Oral history with Eva Gates

              Oral history with Eva Gates
F341.5 . M57 vol. 749
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Biography
Eva Gates was born on October 4, 1948. Her parents are Henry Harris and Effie King. Her parents had six children, which includes Mrs. Gates. When her father left the family when she was ten, her mother remarried and had five children. Mrs. Gates and her older sister, at the request of their mother, often took shifts in order to take care of their siblings, which meant that they " rotated being out of school" during the 1960s. Mrs. Gates missed school terribly but she tried to help maintain an efficient household since her stepfather was demanding; her parents were depressed due to their economic and housing situations; and her mother's low estimation of the educational process. Her mother believed that a woman's goal was to marry and to not " worry about being educated." Mrs. Gates seemed to follow her mother's philosophy by marrying and starting a family, but she never forgot her own desire to finish her education.
Mrs. Gates' first pregnancy at fifteen and marriage caused her to leave school in the eleventh grade. She returned to school after her son was born despite her husband's protest. She was encouraged by her English teacher, Mrs. Potter, who told her she could accomplish things. Other teachers, church members, and classmates such as Hazel Johnson also encouraged her. She needed this encouragement to counteract the school policies concerning women in the 60s. She had to be married and use her marriage license as proof in order to attend school. When she became pregnant a second time in the twelfth grade, Thirty- third Avenue High School took the stance that no pregnant women could attend their school, so Mrs. Gates, a small woman, hid her pregnancy from school officials in order to stay in school. However, some parents did know and they made it clear that they did not want her associating with their daughters at school because they felt it could lead to teenage promiscuity among their daughters. Thus, Mrs. Gates spent much of her school experience alone. The negative comments and attitudes increased her faith in God. She was able to overcome the negativity and graduate in the 60s.
She eventually worked as a secretary for Memorial Hospital in Gulfport from 1972 to 1986, and she bought a house for her family because she made a promise that she would never raise her children in an impoverished house like the one in which she grew up. In 1997, she decided that she wished to attend college, but concern for her academic skills due to her long period of working rather than going straight to college after high school caused her to brush up on English and math in the New Horizon Program at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in Gulfport. She says the place, designed for " displaced
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