil war, his owner was paid three hundred dollars.

I had another relative that was in the civil war that served.

And after the Civil War, he became part of the Supreme Council National Ex-Slave Union.

So there were a lot of relatives that did persevere and do other things, as well as show that this actually has a Pennsylvania connection.

House Speaker Thaddeus Stevens, of Pennsylvania, introduced a bill that outlined a plan to confiscate land from the Confederate States of America, which we all know is 40 acres and a mule.

As we move on to Pennsylvania, My grandfather, which is Jerry DeShields, his son, which was Art DeShields he was a pastor that moved to Pennsylvania and he married Myra Green.

And we had civil war veterans also from that era.

We had John Aquilla Wilson, we had Wesley Green and we had John Aquilla Harris.

These are my relatives from York County.

That served in the Civil War, Wesley Green, John Harris, John Wilson, William Spencer, John Batty and Lewis Dorsey and many more served in the Civil War.

Some of them had civil war injuries, Jerry DeShields served in Brownsville, Texas, and suffered a gunshot wound to the face.

Wesley Green served in the battle of Olustee in Florida.

He suffered from a gunshot wound to his forearm.

And John Harris served in Seabrook, South Carolina, and suffered with kidney and liver disease while standing in water too long.

Not only did I have civil war veterans, but we had relatives that served in most all the wars in the United States.

And in 2013, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania gave me a certificate of appreciation for my two great grandfathers, my third great great grandfathers.

that served in the Civil War, which was Wesley Green and John Harris, Lewis Dorsey.

He was also my great great great grandfather, which I'll say three times great grandfather.

He was instrumental in the Masonic fraternity.

He was active in the Underground Railroad, and he also was a civil war veteran.

And those artifacts that I have, thanks to a man that actually purchased the property down in Delta and he was able to uncover a World War Two plate, forks, He-- there was a civil war medallion, several of them that he gave to me.

So I have like tons of different even marbles.

And these were Agate Marbles made of gemstones.

And these marbles were, I think, late.

Nineteen-- eighteen hundred early Nineteen hundreds.

So I have a whole jar of those that was given to me from this property.

I think everybody should learn their history.

And I can say if it hadn't been for me on my own genealogy, I wouldn't know anything about African-American history but for that matter American history.

My name is William F. Armstrong.

I'm originally from York, Pennsylvania.

Having gone to parochial school at St. Pat's and graduated from York Catholic in 1960 I entered the Air Force shortly thereafter.

And I stayed in the Air Force for approximately five years.

My uncle, George A.

Wood, was born in Petersville, Maryland, in eighteen ninety six.

The family moved from Petersville in 1905 here to York, Pennsylvania.

Records show that he worked at York machinery.

That was through research done by Stephen.

And so he went into the military in 1918 and shortly after training he ended up in France in nineteen-- 1919 and he was killed in action on September 29, 1919.

He was buried in France for approximately two years, and my great grandmother petitioned the United States Army to have his body brought back to Pennsylvania, which they did in August of 1921.

And he was buried from St. Patrick's Church in 19-- August of 1921 Right now we're trying to reestablish the location of his grave to have another headstone replaced there.

My name Stephen Smith.

I worked at York International Corporation, then a division of BorgWarner.

It's now Johnson Controls retired from there.

Since I've retired, I've done family history talks, local history talks and a blog site where I wrote family history, local history about people, places, businesses and all things.

York County.

In 2018, was the 100th anniversary of the United States involvement in World War One, and I wrote a series of posts associated with veterans that were killed in action from York County.

One of them was George Wood.

And I basically became involved with him through a kind of a chance encounter.

I volunteer at the History Center and somebody was asking about a person buried in St. Patrick's Cemetery.

And I noticed that George Wood was on that same page.

So that's how I became involved.

And it kind of snowballed from there.

I've always known of him from a small boy.

We have pictures my great grandmother was still living.

And in fact, she lived with us for a while.

I always had a feeling that I needed to know more about him.

And well, over the course of time, there was not any family history about him other than the fact that she would mention the fact that he died in the war, but never had any real details.

And it was until recently after my mother passed in 2016, I got a better feel for what he did in the military from some letters that the United States Army sent to my grandmother and relationships to his death and her being eligible for his burial insurance and a pension.

And from that I kind of got invigorated to do some research.

I was talking with a young lady and I thought he was buried in Lebanon Cemetery because of the fact back in that period of time, African-Americans weren't buried in other than Lebanon Cemetery.

Come to find out through the article that Steven wrote.

He was buried in the St. Patrick's Cemetery.

And so from there and reading Steven's stories, I got more invigorated to do more research on it.

My main focus was understanding why he didn't have a gravestone out there.

And at one time he did, because in the nineteen thirties, the History Center basically conducted a survey of the inscriptions on all gravestones in York County.

And at that time he had gravestone.

So at one time he had a gravestone.

So I wanted to wonder why he didn't.

And I contacted the cemetery manager and the cemetery manager.

He had a difficult time locating the actual grave site.

I had done some family history research on the family to try to help him.

And through that I discovered this site where I thought he was buried, actually found his mother was buried there, his sister who was buried there and that site.

So it kind of pointed me that I was in the right direction.

Mr. Woods story is important because he is the only Black York County veteran that was killed in action during World War One.

I think it has impacted us to the point where we now have a greater sense of family history that was not necessarily known, and now it's allowing us to really take account of what he did, sacrifice he made.

I'm hoping that with the younger generation that once this story is kind of all put together, it will inspire some of them to do some things that they may not have otherwise done in terms of looking at whether you go to the military or you just take and have a new focus on your life in terms of making a contribution that's not necessarily, again, you know, dying but, you know, a better way of life because you have someone you can look look up to in terms of, you know, having led a life that was worthy of, you know, people being proud of, so to speak.

The more I researched family and started looking at their contributions to the growth of our community, I started seeing the contributions of many other African-Americans here in York, and I thought that their contributions were so significant that they needed to be chronicled and detailed and documented here for future generations.

My grandfather really set the tone for military service for our family.

He served in the United States Army from 1917 to 1919.

He served in World War One and Arena over in France before being honorably discharged and coming back to Bamberg, South Carolina, before moving here to York to raise a family.

My Uncle Calvin was one of the early members of the Mofford Point Marines who were a group of African-American Marines who were allowed to serve in the military after the Marines were desegregated.

And he went in in 1942 and served honorably and got an honorable discharge.

The next uncle was my uncle Tut he served in two branches of the military.

He served in the army for a year.

And it just so happens that he went into the military when he wasn't old enough.

He was only 17 and they found out that he was 17 and they discharge him.

Honorable discharge.

But a few months later, he when he was 18, he re-enlisted into the Navy and he served four years honorably in the Navy.

He served there and he came out of Navy and became an honorable police detective, homicide detective in Harlem, New York, for 20 years before he retired.

And he eventually became the chief of police of Peekskill, New York, which was a really honorable thing for him to continue that military service, the need to serve.

My other uncle, Jerry, Jerone, the third uncle, he served in the United States Army and the dynamic thing about him.

He was in a group of men who served in Arizona during the time they were developing the atom bomb.

And these guys would have to go out one time a month to stand a mile or so away from where they were detonating these atom bombs, Where they were trying to gauge the effects of these on military men.

And he eventually died with some type of carcinogenic disease.

And he feels, you know, that might have came from those type of thing.

Of course, we are now in probably fourth or fifth generation of my grandfather's family here in York.

But our military service and the affinity for the military carried through those generations, the next generation, the third generation, which was my generation, my brothers and my cousins had many participants, many of them who served in the U.S. military, many of them during the Vietnam War era where a majority of them were, and a few after that into the Gulf War and all.

So military continues to be, you know, something that our family takes pride in.

It's always been something to help us be upwardly mobile.

You know, people go in.

My one brother Eric went into the military and gained skills that enabled him to come out and profit and prosper in life through some of the things he learned in the military.

Many of our members, later generation members went into the military specifically to gain those type of skills and the necessary strengths to become better people here in the community.

My grandfather always said the military, the discipline and all you gain in military will help you later on in life.

And it certainly did for our family.

Hello, my name is April Collier, I am the niece of the late great Voni Doe Buster Grimes, affectionately known as Voni Grimes.

At the early age of four Uncle Bus moved from Bamberg, South Carolina, to York, PA. with his family.

At the age of 11, Uncle Bus joined Small Memorial AME Zion Church, where he started his life-- life's work of community outreach.

In nineteen forty four Uncle Bus.

He served in the Army.

He got drafted during World War Two and later in his career he was detached to the South Pacific, where he continued to work on aircraft.

I could speak all day about my Uncle Bus' public works, but he was huge on education.

Think as much as he was an ambassador for people and for his county.

Uncle Bus really wanted African-American kids to know how great they were.

So his favorite line was, well, one of his favorite lines was it's better to have an education and not need it and needed and not have it.

Oh, man, his love for music, everything was music.

It was a vibe for him, you know, he carried his his champion around with him, his harmonica.

He he knew how to brighten people's day.

You know, a lot of times it's not the words.

It's just the energy that you bring around people in his way.

Was the harmonica.

Like when when you think about it, all the things that he's done in his life, you know, a lot of things that he's done was because of what somebody said you can't do.

The Yorketown, living in Yorketown.

You know, back then it just was unheard of.

It was hard to even get a job in The Yorktowne But he knew he was determined.

Not only am I going to work there, I'm going to live there.

And he made that happen.

My whole life was influenced by him, like what I do now in the community.

I'm a community ambassador.

Hearing his stories about the military, why he went in, why he did what he did when he got out, influenced me a lot.

It's just because this man, he was so full of love, so full of love.

And it was like I had a lot of that same greatness in me.

And just watching his life, he gave me a blueprint, you know, blueprint just.

Just to be an awesome human being.

My uncle Bus never had kids, but looking at his life and the way he treated everybody would have ever known that he treated every child that he came in contact with as his niece, his nephew, his cousin, his child.

Um.

A kid never went without when he was around, including myself.

We're continuing the legacy of greatness, you know, we started a mentorship group Teaching them diplomacy, teaching them how to have conversations, how to communicate, how to be proud of who you are.

You know, he-- a lot of his works, you know, we may not have made sense to people like why are you always doing this?

He was a man of many talents.

He was everywhere, you know, but he was planting seeds.

You know, the people that, you know, were around him knew that, you know, it wasn't everything he did wasn't for him.

You know, it was for us, you know, for generations that we're going to come.

So a lot of the things that he did.

Where to let these kids know that you great, you know, there's not a lot that you have to do.

God gave you everything when you were born, you know, to do what you needed to do in life, you know, so.

We're still doing.

He's still here.

He's definitely still here.

William Lee Smallwood was dedicated to the advancement of blacks and minorities in central Pennsylvania.

It was his life's mission, to bridged the gap and to minimize the economic disparities for blacks and minorities in the community.

He was passionate about seeing our communities win, but that passion did not start when he started his career in the community.

It started with a foundation in the United States Air Force following in the footsteps of his father, Herman Lee Smallwood, who was a Navy veteran.

William Lee Smallwood graduated from William Penn Senior High School in York, Pennsylvania, and only one month later went on to enlist and joined the United States Air Force.

As an airman in the Air Force.

He went to basic training at Lackland Air Force Base as all of us airforce veterans have done.

And then he went on to Greenville Air Force base in Mississippi, where he was trained as an Air Force personnel specialist.

William Lee Smallwood's story is not the same as other veterans who served during Vietnam.

While he was not on the front line with his M-16 as other people were.

William Smallwood had a different story as a personnel specialist in the Air Force.

He was responsible for making sure that those troops who were going in and out of the Vietnam conflict had everything they needed to succeed.

He was responsible for making sure that their transport paperwork, their financials, their payroll and all those things were properly being taken care of so that they could focus on what was important, winning the war.

He was one of three sons who went on to serve in the US Air Force.

His brothers, Charles Smallwood, serving in the United States Army during the time of Vietnam, and his younger brother, Doug Smallwood, who served in the United States Navy.

All of them, my father and his brothers have had children and grandchildren, who have honorably served our country in the Air Force, the Marines and the Navy.

William Lee Smallwood went on to serve the York City Council for over 20 years.

He was one of the first African-American presidents of the York City Council, and he was our second Black City Council member during that time.

Not only did he do that, he served on over 20 different boards and organizations across central Pennsylvania.

He built programs such as introducing the Smallwood bill that would give minority female owned and black owned businesses priority in government contracts.

He fought for the advancement and the exposure of black people and being a part of the foundation of the most program, making the opportunities of engineering, science and technology through Penn State University, which gave inner city, black and minority students an opportunity to excel in science and engineering and be exposed to college campuses around the country.

We honor the work and the legacy that he left behind and his willingness to say.

I need to be here in my community bringing them forward, and I hope that it encourages inspire someone else to be willing to do the same thing.

With complete disregard for his own safety, Sergeant Rice stood atop of his armored personnel carrier and pointed out targets of opportunity to his men while throwing numerous grenades to beat off fanatical aggressors.

And he won a Bronze Star for that action.

You know, heroism is a deeply valued human spirit, and when we discovered the things about Calvin Rice and what he did in a very short period of time in Vietnam, We knew that his story needed to be told.

When he passed away, he was buried in Gettysburg and his story was left untold.

What we discovered was that he had more awards for valor than anyone who served in Vietnam from York county.

That's that's quite astounding.

We're all trying to promote socially responsible behavior for the greater good of others.

What better example than one of our own from right here in York, and Calvin Rice.

I first met Charles, which I called him Charles.

He hated being called Calvin.

I first met Charles and his brother Elwood in elementary school.

The future brought Charles and I together at York High in the industrial arts program.

It was during that time that we developed an uncommon relationship between us.

And although that time was a short period of my life, I cherish that time that I had with him since the learning of his death in Vietnam, I felt a need to do something to honor his sacrifice.

As the years passed, I became active in recognizing veterans and I learned of his actions in Vietnam.

And I knew that no matter what I did.

In recognizing veterans without being able to honor my friend, I would never have this feeling of being successful.

Well, we went through basic training together at Fort Gordon from October of 64 to somewhere around February of sixty five.

And for some reason, we became very close.

I don't know if its because we're both from this area or because our personalities or what.

But we got very well connected and I found out the first few weeks we were there that Charlie liked to play the drums and just by dumb luck at the service club they had a drum set set up there.

And course on the weekends when they give us a day off, Charlie would entertain us with his drum playing.

Charlie went into the Armored division and I went to the engineers.

So at that point we separated.

The thing I remember most is while I was in Vietnam, his parents always called my mother, to see how I was doing.

They were always in contact, with one another keeping track of how their boys were doing.

And the only recollection I have of Charlie is I came home in October sixty seven of Vietnam.

I got discharged and it wasn't long after that I got a phone call from him.

He was back in the States and he told me he reenlisted.

They offer him staff sergeant to go to Vietnam.

And I was so upset about that because I knew from being over there what the armored got into.

And I was very upset about that whole thing, but was what was done was done.

And the next thing I knew, I got a phone call from his parents saying he passed away.

There's certain people that you meet in your life even for brief times, that it just sticks with you.

And-- one man, I just never forgot.

The night of January twenty six, nineteen sixty nine, they take up a position near the Cambodian border when they came under-- his unit, came under attack.

And according to his lieutenant, JR Casey, wrote the report on the incident with complete disregard for his own safety.

Sergeant Rice stood atop of his armored personnel carrier and pointed out targets of opportunity to his men.

While throwing numerous grenades to beat off fanatical aggressors.

And he won a Bronze Star for that action.

A little over a month later, his unit came under attack during a patrol and.

Sergeant Rice, again, with complete disregard for his own safety laid down fire to keep his men protected and to provide cover for other men to retrieve wounded soldiers from the field.

Now, on June 15th of 1969, his unit was patrolling a-- in a wooded area when he came under attack again and Sergeant Rice, again with complete disregard for his own safety, climbed the top of his armored personnel carrier and was directing fire and directing his troops under his command to confront the enemy when he was wounded.

And 10 days later, on June 25th.

He passed away.

He was only twenty-two years old, Three of my brothers was in the army and one was in the Air Force.

My brother, Calvin, we didn't know parsay how he had died and then his good friend Tim Blessing started doing some research and then he got me involved in doing some of the research also.

And then I went to school with Harold Redding also.

And we all kind of like got together there at the end and we found out all this information that we knew before except on his gravestone in Gettysburg, that the medals that he had gotten, but we didn't know what all circumstances were there overall is just like I said, we didn't know a lot of things.

And then when we finally did and and it was great for the city of York to award him the flagpole.

And also we did, I think, me and Tim Blessing, of the bench on the trail.

But it was a great experience for us.

And the only thing I not really regret but I wish my parents were here to to see that He was a great brother.

You know, he loved playing the drums in several different bands.

Anybody that knew him that he was a good guy.

Hello, my name is Sandra Lee Kearse-Stockton born Sandra Lee Smallwood in York, Pennsylvania.

This place right here has a lot of memories for me, pacing up and down Green Street, looking at West College Avenue like wow, seems like forever ago.

Nineteen sixty eight.

Here I am back home again.

I'll talk about where my husband got shot.

I'll talk about where I raised my children.

So listen folks, this is the beginning of my story.

Sandra L Kearse-Stockton.

This area right here where I'm standing, I have fond memories of this place.

I mean, right in front of me is a parking lot.

It used to be Codorus Street.

I had so many wonderful, wonderful moments here playing on the street.

That was our playground.

Marbles with the Pagents marbles with the Gilberts, marbles with the Hawkins.

I love playing marbles with the boys.

Everything was great.

And one day things weren't so great and my mother and father broke up.

At that point, me and all my siblings moved on with my mother.

I attended York county public schools, you know, elementary, middle school, I guess.

We call it junior high and also high school.

I attended York High.

10th grade.

I became pregnant in tenth grade, a teen pregnant mother scared to death for my mother to find out that I was pregnant.

Because that's one thing she always preached to us about is please don't get pregnant as a teenager will be hard for you.

So it took me a while.

I hid that pregnancy and hid that pregnancy all through 10th grade until I couldn't hide it anymore.

And my mother found out I had my daughter, Kimmy Kearse on a Friday, went back to school on Monday or Tuesday.

I was out of hospital back in school and didn't skip a beat because we couldn't be pregnant in school.

Even though I became pregnant in tenth grade after I had my daughter and dropped out of school, I skipped eleventh grade for a year and became pregnant again.

Here I am, a teenage mom with two kids now.

Now I'm really stuck Forever-- However, I did know how I did it.

I managed to graduate from high school with three babies, Traditional high school.

I was so proud.

This is the area about where my husband was shot right about here.

No one ever asked me about that story no one ever asked me what I saw or what happened.

So my story has never been told.

My sister Mabel and I were the only ones who really saw that happen.

When Court Day came up, I was summoned for court.

I can't remember really being in court.

I remember just being asked my name and one of the questions, but I don't know what that question was.

And they told me I can step down.

So to this day, I have not told that story, but I thought it was time for my children to know and understand what I've been through and where they came from and who their father was.

Didn't know which way life was going to go for me.

I eventually met and married my second husband, Aaron Stockton, and he talked me into going into the military.

Lord have mercy.

I went into the military not because I wanted to, because we needed more money.

We had four kids and we needed to have money coming in there for me to continue school.

I eventually finished my Bachelors of nursing at George Mason University in Virginia, Fairfax, and had the nerve to go work on a master's degree.

Did that to switched over from enlisted in the Air Force and decided this might try the Army because I heard it was a better spot for black female officers.

I don't know that.

I can't prove that.

But I did do that.

And at the top of my game, I became a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army Nurse Corps.

That's what I did.

I have family members that were in the military and of course, my dad was in the Navy and I was just intrigued with the uniform and the structure since I was brought up by a very strict father.

As a matter of fact, he wouldn't allow me to join the military early on as I wanted to after school and after college.

And so I just said, OK.

So years later, when I relocated to Pennsylvania from New York, I had a cousin that was in the Reserves program, and I said, oh, my God, you know, I like that.

And it's the next best thing to be in the regular army.

So I joined the Reserves program and the rest is history.

I just love it.

The military teaches you discipline and I'm a strictly disciplinarian.

And I love structure to this day.

I'm known as the disciplinarian of the family.

You know, when they see me coming, it's a matter of fact, on yesterday when they when they see me coming in.

Oh, here's, here's, here's Here's cousin Minnie, you know, here she comes.

You know, because they know that I am strictly disciplinarian and I like doing things right.

So they don't say here comes Sarge?

As a matter of fact, my job at my job, that was my nickname, Sarge.

You know.

Was that in civilian life?

In civilian life, yeah, civilian life.

My nickname was Sarge because I would I would get even the CEO of the company.

I got him one day and everybody was shocked.

You mean you went to.

Yeah, he's just a man, you know, and he was not right.

So I had to tell him, you know, I'd do anything that I can do to share to help people, you know, to share and to give people, other people some of what I was afforded to all of the knowledge that I've gained over the years through the military and civilian life, because I've worked in several different states and I just get involved.

I know to say no problem.

Anybody asked me to do-- no problem.

I can do it all.

Also, my nickname is the Energizer Bunny, you know, because I never stop.

I love singing that's the passion of my life.

I love singing and and just doing the community with the city, the state, AARP, Northeast Neighborhood Association, the BMA, the Black Ministers Association for years.

I love it because it involves singing.

The program that we--, it's no longer valid now, but we work with that for several years with the Shalom community, you know, without the faith that I have, you know, being brought up as a Christian and knowing that whatever you go, wherever you go, whatever you do, if you put God first, you know, he's going to win every time.

And so that's what I based it on because, you know, I had to have been.

I sit back and think about what I went through with my career at my age.

I just it was nothing but God but God.

And I just thank God for that.

And yet today I'm still serving the Lord, you know, at my age, still singing and praising the Lord, because without him, you know, we aren't able to do anything.

I just thank God for that.

It's always, first and foremost a service to God and to country, because if God is first, you can do anything that you put your mind to.

I'm a native of York.

I came from Penn Street, from the same community, the McKinley School, Hannah Penn.

I had attended Bloomsburg State College.

Back then, it was State College University for two years after graduating from William Penn Senior High School in York, Pennsylvania.

And after two years of that rigorous environment, it wasn't really what I where I was and I wasn't ready.

I'll be as frank as I can be I wasn't ready.

And it just I was doing well, but I wasn't where I wanted to be.

So it was actually one of my breaks from school.

I was home and met recruiters, saw recruiters, talked to people.

And I've been thinking about the military before then and just wasn't sure what branch.

I served about 10 years active duty.

I looked at that recently because I was doing some veteran stuff and I was like, wow, It was right at the point where it was time to reenlist or separate.

And the halfway mark, if you will.

For many people, most only serve about 20.

And I decided that I may go back home, let me go back home.

I'm ready now and focus.

I've got a degree and I'm ready to go home, work in my community and give back that way.

I started serving the York community as a candy striper when they used to call them that at York hospital and before that through our church with my grandmother at the rescue mission, feeding the homeless.

That just had been who I always was.

So I started with the Crispus Attucks and then the South Georgia Street Community Partnership.

Then I said let me try some elected office sort of thing.

And I actually ran for city council and many people don't know that.

I ran for city council and lost by, I think about seven less than 10 votes.

And I met John Brenner at that time and we forged a relationship and a friendship.

So after John Brenner said he wasn't going to run for mayor again, we talked about it and he even endorsed me and supported my efforts as well.

He knew I served in his cabinet for at least six, six years at that time and that I had the tools necessary.

So it was an exciting time for me.

And I was glad.

On the heels of President Obama, our first our country's first African-American president, the momentum was really high and the energy and the African-American community was high as well.

So to get people to rally around our initiatives, our campaign was very good thing as well to.

So being the first African-American mayor for the city of York in south central Pennsylvania came with those challenges, though, even while campaigning that we heard ugly words hurled at us.

We people said they would never vote for the N-word in the city of York.

So, you know, it wasn't without its hiccups.

<i>Cheers and chants of "History!

"</i> We were successful and Yay!

I became the first elected African-American for the city of York.

I am totally overwhelmed and indeed very humbled by the trust that the voters of York have placed in me.

And I promise you all, every last one of you tonight that I will work day and night as your mayor to ensure that your trust is not misplaced.

My mom often asked me, how am I going to write a story, write my book or something like that?

And, you know, some days I'm like who wants to hear from me.

But at the end of the day, if it can help someone along their way and the ideas of it being of me being a bit of a role model and an inspiration to other young girls particularly, I'll do it.

♪"If I Can Help Somebody" plays♪ performed by the Cordova High School Concert Singers