Electing Obama

I never watched voting day. I never watched as the returns come back, but in 2008, I did. I just could not believe it, that actually they had voted for a Black man. I never thought I’d see that day. I wished that my grandmother had.

Everybody is Equal

She would say white folks have all the sense, no matter how I tried to tell her everybody is really equal. We have dumb people, smart people in all races. To me, everybody is the same, it’s just some people is more ambitious than others and they strive for different things. But in reality, at the end of the day we’re all the same. We’re all God’s children.

Race Relations

I think people get along better. I mean you can’t ever forget that you’re Black, but there’s more togetherness than there used to be. When I was younger, you stayed in your place and they’d let you know. When I was in school, I had one Black teacher.

The Church and Community Change

At Tindley Temple, we don’t have the membership we used to have. There was a time when you couldn’t hardly find a seat in this big church. Now it’s no problem. The membership has really fell down and probably one reason is because the neighborhood has changed and the surroundings. It was predominantly Black. Now there are more white persons.

Samuel Joyner, a Philadelphia native and one of a small cohort of black cartoonists is one of two new additions to the Oral History page.  Mr. Joyner, who for many years taught art in Philadelphia public schools, has had his work featured in multiple publications. He discusses his experiences serving in a segregated army, the difficulties of finding graphic design work in the 1950s, and the changes that have occurred in the South Street neighborhood in past decades.  Lewis Tucker, who attended Tindley Temple in his youth, is featured alongside Mr. Joyner.  Mr. Tucker, who worked as a machinist at the Westinghouse Company, talks about Tindley Temple during its heyday, gradual changes in hiring practices, and noticeable improvements in race relations after the Civil Rights Movement.

Check out what’s new on our Oral History page.

Abel McDaniels, Class of 2016

Electing Obama

I never thought I’d see the first Black president of the United States.

It was a surprise. I didn’t know society had changed so much that so many whites would vote for him.

Education Didn’t Seem to Pay for Blacks

In my day, Philadelphia was full of jobs. There were plenty of manufacturing jobs here. But things were tough. It looked like if you were a Black person, it was a waste of time sitting in school because the white people weren’t going to give you nothing no way. You’re still going to have the same old job after you come out. The few fellows that did go to college, they were working doing the same work I was doing. I was better off than they was in not going.

The Job World: Often A Tough Place for Blacks

Before World War II, the paper, in the want ads, would tell what race a person they want to hire. They would tell you whether it was white or Black or light colored.
Before the war, General Electric, Westinghouse and Navy Yard had all those good machinist jobs. Sometimes they have them advertised in the paper “Hiring 200 men Monday morning.” And they would be down there at the employment office bright and early. A whole lot of people, Black and white, would crowd that employment office, trying to get one of the jobs. They would be waiting there, anxious to get one of the jobs. After a while, the employment agency would come out and say, “We’re not hiring the coloreds.” And the coloreds would take it and walk on out.

Importance of Education

You’re seeing better days than I saw, that is, as far as society is concerned. But as far as living is concerned, it’s a little tougher for you all than it was for me. You have to have more education today. So I regret not being educated in my day. It wasn’t no guarantee that you were gonna fill your pocket up with money.

“Learn As Much As You Can”

I tried to tell the kids in my class —I taught the graphic communication shop and the printing shop — I tried to tell them to go to school and learn as much as you can because they still going to give the Caucasian kids the advantage. If three people Black come for an interview and three people white come for an interview, who do you think going to get the job?

The Invisible Artist

But it was difficult to walk into an advertising agency in Center City, and get a job. They still gave us a hard time. I ended up with that Caucasians would take my work along with other people’s work and they would sell my work to the different agencies and newspapers, and Sears Roebuck and whatever. But it was difficult for African Americans to just walk into one of the agencies. This was 60 years ago, the ‘40s and ‘50s; they gave you a hard time.

Military: A Segregated, Brutal Life

It was a segregated Army. The white soldiers didn’t mix with the Black soldiers. I was stationed in Fort McClellan, Alabama, which is about 70 miles from Birmingham, Alabama. And at that time they had brought back German and Italian prisoners from the North African Campaign. Because they could hardly feed the American soldiers over there, so they weren’t going to feed the Italian and German prisoners over there, so they brought them all back here and then made them work in different parts of the USA…They put me in the hospital and that’s when I ran into the German prisoners of war. Do you know in Alabama they fed the German prisoners of war; because they were white, before they would let the Black soldiers eat?

Getting Along with Everybody Now

I wanted to try and make a career out of being an illustrator and artist, so I had to pray to get along with the Caucasians. I met quite a few of them that helped me get places like this. The white guys that were selling my work to General Electric and Sears Roebuck and all those places, some black guys didn’t treat me that good, you know. So that changed my mind about hating white people. I try to get along with everybody now.

The Black Church: A Place for Spiritual Healing and Education

I think the Black church was different. I think they were out to save souls and try to educate the people that couldn’t afford to go to college or whatever. They tried to help them.