I Too Sing America Oral History Project Records

Collection

Identifier: A3076

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The collection spans from 1949 to 1994 and is arranged alphabetically by interviewee name. It is comprised primarily of project documentation: tape information sheets and tape indexes. The bulk of the collection dates from 1987. Additional materials include a few obituaries, clippings about the interviewees, and only two transcripts (M. Oldham, Williams). The first folder contains a brochure about the exhibition and related programs and clippings about the exhibit.

List of Interviewees:

Olivia Calloway (1906-2008): Interview by Sister Prince, July 7, 1987; release signed November 6, 1989 (2 tapes)

In 1949, Mayor Darst appointed Calloway to fill a vacancy on the Board of Education, the first African American named to the board. However, Calloway was a deputy clerk in the Probate Court and had to comply with a state statute that prevented anyone who held a state or city office from serving on the Board of Education. She served as president of the National Council of Negro Women and was a Democratic Committee Woman.

Calloway discussed the Democratic party in St. Louis, Jordan Chambers, and the African Americans in politics. Tape Information Sheet, Clippings (1949-1950).

Mildred Grant ( -2007): Interview by Sister Prince, May 19, 1987; release signed October 19, 1989 (2 tapes).

Mildred Grant was the second wife of civil rights attorney, David M. Grant (1903-1985). He was also active with the democratic party in St. Louis, served as president of the NAACP, and organized demonstrations and sit-ins. In 1950, David Grant became the first African American appointed to the St. Louis Police Retirement Board. In 1952, he was instrumental in bringing Josephine Baker to St. Louis to give a benefit performance at Kiel Auditorium, which she refused to do for a segregated audience. Because Josephine Baker could not stay at the Chase Hotel she stayed at the Grant home. He also brought suit against Washington University, declaring its tax exempt status incompatible with its policy of not admitting blacks. In 1960, Grant served with Eleanor Roosevelt on the National Democratic Platform Committee and he helped to write the civil rights plank for the Kennedy-Johnson campaign.

Mildred Grant discussed David’s cases, the NAACP, their many protest activities, Shelley v. Kramer (restrictive covenants), Cardinal Ritter’s desegregation of catholic schools, conditions for black students in the St. Louis Public Schools, and feeling about fighting segregation. [See also David M. Grant Papers (S0552), State Historical Society of Missouri; and At the Elbows of my Elders by Gail Milissa Grant (University of Missouri Press, 2008).] Tape Information Sheet, Tape Index (5 pg).

Sam Klein: (Interview by Sister Prince on July, __ 1987, release signed September 28, 1989 (1 tape)

Klein was president and co-owner of both Mary Muffett (with Morris Sobelman) and Kerry Kricket, Inc. He was the first president and former board chairman of the Associated Garment Industries of St. Louis, was a founder of the Garment Industry Medical Center, and was an officer of the St. Louis Fashion Creators. Klein was on the board of the Urban League and was also the first in the garment industry to employ a black woman, his secretary. Like most businesses in St. Louis, the garment industry was segregated with some manufacturers maintaining separate factories for black workers [see also Marie Williams interview]. Tape Information Sheet. Charles Oldham (1922-2006): Interview by Sister Prince on July 20, 1987; release signed September 28, 1989 (2 tapes) Charles Oldham was an early advocate of using civil disobedience to protest unfair racial practices. He was a member of the St. Louis Committee for Racial Equality (CORE) and served as the national chairman from 1956-1963. During his career he represented many clients in discrimination cases and argued for a union local before the Supreme Court in 1965. He and his wife, Marian (O’Fallon) Oldham, married in Michigan in 1951 because interracial couples could not marry in Missouri. Tape Information Sheet.

Marion Oldham (1927-1994): Interview by Sister Prince on July 6, 1987; release signed September 28, 1989 (2 tapes0. Marian O’Fallon Oldham was a member of CORE, a civil rights activist, a teacher in the St. Louis Public Schools (Washington School), and a real state agent. She married Charles Oldham in 1951, together they continued working for civil rights in St. Louis. In 1977, Gov. Teasdale appointed Oldham to the University of Missouri Board of Curators, the first black woman to join the board. In 1987, she founded the Marian Oldham Scholarship Fund for African American students at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Oldham discussed her childhood in St. Louis. Her paternal grandparents, the O’Fallons, were an interracial couple who lived in north St. Louis; her family visited often. Her mother came to St. Louis from Mississippi. Odlham discussed Jim Crow and segregation practices; limited opportunities for black women; and CORE protests, meetings, and strategies. She felt that one impediment to more blacks being involved in civil rights demonstrations was the threat of losing their jobs, their livelihoods. Oldham also recalled facing resistance as a black female real estate agent. Tape Information Sheet, Obituary/Clippings (1994), Transcript.

Dr. Evelyn Roberts: Interview by Sister Prince on August 10, 1987; release signed September 28, 1989 (3 tapes) Dr. Roberts joined the NAACP with her mother, Audia Roberts, and remained a member for throughout her lifetime. She earned master’s and doctorate degrees in education at Columbia University and taught at St. Louis Community College. Tape Information Sheet.

Clarence E. Teeters (1924-1996): Interview by Sister Prince on 7 and 16 July 1987; release signed July 7, 1987 (2 tapes). Teeters was born in Moberly, Missouri, and served in the U.S. Army in WWII. He was one of the first blacks admitted to St. Louis University. Tape Information Sheet.

Dr. H. Phillip Venable (1913-1989): Interview by Sister Prince on August 28, 1987; release signed September 29, 1989 (2 tapes). Dr. Venable came to St. Louis from Wayne State University in 1939 for a residency at Homer G. Phillips hospital and remained. Four years later he was named head of ophthalmology, a title he held until 1979. Dr. Venable was the first black to join the Washington University faculty in 1958. In 1994, he was awarded the Outstanding Humanitarian Service Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology. Dr. Venable also played the trumpet professionally for 25 years. Dr. Venable discussed segregation in medical profession, among doctors and patients. He also recalled his attempt to build a house in Creve Coeur in 1960 that resulted in a condemnation from the city in order to build a park. Tape Information Sheet, Clippings (1959-60; 1994).

Charles L. White (1921-2007): Interview by Sister Prince on September 14, 1987; release signed September 28, 1989 (3 tapes). White grew up in The Ville, graduated from Sumner High School, and served as a fighter pilot in the U.S. Army Air Force with the Tuskegee Airmen earning the Distinguished Flying Cross. White returned to St. Louis where he was a teacher and principal in the St. Louis Public Schools and later became a real estate broker. White recalled with detail the segregation he experienced as a child, in the AAF, and after WWII. Tape Information Sheet.

Marie (Wilburn) Williams (c.1904-1988): Interview by Sister Prince and release signed September 24, 1987 (3 tapes). Williams began working with the Urban League in 1930 before she went overseas during WWII to work with the Red Cross. After the war, she returned to the Urban League to open new professions to African Americans. She graduated from Stowe Teachers College and earned a master’s degree from Atlanta University. Williams discussed segregation in employment in St. Louis and her efforts for the Urban League to expand employment opportunities [see also Sam Klein interview]. Tape Information Sheet, Obituary (1988), Transcript.

Fredda Witherspoon ( -1996): Interview by Sister Prince on 6 August 1987; release signed 26 September 1989 (1 tape). Witherspoon came to St. Louis in the mid-1940s and was the first black women to attend graduate school at Washington University on full scholarship. She earned a doctorate in guidance and counseling and human relations from St. Louis University. She spent over 20 years as a counselor at St. Louis Community College. She was also active in civil rights, with the NAACP and the Urban League. Witherspoon’s husband, Robert was an attorney and the couple were instrumental in integrating Lewis Place in St. Louis. Witherspoon discussed discrimination during the 1940s and 1950s, her civil rights activities, and the importance of education. Tape Information Sheet, Clipping (1983).

Dates

1949-1994
Majority of material found within 1987-1988

Creator

Calloway, Olivia, 1906-2008 (Interviewee, Person)

Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open for research use.

Conditions Governing Use

For permission to publish, quote from, or reproduce material in this collection, please contact the Archives Reference Desk at archives@mohistory.org. Copyright restrictions may apply. The researcher assumes full responsibility for conforming to the laws of copyright.

Historical Sketch

In 1987, the Missouri Historical Society began an oral history project to provide background for an exhibition which opened in February 1988: I, Too, Sing America: Black St. Louisans in the 1940s. The exhibit title was taken from a Langston Hughes poem of the same name. Vida Sister Prince, a volunteer, interviewed 11 people for the project in from May to August 1987. Topics discussed include segregation in employment and housing, discrimination, and civil rights activities. Most of the interviews moved beyond the exhibit’s 1940s parameters and explored St. Louis race relations into the 1950s.

Please see the education program booklet developed for the exhibit for topics highlighted in the project (I, Too, Sing America: Black St. Louisans in the 1940s , MHS Library St.L. 305.8 It88). For interview recordings please consult the Moving Image and Sound Department.

Extent

0.125 Cubic Feet ( (8 folders))

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Arrangement

The collection is arranged alphabetically by name of interviewee.

Physical and Technical Requirements

There are no physical or technical restrictions.

Donor Information

The collection was transferred to the Archives

Related Materials

Please see the education program booklet developed for the exhibit for topics highlighted in the project (I, Too, Sing America: Black St. Louisans in the 1940s, MHS Library).

For interview recordings please consult the Moving Image and Sound Department.

See also David M. Grant Papers (S0552), State Historical Society of Missouri.

At the Elbows of my Elders by Gail Milissa Grant (University of Missouri Press, 2008).