Image As a teenager, Clayton Sherrod worked at an all-white country club in Birmingham, Alabama.

In 1964, when he was just 19, Sherrod became the club’s first African-American executive chef and remained in the position at the country club for the next 13 years.

At StoryCorps, he remembered how he came to run his first kitchen.

Originally aired January 17, 2014, on NPR’s Morning Edition

Photo courtesy of Clayton Sherrod.