<Begin Segment 13>

AI: Well, at that, in 1960, some things had shifted in the world situation, and the, and the country. Of course, during the '50s, the Civil Rights movement had started becoming increasingly vocal, and I'm wondering, there in Chicago, were there any incidents of racial protest or civil rights activity at the time that you were in dental school that you recall?

WW: Well, there was the... I can't remember, well, not, not a whole lot, really. It seems to me, at the time I was not paying too much attention to things. 'Course, I was aware of things going on, but I, just trying to block those kinds of things out of my mind, and concentrating on what I was doing.

AI: I'm sure you, the work was challenging, and you needed to really focus on that.

WW: Right, right.

AI: Well, I was asking this question partly because I'm also aware that Chicago has a history of being racially divided. Of course, it's primarily black and white.

WW: Yes.

AI: Racial divisions.

WW: Right.

AI: And I'm wondering, of course, most of the time you were there in school, and that was your main focus, but I'm wondering, during that time or maybe afterwards, if there was, if you had a sense that... were you in the middle between whites and blacks, or how did people think of you or perceive you, do you suppose?

WW: I wasn't really sure. I mean, being in school and so forth, I wasn't really sure how they perceived me, but I, I, myself, didn't feel that I should have any difficulties because of it. Maybe because I pretty much grew up in a community where I really didn't run into any, really, difficulties there.

AI: So even though the city of Chicago had some racial divisions, and there, from time to time there was some friction, that wasn't something that really touched you at the time personally.

WW: No. No, it didn't.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.