John Lyght, former Cook County Sheriff, talks about being born and raised in Cook County, along Minnesota's far Northeastern corner. With his parents, and eventually 14 brothers and sisters, the Lyghts were the first African American family that settled among the Swedes and Norwegians on Lake Superior's North Shore.
Lyght earned enough respect from his neighbors to be elected county sheriff five times. Now retired, he's the only black person in the sparsely populated county.
SPEAKER: The reason why my dad came here, he just wanted freedom. And that was his main course, was when he left to South, he just decided that wasn't the place for him to come, and he just wanted freedom. So he thought he'd keep moving around until he could find a place where he could hit freedom. And that's when he homesteaded here in Lutsen.
So he ended up here in 1913. And he arrived with only a sack of flour and a dollar bill in his pocket and a little bit of sugar. And they managed to survive the winter here. Between a few bad words and a little threatening to the people that wanted to give my dad a little problem, we survived it. And we got-- so we made a name for ourselves here by knowing how to get along with people.
We were sent to school. And when we went to school, we had our little problems with different kids because this was something new to the kids. And this was also new to the kid's parents that seeing a Black person and Black kids in school among all the blonde-haired Norwegians and Scandinavians, that didn't quite sit with some of the parents.
But with kids it didn't matter because kids are going to learn to get along with everybody and anybody. So there's no problem that way. But some of the old timers are set in their ways and do things a little bit different. But all in all, we learned to get along and live with each other, and it wasn't too much of a problem.
Through education plus talking and plus a few head thumpings, we desegregated Cook County. And they got so that my folks and my family was well respected here. My dad always said, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. And that was a real good philosophy word that he always drove into his kids.
He said, be respectable, be accountable for yourself. And he also said how you make your bed is going to be the way you have to lay in it. And I have always held good respect when I got to be Sheriff because after all, you're a leader of your county. So you have to show respect in order to getting respect.
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