Twenty-five skills. No expensive classes. No fancy equipment. No instruction manuals.
For many Black children growing up in 1970s America, these skills weren’t simply hobbies. They were ways of learning, creating, competing, becoming independent—and sometimes, surviving.
From learning to swim despite decades of segregated public pools, to playing stickball with a broom handle and a rubber ball, children built entire worlds from whatever they had. Girls mastered Double Dutch on Harlem sidewalks. Chicago skaters created JB skating. Kids learned card games, the Dozens, cornrow braiding, quilting, cooking without measurements, hair pressing, and cutting their siblings’ hair at home.
They memorized Easter speeches, learned Black history, wrote letters by hand, counted money at corner stores, became latchkey kids, earned their own money, tended gardens, fixed bicycles, and learned how to defend themselves.
But the final skill was different.
It was “the talk”—the conversation Black parents had with their children about how to survive a police stop. Hands visible. Voice calm. No sudden movements. Comply first.
It was advice passed down because the danger was real.
And decades later, the same instructions were still being given.
This story explores 25 skills Black children developed in the 1970s—and what those skills reveal about childhood, community, independence, creativity, racism, resilience, and survival in America.
Some of these skills disappeared because technology and modern life changed.
Others disappeared because the world changed around them.
But one skill remained necessary because the danger it was meant to prepare children for never completely disappeared.
Watch until the end to understand why the 25th skill matters more than all the others.
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