| Transcription of Oral History - Tape 1 - January 31, 1986 |
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| Narrator: Caribel Washington |
| Interviewer: Dr. Mildred Pratt |
| Date: January 31, 1986 |
| First Edited: Paul Bushnell and Pamela B. Muirhead (July 1990) |
| Transcript: This is a January 27, 2002 version which incorporates Mrs. Washington's additions and corrections |
| to the first transcription of the taped interview. |
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| Side A: Tape 1 |
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| MP |
Today is January 31, 1986, and Mrs. Caribel Washington is going to speak primarily about her various community activities and the way she got started in them. |
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| CW |
My name is Caribel Washington, and I live at 506 West Jackson Street here in Bloomington. I've been involved in community work for forty years or more. You might say I kind of backed into doing community work when as a girl we were YMCA people, but we were a segregated group of young girls known as Girl Reserves. Some of us made a bit of an impression on those in authority at the "Y," and they continued to give us little nondescript chores to do until the time came that I was asked to become a committee person at YWCA. In those years we had International Services, which was the group that earned money through the YWCA to help bolster treasuries of YWCA's through out the world, and it was known as World Fellowship. For a number of years, I was chairman or a member of the World Fellowship Committee, and each fall we would promote what was called "the hanging of the greens," where we would invite people in to help us decorate the Y for Christmas. It evolved into where we would pass out little red stockings to people anytime they wanted them, and they would bring them back in at the "hanging of the greens" full of pennies, and we were able to really have a good offering of those pennies. Whether that is still carried on or not, I don't know because I haven't been involved. Then I became a member of the Board of YWCA. These was in the years when Black people did not eat in the restaurants, nor clerk in the stores, nor associate very much with anything that was not purely a Black enterprise. |
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| MP |
Do you remember approximately what year that was? Was that in the forties? |
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| CW |
Well, it was in the forties. It was in the late forties. Maybe I should back up and say
it was in the fifties because I worked in YWCA about fourteen years, and I left then after my husband died in 1961. So it was possibly in the fifties yet. And the board finally decided they would see what they could do about opening up the restaurants or tearooms or whatever here in Bloomington. At that time even the YWCA tearoom did not feed Black people. We started there, and I guess I was the guinea pig. As long as one Black person went along with any group of people, they would be served. Well they saw me in so many places that I just was more or less known as probably the one Black person they could take along. At the same time they were trying to interest J C Penny's and some of the other stores which were around the square at that time-because Bloomington was a thriving business district-to hire Black clerks in the stores. Every now and then one would get in as a stock girl, and if business rushed, she could wait on people, and this sort of thing would occur. And oftentimes those who were in the stores, some of them would walk up and say; "Can you wait on me?""Well why can't you wait on me?" Which really
illustrated very much the ambiguity of segregation through these things because many people didn't care. They wanted to get in a store and get out of a store. (laughs softly) They weren't particular who waited on them. These trends probably helped break down some of the segregation. There were selected places you could go and some you couldn't. The hardest places to break down were the greasy spoons like the hamburger places, you know, and these little hole in the wall joints who weren't too particular. But on the other hand, I think many Blacks weren't particular about going to them either. So it didn't really matter much. |
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| MP |
So what you're saying is that the YWCA kind of helped, and at that time you were serving on the board. |
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| CW |
I was on the board. The real thrust in Bloomington-Normal for Blacks to be hired came
when General Electric moved into Bloomington. They came in, and they did not make selective employment. They hired people, and there were instances when people would refuse to work because they weren't going to work with Blacks. I learned that the personnel man said to them "Well, we come from New York, and we have shareholders in our company, and we could not let them come into any plant and not find Black workers." So this really was the initiation of pretty much open employment in Bloomington. Now Eureka Williams is a home grown organization-has been here all the time-but they did not hire blacks per se until the war. In the time of the Second World War, men who were too old-you know who were still in the draft but too old to go into service, had to go the war plant to work, which, of course, meant they were sweepers. And then if they showed a little aptitude toward minor machinery and that, they worked. Which is not true because both men and women work at Eureka Williams now. It is supposed to be or it was in the time of the war, one of the finest precision tool shops in America, and they had a lot of contracts for the armed services. Whether that's still true or not, I don't know, but I would almost believe that partially it is. (tape stopped) |
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| CW |
One of the nice parts of being in YWCA was that you were not only involved as a local person, you were involved as a national person, and even as international person. I was privileged to attend the centennial anniversary of YWCA in New York City. This was a time when the really big people of New York did a great deal for YWCA. I can remember that Rockefeller Center was planted with blue and white flowers in deference to Mrs. Rockefeller, who at that time was interested in International World Fellowship. (phone rings and tape is stopped) Rockefeller Center was very beautiful at that time, and we learned that this was a very exceptional thing for any one group, any one organization, to receive that kind of recognition at Rockefeller Center. Mrs. Rockefeller also had a luncheon, which I think was very wonderful, and I was a part of that not because of who I was, but the very fact that every chairman of World Fellowship was invited to the luncheon. And there, I met Dr. Ralph Bunche and Henry Cabot Lodge. This was really a high moment in my life. I think that's one of the reasons why I'm not very impressed with people much. They were very human people. I would never have met them in any other circumstance, I believe. They were kind, they were interesting, and I really felt proud that I was able to be a part of that particular luncheon. |
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| MP |
Did you get a photograph? |
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| CW |
No, no, I'm not a photograph person. And I don't even remember if photographs were taken
at that time, but both Dr. Bunche and Mr. Lodge then had other appearances on the schedule of YWCA because we were there for a week. It was a very . . . |
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| MP |
Which Rockefeller was this now? |
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| CW |
It was the one that's governor. |
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| MP |
Oh, Nelson Rockefeller. Yes. |
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| CW |
This was his first wife, not his second wife. That was back in the late fifties. I
also-well, I went to New York twice for YWCA. We had a very outgoing, very interesting director at that time. I believe it depended on who was the director and how much interest she had in international affairs is why this happened, but she had been all over the world. She had lived in India for a number of years. |
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| MP |
Do you remember her name? |
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| CW |
Yes, Elizabeth Burnham. She's still living. I learned that she is. She's quite old.
She's in California. I can't tell you exactly where. But after she retired from the YWCA, she married. I might be able to find that for you because there's someone in this area that corresponds with her. And I'll have to think of who it is. But she is-she was still living, but she was a very interesting, interesting woman. And so I felt like these experiences came to me more because of her than for any other reason. Then I became president of YWCA, which was a nice time, too, in my life because . . . |
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| MP |
Was that after they became integrated? The Y was integrated? |
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| CW |
Well, see I did fourteen continuous years, you know, and there were changes all along the
way. By that time, yes, anyone could become a part of, or work in, or be a member of, or even be board members and committee members. |
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| MP |
And so that was around the late 1950's. |
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| CW |
1950s, yes. |
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| MP |
That's interesting, because in other sections of the country they still had separate Y's. |
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| CW |
Yes, yes, it was in the fifties. I can remember because my husband used to chauffeur me
and Miss Burnham around different places. Out of probably any publicity that I had gotten through YWCA, I really believe we did a good work. I think we were able to pave the way for other organizations to start a movement toward integration, which was interesting. One other thing that really happened to me that I thought was-of course, all of this to a Black person looks funny. You know? You think, "Well." But anyway I had a very dear friend who was a part of the Methodist Women at that time. This was about the time, and I believe this was 1948 I think, if I'm correct. I'll have to look back on that. The Methodist Women adopted the interracial charter, So the women of Illinois came back, and they decided, "Now, we've adopted this charter. We really must do something about it." So I became a member of the Methodist Church. I was loaned to them for eight years. I did district work in Christian Social Relations and I did state work, because four years I was a district officer, and then four years I was a state officer in the Woman's Society of Christian Services, called something else now. But it's still the women's work. That-that was very interesting because right here in Central Illinois is one of the largest strongholds of all-white communities anywhere, I think, in the world. The church, the Methodist Church, of course, is very strong through this area. It would just be extremely funny. I would-in some places I would have to go by bus, and when I'd get off the bus and walk, I would see window curtains, you know, flash back. And I said, "I know telephone lines got busy." (laughs) Everyone knew I was in town. |
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| MP |
And they knew why you were there, too. |
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