{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://saaacam.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/0z70v8c289/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Dr. Milton Harris Interview"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/571/original/full-color_2x.png?1735841768","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Publisher"]},"value":{"en":["The African American Network TV (TAAN TV)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eDr. Milton Harris retired as a non-commissioned officer in charge of the Orthopedic Surgery Department at Wilford Hall Medical Center. He is currently the Executive Director of 100 Black Men of San Antonio. Dr. Harris discusses their partnership with Sam Houston High School and programs they sponsor to mentor youth, especially young men, including a program with the Truancy Court. He is also Chair of the Van Courtlandt Foundation which awards scholarships and volunteers with the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity.           \u003c/p\u003e (summary)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Rights Statement"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eAll materials are for noncommercial educational or research uses only. Please contact SAAACAM for any questions regarding usage rights.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":["2017-08-24 (created)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Type"]},"value":{"en":["Interview"]}},{"label":{"en":["Format"]},"value":{"en":["MP4"]}},{"label":{"en":["Keyword"]},"value":{"en":["100 Black Men of San Antonio","Lackland Air Force Base","Wilford Hall Medical Center","Sam Houston High School","Van Courtlandt Foundation","Van Courtlandt Club","Kappa Alpha Psi"]}},{"label":{"en":["Language"]},"value":{"en":["English (primary)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Access Ss"]},"value":{"en":["access_restricted"]}}],"summary":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eDr. Milton Harris retired as a non-commissioned officer in charge of the Orthopedic Surgery Department at Wilford Hall Medical Center. He is currently the Executive Director of 100 Black Men of San Antonio. Dr. Harris discusses their partnership with Sam Houston High School and programs they sponsor to mentor youth, especially young men, including a program with the Truancy Court. He is also Chair of the Van Courtlandt Foundation which awards scholarships and volunteers with the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity.           \u003c/p\u003e"]},"requiredStatement":{"label":{"en":["Attribution"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eAll materials are for noncommercial educational or research uses only. Please contact SAAACAM for any questions regarding usage rights.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},"provider":[{"id":"https://saaacam.aviaryplatform.com/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://saaacam.aviaryplatform.com/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/571/original/full-color_2x.png?1735841768","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/245/285/small/300VoicesLTACollectionDr.MiltonHarrisfinal.mp4_1720621933.jpg?1720621938","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://saaacam.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2808/collection_resources/131042/file/245285","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 1 - 300_Voices_LTA_Collection_Dr._Milton_Harris_final.mp4"]},"duration":1030.656,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/245/285/small/300VoicesLTACollectionDr.MiltonHarrisfinal.mp4_1720621933.jpg?1720621938","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://saaacam.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2808/collection_resources/131042/file/245285/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://saaacam.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2808/collection_resources/131042/file/245285/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-saaacam.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/245/285/original/300_Voices_LTA_Collection_Dr._Milton_Harris_final.mp4?1720621921","type":"Video","format":"video/mp4","duration":1030.656,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://saaacam.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2808/collection_resources/131042/file/245285","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://saaacam.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2808/collection_resources/131042/file/245285/transcript/68563","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["Dr. Milton Harris - Transcript [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://saaacam.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2808/collection_resources/131042/file/245285/transcript/68563/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Transcript\r\nFor\r\nDr. Milton Harris\r\n08/24/2017\r\n\r\n\r\nSaundra Nichols  0:02  \r\nHello, I'm Saundra Nichols, and we're celebrating San Antonio's Tricentennial. 300 Voices in 300 Days on TAAN [The African American Network] TV. I have with me today Dr. Milton Harris, and he'll share his story, his life and the contributions that he's made to the city of San Antonio. So Dr. Harris, thank you so much for joining us.\r\n\r\n\r\nMilton Harris  0:25\r\nThank you for having me.\r\n\r\n\r\nSaundra Nichols 0:26\r\nYeah. So we'll jump right into this. Tell me, where were you born?\r\n\r\n\r\nMilton Harris  0:29  \r\nI am a country boy. I was born in Marianna, Arkansas. So I grew up not technically on a farm, but definitely out in the country running around barefoot. \r\n\r\n\r\nSaundra Nichols  0:41  \r\nWow. What part of Arkansas is that in? Is that central? \r\n\r\n\r\nMilton Harris  0:47  \r\nI grew up– It's about 45 minutes from Memphis. So it's right in that northeastern rim of Arkansas.\r\n\r\n\r\nSaundra Nichols  0:52  \r\nHow did you end up down here in San Antonio?\r\n\r\n\r\nMilton Harris  0:55  \r\nThe military. I'm retired Air Force. So after high school, I went into the Air Force. I entered the Air Force right here at Lackland Air Force Base. And I retired, I worked for Wilford Hall Medical Center right here in San Antonio.\r\n\r\n\r\nSaundra Nichols  1:07  \r\nYou left Arkansas, you joined the military there and traveled. Have you traveled all around with the military? Or did you get to–\r\n\r\n\r\nMilton Harris  1:15  \r\nQuite a bit. My first assignment I was stationed in Omaha, Nebraska, at Offutt Air Force Base. I left there and went to Italy. So I was in Sicily, Comiso Air Station. It was a vacation. It was– it was probably my nicest assignment. And we were there for a year, I came back to the States and went to South Carolina. From there I went back home to Little Rock Air Force Base for a while. I spent some time at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida. And eventually I– my final assignment was here at Lackland Air Force Base.\r\n\r\n\r\nSaundra Nichols  1:48  \r\nOkay. So you've loved this city, then. You came back and retired. So what do you most like about the city of San Antonio? \r\n\r\n\r\nMilton Harris  1:56  \r\nThe city– it's a very, very friendly city. I– When I first got here, I did not like the weather, but it's grown on me. And so compared to Offutt [Air Force Base], Omaha, Nebraska, where it's extremely, extremely cold, I'll take San Antonio any time. So the weather, the people are really really friendly. There's a– it's a great business environment, wonderful place for military retirees to retire and– and make their home. So it's just an all around good city.\r\n\r\n\r\nSaundra Nichols  2:26  \r\nGreat. So you settled here in the city. Tell me: what do you do now?\r\n\r\n\r\nMilton Harris  2:32  \r\nI'm the Executive Director for the 100 Black Men of San Antonio. And I have a real estate investment firm. I'm a real estate broker by trade. So I kind of did real estate probably seven years before I retired from the Air Force, and I've been a real estate broker ever since. And I've been the– I’m the immediate past president of the 100 Black Men of San Antonio. And recently in the past year, took the role as Executive Director to build the organization and bring on a staff.\r\n\r\n\r\nSaundra Nichols  3:01  \r\nWell tell me a little bit about that organization, because we've actually talked to a couple other folks who gave us a little bit of insight. But if you wouldn't mind sharing a little bit of that with me.\r\n\r\n\r\nMilton Harris  3:12  \r\nAbsolutely. The 100 Black Men– we’re a mentoring organization. So we're a group of African American men. Our motto is, “What they see is what they’ll be.” And so we tried to place professional educated men in front of the youth in this city, just to give them a beacon of hope that where they can see, on a regular basis, professional men and business men, men that are doing great things around the city. Because in their communities, especially in the economically stressed or disadvantaged neighborhoods, they don't always see that. And so it's important for them to see us come in and just provide positive reinforcement to what the faculty and teachers are trying to do as they educate our young students.\r\n\r\n\r\nSaundra Nichols  3:55  \r\nWell, do you all go into any of the schools then? \r\n\r\n\r\nMilton Harris  3:59  \r\nAbsolutely. This is our third year at Sam Houston High School. And in fact, yesterday we were out first thing-- there was probably about 15 of us--  we went out, you know, dressed up in suit and tie, welcoming kids back at– for their first day of school. And so kids really, really get a kick out of that. They know, [imitating a student] “Who are these guys?” Yeah, so we've been partnering with Sam Houston High School. This is our third year. We work with Top Ladies of Distinction, their program over at Davis Middle School. They have eight teams to Ebers Academy of mentoring African American youth. And so we– this will be our second year of mentoring at Davis Middle School. And then we also have a program with theTruancy Court, with Judge John Bull. He’s doing some amazing things with the court. And so he's trying to take the punitive touch out of it and make it more rehabilitative. So he's partnering with organizations like us so to get the kids to successfully finish our program, and he won't put any punitive actions towards them or their parents. And so this will be our second year working with that program as well. So we're doing some really, really great things with 100 Black Men around the city. We are a part of a national organization of 100 Black Men of America. They will be here in December for our annual leadership conference. So our national board, all the executive teams from around the country, we have over 100 chapters nationwide, we actually have three international chapters, really. And so everybody will be here in San Antonio out at the La Cantera Resort for our– this is kind of like an annual board meeting Leadership Summit. And so that should be a good time. \r\n\r\n\r\nSaundra Nichols  5:36  \r\nSo is that open– it's open only to the members of the 100 Black Men? Or is it open for other men to come in, women to come in to participate and some of that?\r\n\r\n\r\nMilton Harris  5:45  \r\nIt’s a closed event. You know, for the board meetings and things like that. And we'll usually have a welcome reception, where we will invite the community in to meet the national board members and leaders of the organization. And that typically will be that Friday evening.\r\n\r\n\r\nSaundra Nichols  6:00  \r\nWhat an awesome initiative. So you have plenty of people here in the city to choose from to serve as mentors with the military being here and just some awesome professionals here in San Antonio. I've gotten to meet a lot of people, didn't know that some of these things were happening here and around our city. And so– but tell me: what are some of the other organizations that you participate in or boards that you serve on?\r\n\r\n\r\nMilton Harris  6:28  \r\nI serve as chair for the Van Courtlandt Foundation. I’m not sure if you're familiar with the Van Courtlandt Club, and the Van Courtlandt, it's a social club. It's actually 102 years old. It's one of the oldest social clubs, without an interruption in service, of African American males in the country. It was founded in 1915 and still going strong, still going strong. We have a member, Charles Andrews, Chuck Andrews, staple here in the community. He's been a member of the Van Courtlandt Club for 55 years, and his father was in the organization. And so with the Van Courtlandt Foundation, we– we help support the deb– we put on a debutante reception each year, and present debutantes to the city. And we give scholarships to our debs each year. So our– in our inaugural year- this is our third year- so we gave– we gave about 13,000 dollars, a thousand dollars to each young lady, in 2015. And we gave about 7,000 dollars, 1000 dollars each. We had seven girls in– last year. So we will do the same thing in spring of– in March of 2018. This year, we only have about 5 young ladies, but we– so we’ll be giving out about 5,000 dollars in scholarship there.\r\n\r\n\r\nSaundra Nichols  7:43  \r\nThat's awesome. That's a good initiative that you have going with that. And I wasn't familiar– as I've heard of the organization– but now when you were talking about it, but just wasn't familiar with what all you do. And so what are some other things that you've done here other volunteer work that you've done in San Antonio?\r\n\r\n\r\nMilton Harris  8:06  \r\nYou know, I've done a lot of volunteer work around the city with my great fraternity Kappa Alpha Psi, we do a lot of volunteer work, community cleanup, we've adopted Pittman-Sullivan Park. So we go out, and we take our mentees out to clean up the park once a month there at Pittman-Sullivan. We’ve volunteered with the San Antonio community centers to where we– we developed a young– a young men of color Leadership Academy. And we were mentoring youth, young men of color, both black and Hispanic, with the city of San Antonio youth centers around the city. And so that was a great– a great initiative that we were doing.\r\n\r\n\r\nSaundra Nichols  8:44  \r\nWhat's the age group on that?\r\n\r\n\r\nMilton Harris  8:47  \r\nWe primarily mentor young men, ages eight to 17. And then we also have a– you know– a more– it's more of a peer-to-peer mentoring group where we mentor young college professionals. So we have what they call the Collegiate 100, in partnership with St. Philip's College. And that's where we mentor a group of young men and women that are pursuing higher education. And so we give scholarships and go in and we do professional development. If they need academic coaching and things of that level we’ll help support it in that nature as well. And so a lot of– a lot of things going on around the city that we’re involved in.\r\n\r\n\r\nSaundra Nichols  9:24  \r\nWell, and with you being military retired, I know you did a lot of volunteer work and community service in the military. Everybody does that. You've made a nice transition out of the military into this community. And so when people hear your name around San Antonio, what do they– what would you say they most think of? What has been your biggest contribution, I guess for other people, what would they say about you?\r\n\r\n\r\nMilton Harris  9:52  \r\nThat's an interesting question. Really, I don't know. But probably that– that I'm really, really involved with the youth. You know, with both the Van Courtlandt Foundation and the 100 Black Men of San Antonio. And then we have community partnerships with Top Teens of America who are under the Top Ladies of Distinction. And so probably that that, you know, I'm really, really committed to mentoring and really engaged with the city in that way.\r\n\r\n\r\nSaundra Nichols  10:18  \r\nYes. Now, you grew up in Arkansas. Did you have siblings?\r\n\r\n\r\nMilton Harris  10:24  \r\nI have a big family. \r\n\r\n\r\nSaundra Nichols 10:26 \r\nHow many?\r\n\r\n\r\nMilton Harris 10:26\r\nI have a large family. There were 14 of us, seven boys and seven girls.\r\n\r\n\r\nSaundra Nichols  10:32  \r\nWow. And so ranging in ages, my gosh. ‘Cause normally in large families there's like the older set of kids and then there are the younger set of kids. So where did you fall?\r\n\r\n\r\nMilton Harris  10:44  \r\nI'm the youngest boy. And I had a younger sister. So the oldest just turned 72, and the youngest– my youngest sister is 42. So a 30 year span. Same mom and dad. Same mother and father, yeah. Our parents were married nearly 60 years before my father passed.\r\n\r\n\r\nSaundra Nichols  11:05  \r\nWho has been most inspirational in your life?\r\n\r\n\r\nMilton Harris  11:10  \r\nI would say my dad. My dad, and secondly, my pastor. But, but definitely my– my father. Yeah, he– my father had, he only had a second grade education. But– and he dropped out of school. His mother died when he was– passed away when he was seven years old. And he was the oldest of five siblings. So they– of course, they were– they grew up on a farm as well. His dad was a farmer. So he dropped out of school and began farming with his dad and took care of his younger siblings. And so that was another reason that, even though we were poor, we never wanted for anything, because every– all of his other siblings, all went on and graduated college, graduated college, had great careers, and they always poured back into his life. You know, because they would come, they were like Santa Claus, they would come every year, and we didn't want for anything. And they always told us that if it wasn't for our dad, they wouldn't be where they were. And he was a great man. So he was definitely the greatest– my greatest inspiration. \r\n\r\n\r\nSaundra Nichols  12:13  \r\nWow, so they remain very grateful to him for all that he did. \r\n\r\n\r\nMilton Harris 12:17\r\nOh, absolutely.\r\n\r\n\r\nSaundra Nichols 12:18\r\nAnd that's awesome. The way families were– just the dynamics of families. You know, many years ago, you know, now our families, of course, are much smaller and folks are kind of going their own way. And, you know, you don't see as much where it takes a village to raise a child. And especially moving around in the military, I'm sure– do you have children?\r\n\r\n\r\nMilton Harris  12:40  \r\nYes, yes, I– I have three sons. This is my second marriage with my wife that has a son. So we have a total of four. And they all went on and I have– two of them are in the military. And so they are off doing their own thing.\r\n\r\n\r\nSaundra Nichols  12:54  \r\nAre they around here? Are they overseas? Or–?\r\n\r\n\r\nMilton Harris  12:58  \r\nAaron is in Germany, Cameron is stationed in El Paso. \r\n\r\n\r\nSaundra Nichols  13:01  \r\nOkay, okay. Well, tell me: what did you do when you were in the military? What was your profession? \r\n\r\n\r\nMilton Harris  13:08  \r\nI was– I was a 4A1, and that's orthopedic surgery. And so I was a– I was enlisted. And so when I retired, I was a non commissioned officer in charge of the Orthopedic Surgery Department at Wilford Hall Medical Center.\r\n\r\n\r\nSaundra Nichols  13:20  \r\nOne last question for you as we end today, I want you to tell us: why do you think it's important as an African American to get to tell your own story?\r\n\r\n\r\nMilton Harris  13:33  \r\nI think it’s extremely important for– and especially for future generations and the younger generation– to know and hear about the great impact that so many from the older generation– that what they have done and what they're currently doing. Because that story is not always told. Even among us, you know, there's so much going on within the community– just like with you now, doing– doing the interviews as a part of this campaign– you're probably discovering so much riches that are out there within our community that you never otherwise would have known about. And so that's part of what we– what we’re trying to do with the 100 Black Men as well. We're trying to be a bridge between, you know, Greek and other social organizations and religious organizations so that we can– we can try to form a tighter knit community amongst African Americans. You guys– what, we’re six, seven, maybe eight percent of the population here. But we’re scattered. And so there’s a lot of things that’s going on in our communities, but everyone is out on their own little island, you know, because there's just so much going on with– with a city this large. We've all set up islands, we’ve got things going on everywhere. So we're going to try to connect all of those. \r\n\r\n\r\nSaundra Nichols  14:52  \r\nYeah, that's nice to, you know, bring everyone together. And I think it's great that you have this organization going and you're making such an impact on the lives of our young African American men. I think it's very important. You know, a lot of people grow up without that role model. And sometimes, you may have it when you're growing up, and then you leave home. I think it's still important for young men to still have those role models and those mentors in their lives.\r\n\r\n\r\nMilton Harris  15:21  \r\nAbsolutely, that’s extremely important. Because my dad was at home, but growing up, my pastor was still an amazing role model and influence in my life. I still remember the value of being mentored by him. And that's one of the reasons that I'm so active in mentoring today. Because I know, even though I had a dad, and he was my, he was my, you know, my greatest cheerleader, my greatest influence, just having another community leader there that I looked up to really, really made an impact in my life. A big impact. So we want to do that for the younger generation as well. \r\n\r\n\r\nSaundra Nichols  15:57  \r\nAnd it does, it makes a difference. Because everybody brings a different background to the forefront, for the young man to look and to kind of model their lives after it. And so I commend you for what you're doing. \r\n\r\n\r\nMilton Harris 16:12\r\nThank you so much.\r\n\r\n\r\nSaundra Nichols 16:13\r\nAnd so we’ve talked about lot here this evening, but is there anything that we didn't talk about that you'd like to share with us today? \r\n\r\n\r\nMilton Harris  16:19  \r\nJust– it's just really an honor to be a part of the 300 year celebration. I consider it a privilege to call San Antonio my home now. So we've had an opportunity to meet so many wonderful people, work with so many wonderful youth and other organizations. It's just really, really been a great experience here in San Antonio.\r\n\r\n\r\nSaundra Nichols  16:38  \r\nWell, sir, thank you, thank you for the impact that you’ve had on this city. And so I'm Saundra Nichols again celebrating San Antonio's Tricentennial 300 Voices in 300 Days on TAAN TV. And again, I want to thank Dr. Milton Harris for joining us with his initiative, 100 Black Men, he shared his story, his life and the contributions that he's made to the wonderful city of San Antonio.\r\n\r\n\r\nTranscribed by https://otter.ai","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://saaacam.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2808/collection_resources/131042/file/245285#t=0.0,1030.656"}]}]}]}