Marshall, Texas I

THE INSTITUTE OF TEXAN CULTURES Oral History Office INTERVIEW WITH: Inez Jenkins DATE: October 20, 1993 PLACE: Marshall, Texas INTERVIEWER: Cheri Wolfe, Research Associate TAPE I, Side 1 CW: This is Cheri Wolfe, and it is October 20, 1993. And I am visiting with Ms. Inez Jenkins here at her home on Black Street in Marshall, Texas. And we are going to be talking about the Civil Rights Movement here in Marshall and it's aftermath. Where were you born Ms. Jenkins? IJ: I was born in Rochelle, Louisiana, but lived in Alexandria, Louisiana, which is my native hometown. My father had two businesses in Rochelle, and it just happened that my mother was there when I was born. But, my native home is Alexandria, Louisiana. CW: What year were you born in? IJ: 1915. CW: Oh! IJ: Yes! CW: How did you make your way to Marshall? IJ: Well, my profession was that of personnel administration in higher education, I was the dean of women with a master's degree in religion and philosophy from 2 Hartford Seminary IJ: Foundation. And so in those days higher education had a more, what shall I say, focus on the humanities. And so, ah, several college presidents considered me qualified to serve as dean of women and professor of religion and philosophy. I'm a graduate of Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana, and I had the good fortune to have been recommended to Hartford by the president of that University and his wife. They were sponsors of the senior class, so he recommended me after I finished my master's degree to Dr. Horace Mann Bond who then was president of Port Valley State College in Georgia. So my first job was with Dr. Bond in Georgia as dean of women and professor of social science. And from there I was invited to Southern University, which at that time was the largest land grant college for Blacks in the world. And I was dean of women there. And the job was a little bit too extensive for me to teach, so I was an administrator - 5,000 students, 8 dormitories, 12 people on my staff, and 3 secretaries. I must have been about 26 years old then. But I think my mother had trained me to be a person of some serious, you know, orientation. And I enjoyed my experience with the students in the first three colleges where I worked. Port Valley State College was one of finest scholars in the world. Horace Mann Bond was sort of a fair-haired child of Julius Rosenwall Fund. And Julius Rosenwall Fund expended great interest and funds into the development of Black education. 3 And then from there, of course, I went to IJ: Southern; Southern, as I said, was the largest Black land grant college, and then from there to my old alma mater where I was dean of women and associate professor of religion and philosophy. And it happens that this was before the age of Black education; we were segregated in the south. But all who were interested in Black education at that time saw that the greatest scholars and the great figures of that time visited our campus, so that our kids were exposed to people like Aldous Huxley, cultural leader, artist Marian Anderson, political leaders, cultural leaders, Dorothy Mae Knorr. You name them and they were brought to these colleges to give the young people an acculturation and a kind of cosmopolitan knowledge, you know. And when they went into schools as professors or teachers, whether they were at the elementary, secondary, or higher education level, they had a lot to give; not just from the textbook, but from their cultural experiences. The Black colleges were wonderful institutions in those days. We at Dillard, we had one of the first Black dramatists in the south, Randolph Edmunds. My brother and I were a part of his drama team, and we traveled the country. And in later years, I traveled with the Dillard University players, as their sponsor and chaperone, to the American Association's 100th anniversary at Grinnel College in Iowa. And I must have had about 20 students with me, and it was a wonderful experience to be a part of the celebration of the 4 American Missionary Association century celebration. And IJ: that's the kind of exposure that Blacks of my generation had, so that we were aware of segregation, but the impact did not make us dysfunctional. I guess I would use that term. In other words, we were motivated to develop ourselves into the best persons that we could be. And our college life was so rich, you know, that we really didn't miss too much of being, as we are now, integrated. Because the culture came to us. So we professors and administrators brought it to us. So now that was the progression of my being born in a small, I would say hamlet, near Alexandria, Louisiana, but reared there and trained in the the church- related schools of Alexandria - Lamden College and A.M.E. School, and then later at the Catholic high school. And my favorite teacher of all time is a nun, a White nun, by the name of Sister Theresa. And I had that kind of exposure and orientation. And then my mother became dean of women in a small A.M.E. college - A.M.E. supported college - in Jackson, Mississippi. And there again we were sheltered. We were reared, the kids of my generation were reared, in a very sheltered way. Religion was a great influence in our life. The church was the center of Black life in almost every community that you could name. And it seems as though I'm painting, you know, a bright picture, but it was wonderful! And our parents wanted to see that their children were educated. As my mother said, she did not wish to raise an 5 ignorant child - no one that would steal or lie. This is what she said to my brother and me. So I think I was IJ: fortunate and there were many like me. Louisiana had such beautiful people, both White and Black. And there was a mixture of White and Black, so that out of that mixture came the most beautiful women and handsome young men that you would see anywhere in the world. And maybe it was sort of special, maybe that wasn't the general, you know, picture. But to some extent I think it was, because most of us came out of a rural urban background, but we were exposed to the best that our parents could provide for us at that time. So now, as I said, the progression was from, I would say, Alexandria to Jackson, Mississippi, back to New Orleans, Louisiana, at Dillard, then to Hartford Seminary and from Hartford Seminary to Port Valley State College as dean of women and professor of social science. And then from there to Southern University and back to Dillard, and then I took my mother to California for her health. She was a cardiac patient, and I had to take care of her. My brother was in Los Angeles. He was a graduate of Dillard, as well, was a captain in World War II - the first Black to lead a regiment against the Japanese in the South Pacific. And when he returned to his wife in Los Angeles, he decided to settle there, which meant that I took my mother there. And for a while I worked in an office, in a firm, because I knew how to type, and taught in one of the high schools part-time. And 6 somehow I did not like Los Angeles, you know, it was too mobile. It would seem that people who lived on the west side worked on the east side and vice versa IJ: and it was so near the horizon, you know. And I was accustomed to the placid climate, you know, of the south, the deep south. And I had an invitation to come to Marshall, Texas, to serve as dean of women and professor of religion at Bishop College, which was a Baptist-related school. And my mother's health had improved so that she was willing for me to come. She said, "Now I'm not going to go with you; I'm going to wait to find out whether you are satisfied there. If you're satisfied, then you can come and get me." So I came. And it was a campus of faith, although not a very beautiful campus. But when one walked on that campus, one felt a sort spiritual sense, you know, of faith. But it was a renowned college for the training of ministers - Black ministers - in east Texas, and teachers as well. And I served there six years here, and then the college moved to Dallas. Parents asked me to accompany their kids to Dallas, because they said they didn't want them in the Big D without someone who knew them, you know, and cared about them. And I remained there three years until Mr. Kennedy was assassinated. And I won't go into all of the experiences, but they were rich experiences in Dallas. Dallas really just spread the red carpet for Bishop College - both White and Black. And a group of Jewish couples came together. They were so 7 impressed by the College and what we were doing, that they formed a group to provide support for Bishop College.

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