Host: Dan Kennedy

Dan: [00:00:01] Welcome to The Moth Podcast. I'm Dan Kennedy. It's not very often that we hear a story told on stage and then rush the very next week to get it on the podcast, but that's actually exactly what we're going to do today. 

Juliette Holmes told this story at a special Moth member show with theme, Fever Pitch. We loved it so much. And with the election falling on today's episode, we just couldn't resist sharing it with you. So, we first met Juliette when she won the very first open-mic StorySLAM that we had in Queens. She then went on to become a New York City GrandSLAM champion. 

[cheers and applause] 

So, here to take US back to 1948 Savannah, Georgia, is Juliette Holmes. 

Juliette: [00:00:48] I grew up in Savannah, Georgia. Savannah is a beautiful city. When I go home to visit, my mama and me always have a ritual, a tea ritual. Well, my mama was in the kitchen getting the tea ready, and I went into the bathroom to freshen up. When I walked into the bathroom, I looked-- something was so different. On the medicine cabinet, there were all of these stickers in the shape of peaches that said, “I voted.” Mm, 26 stickers around the mirror. I called out, “Mama, Mama, why do you have these peach stickers around the medicine cabinet? Is that your new hobby?” She didn't answer. 

By this time, I was in the kitchen. She was looking out of the window. When she turned, I knew I had hit a nerve. You know, the look that your mama give you, that you know that you're in deep trouble? [audience laughter] She looked at me and she said, “No, that's not a hobby. Those stickers mean so much to me. They are very special.” “Ooh, Mama. Well, why are those stickers so special?” She said, “Because every time I go to vote, they pass out the stickers now, and I'm not like some of the other people who throw their stickers away. I have saved all of my stickers.” 

So, I said, “I will place them around the mirror on the medicine cabinet, because every time I go into the bathroom to freshen up and get myself ready for that day, I thank God that I can vote. I can remember when I could not vote.” Well, when she said that, that made me feel bad, because I was really teasing her about the stickers. [audience laughter] I dropped my head, I said, “Yeah.” [audience laughter] She said, “Special.” 

My mama and daddy had a hard time voting. They were property owners. They owned a house, and they were qualified to vote under the poll tax law. Now, that wasn't a guarantee, because you had to pass a test. My parents went down to the courthouse, but they did not pass the test, although they were very smart. But in Georgia, they had a literacy test. And if you could not pass the literary test with all of the trick questions, you could not vote. Some of the questions were so hard, only a lawyer could answer them. Questions like, how many jelly beans are in this jar? [audience chuckles] How many bubbles was in this bar of soap? 

My daddy was upset, because he didn't pass the test the first time. He was in the barbershop and he heard that Mr. W.W. Law was going to have a class, and W.W. Law was the head of the NAACP. My mama and daddy signed up for the course. They went every session and they learned. Mr. Law told them, “We're going down to the courthouse and we're going to take the test, but we're not going in as a group. We're going in two by two.” Well, everyone in that class pass the test. However, they never learned how many bubbles were in a bar of soap. 

My mom and daddy one morning got up and they said, “We're going to vote. We'll be back in a few minutes.” They went down to St. Thomas Church in their green Chevrolet and they waited on line. When they went to the desk, the woman looked in the book and she says, “I don't see your name in the book. Where did you move from?” “We moved from the east side.” “Well, maybe you have to go back to Paulson Street School and see if your name is over there, because it's not here.” And they drove to the east side. This happened all day. 

Now, mind you, they left home about 9 o’clock that morning. They went back and forth, back and forth. A man came up to them and said, “I have been watching, and I am a poll watcher from the national headquarters of the NAACP, Defense League. You go back to St. Thomas Church and let's see what happens.” Sure enough, they did. This was late in the afternoon. That man was a way shower, just like W. W. Law was a way shower to help my people. When they got to St. Thomas Church to the same desk with the same woman, and she looked and she said, “Oh, I must have overlooked. Here, your name is right here in the book.” They were able to vote on a paper ballot. 

When they got home, it was 6 o’clock in the afternoon. We were so glad to see them, because they had been gone all day. My parents were building a legacy, a voting legacy for me. When I graduated from college, I was coming to New York and my parents said to me, “When you get to New York, you make sure you register to vote. Because that is not a gift. That is your right.” 

I have voted in school board elections, city elections, state elections and national elections. But the biggest one of all was the election of 2008. But I had an obstacle, just like my parents had an obstacle. At that time, my husband of 52 years was sick. He had Parkinson's. Now, I knew I wanted to vote, and I suggested to Cleve, “Cleve, you know, maybe you could vote absentee ballot.” And he looked at me, he said, “No, I'm not going to vote no absentee ballot. I'm going to the poll, to the site with my cane, and I'm a walk in and I'm going to vote.” Well, that closed that down. [audience laughter] [audience applause] 

Okay. [chuckles] That was a huh moment. The day of the election, we got dressed, and I said, “Would you like to take the wheelchair, just in case?” “No, I'm going to use my cane and I'm going to the poll.” “Fine.” We got in the car and we drove to the site. Everything was fine. We walked into the building, we got in the auditorium and there, he froze. He could not move. And I'm saying to myself, what am I going to do? Because he could stand like that 5 minutes, 10, 15, 20, until he was able to move. 

As I'm standing there, he's standing there, these two young, strong, black young men came over, and they said, “Pops, you having trouble here?” He said, “Yeah. Mm-hmm.” They said, “What's the matter?” He says, “I have Parkinson's. I have Parkinson's like Muhammad Ali and Michael J. Fox. And this is what happens, my body closed down. I can't move.” They started to whisper. He said, “We got you.” 

They picked my husband up and they took him into the cafeteria to the desk where the woman was sitting. The clerk, he tried to write his name. And his name did not match the signature in the book. So, I asked her, “Could I please initial it?” And she said, “Yes.” That was another way show up. Those young men picked him up, took him over to the machine and placed him there. He was able to pull the lever, stayed in, opened it and looked at me, “Honey, I voted.” [audience laughter] Then I went in and I voted. That was a wonderful moment. Those young men picked my husband up, took him to the car and wanted to know, were we going to be all right? That was another way show. 

That night, we sat up and we listened to the results. It was just awesome. When they said that Barack Obama had won, my neighbor, my block went up. People were out in the street singing and clapping. We went out on the porch and we stood there. And then, the phone started to ring. Calls from Detroit, Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina. But the biggest one of all, when I picked up the phone from Savannah, Georgia, and it was my 89-year-old mother crying, “I lived to see the first black President of these United States.”

[cheers and applause] 

I was crying and she was crying. She says, “Remember, voting is not a gift. It's a right.” That was a legacy that she gave to me, and I'm passing it on to my granddaughters. Now, I am saving my stickers that they give that says, NYC. I voted with the Statue of Liberty on it. Thank you. 

[cheers and applause] 

Dan: [00:14:56] That was Juliette Holmes. Juliette is a grandmother who grew up in the Gullah culture of the low country in Savannah, Georgia. But she now lives in Queen. She was an early childhood educator, and in 1985 became the New York City Board of Education Teacher of the Year. Juliette is retired now, but performs with the Pearls of Wisdom, an elder storytelling group associated with Elder Share the Arts. You can go to themoth.org to see a photo of Juliette at our members show. You can also see her collection of I Voted Stickers on the site. And with any luck, you were able to get out to the polls and start your own collection too. 

Find us on Facebook, on Twitter and on Instagram, and send us your best Election Day pictures. That's something we would love for you guys to do. We know Juliette would love to see that voting legacy carried on as well. 

That's it for this week. Thanks to all of you for listening. And as always from all of us here at The Moth, have a story-worthy week. 

Julia: [00:15:59] Dan Kennedy is the author of the books, Loser Goes First, Rock on, An American Spirit. He's also a regular host and performer with The Moth.

Dan: [00:16:09] Podcast production by Timothy Lou Ly. Moth events are recorded by Argo Studios in New York City, supervised by Paul Ruest. The Moth Podcast is presented by PRX, the Public Radio Exchange, helping make public radio more public at prx.org.