Browse Stories
Vote on Desiree Davidson's Story
Were they afraid we were planning a coup d'etat?
I spent my first summer during Columbia Law School at a firm in Philadelphia described as one of the best places in the city for black lawyers. I believed that if there was any place where I would have an equal chance at opportunities, be treated fairly and succeed, this would be it. There were three black female summer associates out of sixty that year but any time all three of us were in an office talking, one of the partners would knock on the door to see how we were doing. It happened too often to be a coincidence that sometimes we would purposely agree to meet in so-and-so's office to test our theory that we were being monitored. Like clock work, ten minutes after we would get together a partner would stop by.
Cynthia Lukas's Experiences
I worked with a contractor who I had worked with for three years. But it was always over the phone. One day, we finally met and she saw me. She said, "You didn't sound black."
I started at the phone company in 1965. I got hired as a service representative, which was a good job. I was just going to go for work for a while because we needed extra money for a refrigerator. When I was in the class, the training for becoming a service representative, my instructor-I remember her vividly-- said to me, "If you try really really hard, you could be a good service rep." So of course, when I was promoted within two months, I said to her, "I tried really, really hard." At that time, I just shook it off.
I'm one of those rare people who have stayed at a company for 31 years. I think it was because I changed jobs internally about once every two years. I kept making those changes. I had some very great white male mentors.
Within my 31 years at the company, because it was in California, slowly some of my bosses started to look like me. I worked for an Asian woman. She was a nightmare to work with. But she did move the initiative of getting more women in the workplace forward.
I left when the company got bought out. The new company was not going to value my work. I didn't think I could do it again. I was always educating people. Whether it was people asking they could touch my hair or if I had gotten a hair cut, I'd have to explain, "No.