PeoriaStory

Peoria's African-American history

PEORIA -- Here's an interesting piece by retired Peoria fire chief John Parker, as he introduced his son, General Parker who is a candidate for mayor of Peoria. It's a historical document from someone who has been an eyewitness to history.

General Parker (photo by Al Harkrader)

PEORIA’S BLACK HISTORY - AS SEEN THROUGH RETIRED FIRE CHIEF G. JOHN PARKER’S EYES

FEBRUARY 28, 2009

It is great to be back home. Especially on the occasion of my son’s candidacy for mayor of this great city. I realize, as I’m sure you do, that it’s going to be an uphill battle. But I am encouraged because I know that the reason that he accepted this important and daunting challenge is simply put, because he cares.

I’ve heard him referred to as a “community activist”. A community activist is someone who cares. Not just for himself or herself, but for the community at large, and more specifically, someone who cares about the welfare, quality of life and the concerns of the unrepresented; those who lack political, social and economic power to be effective on their own behalf.

Unfortunately, through my lifetime in Peoria and during my 25 years here as a public servant and to the present, I’ve watched as a segment of this community struggled and continues to struggle through lack of representation and under representation; often relegated to the “back burner” of benefits and services. First in need; last in resolve.

As we celebrate the history of Blacks, we are reminded of the many sacrifices and contributions of great African Americans to this country. But it also reminds me of the history of the City of Peoria as I lived it from the age of four.

I grew up in Peoria on the near South Side. We lived in an integrated neighborhood. As a child in the 1940’s, our next door neighbors on either side were white families; ironically one of whom I served on the PFD and the other was a retired Peoria firefighter. So, many of my childhood friends were white.

I attended integrated schools; Douglas Grade School. Roosevelt Junior High and Manual Training High School. But I never had a black teacher until I attended ISU years later in the 1970’s after serving four years in the USMC.

We lived across the street from the Warner Homes 1946s through 1957 when we were fortunate enough to move to the newly constructed Taft Homes where we finally had hot water, gas heat and a real bathtub. There was no decent affordable housing except for the “projects” and my brother and I envied our friends who lived in the projects.

Years later, I had many occasions to speak to minority youth during black history month, career days, etc. and they would look at me with disdain. All decked out in my fire chief’s uniform and they would ask, what do you know about our situation, our lives? Most of us live in the projects; you just don’t know. As I as a child longed to live in the projects so I could take a bath in a real tub instead of a metal washtub with water heated on the stove; not have to carry wood and coal for the stove and later kerosene. But at the same time I realized that even though it was years later, we still lacked decent affordable housing for this segment of our community.

My dad and I were born in Sunflower County MS. He was a sun-up-to-sundown sharecropper as was his father before him, who owed his soul to the company store. He had to leave Mississippi under cover of darkness and settled in Peoria via St. Louis in 1945. He worked for a short while at the Peoria Packing House and later worked at Barretts Paper which later became Celotex Corp. for 36 years.

He was the consummate patriarch of our family. He was a hardworking, principled, proud and humble man. No matter how tough life came at him, no matter what the system dealt him, he would not openly challenge it or respond. Privately he would express his concern and his anger over the issues such as low wages, lack of decent, available affordable housing for his family, the meager amount of his retirement pension and the cost of his prescription medicines.

I remember his dismay at the way Joe Louis and Jackie Robinson were treated after serving honorably in the military and their many charitable contributions to the troops and to the country.

He spoke privately of his admiration for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Peoria newscaster Phil Gibson of WMBD radio.

As a boy, I shined shoes, caddied at the Mt. Hawley Country Club and washed dishes at Hunts Drive In. But I had to be careful when traveling through certain neighborhoods or certain parts of town. You had to be careful traveling through the far north side or the far south side. North past Spring street was shaky. Past LeTourneaus and Hysters was a no no.

There was group of us who hung around together mainly because we all loved sports, football, basketball, baseball, track, and field and even golf; Gene and Sam Petty, Doug and Wardell Faulkner, Ed Porky Brooks, Melvin and William Adams. Sometimes we’d get our parents to drop us off at Woodruff Field to attend the Peoria Chiefs baseball games but we would have to walk back and trying to navigate through those neighborhoods was tenuous to say the least.

We had to be careful frequenting the near bluff and the mansions of Moss Ave. or the Knolls. Only if you were a domestic could you traverse fairly freely with little concern of being acousted by neighborhood whites, gangs or even the Peoria Police Department.

So for the most part, we stayed in our own neighborhoods. I can remember as a child that we did most of our shopping at Joseph Bros., Alwans, Couri Bros., Barth Bros., Buehlers and MacHigh Market. Early on, our milk and dairy products was delivered by the milk man. We took our clothes to be cleaned at Deweys and Ardis Dry Cleaners and Woo’s Chinese laundry. We bought clothing and furniture basically at Kaufman and Levine’s on South Adams. Our dental and medical needs were taken care of by Dr. Nelson, Dr. Ross, Dr. Sanders and Dr. Stafford. We had Carver Center Recreation Center, Proctor Center Swimming Pool where I’m told, though I never actually witnessed it, that after the blacks swam in the pool in the morning, the pool was drained and refilled for the whites who swam in the afternoon. We frequented such eateries as the Chicken Shack and Big John’s BBQ.

For entertainment we went to the Warner Theater where the admission was .09 cents for a double feature. We loved to watch our heroes Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Johnny Mack Brown, Hop-a-long Cassidy, and Lash Larue. On Saturdays we could venture down to the Avon theater for slight elegance.

And we had Baty’s Barn where we went to see stars like James Brown, Jackie Wilson, Sam Cooke, Ike and Tina Turner and others.

We had few black heroes, role models or mentors. Though actually there were many of that day and yesteryear but we had no formal knowledge of them and how many there were. We were very limited in our knowledge of our history.

If we had access to a radio or a radio that was in good operating order, we were able to admire entertainers such as Lena Horne, Billy Holiday, Billy Eckstein, Duke Ellington and Count Bassie. Even Paul Robinson and the like.

Then there was athletes such as Jackie Robinson, Sugar Ray Robinson, Joe Louis, Satchel Paige, Larry Doby and the like.

We had little or no knowledge of WEB Dubois, Marcus Garvey, Charles Drew, A. Philip Randolph, Sojourner Truth or even Fredrick Douglass or Crispus Attucks, just to name a few of whom we became aware of later in life. The lives and historical contributions made by these great and prominent African Americans weren’t included as part of our US history coursed in our schools.

In my US history class at MTHS taught by Miss Hazel Wolfe, who was considered an authority on the history of the Civil War, we were exposed to some blacks, or Negroes as we were referred to in those days, such as George Washington Carver, Booker T. Washington, Nat Turner, Ralph Bunche, Harriet Tubman and the underground railroad and white abolitionists.

After I graduated from Manual, served four years in the Marine Corps. I returned home and attended ISU where I took a course in African American History, African American Literature and African American Music. Sometime later I remember running into Miss Wolfe and I inquired of her as to why the limited discourse on black historical contributions as an integral part of US history. Why was it that I grew up knowing more about Eleanor Roosevelt and Bess Truman than Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman? Miss Wolfe told me, rather apologetically, that the curriculum and the books were decided upon by their supervisors and they had no choice as to what or how to teach.

As I grew older in Peoria, I began to become aware of local black leaders emerging. I watched with interest and pride as they worked tirelessly to raise the consciousness of Peoria to racism, the disparate social, political and economic climate which existed and that changes needed to be made.

As the civil rights movement became more prominent, black leaders in Peoria took their places at the helm. Great leaders such as Harry Sephus, John Gwynn, Rev. CT Vivian, Jim Peeples, Jim and Sam Polk and even a young John Stenson who later became the Chief of the Peoria Police Dept.

Sit-ins, marches, boycotts were all a part of the 50’s and 60’s to include the riots in 1968 and the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.. I remember clearly and vividly the day Dr. king was assassinated. I remember how angry I was. It seemed to be the culmination of every unjust discriminatory act I’d experienced through my childhood, as a marine and as a firefighter.

As I arrived the next morning after the assassination and a night of fires and rioting in Peoria, I found the rather large kitchen at Central Fire Station, located where the civic Center now stands, full of firefighters from outlying stations and the off-going shifts. I was met with a barrage of racial epithets which sparked a confrontation between myself and a fellow firefighter. This, again, was one of those times when I was reminded that I was a part of a segment of the community with little or no economic or political power and no representation.

But you know even with all that, I believe we live in exciting, exceptional and extraordinary times. We’ve witness the advent of supersonic travel: space travel and man walking on the moon. We have high speed rail, the internet. We’ve witnessed the harnessing of the atom and the tragedy of the assassinations of our great leaders; President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert Kennedy and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. which signaled to the world that there was a severe lacking in the American promise that “all men are created equal and are endowed with certain inalienable and equal rights that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

But with the inauguration of Barack Obama as President of the United States and leader of the free world, we’ve reaffirmed to ourselves and the world that we’ve come a long way towards meeting that promise.

These truly are extraordinary times in which we live. The election of Barack Obama has generated unprecedented participation in the political process, more trust and more confidence in the one man one vote philosophy. More people now have faith in government. It’s not they believe that government is required to issue handouts but that government has a moral and constitutional obligation to do for its people that which cannot possibly do for itself and that government, meaning our elected representatives, will put the welfare of the people ahead of personal and party politics.

Most of the people are moving toward the middle and rejecting the politics of the far right ultra conservatives and far left ultra liberals. With all this newfound participation in the electoral process, future election results will reflect that what people want and need is leadership which benefits the people and not either party at the expense of the people.

Politics in America is changing and this change was initiated by a one-time community activist who through that activism was able to feel the pulse and the heartbeat of the people and concluded that government supposedly of the people, for the people and by the people is not working. It has lost touch with the people. Maybe our government reps need to come down from their ivory towers and spend some time with the people and the community activists.

Peoria is a great city. I’ve always thought that it has yet to reach its maximum potential. It has a trained and qualified workforce; access to major highways; railways systems; a major highway and airport. It has heavy and light industry, great hospitals and trauma centers.

What it needs is someone who can revitalize citizen concern and involvement. Someone who will reinstill confidence in city government. Someone who cares for ALL of the people ALL of the time.

General Parker is that person. He has his roots in this community. He really cares about improving the school system and our children receiving a quality education. He cares about economic development; attracting more business and increasing employment opportunity. He will work 24-7 to stem the tide of foreclosures and layoffs. He wants to work towards the revitalization of older neighborhoods; reduce crime and ensure that our police and fire departments have sufficient and qualified personnel with quality capital and equipment. He will be a mayor for ALL the people.

I’m familiar with former mayors Lehnhausen, O’Brien, Carver, Maloof, Grieves and I’m somewhat familiar with Ransburg and of all, Mayor Maloof, in my opinion, was the most sensitive to and understood the needs of all the people of Peoria.

So I’m asking each and every Democrat and Democratic leader in Peoria to support this candidacy. I’m asking all the members of the Peoria County Democratic Committee to put their support behind General for Mayor of Peoria. I’m asking every Democrat on the Peoria City Council to stand with one of their own and support General for Mayor of Peoria. I’m asking every Peoria Democrat in the state legislature, Peoria School Board and Peoria County Board to endorse this candidacy. I’m asking labor officials to support a labor candidate. When we have Democratic candidates for office, other Democrats traditionally heed that call.

General will put Peoria first. So let’s give the people a choice. Let’s give them an alternative. Let’s support him. Let’s get involved. Give of your time and your finance and your vote. Thanks and God bless you all.

P.O. Box 3026
Peoria, IL 61612-3026
(309) 696-7930

-30-

Comment by Ed Dentino, March 7, 2009:

I really enjoyed John Parker's article. Certainly John gave a personal account of Peoria that explains the possibilities and shortcomings of our city's and nation's culture. Having known or gone to school with Stenson, Brooks, Falkner, and spending my school years at Roosevelt, and Manual and playground experiences at Proctor Center, I found many tangents in my past to John's.

The huge difference in our experience growing up was the sense of place. I never thought of places I shouldn't go because of my being a Italian/English (50/50) American. I was often warned to be careful when going around the city, but not in a way that seemed dramatically threatening.

Unfortunately, many people that now live in those same neighborhoods worry and live in the turmoil of gangs, drugs, vandalism, assault, murder as part of the daily and weekly news that surround their homes. Not a good thing for Peoria.. Not a good thing for Illinois. And not a good thing for the United States. The dynamics of improvement are there, but should have been in place over 40 years ago.

As it stands now, General cannot be mayor. However he can still be a community asset and example of personal success that is needed. I support his community concerns and feel that the opportunity to share the limelight will add focus to problems that need attention. -30-

Phil Farmer and the 'What ifs?'

PEORIA -- Here's a terrific piece from Mike Foster about Phil Farmer, internationally known author and Peoria resident who died this week at age 91.

"All fantasy writing is about working out the 'What ifs?'"

Phil Farmer said that while discussing his novel '"To Your Scattered Bodies Go" with my Illinois Central College Fantasy Literature class 30 years ago.

I noted the 'What if' thrill I got in high school reading his "The Alley God" about the last surviving Neanderthal man living alone in a home-made shack down by the tracks outside...my gosh, is that Bartonville?

Phil's conversation was deep and droll, liable to leap from Hollywood to Valhalla. One of the most well-read men I've met, he used his knowledge to twinkle, not to dazzle.

Visiting his house was like stepping into a miniature Rivendell full of wonders and tales of them. Bette his wife's hospitality matched his gregariousness perfectly.

What if a bookish boy from Peoria Central could write his way to international renown and modest fortune?

What if he moved back from California, kept on writing, founded a local Sherlock Homes Society, and enjoyed a long and genial life, befriended by many, just famous enough?

Working out all the 'What ifs?' Phillip Jose Farmer did that very well indeed.

Mike Foster, Metamora

Wow -- beautifully written!

-- Elaine Hopkins

Remembering Bill Conver

PEORIA -- Journalist Bill Conver died on Jan. 31 at age 92. He was a columnist, copy editor, assistant editor and more at the Peoria Journal Star for years until his retirement in 1982. He also was a founder of the Peoria Newspaper Guild, the union of reporters and circulation district managers at the PJS.

Here are colorful memories of Conver from retired Illinois Central College journalism professor Mike Foster:

Bill Conver was my first, and one of my best, teachers of news and feature reporting and writing and editing.

We first met in June 1964 when I, freshly graduated from Spalding as he had been 30 years earlier, came to the nightside newsroom as the ’64 PJS scholarship winner. He showed me to the copy boy’s chair and described that routine to me, wasting no words.

There I sat with Willard Johnson, the wire editor, to my left on the desk. Dan Shea was usually in the slot; Bob Liter was on the rim: great teachers, each of them.

When I returned after freshman year at Marquette, I began wiping the desk with copy paper and filling the paste-pots.

“What are you doing?” asked Bill. “You’re a reporter now.”

And so I was, dropped into the deep end of the pool, as it were, sink or swim.

With the help of Bill and city editor John R.C. Armstrong, I swam.

During vacation summers and Christmas breaks, I returned to the newsroom until 1969, when I moved to Milwaukee to get my MA in English.

After I joined the English faculty at ICC and advised the student newspaper there, Bill and the lessons he taught me informed my J-teaching from 1973 to 2005.

Outwardly gruff, Bill was generous and genial in truth. He evoked Porkypine, a favorite character from Walt Kelly’s Pogo comic strip. “Rowrbazzle” indeed.

I still miss that ‘Sixties smell of hot lead type and fresh ink, of tobacco smoke and high anxiety. But Bill and the lessons he taught me that I passed onto others are always with me.

Rest in peace, Bill.

-- Mike Foster, Metamora, IL

50 Years: The good old days

Here's an interesting post by Ed Dentino who lives in East Peoria:

EAST PEORIA -- Occasionally, I get messages giving expression to how wonderful it was in the good old days. The authors lament changes they are prejudiced against, and blame politicians for what has, in their view, made living in the United States so much less enjoyable.

If you picked up a birthday card reading '1958' and read through it, the economic, cultural realities would appear to be very different, almost odd.

In 1958, a refrigerator and transistor radio were 'hi tech' devices. Cancers of many kinds were common killers that are stoppable and curable today. An "Indy" car could win the race at 120 mph. A house could be bought, with lot and utilities, for under $20,000. A new car could be bought for under $2,000. The progressive income tax was much steeper and being a 'millionaire' was a phenomenon. Illinois had a progressive automobile tax based on horsepower. Illinois did not have an income tax, but there was a property tax.

I recall the time pretty well, and it was pleasant. I was 14, going to Roosevelt Junior High School. 'I like Ike' Eisenhower was president and we seemed to be comfortable, even though teachers told us to get under our desks occasionally, or go to the basement, or go outside, for various drills of 'emergency' needs. Alaska and Hawaii were new states.

I don't put any cultural, religious, economic or political baggage into my thoughts about the past. Leave that to the movie makers who can script and costume actors and sets. Reverence for history and the past is to see both the good and bad, the conservation of resources and basic culture, and to recognize that progress is moving us toward benefits of many kinds.

In 1958, opportunity was talked about as being available, yet banks and property sellers 'red lined' the cities - blocking opportunities for housing. Corporations discriminated. Stores discriminated.

Jesse Owens, Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron, Sugar Ray Robinson, Althea Gibson, were sports heroes, along with many who had served in World War II and Korea, who were not able to eat at local cafes or use 'white only' water fountains and toilets in Southern States. Asians, Hawaiians, Indians, and Mexicans were part of the discriminated against population even though their ancestral roots were deeper in North American soil than most of the European heritage Americans.

I don't think the clock will run backwards. Even if politicians, along with courts and corporations, have enabled and affected the social, cultural, religious, and political dynamics of our nation, the country is very different, with a very different cast of characters.

Apparently, the authors lamenting the glory of the old days hasn't recalled that the Constitution of the United States of America and its Bill of Rights was a charter to enable freedom and citizen participation in government.

Now, we see the complex society, with its economic dynamics and social identity recognitions that were not visible in 1958. Several had existed since before the Constitution was written, and grew and became part of our current identity with progress that should be admired and problems that require critical thought to resolve.

Giving the country and its political power to the wealthiest people would not make that change, only confirm this progress to the dust bin of history. Warren Buffet and Bill Gates aren't talking about using their wealth to get the country back to 1958. They talk about the opportunities to use resources in progressive and problem solving ways for the United States and other countries around the planet.

The writers longing for seamless, timeless conformity to a single standard would probably enjoy living in Saudi Arabia.

-- Ed Dentino

COMMENTS: Oct. 15, 2008.

Dianne Beetler writes:

I remember 1958. I was seven years old, and my second grade teacher read "Old Yeller" to the class every day after lunch.

Two rooms of the old farmhouse where we lived weren't wired for electricity. Water came from a hand pump in the kitchen and was heated on the electric stove by my Mom. We used the laundry tubs for bathing, except during the summer, when we utilized my dad's homemade shower in one of the farm sheds.

The "little house out back" functioned as a bathroom. Two little neighbor kids walked half a mile to our house one winter day, and my Mom was appalled because they weren't wearing gloves. We didn't have much, but she scrounged around and found some mittens for them to wear home.

That may have been the winter my parents decided that a couple of nights were too cold too sleep in the bedrooms upstairs. They spread sheets on the living room floor (directly above the furnace in the cellar), and we slept on the floor covered with blankets.

1958 wasn't a bad year, and 2008 isn't either. The best time to live is the time you're given! -30-

Remembering: lessons on life

PEORIA -- Here's a guest commentary by Ed Dentino, a good break from the crashing financial markets:

On Sports and Life by Ed Dentino

“It's not if you win. It's not even how you play. It's how you value yourself and what you learn when the game is over that really counts.”
-- Lou Tice, The Pacific Institute

Lots of adults and children engage in activities for reasons other than to climb a ladder or be the top dog.

We have become a culture of people over-hyping and over-paying sports players, racers, entertainment personalities, and even corporate heads based on a myth that their high achievement is so singular that the parts and participation of others is diminished.

We used to be a country that valued every effort and contribution to the well being of our nation. That reached a peak in World War II and continued momentum through the 1950s. The Vietnam era started the change that pulled the country away from that basic value.

There were and still are localized identities based on race, economic strata, religion, national origin. These are getting blurred as men and women of various groups achieve in sports, business and politics the status and power that was, prior 1950 largely the domain of the WASP – white anglosaxon protestant people.

My personal experience with sports does not include very much of the organized competitive sports. I was pretty athletic, played many sports as a kid growing up and later through life.

I played sandlot street baseball, football, basketball games and backyard badminton. At Roosevelt School, in my weight class, I was fairly fast running, tried basketball and football - did not have enough size or motivation. I remember bowling at the old Peoria Auto Parts bowling lanes for a couple of seasons. Used a pair of my Dad's old bowling shoes and got the lanes user balls to participate.

Dad and I went to Proctor Center almost every summer night and I played tether ball, which I excelled in. Two of the outstanding tether ball players I recall were Grant Morgan who I played a lot and learned from, and Gene Abraham, who only played a couple of times but was excellent- great speed and timing, the natural.

I began playing tennis at 13 at Proctor Center. Mr Dixon, a coach from Pekin instructed the first year, and Ross Canterbury, now a Peoria attorney instructed the second.

During my Manual High School years, I went to the YMCA three or four days and evenings a week. Was a Junior Leader in the gym, under Mike Chinakas. I remember Manual friend Stan Burke and Central High School friend Cliff Guenter were also Junior Leaders. Stan became a teacher, then later a teacher's union administrator. Did gym stuff, handball, and squash rackets, and table tennis at the YMCA. I recall table tennis player Adrian Hinton was especially helpful and coached me a bit.

Played intramural basketball at Manual High School. Our team did very well. I recall Mr. Aiello was the director/scorekeeper. Years later seeing Mr Aiello at a care home, I always asked: "Mr Aiello, we're have a basketball game - Can you keep score?" That always got a smile from him.

In my Manual sophomore year, I encouraged Principal Mr. Weldin to restart the tennis team. I played my junior and senior year. Mr. Tim Gorman coached the first year, then took on the golf coach job. Mr. Bob Funk coached the second year. We won zero tennis events with the other schools. But it was still a good experience and I recall a couple of the other school players that I liked: Roger Allen of Woodruff High School, later on the Peoria Park Board, Dick Rist, of Richwoods High School, Greg Fulford, Richwoods, Bo Bacheldor, also Richwoods.

In my senior year at Manual, I was a basketball team manager - got to carry towels and do scoring and shot charts on the bench with the team. Mr Wilkinson was the coach - later became Woodruff High School Principal.

Except for buying a tennis racket, paying YMCA membership dues, an allowance that got me bus fare to the Y, my parents saw very little of that activity. I was on my own.

Later sports activities including snow skiing (started in Berchesgarden Germany), water skiing, and racket ball with a Caterpillar group that played at what eventually became a Cat facility. Later, I began bowling with a Cat group and also a wheelchair group.

I have resumed playing table tennis, canoing, motorcycle and bicycle riding (very little).

Square dancing, a recreation that takes a bit of coordination and athletic perception, became a very big activity for me in 1985. It connected me with a very wide cross section of people, from America and abroad, in Peoria, Chillicothe, Kewanee, Macomb, Taylorville, Saint Louis, Sheboygan, Wisc. Los Angeles --that was great for gaining appreciation of others sharing a heartfelt recreation.

All of this has been a series of experiences that produced no gold metals or a trophy case of shiny metal and marble. Just sweat, running after balls that had to be picked up and memories of people and places that I've experienced.

The experiences of those 50 years (I'm now 63) have been filled memories of people, places, and stories that would take a book to fill. The health I've enjoyed, the social and cultural contacts have been the benefit and blessing of my sports and recreation participation. This has given me a treasure in memories. -30-

Ed Dentino worked at Caterpillar, Inc., for 37 years as an engineering technician before he retired in 2000. He's a US Air Force veteran, and now pursues various interests from photography to motorcycles.