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Article: After 98 years, George Dawson decided to learn how to read.(Originated from Knight Ridder Newspapers)
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
- Article date:
- January 27, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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DALLAS _ The old man who could not read lives alone in a house that is small and square, in an area that some people call the ghetto.
George Dawson was born the grandson of a slave, in a three-room log cabin in Marshall on the 18th day of January, 1898. He was 8 years old when he began his first job, feeding hogs and cattle. He was 12 when his daddy rented him out to a white man.
His four brothers and sisters learned to read at a school ``for colored children.'' He was the oldest. He didn't get to go to school because he had to work.
He married in 1926 and was a father in 1927. He chopped wood, worked in a sawmill and built levees with ...