Camden Lifestyle Magazine Issue 02 "The Outdoors"

In the year of 1920, a man who would leave a strong legacy was born
here in Camden County, Georgia to Willie and Mary Street Reed. The
5th child and 2nd son of 11 children, Leroy Reed was affectionately
called “Lee Boy” by his parents. Leroy was the grandson of Stalin and
Mary Street, both born during the civil war around 1860 in Smithville
Georgia and Peach County. Leroy attended the public school of
this county and was an active Sunday School student, serving as the
Sunday School secretary. While in his youth Leroy joined Clinches
Chapel Church. Now, Clinches Chapel Church has a history tied to
the Reed family. The church was destroyed in a fire and the Reeds
helped rebuild the structure on the property. They attended the
Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 but that is a story for another
volume.
After Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Imperial Japanese Navy
Air Service, Leroy was drafted along with many other black young
men in Camden County. They left the city in segregated black-only
buses and served proudly overseas. During the war years, the segregation
practices of civilian life spilled over into the military. The
draft was segregated and more often than not African-Americans
were passed over by the all-white draft boards. Pressure from the
NAACP led President Roosevelt to pledge that African Americans
would be enlisted according to their percentage in the population.
Although this percentage, 10.6%, was never actually attained in the
services during the war, African-American numbers grew dramatically in the Army, Navy, Army Air Force, Marine Corps,
and the Coast Guard.
Stephen Ambrose identified the lamentable American irony of
WWII, writing, “The world’s greatest democracy fought the world’s
greatest racist with a segregated army” (Ambrose, Citizen Soldier).
During the global conflict, African American leaders and organizations
established the “Double V” campaign, calling for victory against
the enemy overseas and victory against racism at home. This new
black consciousness and the defiant rejection of unjustifiable racism
planted important seeds for the post-War civil rights movement.
For 4 1/2 years, Reed served with as much honor, distinction, and
courage as any American soldier did and he attained the rank of
Sergeant before the war ended. After serving in WW2 he returned to
Georgia and soon realized he no longer wanted to work for anyone
else. While watching a man washing storefront windows in downtown
Brunswick, he asked the Lord in prayer to help him build a business
so he could wash his own windows (however, he never did wash
windows).
After dipping Turpentine for 50 cents a day, cutting boxes for 25 cents
or pouring cement for 75 cents an hour, he looked for other ways to
provide. Reed was a man who wasn’t afraid of work and he was a man
of many trades, he butchered meat, sold ice, raised children and sold
eggs, planted pine trees, and even went back to work for someone
else to make it over those hard times. He drove the school bus for the
county school, worked at Thiokol Chemical and was a cook at Horne’s
Restaurant in Woodbine where the new Post Office is now.