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George Houser Memoir University of Illinois at Springfield Norris L Brookens Library Archives/Special Collections George Houser Memoir H817G. Houser, George b. 1916 Interview and memoir 5 tapes, 370 mins., 105 pp. WWII CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS PROJECT Houser, one of eight Union Seminary students jailed for resisting the draft during WWII, discusses pacifism, peace efforts during WWII, his decision not to register for the draft, and the consequences of his actions. He recalls his education, experiences as an exchange student to China, influences on his beliefs, and participation in civil rights demonstrations. He also discusses his work with the Congress of Racial Equality, Fair Employment Practices Commission, supporting anti-apartheid forces in South Africa, the anti-colonialist movement and liberation struggle in Africa, work with the American Committee on Africa, socialism and colonialism, and Pan-Africanism. Interview by C. Arthur Bradley, 1988 OPEN See collateral file Archives/Special Collections LIB 144 University of Illinois at Springfield One University Plaza, MS BRK 140 Springfield IL 62703-5407 © 1988, University of Illinois Board of Trustees Preface This manuscript is the product of tape-recorded. interviews conducted. by c. Arthur Bradley for the Oral History Office in 1988. Francie Staggs transcribed the tapes and Mr. Bradley ed.ited. the transcripts. Mr. George Houser reviewed. the transcript. George Houser is one of the eight Union c. o. 1 s who went to jail in 1940. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio on June 2, 1916. He grew up in Lisbon, Ohio; Manila, Philippines; Troy, New York; and Berkeley, California, where his father set.Ved churches successively as a minister and missionaxy. He graduated from Berkeley High School and then went to the College of the Pacific in Stockton for one year, was an exchange student, and graduated from the University of Denver. He had attended Union Seminary for two years when he refused. to register for the draft. After serving a prison sentence of one year at DanbuJ:y Federal Penitenticu:y, he transferred to Chicago Theological Se:minal:y for one more year of work. He received. his B.D. degree in 1947. He went to work as a full-time secretary for the Fellowship of Reconciliation from 1943-1955. While serving in this capacity first in Chicago, then in Cleveland, and finally from the main office in New York City, he became the full-tilne director of the Congress of Racial Equality. In 1955 he organized and became the first full-time executive secretaxy of the Connnittee on Africa. He retired from that position in 1981. ruring his career he has been a :board member of War Resisters League, C.O.R.E., A.C.L.U. 1 and the N.A.A.C.P. He is an ordained. minister in the United. Methodist Church. He lives with his wife, Jean, in Pomona, New York. '!hey have three married children. C. Arthur Bradley has been an Associate Conference Minister for the Illinois conference of the United Church of Christ, deployed in the Central Association in Peoria, Illinois, from 1980 to the present. Dr. Bradley grew up in Shaker Heights and Oberlin, ohio. since 1952 he has been an ordained clergyman, first in the Congregational­ Christian Churches and then after the merger in the united Church of Christ. He has served churches in New Han'q;:>sh.ire and connecticut. He holds a Bachelors degree from Hal:.va.rd College, a Masters of Divinity degree from union Theological Seminary I a Masters of Sacred Theology from Yale Divinity School, and a D::ctor of Fhilosophy in American Studies from New York university. Dr. Bradley is narried. to Jean and they have four adult children. Readers of the oral history memoir should bear in mind that it is a transcript of the spoken word, and that the interviewer, narrator and eclitor sought to preserve the informal, conversational style that is inherent in such historical sources. Sangamon State university is not responsible for the factual accuracy of the memoir, nor for views expressed therein; these are for the reader to judge. The manuscript may be read, quoted and cited freely. It may not be reproduced in whole or in part by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from the oral History Office, sangamon State university, Springfield, Illinois 62794-9243. Table of contents Ba.ckgrol.l1'lCi • • • • • • . 1 Pledges and Pacifism . • • 2 Exchange Student to China. • • • Ill • • • • Ill • • 3 Club Involvement at the University of Denver . 5 Field Work at the Church of All Nations. • • . 7 Influences and Intellectual Stimulation at Union Se:minary. • • • • • • • • • . • • 9 Decision to Not Register . • • •••• 12 Community Reaction to Decision . • • .17 Danbury Prison • . • • . ••. 18 Protests at Danbw:.y Prison . • • .21 Room. Mates While Attending Chicago Theological s~. ... .24 Building a Nonviolent World. • . • .27 FOR Cells in Chicago • • • • . ••• 30 White City Roller Rink and other Demonstrations ••..•. 32 Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) • • • Ill • • • . • . 36 Draft card Burrlings. • •• 42 Hiroshima and Nagasaki . • •• 43 Fair En'ployment Practices Corranission and Federal Racial Legislation. • . • • • • •• 44 The Church Peace Mission • . • • • • 48 campaign in South Africa • . • .51 Leaving FOR and Working With the American COmmittee on Africa . 60 Julius Nyerere and Sylvanus Olyrrpio. • . 66 George Houser, New York, July 12, 1989. c. A. Bradley, Interviewer. A: 'Ihis is Skyview Acres, a cooperative cammuni.ty. Q: Oh, is it? A: Yes, we've lived here since 1949 when this house was built. We moved in September 1, 1949, so it's almost thirty-nine years n<:M. And there's forty-five families in this community. I can show you around a little bit later on. Q: I 1 d love to see it. Why don't we start. Tell some of the influences that brought you here. That's a big order, I understand. Why don't you just tell how you came here and. brought you to that moment at union Seminacy? A: I don't know. It's not very complicated. Family backgrour::rl was a factor. My father never called himself a pacifist really. He was not a political, organizational activist, but he was a pastor, a minister, a missiona:cy--a missionary in the Philippines. I was brought up in the church. I didn't do much theologizing or philosophizing about it. The fact was that that was my environment. Also, there was an · international environment because, I guess, of the Philippines background. There was that subliminal influence of living in not just a narrow part of the world, but having it stretched out there. There was always an international flavor. I suppose it had an effect on my racial attitudes as well, because not only did we have a lot of Filipinos, when I was just a kid, in our home we had many blacks and. others who were not caucasian. The beginnings of a nore conscious, but quite elementary pacifism, I associate with my high school period in california, in Berkeley. We had a high school group in the church. My father was minister of Trinity Methodist Church in Berkeley. We had a high school group there, the name was Theta Pi. I don't even know what that means, something Greek. BJ.t we called it 'Iheta Pi. It :nru.st have been adopted a long time ago. I don't know whether it still exists. I used to go to SUil'U'l'ler institutes, which were big in the MethcxUst church--the Methodist youth movement at that time. We are talking now about the early and mid-thirties because I was in high school in Berkeley from 1931 to 1934. I graduated in 1934. Q: There was a lot of socialism there. A: Exactly, you're quite right. I was affected by some of the ministers who were the faculty at these summer institutes and I remember going to, I think, maybe three different ones each summer that I was in high school. It was a three-year stint from the tenth George Houser 2 to the twelfth grade. Places like Russian River and--well, I could mention other names, but it's not ilnportant. This was just a little pre-war, pre-Second world War, post-First World War. There was a kind of an assumed Christian pacifism--that is, everybody was antiwar. Q: Do you remember pledges? A: Yes, sure. The Peace Pledge Union, the OXford Pledge. There was something called the "Greenshirt Movement," I remember. '!here was a couple of young fellows who came to these institutes wearirq green shirts. It was kim of a peace--I don't know what happened to it or what it was, but I kind of remember that. So, I assumed that if you were a Christian, you were a pacifist. This was not basically challenged in my mind. I didn't even have to think very much about it. I was not all that conscious of the world around me during Irrf high school years. I kind of accepted it, but I don 1 t recall the organizations that l was a part of. But out of this church background, both the question of race relations and of peace were assumed and had same i.n'g:x>rtance. I graduated from high school and went to the College of the Pacific, which was a Methodist school in Stockton, California. That was the year that I kind of discovered the world. I started reading books and I took Irrf studies oore seriously than I had ever had in high school, which I don 1 t remember, you know, I sort of took it in stride. Q: What do you remember being interested in in high school, just a church youth group? A: Yes, we had this Methodist youth fellowship group.
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