<Begin Segment 9>

AI: Well, one thing I wanted to ask about was, from what you've been describing, it sounds like a very good-hearted, very good-willed, good-natured effort, and that, to me, this is really interesting to hear about as a racially integrated program and series of activities. Because at the same time that you're speaking of, in the late '50s and the early '60s, in other parts of the country, especially in the South, of course, there was racial violence, because of the Civil Rights movement was becoming very strong and visible, and, of course, the march to Montgomery and the Montgomery bus boycott had been going on. And then in 1963, there was the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. So I was wondering, how, how was it that here in the Seattle area, there was, it sounds like there was so much positive feeling and effort, while at the same time, in the national news, you heard about some of these other activities.

EH: I think I've always said that Seattle was a fairly ideal place to raise kids. We had, that Madrona neighborhood was kind of a foundation, our social life was always among Madrona. And it, it was an exceptional neighborhood, but there also, Harrison, Leschi, were neighbors, we did go to, a couple of times from Madrona, I remember going to Hanawalt's. Hanawalt was a, I think at that time, a principal at Garfield or at Roosevelt. Anyway, I knew that, we knew that they were interested and concerned, and so probably ten or fifteen of us were invited to the Hanawalt house, a very modest house in the Viewridge, a small house. And we went there for a discussion once, and I -- you know, there were problems. Jerry Ware was an active, kind of an activist leader kind, leadership kind of person. And her husband was Bethlehem Steel, labor guy, and I remember Jerry saying she had a four- or five-year-old who was, I guess younger than Larry. But she was, she would quote, telling us, for instance, that it just hurts her so much to hear... I forgot, Felicia or Joan, looking at television and ballet and saying, "I wish I were white." And that's the kind of impact that even, even if I had a close relationship with a lot of black families, it's a kind of emotional statement that we don't really hear. The insight, feelings. But it was a, this was a group that we were concerned, and wracking our brains to find, find out ways of solving this situation.

It's true that Seattle still had segregated housing; I remember... I think, let's see. I went to work for CAMP in '66. There was a Mayor Braman, and I think the city had just defeated Equal Housing. And then Watts occurred in mid-60s, '65, and when that occurred, within twelve months, I think, here was the mayor at CAMP, asking, "What can, what can we do?" The city had just, just defeated Equal Housing, but... so there still were, employment restrictions were terrible. I mean, Ralph had a lot of typing and warehouse experience working for the army, he couldn't get a job out of the UW employment office. There was a, there was a small co-op movement going, part of it ended up with Group Health credit union. But I think he at one time was, considered being an insurance agent for this Group Health co-op-oriented insurance company. And he would have doors slammed in his face, and so realized that he, he couldn't qualify for... even in Seattle's teaching corps, the first black teachers were hired in Seattle in late '40s, two or three of 'em. Ralph got his first teaching job in '5-... he was doing practice teaching in '55, (yes). And they were having trouble placing him on the secondary level. And it wasn't until a good Ph.D. social studies teacher at Sharples junior high at that time said she'd take him, and she really turned out to be a great teacher. But I know -- and we visited, we were in Berkeley visiting my sister during the holidays, and Candy was eighteen months, so she was fifty-five. San Francisco was having trouble finding places for practice teaching, and I remember my brother-in-law asking Ralph, "How, how did they manage to find a place for you?" So that was the climate.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.