Interview with Willie Mims 2006 Part 2

Karen Olsen, Mark Harris, William Mims

Video recording

2007

Video recording

Lane County History Museum

WILLIE MIMS But of course, a foothold was pretty tough because when we first got here, if I remember correctly, the railroad was not, Southern Pacific wasn’t hiring black people. MARK HARRIS Hm. WILLIE MIMS Black people only got jobs on the chains on the—like in McCredie Springs and Pryor, little names that folks never heard of, you know, Oak Ridge was the center part of the trains coming down the hill where there was a rest stop for them. My father you know, you know after months of looking and trying to get a job to support the family, most people, the guys generally found jobs shining shoes, working as bus boys, elevator operators, jobs that didn’t pay enough money to even take care of them, not only a whole family. MARK HARRIS So your father worked for Mr. Earley as a busboy even though he was trained in all phases of, you know the timber industry. WILLIE MIMS Yes. MARK HARRIS And Mr. Earley decided to buy this house, this property for you. WILLIE MIMS Yeah. MARK HARRIS Talk about that. WILLIE MIMS Well, actually we had to vacate the Ferry Street Bridge area when the—for the new construction of a bridge. MARK HARRIS Right. Basically it should be said that community was essentially bulldozed to make way for the construction of the new bridge and no, and there were no accommodations made for the families that were living there. They were essentially pushed out and the laws at the time still allowed for discrimination, so there was no talk of, you know, resettling them in town or anywhere else, even if there was room in, you know, Skunk Hollow, probably not. So usually what happened, they got pushed outside of the city limits, a large, a large migration happening at West 11th, it was called the ‘Negro Settlement’ so-to-speak. But that didn’t happen with your family. WILLIE MIMS No. No, in fact the displacement touched, you know, touched, you know, touched the heart of a few of the community people. There was two or three churches that was kind of got together, formed a committee to try to help the people find places to stay. MARK HARRIS Civic unity, yeah. WILLIE MIMS Yeah. So, so Mr. Earley, this property here at 330 and 336 High Street was for sale, and so Mr. Earley fronted, fronted as the buyer for this property for my dad since, since the, since the rules of the community at that time not to sell to black people. And so my father was able to acquire this land for $5,000 in, in 1948 and the churches did find some housing for some of the black people before they went to West 11th which is up by Campbell Center. MARK HARRIS Okay. Okay, that’s how that happened. WILLIE MIMS Yes. And so, but that was all rental. And just remember, this part of the town at that time was… was the low— MARK HARRIS Low income? Low rent district? WILLIE MIMS Well yeah, low rent district that you—in the community. Because this is, ‘cause this is the first community— MARK HARRIS Right, right. WILLIE MIMS So it had the oldest houses and, et cetera, you know. MARK HARRIS Right. WILLIE MIMS So, so, but the churches had it, and I don’t know what happened, I, it might have been that there was some design of building the Campbell Center for the seniors even during that time, but, people wasn’t allowed to buy the houses and. and somehow or another the churches found 11th street which was outside the city limits again. MARK HARRIS Right. WILLIE MIMS And it was also in, in the flood zone— MARK HARRIS Right. WILLIE MIMS —again. And so most of, most of, everybody else except my father and the Washingtons, who somehow or another had their house when we first got here, when we first moved into this area, but everyone else had to move outside the city limits. MARK HARRIS It should be said that, well when I bought a house here, they’re, what they’re called Land Covenants and basically what they say is, no person other than those of the Caucasian race shall rent, own, lease or occupy, any part of this premises except for domestic servants. Right? WILLIE MIMS Mm-hm. MARK HARRIS So that essentially allows you to discriminate against non-whites. Plus, if you are a real estate agent, so assuming your father had the money, ‘cause he did have the money to buy the property and make payments to Mr. Earley— WILLIE MIMS Mm-hm. MARK HARRIS But, if he had found a friendly real estate agent, the laws of the time meant, that if that real estate agent was caught selling to your father, they could lose their license. Banks could legally discriminate against you. So when Mr. Mims was talking about Mr. Earley fronting, that was a common technique, where a friendly white person or, you know, in his case Jewish person—Ashkenaz Jew, light-skinned Jew, could basically pass for white— WILLIE MIMS Mm-hm. MARK HARRIS —buy the property, and then immediately sell it to Mr. Mims and this is also a situation that happened with the Reynolds, except that, that the landlord there, when they found out the Reynolds were moving in actually immediately kicked them out, again over on 6th Street. So a few people were actually able to land properties within the city limits albeit, the low rent district. And now it also makes sense what you’re saying about the rentals around the Campbell Center, because there have been some observations that every time you had to beginnings of a geographic black community forming in Eugene, whether it was rental, whether it was, you know, Across the Bridge, there was some movement to eventually wipe that out. WILLIE MIMS Mm-hm. MARK HARRIS And urban renewal is one of the projects that, one of the means of doing that, and that is the Campbell Center, but it’s also the Federal Building and a few other places around as well. So um—wow. WILLIE MIMS Yeah, and you know, just for the historical point, is that when my family did move here, south of our properties…we have an alley and there, which is across from our property, which is now a car lot owned by the 5th Street Market, there was a house sitting there which was a rental— MARK HARRIS Hm. WILLIE MIMS And this lady, this lady within the first week was trying to pass a petition around uh to uh, so—uh, so that—to kick us out. And but no one else— MARK HARRIS [laughs] The renter was doing the petition. WILLIE MIMS —no one else in this community, the nearby community would sign, would sign it, so she was left alone in her despair. MARK HARRIS Not exactly a welcome wagon. Okay. WILLIE MIMS Yeah.

Karen Olsen

mp4

Computer Disc

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