"You don't need to get so buddy buddy with him."
Afterwards, no more invitations were extended to join in after school games or outings.
Closing of ranks when the wall of segregation was breached was not an isolated phenomenon. Social interaction could be a precursor to intimacy and, therefore, threatened carefully erected barriers and raised anxieties. “Well meaning” proponents of social order often interceded to keep things from going too far for the "good of all. "
In reality these were patronizing acts of racism. Lessons passed down for generations in the McGee family dictated Charles endure them with quiet dignity. So he turned a deaf ear and kept his feelings to himself. By not confronting their racist attitudes, he showed the boys more respect and common regard than they afforded him. Each incident shaped his consciousness and set the stage for future encounters in which he would not be acquiescent.
In many ways, it was easier for Charles to disregard the more blatant verbal assaults and social snubs than the racial biases in the educational system itself. Despite his outstanding performances, there were occasions when Charles did not get the recognition due him. Whether it was getting second place in the speech contest or the citizenship award he didn't win, the bias was sometimes so obvious that even white kids commented.
"You should have gotten first place. Probably the only reason you didn't is because you're Negro."
Other times it would be the solo part not considered appropriate for a colored student.
"In those days, good hearted whites would try to find a part that might be more 'typical,' so black students could participate in this type of thing (plays or chorus)."
Charles was more troubled by displays of unfairness in school. Any discrimination is disturbing, but name calling by a stranger on the street can be more easily dismissed as ignorance.
"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me."
Education was supposed to be the path to a better life. Charles' betrayal in the very institution he had been taught to revere was a particularly bitter pill. In swallowing it, it is understandable he too could become bitter and resentful. Charles, however, would not.
Perhaps his resilience stemmed from the affirmation he received from Mama Gay, the discipline instilled by the Harris’ or his father's religious teachings that all God's children are created in his image and equally important. Maybe it was his own inner voice that wouldn't make room for self doubt, but some how he was able to put these racist experiences into a larger perspective. Rather than destructive forces, they became building blocks developing his strength of character. A chip on his shoulder would not advance his cause.
Two years later in 1937, he returned to Chicago.
Charles' last year in high school was a solitary time. After years of being widowed, Lewis Sr. had taken a second wife, Luvinia, who like Lewis was involved in social work. The introduction of Luvinia came as quite a surprise, if not to the family who lived so long without a mother in the home, to me and my brother and sister who had never known of a second (actually first) step grandmother. Dad, always the gentleman, was uncharacteristically vague about her short tenure and ultimate fate.
"I don't know what actually happened to her," he reflected. "Her life style was not very compatible with that (expected) of a minister's wife."
Obviously, she did not share some of the McGee values.
I probed to learn more about this newly introduced, albeit short-lived, member of the family.
"Well, as I recall, she did like to drink after a day's work. She started on a bottle of beer.... I just know when Dad left Chicago and went to Gary, she didn't go. We lived on Michigan Avenue near 55th Street (Garfield Boulevard and Michigan) not far from Dusable High School. She had her room (in the apartment) and some evenings I would see her. Dad was back and forth (between Gary and Chicago), but not around enough for me to know exactly what was happening.... They didn't divorce at that time, but it was obvious it was not going to work. I was really kind of on my own, fighting the battle to do well and stay in school."
Enough said.
Lewis Jr. was away at Wheaton College. His experience there was the beginning of an estrangement from the family. It became apparent in following years that dogmatic religious beliefs Lewis Jr. was exposed to at school would irrevocably change the close relationship he and Charles had enjoyed.
Around the same time the decision was made for Ruth to attend Englewood, a girl's school in West Virginia. Without a female role model in the home, a controlled environment was thought best for a teenage girl. With Lewis Sr. in Gary, Charles, now eighteen years old, was for the most part left to fend for himself.
Returning to Chicago, Charles' previous academic misfortunes were reversed, because this time his new school was behind the one in Iowa.
"I didn't have to do anything for six weeks because of the difference."
With numerous temptations, the urban playground presented Charles with important choices in his young life. The street
scene was alluring and a youthful lust for life drew many young men to wine, women, and the pursuit of pleasure, particularly in the absence of a strong guiding parent in the home. The course he chose to follow had been carefully laid in his formative years and he was not inclined to deviate or indulge in the excesses of the day. He would not be distracted. Instead, he applied himself to his studies and set his sight on a college education, which he had been taught was the key to a successful future.
"All along folks kept asking what I was taking in high school. In other words, enter the college preparatory route. The difference was a lot more English, math and science. I just knew that you had to get to college."
About his social life in those days, Charles stifled a laugh. Obviously the frame of reference was very different for a teenager in the thirties versus the sixties. Patiently, he explained without specifically saying, the idea of having a social life required money. In the absence of one, you don't consider the other. What little socializing there was took place around school, chorus and glee club or church activities. Charles took odd jobs like washing and starching walls (to keep them clean) at Provident Hospital and sometimes used the money he earned to go to the movies, a rare treat.
"There was one girl I liked. She graduated in the same class. Her parents didn't want her seeing anybody `lighter' than her. Then there was another lady I made contact with, a classmate who went to the theater with me. When I left for college, we kept in touch a time or two before losing contact. I can't remember her name. Sometimes it comes back. Oh yes, her name was Emelda Charles, the only girl in her family for a couple generations."
Knowing that cooking was never one of Dad's fortes, I was curious about how he managed meals on his own. Scrambled eggs, a specialty of his, were most likely on the menu but what else? Members of the fast food generations will be appalled to know that a can of beans or soup often sufficed for a meal or late night snack.
Charles spent the year before he graduated from DuSable High School in the spring of 1938 in a spartan fashion. He made use of his time studying and as a result graduated ninth in a class of four hundred and thirty-six students. After high school, Charles planned to work for a year to make money for college. Luvinia, through connections she had, was able to get him a job with the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). In late 1938 and early 1939, Charles worked on various road and farm projects with 2664 Company in Mt. Carroll in northern Illinois and saved his money. The Corps was almost like a military camp. You got a uniform and a paycheck while you learned a skill and served the country. In Mt. Carroll, Charles worked with engineers, handling the transit and laying out contours. During that time he developed an interest in civil engineering which followed him into college.
While Charles was hard at work with Roosevelt's CCC Program, a bitter Adolf Hitler was leading the Nazi Party on a steady course of revenge for the harsh treatment Germans encountered after losing World War I. By September of that year, Hitler had taken control of Czechoslovakia, and with the help of Joseph Stalin, the Germans and Russians captured Poland. Polish