Oral History: Marietta DeShields (Andre Thomas)

Posted by Andre Thomas in AFRICAN AM HISTORY - Roy - E on

Voice 006
Abstract
In this interview Marietta DeShields recalls her earliest memories of the Philadelphia Civil Right's Movement, and how it led to the shaping of our society today. Towards the beginning of said interview she speaks of her involvement in the protests to get African-American workers into the construction of the Caucasian-only Strawberry Mansion. She recalls Philadelphia as a neutral area during the period of the CVR up until Segregation ended. She says of those times "I was never called a derogatory term. We were treated as a citizen, but you could feel that you were unwanted as an African-American." 

Research
The articles I found were almost exactly what Mrs. Deshields said, claiming that while Philadelphia was way more respectful of African-Americans, but Caucasians wanted no part of their company in work, in public, or even while moving around the city. The feeling of being unwanted that Mrs. Deshields spoke on was a little more than what she described. I found that at one point all the workers in the city organized a strike to avoid having to work with Colored People. I have no specifics on the overall vibe of the protests, but it's certain that this hostility was due to a tension between the races and being placed as equal would be seen as demeaning to some. Even though this happened in the North this isn't surprising as a city picking up on the trends of the world around them is a natural occurrence. Though the North is thought to be better than the South this does not mean we would be without any flaws of our own: though they were very brutal to African-Americans history shows we were too, just very subtly. The Civil Rights Era marked a period of rebirth for America, one that showed us what we had to build on in order to become better for the future.

Sources:
http://northerncity.library.temple.edu/content/historical-perspective/why-philadelphia 
http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/events/4279/civil_rights_movement/532945 
http://hsp.org/sites/default/files/legacy_files/migrated/legacies1110article4.pdf 

Transcript (excerpt)

Andre Thomas: I’m not going to ask you these questions in any particular order….they’re kinda disarrayed. So.....how has racism changed since you were younger?

Marietta Deshields: Well, when I was younger there were certain places you couldn’t go. You really wasn’t wanted actually. Certain schools...uh...you could not go to those schools. You just were not accepted and you felt it. You could actually tell the difference in the attitudes of how people were at the time. And you wanna know about how it is now?

AT: Mm-hmm

MD: Now it’s better... people have an opportunity to show their talents. They had the talents at the time, but it was stifled because they were afraid to show it. So I see a big change in the entertainment field and politics.

AT: What was your first experience with discrimination?

MD: My first experience with discrimination was...we had a party. It was just an ordinary house party and it got raided. And all we were doing was just sitting there, but the cops came in and they took us to jail. We stayed in jail all night. They fingerprinted us and also took our pictures, and I’m sure if you looked at the record books in City Hall you would see my face.

AT (Follow up): So what was that like. How did you feel at that moment?

MD: I felt prejudice. I felt that we hadn’t done anything that would cause us to go to jail. But, uh, I just felt that it was discrimination.

AT: How do you recall the events of the Civil Rights Movement (CVR)?

MD: Well the first one that I remember *cough* was, uh, when they were building Strawberry Mansion High School. And, uh, they didn’t have any Black electricians. Now many Black people had that ability. But because they didn’t, uh, hire them, we walked around the school and we protested. So the Black, uh, laborers that were working, they all walked off the job. And I can remember walking around the school, my youngest daughter was about 1 year old and I had her on my shoulders as we were protesting against the construction workers.

AT (Follow up): Um, about when was that?

MD: Uh, 1962, uh, also I can remember a Black person being shot in North Philadelphia and there was riots. Now the protest it started off nicely but then everybody got really hype and excited, and they started looting. They started breaking into stores and things like that, and I remember being caught up in that situation. And for some odd reason you get this sensational feeling that you have accomplished something but when you get home you realize that you didn’t. And that was not going to be the way for us to get justice in North Philadelphia.

AT: Sorry to hear. So what was it like growing up in those times? Like what feelings did you face, what did you encounter on a daily basis that you feel was unordinary?

MD: On a daily basis I thought that I would never measure up. But my very best friend, that I love to this very day, was Caucasian. She lived about 5 doors from me. And she would come out every Saturday, and she would give me a brush and I would brush her hair. And I used to think that her hair was the most beautiful hair I had ever seen- I thought mine was horrible but I thought hers was beautiful. But then I had woke up one day and they had moved. She didn’t tell us they were moving. To this very day, I think about her because she didn’t make me feel like I was Black: she made me feel like I was equal to her. I think about her a lot her name was Marie. That’s all I remember.

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