Interview with Willie Mims 2006 Part 1

Karen Olsen, Mark Harris, William Mims

Video recording

2007

video recording

Lane County History Museum

MARK HARRIS Mark Harris here and Willie Mims in the living room of the, what used to be the guesthouse, now Annie D’s, more about that later. Let’s talk about Tent City. Tent City also known as Ferry Street for about a century before the founding of Eugene proper was kind of a transient camp on the other side of the river about where Alton Baker Park and now Lithia Nissan are at the moment. And basically Eugene followed the same pattern that the state of Oregon did in terms of banning black people from within the state limits and also within the city limits. But of course, being as we are a global people and we’re used to going everywhere, we came wherever there was work. And whether or not we were allowed to live in town. And so the other side of the Ferry Street Bridge was a community that came to be known as Tent City, and you are, at the moment, one of the few handful that are alive to remember that. Can you talk about that? WILLIE MIMS We actually identified that area as ‘Across the Bridge.’ MARK HARRIS [laughs] ‘Across the Bridge,’ okay. WILLIE MIMS Um, because there was other spots that black people had settled. And Glenwood we called it Skunk Hollow. MARK HARRIS Skunk Hollow. WILLIE MIMS So and, so those first basic two places, but ‘Across the Bridge’ was really the first place. My family came…my family came here in 1946. The Reynolds was already there, and also there was another family called the Johnsons who lived, lived, who lived down in, a little further, but in the same, same area. My father migrated, my family migrated here from Oak Ridge. But, my father was employed by the railroad and decided that wasn’t—that wasn’t the employment that he needed for his family. And this was after World War II, and my father had migrated from Texas to Vancouver Washington, the work in the shipyards. And after World War II when bla—many blacks lost their lost their jobs to returning soldiers, was the cause of our migration. And so when we moved to…to the area across the river, it was basic, basically a wood lot for, for EWEB [Eugene Water and Electric Board]. EWEB was the supplier of steam heat for the city MARK HARRIS Steam heat, okay right [speaking unclear]. WILLIE MIMS —for the city of Eugene and, and that’s where they stored their wood. MARK HARRIS Hm. WILLIE MIMS So it was just like regular chopped wood for the fire place in large, huge piles, and trucks was in and out, day in and day out abringin’ new woods in, new wood in but all you seen was wood, wood all across, and that was the playground. In fact, some wood had to be moved aside for the families to build their small shelters. MARK HARRIS Okay. WILLIE MIMS —which was really shacks. MARK HARRIS Shacks. Yeah. WILLIE MIMS Our first shelter over there was a, a wood, was a wood, wood siding, and the dirt was the floor and…the wood siding came about waist high—and from there, there was a tent put up— MARK HARRIS Okay, okay, like an army tent? WILLIE MIMS Yeah. MARK HARRIS Okay. WILLIE MIMS Nowadays it would be like a large camping tent. MARK HARRIS Okay. WILLIE MIMS And I don’t quite remember how the family cooked. Maybe it was on portable kerosene stoves. We moved, we moved from there, we moved, we moved from there probably about 6 or 7 months later—probably where Staff Jenning is located now. MARK HARRIS Okay, where the boat, where the boats— WILLIE MIMS Yeah. M H —the boat sales place. WILLIE MIMS And to a little bit better, better shelter, my father got about 3 feet off the ground, and they built a wood floor, so there was—wood shiplap which was the throw-away lumber for sawmill, mill of the day, and—and also they would build a roof, not the type of roof that we generally think on a, on a house— MARK HARRIS No 3 tab— WILLIE MIMS No 3 tabs at all, but it was a roof anyway, and we, and we moved up to a wood burning stove. MARK HARRIS Okay. WILLIE MIMS Which also was the heat for the house. MARK HARRIS Okay. WILLIE MIMS We carried water from, we carried water from a service station across the Coburg Road and— MARK HARRIS Where would that be? Where the car dealership is, or— WILLIE MIMS Uh no, not that far— MARK HARRIS Okay. WILLIE MIMS Ah, it’s this way [gestures] where there’s a building that they put up there, a white building that was first a restaurant, but I think they use it for offices now. MARK HARRIS Okay. WILLIE MIMS And, and we would carry, you know, we would carry water from the service station for cooking and bathing and drinking. MARK HARRIS Okay. WILLIE MIMS And our, our lavatory facilities was an outdoor house. MARK HARRIS Outhouse. WILLIE MIMS Yeah, which was a, which was a pit in the ground in a little booth. And, and my mother and Mrs. Washington and Mrs. Reynolds was the pioneers for Saint Mark’s Church, which first existed over there. I was in grade school and the wood and the rivers which was off limits really, got my butt whipped a couple times by Mrs. Reynolds—well she—well, it was the whole village— MARK HARRIS [laughing] Yes right, it takes a whole village to raise a single child, right. WILLIE MIMS And the first mama to reach you, you know your woes was on, you know, so uh— MARK HARRIS So if Annie couldn’t get to you then Mattie would, or Bertha would or whoever. WILLIE MIMS Yeah, yep. Mrs. Reynolds— MARK HARRIS Okay. WILLIE MIMS And until they died, no matter how large we got, they still thought that was their privilege to, [laughs] you know, so uh, so—you know I grew up in the wood lot, and of course during that time there was, the people —as blacks moved over there, and fairly soon there was several families that moved in there, and down where the cut off is, Coburg going towards I5 [Interstate 5], there was a meat packing plant. MARK HARRIS Right. A rendering plant. WILLIE MIMS Yeah. Well, no this was a meat packing plant. MARK HARRIS Okay. WILLIE MIMS McBroom’s Meat Packing plant. And, and at that time people didn’t—most people of the community did not know it, anythings about hamhocks and chittlins and neck bones and pig ears, but these folks from the south knew all about that. MARK HARRIS From the south did, Right, right. And so they gave you that stuff free. WILLIE MIMS Yes, all of that was thrown away. Of course, they got wised up, wised up to that about ten years later— MARK HARRIS Right. WILLIE MIMS —including Safeway— MARK HARRIS Right. WILLIE MIMS So—[laughing] so the freedom slowly but surely moved away from us, you know. MARK HARRIS Yeah. WILLIE MIMS So I went to Willa Gillespie, it was my first and last elementary school that I went to, and of course I walked to school, and we, we had a visit from the Willamette River once a year for the couple years we lived over there MARK HARRIS You mean it flooded! WILLIE MIMS Yeah, I guess you could say that. MARK HARRIS A visit! [laughing] The other day you said, ‘the river reclaimed the land’— WILLIE MIMS Yeah. MARK HARRIS That’s good from yeah, the river’s point of view, but— WILLIE MIMS Yeah. MARK HARRIS It flooded—so where did you go then? WILLIE MIMS Ah, we went to the Osburn Hotel which—which was located where the County Building is now. MARK HARRIS Right. WILLIE MIMS And was owned by the Earleys. MARK HARRIS Okay. WILLIE MIMS And which my father after—of course all guys, most of the men, first Mr. Reynolds, Mr. Nettles, my father, these guys all had a lot of experience in the south before the war and when they were kids because I think my father went to work in the sawmill at the age of 8 MARK HARRIS Mm-hm. WILLIE MIMS —to help is family you know, for—his family, but he worked his way up where he was—he was second in charge of Mr. Poole, you know, it wasn’t companies— MARK HARRIS Right. WILLIE MIMS —in the south it was family-owned. MARK HARRIS Family business. Family-owned sawmills. Yeah. WILLIE MIMS So my father was very good in—in the saw business which I learned later, because an episode came up where he was just happened to be following, going along with a friend, and the friend couldn’t get the mill started but my father said, ‘can I take a look?’ Crawled up on it, came out said, ‘why don’t you push the button now?’ and it ran, you know. MARK HARRIS Hm. WILLIE MIMS But he could not get a job even pulling— MARK HARRIS Green chain. WILLIE MIMS —green chain MARK HARRIS Hm. WILLIE MIMS So most of the blacks came to town, they, most of the blacks came to town, left town— MARK HARRIS Yeah. WILLIE MIMS —but those that stayed had families and, and pretty much just kind of got locked in once they got here, economically, you know, they just didn’t have money…to have the freedom to move their family wherever they’d like to go from city to city. Though single men was able to do that and most, most of the blacks that came through was single men, and those, those that settled generally brought their families later, their women and their children later. MARK HARRIS After they got a foothold. WILLIE MIMS Yeah. yeah.

Karen Olsen

mp4

Computer Disc

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