EP 3 Oseola McCarty - Paying the Babies' Tickets | Women And Resistance 🌍

In this episode of Women in Resistance, host Adesoji Iginla engages with Aya Fubara Eneli, who embodies the remarkable story of Oseola McCarty. The conversation explores Oseola's early life in Mississippi, her experiences under Jim Crow, her dedication to her family, and her eventual recognition for her contributions to the community. Oseola's journey highlights the importance of hard work, saving, and giving back, as she shares her life lessons and the values instilled in her by her grandmother. 

In this conversation, Oseola shares her inspiring journey from a humble washerwoman to a renowned philanthropist. She discusses her commitment to education, the importance of hard work, and the impact of her generosity on many students' lives. 

Through her experiences, she emphasises the significance of character, discipline, and the power of giving back to the community. Her story serves as a testament to the idea that true wealth lies not in material possessions but in the legacy one leaves behind.

Takeaways 

*Oseola McCarty was born on March 7th, 1908.

*She grew up in a time when black people were referred to as colored folk.

*Her family instilled a strong work ethic in her from a young age.

*Oseolaleft school at a young age to support her family.

*She received recognition from notable figures, including Hillary Clinton.

*Oseola emphasised the importance of saving money for the future.

*She learned to make soap as part of her family's work.

*Despite hardships, Oseola found joy in her work and life.

*She wished to help others achieve the education she couldn't pursue.

*Oseola aimed to support her community through education funding. 

*Generosity can change lives and communities.

*Education is a vital tool for empowerment.

*Hard work and discipline lead to success.

*True wealth is measured by the legacy we leave.

*Philanthropy can reshape societal norms.

*Character is the foundation of true wealth.

*Giving back is a responsibility for those who are blessed.

*Inspiration can come from the most humble beginnings.

*Every individual has the power to make a difference.

*Community support is essential for lasting change.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Women in Resistance

10:21 Experiencing Jim Crow Laws

16:03 Achievements and Recognition

21:45 Learning the Art of Soap Making

30:39 Giving Back to the Community

39:44 Legacy of Hard Work and Faith

50:30 Inspiration and Impact

Welcome  to Women and Resistance, a powerful podcast where we honour the courage, resilience, and revolutionary spirit of women across the globe. Hosted by Aya Fubara Eneli Esq and Adesoji Iginla...

You're listening to Women and Resistance with Aya Fubara Eneli Esq and Adesoji Iginla—where we honour the voices of women who have shaped history through courage and defiance...Now, back to the conversation.

That’s it for this episode of Women and Resistance. Thank you for joining us in amplifying the voices of women who challenge injustice and change the course of history. Be sure to subscribe, share, and continue the conversation. Together We Honour the past, act in the present, and shape the future. Until next time, stay inspired and stay in resistance!

Transcript

Adesoji Iginla (00:03.352)
Yes, greetings, greetings, greetings, and welcome to another episode of Women in Resistance. I am your host, Adesuji Iginla. I'm joined by the brilliant Aya Fubara Eneli Esquire. And it is at this point, light with general talking points that I have to stress this point, that I should remind everyone that watching

but also would later be listening, that Aya would be embodying the character of the remarkable women that we tend to talk about in the course of our conversations. And so it's our only little way of showing appreciation for what they've done so that we can actually then have a true sense of understanding of what they went through, who they were, and as it were.

So, and it's testimony to the brilliance of Aya that people are actually quite taken in by the fact that they actually think they're listening to the person she is embodying. But that said, today we are looking at the remarkable but extraordinary story of Osila Makafi.

Who is Osila Makafi? I would let her speak for herself.

Adesoji Iginla (01:35.406)
Welcome.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:38.072)
Thank you. Thank you. I am honored to be here with you this evening. Thank you.

Adesoji Iginla (01:47.342)
Thank you, we are honored to have you. So, we've had the name Osila Makafe. Could you give us a little story behind said name?

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:59.727)
Mmm.

So my family, my family they will call me Ola. Ola. many of my godchildren now and young people that have helped when they come around they call me Miss Ola. Mama Ola. I was born in a...

Adesoji Iginla (02:19.95)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (02:32.832)
Shibuta, Mississippi Wayne County and You know my people We I was born on March 7th 1908 Now you some of you may remember

Adesoji Iginla (02:36.836)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (02:59.554)
Things were very different at that time for black people. We didn't call ourselves black people. We called ourselves the colored folk. And they will call us Negro, you know, or the other word that I'm not going to use. And...

So,

Aya Fubara Eneli (03:28.312)
This was not too far from slavery. Many of the colored people, maybe if you got work as a sharecropper or in the mines, the laborer, the women, we would cook for white people, we would take care of their babies, we would wash their clothes.

Aya Fubara Eneli (04:02.51)
So my parents, my mother's name was Lucy, and they sent me to live with my grandmother in Hattiesburg.

when I was about four or five years old. And they went to work in the bigger towns. But my grandmother did not want me to go to those towns. She did not feel like those were a good place to raise a child.

Now in Hattiesburg it was the headquarters for the Mississippi Central Railroad. So there was quite a lot of work for black people, not the colored people, great jobs, but jobs. And so my uncle, he lived, worked in Hattiesburg. My uncle

Adesoji Iginla (05:00.132)
Hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (05:13.06)
All the same, yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli (05:21.644)
his family, my aunt Evelyn, my grandma, and me, we lived in the same six-room house.

Aya Fubara Eneli (05:35.183)
First we were, my uncle was renting the house and then he worked and said, I come from people who, we are a working people. You know, from slavery, you know what happened to us in slavery time. You know how they would just use our bodies, use our work, but we did not have.

Adesoji Iginla (05:48.643)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (06:04.5)
much for ourselves. And when we came out of that, we still had that mind to work.

to do something to build for ourselves.

and so my grandmother she would

take clothes they would get it in bundles and the bundle of clothes one bundle maybe one dollar one dollar fifty cents and she would wash the clothes fold iron all of that and return to the people and there was plenty of that kind of work for her so when my parents went to a town called

D-Law, where my grandfather, my stepfather worked in a turpentine industry. My grandmother said, no, let her stay with me.

Aya Fubara Eneli (07:22.464)
And as a small child, I started to watch my grandmother. I wanted to help with the work. And I would, as I grew older, do a little more. Sometimes I would deliver the clothes. Sometimes I would pick it up. Sometimes in the morning, I wake up and I do my chores, which include I would go and look for firewood. Because

we had a big pot that you have to make sure the fire doesn't go out and then you put the clothes in the pot of water and boil the clothes first then you bring them out and then you scrub them on the washer board and then you rinse one time

Adesoji Iginla (08:05.998)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (08:19.276)
and then you rinse a second time. Then you wring it and then you hang it on the lines. So I stayed with my grandmother and that family and then my uncle, he now had enough money from working, saving from labor work.

Adesoji Iginla (08:28.824)
the line.

Aya Fubara Eneli (08:48.204)
He got a house for his family, so my uncle moved. But we stayed in that six room house, that first six room house. Later, my uncle worked enough, he bought that house and.

Adesoji Iginla (09:07.8)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (09:10.996)
After a long while, he gave me the house.

And I lived in that house from when I was about five years to when I died in 1999. But my uncle worked and gave the house for his mother and my aunt and me to live, but then gave the house to me as a child.

I love to help my grandmother. I love to make mud pies. We used to make dolls with dried grass.

Aya Fubara Eneli (10:06.382)
And then I went to school. I went to school.

Aya Fubara Eneli (10:18.306)
the school.

Remember again the time period. It's sometimes hard maybe for people to understand today what it was like at that time. But we had Jim Crow loss. You've heard Jim Crow.

Adesoji Iginla (10:36.708)
Could you explain to people listening what that...

Aya Fubara Eneli (10:41.358)
So with the Jim Crow, the white people did not want us to go to their schools. They did not want us to live where they lived. They separated. They to drink water. It's only.

water fountain even if you are going to go on any transportation you see colored section our churches everything completely separate always made me think because my aunt Evelyn she used to work for a white family and every morning she would get up and go to their house and do everything

Adesoji Iginla (11:19.204)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (11:30.4)
for them and cook for them.

Aya Fubara Eneli (11:35.946)
if somebody can cook your food that you're going to eat.

How?

Is it now a problem?

Adesoji Iginla (11:48.366)
cool hobbies with them.

Aya Fubara Eneli (11:50.03)
to.

ride in the same car or something to sit in the same school house. So the school I went to was only for black children. School was okay but I really liked to help my grandmother and my aunt Evelyn she would leave in the morning and go and work and by the time she would return to the house it's very late.

and my grandmother worked every day except Sunday. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. From before the sun will come up till after the sun cools down, it's very dark, my grandmother will work.

Aya Fubara Eneli (12:48.157)
and

So when I was in the sixth grade, so when I get back from school, I will help my grandmother as I started to get older, I would do more things. I didn't just fetch the firewood for the pot. I would also help. Sometimes my grandmother and I and my aunt, we will be ironing the clothes late at night. It's not the type of iron you have now.

it was a type of iron. It's made of iron, of metal, but it has like an opening. And then you put hot coal inside and then close it. And then you iron with the heat of the hot coal coming through the bottom of the iron.

Adesoji Iginla (13:22.084)
Okay.

Adesoji Iginla (13:33.304)
Okay.

Adesoji Iginla (13:46.276)
Okay.

Aya Fubara Eneli (13:49.623)
It was a very hard work, but we were happy. And we will sing.

as we worked.

Aya Fubara Eneli (14:05.142)
when I was in the sixth grade.

Aya Fubara Eneli (14:11.028)
aunt had this surgery from she got sick.

And when she returned to the house, she could not walk.

And my aunt, she had no children. So I said, I'll leave the school and come and help because that's what you do. And it's not only me, many young colored people. You have to help the family to eat, you have to survive. So.

Adesoji Iginla (14:48.228)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (14:51.818)
many did not finish school if you even had school to go to so when i was in the sixth grade i left school to come and help my aunt take care of my aunt but also to help with the house because now the money that my aunt was making from her work is not there and

I never did go back to school.

Adesoji Iginla (15:26.702)
So how old were you at this time?

Aya Fubara Eneli (15:30.818)
I don't exactly remember but I will say maybe about 12 or 13.

and I left school and I was happy to help my family.

and we worked. I joined in that work of six days a week. We are working. Now.

The reason today you are talking to me and so many other people have talked to me, talked about me, you know, interviewed me. Do you know that I had lunch with the first lady, Hillary Clinton?

Adesoji Iginla (16:28.558)
Mmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (16:29.656)
Do you know that the United Nations, they wanted to give me an award, but I did not go on plane. I was not going to travel to Paris. Paris, is how you say it?

Adesoji Iginla (16:45.538)
Yes, Paris, yeah Paris.

Aya Fubara Eneli (16:48.936)
and so I told them somebody can go for me and get the award and they said no

Adesoji Iginla (16:59.33)
I would.

Aya Fubara Eneli (17:05.42)
and they came to Hatties Park and gave me the award. But let me go back to the story. So.

Aya Fubara Eneli (17:20.578)
We lived in this six room house. Every day we get bundles of clothes. We wash, we dry some that need iron and they're folding and we get back.

and we watched for many important people. People knew my grandmother and knew that she did a great job. when my grandmother, what my grandmother taught me is you always save. So after,

the war. People were paying more money for the washing but we did not change how we lived. My grandmother taught me how to save. So when I was still young one day I had my money and I

Aya Fubara Eneli (18:34.932)
was dropping off some clothes for one of our customers and I looked at the bank and I went in the bank and I asked how I can put my money.

Adesoji Iginla (18:50.404)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (18:52.97)
and they showed me and I did and they put my money.

Adesoji Iginla (18:59.096)
This was a blank bank, as you can see.

Aya Fubara Eneli (19:04.43)
black bank at that time. Some of the banks, I put my money in many different banks, sometimes up to five banks because before I heard how colored people had put their money in a bank and then the bank during the depression, the bank was gone.

Adesoji Iginla (19:16.568)
Okay.

Adesoji Iginla (19:31.554)
okay.

Aya Fubara Eneli (19:32.694)
and their money was gone.

So then I told my aunt and my grandmother and they went to the bank with me and they put their money, they opened their own account and put their money.

I always believe any money you make, you must save some first for yourself. You don't spend everything. And I also believe when you put money in, you don't take it out. If you put it in and you don't take it out, it will grow.

So other people, they will put money in and then they will go and take it out. Almost immediately. I never took any money out.

Aya Fubara Eneli (20:33.612)
when my grandmother died.

She left me.

money, the little savings she had. I did not spend it.

put it in my cup.

and then my mother died and the little savings she had she gave me and I put it in my account I did not spend it and when my aunt Evelyn died I also took that money and I put in the account I did not spend it

Aya Fubara Eneli (21:18.274)
The work that we did, my grandmother, she taught me how to make our own soap. So what we would do, watching my grandmother, we would get big spoons of cooking grease and we put it in this hot water. And when the grease boiled,

Then you sprinkle crystals of Red Devil Lye. Sprinkle crystals of Red Devil Lye, we will sprinkle it. And then you add water and then you boil the mixture. You stir it and you stir it and you stir it until it is smooth and thick.

Then you carefully pick up that very hot pot and you pour the soup into square pans and then you allow it to cool.

After it has cooled, then you can cut it into your soap bar. And that is the soap we use to wash the clothes.

Adesoji Iginla (22:34.766)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (22:36.686)
My grandmother taught me all of this. I learned to be a hard worker like my people. And I did not complain. The elementary school I attended was called Eureka Elementary School. And I was a very shy child because most of the time I stayed with older people.

Adesoji Iginla (23:06.424)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (23:06.774)
I learned from them.

Adesoji Iginla (23:10.596)
you

Aya Fubara Eneli (23:12.238)
So.

Every morning collect clothes boil it scrub it rinse it hang it to dry Eventually my uncle he built like something like clothes where Even if the weather is bad inside there we can put the clothes to hang and dry and Then we got another thing where when you put the clothes you

turn it and turn it and turn it and it helps to get the water out of the clothes so that the clothes are almost dry yes yes yes yes a hand wringer so when you wring you do and that was my job to do that and then it doesn't take as much time to dry so we did all of that I used to love

Adesoji Iginla (23:51.67)
ring.

Ringo

Aya Fubara Eneli (24:14.348)
just to see the white sheets blowing in the wind on the clothesline.

Well.

Aya Fubara Eneli (24:31.148)
We did not complain about the work. We were happy for the work. And there was always work.

Aya Fubara Eneli (24:43.08)
washed clothes for more than 70 years of my life.

I was 86 when because of arthritis, it was hard to do the work because for 70 plus years I had been scrubbing. You know, I bought a washing machine one time.

Adesoji Iginla (25:04.052)
Manuvayam, yeah, yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli (25:24.13)
I gave it away.

Adesoji Iginla (25:28.46)
Why did you give it to her?

Aya Fubara Eneli (25:31.382)
It has now washed the clothes clean.

Aya Fubara Eneli (25:38.722)
When we wash the clothes, you can see the difference. That washing machine. So I gave it to one of my relatives. said, you can have it. I will wash my clothes with my hands.

But one thing, sometimes when I will sit in front of my house, I will see the students.

coming and going to school.

Aya Fubara Eneli (26:16.398)
I wanted to learn more. In fact, when my aunt Evelyn was in the hospital,

I looked at those nurses and I wish.

Aya Fubara Eneli (26:33.262)
stayed in school and become a nurse. When my Aunt Evelyn came home, I was the best nurse she could have. And I would see these children going back and forth and I thought to myself,

cannot go but maybe I can help somebody go.

Adesoji Iginla (26:56.056)
Mmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (26:57.206)
I never bought a car in my life.

this store.

Where we get that fruit?

was about one mile from my house. And once a week, I would take my basket, it had wheels, and I would walk to the store and buy my things and walk back. I would walk to my church and I would walk back.

I think.

Aya Fubara Eneli (27:41.912)
there were some people who...

maybe did not see me, did not think I was anybody. But I always knew that I was somebody and I always knew that every kind of work is a good work. But when you do that work, whatever work you're gonna do, do it very well, do it to the best you can do it.

Adesoji Iginla (28:02.02)
true.

Aya Fubara Eneli (28:14.324)
Now the bank, the manager one day says, Ms. can we talk to you?

Aya Fubara Eneli (28:26.542)
He said you have a lot of money in your account. What do you want to do with it?

Aya Fubara Eneli (28:41.248)
I had an idea but I did not finish school so I did not exactly understand.

Aya Fubara Eneli (28:54.766)
So as we talk, he found out I have all these other accounts and we figure out how much money I have.

Aya Fubara Eneli (29:06.71)
And he said, what do you want to do with this money when you die?

Aya Fubara Eneli (29:15.726)
said, well.

I don't have any family really.

Aya Fubara Eneli (29:24.206)
I'm never married. I have no children.

Aya Fubara Eneli (29:32.878)
So.

Aya Fubara Eneli (29:36.75)
to them, manager, he said, okay. And I used to wash clothes for his family. Some of these families they knew because 70 plus years and before then even my grandmother. He said, okay, hold on. So he went and he got 10 dimes.

Aya Fubara Eneli (29:58.71)
and he put the 10 dimes in front of me. He said, what are you thinking? I said, well, I'm thinking I want to give money for the children to go to university. And I was thinking of University of Southern Mississippi because...

Aya Fubara Eneli (30:23.342)
colored children before could not go to that school. But now they can go to that school. And I said, I can help some of them go to that school.

Adesoji Iginla (30:28.867)
Okay.

Aya Fubara Eneli (30:39.502)
So on one paper he wrote University of Southern Mississippi. He who else do you want to give some money? I said, my church. My church was very important to me. He said, OK. He wrote down the name of my church. And the church that.

The church that I used to go to, the first bank that I put my money in, that very first bank, is the First Mississippi National Bank. And then the church that I used to go to, Friendship Baptist Church. And I read my Bible every day and prayed every night.

So I said I would give to my church. he wrote my church. Friendship Baptist Church.

And then I said, and I have three relatives. So he wrote their names. He said, okay, now using the dimes, explain how you want to, we're not gonna think of all your money. Just use the dime like it's one dollar. How much would you give each? So on the church, I put one dime.

And for my relative, each of the three of them, I put one dime for each. But my fingers were hurting, so he helped me to pick up the sixth dime and put it for the University of Southern Mississippi.

Adesoji Iginla (32:25.518)
the dimes.

Adesoji Iginla (32:33.216)
Six.

Aya Fubara Eneli (32:38.572)
and then they help to do all of their.

documents everything and they contacted the school and told the school somebody is going to give you some money. later i heard the school was thinking who is going to give us money and they are probably thinking of some of the maybe rich students from that that came from their school.

Adesoji Iginla (33:13.636)
Mmm. Be a washerwoman.

Aya Fubara Eneli (33:14.548)
Nobody was thinking of.

Aya Fubara Eneli (33:22.872)
When they heard about it, the president invited me to come and they had a lunch in my honor.

then the newspapers started to tell the story and all the... I did not own a television. One time, the girls at the bank, because they have known me for a long time, they said, no, Ms. Ola, you have to have an air conditioner, the one you put in the window.

But I will only turn it on when I have guests. I didn't turn it on for myself.

Aya Fubara Eneli (34:14.846)
and they had this lunch for me and everybody was so surprised and I was still a little shy but

Because I'm shy doesn't mean that I will not speak up for myself. So when they started to invite me to come to different places, the secretary for the president, a young, beautiful black lady, she was the one who would travel with me. Because after I came to Hattiesburg, I had never...

left hat is for

Adesoji Iginla (35:03.138)
Wow.

Aya Fubara Eneli (35:06.368)
and I will not go on a so she will go with me on the train. It was a very exciting time.

Aya Fubara Eneli (35:22.126)
I told you about the United Nations Award. It was the Abisena Prize. And then, have you heard of that school, Harvard University?

Adesoji Iginla (35:38.334)
A very prestigious invest in the United States.

Aya Fubara Eneli (35:41.038)
Harvard University. They gave me.

doctorate degree and I wore the cap and the gown but I took the train to go.

And...

The University of Southern Mississippi gave me their first honorary doctorate degree.

And then.

Aya Fubara Eneli (36:17.878)
I was on Oprah and she came to where one place and she said, do you know who I am? And I said, yes, I know who you are. You are Oprah. And she was happy that I knew her and I was happy that I was there.

Aya Fubara Eneli (36:43.103)
and I

went to the Essence Awards and Patti Labelle sang for me.

Aya Fubara Eneli (36:58.444)
And then I also got the Presidential Citizens Medal. Bill Clinton gave me that award.

Adesoji Iginla (37:08.216)
Wow, it's quite a pretty

Aya Fubara Eneli (37:12.596)
and then at another event his wife came and the sick two men came in some suit very tall men

I am a little woman. I'm on a good day. Maybe four feet ten inches. Maybe.

Aya Fubara Eneli (37:36.372)
I was looking at them and they said are you Miss McCarty? Yes. And they said you must come with us.

do that to an old black woman. And they said, no, the first lady wants to have lunch with you.

Aya Fubara Eneli (38:05.814)
And then the mayor of New York invited me to come. I'd never seen the thing. On New Year's Eve, they drop some ball. It's a very big thing for you people.

Adesoji Iginla (38:19.79)
Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli (38:24.91)
And that was the first time I flew in a plane. These travels were the first time I stayed in a hotel in my whole life.

Adesoji Iginla (38:28.417)
Hmm

Aya Fubara Eneli (38:38.466)
Don't tell you those stories about what came because...

Aya Fubara Eneli (38:50.978)
that is something I was looking for or something that was important to me. I tell all of those stories because if you focus on your work and you do what you're supposed to do.

Adesoji Iginla (39:09.636)
Correct.

Aya Fubara Eneli (39:15.34)
You can leave a legacy that you are proud of. See, some people make a lot of noise about what's wrong with the world. And they are usually blaming somebody, somebody else. I think people who don't like the way things are need to look at themselves first.

Adesoji Iginla (39:28.036)
Mmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (39:44.718)
They need to get right with God and change their own ways. If everybody did that, we'd be all right. I want to show you something, two things that made all the difference in my life. People know me because a washerwoman, a woman in a

House that most people will not consider anything. Who worked six days a week for 70 plus years. No retirement, no insurance, just working.

Adesoji Iginla (40:34.852)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (40:37.272)
People may have thought my life is nothing. But let me show you that anybody

Aya Fubara Eneli (40:49.784)
can do something with their life. I had two things I used. One is my washer board.

six days a week i am washing somebody's clothes i did not feel like i was not somebody because i'm washing somebody's clothes the other thing

Adesoji Iginla (41:18.99)
Bible. FATE.

Aya Fubara Eneli (41:24.66)
Every day I read the Word of God. I did not bother what anybody thought what anybody was doing.

I worked and I read the word of God.

Aya Fubara Eneli (41:43.434)
And these two things with learning how to save from my family, hard work and learning how to save is what took me to places I did not even know exist. I did not see it on TV. I did not watch the TV. I didn't know when they invited me to.

the football game at the University of Southern Mississippi. And they said everywhere, people, they said 30,000 people. And they announced that I gave $150,000 to the school. All of these people jumped up and started to cheer. I did not watch sports.

Aya Fubara Eneli (42:41.898)
never been on that university, never been in their lecture halls, but today there is the Osola McCarty Hall at the University of Southern Mississippi. They also unveiled a life-size bronze statue of me sitting and holding my Bible and these students can come and sit with me.

And of course, with my scholarship, other people started to, they created what they call an endowment and other people started to donate, put their money as well. They said they were inspired. And I said, so you mean this money is not just for.

a few students that I can pay for their school. You can put the money so it continues to grow and more and more students. And do you know that by 2023, over 130 students had received scholarships from the Washa woman.

Adesoji Iginla (43:48.324)
too generative. Yeah.

Adesoji Iginla (44:04.132)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (44:08.814)
savings. In 2025, that endowment that started with my life savings has reached one million dollars and is now supporting 20 annual scholarships.

And what did I use to get there?

Adesoji Iginla (44:35.872)
your butt.

Aya Fubara Eneli (44:39.406)
So what is it that you want to change in the world?

Aya Fubara Eneli (44:49.27)
And what do you have in your hand that you can use now to change the world?

Can I tell you another story?

Adesoji Iginla (45:01.956)
Please do, please do.

Aya Fubara Eneli (45:06.542)
So we were going to go, I think maybe to Harvard and they said, it's very cold, you need a coat, you need a good coat. And I had my regular things and they said, no, there's this store. The store said they will give me a mink coat to wear, but just a loan and then I have to bring it back.

Adesoji Iginla (45:35.3)
You

Aya Fubara Eneli (45:37.57)
So when we got there to pick up the mink coat, they now said, that they can't give it to me because then it will be used and then they can't sell it.

So I said, how much is the coat?

Aya Fubara Eneli (45:58.294)
and they said $3,000.

Adesoji Iginla (46:04.26)
What a quote.

Aya Fubara Eneli (46:04.686)
I was not washing clothes anymore because of the arthritis in my hand.

I did something that they talk about. I will not do it now because I don't want to show you like that but I reached inside some of you have grandmothers you remember this I reached inside and I pulled out my money bag

Adesoji Iginla (46:31.608)
Yeah, yeah, we are the trusted bank.

Aya Fubara Eneli (46:42.336)
and I counted out the 3,000 and I paid for the coat. And I asked the young woman with me, do you want a coat too? And she said no. But let me tell you about my money bags. When I was a young girl, before I even knew to put my money in the bag, when I get my money, I put it in.

a small bag that I sewed and then I sew it up.

Aya Fubara Eneli (47:20.31)
So the bag is sealed.

So I can't just go and if I'm going to get that money, have to rip the hoops.

Adesoji Iginla (47:29.688)
Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli (47:32.94)
My money was not as soon as I get money, you spend money. I was always a saver. So we would, me and my grandmother, my aunt and my mother, we would collect our money in bundles. And you sew the bundle into the back. Yes, we would get some fabric and we sew it. And then when I had a number of bundles, I would take it to the back. But let me tell you the story I was gonna tell you.

Aya Fubara Eneli (48:04.802)
I don't watch TV but I heard that there's one channel that was called CNN and the person who started that channel was a man called Ted Turner.

Adesoji Iginla (48:22.627)
it.

Aya Fubara Eneli (48:23.982)
Tetrena came to see me.

Adesoji Iginla (48:27.62)
Wow.

Aya Fubara Eneli (48:29.102)
still lived in my little six bedroom, sorry, six room house. When I say six room, it's not six bedroom. Six room is include the kitchen, includes the bedroom, includes the bathroom, includes the front room, everything. The whole house, whatever the room is for, it's six rooms.

Adesoji Iginla (48:52.16)
Const. 6.

Aya Fubara Eneli (48:57.678)
And Ted Turner was a very rich man. And he said, I'm going to pledge $1 billion to the United Nations because you showed me if you can donate $150,000, I can donate $1 billion.

Adesoji Iginla (49:25.996)
which you did.

Aya Fubara Eneli (49:26.89)
And after that, that is when some of his other millennia friends started to take the pledge as well. And so Warren, some man, Warren Botet, something like that, he said,

Adesoji Iginla (49:37.934)
Yeah.

Adesoji Iginla (49:43.267)
Mm-hmm. Or in the portrait. Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli (49:47.694)
He's going to give, I don't know how many billions or 50 % or something, but Ted Turner said, me, a Washa woman, because of my generosity, inspired him to give one billion.

and that inspired others to give too.

This is what I know that my Bible teaches me. It is more blessed to give than to receive. And I know this because I have tried it.

Adesoji Iginla (50:24.804)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (50:30.784)
If I took that money to spend on myself, can I buy my way to a presidential medal? Can I buy my way to the United Nations giving me an award? I guess some people may have that kind of money.

Aya Fubara Eneli (50:57.794)
But I believed in my work. It does not matter to me that many people...

Adesoji Iginla (51:02.404)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (51:10.232)
disregarded me.

if they just see me, a poor black woman just walking to the store.

Aya Fubara Eneli (51:23.532)
I told the young people, I'm too old to get an education, but you can. And I would tell them, you better go to class. You better be in, do not miss any class. I would tell young people today.

Aya Fubara Eneli (51:47.33)
Don't take your education as a joke.

Aya Fubara Eneli (51:55.518)
Learn all you can learn. Work hard and do your best.

I commenced to save money and I did not stop.

Aya Fubara Eneli (52:16.958)
So my end years were quite interesting.

from very, very humble beginnings to the life that I was now able to live. And I lived until 1999, September 26. I was 91 years old.

Aya Fubara Eneli (52:53.642)
I lived to see some of the students use the scholarship and many of them were like my children. They would come to the house, they would talk to me.

Aya Fubara Eneli (53:12.8)
Even though I didn't travel for many years of my life, those last few years were wonderful, but I never forgot what was important to me. So I gave 10 % of my, we put aside money for my living, and then 10 %

Adesoji Iginla (53:24.537)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (53:41.354)
of my savings to my church.

10 % to each of my three relatives and then 60 % to the school. So those of you who like to do math, you can add up how much I saved to give away.

Adesoji Iginla (53:56.238)
you

Aya Fubara Eneli (54:08.748)
When I died, many people came to my funeral, community members, some clergy, local officials, and there was a memorial celebration for me who did not go past the sixth grade. The University of Southern Mississippi, a school that would not have allowed me to come and be a student.

a school that had a very deep Jim Crow history as well. That school held a memorial celebration for me.

Aya Fubara Eneli (54:54.464)
I am very grateful for my life.

I'm grateful that my family taught me to be disciplined.

And I believe and I have been told that my discipline and my generosity reshaped philanthropy in this country. And so today, I did not live to meet her. I hear there is a young woman who is giving money all over the place to

Adesoji Iginla (55:33.855)
Aya Fubara Eneli (55:34.431)
schools to educate black children. And I'm very grateful for her. Her name is Mackenzie Scott.

Adesoji Iginla (55:39.768)
Yeah.

Adesoji Iginla (55:47.778)
Yeah, Amazon money.

Aya Fubara Eneli (55:50.834)
and again can you die with your money can you take it anywhere

Adesoji Iginla (55:57.58)
No.

Aya Fubara Eneli (56:04.318)
And each of those students who get that education, my message to them is do something good in the world with it. Now, some people have written some books about me.

Adesoji Iginla (56:13.146)
responsibility.

Adesoji Iginla (56:17.54)
Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli (56:26.536)
One of them is called The Riches of Osceola McCarty and that is this one. It's a small book. It's a children's book, but it captures my story. There's a documentary that has been done. There's a book of my wisdom, my wise sayings. It's called The Simple Wisdom for Rich Living. I will tell you.

always pay yourself first and don't spend when you save save it it's not just every time you're spending and then another book Osceola McCarty wake up the world so i talked for a long time but i'm grateful

Adesoji Iginla (57:00.11)
Yeah.

Adesoji Iginla (57:08.174)
safe dispense.

Adesoji Iginla (57:17.892)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (57:24.568)
to share my story. Do you have any final questions for me?

Adesoji Iginla (57:29.673)
Yes, so the question is...

What would you say inspired you to give away the money, aside from the fact that you saw students just going? Was it the yearning that you could have gone or the fact that you felt, well, if I don't go, I have to pay somebody else's way?

Aya Fubara Eneli (57:57.93)
Many things, when you are blessed, you be a blessing to other people.

as a colored woman who had seen Jim Crow, seen the Depression.

Adesoji Iginla (58:20.875)
to World Wars.

Aya Fubara Eneli (58:21.198)
Seeing the two world war, seeing the civil rights movement, seeing the changes that were beginning to happen and opportunities for colored children that we did not have before.

Aya Fubara Eneli (58:40.064)
and knowing that I did not get the education that I would have wanted to get, but that education is important. I want to see colored children as working in the bank. I want to see them as nurse. I want to see them as the doctors. I want to see them as the lawyers. So they need help to get an education. And when I looked at that school,

Adesoji Iginla (58:48.516)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (59:09.59)
and all this time, colored children could not go there. I said, I want to open that door for more colored children. That's why.

Adesoji Iginla (59:28.324)
Thank you. Thank you. And yes, you did open doors and also highlight the fact that Black women continue to the load with regards to communal giving. And you also highlighted the fact that wealth is not just for accumulation. It is with a purpose. So thank you.

Aya Fubara Eneli (59:52.352)
so

Aya Fubara Eneli (59:56.618)
If I look at my whole life.

Adesoji Iginla (59:58.873)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:00:05.802)
At I was wealthy.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:00:12.682)
in love with my, the surrounding of my family. I was wealthy with discipline and the ability to work hard.

Adesoji Iginla (01:00:18.542)
Mm-hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:00:28.662)
I was wealthy with good health to wash clothes for 70 plus years. I was wealthy with wisdom to learn how to save and not to feel like I have to do what everybody else is doing. And because of all of that,

Adesoji Iginla (01:00:46.564)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:00:53.258)
I was wealthy financially, but the real wealth is the legacy. 130 students who have gotten an education because of my savings. What can we all do?

Adesoji Iginla (01:01:10.786)
as a result.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:01:20.704)
if we just made up our mind and we're disciplined. The wealth is first in your character.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:01:33.794)
And then when you're wealthy in character, the other wealth will come. I did not chase fame. I did not look for any fanfare. But it found me because of my work as a washerwoman. Thank you for having me this evening.

Adesoji Iginla (01:01:59.926)
Thank you for coming. And yes, and with that, we've come to the end of another episode of Women and Resistance. We've been speaking to Osieola McAfee, you all know her as the benevolent washerwoman who gave away 150,000 to ensure that students who did not have the means

were able to a specifically University of Southern Mississippi. And she also underscored the point that you had to be, in our words, colored students, for they didn't have that much resources to play with. So as we've come to the end of this episode, next week we'll be looking at the lifetime times of Edmonia Lewis. And yeah.

This series is a part of showing our appreciation for the women who might otherwise have gone uncelebrated because we now live in a world where people go viral. You might not be familiar with that word. Become famous for nothing. and oftentimes and not the role of black women has been underplayed in society. So.

This series here is helping to change that narrative. Again, we thank you for coming and for our audience and listeners later, do like, share, subscribe. We're hoping to get to 2000 subscribers by the end of the year. And we're almost there, but we need more thumbs as it were. So do subscribe, share, bring somebody else.

and share the past episode. There are lots of lessons that can be learnt. Until next time, Miss Osela.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:04:06.926)
God bless you. God bless you.

Adesoji Iginla (01:04:09.918)
And from me, it's good night and God bless.