Transcript
Index
00:00:00 - Introduction
00:00:21 - Coming to Beloit during the 1921 recession--Beloit relief system
00:02:06 - Father's job at Fairbanks-Morse--nature of the work, “plum job”--children could observe work then
00:07:10 - Recollections of the YMCA and John D. Stephenson--Stephenson's role in Beloit, highly respected--Stephenson first came to Fairbanks-Morse as a fund raiser for Tuskegee College
00:16:10 - Interracial relations in Beloit--blacks as a distinct community--segregation in restaurants--no problem with inter-urban, except for dirty F-M workers--F-M baseball team segregated
00:24:59 - Early years as good years--recollection of black Scout Troop Six--camp on the Rock River, jamborees--attending University of Wisconsin football games--Madison as a “wide open” town
00:31:32 - Few blacks accepted in Janesville--good impression of Milwaukee, wide open town
00:35:02 - Leaders of Beloit's black community--W. S. Williams, elected as justice of the peace--Reverend W.E.W. Brown--Dr. Marshall, the Imperial Mixed Quartet--politics at the Williams barber shop--NAACP, Professors Porter and Crawford as key white members--NAACP focused on national issues, little success on local issues--F-M and Beloit Corporation as only employers of black workers, only foundry work available until 1960s
00:47:46 - Problem of educated, young blacks leaving Beloit--failure of NAACP to deal with that problem--F-M control in Beloit--blacks always asked to wait--hearing Martin Luther King, Jr.
00:53:21 - Meaning of “progressive” as applied to local black leaders-visit by Chicago Defender editor, Robert S. Abbott--vital role of the Defender and the black press
00:56:11 - People respected by Mr. Gordon on the national scene--Walter White and W.E.B. Dubois spoke at Beloit College--heard Marian Anderson in Milwaukee--defense of Booker T. Washington
01:00:43 - Absence of factionalism among Beloit black people--cooperation among black churches in Beloit
01:04:49 - Further comments concerning cooperation among black churches
01:06:25 - Introduction to part 2
01:06:34 - Recollection of effort to integrate Kresge's--Lloyd Barbee and segregation at hotel restaurant, police took Ear-bee's side--Lloyd Barbee as a “radical,” cousin of Mr. Gordon--Beloit police ignored rights of black citizens--fear of law in Beloit, as in the South
01:15:50 - Recollection of Mr. Guy, the tailor, and his wife--the Halliards
01:17:39 - The Cosmopolitan Club--segregation in the YWCA--Cosmopolitan Club as a response to YMCA segregation
01:20:36 - Taking discrimination in stride
01:21:33 - Ben Gordon and religion--joining the Baptist Church at fourteen--influence of J. D. Stephenson--church cultural programs under Celestine Smith--belonging to the church and being somebody
01:29:35 - Work at Walsh Brothers produce farm as a youth--summer work at one dollar per day--contract with brother
01:33:55 - Recollections of high school--encourages to finish early as was older brother, suspicion that school was trying to deny honors to black students, both brothers were highly ranked--another ploy with Velma Bell in 1924
01:40:07 - Involvement in high school ROTC, no black officers--Ben Gordon not permitted to see shooting scores--Colonel Kennedy as head of ROTC--absence of bitterness in face of discrimination--scholarship offer to Fisk University--went to vocational school instead, no jobs available
01:47:17 - Ben Gordon stayed in Beloit to be near family, mother had died in 1929--aspirations--Frank Yerby at Fisk University at that time--many talented black people left Beloit
01:52:56 - Ben Gordon's reading habits--Scottsboro Boy--lynching in Janesville--B.G. as a newsboy for the Defender--race horse handlers in Beloit--Joe Drummond--Alva Curtis
02:00:29 - Recreation for youngsters--softball team
02:03:00 - Segregated swimming pools in Beloit, small one for blacks--pool integrated by a group of black youths led by Gordy Harris, the son of Neal Harris--the power structure in Beloit, college distinct from the power structure--Johnny Watt as a star athlete--high school athletic program always open