Robert L. Kemp: Septuagenarian Leader in Clemson
From the chronological age of seventy, Robert L. Kemp tells his story with sufficient hindsight to notice successes where challenges may have once appeared overwhelming. Probably of highest importance, the premature loss of his birth order is relayed from two perspectives: first when it happened and then forty years later. Born the second son to Josie May Ladd Kemp and Garfield Kemp, Robert held the title of youngest for a mere seventeen years. His older brother Jimmy, star athlete at Easley High School and willing Air Force recruit, died in Vietnam at age nineteen, leaving Robert the oldest son remaining alive. This excruciatingly painful experience involved an Air Force ambassador coming to Robert’s workplace at Clemson to give him the news of his brother’s non-combat death on June 6, 1967, just a month before Jimmy’s 20th birthday [1]
The later news conveying more details of Jimmy Kemp’s death came through a circuitous route. In 2006, forty years after Jimmy died, Robert and his wife Pat traveled to Gullah Country on the coast of South Carolina. A friend from back home in Clemson called them to report that a small notice in the local paper (Messenger) asked that a member of Jimmy Kemp’s family contact the person making the post. As soon as they returned home, Robert called the person, whom he knew was the Commanding Officer (CO) for Jimmy’s “Cobra Flight. Having observed Jimmy who was dressed in full gear as he set out to cross a river the afternoon of his death, this retired officer wanted to tell the full story [2]. By this time, the Kemp brothers’ parents were deceased, so Robert was the one to listen. It was a blistering hot day and the Cobras had been working hard in Binh Dinh Province. “No one can cross this river,” someone had challenged. “I’ll do it,” responded Jimmy who was a strong swimmer and confident athlete. Partway across, he lost his footing. The river current and the weight of his gear, including shoes and rifle, proved too much for Kemp whose body was recovered several yards downstream. Each time Robert recalls this story, he takes his face in his hands and bows slightly.
Busting Barriers on a Bicycle and a Bus
Early types of independent transportation also help trace Robert Kemp’s lifeline. His first bicycle when he was 10, a 26-inch RollFast brand, provided access to areas of Clemson otherwise off limits to African American young people. Six years later, Robert "barely passed” the test to drive a school bus loaded with Clemson students. The drive was eighteen miles each way to Clearview High School, the Black high school, in Easley. The job paid $35 a month, which provided enough for his clothes, shoes and some pocket change. Robert, the growing teen, took pride in stylish dress wear. As you’ll discover below, he learned from his uncle where to look for “deals” and how to make a few items appear lavish.
Another way Robert recalled the City of Clemson in his youth involved his being downtown at a location "just behind Judge Keller’s Clothing Store [3] with his dad. "My daddy, he knew all these people, you know, and I used to go with him then to get that stuff, get the coal and the ice.” When they brought a block of ice home, Robert’s dad "put a wrapping like a burlap sack or something and put it in the ice box.” It might last three or four days, might last a week.” During this era, many low-income homes did not have an electric refrigerator so could only depend on cold storage while their ice lasted.
According to the 1950 census, the population of Clemson, South Carolina was only 1204, as compared with just over 17,000 in 2018. Some percent of these citizens were African American. [How might I find this information?] Clemson College, founded in 1889, only became a University in 1964, [4] yet provided much of the culture of the area from its founding. The four-year military-oriented institution was exclusively White male students and faculty through the fifties and early sixties, although African Americans comprised a significant number of wage workers, especially in food service and custodial staff. Even as the young Kemps grew up, they knew the streets, buildings and student residences on the nearby campus. Riding bikes as well as going to work with their dad familiarized them with the space.
Robert’s dad became a butcher in the main food service [mess hall] area for four years when Robert and his brother, Jimmy, were in upper elementary school. During this time, Clemson College employees grew and raised their own food for the campus [5] "We ate well during that period,” reported Robert.” Dad brought home leftover meats as well as pies and other items he was given by fellow workers.”
At 16, Robert secured a job providing custodial services in one of the college dorms. While most of his life stories focus on positive learning and growth, his experiences in that work environment did not. Robert reflected, “Those young military students would be laying up in their beds, calling us the N-word, while we emptied their garbage cans and cleaned their vomit off the floor and the toilets.” Robert’s facial expression became angrier as he conveyed the details of this story. The feelings pass, yet the man’s life has been impacted by racism over the decades. Two other childhood examples include a White man telling the 6-year-old Robert and his brother to stop looking in the direction of his White granddaughters who were swimming in a small lake "too far away to see without binoculars” or when the brothers were at a window peeking into a entertainment venue to "get outta here, you little (N-word).” Finally, Tigeramas during his boyhood keep him away from that annual event to this day; getting shot by White boys with pea shooters when walking through with his parents and seeing a man in Black face being kicked across the stage while he tried sweeping the floor.
An important aspect of this oral history is that the narrator is a Black man and the interviewer is a White woman. Although the two are of similar ages, and both grew up in South Carolina, their lived experiences are bounded by the "color line” or Jim Crow laws followed in South Carolina [6], including segregated communities, educational systems and traditional relationships for most of their lives. Given what is known today as "White Supremacy” even as a passive system [7], one might expect the questions and answers of this oral history to reflect certain restrictions. For example, when asked for photos of his childhood, Robert reported that none exist. He has no photos with his parents or his brother. No pictures were taken at his wedding fifty years ago. "We just went to the courthouse,” he recalled. The assumption that there would be extant photos reflects a small but significant blind spot for the interviewer. How many other assumptions restrict the fullest responses from the narrator?
Returning to local demographics and their potential impact on this man’s life, let’s look at data from 2017 [8]. That year, the general population of Clemson, SC was 15,375, comprising just over twelve thousand White people and 958 African American Alone (6.8%). Another 450 reported being two or more races. With the Clemson Area African American Museum having been founded in 2008, another demographic from the 2010 census [9] will be informative. That year, the general population was 13,905, which is 1470 (10.6%) less than seven years later. More important, perhaps, is the change in the African American Alone group. In 2010, the African American Alone count was 1437 (10.33%), which is 479 more residents than seven years later. This decline of 33.3% deserves investigation by a future reader. A slightly smaller number of people also reported being two or more races, 219 (1.5%)
Learning to Dress the Part
No matter what demographic we use, the clear divergence between White and African American racial groups, while fictional in biological terms [10], means that Robert Kemp grew into manhood under the influence of a majority White workplace, City Council, Mayor and primary shopping community. Having the Clemson Cadets in his vicinity provided the young Kemp both a visual model for fashion as well as a location selling clothes to all races at affordable prices, Judge Keller’s Clothing Store. Following his uncle’s lead, Robert bought all his clothes there. Speaking of the Senior Keller, Robert reported, "His wife was a seamstress . . . and they was really nice people, and you buy three or four pair of pants and leave them. Then they would, you know, get them to the length of my leg and everything." This memory remains strong long after the store changed hands to Judge Keller’s son, then grandson, and stocked only Clemson orange things.
When Robert transitioned to full-time employment at Ohio Gear, he worked in the office based on his strength in math. "This guy back then thought he was the best dresser in the office . . . but I said, well, I had a pair of shoes every day of the week, different pairs . . . and I could dress pretty good." Buying a suit for $49, Kemp knew "a classmate who went to Greenville and paid $125 for his suit.” Kemp’s vest was reversible while his friend’s was not. "He like to have had a duck, you know?” laughed Kemp who went on to explain "if you mix and match clothes, you know how to dress.” After all, Robert had found ways from his youth to have "a few dollars in my pocket” and parlayed this into bargain shopping with good taste.
Becoming an Excellent Dog Master
Over the years, Robert Kemp became well-known and respected in Clemson and the wider region as a master dog trainer. The Clemson YMCA had the only dog obedience class around. Robert and his wife Pat learned about the open position through Victor, their son, who coached soccer at the Y. Besides facing down racism when a young White woman tried to take his place, he relayed a more humorous story of the day someone forgot to put a limit on the number of dogs registered for a class. As he tells it, "I looked up and there come 32 dogs”, not to mention their owners! Thanks to having his wife and son nearby, he was able to coordinate the pack into two groups that each had a Kemp relative in charge. Meanwhile Robert was "walking back and forth to make sure they was doing everything right.” While not a large man in stature, Robert Kemp uses his powerful energy as a leader, of dogs and of people.
This low-talking, gentle man loves dogs unconditionally, especially the German Shepherd and the "Staffy bull," which is shorthand for the Staffordshire Bull Terrier [11]. In less than half an hour together with the interviewer, he named, and described in great detail, nearly a dozen different dogs, including his first dog, Rex, a German Shepherd.
For more years than he taught dog obedience, Robert has shown dogs through the American Kennel Club (AKC), where he has risen to the rank of judge on two occasions. When he started out though, he was so nervous, he was “numb.” This year, he met a woman who had been his first judge when he first started. He described her as a "tough Judge" back then. He spoke with her about it recently. She responded, "If you’re going to have a good dog, you need to be a tough judge.” In retrospect, Robert said, "that taught me how to do it. I 'm going to do what you, like, you judged me." It was always hard on Robert being "the Black guy” in these settings. Then his son fell in love with this sport as well. The dog obedience competition that includes “the Black guy” continues another generation!
Rising to CAAAM Leadership
The leadership of Robert Kemp in Clemson became most visible in 2009 when he and his wife Pat (also called Bessie) became involved in the Clemson Area African American Museum project. A few years earlier, a collaboration between Mayor Larry Abernathy and City Council Woman Eloise James resulted in the City of Clemson purchasing Calhoun Elementary School, then called the Morrison Annex. This building had first served as Pickens County’s last "colored" elementary school, where Robert and his brother attended from first through seventh grade [12]. Once the City of Clemson took ownership, they began renovating the space for three non-profits deemed important for the community’s quality of life —the Clemson Child Development Center, the Arts Center of Clemson and the Clemson Area African American Museum (CAAAM). The earliest vision for the CAAAM became clear under the guidance of “a diverse group of local residents, along with graduates from the former Calhoun Elementary School and volunteers from Clemson University” [13] who came together at the behest of Mayor Abernathy.
While early conversations about the nascent museum took place between 2002 and 2009, the Kemps only heard hints from White folks at a Six Mile (SC) dinner party in 2006. As the only Black couple present, someone inquired if they were "in on the museum.” Robert recalled that "the next day, I started inquiring about what was going on. So happened they was meeting at Golden View Church” [Golden View Baptist Church, Clemson, SC] where Robert was baptized as a boy. At that meeting, he spoke out on behalf of the Black community getting what they needed as the local White community seemed to whenever they asked. Someone at that meeting whispered to him, "Robert, we need you at these meetings...” Within a year, Robert Kemp was elected President of the Clemson Area African American Museum. He still serves in that position.
Five years into his presidency, the Board of Directors decided to reinvigorate the single-room museum’s 400-square-foot presence at the 214 Butler Street, Calhoun Bridge Center site [14]. Thus, in 2014, under President Kemp’s watchful eye, the CAAAM Facebook page changed to expand its representation of communities within Clemson. Through increased contact with local area schools, growth in social media, and expansion of visual history tying the City of Clemson with Clemson University, awareness of this resource grew. The relationship with Professor Rhondda Robinson Thomas [15] brought the CAAAM into the Call My Name Coalition, that includes three other entities in the region, the Bertha Lee Strickland Cultural Museum, the Pendleton Foundation for Black History and Culture, and the University’s Humanities Hub. Increasing visibility promises a stronger future.
From humble beginnings, the CAAAM currently shows confidence in growing more fully into its stated vision, “To be recognized as Upstate South Carolina’s leading museum and cultural resource center dedicated to African American history and culture” [16]. An October 2019 visit by Dr. Eugene Richardson [17], one of the few living Tuskegee Airmen, drew a diverse audience of over 200 people to the CAAAM auditorium. Seated beside this honoree on the stage that was once part of his segregated elementary school, President Robert Kemp illustrated his personal staying power. In the last decade, he has earned the moniker, Septuagenarian Leader in Clemson.
Bibliography
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- As reported by phone to Robert Kemp from CO [name unknown]
- "Vintage Judge Keller Clothing Store." https://clemsonwiki.com/images/5/58/Keller1936.jpg
- “History | About | Clemson University, South Carolina.” Accessed November 29, 2019. https://www.clemson.edu/about/history/.
- "Mess Hall Kitchen" https://digitalcollections.clemson.edu/single-item-view/?oid=CUIR:67DC3FFA6B6964AA9310204F9E0F015E&b=https%3A%2F%2Fdigitalcollections.clemson.edu%2Fsearch-results%2F%3Fk%3Dsubjecttopic%253A%2522kitchens%2522%26opn_refine_control%3Djump%26xi%3D1%26xm%3D20%26sf%3D
- “South Carolina - Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws.” Accessed November 29, 2019. https://www.sciway.net/afam/reconstruction/blackcodes.html.
- Teaching Tolerance. “What Is White Privilege, Really?,” August 15, 2018. https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/fall-2018/what-is-white-privilege-really.
- “Clemson City-SC SC Demographics Data.” Accessed November 29, 2019. http:\\www.towncharts.com\South-Carolina\Demographics\Clemson-city-SC-Demographics-data.html.
- “Clemson, SC Population - Census 2010 and 2000 Interactive Map, Demographics, Statistics, Quick Facts - CensusViewer.” Accessed November 29, 2019. http://censusviewer.com/city/SC/clemson.
- “RACE - The Power of an Illusion. Background Readings | PBS.” Accessed November 29, 2019. https://www.pbs.org/race/000_About/002_04-background-01-07.htm.
- "Photo of Staffy Bull." credit - Image by Lindasay from Pixabay <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/Lindasay-2791421/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=2379364">Lindasay</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=2379364">Pixabay</a>
- Pickens County Schools Historical Committee (S.C.), ed. A History: The Schools of Pickens County. Easley, S.C.: Pickens County School District, 1996. P. 33.
- “Clemson Area African American Museum.” Accessed November 29, 2019. http://ca-aam.org/mission.
- “Clemson Area African Ameri
- Clemson World Magazine. “The Power of Calling a Name,” September 4, 2019. https://clemson.world/callinganame/. P. 19.
- “Clemson Area African American Museum.” Accessed November 29, 2019. http://ca-aam.org/mission.
- CAF Red Tail Squadron. “Eugene J. Richardson, Jr,” November 1, 2018. https://www.redtail.org/eugene-j-richardson-jr/.