C H A P T E R N E W S
Breakfast conversations with Freddie Leon Washington of the Tuskegee (AL) Alumni chapter
cabbages, cucumbers, peanuts, corn, and other assorted vegetables. The Green’s land was less than a thousand yards from the marshy estuary of the Beaufort River, which made it easy for his grandfather to fish at night, catching shrimp and an array of other fish that he would sell. Brother Washington attributes his fondness for eating shrimp and fish to his grandfather. By the time Brother Washington turned 13 years old, he pretty much ran his grandparents’ farm. It was also during that time he had entered Shanklin School, a nearby boarding school founded to teach African- American students techniques aimed at the cultivation of land, livestock management, and homemaking. The school also trained students in carpentry, bricklaying, printing, and other trades. As Shanklin School had no athletics, he took part in one of the county’s baseball teams playing the center field position. During this period in his life, to make extra money, Brother Washington would travel to the nearby train station on Saturdays to shine shoes. With a wooden shoe shine box in hand (which he still owns today), polish, a shoe brush or two, and a cloth – he would shine the shoes of the area’s farmers. “I’m just an ole’ country boy from South Carolina who came from having very little growing up” - Charles DeVinner, reporter
Freddie L. Washington, a 1955 Gamma Epsilon initiate at the Tuskegee Institute, is the most Senior Kappa and active member of the Tuskegee (AL) Alumni Chapter. Born in an unincorporated coastal community named Seabrook, South Carolina in 1933, he attended a boarding school from grades 6 through 12, graduating in 1952. After graduating, Brother Washington serendipitously made his way to Tuskegee, Alabama, where he attended Tuskegee Institute, presently known as Tuskegee University, earning the conferral of undergraduate and graduate degrees in the field of Agriculture Education. As an undergraduate, Brother Washington joined the United States Air Force Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) and later became a Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force. Washington was born to Ms. Mary Green (Wright) and Mr. Fred Washington Sr. He grew up around Beaufort County, South Carolina, well-known for Parris Island, home of the East Coast United States Marine Corps Recruit Depot and Marine Corps Boot Camp. Beaufort is also the birthplace of Joseph“Smokin’ Joe”
Freddie L. Washington
William Frazier, the first boxer to beat Muhammad Ali. Washington’s mother worked as a cook at Beaufort hotels and as a lead cook for affluent white families, she lived and traveled between New York and South Carolina. Due to the scarcity of jobs for blacks during that time, his mother had to take jobs available to her so that she could help provide for him. Because of his mother’s line-of-work and schedule, Brother Washington was primarily raised by his grandparents, Mr. Mose Green and Mrs. Rella Green, along with their other 14 children. His grandparents were farmers on 10-acres of land which they owned cows, hogs, chickens, and turkeys, among other livestock. They also worked the land by planting crops to include: greens,
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C. Rodger Wilson Leadership Conference
T H E K H R O N I C L E | November 2021
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