Students interview Wanda Hamilton about her experience with racism and segregation in Little Rock and enrolling at University of Arkansas at Little Rock as one of the first African American students. This interview was part of a project conducted by UALR Composition II (RHET 1312) in Spring 2015, taught by Chad Garrett.
Oral History Interview Interviewers: Aaron Cano Interviewee: Wanda Hamilton Transcribers: Ann Marie Lott, Betsy Fribert Date: 4/15/2015 Thank you Ms. Wanda Hamilton for being here, 1964... what was that she said? Graduate, I am so sorry I will start over. Thank you Ms. Wanda Hamilton for being here, 1964 graduate of Little Rock University, do I have your permission to begin this interview? Ms. Hamilton: I entered in 1964 but didn't graduate then. Aaron: Thank you for being here. Ms. Hamilton: No I didn't graduate. I continued on .. I went to Philander Smith first but couldn't get all the courses I needed. I had a child. I heard that Little Rock University was going to allow African Americans. I applied earlier but was not accepted at that time. The Civil Rights Act passed in 1964 then was allowed in. I pursued a degree in Sociology. During that time I only saw 1 other African American a man named Harry Byrd. As far as I know we were the only two African Americans. At this time segregation was at its height and we never took time to talk to one another. I walked the campus most of the time myself. In 1965 others came. That was the beginning. Aaron: I will begin with the first question on the list and follow down. Ms. Hamilton: Yes others came in 1965 but I can't say that when I use the term, that was the beginning, I was here but it was like I wasn't. I didn't have trouble, I was mostly ignored. One night some students heckled me after one of Martin Luther King's marches, I'm not sure which one. After that I went to classes at night. I had two teachers that were very warm to me but mostly I was ignored. I don't know if there was publicity about me but I understand they were chosen to come. Aaron: How has living in Arkansas had an impact on your life today? Ms. Hamilton: It's the kind of city that is geared toward the kind of person I am. When I was young, I lived in Corpus Cristi with my aunt and she was engaged to someone in the Navy. We had a little apartment close to the naval office. We were treated very well. There were several African American women who lived in a little complex there. My grandmother would leave to go to work and come back and forth to check on me. There was a child from the naval office who would come to play every day. We lived near a little beach at the Gulf of Mexico. That was my beginning with diversity. From that time, I was comfortable with many diverse people. The Spanish people would come in from Brownsville. My grandmother would sit and watch the Gulf of Mexico and would talk with both of us. She put me in an academy. Before that time, I went to a black school. I rode the bus with other children but had to sit in the back. My grandmother explained why I had to do that. When we moved to AR I felt very comfortable with diverse people. I went to catholic school where the teachers were white nuns. Then I went to a school in Fort Smith. We were already integrated in Fort Smith but they had the conflict surrounding Central High. At the time there were only 12 African American girls in Fort Smith. I graduated in 1959 but we were poor and had no money to go to college. We weren't given special attention and sometimes we were called "little colored girls." I wanted to give you my background and tell you how I found the strength to apply and to continue through. Aaron: How has going to UALR impacted your life? Ms. Hamilton: One thing, being more of an urban college, I was able to get some more enriched courses. I started at Philander, which was wonderful. I received so much as a beginning there, however I couldn't get all the things I needed and it looked like it would take forever to finish. That's why I came here. It was an enriching experience. It was like icing on the cake for what I had already experienced in Fort Smith in the integrated situation. It was a good experience. It was not bad and I did learn here. Aaron: What was it like to receive an acceptance letter from UALR after receiving a letter declining your acceptance into the university? Ms. Hamilton: It was a great joy to me. I was already passed the age where I should have had my degree. I was determined to get it. It was a joy to me. I was hurt when I received the first letter, because not only did they decline me and my friend. Two of us applied. But it was not a good reason. It was almost like a racist, I'm going to take that back. It was not a racist decision, it was following something that was handed down from where Little Rock University received the bulk of their funds. They wrote me and my friend. My friend did not re-apply when the Civil Rights Act passed in 1964. Aaron: What inspired you to accomplish all that you had done in your time at Little Rock University? Ms. Hamilton: I was raised with a quote, I don't know exactly how to say it, "for those that are given...." It's more or less, you owe it to your follow man. And I knew I had been around so many diverse people and I had never given back to Little Rock. Some people weren't able to do what I did because I had that strong background. I felt like I owed it to them to help. I wanted a better world. I had 3 children while I was going here. I wanted a better world for my children. I also started losing my hearing. And I wanted my children to see, even with hearing loss, that I could succeed. Aaron: Who in your life has made the greatest impact on who you have become today? Ms. Hamilton: My mother and grandmother. They were strong black women. One was a part of the help generation. She was an excellent cook. My grandmother ran a juke joint, like a small bar, in the late 40s and early 50s. The men would get off work, many worked for Missouri Pacific Train Co in Van Buren and had to pass her place on the way home. They would go in for hamburgers and a beer. I was there because she didn't have anyone to keep me. I would dance and they would give me a nickel. I was about 5 years old. Then I would say give me a nickel and I will dance for you. My grandmother found a place for me. They were outspoken women and I picked that up. They were my mentors and they mentored me well. They did the best they could to see that I had a good life. Aaron: Moving from Texas to Arkansas what has been the biggest culture change for you? Ms. Hamilton: Racism. When we came back it was 1947, I think, and in Texas we had a situation with my grandmother. She was the help for a naval officer and people respected her. We were not treated badly. When we went to downtown Texas she would take me to a cafeteria where the enlisted men went. I don't remember there being a segregated area. We got our food and ate it where we wanted. They helped me. She did a lot of enriching things and we didn't have trouble. But when we came back to Arkansas we had segregated water fountains, segregated schools. The schools in Texas were segregated. The busses were a big thing. We had to sit in the back and sometimes children would laugh at us, different things would happen. When we shopped we couldn't try on clothes in the store. Our mothers would have to take the clothes home. We could not be in the store with Caucasian people trying on clothes. There were many things but we knew the drill. We were taught that growing up. We knew there were things we couldn't do. I was talking with a friend I grew up with. We talked about how our mothers cooked for us with love. The first time a white boy called me a nigger I felt so demoralized. I didn't know how to feel but that is how things were. Later things changed. When I came to Little Rock I took part in the change. I was in two pickets to fight for blacks. African American women spent a lot of money in the stores downtown for themselves and children so it integrated and I was in the test group to see if they would bother us and they didn't. And the food wasn't that good. I did some things to bring about change. Aaron: We have covered everything. Ms. Robertson: Is there anything that Aaron hasn't asked that you want to talk about? Ms. Hamilton: I think we covered everything. In the 70s things were changing. During the 60s we went through a lot that was not quite right. You heard about the students. They came in and I worked for the Urban League of Little Rock and would keep the office open so they could have their meetings. They would organize the sit-ins. Things were changing by that summer. Whatever was going on I was involved in. I was picketing black establishments that had reverse segregation. We had to sit in a room that was hot with a big fan, the other side had air conditioning and was very nice so many of the Caucasian men would come in. We set up a picket line because she wouldn't cooperate with us. Her building burned down and after that she cooperated with us and whites and blacks sat together. Aaron: I think we've covered everything. Ms. Robertson: Do you want to talk about that student who put that pencil on your desk? Ms. Hamilton: Yes, because that is significant. As I talked about my life around diverse people, it helped me to keep control and be understanding and not fight back. Martin Luther King had so many marches, but he had marched the day before. This was a Monday. And a student turned around and said, "What are you doing here? Why aren't you down with the rest of those monkeys?" He kept hitting my desk. I was a little frightened. There were other guys there too but they didn't say anything. So I had a pencil and I thought, "If he puts his hand on my desk again, I'm going to stab him with my pencil." Because I was frightened. You know I would have been expelled. But he didn't put his hand on my desk again and that never happened again. No one else bothered me. There was one student who was friendly. Her name was Anne. We become friends because she would walk across campus with me. One of the speech teachers, Martha Conners. She helped me because so many of us grew up in homes where we didn't know what to do. We just did the best we could. She gave me an A in her class. Doris Russell, the art teacher. At that time, we had to Park....UALR was very wooded. I parked way over in the woods. When she found out I parked close to her, she would wait for me and walk with me. You've seen the picture of my husband holding the baby in front of the Volkswagen? I'm not sure that was on campus. I don't have pictures in classes, but some of the work I did after I left here. I was the first African American to work for Governor Rockefeller. I was the first. My hearing loss was beginning to escalate. They gave me easy things to do. I typed. They called me the secretary. Other girls took dictation. I ended up managing Highland Park Housing Project on 12th street. It was notorious for a drug problem. The kingpin threatened me. But we had many good times. We had children. I hung in there as long as I could to share my expertise. A lot of that came from my time at Little Rock University. Ms. Robertson: Have you talked about the educational center named for your husband? Ms. Hamilton: No I haven't. We didn't have much money but we were always gainfully employed. He started teaching school at Dunbar. And we heard about the governor. My husband left the school district to work with family planning. He traveled the state educating people about family planning. Governor Dale Bumpers appointed my husband Bill Hamilton as director. That was a time of a lot of change. People were reluctant to talk about family planning. There was incest and many things people didn't want to talk about. There is still a problem with teenage sex but it has improved. He worked in family planning a long time. He also worked for Governor Rockefeller in human relations. He joined the school board and worked for 10 years there. He retired in 1993 and during that time he was the director of the AR Health Department. After he retired from the school district, they decided to name a school after him. It's called Hamilton Academy. It's off of University. He would have been happy to know about that because he did all he could to help under-served people. I was at the housing and he was in family planning. That's all I can say. He did many things and history has been good. Ms. Robertson: I'm going to put Betsy on the spot because she has been here for a while. Is there anything you would like her to talk about? Betsy: No, nothing I can think of. Ms. Hamilton: I would like to say, I have 3 children. Scott is the director of MESO. Tracey is director of Health Advantage. They helped me so much. It's been good raising them. They have seen a lot of what we went through. During the teacher strike, people would call the house and make threats. But they stayed calm. I have 2 granddaughters who are twins. They'll be 16 next month. My son is assistant director of MESO I grew up and was able to hear things and do things. I'm a 53 year resident of Arkansas. When I went to .... it was a boarding school. White girls from across the United States. Black girls couldn't go. But there were other girls of different nationalities. That was another diverse situation for me. Most of the nuns were of different nationalities also. So that was good. I think that's about it. Ms. Robertson: Thank you for coming to campus today. Aaron and his teammates will work on the project a little bit and then we'll visit with you again. The recordings will go into the archives. They will use snippets of the recordings for a project for the UALR webpage. We're so grateful for you. Ms. Hamilton: I'm grateful to you all too. Anything to help young people learn what we went through. And we were able to overcome and it helped because we had people like you that were there and provided help. So it made a difference. It wasn't all terrible. We survived. That's about it and I know my parents and ancestors are looking down and they're proud. There were so many things they couldn't do, but they persevered. Mine also were able to let us take trips. My dad had to beg for the pass for us to ride the train. We had to ride in segregated cars. But many black children were able to travel to places like Little Rock and Kansas City. I thought it was like New York. Now most of us are giving back. This is giving back. And it's not easy because I do have hearing loss. But this is helpful. And now there's new technology called CART. They can be anywhere. It's what you see going across the TV. But I like this because you can make corrections. Tonight Just Humanities will hold their annual meeting and they always have this for me. I was able to participate in a lot of things because of this. Also I'll be 75 in November and my teeth aren't the best and sometimes it's difficult to speak but I always prevail. Ms. Robertson: I wanted to take you upstairs to take a good picture in the chancellors office in front of the emblem on the wall. Aaron: I messed up a lot at the beginning. We might need to do the permission thing again. Ms. Hamilton: I grew up almost in a privileged type situation because both of my parents worked in diverse situations. They learned about people who were under-served. Being able to take those trips. We can't talk about this out loud, but I'm browned skinned and we have a lot of black people who are fair skinned. My husband could have almost passed for white. We also have the dark skinned people. There was a lot of discrimination toward the darker skinned people and they would not give my husband and me as hard of a time. That's one thing that was different for me. There were others like me but most were the darker skinned black people. I've even seen how darker skinned black men were passed over in favor of my lighter skinned husband. That's something we need to talk about. You can study Dr. King and some of the light skinned, Andrew Young who were given a little more recognition. There are lots of stories to be told. I'd be happy to continue to help you. You can contact me through email. Or you can call on my special phone. I have a CAPTEL phone. It's supposed to be confidential. But it's sad that we have people who take advantage. Ms. Robertson: Aaron is going to have you sign a form. I don't remember any of them turning this off. Put today's date, UALR, and your name. 4/15, tax day. Thanks guys. I didn't mean to put you on the spot like that. I misunderstood too. I talked to Betsy this morning on the phone and I didn't know she worked here but she's worked here longer than me. End.