Lomaxes at printing press Caption: Almena Davis Lomax, left, with her husband, Lucius W. Lomax, Jr. in the Los Angeles Tribune print shop in the early 1950s. Photo courtesy Center for Oral and Public History

Record Keeping

Local African American Oral Histories Available at Center for Oral and Public History

By MIMI KO CRUZ

ALMENA DAVIS LOMAX, the African American journalist who served as co-publisher, editor and writer of the Los Angeles Tribune during the 1940s and ’50s, was a civil rights activist who wrote about her own experiences as well as those of leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr.

In a 1961 The Nation article, she wrote about her move from Los Angeles to Tuskegee, Ala., where she lived with her her six children.

“In common with Negroes all over the country and people throughout the world who admire courage, I had been stirred by the Montgomery bus boycott as by no single event in Negro history,” Lomax wrote. “That was the year Autherine Lucy was stoned at the University of Alabama. That was the time of Emmett Till, of Gus Courts, of Lamar Smith, of Dr. G. W. Lee, lynch and near-lynch victims in Mississippi.

“But none of these events stirred me like the story of thousands of Negroes ‘walking in dignity‘ where they had ridden so long under abuse. It was as though a signal had been given and we had begun to rise.”

That article and Lomax’s other writings, including published and unpublished works, dating from 1940 to 2007, are in a four-box collection at Emory University. A lengthy oral history of Lomax can be found at Cal State Fullerton's Center for Oral and Public History. Conducted in 1966 by COPH, Lomax talks about racism, Southern society and the Zoot Suit riots, among other related issues. The following is an excerpt:

“It’s very recent that the Los Angeles Times has hired any Negroes. They have used two pieces by me just this winter, like October, end of October, once in November, an opinion. But, I asked for a job as a columnist, and they didn’t even reply to the letter. Like, the New York Times last year. I tried to work there and they said I had too much experience and too much talent. Such a beautiful way of turning you down, to be hired as an ordinary reporter. And, I don’t fit into any of their special categories. Like, for instance, a Negro cannot be hired for an expertise in Negro life because the assumption is that you’re too involved emotionally. You ask them, ‘How does this figure with a white man? Do you give him a litmus test to see whether he is involved emotionally?’ This is one of your last barriers racially, I think, when you run into skilled or professional white persons, hostility and disinclination to believe that this Negro has the same skills he has.

“I remember when I called Montgomery when they were waiting for the Supreme Court decision on, you know, segregation on the buses in the city, you know. And, I called the Montgomery Advertiser and they thought I was white… This Grover Hall, or somebody down there, I think it was. He was telling me that blood was going to run in the streets, you know, if the decision was in favor of the Negroes. And, the city manager had said blood would run and blah, blah. I called all over Montgomery, and all the Negroes had gone underground . . . So, I ran the story the way he gave it to me, and he wrote me a letter demanding a retraction because he had said all these things which were controversial. And so, I ran his letter across the top of the page, and told him to sue me, be damned.

“I think the role of the metropolitan newspaper in the past has been to contribute to the stereotype. They have not told, pictured the Negro as he was. They did not picture the white man as he was, or as he is. They have never correctly — and, don’t today — interpret the significance of race relations or the racial things that happen, or the Negro’s particular importance or status or significance in our society, or the importance of the Negro question . . . I think that America runs away from confrontation of the Negro problem . . .

“White people, in spite of all — no matter how prejudice they feel, they are compelled toward an interest in seeing what goes on. This is human nature, you know. It’s not just Negroes buying these newspapers with these headlines or looking on TV, you know. And so then, the daily papers, to meet the challenge, had to begin to cover it. So, the Negro broke into the news . . .”

Lomax's oral history and scores of oral histories of local African Americans, recorded by historians for the university's Center for Oral and Public History, are available for public review at Pollak Library. A complete listing of the oral histories is available online. They include business executives, authors, civil rights leaders, professors, psychologists and members of the military, like John F. Smith.

There are two oral histories of Smith, a World War II veteran who broke racial barriers when he became Orange County's first African American police officer. An excerpt from one of the oral histories, conducted in 2009, can be viewed on YouTube.

COPH is open from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. It is located in Room 363 of Pollak Library. For more information about its archives, call 657-278-3580.

— Stephanie George, Center for Oral and Public History archivist, contributed to this report.

February 2, 2011

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A Different Shade of Orange

“A Different Shade of Orange: Voices of Orange County, California, Black Pioneers, 1930-1980,” an anthology featuring 28 oral histories. The book, published in 2009 by the university's Center for Oral and Public History, was edited by Charlene Riggins, lecturer of Afro-ethnic studies, and Robert Johnson, a retired engineer who, in 1966, began working to eliminate segregation of blacks in Orange County through the county’s Fair Housing Council.

The following is excerpted from Cal State Fullerton President Milton A. Gordon's preface to “A Different Shade of Orange.”

I grew up on the south side of Chicago, which was basically the African American section of the city. However, my neighborhood was an integrated working-class area of the city, which was important for my development. My parents had five children — three of whom graduated from college — which was an outstanding achievement at that time. My sisters graduated in education and I graduated with a Ph.D. in mathematics and, collectively, the three of us have over 100 years of education.

When it came time for me to attend college, I had an athletic scholarship to a Historically Black College (HBCU), Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans. My father had migrated from New Orleans to Chicago in the early 20th century and I wanted to go back to see what it was like in New Orleans and the South. The South was totally segregated at that time, and it was an eye-opening experience for me. It began when I boarded the train in Chicago. The train had separate cars for African American passengers and for white passengers and, usually, there would be a railroad car or two between those passenger cars in order to separate both groups.

During my years in New Orleans, I sat at the back of the bus, sat in balconies of theaters, ate in black-only restaurants, and suffered all the indignities of being African American in the southern part of the United States. I often look back at my years in New Orleans as some of the most important years in my life because it taught me what it was like to be a second-class citizen in my country. Hence, I knew about the South, but not about California and Orange County.

In the 22 years I have lived in California, I have come to have a much more realistic image of the state and Southern California. When I was hired as vice president for academic affairs at Sonoma State University, I had an image of California as a young state, free and open to everyone without consideration of ethnicity. Since moving to Orange County, I have African American and Hispanic friends who have told me how they were treated growing up in this county and I was shocked. To me, it sounded like the South of my college years.

For the preface for this book, it is important that I tell the story of the search process that led to my appointment as the president of California State University, Fullerton, in 1990. This is a story that is very relevant to the theme of this book — African Americans in Orange County.

In the spring of 1990, I was invited to be interviewed for the position of president at California State University, Fullerton. This was quite an honor, and my wife Marge and I were excited about the possibility. Shortly after the candidates were publicly announced for the interview, I received a phone call from a person who said he lived in Orange County. He said that I should drop out of the interview process because as an integrated couple we would not be welcome in Orange County. This was a real surprise to both of us; after all, this was 1990. That was our introduction to Orange County. We decided to go to the interview and give the campus, the community, and the California State University Board of Trustees the best interview we could and not look back. I give great credit to the campus, the community, and the CSU Board of Trustees for making the decision to follow the appointment of one African American president with a second African American president in Orange County. I also want to say that the person who made that phone call I mentioned earlier was wrong.

Over the past 18 years, we have been welcomed by both the campus and the Orange County community. During the years we have been here, we have seen significant change in the diversity of the campus, our local community, and the county at large. Cal State Fullerton students reflect the change in diversity in Orange County, southern California, and the state of California, and the majority of our students are now from underrepresented categories. We are the only four-year Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) in Orange County.

When I became president of Cal State Fullerton in 1990, we had about 630 African American students enrolled and the university graduated 67 during that academic year. We now have more than doubled that population to over 1,300 African American students, with more than 200 graduating this year. Improvements must continue until we can assure equal access for everyone.

California State University, Fullerton

Record Keeping

Local African American Oral Histories Available at Center for Oral and Public History

A Different Shade of Orange

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