Keep the Heritage Alive!

Caribel Washington

Speaking about William E. Schields (her stepfather)
Narrator: Caribel Washington (talking about William E. Schields)
Interviewer: Mildred Pratt
Date: September 13, 1989
Begin A
MP Mrs. Washington is going to talk about her stepfather. What was his name, Mrs. Washington?
CW William E. Schields.
MP William E. Schields. And I think if you would tell us where he was born if you remember, and about his age if you remember that, and where you were living when he got involved in helping many of the Black men who migrated to this area-how he helped them? I'll just leave it at that.
CW My stepfather was a Mississippian. I am not sure where he was born. His mother and his sister and he came into this area prior to 1910. I'm picking that.
MP Was that to Bloomington?
CW To Bloomington. I used to hear him speak of Oscaloosa and other towns on the Tombigbee River in Mississippi. So that undoubtedly was an area where they came from, but as for any positive knowledge I do not know. He became my stepfather in I would say 1918, and we first lived a short while in Kankakee. My mother was a native of Normal. We lived a short time in-I said Kankakee and that's not correct-Canton, Illinois and came back to Bloomington. And all of our life from 1919 until 1957 was spent in one house at 511 South Wright Street, Bloomington. Our father was-and I will speak of him as my father. He was the only father I really knew-quite interested in the Black people around him. I can recall that very early he used to bring people into our house, sit them down at the dining room table, and teach them how to vote. There was always someone whom he was interested being elected. It took many of the people instructions in order for them to know just how to vote. Many of them didn't read. This was prior to-this was in the twenties because our association with him was probably eleven years. He died in 1929. In the twenties he taught both men and women how to vote. They would have the specimen ballots, and if they couldn't read, he would tell them exactly where to put that "x" so their ballot would be good. And they would come feeling that they needed to know something, and he and my mother could tell them what to do. That was one of the things that I remember more than anything else.
MP Could you describe him physically?
CW Well, he was a very handsome man. His nickname was "Curly." He had probably the curliest hair I ever saw although he used his hands to do it with. I've never seen anybody do things quite like he, but he would roll his hair over the outside of his hand, which would make his hair very, very curly. And he was very handsome.
MP Did he wear it long?
CW No, not-he wore the front of it just in curls rolled up, but he didn't wear his hair long at all because back in the twenties it was not a time for long hair. He also knew, I'd say, practically everybody in town. We could walk uptown and uptown was a flourishing town at that time. He knew the men in the tailor shops and the men in the stores and the men in the hotels. So it was a pleasure to go to town with him. One of the things that stand out very much in my mind was the fact that I. [Ira] D. Lain who was a concrete construction person.
MP Would you spell that name for us?
CW Yes, the initials where I. D. and then Lain. L-A-I-N. And I'm picking him up in the [city] directories now, too. He was a concrete construction person, and about that time the first, I believe, highway hard road was being built from Kankakee, I believe, to Springfield. I would have to correct that to be sure. But he brought in men from Mississippi or in the South, mostly Mississippi I believe, and he would bring them to our house. They would room there. My mother would cook their meals. They would go out to work for Mr. Lain. And it was always interesting on Saturdays because he would come to the house with his workbooks and schedules, and he would pay these men off at our dining room table because many of them were not sure just how much money was coming to them. They could almost keep their time, but they were never sure how much money was coming to them. So my mother would keep the books, and they would be paid off then on a Saturday. I can't tell you how long this went on. It's just a time in my life that I do remember.
MP Was this Lain Black? Was he a Black man?
CW No, oh no. He was a white man, but he seemed to have been a very kind white man. I don't remember very much about him, but he was interested in the men, and I believe he was very honest with them. I don't believe he tried to cheat them at all. It was interesting to see these men-we, of course, even though we were young, we were always taught that we should learn all we could so to see men who could not read or who could not write was kind of an experience for us. Even though all those men lived in our house, our father was such a disciplinarian that-we had two porches, and those men were not allowed to come off the porch which was their place and come around the house to the porch where we were. It was very, very common knowledge that they were not to associate with us. Not association so much-I don't mean it to-I don't say that in a prudish way. It's just-men and young girls are just something you don't put together.
MP I understand.
CW So we had our boundaries, and they had their boundaries, and it worked pretty well. We were always respected us as Curly Schields's children. And every now and then I'll hear someone say, "Oh, well, you were Curly's kids." And it sort of gives you a warm feeling. He was a grownup boy. He loved circuses. He loved carnivals. Whenever they came to town, it was a kind of a holiday for us if there wasn't school. We would just go, and he would always try to meet someone at the circuses or at a carnival. Just try to meet someone who could be sort of any "open sesame" to some of the things that were going on.
MP So he was a friendly, very outgoing individual?
CW Oh, yes. He had-and I only can make this statement about him-he was involved some way in the World's Fair in Saint Louis in 19. Was it nineteen? It had to be prior to-so whenever-1898 I believe. I believe 1898. [1904] I'd have to clear that up. He always spoke of "Roultair's" creation. I have no idea even what that is, but at that fair he was someway involved in Roultair's creation. I don't know what that meant even, but I think he sort of had a taste for circus life and carnival life and entertainment life. His specialty was "rattle the bones " and he could really rattle bones. Long bones.
MP To make music?
CW Yes. Rhythmic, you know, it was a rhythmic thing. He had bones, which were probably eight or nine inches long. One pair for each hand, and he could really work those things. (laughs)
MP Yes.
CW He was altogether a very interesting man.
MP How did he happen to know so many people? What work did he do?
CW I can't-not anything when we knew him.
MP He had this house of boarders, right?
CW Yes. He was a Spanish-American War veteran who had received a head injury. He had a silver plate in his head, and he was a pensioned veteran. Back in the early twenties a pension went a long way money-wise.
MP Yes.
CW So he might have worked earlier in his life, but he did not. He did not work.
MP Now he was involved in politics.
CW Well yes.
MP Was there an organization?
CW No, just always the Republicans. Many people laugh at me now, especially after all of the dominant Democratic years, I have never changed my politics.
MP How would you explain that?
CW Well, we were Republican back in the twenties because there were no Black Democrats. We were taught that we were Republicans, and we could vote as Republicans, and I felt that there was never any need to change.
MP Was there any connection with Lincoln do you think?
CW I don't know that there was.
MP Your father as you knew him-your stepfather-had always been Republican.
CW Always been Republican.
MP And it was natural for you.
CW And it was natural for Blacks to be Republican. I can remember Oscar De Priest, and I wish I could recall the man ahead of him-of course, they looked very dynamic to kids you know. Very important people would come into Bloomington you know to electioneer, to talk for the Party.
MP And would your father attend those meetings?
CW Oh yes, and take us along too. He took us everywhere.
MP Can you tell us something about the other kind of people that you met, politicians you met at those meetings, do you remember?
CW Well, I couldn't just offhand. I'd have to think about it. There's one thing I remember he loved. (tape turned off) Our father loved Chautauguas. And we were probably one of the families who had cars early on. And I can recall one time we went to Pontiac to a Chautauqua, and those were still in the times when Black people didn't live in the hotels and that sort of thing, and we stayed all night in our car. And then I can remember we went to the park the next morning and washed in a water fountain (laughs) because we had to have clean faces and hands and that was the only accommodation for us. So we've gone many places and have learned to make out and make do just simply because there were not accommodations for Black people in many areas. It's kind of strange now to look back on all of that and know-and this is probably a rambling sort of a thing, but if I would probably sit down and think a bit it makes a difference. Our father died in 1929 and that is now fifty-sixty years ago. Yes, sixty.
MP Now, did he campaign for any candidates?
CW Back in those days, they would have neighborhood gatherings. You'd have people come to the house, and say the man who's running for mayor is going to meet here. And of course, he would make doughnuts and coffee and other little.
MP At his home?
CW bits of food. Yeah, they would give it in the homes, yes. They would come to the home and hear the candidate, and there was always a little money, I can remember. You don't hear or see that so much anymore. There was always-and if you went out and could get somebody else who would be willing to have a little meeting in their home, there would be a little money and a few refreshments.
MP Yes, I see.
CW Sandwiches of some kind and that sort of thing. That was pretty much the custom. I don't know that there were huge rallies, and yet I remember one meeting-I'm almost afraid to say it was Oscar De Priest. I'd have to look back over names to see. It was held in the Castle Theater building over on Washington Street. A big crowd of people came to hear this particular.
MP Now Blacks and whites could attend those?
CW Yes, but most of the time the only whites that would be there would be those who were running for office and those who were supporting them to an extent for the most part. And sometimes they would come into the churches-not on Sunday. But there would be a bit of a rally.
MP At the Black churches? Did they ever have these rallies at the Black churches?
CW Yes, but they soon begun to frown on that, too.
MP Was there an organization of Black Republicans in this area?
CW Not that I know of.
MP There wasn't?
CW I won't say there wasn't, but I think these were individual people who became known to those who were candidates and would sort of have their own little programs. I don't think that there was an organization. I could be mistaken, but I don't think so.
MP Now, could we go back and if you could tell me about Black people like Mr. Tripp's father and how your father helped him.
CW One Sunday my father was sitting on the porch, and two men came along. Of course, Dad always just stepped out to see if he could be of service or maybe it was curiosity, but anyway somehow he would manage to meet these people. Anyway he met these two men on Sunday morning, and one of them was Mr. Willie Tripp, and the other was Roosevelt Hudson. These two men had been somewhere up around Lexington. Some man had brought them in from the South, and they had been working there. If I remember correctly they were just almost..
MP Excuse me. (turns tape off and recording stopped)
End Side A
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