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About The advocate. (Portland, Or.) 19??-19?? | View Entire Issue (Nov. 5, 1932)
n The A d voca te * «« ( • . MB 44 B* . ILLU8THATKD FFATUHK 8KCTION— November f>, m hr ltJ2. r ib b o n IN I rn n o N !» ro » n ii i u r i bu r ib n « rt'RB »W TIOI REMINISCENCES ed child • T l x By M A R Y W H I T E O V I N G T O N CHAPTER FIVE wells off-re d for the groaa otters I had fam iliar with years before space grown But in stead. on one of these walls. In a Living on San Juan Hill neat handwriting. I read •'Unless above him self l x esn erect himself A Lone W h ile W om an Living in a City Block how poor a thing Is man " And be w i t h 5 , 0 0 0 Colored Folk. low "No conflict 1« so severe as his wlu> labors to subdue himself But in this we must continually be e n Not living on San Juan Hill in Cuba up which the gaged If we would strrn g tlx n the the colored aoldiers charged, but on San Juan Hill in New I Inn m m an - York, a poor neighborhood running from Went both I I would not Imply that It wa- Street, to We.it 64th Street, between 10th and 11th Ave- usual to find Shakespeare and Hue*. White* dwelt on the avenue*, colored on the street*, Thom as a Krm pts written U|>on the ¡walls I never saw them again But and fight* between the two gav** the hill it* nutne. A the Im agination and religious ter n ugh neighborhood, but. at least among the Negroes, a r o r that they e x p rea x d were f a place where all claaae* lived. m iliar to these sordid city blocks | I Negro children when taught good There were people who itched for .»fight, and people | m anners, enjoyed practicing them who hated roughness. Lewd women leaned out of win 'Ye*. we knows deyt women w alkin' Home of t lx children on my street d o w s . and neat, hard-working mother* early each morn dr streets right now. Bat who's w rrr , deM||h, to entertain I loved walktn - i d rwi ____ have them come to my Hat, their ing made their way to their mistresses' hair standing out in two little homes Men lounged on street cor ^ there petty larceny abounded And biald*. their eyas bright, their h snds tiers in a* dandified dress as their Some of my frX w ds th o a g h l I wsd w lx re as on Han Juan Hill, m oth- »lender and pretty. If one handed tunning a risk. women at the wash tubs could get for , me a flower It was done with grace rrs I x d to go out lo work, arrests , , rm rm bpr „ „ I n n g down my them; while hard working porter* were num erous for Improper gu ard- olotk with an old Greenpoint Irl nd view I had with him. I could not an<t longshoremen, night watchmen lanshlp O u r researclxs exploded *n d seeing a boy of eight run up to convince him of the value of all that and government clerks went regularly the loose accusation that Negroes m* mother, kiss her. and then take' l hoped to do T l x City and S ubu rb to their jobs. Race prejudice and jare born with a propensity to steal , parcel from her arm s ’T h a t 's not an Hom es Com pany also took no economic necessity threw all sorts W o iw n leaned out T h e colored rlitld stole no more sn d unusual. " I said lo my frX n d Quick interest in supporting my plans | no less than the average w h it« as a 11a h, her Irish wit responded the mnditw I suspect they thought a settle and condition* of colored people to child T h e n you t.*ed n t be ex plain ing1 gether. I speak of the San Juan Hill of the past. 1 Mv b e d friend on San Juan Hill to me the reason for the high death ment In a model tenement would be a nuLssnce I saw my savin g* rap know little about it now, but when in January, 1908, I was the Rev G eorge Himitu of the rate am ong children.” idly disappearing and no chance moved into the Tuskegee Apartments, built by Henry Union Baptist Church Since San t h e darkest part of life on the of a salary. So when the summer Hilt h a. become a W it In Hill was the realization that so was over, very reluctantly I gave up Phipps, it* rt potation was little better than Hell's Kitch Juan dlan neighborhood, his church has little was ah -ad (o r these same my apartm ent and for a second en, the picturesque Irish gangster neighborhood a few in IVtd to Harlem, hut when I knew children Poverty was their lot. I time left busy, w arm -h earted w ork- lit. It was frequ tiled chlclly by re m -m b -r A n n a b e l- h oeam e running tng-class neighbors for middle class block* south. iiewiv-arrtved Southerners. They u> me on* evening to say that her respectability. It would have been Julio r. Millinllanil. s le w * n a n u husband and older children sup went lo the Unton Baptist Church mother would the next day be tu m - harder to do this, had I not been should Is- revered by all uf u*. » « . ported t l x household, but usually, aiut found themselves at home, got ed out into the street. She had sup- greatly needed at home. happy ' and were not fro w ix d up- ported the fam ily by laundry work In all the months that I Uved. a Instrument*1 In having t l x Tuskr the mother had to help support tlx on. though they never got beyond until sickness came and now the while wom an alone in a block with gee Apartm ents built. He kites fam ily H lx did thl* by taking in t lx lr ministers' control I threatened dispossession. I went to Rve thousand Negroes I ixver had that llen ry Phipps »a s building laundry, or stir went out to service t His sermons were madly plclu r- her apartment, a disagreeable experience I waa "It la the end." she said, offering never accosted rudely The raco model tenements, to return tour per As a domestic, a lx would he awav e.sque and yet full of common sense He could preach as vivid a > rm >n me the one chair left T h at ntorn- riots of which I had for twelve or fourteen hours II heard hod rent on tile Investment Mllhollatid. s i x went out to clean s ix put In as any In "G o d 's T ro m b o ix s '' H is mg » l x hsd sold the furniture snd erased to occur. Some of mjr leaim ug t lining h me of t l x frig h t eight hours of work W hen s i x got picture of Jesus In his blue smock ,)n the way home lost th * money friends thought I was running a ful liousuig conditions among the home she must at once attend to leaving his carpenter's bench to be R is the end ' O rganized charily risk. O n e called me up after dining Imputed by John the Baptist be- came t l x ix x t day and paid the Het with me. and tn forceful language In Negro wot king class, persuaded I x r husband and children rent, but there followed a long which the word "N ig g e r" was pres babic* were toattlrd with some old longs In T l x G reen Pastures." I'I uim w to put Ills second venture He ro -operaled with all of us on ixriod of want and suffering Anna- ent. told me I should leave. I told and uxR lclcnt woman unU-a, s ix In a N egro neighbor hoed No the » a s luckly enough to gel Ih -m In the B U I. the ktndergartners, the be! told me one day what s i x e x - him I was as safe there as a n y W hen they grew dav nursery worker*, t t x .superln- preted to do when s i x grew up. T where. D an ger ts never absent, but Hill saw a ft re proof, n rw -Iaw tene l l x Nursery T l x su f- .hall dance.'' she declared. "D ancers I did not taste tt. ment. with steam h r*t slid unlim it older, tlx y lived ut the street T h ai tell dent of the Tuskegee money I shall not work the ed hot water. Ul the midst of Us was safer than lravtng them locked fragtsts came to his church, and make T h e colored people, more than he made the best s|*-ech of any. He way my m other does. Sh e works the whites In Greenpoint. took me double-decker and d um lxll »p a ri In at home. m e n u that covered ninety per cent T h e men were unsklllrel laborers had a rival in one of hts deacons, .md works and never has anything." for exactly what I was. Had tlx y | At the end of eight months I saw been better educated, more- sophisti of each building lot T h - m anage some longshoremen, a decently paid known as lit other Baptist Once, when an antl-sudragtst that my settlement dream would cated. they might have been sus ment was In the hands of t l x City group, some porters In factory or women were never be realized M r Phipps was picious of my sincerity. But I was store Home were g -n e ra l utility complained that if and Suburban Homes Company. women who interested In housing, blit lus Inter- am ong big-hearted, friendly, hard I had tM-gon my aelllrm ent woik men In boardm g-housrs. with hours given t l x vote, the walked the streets would be e n-'eat stopped there. In .he one Inter- working a» long as the women's M any a In a modal tc n rn x n t rrreled by hum an beings. T h e y employs such a franchlsed. Brother Baptist said In C liatle » Piatt My n -xt venture bosrd llw -h o osc thought m< a teacher and put me e «». < down at that. and late answer "Y e *. we knows deyY wo ■ ■ s a t m a tenement erected l>y Henry man who works early la d .* j ■ ».«.k t~lc VV a s for W o m e n ft It spoke well for the work that PliipiM. and while M r Plilppa had about l l x plare, receiving a scan! mm walktn . Ilut who's M n worked at night a* .11 <1. aa yel shown no Interest In settle wage had gone before mine, public school, ment wotk. earing only for the watchmen, and must sleep through walking » u l 'em?" mission, kindergarten, health de Right months » a * not a long time And lastly, far housing end. I heped, by quietly t l x day's noise partment. chanty organization so renting on my own account, to per more than at O reen | »ln t. men did to study a neighborhood, and I had ciety— that I w as understood. They suade him to *d d social ser-lee not work at all. either because they mv took lo write as well aa com saw that I wanted to help. T hey could not get Jobs, or because the mittees to attend, but I m anaged to work believed that I respected them In W illi a tenement H ie house hud a playroom for Its Job* tlx y might secure were b a le aee a good deal their territlc struggle to make life ten days 1 children which l l x W alton Free ful. anti they could find some w o house lns|xetor. fer easier for their children. climbed thousands ol stairs T l x K indergarten was allowed to occupy man wife, mother, or sweetheart— I It was m any months before I In the m orning I could dev,-lop t i snppotl them. T h e » » men loung white homes We looked into, horn s mastered my disappointment, and more work that later might be ed on street corners during the day. bordering on the Negro neighbor years before I ceased to think of than the so|iported Ho f took a little turn! nr played pool In one of the many hood. were m ore dirty that street and my home o I It. I colored. They seemed to contain u turr. a great many book*, and m ov pool rooms. had met the N egro race and felt But l l x T ile absence of the mol her Irom great many m angy dog*. ed Into my ftst ft had three rooms its charm , that charm that New Negro, however poor, did in * sur l l x home I -d lo Juvenile delin ami a bath Y ork has not yet wh lly dcstrvyed. make her l.ife anion working class people quency. Mure than white rhlUlren, render the attempt lo In the evening at m y open w in was fam iliar (o me, but I (mind that colored boys and girls came before home attractive. A white spread or dow on the crowded street I hoar Han Juan Hill was very dilTcrent t l x Juvruile court for Improper a calico quill would be on the bed, the children calling to one another T h at was the only the china on t l x shell would lx gay from Greenpotnt. There was. of guardianship. tn their play. They have a street course, the difference of race, or uR enw r where the Negro percentage and neatly arranged the room usu song. "Hound dem w eddin' bells,” color, hut I soon forgot that. The was higher than the white I know.I ally (airly clean. T l x standard may that I have not heard before . . . noticeable dllTerenre vriia In th" (or 1 spent many late afternoons have come from Intimate acquaint An evangelist moves past me sav lower economl- »lotu s of the Negro going over the Juvenile rourt records ance with the homes of weli-to-do| ing, "Salvation is so convenient, T he house. Until mistresses, but li was there. (ireeupotnt hutl been a factory In the stulTy court don't forget that. Friends. It's con though t lx y knew neighborhood, and though the wotk D raper, then a vising girl, a m em streets, too. venient. It's for this w o r ld .“ . . . and heaitl guffaw s of] Inti been hard It hud b -t-n fairly ber of the Junior la-iutue anti work lighting An old woman. In a high, shaking of terror, constant. Otrls worked In factories ing at G reenw ich House, used to laughter and scream » voice sings, "G iv e me Jesus, give me I wish she m ight have preserved a certain decency. I can and sfin|M, men worked regularly at help me Jesus. You may have all this world better way skilled and on.killed labor. All gut seen the eases Instead of the records Illustrate this In no but give me Jesus." . . . It is a fte r W e went patiently over the than by the fact that I never saw a decent w ag-, so that the house only. noon. A knock comes at my door. that environ the obscene writing that had been wife stayed at home giving her full pages ami learned I open It. and three little girls. In time to her fam ily's want». O n Han ment was t l x determ ining factor In common In Greenpotnt. freshly laundered white dresses, arrests. W here, a* In al I thought of I ht» one day when I ! pastor U nion Baptist C h u rch ; pres- slip shyly tn. T h e oldest, she h a» Juan llill. this was the exception, Juvenile Jewish neighborhood, the push-carl wa* linking about In an Inner courtLdent not the rule N ew York Baptist 8tate Convention. T h ere were families where the stood temptingly by t l x side walk,I to find the home of an Impoverish-1 Continued on Page Four