Oral History- Goran Bernard

Abstract

During this interview, I, Goran Bernard interview my next door neighbor, Vivian Black. Mrs. Black describes her experiences during the civil rights movement and the privileges she experienced in her career bases however, her husband was not as lucky as she was. She grew up in Washington D.C. but then, because of her many different jobs, she was forced to move to Philadelphia to continue. “I worked first in the Navy yard, Navy department, VA department, umm… what was the other one ?....ummm… VA department, and the Pentagon! “ She also explains the fact that her husband faced a lot of segregation in Philadelphia. He was forced in different parts of the buses, yet he fought for his rights and kept his head high to prove that blacks were the same as whites, they are humans and they deserved the same rights as whites. Vivian Black also expressed her admiration towards Martin Luther King Jr. and how she went to two of his marches back in 1963. She expresses the fact that people from all over the world came to see him present his speeches and that she was very close to him when he spoke.

Research

Vivian Black, the person I interviewed spoke of many different job careers she had during the Civil Rights Movement. She also spoke of a man who went by the name of Martin Luther King Jr as well as her husband who faced a lot of segregation, especially on the buses. Whites, during the 1950s forced blacks to go to the back of the bus. Martin Luther King, however organized a boycott that changed the course of history. Whites would always intimidate blacks to get a rise of them, however Martin Luther King told them not to fight back physically, Nonviolence is absolute commitment to the way of love. Love is not emotional bash; it is not empty sentimentalism. It is the active outpouring of one's whole being into the being of another.

--Martin Luther King, Jr., 1957 He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.

--Martin Luther King, Jr. And many obliged. Dr. King was a man of great determination, He organized marches to unite everyone into one big community. On November 13, the Supreme court ruled that the bus  segregation was illegal. This ensured a great victory for the boycott and an advancement in African American history. Dr. King was a man with great guidance, during the bloody sunday march “Dr. Martin Luther King turned the marchers back around to go back to the church”, two days after that march, Dr. King “led a "symbolic" march to the bridge.” a march into equality.

Sources:

http://www.lib.lsu.edu/hum/mlk/srs216.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selma_to_Montgomery_marches

http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights/al4.htm

Oral History

May 18, 2014

INTERVIEW WITH VIVIAN BLACK

GB: Where were you born?

GB: About the civil rights movement ?

VB: It wasn’t a movement, I was working in a segregated office in Washington DC, it was veteran’s administration. I grew up in my home in Washington DC I went to school in Washington DC, and I went to College in Howard University but I left because I wanted to go work (laughs) and got a job. During the summer they would hire students, from high school, different high schools to work for the Federal Government during the summer. We worked in the summer and went back to school in the Fall, so I was lucky enough to work during those summers and I worked first in the Navy yard, Navy department, VA department, umm… what was the other one ?....ummm… VA department, and the Pentagon! We get lost every day in the Pentagon, (laughs) because it was new to me, shaped like a pentagon, I’d get lost finding my office every morning, and the security, he wasn’t the security but the guard, he would show me where my office was every morning, (laughs), I was lost getting into the new building. But , before I came to Philadelphia, I worked for the Veteran’s administration. And I happened to come here because my job was transferred to the Philadelphia VA. I didn’t know anything about Philadelphia, during that time it was 1954! I did not know anything about Philadelphia, I would only come up to see the Lincoln games, I don’t know if that answers your questions
GB: That’s fine
VB: The Lincoln games and go back home on the bus. But I had a friend who introduced me to a friend here. Her friend whose aunt lived in Philadelphia, her aunt was a sister of a musician W.C. Handy (I don’t know if you have ever heard of him but he was great musician named W. C. Handy, and I stayed with his sister) her aunt. And that’s how I happened to come and with the work for the VA on the Wissahickon Avenue. That’s where I met my husband’s sister who worked at the VA, she introduced me to my husband. That was back in 1954-55.
GB: Well, hum, so, when you did come here, so there still was segregation and all that, so how did you deal with it?”
VB: the office I worked in and even in Washington, it wasn’t segregated. it was work with all nationalities at the VA. And worked together. There weren’t any problems at all.
GB: That’s pretty good, I mean during that time….
VB: Things were different, I heard Philadelphia was really segregated, back in the.. some time ago. My husband told me about things that happened in Philadelphia. But when I came it was everything.
GB: Do you remember anything he has faced ? your husband?
VB:”I’m sorry ?
Me: Do you remember anything your husband had faced during that time?
VB: Know he told me how the trolleys were segregated and they had to get forced I think it was to,I don’t know,  to… to board the buses, to make sure that everything was safe on the buses, I think it was that so to board the buses, ugh, ugh,the service man or something that board the buses to be sure that everything was safe, people riding the buses trolleys, if they weren’t trolleys,then they were buses, they weren’t trolleys… I don’t think they had any black people drove those buses, I think they were all white all that time, it wasn’t until later years that the segregation came about with Martin Luther King.
Do you remember any … ?!!
Martin Luther KIng, I went on both marches with him…. back in 63 and the one that came after that ten year later…
GB: You went on both marches??
VA: Yes!
GB: How were those?
VA: Okay! It was just, Oh, it was just wonderful, to see so many people to see so many from all over the world come for that march in DC, and I was lucky enough to sit right near where he was speaking, so I had an opportunity to almost look into his face, that’s how close I was, my husband and I , to watch him, to listen to his speeches, the other people who spoke…
That must have been quite an experience…
It’s something to remember and it was all because of him that things happened for our benefit. For All people, it wasn’t just working for us, for me, for anybody…
GA: Thank you.

Here is a VIDEO of W.C. HANDY:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGqBmlZR3dc