Keep the Heritage Alive!

Merlin & Beulah Kennedy

Beulah Kennedy - January 15, 1989
 
Narrator: Beulah Kennedy
Interviewer: Beth Maltby
Date: Jan. 15, 1989
BK My name is Beulah Kennedy, and I live at [address omitted], Bloomington. I was born here June 5, 1923. Here in Bloomington I mean.
BM Would you like to tell me a little bit about your family, your parents, where they were from?
BK My parents came to Bloomington from Mississippi in 1922. My dad was probably about twenty years older than my mother. He died in 1942. My mother never remarried, and she is now ninety years old.
BM What brought your parents to Bloomington?
BK I don't know. She had friends and relatives here. So she just came to Bloomington.
BM What did your dad do when he first came here as far as an occupation?
BK Well, he did yard work and stuff like that. There wasn't a whole lot that Black men could do back then. He done yard work and janitorial work.
BM Was he mostly on his own or did he work for a company?
BK He was mostly on his own.
BM Did your mother work?
BK She done day work. Would you believe that at that time she made seventy-five cents a day?
BM Tell me the way your family was run. Was your father the authority?
BK Definitely. There was three boys and one girl. I was the oldest. My father was the figurehead, you know. You listened to him I had a brother that was a year younger than I, and he died at seven. He contacted pneumonia because him and I were playing in the snow, and we got good and wet. But at the time we didn't think any thing about it. And he sort of got over his pneumonia, but then he had a heart condition which-his heart just gave way. And my dad died on my eighteenth birthday. Of course, my brothers were thirteen or fourteen then. My mother raised us, and she put me through a year and a half of college at ISU. And then because of the financial strain I quit. Eventually I got married.
BM Where are your brothers now?
BK I have one brother in Milwaukee, and one that lives here in Bloomington.
BM Could you describe some of your childhood experiences-your playmates or school?
BK We lived over by Booker T. Washington Home, and at the time when I was real young my mother used to take us over there to day care. And they had two old houses. One for the boys, and one for the girls. Eventually they tore those down and built the building that they just tore down in the last four or five years. But those were our playmates. Plus we just had a neighborhood full of kids. We had baseball games going all the time. I was really, really a "tomboy" since I was the only girl in the family and there was one other in the neighborhood around my age, and she died. And the rest were just boys. So that's what I had to play with except when we went over to the Home and played. And sometimes we couldn't go over there and play because Mr. Calimese had kids on punishment. So that was the extent of, you know, our-we walked to school. We went to Raymond School. That was the district we were in. Then when we graduated from Raymond in the eighth grade, we went to Bloomington High School which is the junior high school at the present time. And we walked every day from the west side of town all the way to Bloomington Junior High. Of course, when my brothers got that age, they caught the bus, but we walked.
BM How far is that?
BK It's about a mile and a half total.
BM It would get cold in the winter time?
BK Yes, right. But it didn't make any difference what the weather was, we walked to school.
BM Was your neighborhood an integrated neighborhood?
BK There was only one white family that lived there, and they didn't particularly, at the time, want their kids to associate with the Black kids. So they had all the things they needed in their yard, and that's where they played.
BM Did they have several children?
BK They had two. A boy and a girl that was in our age bracket. And like I say-sometimes we would go to school together or something like that. Maybe now and then, he'd let us come over there and play. But most of the time those kids played by themselves.
BM Do you remember when you did have contact with them, did the children voice any problem with that? Did they want to be playing?
BK Not really. It didn't seem to really bother them. This was instilled in them. And then when we started going to grade school, of course, they was well integrated, you know. We used to get called quite a few names. Well, the first three years we went to Irving School until they built what they called the new Raymond at the time. And then they cut the district up and sent us to Raymond School. We still pretty well kept to ourselves. We weren't too friendly with them, and they weren't too friendly with us.
BM What years were you in grade school?
BK In the thirties.
BM Speaking of the thirties. Can you tell me anything about the Depression? Did it affect you?
BK Oh, yes. It did. My father couldn't find work. My mother had the day work. She was lucky enough to have put her money in the safety deposit box. The little savings she had. We were fortunate there, but we still received Relief, and whatever we could you know because there was just no work for my dad. And then my dad got sickly and wasn't able to work. He died in [19]42. I had a brother who died in [19]32. But he died in [19]42 so it was after the Depression.
BM Can you describe your home to me?
BK Our house was three rooms. We had an outhouse. I slept with my mother, and the boys and dad slept in the back room. We slept in the front. And then we had a kitchen.
BM How about your yard?
BK We had a big yard. We had a large backyard, and my dad done gardening in the back, and we had a grape arbor of tame grapes and wild grapes. We had a peach tree. At one time I remember, we even raised chickens, but we didn't have running water. We had to go over to what is now known as MacArthur, and they had a fountain. And we used have to carry our drinking water from there until they ran the pipes down Oakland Avenue so we could have water put in our house.
BM Did your mother make grape jelly and that kind of thing?
BK Yeah. In fact, I had to help her make it. I do not make it now.
BM What other kinds of things did your mother cook? Anything in particular that was special?
BK She cooked greens. And every morning for breakfast my dad demanded bacon, eggs, and biscuits. This was his meal. When I got to be about fourteen years old, I decided I was going to cook some thing different. Like coffee cake and I can't remember exactly what else I cooked. I remember cooking the coffee cake, and my dad was very, very upset. In fact, he went down to the train station late because he refused to eat since it was not what he was accustomed to every morning for breakfast. Well, my mother just cooked regular food. Other than we had plenty of greens, and I hated greens at that time. I've learned to love them, but I hated them then because we had them all the time.
BM Did you have a church affiliation as you were growing up?
BK Yes. We went to Wayman A.M.E. Church on Center Street. That's where my mother and dad joined. That's where they brought up all of us kids. We walked to and from church. We went to church three times a day on Sunday and sometimes during the week. And we had better go to church. That was a must.
BM The three times on Sundays-they were all services?
BK Yes. Usually they were. And as I got older I joined the junior choir, and we had quite a few activities with the junior choir. And we raised our own money, and we just had an enjoyable time in church.
BM All the kids enjoyed it?
BK Yes.
BM So it wasn't a push to get you to go.
BK Not really. It was only a push when we got to the point we were seventeen or eighteen years old, and we got to go out on Saturday nights. Then it was a must that you get up and go to church no matter how late you were out. That was a must. And that was the push. Staying out too late.
BM Were there any other activities that your parents were involved in?
BK My father was a Sunday School teacher. My mother was the president of the pastor's aid at one time, which was an organization that helped support the minister. But most of it was church affiliated. My mother did belong to one little social club that they had. And they entertained once or twice a month. And since Dad didn't particularly like to go, I used to get to be her guest all the time.
BM You mentioned that your junior choir raised your own money. What kind of.?
BK Well, for our robes and stuff like that. We used to have penny suppers. We had programs. And, you know, we just got busy and raised our own money.
BM You also mentioned a couple of times that you walked here and there. Did you not have a car?
BK We did not have a car. No. There was bus service. And buses even ran on Sunday, and it was a rare occasion when we got to catch the bus to go anywhere. Sometimes we would catch the bus to come home from church at night because it was quite late. But Bloomington was a very safe town back then, too. It was not near like it is now. You'd feel safe out in the street walking even by yourself. Now it's a little bit different.
BM We talked a little bit about your family members, but I don't think we named them.
BK My oldest brother-the one who died-his name was James Jones. Then I had another brother younger than him. His name was Walter Jones. Then there was Charles Jones.
BM And you were the oldest?
BK Yes.
BM Did your mother do most of the preparation of the meals, or did you eventually take over for her?
BK Not too much. My dad didn't particularly like my cooking anyway, even though I thought I cooked pretty good. I helped Mom with cooking, but as far as taking over the meals-no, I didn't do too much of that.
BM Did all of the children have household responsibilities?
BK Yes, and it was usually evenly divided. My mother felt that each of us should take turns doing dishes. Of course, that was one of the things that Dad thought that boys should not have to do, but my mother ruled that one. So I didn't always have to do the dishes. My brothers had to help.
BM That's good. She was progressive.
BK Right.
BM After your father died - you said you were eighteen when he died - how long did you stay with your mother?
BK He died on my eighteenth birthday. I was twenty-two. Like I say I went to ISU for a year and a half. Then I worked for a while. Then I decided to get married.
BM How did things change when your father passed away?
BK Well, my father had been sick for several years so it wasn't too much change as far as responsibilities and having money and not having money. Things like that. There wasn't too much difference then when he was living except that my mother had the full responsibility then because dad would get some help, but he just wasn't well enough to work.
BM Did you and your brothers work through your teen years at all?
BK I did. I worked in school in the office, and they paid us five dollars a month. And then I worked sometimes for a lady-especially in the summer time-for a lady my mother was working for. Of course, that was cheap labor, too. And my brothers managed to-of course, there was about six years difference between us, and my brothers would be caddies at the golf range. They made their money that way. As my brother got older, my oldest brother, he worked at Bloomington Country Club waiting table. He did quite a bit of that, too, waiting tables. So we did the jobs they would let us do. It was really an honor to work in the office in Bloomington High School because you didn't work in offices.
BM Did either of your brothers go on to college?
BK Both of them went. My oldest brother went for three and a half years. He only had half a year to go. He just blew it. He wasn't interested, and he was an alcohol. He could go to school and take a final exam drunk and get an A. Would you believe that? He was very brilliant. My other brother only went for a year. Both served some time in the services. But he just never finished.
BM Did they both go to ISU?
BK Both went to ISU for a short while. Then my oldest brother went to Tennessee State. Then he went to Illinois University. That's where he spent his last year in college at Illinois University.
BM What was he working on? What degree?
BK Mostly correspondence. And he does work with the newspapers, and he's been doing that for years because he's worked for the Defender and he's worked for the Tribune. He's worked for the Milwaukee Courier and the Milwaukee Star. So he's done quite a bit of editing. The only reason he didn't stay here was because the Pantagraph would not hire him. The Pantagraph would not hire Blacks back then.
BM This would have been in?
BK Like in the fifties. Early fifties.
BM As you were growing up and in your teen years, do you remember any discrimination that you felt?
BK Oh, there was definitely that. We felt it all through school. Then when we got old enough to apply for jobs, we knew there were some jobs they weren't going to have regardless of what kind of training you had. And then there were jobs that required training that how are you going to train if you never had a chance to do them. But that was just one of the ways of cutting you out of jobs. There was definitely that. Even back in the forties, I put an application in at Saint Joe's Hospital as a nurse's aide, and at that time they wouldn't hire me. They did later in later years, but in the beginning they were not hiring Blacks. Not even as a nurse's aide.
BM For my generation that seems so...
BK Well, ISU was prejudiced too. Very, very prejudiced. You would have to live in people's homes. You did not live on campus. You did not live in the dormitory. There was one girl that we knew was Black from Chicago, and the reason why she got to live in the dormitory was that she was "bright" enough to pass for white, and she got by with it. But Blacks did not live in the dormitories on campus. They had to live in these private homes that people had rooms for students.
BM Do you remember when things started to change?
BK Well, not really because I really lost contact with what was going on at ISU. I know in the forties and fifties. I think that it was after the Civil Rights Movement mostly that things really started to change. Sometimes I think they felt sorry for us, you know. (laughs) I don't know.
BM At that time what were you doing? You were married by then.
BK Well, I had worked at Eureka Williams until-well I was working there and going to school at one time. This was during the time of war. Of course, they let all the Blacks go [after the war]. Even working out there there were only certain jobs you could do. You could not work at a machine. You had to sit there and file. File burrs and stuff. Black men were sweepers mostly. There was just discrimination right there in the factory even during the war.
BM Are we talking about World War II?
BK Yes. Then my husband went into the services, and then I had babies so in between I wasn't working. Then I started working at Saint Joe's Hospital until I lost my daughter. Then I took off for about a year, and then I went back. And then I started at GE in 1955. And worked there from [19]55 until I retired, and then I went back school.
BM You went back to school?
BK Yeah. I'm just taking off this semester. I haven't talked to my counselor yet, but I'm going to talk to her tomorrow.
BM I see. What are you doing?
BK I was working on sociology. I was going to take psychology, but it requires a lot more math than I want to take. So I cut it down to sociology. I had taken several psychology courses. I was even psychology when I was going back to school in the forties. But they didn't have enough for a major so I had started minoring in it. I just started my first semester in psychology. There is quite a difference. I wish I had finished then because with psychology you did not have to take math. I might have had to pick it up later, but at least I would have had my degree, and I still wouldn't have had to take math because it wasn't required back then.
BM There are a lot of changes, I'm sure. After you were married, you stayed in Bloomington?
BK Raised all my kids in Bloomington. I lost a daughter when she was four and a half with rheumatic fever. But I raised them all here.
BM How many children did you have?
BK I had four. The oldest one's name is James Jones. Sharon Jean is the one that died. Ethel Esters-that's her name now, and Diane Thornton.
BM Can you tell me anything about your grandparents? Did you know them?
BK Yes, I knew both my grandparents. They lived in Tennessee. In Humboldt, Tennessee. I used to go visit them, and sometimes I used to go spend the summer with them.
BM What can you tell me about them?
BK Grandpa was tall, and every time I'd come every year he'd measure me against him to see how much I had grown. Both my grandfather and grandmother was strict. They believed in you going to church. (phone rings)
BM Was this your mother's parents or your father's?
BK My mother's. I didn't know my father's parents. Just my mother's.
BM What were their names?
BK Ida E. Berry and Malcolm Berry. It was just Grandma and Grandpa to me.
BM What kind of a home did they live in?
BK It was just a regular house. It had five rooms to it. She had-Grandpa had a big farm. He raised peanuts, and he'd send us peanuts. He also raised hogs. He had a couple of cows. And he raised corn and stuff like that on the farm. Sorghum. Sorghum stalks-I remember sucking them. And then he had a great big blackberry bush. They had six boys and six girls. Not all of them lived to be grown, but they had twelve children.
BM Did you know your aunts and uncles?
BK Yeah. Most of them. The youngest one is nine months younger than I am. She lives down in Centralia now. I have an aunt living in Kansas City, and I have an uncle up in Evanston, and one right outside of Chicago. So there's only five of them living now, but I knew several of them when I was coming up.
BM Do you remember any stories that your grandparents would tell you about their lives as they were growing up?
BK Not really. They didn't dwell on it very much. Especially, as far as telling me, they just didn't talk about it very much.
BM Did you have any slaves in your history that you know of?
BK Not that I know of, but there probably was. I know my grandmother and my grandfather both have some Indian blood in them and some German blood. I know that. That is my grandmother, and you could see that there is, you know...
BM I love old pictures and that was something I needed to ask you about-do you have any old pictures or articles or anything that you would want to share with the project?
BK Not really. I just have a picture of my grandmother. My mother probably has some. I really don't. Most of mine are collections of my grandkids.
BM You said you spent summers with your grandparents. Did your brothers also go down?
BK They went down some, but my brothers weren't particularly fond of the South. So they just as soon stay home. But I went down several summers.
BM How did you get from here to there and back?
BK On the train. The Pullman porter would watch me, you know. I would catch the train from here to St. Louis, and then you had a lay over in St. Louis, and then you went from St. Louis to Humboldt straight through on a train. And I remember when I was about thirteen or fourteen years old, I went down there on the train, and I went by myself. And I think it was the first time I really noticed the segregation because after you got to Cairo, if you weren't sitting in the back, you would have to go back and sit in the back. Then when you got off the train, even though you might be first in line, the porter got in front of you and made you wait until all of the whites got off-men and women. And I was very outraged because I remember - I think my grandmother got mixed up as to the time the train was due in, and I came on the early morning train. I knew how to get there so I walked, which really wasn't very far from the train station. And I went in, and I was so mad that I said, "Grandma, I just can't understand how you people stand this stuff. The man just jumped in front of me and wouldn't let me get off." And said, "Well, Child, that's the way things are, and that's the way we have to accept them."
BM So it was very different then up here?
BK It was different as far as you could sit where you wanted to. On the bus in Bloomington you could sit in the front of the bus or the back of the bus. It didn't make any difference. The train. You could get on the train and sit anywhere on the train you wanted to, but after you got past Cairo, you got-that was the Mason-Dixon line-you got in the car where Black folks were. That was it. And my brothers weren't too fond of the situation down there.
BM I can image. Do you remember anything about any other relatives further back than your grandparents?
BK No. I don't remember any of them.
BM As you were growing up here in Bloomington, did relatives come and stay with you and visit?
BK Yes.
BM Did you ever have any family move in and stay for a while?
BK I had an aunt from-she was living in-she went to Evanston I guess. My grandmother's sister came and stayed for a while, and she done day work here while she was staying here. She's really the only one I remember that came to work, not just to visit. The rest would come to visit. but they didn't particularly stay. In fact, none of my relatives lived here. I had a half-sister that lived here when Dad did. Of course, she was quite a bit older than I. She had a house on MacArthur Street, but she was already married. And she had kids my age. But other than that I don't remember.
BM So your father was considerably older than your mother?
BK Yes.
BM When was he born? Do you remember?
BK I don't know. I remember my dad was approximately seventy-eight years old when he died. Like I said that was back in [19]42. So there was quite a difference between Mom and Dad.
BM Do you remember anything about businesses in Bloomington that were run by Blacks when you were growing up?
BK I remember us having Black funeral home. I remember us having a Black doctor, a Black dentist that not even the Blacks supported. And they really couldn't thrive. And the funeral home, to me, should have done better business than they did because most of the funeral homes in Bloomington did not want Black bodies. Beck's-I can't remember them having but one Black body, and that was because they were pressured to have it because of the man this Black man worked for. I can't remember who he worked for at the time, but I remember Jim Barker. They had his body for a long time. Murray's was out here on what is now MacArthur. Murray's would not take Black bodies. The only one that would take Black bodies was Stamper. And Stamper and Murray were together at one time, and he pulled out because they wouldn't take Black bodies. They just didn't take them.
BM Do you have any theories about why the Black people in the community didn't support the Black businessmen?
BK Because the Black people of Bloomington have learned from the white man not to trust each other. And they don't want to see nobody get any farther than they get. And this is the philosophy. They still don't trust each other to a certain point, and it's really bad for us. The white man has instilled this in a lot of Black people. And it hasn't helped the businesses. There are times when Black people don't do maybe the job they should do for the Black person, but there is this distrust, too.
BM We talked a little bit about discrimination, but do you remember it in any recreational activities or housing? Did your parents own their own home?
BK Yes.
BM Not a problem?
BK Oh, there was definitely a problem. You could only live in certain places. You couldn't just buy a house anywhere. You just couldn't.
BM So when your parents first came to town they just bought the house that you grew up in.
BK Yes.
BM You stayed there then.
BK Yes. And most Black people were located around some railroad tracks.
BM And why is that?
BK It's just one of those things.
BM Do you remember any famous Blacks that came to Bloomington or were from Bloomington?
BK I remember Walter White coming here, and he was executive secretary of the NAACP, the National. He was on the national level. I remember, I think, it was Mahalia Jackson was here at Wayman at one time. As far as, I can't remember too much about any Black figureheads from Bloomington being up in power or whatever it may be.
BM Since this is a momentous day. What does this holiday-Martin Luther King Day mean to you?
BK It means a great deal. I worked for civil rights in Bloomington even before Bloomington acknowledged that they had a problem. Some people in Bloomington still say we never had a problem. That is not true. We had problems buying housing. We had trouble getting jobs. And now it's improved compared to what it was. We had a group called US that ventured out and fixed it so that State Farm would hire people to do other than just cleaning toilets. That's what they had. Then, they trained people to go into State Farm. Some of the people that work at State Farm don't realize that. There was this community, the people from Bloomington, that created the jobs that they have now. So Martin Luther King was an example of non-violence. He was a great leader. He was not only for the Blacks. He was for the human being. And I like that. The Blacks are not the only ones that have the problems. We seem to think that we are the only ones that have it. Our problems might seem to us bigger than anybody else's, but we are not the only ones who have problems. I have always said, and I think I still feel this way that I can't understand why a white man is extremely poor because they had more advantages to get what they wanted by the color of their skin. Therefore, I can not feel sorry for them if they don't have because it was there for them to have-where it was not for us. People don't believe that Black people can be prejudiced. But they give us this whatever. And I've always said that. I just can't understand that. They've got the advantages. They've got the privileges, and I still understand to some white people "poor trash" is a disgrace. You know what I'm saying. The whites feel this way. But I have a feeling that the reason why they feel this way is because it makes them look weak because these people should have been able to get anything they wanted. There is no reason why they should be poor.
BM They've not taken advantage of the opportunities.
BK Right, right.
BM Outside of the church do you remember any clubs you belonged to?
BK I belonged to a club called the Emily Wilson Club. Its just a lady that-we have reactivated it. Most of the girls were a little older than I was. Then they moved away. I was president of the Emily Wilson Club at one time. And when I was in school, we had a club they called the Girl Reserves. It was strictly a Black club. Both of these were Black clubs. In fact, the Civic Women's Club is a sponsor of the Emily Wilson Club, and I am now president of the Civic Women's Club. We're still strictly a Black organization. We are national and we are state-wide and we do have a district, and it's still a Black women's club.
BM What kind of things do you promote?
BK We promote education. We just gave out two scholarships in December of three hundred dollars apiece that we raised at the beginning of the year. We gave those to two students. We had to be sure that they were in college, and that they had a need. My granddaughter got a scholarship from the district. She didn't get one from the club because at that time they hadn't reactivated the scholarship. She got one from the district after she had started at Tennessee State. We believe in doing civic work. We are going into the nursing homes. We are going to visit in the nursing homes, and we are going to adopt a family. That's in our plans now. And we're going to have two groups. Well, they are going to be divided into two groups of girls-the senior girls and the junior girls because the little tykes can't keep up with those teenagers. So we are in the process of dividing those girls so that they can work in the community, too. Then we do have the district meeting. We had our district meeting here at the Sheraton Hotel last year. The state was in Chicago. They have the national every two years. But I haven't been to a national yet. In fact, I really haven't had a desire to go. The Civic Women's Club was at a lull earlier-a couple of years ago. We sort of got members in and started back to working so we can be in the community's eyes. The club has been going on since 1909. It is an old club. Then I worked for the NAACP as secretary for several years under the administration of Bill Kennedy.
End Side A
Side B
BK With the NAACP during the Civil Rights, and also worked with the NAACP youth group during the Civil Rights Movement here in Bloomington. So I was quite active with the youth group and adult branch. At one time, we had several marches around the courthouse. At one time, the kids after the march went over to (unintelligible) Kresges, which was the little dime store they had right across from the courthouse to get some candy and stuff. And somebody made a statement that, "There are those `niggers' that are out there marching around the courthouse." And the kids got real hostile, but it just so happened that I walked in at the time it happened so I talked the kids into calming down and coming out of the store without any event at all. And of course, when the Pantagraph mentioned "an unidentified woman stopped what could have been a messy situation in the dime store." But I did have control of the kids then. And it helped quite a bit during the Civil Rights Movement, and when Martin Luther King was killed, we had a meeting down at Union Baptist Church with the kids. We called all the kids together and-because we knew that there was going to be a problem. Of course, our house was under watch and our telephones were taken care of through the investigation of-the FBI, yeah, and because my husband was the president also, and I was the secretary. And it was sort of shaky there for a while because we didn't know what would happen. But we did have this meeting down to Union Baptist Church, which is a Black church. And just before the meeting was over with, the pastor of the Union Baptist came down-and all we had was a quite meeting-and he said there will not be any more Black organization meetings in this church.
BM And it was a Black church?
BK It was a Black church.
BM Because they didn't want trouble on their premises?
BK I guess they were sorta scared, and he definitely told us that the night that Martin Luther King got killed. And we had had meetings all the time down there because the US group used to even meet down there and discuss the problems of segregation or whatever any problems anybody had, Black or white. I know we had one white girl that came down there. She had two kids. She seemed to have problems all the time. She didn't want to work. She liked collecting that money from the state. They got her a job out here at Eureka Williams. She'd go in one day and the next day she wouldn't go in. She might go in. They don't put up with that kind of stuff. I mean, you get hired to work. Show up for work. She just didn't want to work. I told Merlin she doesn't want to work. That's her biggest problem. She'd rather for the state to take care of her and her kids. And like she said she could make almost as much money as she could at Eureka Williams.
BM That's a shame.
BK Right. And she was white. That's the reason I say I can't really feel sorry for them because they have all the advantages. They had them all, anyway. Whether they used them or not was their problem.
BM You said the US group? I hadn't heard of it.
BK We had a group called the US group. George Warren. There were several teachers involved in it. And Merlin Kennedy and myself. Several of us got together and just met. It was something that the NAACP couldn't do that we could do. We could do a lot of things on our own because we were just an organization just made up of people. And the NAACP comes under the direction of the National. Whether anyone knows that or not, they still have things they can and can not do. And so we just decided to call us the US group. We met once a week down at Union Baptist, and we just hashed out problems like-they even got together and helped one little old lady fix up her house because they were going to throw her out because they were going to condemn the house you know and stuff like that. Ralph Smith was another one that also involved in that. He was a teacher out to ISU. And what was he in? English I think. George Warren was in-they both retired. George Warren just retired in the last year or so. The other was a teacher at U High. But we'd get together, and we'd go around and check out the people who wouldn't give you a place to stay. Under the pretense that we were looking for. Or we would have somebody go and check them out to see if they had a place for rent. You'd be surprised at the people who would refuse because you were Black. They'd say it's already rented, or they'd up the price. Something like that.
BM It sounds like you and your husband were very important in this community for the Black people.
BK We were quite active. Like I say we were really active during the time of the Martin Luther King episode and everything.
BM Do you remember any other particular events-this is very interesting to me. I'm learning a lot-while you were involved with the NAACP?
BK While I was involved with the NAACP? I remember one time they had the state meeting here, and this was before Tilden Hall was tore down. It was on Washington and Madison, I think it was, on the corner. And anyway we went up and picketed Woolworth's during the lunch hour because they would not let Blacks sit at the counter. This was back in sixty or sixty-one, I think. It was sometime back there. We went up, the whole mass of us just went up there and picketed for an hour around Woolworth's because at that time Kresges Dime Store had decided we could sit at the counter and eat, but Woolworth's you could not. You had to take your food out. There was a lot of places like that. Steak 'N Shake was like that. There was a Steak 'N Shake down here on Main Street. We used to go down there and order food and tell them we were going to sit down and eat it. And they'd say, "No you're going to have to take it with you." And we'd walk out and leave it there. We'd just check them out to see if they had started serving us or not. There was this incident with Jefferson Cafeteria where they weren't serving Blacks either. And they ended up being sued by some people from Chicago. They got a suit against them, and they had to open up their place for Blacks to eat. This is where they really started letting people eat anywhere they wanted to because they realized they could be sued if they refused.
BM Did anything come of the picketing at Woolworth's?
BK Yeah. They finally opened the counters up so Blacks could go in there and eat. But it wasn't a popular place to eat anyway. I don't know I just-I've noticed there wasn't too many Blacks went in their and ate. I never went in. I think I went in once or twice and ate. I wasn't too enthused about it. It was just a matter of principle. A lot of it was a matter of principle. We wanted first-class citizenship. We had to pay first-class taxes. They're not going to say, "You're Black you're not going to have to pay as much as the white man." We're charged the same amount, and we wanted to be treated not as second class, but first-class citizens. That's what it's all about. (papers are shuffled and tape is shut off)
BK Twice. We both have. My first husband lived here in Bloomington. He kept chasing me, and I kept avoiding him for a long time. Then finally I started being nice, I guess. We finally got married, but we really didn't get along too well. Even after we had four kids, it was still a struggle. He had a chance to go to California, and I told him by all means go. I'll meet you there later. That was not my intention. When he got out there, I guess he realized it. He died about three years ago. In the meantime. I've been married to Merlin twenty-two years. Merlin and I have no children between the two of us. He had three children by his first marriage, and I had four. I have a son now that has the same problem that my husband did. That's who I was talking to on the telephone. He has asthma disease that causes (unintelligible) in his lungs. And right now what we are waiting for is-he had surgery on his lungs about six or seven years ago. They only gave him five years to live then. And now the lungs are deteriorating, and he is on oxygen all the time. The doctor tried to check with Barnes to see if he could get a lung, and Barnes turned him down because they said they wanted a perfectly healthy body other than the lung. So now we have two doctors working on two possible cases that might give him a lung. Otherwise, my son is forty-four. He'll be forty-five December twenty-fifth of this year. And the doctor said he will not have (unintelligible) at the age of forty-five. I usually-when he calls, I take time to talk. (unintelligible). It's really touch and go, and this is one of the reasons-my mother is in the nursing home. Everything seems to be piled up on me so these are the reasons why I decided I wasn't going to school this semester. I can't study under all that pressure. I had to drop a couple of courses last semester because of all of this. This coming down on me at once, you know. So I felt that was better to drop than to get a D or F. So that's the way I came up. I kept one subject and got an A in it, but then I was able to concentrate on that one subject only. I didn't have a lot of research to do on the other two. This semester I decided I just can't handle it. I still got to call Pat, and tell her.
BM Are you a member of the Union Baptist Church?
BK No. I belong to Wayman A.M.E. I've been a member up there since I can't remember when. I left there for two or three years and went to the Catholic Church. I like participation in religion, and Catholics they're.. (laugh) So I went back to Wayman.
BM Are you involved there in organizations?
BK I was in the choir until I lost my voice last winter, and just never got back in. I'm on the steward board and also church clerk so I have enough jobs to do. And I help with the ushering so I still work in the church quite a bit. I'm just not in the choir right now. I'm always afraid that I'll lose my voice again. I'll have to get back out. I was a firm believer that if you didn't go to choir rehearsal, you had no business standing up there singing on Sunday morning.
BM I'm going to regress to your childhood. Do you have any vivid memories of your school years that stand out?
BK Not really. I know in high school I was active in several organizations. We even had an amateur program at Bloomington High School, and I was one of the dancers on the program. It was fun. But even at Bloomington High School, we sort of stayed by ourselves. We enjoyed our own company, you know. We had a place right down near the door that we called "nigger heaven." And that's where we congregated. Most of us. There were a few that did not, but most of us would congregate around the door. I would say that during my school years, I was somewhat popular. I know a lot of white kids in grade school that we lost contact somewhat after we got to high school. Because Gilbert Ault was a pharmacist over here, and I went to school with him. And then Bill Ahlers was one of my bosses at GE. And we went to grade school together. This was in grade school. We have fond memories of when we'd go out there and play baseball, you know, during recess and before school started in the morning and in the afternoon. I was on the basketball team in grade school, and we used to play the different grade schools around here in Bloomington. I was on the baseball team, and I was a regular "tomboy."
BM These were girls' teams?
BK We had basketball with girls' rules which are quite different from the way girls play now because the girls' basketball now is almost like boys' basketball. But then we had only half the court we could play in, you know. Baseball was quite different. We all had the same rules. School was something I liked. I missed a year of school when I was in the third grade because I was sick for a year, and this was the same year that my brother died. After he died, first I got pneumonia and ended up in the hospital. I was in the hospital for six weeks. When I came home, I got the whooping cough. I got all the childhood diseases you could get during the one year. Never had any problems after that, but I had it all in one year. And I missed a year. I think that had a lot to do with the fact that I liked school so well because I missed it when I couldn't go. And then you didn't have tutors to come in and teach you anything either. Of course, I loved to read and I still love to read. So I would do a lot of reading when I was in the hospital, and that kept me occupied because nobody could come and visit you but your parents up in the children's ward. That's where I was. My mother couldn't get there during the day because she was working.
BM That sounds like that was a really tough year for you.
BK It was. It was a really bad year. The only child who didn't get pneumonia was the youngest. It was rough.
BM I've heard now that you sing and you danced. Did you ever take any lessons or any thing?
BK No. But I just loved to dance. This husband doesn't dance at all. But I've always loved to dance. My brother and I won several jitterbug contests. It was interesting. Then I kept up with my kids through "the stroll" and all that.
BM Some racial issues. When do you remember first being aware of the racial differences?
BK I really didn't pay any attention to it until I started school. Then I could really tell the difference. I guess I just ignored it. I was active and did a lot of playing so I didn't really pay any attention to until I was in school. You could tell by the teachers' attitudes and the students' attitudes, the whole bit. Some of them didn't want to sit beside you and all of that.
BM The NAACP is somewhat political, but have you been involved in other political organizations? Or active in the Democratic or Republican Party or anything?
BK I worked with the Republican Party once. Richard McGuire was running for sheriff? He was running for something, and I worked with him. His wife and I were great friends. So that was the only time I reverted to a Republican for a short time so that I could help him get in, but he didn't get in anyway. I really don't get too involved in politics. I make sure that I go vote. And I've worked at the polls the last couple of years, but politically I don't get too involved. I think my husband tried to get me involved a couple of times. We used to have these fireplace chats and things. What is his name-Bob-he was out there near the castle, but I can't think of his name now. Anyway we sort of worked with him for a while. Politically, I'm not too over-enthused except to study the men who are running and try to vote for the right one.
BM What would you say has been the best part of your life?
BK The years since I've been bowling. At one time, we couldn't even bowl in Bloomington. Seriously, it's true. They wouldn't let you bowl in the bowling alleys. Savages was the only bowling alley for a while. Then they built Oakland. Oakland was the next one they built. When they built Oakland, immediately some of the people went out there to bowl. Mary Lu Jamison and George Jamison went out to bowl. They would not let them bowl. They went to see their lawyer. The lawyer called them up and told them out to Oakland, "You had better let them bowl unless you want a law suit." Then he told Mary Lu and George to go back out there, and in the meantime another girl went out there. So she claims she was the first Black to bowl. But she was not. She has no right to get that credit. And she has told people that she was the first one to bowl, but it was because George and Mary Lu had gone to see their lawyer. After they built Circle, Circle just fell in line because they knew the circumstances. But at one time, Blacks could not bowl.
BM When did this start?
BK Let's see. It has been about thirty-five years ago when Blacks started to bowl out there because we have had a traveling league for the last thirty years. And out of the thirty years, I think, twenty of it I have been secretary. And when I wasn't secretary, I was captain of the team. It's been about thirty-five years because the traveling league was formed in [19]59. It was mostly Blacks. There's a few whites who bowl, but it's mostly Blacks. I love bowling. I still love it.
BM And you're still in the league?
BK I'm still on the traveling league. In fact, I'm the only original ILLMO bowler from Bloomington that started out when they first started out.
BM Would you have anything to say that would help young Blacks today? What should they be doing? What should they be looking for in their lives to change things?
BK The first thing they really, really need to do is concentrate on getting their education, and being the best that they can be. They can decide what they want to do, but they should get their education. Tackle those books. Make sure they get those grades, and then go from there. But education is going to be the most important thing in anybody's life, Black or white. Therefore, I advocate-this is what they really, really need to do.
End Side B

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