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This is to certify that the
dissertation entitled

The Impact of Structural Constraints on the Quality of Life for
African American Males in Lima, Ohio—A Community History

presented by

Jill Rowe-Adjibogoun

has been accepted towards fulfillment
of the requirements for the

Ph.D. degree in Anthropology

 

 

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6/01 c:/CIFIC/DaleDue.p65-p.15

THE IMPACT OF STRUCTURAL CONSTRAINTS ON THE QUALITY OF LIFE
FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN MALES IN LIMA, OHIO
A COMMUNITY HISTORY
By

Jill Rowe—Adjibogoun

A DISSERTATION

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Department of Anthropology

2004

 

 

ABSTRACT
THE IMPACT OF STRUCTURAL CONSTRAINTS ON THE QUALITY OF LIFE

FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN MALES IN LIMA, OHIO
A CONIMUNITY HISTORY

By

Jill Rowe-Adjibogoun

African American males are simultaneously loved, hated, and feared in American
culture. Historically, they have been depicted in the mainstream media as violent agents
of destruction, and at the same time, they have been admired and idolized for their
athletic ability and their creativity as entertainers, most recently as the standard bearers of
Hip Hop culture, rap music, and conspicuous consumption. This historical and
ethnographic study focuses on the lives and identities of African American males in
Lima, Ohio. It utilizes a practice approach and an historical methodology to explore the
changing identities of African American males and the structural constraints that have
contributed to the normalization of violence in this often isolated segment of society.

The intent is to shed light on major historical events and structural features that
have been instrumental in Shaping their present day identities. The telling of a local
history, through the voices of those who lived through it, is a feature of ethnographic
research that validates the lived experiences of the actors themselves and illustrates the
social construction of their perspectives on the past. The ethnographic description of
local community life and people’s experiences and outlooks flirther reveals the impact of

changing structural forces related to social class, (de)industrialization, environmental

changes, the civil rights movement, the school system, familial relationships, commumty
role models, gang affiliation, popular rap artists, and language use. These structural and
cultural elements have fused, creating an extemalized self where toughness is equated
with manhood and an internalized self where suffering is a normalized part of life. In
many ways, Lima serves as a microcosm of life for some African American males in
other places in the country and as a mirror of historical events that occurred concurrently

in other Midwestern towns and cities.

 

Copyright by
JILL ROWE-ADIIBOGOUN
2004

In dedication to my father, Richard Rowe, who was the wind beneath my wings.

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to acknowledge my graduate committee for their untiring dedication,
time and guidance in the construction of this dissertation. First, I would like to thank my
chair, and advisor, Dr. Judy Pugh for her constant encouragement to “write my
dissertation like a book”, for teaching me how anthropologists use history and her
extraordinary talent in unraveling the mysterious world of social science theory. Dr.
Richard Thomas for teaching me the importance of social isolation, and structural and
historical forces in the shaping of the identity of African Americans. Dr. David Dwyer
for his gentle reminders to always leave a sense of hope in the telling of the story. Dr.
Susan Krouse for validating the nonlinear View and her editorial expertise. To the late
Dr. Jacob Climo for teaching me the importance of collective memory in preserving the
others voices and helping me believe that I could learn to write like an anthropologist.
Dr. Pero Dagbovie for providing critical comments on the very first drafi of this
dissertation and for his vast knowledge of contemporary African American culture. Mr.
Jeff Rowe, my brother and a local historian of the Lima area, for his advice regarding the
chronological history of the African American community there. Mr. Mark Rowe, my
brother and a local rap music historian, for his expertise regarding the chronology of rap
music in the contemporary context. Your contributions in my continuing development as

a scholar will never be forgotten.

vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................... x
INTRODUCTION .................................................................................... 1
METHODS .......................................................................................... 15
CHAPTER 1: THEEARLYBLACK SETTLERSZO

Early Settlements

First White Settlers

First Black Settlers

First Black Families

Origins of the Early Black Pioneers

Origins of the Early White Pioneers

Early Black Settlements: Rumley and Carthegena
The Village ofRumley
The Village of Carthegena

Early Social Life of Lima Area Blacks

The Role of the Early Black Church

Early Black Politicians in Lima

Race Relations

Early Black Businesses

Early Industries: The Rockefeller Connection

Conclusions

CHAPTER 2: LIFE FOR BLACKS FROM 1900 TO 1950 .................................. 45
Early Black Businesses
Industrial Grth Continues
Segregation: Early Formation of Class and Ethnic Boundaries
The Great Depression
The Impact of World War 11 and the Ohio Steel Foundry Migrations
Integration
Early Civil Rights Movement
Conclusions

CHAPTER 3: LIFE FOR BLACKS IN 1960 ................................................... 66
The Black Church Takes a Stand
The Importance and Significance of the Mizpah
The Lima Branch of the Black Panthers
Black Politics in this Era
Racial Clashes in the Lima Public School System
Integration in the Workforce by the NAACP
New Construction, Factories and Community Organizations
Conclusions

vii

CHAPTER 4: LIFE FOR BLACKS IN THE 1970s ............................................ ‘
Local Area Politics
Industrial Growth and the Development of the Blue Collar Working Class
Lima Public Schools and the Introduction of Black Studies
New Social Organizations
Living Conditions
Black Leadership
Conclusions

CHAPTERS: THE 198051NLIMA ............................................................ 1(
Reaganomics
The Growth of Lima’s Prison Industry
Popular Rap Artists: Public Enemy and NWA
From Black to African American
Conclusions

CHAPTER 6: LIMA IN THE 19905 ........................................................... 12
Privatized Prisons and the Link Between Prisons and Gang Activity
The Beginning of Gang Activity
The School-Gang Connection
The Hip Hop Generation
Popular Rappers: The Legacy of Tupac
Lima Alternative School
African American Progress in the 19905
Lima’s Changing Industries
Growth of Area Hospitals
Conclusions

CHAPTER 7: LIFE IN CONTEMPORARY LIMA ......................................... 15
Current Demographics
The Link Between HIV/AIDS and Incarceration Rates
Birth and Death Rates
Causes of Death
Foreclosures
Mayor’s State of the City Address
Rappers of the 21St Century: 50 Cent
Future Goals: “I Wanna Be a Rapper”
Lima’s Rap Industry
Other Future Goals
Challenges for the Future of African American Males in Lima
Conclusions

CHAPTER 8: CONCLUSIONS ................................................................ lE

APPENDICES ..................................................................................... 2(

viii

REFERENCES .................................................................................... 212

LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Total Number of Inmates in Allen Correctional Institution ......................
Table 2: Allen Correctional Institution’s Operational Statistics 2003 ....................
Table 3: Total Number of Inmates in Lima Correctional Institution ......................
Table 4: Lima Correctional Institution’s Operational Statistics 2003 .....................
Table 5: Unemployment Rates for Allen County .............................................
Table 6: Employment by Sector in Allen County ..............................................
Table 7: St. Rita’s Medical Center’s Time Line .............................................
Table 8: Memorial Hospital’s Time Line ......................................................
Table 9: Top Employers for Allen County 2003 .............................................
Table 10: Persons Living with HIV/AIDS in Ohio and Allen County ....................
Table 11: Allen County Resident’s Death and Birth Rates 2001 ...........................
Table 12: Leading Causes of Death in Allen County 2001.... .............................

Table 13: Allen County Foreclosures as of 2002 .............................................

Introduction

It doesn ’t amaze me that we ’re crazy—it amazes me that we ’re sane.
Na’im Akbarl

This dissertation is an examination of organizational dynamics and histori
forces that have constructed and impacted the African American community in Lir
Ohio. It is primarily concerned with how structural constraints have contributed to '
contemporary identity formation of African American males (AAM)2 living in the ci
A structural constraint refers to institutions, public policies, authority figures and ci
organizations that mold certain characteristics. They include school systems, pub
policies, prison systems, employment practices, housing availability and quality, hiri
strategies, churches, and public and private individuals. Their structure plays a vital rt
in the vibrant interplay of a community. Regarding the word structure, a discussion
the meaning implied is warranted.

Structure is the domain that anthropologists operate in as they engage in any I}
of fieldwork. The term refers to the internal and external factors that makeup
individual’s environment. Structural constraints largely deal with institutions that are
constant interaction with one another. They determine what individuals are unable 2
able to do in a given society. As such, structural elements affect each person’s life it

different way. As evidenced in the literature, some of these constraints are out of ‘

 

’ Na’im Akbar is a noted psychologist who has written a number of books on the psychology of African
American males. The quote is from a talk given at Michigan State University on February 19, 2003
entitled, “African American Centered Approaches in Psychology.”

2 The term African American males (AAM) will be used to describe the persons of interest. The use oft
word males instead of men shows the liminality of their existence in the population in question in which
they are definitely not boys, at the same time they are not men—rather they are somewhere in the middlr
Unfortunately, there are no formal rites of passage for African Americans in the United States (U. S.) tha
symbolize the completion of the transformation from boyhood to manhood.

individual’s control (Massey and Denton 1993, Essed 1991), occur through changes in
public policy (Wilson 1996, 1987), evolve over time (Farley et al 2000, Scott 1997,
Sugrue 1996) or are institutionalized by those in authority (Bourdieu and Passeron 1977,
Foucault 1977, Willis 1977, Illich 1976). Further, structural constraints are often quite
difficult for an individual to overthrow (Sawicki 1991, Foucault 1980).

The theoretical stance employed is practice theory, which focuses on agents,
systems, social relations, and domination and resistance strategies. Practice approaches
assert the primacy of human action and interaction, or what people are actually doing,
over what the rules state should be done. They presume that people strategize and make
choices rather than enact or react to scripted dictums. Moreover, it assumes that choices
have political implications, though people are not always aware of them.

The theory largely focuses on resistance to dominant culture by the agents
themselves (Devine 1996). An examination of cultural materials, specifically qualitative
interviews and lyrics to the music listened to by these particular AAM, reveals that
culture is both a structuring and transforming process. Furthermore, this study
demonstrates the use of institutionalized structures to both contain and restrain the actors.
It illustrates how contemporary AAM occasionally view rules and regulations as contrary
to their own interests and either resist them openly or conform to them under pressure
fi'om those in authority. This methodology provides examples of the ways human beings
dialectically create, resist, and accommodate themselves to prevailing ideologies and
shows that there is an active nature of both domination and resistance among AAM living

in the Lima area.

Feminist theorists (di Leonardo 1998, Abu-Lughod 1993, Sawicki 1991, Hill
Collins 1990, books 1990, Lock and Scheper-Hughes 1990, Ortner 1984) have critiqued
the earlier work of scholars3 of both post structural and practice theory as being sterile
and devoid of the people involved. The aim of this study is to provide those missing
voices through the collective memory of the actors themselves. Analysis of the
contemporary situation steps beyond the literature that focuses on African Americans as
people acted upon (Ferguson 2000, Fine and Weis 1998, MacLeod 1995, Kotolowitz
1991) by presenting their agency in response to historical forces.

The choice of Lima as a field site is significant because I believe that it is the
social scientist’s moral obligation to conduct research in a commumty to which he or she
has a sense of commitment. Because I am a former resident of the city, this ethnography
is an insider’s view of the Afiican American community there which is a critical feature
due to the difficulty involved in writing about a population that has been deemed bad by
the larger society. People who have been demonized in a particular social context are
often much more complicated than one is led to believe. Further, these demonized selves
belong to a larger more complex community where they do not exist as one-dimensional
entities but are multi-dimensional. As such, the formation of their external and internal
selves is impacted by a number of sources both from within and outside of the larger
structure of the society. Their true sense of self is ever changing, depending on their
individual habitus, and the historical, political, and social events and figures that impact
their lives.

Because of my belief that anthropology is the study of history in the present,

emphasis is placed on the collective memories of people living in Lima, both currently

 

3 I am referring specifically to the previous work of Foucault (1977) and Bourdieu (1977) here.

and in the past. According to Climo (2002), shared memories are important to
anthropological research because they inform human societies. He goes on to say that the
significance of the language used in the construction of these collective accounts is that it
is often representative of both the resistance of the dominated to the larger power
structure and the effectiveness of the powers of domination on identity formation.
Frequently, it is the only type of resistance available to those who do not maintain
powerful positions in society and is an example of an everyday form of resistance (Scott
1985)

Shared memories are material examples of the integration of Appalachian dialect4
in the African American speaking patterns characteristic of the area and can be attributed
to the historical mixing of the two cultures (Hartigan 1999, Feather 1998, Wray and
Newitz 1997). Official records indicate that European Americans from Appalachia
anived at the same time that Afiican Americans did (Hirisimaki 1986, Hipp 1971).
Evidence of this connection is witnessed both in contemporary and historical speaking
patterns of various community members. The use of language structures also points to
the role of social isolation and the affects of segregation on the development of collective
identities (Massey and Denton 1993).

This historical journey is divided up chronologically, and informants’ responses
have not been edited to reflect the speaking patterns of the language of wider
communication (Smitherrnan 2000). The historical significance of this feature illustrates

changes in the structure, metaphors, and street dialect of the language in use in Lima’s

 

" Appalachian dialect is a feature of the speaking patterns evidenced by the choice of verb tense utilized by
the local population Examples include the use of come instead of came, and seen instead of saw. It is a
dialectic feature of community members who hale from the upper south, specifically, Tennessee, Georgia,
Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky. People from these areas of the south came to Lima during the
migrations of the 18305 (Selfridge 1981, McGee 1980).

 

African American community. Language studies conducted by Rickford and Rickford
(2000) suggest that the use of Afiican American Vernacular English (AAVE) has shifted
further away from Standard American English (SAE) on a national level. They explain
that it is an indication of the effects of the ever-increasing levels of social isolation of
economically disadvantaged members of the African American community. Their
analysis concludes that many African American children who live in hypersegregated
environments are becoming either unwilling or unable to shift to SAE when the social or
educational situation requires it.

Another critical element in the shaping of the collective identity of African
Americans is the word used to distinguish them for the time period in question.
Historically, they have been identified by a variety of derogatory and non-derogatory
terms. Often, the choice of the appropriate categorical descriptor was imposed on them
by the larger structure with little or no input fiom the people themselves. Some common
differentiations include Negro, Nigger, Coon, Jungle Bunny, Colored, Black, Monkey,
Afro-American, and Afiican American. The changes in the term used to identify them
had a profound effect on how African Americans were viewed by others, how they
conceived of themselves, and their connection to the rest of the world. Informants’ word
choices will not be altered and each period under discussion will adhere to the name the
people themselves utilized during that time.

To gain a firm grasp of the historical factors that influenced the lives of African
Americans living in Lima, I began to look through the archives at the library in the Allen
County Museum. During this investigation it was noted that the history of Afiican

Americans in that city was reduced to two black boxes in a back room on a top shelf.

Investigation into the boxes revealed a series of newspaper articles, unpublished papers,
historical studies, census records and other important primary source materials. After
many weeks of sorting through the documents, I began to realize that in order to
understand the contemporary identities of AAM in Lima; I must first understand the
African American history of the town. As this level of inquiry progressed, various
community stakeholders5 came forward to share their individual family histories, family
documents (largely in the form of family bibles, scraps of paper with important events
written on them, and family photos), old newspaper accounts of events that had taken
place in Lima, and obituaries from the local newspaper. I was also given a copy of an
historical documentary, funded by the Ohio Arts Commission, which featured local actors
(See Appendix B).

As I reviewed the documents, a range of topics began to surface. The most
prevalent of which included localized accounts involving churches, businesses and
industries, schools, area politics, segregation, housing and employment practices. The
recurrent themes that emerged included: the growth and decline of area industries and
their impact on the local population, the role of black churches, the impact and
consequences of segregation, economic inequalities, the types of employment available to
African Americans living in the city, the quality of housing and schools, the role of
politics, the role of structural constraints, public policies, terrorism, discrimination by law
enforcement and public school officials, and under-representation in local politics.
Topics and themes were enriched by the agency of the African American citizenry who

had either lived through or participated in the events discussed. The spirit of resistance to

 

5 Community stakeholders are those members of the population who have a vested interest in what is
written about their lives. Their input was vital in providing the voices of the people being discussed in the
narrative.

the hegemonic infrastructure provided rich insight into the process of reacting both to and
against historical forces. Finally, the historical events that occurred in Lima, though
specific to that city, are a mirror of events that concurrently took place in a number of
midwestem cities. A brief historical sketch of localized events follows.

The Afiican American presence in Lima began in 1830, with the settlement of
pioneers in what would later become Allen County. They migrated from states that
comprised the Upper South, specifically Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia,
and North and South Carolina, a5 freed, manumitted—meaning they brought their
fieedom, or runaway slaves (McGee 1980). Selfridge (1981) indicates that many of the
early Afiican American migrants came with skills, land that had been willed to them by
their former slave owners, and money to purchase real estate in the area. Frazier (1957)
suggests that the Upper South consisted of states where the plantation system of
agriculture did not flourish allowing some Afiican Americans to hire their time out and
eventually buy their fi'eedom, a process that is also called manumission. It supplied both
the income needed to buy farmland and developed their skills as mechanics and skilled
artisans (Frazier 1957). Lastly, historical documentation indicates that they were also
active in early politics of the time (Hipp 1971, McGown 1921).

Settlement into the area was a time of great transition for the local African
American citizenry. Further, many of them were able to purchase land and establish a
better life for their families. An interruption of their quest occurred when some European
Americans who, in response to their fear of economic competition from the new settlers,

enforced structural constraints (in the form of public ordinances and terroristic actions)

 

that hindered their settlement in the area. The never ceasing disputes between the two
groups led many African Americans to resettle in the city of Lima (McGee 1980).

As Afiican Americans moved into Lima they were largely segregated in the
Westend of town and limited to employment in positions where they were subservient to
the local European American population. Their main occupations were in the capacity of
servants, housekeepers, laborers, barbers, maids, and porters (Selfiidge 1981).
Additionally, they made their life in Lima under the watchfiil eye of a faction of the Klu
Klux Klan (KKK), called the “Black Knights” (McGown 1921).

In the 19305, Lima’s Afiican American community, along with the rest of the
nation, experienced the Great Depression. Jobs were scarce for area European Americans
and even more scarce for African Americans. Nevertheless, they were able to weather
the storm and continued their segregated life in the Westend of town. The period
signaled a national shift in Afiican American political affiliations from alliance with the
Republican Party or the party of Lincoln (Schweninger 1978) to the Democratic Party or
the party of Roosevelt (Frazier 1957).

The 19405 were marked by a new migration of Afiican Americans that was
spearheaded by the Ohio Steel Foundry (Davis 1978). They were recruited by the steel
foundry for laborer’s positions left vacant by European Americans who were serving in
World War H (WWII) and to fill the demands on the industry to supply the war’s need of
steel products. The southern states of the Mississippi Delta—Mississippi, Louisiana,
Arkansas, Alabama, and Georgiauwere representative of the home states of this stream
of migrants (Gale 1978). As such, they came to the area with a shared history of a

segregated life as sharecroppers, controlled and enforced by the violent racial structure of

southern white hegemony (Hale 1998). Housing for the new arrivals was limited to a
group of trailer parks owned by Ohio Steel in the Southend of town. Thusly, their lives
can be described as a type of Northern sharecropping in which they lived in homes
provided by the steel foundry, worked in the steel foundry, were transported to and from
work and shopping by busses supplied by the steel foundry, and shopped in stores owned
by the steel foundry (Gale 1978). The circular nature of the process validates the
sentiment of popular blues music of the period in which musicians proclaimed, “I owe
my soul to the company store” (Titon 1994).

Lastly, the new group of migrants was viewed as a threat to the identity of the
first group of African Americans that were the servant class and confined to the Westend
of town. A division between the two, largely based on perceived differences in social
class, quickly developed. The conflict resulted in an antagonistic divide involving the
inhabitants of the Westend and the Southend that continues today.

The 19505 witnessed the development of social and political organizations among
the local African American’s. Two significant institutions that surfaced were the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the
Bradfield Center. Local citizens began to channel their activism and effectively
challenged the segregated system in place. Sparks of unity between African Americans
living in the Westend and Southend were beginning. Unity was further developed with
the guidance of prominent Afiican American church figures, i.e. charismatic ministers

and church mothers.6

 

5 The term church mothers is culturally specific and refers to African American women with snong
alliances to the black church. They function in the administrative and financial arm of the church and have
a stake in determining church policy and procedures.

In the late 19605 and early 19705, African Americans in Lima experienced the
Civil Rights and Black Power Movements that swept the country (Gales 1978). The
fundamental point of these organizations was that there was a problem with the system,
specifically, that it was not inclusive of all Americans. As such, they represented a
struggle by the agents themselves to change the system.

During this time, there was a displacement in the language from Negro to Black
that had a constitutive effect on the black social experience and ensuing identity. The
shift occurred as African Americans began to question the meaning of the term used to
describe them. According to Taylor Gibbs (1988), Negro designated the inferiority and
pathology of African Americans, which resulted in stereotypic treatment, while Black
symbolized Afiican American achievement of race consciousness and unity. The
sentiment was enhanced by a marked progression toward self-improvement (Harper
1996)

Malcolm X (1970) saw the changes in the terms used to describe Afiican
Americans in a different way. Negro, according to X, denoted subservience to the white
power structure. Nigger was a term that referred to predictable Blacks that harbored
racial stereotypes of what it meant to be black in the white mind. Black was an identity
marker that provoked inclusiveness and unity and broadened the black experience to
include all nonwhites in the world. He allocated the systematic use of the word by people
of color worldwide and viewed this as the catalyst needed to begin to transform the entire
system.

The change in language and shifting collective identity was evidenced in Lima by

the formation of proactive black churches, a branch of the Black Panther Party, and

10

student protests in Lima area schools. These acts led to the most active period of mass
rebellion and unrest in the area. Additionally, antagonistic relations between the Lima
Police Force and local area AAM was solidified and continues to plague the city.

The 19705 were a period of prosperity for many local African Americans (Davis
1978). The intense work of the earlier civil and political organizations resulted in an
increase in their employ in area industries. One predominant characteristic of the
citizenry was a blue-collar mentality.7 Lifetime employment in the manufacturing sector
became a goal of many of the city’s inhabitants. The socioeconomic structure
experienced dramatic changes as workers began to acquire real estate, automobiles, and
middle class lifestyles. Roles of local area churches began to shift from that of political
leadership to socialization. New leadership flourished with the creation of a new art form
that was labeled rap music and AAM were primarily the innovators of the genre. Early
practitioners of the art form provided a creative outlet for the region’s youth.

During the 19805, Lima endured the strain of “Reaganomics” and the ensuing
recession that earmarked that administration. Many of the local factories began a process
of downsizing, which resulted in a loss of employment for area citizens. There was an
exodus of some of the college educated and politically aware class who left in the pursuit
of viable economic opportunities. At the same time, a string of legislative policies were
enacted by the Reagan administration that funded the erection of correctional institutions
(Kitwana 2002). The city’s infrastructure followed the trend and converted the mental

hospital into a correctional facility. The resulting prison system provided over one

 

7 Blue collar mentality, in Marxist terms, refers to the ideologies of the class of industrial wage earners
who, lacking either capital or production means, must earn a living by selling their labor (Harvey 1990). It
was characterized by a 40 hour work week and physical and manual labor. Moreover, it ofi’ers little
incentive towards future orientation, or pursuance of individual business ownership. As such, it is a crucial
element of capitalistic enterprises.

11

thousand jobs, which boosted the economy. Introduction of this means of production
affected community race relations as European Americans predominantly held the prison
jobs and African Americans, primarily males, surfaced as the inmates. High
incarceration rates of AAM in local facilities shaped their view of the world and
themselves. Rap music was reflective of their shifting identities as some of it began to
focus on the significance of institutionalization in the Afiican American community.

In the 19905, Lima became home to three correctional facilities by adding a
privatized prison to the registry. Simultaneously, there was a sharp decrease in funding
for recreational activities for youth. Correctional experiences continued to color life for
local AAM and connections to prominent gangs were established through involvement
with the system. Gang membership was associated in familial kinship terms and became
a rite of passage for some AAM in the area. This was especially true for those among
them who had never been included in the formal economy and took advantage of the
informal economy by utilizing the most profitable resources, primarily the sale and use of
drugs and firearms, to finance their operations. Due to an increasing availability, these
two vices flourished in the local underground economy. The combination of social
isolation, mass incarceration, disenfranchisement, and lack of recreational outlets resulted
in an atmosphere that fostered gang involvement, firearms, drugs, and the normalization
of incarceration for some AAM. Popular rap music reflected the internalization of these
norms and artists began to surface as the voice and leadership of area youth. Though
African American churches were respected and continued to maintain their distinction as
one of the oldest institutions in the community, they lost their appeal to many youth,

which limited their voice and effectiveness in their former leadership role.

 

Regarding the contemporary situation, currently, there are 40, 081 citizens in the
Lima area (Federal Census 2000). Of that number, European Americans make up two-
thirds (27,776) and Afiican Americans make up one-third (10,614) of the citizenry
(Federal Census 2000). Single family homes continue to dominate the community
landscape, however, this characteristic has been impacted by a recent trend in which
massive foreclosures of locally owned properties has replaced individual ownership (See
Table 13). Some local industries include the following: a division of Ford Motor
Company that specializes in making engines for light trucks, Premcor, which produces
petroleum products, and a division of Proctor and Gamble that produces Downy, a brand
of liquid laundry detergent (See Table 6). Main employers in the city include: St. Rita’s
Medical Center, Lima Memorial Hospital, Ford Motor Company, Allen County, Premcor,
Lima Schools, and Lima Correctional Institute (See Table 9).

Ravages of deindustrialization are evident in the unemployment figures (See
Table 5) and over abundance of vacant buildings that clutter the panorama. Business
growth is dominated by service-oriented industries. Examples include check cashing
stores, Rent-A-Centers, pawnshops, fast food restaurants, Super Goodwill Stores,
fingernail shops, cell phone shops, and large low quality retail clothing and houseware
chains. The absence of parks, recreational facilities, banks, bookstores, libraries, and
large retail grocery outlets i5 starkly evident. Signs of the beginnings of a limited
community renaissance are witnessed by the construction of a new senior high school and
the county commissioner’s attempts to revitalize the downtown area. Like many cities in

the nation, Lima has experienced economic flight fiom the inner city; those with the

13

 

i

financial means have moved to suburbia, while the economically disadvantaged have
remained in the deteriorating metropolitan area.

In summary, this dissertation is an historical journey into the African American
community in Lima, Ohio. The intent of this methodology is to shed light on the major
historical events and structural features that have aided in the social construction of the
identity of AAM in the city today. Evidence will be given that suggests that they were
shaped and determined by a number of factors, including the school system, the prison
system, popular rap artists and music, community role models, economic status, familial
relationships, community-police relationships, language, and gang affiliations. The

major question I seek to answer is “How have structural constraints impacted the

identities and quality of life for AAM living in Lima?”

 

 

Methods

The methods I used in collecting the data were participant observation, archival
research, life history narratives (See Appendix A), in-depth interviews (See Appendices
B and C), literature reviews, attendance at political and social community events—
specifically Family Reunions”, media sources, a local documentary (See Appendix E),
family documentation from the Goings, Williams, and Brown families, and analysis of
rap music and the writings and photography of the AAM in question (See Appendices F,
G and H). Additionally, each community participant was asked to sign a consent form
(See Appendix D). This methodology is culturally specific and relevant, as the history of
African Americans has largely been handed down through oral methods, and kept alive
by families getting together, especially for reunions and funerals. In this sense, what
emerges is a rich social history of how ordinary people lived and thought.

Historical archival resources included: county documents, specifically the Allen
County Censuses of 1840, 1870, and 1880, annual reports from the Allen County Health
Department, the Allen County School Board, the Allen Economics Development Group,
the Ohio Department of Health: HIV/AIDS Quarterly Statistical Summary; the US
Federal Censuses of 1950, 1990 and 2000, the US Department of Justice: Uniform
Crime Reports 1997; local area literature, both published and unpublished (See Allen

1931, Bennett 1969, Bowsher 1994, Davis 1978, Gales 1978, Hackman 1958, Hipp 1971,

 

8 Family Reunions are a primary source when compiling histories of African Americans in the U. S. They
are essentially yearly gatherings of kin from all over the U. S. and consist of participants bringing a potluck
item, and meeting and discussing family histories. I am a member of the annual Goings Williams Family
Reunion that has been meeting on the first Saturday in August at a park in Defiance, Ohio since 1919.
Family oral histories are passed down from one generation to the next at these affairs. Adero (1993), sites
the passing down of oral histories at yearly family gatherings as one of the major ways that African
Americans have been able to preserve family histories throughout the major migrations from the South to
the North.

15

Hirisimaki 1986, McGee 1980, McGown 1921, Selfiidge 1981, The Spring Quarter
History Class of Ohio State University the Lima Branch (SQHC) 1971, Stark 1993,
Stemen 1998, Watson 1976, Williamson 1931, and Wren Historical Publication: From
Greenwood to Wren 183 7); local area newspapers, specifically, the Lima Daily, the Lima
News, the Lima Times Democrat, the Allen County Democrat, and the Lima Voice; and a
locally produced documentary, entitled, “Hats, Handkerchiefs, and Fans,” (Scott 1993).

A key archival source that I employed to describe the community life in the voice
of those who lived through early historical events in the Lima area was unpublished data
from 26 citizens who participated in a study conducted by the now deceased Lima area
resident Vera Gales entitled, “The Spedy Historical Research Project” in 197 8. Consent
forms, transcriptions of interviews and tape recordings of those interviews were available
to me through the archives in the library of the Allen County Museum. Interviews were
transcribed verbatim from their original tape recordings, which is a research feature that
is crucial in reflecting differing variations in speaking patterns among the local Afiican
American population.

Participants in the current research study included community members, school
administrators and teachers, and AAM themselves. There were a total of 54 participants,
27 of which were AAM and 27 community members. The 27 AAM included: athletes,
musicians, students, high school dropouts, night school students, gang members,
independent contractors, fathers, brothers, and sons. The 27 community members
included: parents, school administrators and teachers, and commumty stakeholders. All
of the interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed by the author of the report. I began

the research in December 2002 and ended in August 2003. During the term of the

16

research I lived in a variety of living situations, both in private rooming houses, and in
different community member’s homes.

The archival research encompassed spending long hours in the library at the Allen
County Museum searching through two very large boxes that were marked “The Black
History of Lima.” Committed, community members who were pleased that someone
from Lima was writing about the Black History of Lima in an organized and structured
way firrther bolstered archives. Family documents were shared with me, which proved to
be crucial in gaining the level of depth needed to understand life for Afiican Americans
in the earlier part of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Further, a local private historian who had been collecting the history of Lima’s
Afiican American citizens for 20 years also assisted me in this quest. Her collection
consisted of original documents, historical Black Newspapers, photographs, and a 20-
year collection of fire Lima News (which is the local mainstream paper). Her database
consisted of piles of newspapers and archival documents stored in rooms in five of the
houses she owns throughout the Lima area. I felt quite honored and privileged when she
sent word that she would allow me access to these archives. The private historian
imposed conditions on the use of her historical documents, specifically that she must
accompany me as I read and made copies of newspaper articles. This research feature
added an element of both the lived experience of the private historian and provided
information that was not available in the historical collections of the Allen County
Historical Society.

A series of interviews (See Appendices B and C) were conducted in a variety of

locations throughout the community including private homes, restaurants, recording

17

studios, local area shopping centers, local area bars, dancing establishments, churches,
business establishments, work environments or wherever the people being interviewed
chose to meet which was a feature that allowed more freedom and provided the greatest
access to the most people. Conducting interviews in this way was extremely helpful in
obtaining a holistic view of life for AAM in the city of Lima.

Additionally, life history narratives (See Appendix A) were used to structure the
individual interviews of the 27 key participants which enhanced the research by
providing a conversational style, establishing trust, and breaking down initial barriers.
Each participant was asked to describe his life as a book starting with chapter one and
progressing forward until he chose to end the book. The final question asked was what
the title of the book would be.

I gained knowledge of the initial seven participants in the study when I
volunteered in a literacy program conducted at Lima Alternative High School during the
fall of 1999. Through volunteering I became acquainted with both the students I assisted
and their mothers. This bond was nurtured and continued throughout the 2000/2001
school year which proved helpful in establishing rapport and developing a mutual trust
between myself and members of a population that are labeled at-risk.

This aspect of my volunteer position became particularly relevant to me because
the mothers that I interacted with were far different from how they are depicted in the
media (Dickerson 1995, Vaz 1995). Many of the mothers wanted their sons to do better
in school and constantly talked about them graduating from regular school and staying
out of trouble. Some of them understood that the goal and mission statement of

alternative school was not to graduate students or prepare students for the job market but

18

to control behavior (Starks 1993). Through these interactions I became acquainted with
gatekeepers and key members of the neighborhood and further developed my sense of
commitment to the community.

Lastly, a rough draft of the dissertation was distributed to several local historians,
a local music historian, and interested community members a feature that was in keeping
with the general tone of the research that prefaced the voices, recollections, and
memories of those being studied. I will also be presenting the findings at the annual
African American History Program at the Bradfield Community Center in Lima in
February 2004, to members of the Allen County Historical Society in their annual
“Lima’s Histories” event in September of 2004, and at the annual Goings Williams
Family Reunion on August 7, 2004. A copy of the completed dissertation will be given

to the society for inclusion in their “Black History of Lima” archival collection.

19

Chapter 1: The Early Black Settlers

We seldom study the condition of the Negro today honestly and carefirlly.
It is so much easier to assume that we know it all. Or perhaps, having
alreaay reached conclusions in our own minds we are loath to have them
disturbed by facts. And yet how little we really know of these millions—of
their daily lives and longings. W.E.B. DuBoi59
Early Settlements
In 1803, the state of Ohio was founded on land inhabited by the Shawnee Nation.
In 1817, Pe-Aitch—Ta (Pht), the leader of the Shawnee Nation signed The Treaty of the
Foot of the Rapids of the Miami Lake with the US. government (The Lima News
February 23, 2003). The treaty gave his people 25 acres of land in the present Shawnee
Township for their reservation.
Allen County was established on April 1, 1820 (Hirisimaki 1986). In September
1812, Colonel Thomas Poague and his command built Fort Amanda and installed
sawmill operations and a shipyard to supply the US. Army and Navy with scows for the
navigable Ohio Rivers (Hirisimaki 1986). The area was officially part of the
Northwestern Ohio Congress Lands, which were surveyed by Captain James Riley in
1820 (Hirisimaki 1986). The 1820 survey led to the annexation of 440 square miles of
the former Indian Territory into Allen County and was attached to Mercer County for

judicial purposes (Hirisimaki 1986). In 1824, the first organized government was formed

when ChristOpher Wood established the township in Allen County (Hirisimaki 1986).

 

9 WEB. DuBois, The Souls ofBlack Folk (1903: 101).

20

_Fir_st White Settlers

The first known white settlement was Sugar Creek and was located in Bath
Township in Allen County (Hackman 1958). The first families in this community
included the Woods family and five other white families in 1824 (Hackman 1958).

Another white settlement was established in the county in 1825. It was called
Hog Creek and was founded by Samuel McClure, Joseph Walton, and Joseph Ward, and
built on the banks of Hog Creek about five miles southeast of the Sugar Creek settlement
(Hackman 1958). In 1831, the first Allen County officials were appointed and charged
with laying out a town to be the seat of the county government. Northwest Ohio sat in an
area known as “The Black Swamp Wilderness”, which was a wetland forested in maple,
beech, oak, hickory, and ash trees (The Lima News, February 23, 2003).

The city of Lima was founded and incorporated when the first city council
convened on March 29, 1842, on a 160-acre land tract (Hackman 1958). The judges of
the newly formed Court of Common Pleas in Allen County appointed the first county
officials and named Christopher Wood the first town director (Hackman 1958).

Ten years after it’s beginning, Allen County numbered 578 residents and after
making Lima the county seat, it continued to grow (Hirisimaki 1986). In 1845, the
Miami-Erie Canal was completed, opening the area up to businesses (Hackman 1958).
By 1850, the Allen County Census records show 12,116 residents. According to
Hackman (1958) the main stream of grth can be attributed to the local lumbering
enterprises and migrating workers seeking to better themselves. In 1854, the first railroad
came through Lima (Hackman 1958). By the fall of 1856, the township consisted of four

school districts and 63 households (Hackman 1958).

21

 

First Black Settlers

Though the historical record indicates that black settlers moved into the area at
the same time white settlers did, there is a lively debate concerning who, exactly, the first
black settlers to the area were (Selfiidge 1981, McGee 1980, McGown 1921, Williamson
1931, Wren Historical Publication 183 7). Research into the matter reveals that the first
government documented record of blacks in the area was in 1840 (Allen County Census
1840)

The Allen County Census of 1840 reports that James Robinson and his family
were possibly the first black family (Selfridge 1981). Selfiidge explains that James
Robinson was a farmer and that both he and his wife Martha were illiterate. His name
appears as both Robison and Robinson on that census. Robinson and his family were
reported in the early Allen County Marriage Records of 1837 as the first black family in
Lima (Selfiidge 1981).

This claim is contested by oral tradition that holds that the first black man in Lima
was a man named Banks who married a white woman named Brown (Wren Historical
Publication 183 7). According to family documentation, Banks was a farmer and owned
a farm on Findley Road, west of the McCullough Lake (Williamson 1931).

A newspaper clipping (The Lima News February 16, 2003), historical publications
and family documentation disclose that Godfrey Brown, a former slave of John Randolph
of Roanoke, Virginia, was the first black man to settle in the area. According to the
historical documentation, Wren Historical Publication ( 1 83 7), Brown reportedly
purchased release for his family and moved to freedom in the Xenia area in 1830. There

Brown, a minister, founded Middle Run Baptist Church, now the oldest black church in

22

the state of Ohio (Wren Historical Publication 183 7). Further, Brown is reported to have
founded a cemetery, which has become the final resting place of many blacks that moved
to Ohio for fi'eedom from Virginia slave owners (Brown family documentation).

According to family records, Brown was granted freedom on March 7, 1820,
when he was 52 years old. He was the son of slave parents of an agricultural and tobacco
slave owner. Further family documentation verifies that slaves fi‘eed from the
Randolph’s estate began arriving in the Wren area of Van Wert County in 183 7.

The oral account is problemitized by oral tradition that states that it was not
Godfiey Brown, but his grandsons William Harvey Brown and James Brown, who were
the members of the family to make their way to Van Wert County. They were reported to
be the sons of Godfrey Brown’s son Samuel, also a minister. William and James are
reported to have left the Xenia area to move to Van Wert County to join an already
flourishing black community that had settled in the area OBrown family documentation).

An informant in an unpublished paper from the Spring Quarter History Class of
Ohio State University Lima Campus retells the Lima connection to Godfrey Brown that
has been passed down through oral tradition by his ancestors in 1971. In that paper
Brown’s ancestor explains the relationship in the following way:

Godfrey Brown, a runaway slave, joined the Revolutionary Army where he

became renowned for bravery. His former owner, hearing of his valor, gave him

his freedom at the close of the war. Somehow, Godfrey Brown made his way to

Van Wert County where in 1780-85, he is reputed to have purchased for 25 cents

per acre over one-eighth of the county. His family held title to this land (intact)

until the Civil War. One of his descendents is still the owner of a large farm in

the county. Mr. E. Elmer Brown and Mr. Bert King of Lima are descendents of
that pioneer.

23

Upon analysis, the dates given for Godfiey Brown’s arrival to the Ohio area are in
conflict, which stems from differing accounts of collective memories, family
documentation, and the historical record. Taking all of these sources into consideration,
the significant thing about the settlement of Godfi'ey Brown, is that his descendents are
still living and thriving on the land he purchased in Van Wert County, Wren, Ohio (Lima
News February 16, 2003). Land purchases of other early black settlers are no longer in
the hands of their descendents. According to historical scholars of the area, this is largely
attributed to the impact of structural forces, namely in the form of unrecorded land deeds,
the establishment of terroristic broad signs posted throughout the area, and segregation of
available resources that was based on skin color (McGee 1980, Watson 1976, Bennett

1969)

First Black Families

A paper by Captain Peter McGown10 in 1921 appears to be the first written
history of Allen County’s black community during the Civil War period. Although
McGown does not provide the date of the first black family settling in Lima, he does
record the name of the first black child born in Lima as Viola Moss, daughter of John and
Becky Moss. According to Selfridge (1981), the information could not be verified

through county records, but is supported by oral tradition that holds that she died in

 

1° According to Selfridge (1981), Henry McGown was a black man who was enlisted in the 54'h
Massachusetts Infantry during the Civil War and was assigned to Detroit as a cabinet maker to assist in the
manufacturing of coffins. He came to Lima in 1870 as a carpenter from Kentucky owning $400 in real
estate. His wife, Anna, was also from Kentucky. They had five children, one of whom was Peter

McGown. US. Army Captain Peter McGown was a prominent war hero. He served as an American
soldier who fought in several Indian campaigns and also served in the Philippines. He is best known for his
bravery in Cuba during the Spanish-American War for which he was awarded to the Distinguished Service
Corps and the Distinguished Service Medal. He served in the 10th us. Calvary in the Spanish-American
War under 1’t Lieutenant John Pershing. His services were refused in World War I (WWI) because he was
80 years old. He was a respected member of the Black community in Lima.

24

infancy. Another of the early black children reported in Allen County, was James
Robinson. The Allen County Census of 1840 records that he was born in 1837 and list
him as the son of James and Martha Robinson.

Between the year 1837 and 1849, at least thirteen black families moved into the
Lima area (McGown 1921). Additionally, it is known that the James Moss residence 0
South Union Street was the apparent center of social activity for the growing black
community (McGown 1921). It may also be noted, that in describing the recreational a
social life of the early black pioneers, McGown does not mention any contact with the
white community. The finding may indicate that blacks were segregated socially from

whites in the area.

Origins of the Early Black Pioneers

Who were the early black settlers? Where did they come from? Were they
escaped slaves or freemen? Additionally, who were the early white settlers and where
did they come from? According to a talk on “Black History” given by local historian,
Elizabeth McGee on November 16, 1980, to the Allen County Historical Society in Lin
the passage of the Black Laws was one tool that effectively limited which early settlers
would be able to remain in the area. Her explanation is as follows:

Although Ohio was considered a free state that forbade slavery it passed a series
of Black Laws. In 1804, 1807, 1829, and 1830 that eroded the civil and legal
rights of its black population and that discouraged settling in the state. Example
of these laws were: 1) Blacks and Mulattos were not allowed to settle in the sta
unless they could produce freedom papers issued from some court in the US. 2
Blacks already living in the state must register with the county clerk 3) Newly
fieed Blacks were forbidden to enter the state unless they could provide a $500
bond signed by two white men guaranteeing their good behavior and support 4]
Blacks were not to be counted when determining the number of elected seats to
filled in the general assembly 5) Blacks could not benefit from the law providin

25

for the maintenance of the poor in the state since the law applied only to legal

residents and they were not considered legal residents 6) Blacks were denied

admission to the state common school system and prohibited from sharing the
state common school fund.

This document is an example of how structural forces, in the form of Black Laws,
were instrumental in barring blacks from settling in Ohio. McGee (1980) goes on to
explain that in spite of laws and economic conditions, blacks continued to settle all over
Ohio and in 1849, the Black Laws were finally repealed. The finding indicates that
blacks were actively resisting structural forces.

Further, she summarizes that the black population that was successfirl in settling
consisted of two predominant groups. One group was made up of people who had
established their freedom by legislation, by military service, by deed or will, by birth, by
self-purchase, or by escape. The pattern of migration for the first group was usually in an
Easterly-Westerly direction (McGee 1980, Bennett 1969, Woodson 1918). Examples of
this group of early settlers were the Robinsons and the Browns. The other group
consisted of fugitive slaves—their migration pattern was in a Northerly direction, as such
they were always on the run (McGee 1980, Bennett 1969, Woodson 1918). An example
of this group was Joel and Wesley Goins11 (Goings family documentation).

Further, Selfiidge (1981) reports in A Directory of Blacks in Allen County Prior to
1883 the following demographic information. The list is compiled from the federal

census, city directories, county histories, previously prepared reports, early county

marriage records, and from the reminiscences of prior citizens as reported in articles and

 

” I am a descendent of the Joel Goins family who came to the Ohio as a runaway slave from the Hughes
slave plantation in Kentucky (W illiams’ family documentation). Joel Goins was significant to the early
African American settlers because his son, “ 0c” D.C. Goings, who was born in Rumley, Ohio in 1839,
would emerge as the local area faith healer. His skills in alternative health practice earned him respect
throughout the area (Hipp 1971). In the contemporary context, the name Goins has been changed to
Goings and the Goings-Williams family reunion has been celebrating his contributions to African
American identity in the area annually since 1919.

26

papers. Selfiidge (1981) notes that no effort was made to search Lima newspapers for the
mention of blacks, or to search any records at the Allen County Courthouse.

0 They were largely fi'om the following Southern states: Virginia, West Virginia,
Kentucky, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee. Additionally,
there were a few fiom Mississippi, Arkansas, Indiana and Canada.

0 Many came as laborers with the following skills: engineers, barbers, farmers,
teamsters, draymen, seamstresses, merchants, barkeepers, stone masons,
machinists, plasterers, brick masons, blacksmiths, whitewashers, tailors,
carpenters, missionaries and ministers.

0 Some of their occupations included: wood sawyer, car builder, restaurant clerk,
laborers, servants (the job classification was specific to black women who were
in—service to white families), farm laborer, day laborer, housekeeper (the job
classification was specific to black women who worked in the homes of wealthy
white families), tannery worker, house mover, groom, domestic, washer woman,
hairdresser, saloon cook, and sawmill worker.

0 Many were property owners; specifically they owned their own farms and various
real estate in the county. (Selfi'idge’s document gives a detailed account of the
amount in dollars of the real estate each person owned).

0 There was no listing of any of the early black settlers in the professional classes,
specifically as doctors, nurses, dentists or undertakers. “Doc” D.C. Goins is an

example of the resilience of community members regarding their health care.

27

Quite a few of the early black settlers took in boarders”, both white and black.
Some of the black men, particularly those fi'om Virginia, married local white
women as they settled in the county.

The businesses in Lima that employed many of the early black settlers were:
Lima Handle Factory, French House (a restaurant), Lima Paper Mill, Shade’s
Livery Stable, The Lima House (a restaurant), Lima Gas Company (they were
employed lighting gas street lamps).

There was an even distribution of both literate and illiterate people among them.
The finding is significant as McGee (1980) and Watson (1976) record that a
manual training school for blacks had been established in the area by August
Wattles, a Quaker from Connecticut, in 1835.

A few of them were listed as prisoners in the Allen County Jail. 13

In 1978, Lima resident Vera Gales conducted a research project entitled, “The Spedy
Historical Research Project” (SHRP 1978). The aim of the project was to gather together
a history of black residents of Lima. To date the data gathered from that project has
never been formally analyzed or published, however, tapes of oral interviews conducted
by her research team were transcribed and donated to the archives of the libraries of the
Allen County Museum in Lima, Ohio. Data gathered from those oral interviews is
fiuitfirl in depicting the types of employment Lima’s early black residents were engaged

in. An example fi'om an interview in that project is as follows:

 

‘2 In his classic work, The Philadelphia Negro (1899) W.E.B. DuBois finds that taking in boarders was
prevalent among blacks living in the seventh ward of Philadelphia as well.

13 The first actual courthouse was built in 1832. The small hewn-log structure was two stories high and
also housed a jail and the county oflices (The Lima News, March 2, 2003).

28

Q: So you’re a native Lima resident?

A: I’m a native of Lima.

Q: What year were you born?

A: 1894

Q: So you’ve been around for a good little bit?

A: Yeah, except for the help of the good Lord, I wouldn’t never made it.

Q: So what kind of work did you do then?

A: I started out doing a little bit of everything, kind of work whatever I could
get to make a piece of money and I finally started, I settled down to doing
porter work. The first job I had, real steady was at Albert’s Beauty Parlor,
a white place and I worked there four years and a half.

This finding is consistent with other scholarship, which documents the types of
employment available to blacks (DuBois 1899). The only employment available to many
of the migrating blacks was restricted to service to the white population a process that
fostered the growth of dependency and discouraged independency of this segment of the
population. McGown’s (1921) composition is insightful here, as he states that local

whites were much more comfortable with blacks in the roles of servitude which he felt

maintained the superior—inferior status among the two groups.

Origins of the Early White Piongars

Who were the early white settlers in Ohio at this time? McGee (1980) states the
following:

By the 18505 the white population in Ohio consisted mainly of three

groups. The Scotch and Irish from Pennsylvania, Virginia and Kentucky

had settled in the Southern counties along the Ohio River. They were
opposed to slavery but were staunchly resistant to the presence of free

29

blacks under any circumstance, because of their economic threat. '4

Another group was the New England contingent that settled in the

Western Reserve Region down to around Marietta. Their Puritan

background opposed slavery morally and they could accept fi'ee blacks as

long as they were an idealistic image in their minds. But when they came

in contact with them, they generally went along with the severe Southern

Ohio thinking. The third group of whites was the Quakers who came fi'om

Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the Carolinas. They settled in the Central and

Southeastern counties and resolutely maintained their humanitarian

idealisms and their strong religious beliefs enabling them to fight for

better treatment of blacks15 (McGee 1980).

The details of the migratory patterns of white settlers indicate that they came into
the area at the same time as blacks. A crucial difference between the two is that whites
were able to settle anywhere they liked without fear of being harassed by blacks who
were arriving at the same time. This finding validates McGown’s (1921) earlier

observation regarding superiority-inferiority and the advantages of white skin privilege.

Early Black Settlements: Rumley and Carthegena

According to the historical record, there were a number of early black settlements.
They were specifically, the village of Rumley in Shelby County, the village of
Carthegena in Mercer County, and smaller unnamed black settlements in Van Wert and
Paulding Counties (McGee 1980, Bennett 1969). An understanding of events that
occurred in two of the settlements is a crucial element regarding the migration patterns of
the early blacks that settled in the Lima vicinity. Thusly, a brief history of the villages of

Rumley and Carthegena is warranted.

 

 

M InMaking Whiteness: The Culture of Segregation in the South, 1890-1940, Hale (1998) makes the same
pbservation.

5 In Mountain People in a Flat Land Feather (1998) confirms the finding.

30

The Village of Rumley

The village of Rumley was an early black community founded by Joel Goins and
his brother Wesley when they purchased 400 acres of land on the Indian Trail between
Lima and Piqua in 1830 (McGee 1980, Hipp 1971). The Goins brothers were reputed to
be runaway slaves from the Hughes plantation in Northern Kentucky (Williams’s family
documentation). They changed their name to Goins so they would not be captured and
sent back to slavery (Williams’s family documentation). They were soon joined by
various groups of black settlers including free blacks from Baltimore who pioneered their
way westward to join the new community (McGee 1980). Oral tradition holds that
Rumley was a part of the Underground Railroad, which added to its attraction. It was
also a natural rest stop for the stagecoach, which led to the construction of an inn and
livery stable and to the establishment of stores, a saloon and industries—specifically, a
brick factory, a sawmill, and a gristmill (McGee 1980, Bennett 1969). The Rumley
community also supported three black churches, among them the African Methodist
Episcopal (AME) and the Baptist (McGee 1980, Bennett 1969). Both denominations
were founded in Lima shortly after the Rumley churches were established (McGee 1980,
Bennett 1969).

In 183 7, a group of free blacks migrated to Rumley. Two of the new black
settlers were Solomon Lott and John Robinson who both received land deeds equaling
120 acres apiece signed by then president, Martin Van Buren (McGee 1980, Hipp 1971,
Bennett 1969). From there the population of Rumley continued to grow to over five

hundred people (McGee 1980, Bennett 1969). The village continued to flourish until

31

1865 when a broadside warning to blacks appeared throughout Shelby County (McGee
1980). The contents of the sign were as follows:

WARNING!!!
To Negroes in Shelby County
At a meeting of the I.0.0.N.A it was resolved that in consequence of
the late influx of Negroes to some parts of this county, especially near
Romley (sic), Daysville, and vicinity, and in consequence of their bad
conduct, insolence, and competition with white labor and other numerous
causes it was resolved to give you

WARNING!!!

That you must arran e your business and depart within sixty days from
this date, or by the 20 of November 1865, or measures, already adopted,
will be taken to make this location unhealthy for you. Our means are
adequate, and it is a duty we owe our families, ourselves and society to use
them promptly
September 15, 1865 By Order of I.0.0.N.A.

(Source: McGee 1980)

The poster was reflective of what was happening to free blacks throughout the
nation and led to a panic which resulted in the massive exodus of early black settlers and
their families (McGee 1980, Bennett 1969). Many of them migrated to other towns
including Lima, Dayton and Toledo (McGee 1980, Bennett 1969). In this regard,
McGee’s (1980) talk and the supporting document of a copy of the actual broadside
warning sign is significant. In a number of historical documents, newspaper accounts
and local literature no explanation is given for the drastic decline of black settlers in the
Rumley area afier 1865. A paper written by the Spring Quarter History Class of the Ohio
State University Lima Campus (SQHC) in 1971 makes no reference as to the reasons
early black settlers vacated the Rumley site. The paper concludes the discussion of
Rumley with the following statement, “Today at the present site of the Rumley

settlement, there are few remaining black families.”

32

The Village of Carthegena

Rumley was not the only black settlement in Northwestern Ohio. Carthegena was
another significant early black community in the area (Mer 1980, Bennett 1969).
Carthegena is of further significance to the area as it is reputed to have served as a station
in the Underground Railroad before emancipation (McGee 1980).

In the historical document “From Greenwood to Wren” (Wren Historical
Publication 1837) the date given for the establishment of the Village of Carthegena is
1837, by the freed slaves of John Randolph of Roanoke, Virginia. The document
supporting the event states specifically,

Randolph’s will provided for the emancipation of his 318 slaves
and also firnds for their support. Between 30 and 40 ex-slaves
were granted deeds from 40 to 60 acres of land in Mercer County,
Wilshire Township. The administers of the estate sent two agents
to Mercer County to assist fieed slaves in settling. Eventually the
size of the community had grown to 125 Negro male voters (Wren
Historical Publication 183 7).

McGee (1980) counters this claim, and provides the following account of the
events that occurred in Carthegena concerning the fi'eed slaves of John Randolph.

August Wattles, a Quaker from Connecticut established a manual training
school in 1835 in the then sparsely settled Mercer County. Blacks from
Cincinnati were encouraged to settle there. The community developed to
such an extent that by 1840 a black named Charles Moore planned the
village of Carthegena, which consisted of 64 lots. Some of the black
residents were employed in Celina. Some of the whites attempted to run
them out of the area, but that attempt failed. The peacefulness of the
settlement, however, was to be short-lived. White settlers began to move
in and encircle the black homes. Complaints were constantly made that
the residents of Carthegena were sheltering runaways. The pressure on the
black population to leave the area was to increase considerably with the
migration and attempted settlement of the Randolph freed slaves.

Who were the Randolph freed slaves? John Randolph was a brilliant and

eccentric slaveholder fiom the Roanoke Virginia area. His original will in
1819 gave his slaves their freedom and made provisions for relocation in

33

another state upon his death. However, his last will, written January 1,
1832, contradicted his manumitting of his slaves. On his deathbed in May
1833, Randolph remembered the contradictory nature of his wills.
Therefore, he remarked to an attending doctor in an earnest manner, “I
confirm every disposition in my will especially that respecting my slaves,
whom I have manumitted and for whom I have made provision.”

After his death, a dispute followed with his heirs pertaining to which will
was valid. After almost 13 years of litigation, the courts in May 1846
recognized the first will as valid; and a William Leigh was duly
recognized as Executor of Randolph’s estate. During those thirteen years,
the slaves were still kept in bondage and hired out. Leigh than traveled to
Mercer County to make arrangements to buy farmland (near where the
town of Celina now stands) to have local people build the houses and
supply the food and to leave the bond money. In early June, Leigh led the
group of almost 400 newly freed slaves to the Ohio River, then by boat to
Cincinnati and up the Miami-Erie Canal by canal boats to Mercer County.
But alas, the German settlers had passed several resolutions, which made
their position perfectly clear on the matter of these new colonists coming
to their area by their adoption of these resolutions:

1) Resolved: that we will not live among Negroes, as we have
settled here first, we have fully determined that we will resist
the settlements in this county to the fill] extent of our means,
the bayonet not excepted—(this was aimed specifically at the
Randolph folk, Resolutions 2 and 3 were aimed at blacks
already living in the area)

2) Resolved: that the Negroes of this county be requested to leave the
county on or before the first day of March, 1847, and in the case of
their neglect or refirsal to comply, we pledge ourselves to remove
them, peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must.

3) Resolved: that we who are assembled pledge ourselves not to employ
or trade with any Negro or Mulatto person in any manner whatever or
permit them to have any grindings done at our mills after March 1,
1 847 .

When the Randolph contingent arrived in the village of Carthegena on a
Sunday in July 1846, they were met by a vicious group of Mercer and
Auglaize white residents armed with pitchforks and guns. After a bitter
confi'ontation, the newcomers were put on chartered boats and were
escorted, by the armed white citizens back to the county line. Some of the
blacks stopped off at Sidney, others went down to Piqua, Troy, Lima and
Cincinnati. Leigh returned to Virginia, giving the power of attorney to
someone else, who in turn sold off the land. Neither the Randolph folk,
nor their descendents ever received any compensation because the land
was never recorded in their names (McGee 1980).

34

This account is problemitized by the living relatives of Godfrey Brown, that state
that he was one of the former Randolph slaves. Their claim is confirmed by historical
record, family documentation and the fact that they are still living on the original land
purchased by Godfrey Brown (Brown family documentation). The finding may indicate
that at least one, if not more of the freed slaves of the Randolph plantation were
successful in resisting the structural constraints imposed on them by the early German
immigrants.

The recorded incidents of terrorism toward the Rumley and Carthegena blacks
may have been the force that served to bolster the growing black population in Lima.
Interviews from SHRP (1978) support the Rumley/Carthegena/Lima connection.
Examples of the connection from the project’s oral interviews are as follows:

Q: Where are you originally from?

A: From Carthegena, Ohio.

Q: Were your parents also from Carthegena?

A: Yes.

Q: Did you attend school in Lima?

A: No, I attended school in Carthegena, the elementary school, and I went to
high school in St. Mary’s Ohio (SHRP 1978).

Another interview fi'om that project further details the connection:

According to my information we’ve gathered through my black fiiends,
there was a colony of black settlers over around Van Wert in the early
1800’s, 1827 or 1847, I’m not sure. They were given 750 acres of land by
their owners down south that freed them. They brought this land and
turning fi'ee they settled up on it. I think there was another colony down
by Anna, I don’t know if land was involved there, there was another one in
Shelby County, I believe, I think there were 3 groups settled in the general
area, and there’s one family I understand that still owns 157 acres of land
around Van Wert County, the original ranch that they had. These folks,

35

many of them came in to Lima and worked as domestics and stable hands
and gardeners, many of them chauffeurs and caniage drivers and so forth
for the well to do (SHRP 1978).

_E_arly Social Life of Lima Area Blacks

What is known about the social life of early blacks in Lima comes from The Lima

Times Democrat, a monthly black newspaper of the period. In the January 25, 1878,

issue references are made of “Black Camp Meetings” that were held quarterly at the

Allen County Fair Grounds. A summary of some of the activities that occurred at these

events gathered from articles in the 1878 edition of lire Lima Times Democrat are as

follows:

Held annually at the fairgrounds for many years

Both Methodists and Baptists participated

Fairground especially decorated

Tents used as living quarters for staff

As a rule good order was maintained

Horse car service maintained to fairgrounds from the square during the period of
the meetings

Services held several times on Sundays and at least twice on week days

Music usually excellent—Negro chorus from Lima frequently furnished the
music—Negro Spirituals sung by entire audience drew crowds

Both blacks and whites attended the meetings and white ministers often spoke
Methodists held their meetings in July or August and the Baptists in September—
the meetings lasted about 10 days—one day was always given to “Temperance
Meetings”

At least 20,000 people visited the fairgrounds during the meetings

Hie Allen County Democrat, which was another county wide black newspaper of the

time, describes “Black Emancipation Day Celebrations” in the area. The October 5, 1887

edition of this paper features the following headlines:

Colored people celebrated Emancipation Day at the Fairgrounds
Ft. Wayne, Delphos, Troy, Lima, Sidney, Piqua, Findley, Dayton

McGown (1921) makes reference to these celebrations and states that they were held

every year at the “Old Fair Grounds” in Allen County. He goes on, further to state that

36

 

they were well attended by blacks from all the surrounding counties and adds that large
potluck meals were passed around and dances accompanied by fiddle music rounded out
the night. The celebration of Emancipation Day by early blacks is consistent with
findings from other historical sources on this part of the country (Smith 1999, Thomas
1992)

The black population in Lima continued to flourish during the 19th century.
Information from the Allen County Census of 1870 indicates that there were at least 63
blacks in the county at that time. The Allen County Census of 1880 reveals that by that

time the number increased to 260.

The Role of the Early Black Church

During the 19th Century, the church played a central role in the lives of blacks in
America and as well as the Lima (Raboteau 2001, Franklin and Moss 1994, DuBois
1899). In 1858, St. Paul’s Afiican Methodist Episcopalian (AME) Church was founded
(Stark 1993). The church founding indicates that there were enough blacks living in
Lima to start a church. As the population grew, new black churches were started. In
1873, Second Street Baptist Church was founded (Stark 1993). Later, in 1917, Fourth
Street Baptist Church was founded (Stark 1993).

The following narrative in the unpublished paper by the Spring Quarter History Class
(SQHC) (1971), concerning the history of the black church in Lima, demonstrates the
connection between the Lima/Rumley/Carthegena black populations.

The first black church in Lima was St. Paul’s AME. It was started in 1858
by the reverend Father Grafion Graham. A Mrs. Rebecca Howard, whom

had previously pastored, was instrumental as well. At first the
membership was small and they met in their homes, where a Mr. Hudson

37

 

preached to them. Then, through the efforts of a Mr. James Robinson (he
is also listed in the Allen County Census of 1840 as the first black settler
in the area, additionally be later became a steward and then pastor of the
church) an old school building at 666 West Spring Street, was purchased,
and the new church was dedicated by Bishop Paul Irwin and attached to
the Carthegena Church to form a circuit. Services were held there until
1876, when it was sold, and a former Presbyterian Church at the comer of
Spring and Elizabeth Streets was purchased under the administration of
RP. Clark. The North Ohio Conference was formed in this church at the
September 6th, 11th session of the AME Ohio Conference in 1882. The
church was remodeled in 1893, when the Reverend Major W.T. Anderson
was pastor, and a lot at 1103 West Spring Street was purchased.

The second notable black church in Lima was founded in 1873, when
Reverend Revells, seven other people and the help of Reverend Shelton of
Rumley organized the Second Street Baptist Church. Services were held
in a hall over Langan’s grocery store on the Northeast corner of the Public
Square and Main Street. A Reverend Meredith served as pastor. Later the
meetings were moved into the Stamets Block on the Southwest comer of
Market and Union Streets, then to the home of Mary Moss (a member) on
South Union Street, where it remained until 1876 when the present site at
520 West Spring Street was purchased at a cost of $700 from Charles and
Elizabeth Samison on May 15, 1876. There was a four room dwelling on
the property, which was converted into a one-room church. The mortgage
on this property was burned in 1886, and the Articles of Incorporation
were filed with the State of Ohio on February 19, 1889. The first new
frame church was completed in 1890, and in 1891 the original dwelling
was remodeled to serve as patronage. By 1893 the membership had
increased to 115, and the Reverend Moss served as supply minister.

The third and last black church during that period was the Fourth Street
Baptist Church. In 1917, with the leadership of Reverends Leroy and
William McGee, this church was organized. For a short time, the seven
members met in their homes, and then a storeroom on the corner of Norval
Avenue and Fourth Street was rented for future services. In the latter part
of November the church became a part of the Northwestern Association.
Services were held in this building until 1919 when the membership had
grown to 45 (SQHC 1971).

These three churches played a significant role in connecting Lima area blacks to
the larger community, providing social welfare, and spiritual solace. As such, they were

the center of the community, which is a finding that is consistent with previous scholarly

research on the subject (Raboteau 2001, Franklin and Moss 1994, DuBois 1899).

38

Black church formation illustrates the development of leadership in Lima’s black
community. Agency surfaced in the form of early ministers who served as moral,
spiritual and political guides and used the church to ofi‘er a variety of social services for
the neighborhood. Some of the services provided were concerts, suppers, socials, fairs,
literary exercises and debates, plays, excursions, picnics, and celebrations (DuBois 1899).
Additionally, it was one of the most financially stable institutions in the black community
(Raboteau 2001). The significance of this cannot be understated as it was funded by the
community at-large; therefore, it was one of the first grass roots organizations.

According to DuBois (1899), early churches were the birthplace of all the agencies that
wanted to promote the intelligence of the masses because they were the leading
institution where news and information was disseminated. Lastly, they were responsible

for providing a moral foundation and recreational activities for area youth.

Early Bla_ck Politicigrs in Lima

In correlation with the national trend, many of the local blacks were members of
the Republican Party (Schweninger 197 8, Watson 1976). The Republican Party was the
party of Lincoln; it was the party, which had given them fieedom (Frazier 1957). The
Democratic Party, on the other hand, was the party of the southern white men who had
been responsible for lynching, disenfranchisement, and segregation (Frazier 1957).

Several sources from around the Lima area document that early black Republican
Party members were active in precinct work. A clipping from The Lima Times Democrat
(1888) indicates that William H. Wilson, a black man from the Lima area, was bidding

for the Republican nomination for mayor during the spring primaries of 1888. There is

39

no evidence as to the success of his campaign; however, the fact that any black person
would even try to run for office at such an early date is very significant. In the March 23,
1888 edition of The Lima Times Democrat in an article entitled, “Colorline” a Lima area
black citizen provides the following assessment of Wilson’s run for office and his
subsequent campaign.

One of the most distressing and disrespectful things under observation for

some time is the refirsal of the Gazette to announce the name of Wm. H.

Wilson, a highly respectable colored man, as a candidate for mayor. It

would certainly be in accord with the American idea for personal liberty to

pay due respect to all men irrespective of color or nationality, providing

they are men of character, and they should receive equal recognition.

The finding indicates that black people in the Lima area were attempting to resist
the larger power structure by exercising their right to participate in politics. It is also
interesting to note that Lima area blacks did not refer to themselves as “Negro” but
preferred the less derogatory term of “Colored”.

On March 25, 1888, an article that appeared in The Lima Daily, the white
newspaper of the time, reflects the white sentiment of Wilson’s aspirations. In that paper
Wilson’s candidacy is viewed as “an attempt to use the colored vote to firrther schemes of

the politician managers” and states that “there is no disposition on the part of the

Republicans to give him the nomination for the position.”

Race Relations
The literature is scarce regarding race relationships between local area whites and
blacks. However, that is not to say that they did not occur, in this regard the SQHC

(1971) reports the following incident:

40

The incident happened in 1888 between the Negroes and Irish Americans.

It started in the De] Flora Saloon when Negroes and Irish Americans were

there together. Someone started the song, “Don’t Like a Nigger, No

How.” An exchange of words was followed by an exchange of fists. In

the melee, an Irish boy by the name of Pat Hughes was getting a drink of

water from a pump outside the saloon when he was krrifed by Fred

Harrison, a Negro. The boy died and violence erupted. There were other

injuries from this incident, but no other deaths.

The historical clash continued to plague the black and Irish community in the
Lima area. Evidence of the clash emerges with the integration of blacks from the Deep
South to the Southend of Lima in the 1940s The Irish communities’ response is that they

flee from the area.

EarlyBla_ck Businesses

In the 18705 and 1880s, historical records divulge that Lima area black’s
organized a number of mutual aid, secret and beneficial societies a finding that is
consistent with prior research (Frazier 1957, DuBois 1899). DuBois (1899) describes the
formation of these societies in other Northern black communities and details them in the
following way. “Essentially all that was required to join these societies was a small
initiation fee and small monthly payments. These payments supported members when
they became ill, or in the case of the death of a member these fees went to pay firneral
expenses and help the widow” (1899: 221). Some organizations formed in Lima
included the Occidental Lodge #44, Free and Accepted Masons, Lima Lodge #2355,
Grand United Order of Odd Fellows, the United Brothers of Friendship, the Sisters of the
Mysterious Ten, and the Morning Star Lodge #15 (SQHC 1971). The presence of early
social organizations illustrates the agency of area blacks in pooling their resources to help

each other and become self-sufficient which made them central to the social life of the

41

black community. According to DuBois (1899), similar societies were prevalent in
numerous Northern black communities and provided social intercourse and insurance

against misfortune. Next to the church they were the most popular organizations.

Early Industries: The Rockefeller Connection

Around the end of the 19’” century Lima was becoming much more industrialized.
In 1870, John D. Rockefeller and several others formed the Standard Oil partnership to
own refineries in a handful of major cities. Rockefeller emerged as the only person
interested in building a refinery in Lima afier oil was discovered (Stemen 1998). Using
three million dollars of his own money he brought the land and established the Buckeye
Pipe Line Company to gather and store the product (Stemen 1998). The refinery was
built in 1886, by Standard Oil and turned Lima into a booming oil town until 1910.

Whether blacks worked in the oil fields during that time is unknown.

Additional prominent industries of the time were:
(Source: The Lima News, March 2, 2003)

o 1840: A doomed brick courthouse was erected. The jail was located in the back
of the building

0 1879: Lima Locomotive Works began producing locomotives

o 1880: The first telephone system was installed

0 1884: business man Faurot opened an electrical generating plant

42

o 1886: Standard Oil Refinery opened”

0 1887: city’s first horse drawn streetcar

The establishment of industrial plants shaped and influenced the Lima environment in
a number of ways. The legacy of these industries surfaced in the high prevalence of
environmental pollution in the area, which has been linked to high rates of cancer in cities
with similar production (See Table 12). Recent construction of two cancer treatment

centers is evidence of the growing problem.

anclusions

Historical evidence supports the following characteristics of the early African
American settles in the Lima area: many were landowners (Selfridge 1981, McGee 1980,
Hipp 1971, Bennett 1969); some owned and operated their own businesses (Watson
1976, McGown 1921); others came to the area with skills (Selfiidge 1981, Bennett 1969);
and most came in search of a better life for their families (Brown, Goings, and Williams
families documentation). Their quest was interrupted by the terroristic tactics of early
European American settlers who feared economic competition (McGee 1980). The
endless disputes between the two groups led African Americans to resettle in the city of
Lima (McGee 1980, Hipp 1971). Once they resettled in the Lima area, their agency was
exhibited in a number of ways including: the establishment of social institutions,

organizations and significant community events, activity in area politics as participants in

 

‘6 In 1900 the breakup of Standard Oil was ordered by the US. Supreme Court. In the mid-19905 the
refinery was ready to close until 1998 when Clark USA agrwd to buy it from British Petroleum In 2000
Clark changed its name to Premcor, Today (2003) the refinery employs about 400 people and sits on 650
acres. The petroleum products produced there are gasoline, diesel and jet fire], commercial propane and
heavier fuel oil. Currently (2003) the refinery produces 25% of the gasoline sold in the state (The Lima
News, March 2, 2003).

43

the election process and as political candidates, and produced and maintained their own

newspapers which could indicate that there was a level of literacy among them.

44

Chapter 2: Life for Blacks from 1900 to 1950

For, while the tale of how we sufler, and how we are delighted, and how we may
triumph is never new, it always must be heard. There isn’t any other tale to tell,
it ’s the only light we’ve got in all this darkness. James Baldwin17

Early Black Businesses

The 19003 proved to be as segregated for Lima’s black community as the prior
century, though there was no actual segregation law. The city’s black residents remained
largely constricted to the Westend. McGown (1921) writes that in 1920 many blacks
owned their own homes and many took advantage of their education. He does not
provide names of the available educational institutions, but states that black children were
part of the public school system in the Lima area.

McGown (1921) stresses that the majority of the black community lived in the
same area, which indicates the degree of segregation they had within the larger
community. He goes on to say that they were law abiding and were found in business
and other professions. The names of two of them were Hicks Brothers Barber Shop and
Busher’s and Oglesbee’s Freight Shop (McGown 1921).

He details the following concerning their employment possibilities. Many of
those that came to Lima between 1870 and 1900 were servants and laborers (McGown
1921). In 1892, a group of blacks was brought in to pave the public square and Main

Street (McGown 1921). One profession that some blacks were in was the barbershop

 

’7 James Baldwin, “Sonny’s Blues,” quoted in Gerald Early, Tuxedo Junction: Essays in American Culture
(New York: Ecco Press, 1989), 307.

45

business18 and in these establishments they were only allowed to cut the hair of whites
(McGown 1921). The following account from SI-IRP (1978) is illustrative of this
practice.

Q: Okay, I also wanted to ask you about the black businesses around here in
about 1920 to 1930?

A: Let me see, the barbershops, they was quite a few way back there in

the 203, colored barber shops were the head, most of them, they were good

barbershops, but the better barber shops had white trade, was about three I

know of but mostly had white trade and they had other barber shops

colored went to, but the best shops had white trade for quite a while til that

run out, til it died out. There were a few restaurants and things like that.

A colored restaurant around and they had a saloon, they had two or three

saloons, restaurants, nightclubs and beauty shops and a few poolrooms,

stuff like that.

In 1914, the Southend of Lima had grown large enough to support the opening of
several civic organizations. The first was a small mission project that firnctioned,
primarily, to assist local black children. It initially began as the Mission Union, which
was a forerunner of Church Women United, and eventually succeeded in opening a
Sunday school to accommodate the growing black community. Sometime later, a
weekday kindergarten was initiated and the name of the project was changed to the
Mizpah (which means Watch Tower) (SQHC 1971). In 193 8, the Bradfield Center was
opened to provide recreation for black children and in 1939, the Lima Chapter of the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was formed
(SQHC 1971).

There have been blacks on the Lima police force since the 1890s, which is a

unique finding because scholarly investigation reveals that this was not the case in other

cities around the country (Stolberg 1998, Fine 1989). Bowsher (1994) notes that there

 

‘8 This information is consistent with other scholarly work on early black occupations, specifically DuBois
(1899)

46

were three black policemen on Lima’s police force. Beyond stating that there were black

police officers, he fails to provide the details conceming their duties. However, the fact

that they were in the department is significant as it indicates that the police force was one

of the first organizations to integrate in the Lima area.

Industrial Grth Continues

In the early 1900s, Lima experienced growth in the following large industrial

operations.

1907: The Ohio Steel Foundry began in Lima under Harry Wright and John C.
Calvin Jr. It was a leading employer in the area for many years.

1910: The Standard Telegraph Academy began training area residents as
telegraph operators.

1915: The Garford Motor Truck Company began operating—Garford trucks were
used for farm work and assisted the federal government during WWI.

1916: The Steiner Brothers opened a machine shop.

1920: Lima had become a major thoroughfare for train traffic with eight steam
railroads operating locally.

1924: Superior Coach opened (the name later became Sheller Globe).

1936: Westinghouse operations began in Lima as the “Small Motors Division.”

(Source: The Lima News, March 2, 2003)

The rapid influx of industry is significant to the entire population. Current research

suggests that they produce industrial waste that is harmful to overall health, a finding that

will play a key role in the social construction of a dependent blue-collar working class

(Fine and Weis 1998).

47

Segregation:19 Early Formation of Class and Ethnic Boundaries

During this period of massive industrial growth in Lima, there was little economic
or social movement for blacks. In fact, the city remained segregated, and the majority of
blacks remained confined to the Westend. Data gathered fiom SHRP (1978) helps
explain the phenomenon. The informant came to Lima in 1901, when she was 2 years
old.

Q: When you were growing up could you tell me what it was like because I
know there wasn’t so many homes and everything around here?

A: Well I lived there on Elm Street and there seemed like there were a
lot more homes there than there are now, they tear them down and
make parking lots out of them now. At first Elm Street was just a dirt
street, there for a long while before it was paved and there weren’t
many cars, everybody was riding horses and buggies and sleigh riding
and all that other stuff. And I forget just when the cars did start
because there were very few. People would go home from church and
they would walk right out in the middle of the street and come home at
night or the day and go home. There used to be a lot of people living
out here in the Westend. We used to call it Clipton.

Q: How did it get its name Clipton?

A: I don’t know how, what caused that, it seemed like there was a
separation line or somehow it seems like West of Collett they used to
call it Clipton and curl around to about Woodlawn and they had their
boundaries at one time. In the Southend, Eastend, Northend, and not
many colored folks went north of the railroad and the Eastend, I don’t
know, they had a separating line.

Another response from that same series of interviews from a white informant
who moved to Lima in 1913 is descriptive of the city’s ethnic segregation patterns.

During that time, the early 19005, the Southend was made up of different

groups, primarily Italians, some Russians, some Czechoslovakians, some

Lithuanians and Polish but more Italians, the Irish mainly were up North,
the Italians were primarily brought to work on the railroads by Italian

 

‘9 Segregation, as defined by Norrell (1985), is the system of laws, customs, and residential patterns that
separated blacks and whites that whites used to control blacks alter slavery.

48

families here, indentured to them over in Europe and they gave them off
for their transportation and in bringing them over here.

Other evidence of how segregation—or the general tendency for blacks and
whites to live apart—affected early blacks is indicated by McGown (1921) when he
discuses how it carried over into their social lives. According to his account, prior to
1914, all of the local theaters accepted blacks unconditionally. In 1914, a southern white
man bought the three major theater houses, the Royal, Dreamland, and the Strand. After
the change in ownership, blacks could only come to the theater on specific days. In the
19203, Hoover Park was designated as a place that area blacks could use for picnics and
for swimming. Streetcars of the time carried signs which signified that whites were given
priority and were allowed to fill as many seats as needed. The rest of the seats were left
for black passengers.

In the 18905 and early 19005, Lima began to attract black doctors who were
needed to serve black patients, a finding that is consistent with other scholarship on the
subject (Dagbovie 2003, Woodson 1969). McGown (1921), reports that the early black
doctors in Lima were Dr. Howard, Dr. Beam, Dr. Peters, and Dr. Bradfield. Dr.
Bradfield stands out for his pioneering work in integrating the local medical facilities and
for his work in promoting recreational facilities for the city’s black children. He was
born on February 19, 1889, and attended Starling Medical School and the Medical
Department of Ohio State University. Additionally, he served in the Medical Reserve
Corps in WWI (McGown 1921). Locally, Dr. Bradfield was on the staffs of St. Rita’s
and Memorial Hospitals and was a member of the Allen County Medical Society
(McGown 1921). He was a respected surgeon who worked to integrate Lima’s medical

facilities. Outside the field of medicine, he served as trustee of the Second Street Baptist

49

Church and was a teacher of the young people’s class (McGown 1921). He was also
active in social and political circles.

In 1933, Dr. Bradfield and others formed a committee to promote recreation for
Lima’s black community. The group changed its name to the Citizens’ Recreational
Council in 1936, and in 1938, the group became the Bradfield Community Association,
in honor of Dr. Bradfield who died in 1936 (SQHC 1971). They were responsible for the
erection of the Bradfield Center in 1948—a community organization that provides a
physical outlet for local youth. The legacy of a community center in his name indicates
the respect of Dr. Bradfield and his work by the locals.

During the 19203, the Klu Klux Klan (KKK)20 became a national phenomenon.
Historical records indicate that the KKK was involved in activities against local blacks in
the Lima area. In The Lima Profiles (Davis 1978) an incident is reported that details an
activity of the KKK in the Lima area. In 1924, the KKK, dressed in firll regalia, marched
downtown through the public square. They ended their march and occupied a section of
the Trinity Methodist Church. It is reported that the KKK had such a large following in
Lima that it was home to the Black Knights, a local faction of the larger group (McGown

1921).

 

2° The KKK has been described as a reformist organization that was drawn, as a rule, mostly from the less
educated and less disciplined elements of the white Protestant community (Allen 1931). Most Klan
activities focused on defending white, Christian civilization, promoting community activities, enforcing
morality, and combating concentrated economic power among anyone who was not considered white
(Allen 1931). Their main objective was the establishment of white supremacy and was fostered by a strong
belief in the inferiority of blacks, which eventually branched out to include Jews and Catholics (Allen
1931). The Klansmen terrorized public officials in efforts to drive them from office and blacks in general
to prevent them from voting, holding office, and otherwise exercising their political rights (Allen 1931).
When these tactics failed to produce the desired effect, their victims might be flogged, mutilated, or
murdered (Allen 1931). These activities were justified by the Klan as necessary measures in defense of
white supremacy and the irrviolability of white womanhood (Allen 1931).

50

World War I (WWI) was a military conflict that lasted fi'om August 1914 to
November 1919 (Keylor 1984). It involved many of the countries of Europe as well as
the United States and has been characterized as one of the most violent and destructive
wars in European history (Keylor, 1984). Large economic forces were required for the
war, and both whites and blacks in Lima were drafted to participate in that war. The
experiences of the black soldiers and the effect of their segregated status were telling of
the racial divisions that were prevalent in Lima as well as the nation during that time. A
narrative from SHRP (1978) illustrates how the assigned job duties of black soldiers
during that war impacted their identity formation.

Q: You’re a veteran of WWI?

A: Yes.

Q: Where did your travels in WWI take you?

A: I was in a training camp, I think we were there 6 weeks, and they pushed us
on over to France.

Q: Was it an all black unit?

A: Oh yeah, it wasn’t a mixed unit like it is now.
Do you remember the name of your unit?
313.

Now was your commanding officers black?

No, they were white.

9&9???

Were you involved in active fighting then?

A: No, I was in France in 1919 for about a year and a half, then we didn’t
get to go on to the front, we didn’t get to fight or anything, which I was
glad. After the peace was signed, after that was signed, we had the job of
going around picking up the dead that was a bad job to do.

51

Q: I heard that they gave that job to the colored troopers. The job of
picking up the dead.

A: Yes, we picked up the dead for about 2 weeks, that was the last job we
had to do, and about 2 weeks we went out, had trucks and mostly colored,
but some whites, and we had to pick up those bodies and put them in those
trucks and bring them back and of course they had boxes, you know, to
put them in. One day we went out to pick up the dead, you know, and the
day we picked up the dead there’d be a bunch digging graves. The next
day the bunch that was digging graves they’d go out and we’d dig.

Q: So then they buried a lot of the right ones there?

A: Oh yeah, practically all them.

They didn’t bring them back to the states?

No.

So how long before you got out of there?

2’9???

:About a year and a half or maybe 3 not very long, but it was long
enough for me, but I did that.

Q: So when did you come back to the states?

A: We come back, I think it was in the 20s and I think we come back
around June or July, must of been July on the seas and we spoke about
how the people were doing back home, you know.

Q: What was going on back home?

A: Fourth of July entertainment.

Q: And so, when you came, did you live anywhere other than Lima, after
that, or did you come back to Lima?

A: I came back to Lima.
Analysis of the conversation indicates the subservient and demeaning status of
black soldiers in American military forces during this war. They were commanded by

white officers, but never allowed to fight. Instead, they were relegated to performing the

52

dirtiest jobs. In this case, the soldier states that his job was to pick up dead bodies; and

he performed it for one and a half to three years.

The Great Depression21

The impact of the Great Depression brought difficulty for the majority of people
living in America, and Lima area blacks were no exception. Excerpts from SHRP (197 8)
are illustrative of what life was like for blacks living in Lima during those years. The
informant in the first interview is white.

Q: What was the employment situation for blacks that lived in Lima
during the Depression?

A: I have lived in Lima since 1935. I was born and raised in St. Mary’s
but moved to Lima to start with the Kroger Company. Back then I had an
opportunity to come to Lima and run the Kroger store, at the time we had
a lot of small stores and that was during the Depression time. Prices were
very reasonable, like cigarettes were 15 cents a pack and coffee was 15
cents a pound and some of the other things we use to sell, bread 3 loaves
for a quarter, that’s how prices were back then. We used to have to sack
up our own brown sugar and our dry beans. We didn’t have self-service
meats, we had to cut everything. During that time my association with the
colored community was just super. I had so many fiiends down there and
it was just because I recognized their needs and the kind of service they
wanted. I tried to be congenial, tried to do what Ithink to better their
conditions and the whole community. I even saw that I was the first
supermarket to hire a colored checker or cashier, I think better now today.
Also I hired quite a few colored boys as courtesy boys, also I had a
colored meat cutter sometimes and I’ll say some stock boys. Kroger
always did give me recognizement about the need to hire colored people
and I think that’s why we were successful in the city of Lima.

 

2‘ The Great Depression in the United States has been called the worst and longest economic collapse in the
history of the modern world (McElvaine 1993). It began at the end of 1929 and lasted rmtil the early 19405
(McElvaine 1993). It was caused by a number of weaknesses in the economy that were characterized by
rapid declines in production of products, the sale of goods, and a severe rise in unemployment rates which
resulted in the closing of businesses and banks, and personal loses in the way of jobs, homes, and savings
(McElvaine 1993).

53

The following interviews are from black informants.

Q: How was life in Lima affected by the Depression?

A: Well, we were able to buy a house when we only made $15 a week

and that is the house we’re living in right now, we brought cloth, and fuel

and paid the taxes and a loan and everything off $1 5.

And another black informant.

Q: Okay, during the Depression, how did it affect you?

A: What do you mean, how did that affect me, it affected me like it did

everybody else, we had a rough time. I would say that it was rough during

the Depression. I don’t know what you would mean by that, how it treated

me or anything like that but I do know that during the Depression that I

was broke. I had worked as a night porter and I started out working at $60

a month, during the Depression and then we started falling off and

everything like that, I was working for $15 a month. They cut me from

$60 to $15 and then the management told me, if I could get something else

why to go get it. That’s all, it was really a rough time for everybody.

These interviews indicate that the job opportunities some blacks in Lima filled
were in the positions of service providers. The Great Depression is also significant to the
history of blacks on a national level because they shifted their support from the
Republican Party to the Democratic Party (Frazier 1957). The shift was largely attributed

to the social programs instituted by the Franklin Roosevelt administration called the New

Deal—a public policy that set up economic relief reform for the masses (Frazier 1957).

The In;p_act of World War H and the Ohio Steel Foundry Miggations

 

The leading event to affect blacks in Lima during the 19405 was the impact of

World War II (WWII)22. Blacks and whites from Lima served in WWII, which led to a

 

’2 wwu began in 1939 and ended in 1945, and has been called the most devastating war in human history
because of the number of lives lost and material destruction (Ziemke 1975). It began as a conflict between
Germany and the rest of Europe but ended in what has been termed a “new world order” dominated by the
United States and the former Soviet Union (Ziemke 1975).

54

severe labor shortage at the Ohio Steel Foundry in 1940-1945 (Davis 1978). As an
answer to the labor shortage, Ohio Steel Foundry engaged in a campaign aimed at
recruiting the workers needed from the Lower Delta, an area of the country that includes
the states of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi (Davis 1978, Frazier 1957).

The Lower Delta is significant to the development of local African Americans’
collective identity because those who cite it as their place of origin served as field hands
during slavery and moved up to sharecroppers during reconstruction. Life for them as
sharecroppers was bleak at best. The son of one such migrant from the Arkansas area
describes his early life and his subsequent arrival to Lima:

I was born, as I said, in Arkansas, in Cotton Plant. My family was
sharecroppers. My family would provide the labor to cultivate the land
and the owner would provide the house and the land and whatever else we
needed to live on. Normally, there would be some kind of account
whereby there would be things that you needed in order to live, such as
food. We normally had a garden, and could go out hunting rabbits,
squirrels and wild turkeys, wild hogs, whatever, in order to provide the
food. What we couldn’t provide we had to buy from the owner’s store in
town. That way our money seemed kind of circular, in other words, it
seemed like we could never get out of debt.

Well, anyway, that’s what we did. I was born on this property and lived
there for a period of years. By the age of about 12 or 13 years old, we had
lived on several farms because my dad would be on a farm for a year or
two, have a disagreement with the land owner and we moved on to another
farm and we’d stay for a year or two. Eventually this got to be a bit much
for my father and he and my mother started fighting all the time.

Eventually they separated and my mom moved to town and got a domestic
job working for a white Jewish family. The siblings and myself, we
would pick cotton, not as sharecroppers but as day laborers, and chop
cotton and do other kinds of farm work. After living there for a couple of
years, one of my mother’s best friends, who had moved to Lima with her
husband to work at Ohio Steel for a couple of years, came down one
summer. She said to my mother, look why don’t you come with us to
Lima. We rode back to Lima with very little other than what we could get
in a car, in terms of clothes. In Lima, my mother’s friend provided us with
a room and my sister and my mom they got jobs in a laundry. It was

 

where my mother’ s fi'iend worked and she got them a job there.

Eventually we managed to get our own little apartment in Victory Village

and I’ve been in the Southend ever since.

To entice early workers, the Ohio Steel Foundry promised jobs in the foundry,
along with transportation and housing, a practice that was also common at the Ford plant
in Detroit (Farley et al. 2000). It can be considered a type of Northern sharecropping in
which the laborers worked in the foundry, lived in homes provided by the foundry, and
traveled in transportation provided by the foundry. It was a circular process, much the
same as the custom that is reported in Southern sharecropping practices, where the money
earned by the workers never leaves the control of those who are providing the means of
production (Franklin and Moss 1994). The system is set up in such a way that those
whose labor produces the product are indebted to the owners. In all 1,110 workers and
their families were recruited to Lima to work in the Ohio Steel Foundry (Davis 1978).

The influx of a different stream of southern blacks clashed with the earlier stream
of southern blacks that arrived in Lima with the first migrations of the 18405. The new
group of migrants was housed initially in what were first constructed as trailer camps,
and later were formally constructed into a housing project called Victory Village in the
Southend of Lima (Davis 1978). Prior to this period, the inhabitants of the area hailed,
primarily, fi'om Eastern and Southern Europe (SHRP 197 8).

Additionally, the local black population that had been confined to the Westend of
town working as servants, laborers, maids and housekeepers openly expressed their
superiority to the new arrivals which resulted in a division between the two groups (Scott

1993, Davis 1978). The fallout from this split is better illustrated by the interviews that

56

were conducted by the SHRP (1978) of both blacks who had been living in the Westend
of Lima prior to the new arrivals and the recent migrants.

Q: Around about the 19405 the blacks started migrating here to work in
the factories?

A: Yeah, it seemed like out at the steel foundry it seemed like they
brought quite a few from Alabama, quite a bunch of them fiom those
parts, seem like a lot of them came from Florence, when they started here
they were in, they called it, I forget just what they did call it.

Q: Trailer courts.

A: Yeah, trailer camps, there were buildings out there. It brought in a lot
of people because there was a lot of work to do at the steel foundry you
know. During the war they were doing a lot of building, making parts for
different things. It brought in a lot of people, a lot of them still here, some
gone you know.

Another interview:

Q: Okay then, since you are a life long resident, do you remember the
time of the migration and workers from the South came?

A: Yes.

Q: They worked at the steel foundry, can you recall, of course you were
out West then, can you recall meeting any of them or hear any stories
about the development of the Southend?

A: No, I heard some things, mostly things I wouldn’t say or want to say.
The black population in Lima didn’t begin to develop until WWII when
they were called here by the Ohio Steel Foundry to work in the foundry
and to work in the war production. The black folks were brought up from
the south during the war to fill the need for labor and so they reported here
to take care of the needs of our wartime labor in the industry.

Another interview:

Q: Do you remember when Ohio Steel was hiring people from the south
to come to work in Lima?

A: I can remember that, they went down and brought them up here and
put them in Victory Village.

57

Q: Okay, what was Victory Village?

A: Victory Village was something like Grandview Homes was,
Grandview Homes was brung up from Victory Village, it was something
like trailer courts now, and then Victory Village was something like a
trailer court, but the Ohio Steel Foundry took all of them up to a house
then and fed them and they went down to Georgia and Alabama, those
places the hardest.

Another interview:
Q: How long did you say you’ve been in Lima?
A: I’ve been living in Lima about 33 years and 6 months.

Q: Can you give me some background on how you decided to come to
Lima?

A: Well, yes, my husband’s cousin was here, and home on a visit once, he
was telling us how simple it was at the steel foundry to get a job and he
asked him if he wanted to come and he said yes, so he sent him a ticket
and he came up here in ’44 of November.

Q: Now where was home?
A: My home was in Houston, Mississippi.

Q: Did you have a special feeling or reason for leaving to come to a place
where you’ve never been before or had been here?

A: No, I hadn’t been here before. No, no special feeling only difficulty.
In fact, I never lived in the North before, they told me the children had
better opportunities in school then and it might have been a little better
then. We, and all my children in school, we came here to put them in
school.

Q: When you came to Lima, having been living in the area in Mississippi,
what did you think it was going to be, did you have any notions of what it
was going to be like when you came?

A: From my hometown in Mississippi, at the time in the area we lived we
didn’t have any electric works and water works either then. We didn’t
have a sink to wash dishes and things like that. When I first came to Lima
I didn’t think there would be any sink in the house. I thought coming to a
city, I never been here before, and I just thought every day would be just
perfect.

58

Q: Okay, when you first lived here there wasn’t any plumbing so it was
just like what you had left in Mississippi.

A: Right, outside toilet and everything.

Q: Did you think of the North as some kind of “Promised Land”? Like
pouring milk and honey?

A: I just pictured it as being a place not like no country or town and
places I’ve seen. You can look way out and see houses and things. I
hadn’t pictured seeing those kinds of things. I was 35 years old. I always
went back to Mississippi.

Q: So describe what you did, to us, when you came to Lima. What was
Lima like?

A: What I thought it was about, there was a lot of people that lived in
what they called “The Village” then.

Q: So the village was occupied when you got here?
A: Yes.
Q: People were living there?

A: Yes, people were already living there. I didn’t go to too many places,
I only went to church.

Q: Now were the trailer courts still around when you all came?

A: They say there were still some, but I never lived in one.

Q: Did you remember seeing them at all?

A: Yes, I remember seeing some, there wasn’t as many left as there had

been.

Analysis of the data provides a view of the imagined reality of many blacks
regarding life in the North in which it was depicted as a “Promised Land.” Rumors of
employment availability, superior education, and lack of racial prejudice were dominant

ideologies in the minds of these laborers (Sugrue 1996). Upon arrival, they quickly

59

 

discovered that the image was a facade. In actuality, life in the North was not much
better or worse than it had been in the South. Additionally, many arriving migrants were
unused to the cooler climates and suffered from poor health (Davis 1978).

Blacks who were already living in Lima resented the southern arrivals and their
positions as laborers in the factory (SHRP 1978). The self-imposed superiority of the
“indigenous folks” would prove to be a factor that would continue to divide the two
groups into the contemporary period. Additionally, the housing that was available to
blacks that were living in the Westend was superior to what was provided for the new
arrivals. Those who had been in the area longer were buying their homes, meaning that
they were becoming property owners, which may explain why they were more vested in
the system (Davis 1978). It also indicates a growing class division among blacks that
revolved around type of work performed and area of town where they lived. The
separation of black residents by perceived difference in class is still quite prevalent

among local area blacks in the contemporary period.

Integration

Occupations in the white-collar sector in Lima were still very limited to area
blacks. The three primary positions in which they were underrepresented were as
teachers, nurses, and trained medical personnel (SQHC 1971). The lack of professional
representation in these occupational sectors is significant because they are crucial
specialized roles. Collective community response to the oversight illustrates how the

locals effectively challenged the practice.

60

Regarding teaching, Mrs. Joyce Garret was the first black schoolteacher to be
hired on a firll-time basis by Lima’s public school system (SQHC 1971). However,
Garret was not able to get her teaching job in Lima until 1953. In 1953, a bond issue was
set before the people of Lima. Through Lima’s League of Cooperation and Improvement
(LCI), members of the black community stated that they would vote the measure down if
no blacks were hired as teachers (SQHC 1971). The day before the bond issue was voted
on Mrs. Garret was hired as a full-time teacher and became the first black person to be
thus employed (SQHC 1971).

The local black community experienced similar incidents in local hospitals.

Black patients were not integrated with white patients and there was a very low
percentage of trained black professionals in these facilities (SQHC 1971). By 1930, the
color line was broken in the hospitals so that interns and nurses were allowed to obtain
jobs. On May 14, 193 6, Dr. Dalton, a prominent black physician, integrated the rooms at
St. Rita’s when he discovered one of his patients out in the hall while there were plenty of
roonrs available (SQHC 1971).

In 1948, LCI teamed up with the NAACP in an attempt to get Memorial Hospital
to accept blacks in the hospital’s nurses training class (SQHC 1971). The hospitals
would hire trained nurses but they would not train any. The hospital used the excuse that
they needed two applicants because a black girl was not allowed to room alone, and she
could not room with a white girl (SQHC 1971). In the meantime, Mrs. Fort Ricks was
successful in getting her daughter-in-law, LaJoyce Ricks, admitted to St. Rita’s School of
Nursing without any group assistance. Ricks was the first black nurse to be trained in

Lima (SQHC 1971).

61

The local businesses and community organizations practiced segregation. Many
of the area theaters had special sections for blacks. Some of the local eating facilities had
special seating areas for blacks, and some restaurants would not serve them (SQHC
1971). Several of the downtown businesses would not hire blacks. For many years the
Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) would only permit them entrance in the Y
on a specific night, so the black community formed their own Hi-Y Clubs (SQHC 1971).
Hi-Y Clubs provided black youth with books, newspapers, recreational activities, and an
opportunity to socialize with their peers. Historical records indicate that segregation

continued in the area as late as the early 19505 (SQHC 1971).

may Civil Righ‘ts Movement23
The early Civil Rights Movement in Lima began at the end of World War II and
was sparked as African American soldiers, returning from European tours, began to
question their segregated existence at home. The thought occurred to them, as many had
given their lives to fight for freedom of people involved in the war, that they were not
fi'ee at home. Poetry from one of Lima’s African American soldiers that expresses that
sentiment follows:
In Remembrance—Germany, November 1943

Alone, I lie here in my darkened room,

And naught save stars to share my silent thoughts

Thoughts of dear friends—comrades far away,

Who ne’er again will see the light of day

They gave their lives for things they loved so well
The pains and heartaches—what more we cannot tell

 

23 The Civil Rights Movement in the United States is characterized as a political, legal, and social struggle
of the attainment of full citizenship rights for blacks to achieve racial equality (Norrell 1985). The
movement began with the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955 and ended with the Voting Rights Act of 1965
(Norrell 1985).

62

They died for what—for glory—honor—fame?

Or did they give their lives only for the white man’s own gain?

The sands of time flow on to heal our heartfelt pain

But in the hearts of colored men, the memory will remain

Of how they shed their blood in the bitter hell of war

So that in their hometowns they will remain shackled by the color of their

skin forevermore

Black citizens continued to express concern about social inequalities and formed a
local chapter of the NAACP in 1939. The first president was the Reverend Leroy McGee
from the Fourth Street Baptist Church (SQHC 1971). The organization worked to
improve the condition of Lima’s black community. One of the earliest projects they
decided on was the integration of Schoonover Pool, which had set aside Mondays as the
only day blacks were allowed to swim (SQHC 1971). The details of the event are
instructive of the successful strategies and agency of individuals within larger
organizations towards the structural constraint of segregated recreational facilities.

In 1948, the local NAACP selected Dave Powell, one of Lima’s black residents,
to challenge the segregation rule of Schoonover Pool (SQHC 1971). Details of the
incident are that Powell and two whites approached the entrance to the pool, Powell laid
his money on the desk and ran and jumped into the pool. He was later arrested on a
charge of carrying a concealed weapon. It is believed that one of the men with him had
been chosen to set him up, because when he came out of the pool and sat on the bench,
there was a towel beside him with a gun rolled up in it (SQHC 1971). They put Powell in
jail and would not allow him to post bond, although he had more than enough money on
him (SQHC 1971). They kept him in jail for one day under the pretense of looking for
relatives. He got a lawyer who proved that the gun belonged to relatives of the man who

is believed to have set him up (SQHC 1971). An employee at the pool said the manager

63

had the following to say concerning the need for local blacks’ use of the public pool:
“Those niggers don’t need to swim here, they have their own.” (He was referring to the
Bradfield Center pool) (SQHC 1971).

Another example of the agency and integration efforts of the local NAACP
involved the hiring policy of BLH, which was a local construction company (SQHC
1971). In 1950, the management of BLH told Dave Powell, who was the president of the
NAACP at the time that they would not hire black people because there were already too
many in the area. The NAACP filed charges and the US. Government withdrew a two
million dollar contract that they had with BLH (SQHP 1971). The incident proved to
have far reaching consequences resulting in other local businesses reconsidering their
policies pertaining to hiring blacks. Lastly, black people were also beginning to be
allowed in Lima restaurants, and the NAACP was successful, through litigation, in
integrating area theaters (SQHP 1971).

The final significant development was the arrival of the Ford Plant in 1954
(Sugrue 1996). It would become one of the first of the large industries to begin hiring
blacks. This is consistent with Ford’s hiring practices in similar Northern cities (Farley et
al. 2000). The population in Lima during this time was 50,246—12,008 of whom were

black (US. Census 1950).

Conclusions
The significance of this time period on the identity formation of AAM is that
there was a shift from independent landownership to dependent subservience to the

European American population there. Limited employment opportunities aided in

64

fostering this dependence, coupled with a wave of incoming migrants from the
Mississippi Delta, who were recruited by the Ohio Steel Foundry. Their job positions at
the foundry redefined their role as one of Northern Sharecroppers. In the newly acquired
status, they lived in homes provided by the foundry, worked in the foundry, were
transported to and from work and shopping in buses supplied by the foundry, and
shopped in stores owned by the foundry. The period marked the beginnings of class
divisions, based on type of employment and residence, between Afiican Americans in the
city. The era is also crucial in illustrating the impact of the structural constraint of
segregated housing on the African American population in the city.

Lastly, in the 19505, Lima witnessed a growth in social and political organizations
among area African Americans. The key political and social movements that affected
identity formation were the Civil Rights Movement, the NAACP, and the Bradfield
Center through which the locals practiced resistance strategies that aided in shaping

community outcomes.

65

Chapter 3: Life for Blacks in 1960

When we open our eyes today and look around America we see America, not
through the eyes of someone who has enjoyed the fluits of Americanisms—we see
America through the eyes of someone who has been the victim of Americanism.
We don ’1 see any American dreams because we’ve experienced only the American
nightmare. We haven ’t benefited flom America ’s democracy, we ’ve only suflered
from America ’s hypocrisy and the generation that’s coming up now can see it and
are not cyiaid to say it. If you go to jail, so what, if you black you were born in
jail—in the North as well as the South. Stop talking about the South; as long as
you ’re south of the Canadian border you ’re South. Malcolm X24
The Black Church Takes a Stand
The late 19505 and early 19605 were marked by some major undertakings in the
black church that promoted the further development of political and social organizations
in Lima and local area blacks began to challenge the status quo. The majority of these
movements were headed by prominent black ministers from area churches, specifically
St. Paul AME, Fourth Street Baptist Church, and Second Street Baptist Church.
Reverend Thompson, a minister of St. Paul’s AME Church, located in the
Westend, would go into Lima’s historical record for his work in the area of housing for
the black community (SQHP 1971). In 1964, Reverend Thompson arrived from
Pittsburg, Pennsylvania as the new pastor of St. Paul. Upon his arrival, he immediately
became involved in the problem of housing for blacks and in 1969, formed St. Paul’s
Missionary Housing Corporation (SPMHC), to obtain better housing for blacks in Lima
(SQHP 1971). After searching for and either being unable to obtain the land or to get

government approval for a suitable site on which to erect 3 Rent Subsidy Housing Unit,

they finally located a satisfactory parcel of land on Fourth Street (SQHP 1971).

 

2" Malcolm X from “The Ballot or the Bullet” speech 1964.

66

Problems developed with the proposed 174 unit dwelling because part of the land was in
Lima and part was in Perry Township. Additionally, there was considerable opposition
from Perry Township because of an increase in taxes for roads, sewage, and a fear of
overcrowding of the township’s schools. According to Thompson, this was a ridiculous
claim since the children who would live there were already, for the most part, attending
the township schools (SQHP 1971).

The proposal for a 174 unit dwelling under the Rent Subsidy Program came
before the Lima City Council on January 12, 1970. The Lima Planning Commission
Councilmen voted for it on the first two readings, but against it on the last (SQHP 1971).
When the initial proposal was rejected, SPMHC proposed a new project that consisted of
a 70 unit dwelling for the aged on the same plot of land initially proposed for the Rent
Subsidy Housing Unit (SQHP 1971). This proposal went through the Planning
Commission with no difficulty. Reverend Thompson commented that the reason the first
proposal failed was because it was a rent subsidy program (SQHP 1971).

Fourth Street Baptist Church, located in the Southend of Lima, played a role in
the fight for integration as well. Reverend Edward Broyles, of that church, was
instrumental in the fight for equal representation and employment of blacks in Lima’s
growing business and institutional environments.

Reverend Broyles came to Lima in 1957, and observed and experienced
discrimination in housing, employment and other areas (SQHC 1971). He also observed
that there were no blacks employed in banks, as clerks, or as high school teachers (SQHC
1971). In the summer of 1958, he met with the superintendent of schools to discuss the

hiring of black teachers. At this meeting he realized that only a certain kind of black was

67

wanted. When a light-skinned black woman, wearing a blond wig, applied she was hired.
Broyles took this as a sign that this was what they were looking for and called it a type of
tokenism in that institution (SQHC 1971).

Additionally, Broyles noticed the ill will that had existed in Lima since the
migrations of the 19405, between blacks living on the Westend and Southend and devised
a plan that he felt would decrease the animosity between the two sides. His plan was the
formation of a fellowship between the leadership from churches on both sides. He
enlisted the help of the local branch of the NAACP in his quest (SQHC 1971). The plan
failed and Broyles blamed it on the ineffectiveness of the NAACP and advocated for the
installation of a local chapter of the Urban League in the Lima area (SQHC 1971). He
reasoned that the only way blacks could succeed was through participation in politics and
did not see those qualities in the organizations in place in the area at the time (SQHC
1971). This was in direct connection to his growing dissatisfaction with the lack of
community visibility of the local NAACP.

Broyles tried to assume a responsible position in politics by leading the Human
Relations Commission (HRC) in 1960. He was unable to accomplish reform within the
commission because it had no legal power. Instead he tried to push reform by exposing
the problems of Lima through referral and complaints of discrimination to the Ohio Civil
Rights Commission and Fair Housing Commission (SQHC 1971). Broyles tried to have
more power allotted to the HRC but the city’s infrastructure never took action on his
proposal (SQHC 1971). As a reaction to the break down of the HRC, a group formed
which later joined a larger group formally known as the Black Panthers (SQHC 1971).

Broyles explained his involvement with this group as crucial to the formation of a

68

nonviolent welfare movement for Lima’s black neighborhoods. Some of the earliest
community centered activities of the Panthers were to raise money to feed and clothe the
needy. Curiously, city officials reacted in a hostile manner to their actions and
aggressively worked to demonize the Panthers, making them a scapegoat for all of
Lima’s racial problems (SQHC 1971). However, their strategy backfired and at the end
of the 19605, the Panthers inspired local youth to challenge the institutionalized racism of
the area’s police department and school system.

Second Street Baptist Church, located in the Southend of Lima, was also vigorous
in the early struggle for the betterment of life for blacks in the area. In 1965, the leader
of the church was Reverend Woodard (SQHC 1971). Woodard felt that blacks were
discriminated against in churches in Lima, and affirmed that the catholic churches there
were the most open and the others only seemed to welcome blacks for one Sunday, but
not as regular members (SQHC 1971).

In 1967, Woodard started an in—service sensitivity program for Lima area teachers
(SQHC 1971). His program consisted of training youth leaders in the area of racial
harmony at the junior and senior high schools twice a year. He believed that there was a
definite need for this type of training, especially at the senior high school (SQHC 1971).

In 1968, Woodard decided to run for mayor because he felt things were moving
along progressively and that he could “make some very worthwhile changes in the
community” that would keep down the hostile atmosphere (SQHC 1971). Woodard lost
the mayoral race and blamed it on the “close-mindedness” of the city (SQHC 1971).

After losing the election, Woodard became unavailable for any activities other than those

69

related to his church. The purpose of this was to show the community how important his
prior involvement had been (SQHC 1971).

In 1971, Woodard probed the employment practices of various corporations in
Lima and discovered that the hiring ratio of black to white was out of proportion to their
numbers in the population (SQHC 1971). He also observed that when blacks did get jobs
they usually were for lesser-paid positions in which they were not interwoven into the
fabric of the total employment picture. He found the prevalence of these factors in
particular corporations, specifically at Superior Coach, Excello, Westinghouse and
Standard Oil (SQHC 1971). The validity of Woodard’s observations remains in question
as he made no attempt to take political or legal action against individual companies or
hiring practices in the city.

Political activity conducted by prominent local ministers is a significant finding.
It illustrates their leadership skills in organizing Lima’s black community by working
within the structure. They exhibited agency by forming organizations, working within
federal guidelines, openly questioning discriminatory hiring practices, and striving to
address the pressing issue of racial unity in local area schools. Lima’s black churches
played active roles in community organization and involvement, making this one of the

most progressive periods in the city’s history.

The Importance and Significance of the Mizpah
In the 19605, the Mizpah program began to grow as other agencies and
organizations became involved, and in 1965, the administrative procedures were

reorganized (SQHC 1971). Programs, care of the building and budget publicity were

70

assumed by a Board of Directors that was accountable to the United Church Women, but
involved the whole church—meaning all members of the congregation (SQHC 1971).
This design attempted to broaden the base of support and enlarge the scope of the
program to include activities for all age groups, and to involve more Mizpah area
residents. The name of the mission was changed to Mizpah Community Center, with its
purpose stated thusly:

To extend Christian love and concerns to residents of the area and to

provide a place where persons may come to have their spiritual,

emotional, and physical needs met through various activities and services.

The first fiJll-time staff person was hired, Anabel Fischer, a Presbyterian
Commissioned Church Worker (SQHC 1971). As Program Coordinator, Fisher
supervised domestic skills classes, the establishment of scout troops, tutoring and study
hall sessions, and many other community involvement projects (SQHC 1971). At this
time the Head Start Program (founded through an Ohio Economic Opportunities [OEO]
block grant) assumed responsibility for the Mizpah kindergarten (SQNC 1971).

The Reverend Loo arrived in Lima in August 1969 as the Director-Informant for
the Mizpah (SQHC 1971). He was an ordained Presbyterian minister who had worked
with black churches, Puerto Rican churches, and community centers in various parts of
the country. Reverend Loo came to the Mizpah to be involved in what he termed the
“frontier situation” (SQHC 1971). His special fields of activity were social change and
poverty.

With Reverend Loo came a philoSOphy new to the Mizpah that offered the black
community a more balanced relationship with the organization (SQHC 1971). He

brought with him the attitude that the church had to stop being a parent and become a

71

helpmate in solving the real problems that existed for blacks living in Lima.
Additionally, his arrival coincided with the area’s racially troubled times.

Reverend Loo encountered the Black Panthers directly after his arrival in Lima
(SQHC 1971). His first introduction to the Panthers involved negotiating with them
regarding the running of the Mizpah Center. The issue was resolved when the Board of
the Mizpah and Reverend Loo decided that all groups not advocating violence were
permitted usage of the center to achieve a better neighborhood and was considered the

center’s first move into the mainstream of the community (SQHC 1971).

The Lima Branch of the Black Panthers25

The Black Panther Party was a national organization that actively voiced the
concerns that blacks in segregated communities were facing. For this reason, it is not
surprising that branches of the Panthers began to form in racially divided cities across the
country in the mid 19605. Blacks in Lima had long sufl‘ered under the auspices of the
institutionalized racism entrenched in the city, so it is understandable that a faction of the
group developed and attracted a following of the youth who were living there.

Who were the Black Panthers in Lima? How were they crucial to the formation

of identity of young blacks living in Lima at the time? James Williamson is generally

 

25 The Black Panther Party has been described as a militant black political organization originally known as
the Black Panther Party for Social Defense (Riddenhour and Jah 1997). It was founded in Oakland,
California by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in October 1966 (Riddenhour and Jah 1997). Newton
became the party’s defense minister and Scale its’ chairman. They advocated black self-defense and
restructuring American society to make it more politically, economically, and socially equal. It was one of
the most militant black organizations, advocating direct confrontation to acts of police brutality that were
surfacing in segregated communities throughout the country. The Panthers’ emphasized community
development and service prograrrrs in black neighborhoods and was responsible for the earliest form of
what is now called Headstart—which is a program that promotes education of young black children
According to Riddenhour and Jah (1997), the National Black Panther Party reached its peak in the mid
19605 and was not effectively disbanded until the late 19805.

72

given credit for the creation of the local branch of the Panthers and did not believe that
they were radical, but rather a reactionary group reacting to a radical government and
situations (SQHC 1971). Williamson initiated the Panther program in April 1969 in the
Southend of town because he felt the community needed such an organization (SQHC
1971). Initially there was strong neighborhood support for the Panthers and they lasted
for almost a year by receiving contributions (SHRP 1978). The group started out by
serving breakfast to area children in the Mizpah Community Center, and did hands-on
work in the Southend of town by providing public oriented forums that focused on self-
education and activism (SQHC 1971).

The Lima branch of the Back Panthers became politically active after a series of
racial disorders involving the Lima Police Department. The first incident occurred when
Torn Lee, a young black man, was shot by the Lima Police in 1969 (SHRP 1978). The
catalyst that would lead to their demise began with a shooting incident by the Lima
Police in 1970 which involved Christine Ricks, a 42 year old black woman who was shot
and killed as she was walking down to visit her son (who was a member of the Black
Panthers) at the Black Panthers’ Headquarters (SHRP 1978). The Lima News August 5,
1970 reports the occurrence but focuses on the actions of then Lima Mayor, Christian
Morris who imposed a state of civil emergency due to the racial tension resulting from
the police assassination of Ricks. Further, the situation grew so intense that Mayor
Morris involved the federal government and the National Guard who sent troops in to
Lima to guard the Panther Headquarters and restore order amongst area citizens. The
following interview from SHRP (1978) is telling about the racial unrest that resulted fi'om

the killing of Ricks, the goals and organization of the Lima Branch of the Panther Party,

73

and the structural forces responsible for the termination of the Panther party there. It is
also illustrative of the agency of local black youth, particularly those who resided in the
Southend. The interview is presented in its entirety, in keeping with the focus of
attending to the voices of the people in the telling of their own history. The informant
was a Panther member during the period.

Q: At what point did you become involved with the Black Panthers?

A: That was in 1970, I was there when they organized and everything but

not as a prospecting Black Panther. You know, they was just fiiends of

mine and after about 6 months I did join the Panthers. 1 think they started

in June, it must have been 3 months because I joined in September of that

year.

Q: What was the ideology, the thought that the panthers or the philosophy
they were founding at that time?

A: You mean the Panthers?

Q: Yes, the local Panthers.

A: Oh, the local Panthers, okay, the only thing they had to pattern
themselves after was national headquarters as far as the separate state.
You know socialistic state. I don’t think they were really aware of what
that really meant, you know, but they use to practice the 10-point

system.

Q: Now what is the 10-point system?

 

2" The Ten Point Plan (1966): 1. We want freedom We want power to determine the destiny of our black
and oppressed communities. 2. We want full employment for our people. 3. We want an end to the
robbery by the capitalists of our black and oppressed communities. 4. We want decent housing, fit for the
shelter of human beings. 5. We want decent education for our people that exposes the true nature of this
decadent American society. We want education that teaches us our true history and our role in the present
day society. 6. We want completely free health care for all black and oppressed people. 7. We want an
immediate end to police brutality and murder of black people, other people of color, all oppressed people
inside the United States. 8. We want an immediate end to all wars of aggression. 9. We want freedom for
all black and oppressed people now held in US. federal, state, county, city and military prisons and jails.
We want trials by a jury of peers for all persons charged with so-called crimes under the laws of this
country. 10. We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice, peace and people’s community
control of modern technology (The Ten Point Plan: Black Panther Organization 1966).

74

 

 

A: Okay, the 10-point system was the ten things in the Panther Creed that
everyone was working to achieve. It was written on the back of every
Panther newspaper we use to sell.

Q: What kind of activities were the Panthers involved in as far as the
community?

A: They established a fiee breakfast program at the Mizpah and a score of
other community events.

Q: Can you list them? Free breakfast for whom?

A: For the children, an ongoing program even during school too, where
they would have buses or rides and some walked because at that time they
were having it inside the Mizpah and merchants in the neighborhood
freely, gladly gave up groceries for the drive.

Q: Were they intimidated do you think?

A: No, they freely gave, I’m telling you all they had to do was ask
because it was the Panthers asking, they was glad, you know and we were
aware that there were people who used their weight, because they played
up on people’s fear you know.

Q: At its height how many members would you say the local Panthers
had?

A: Oh, I’d say about 60.
Q: Do you think the larger community was alienated from the Panthers?

A: Yes, do you mean that I feel that’s true, yeah, but I didn’t feel
alienated from it. But it was the press played a big part in that because
automatically, Panthers, you know, they started writing articles that
instilled fear in the people, of the Panthers, you know, because
automatically they were painted as gun killing looters, match carrying,
gasoline totin’, you know, fire burners.

Q: Was that your perception then?

A: See, I knew what a real Panther was cause I had already become aware
of the Oakland-based Panthers and I had read material concerning the
organization and chain of command. I was aware of what the Panthers

were and what they were trying to do.

Q: And what they started?

75

A: Right.

Q: Besides this free breakfast program, what were they trying to do
locally?

A: To establish a little power in South Lima, cause South Lima at one
time was considered to be the commons of the city.

Q: The commons?

A: The wrong side of the tracks and they were trying to change that
image. We were all young and inexperienced and all this was new, all this
was new to all of us but they began too soon I think, to work on defensive
evasion of the police in the South end.

Q: What exactly does that mean?

A: Only certain hours of the day they would be in the Southend, you
know for patrol purposes, it wasn’t necessary for them to be there
constantly all day, you know prowling, because some people just didn’t
like the police.

Q: And you think there was an increase of police squad cars prowling, as
you say, during the time of the Panthers.

A: Yes definitely, there were even more curfew arrests at that time too.
They had to have a reason to stop cars.

Q: On several occasions there were racial eruptions in Lima, in the
community at large, generally the ones I could remember were always
instigated by killings by the police. I heard of a young man getting killed,
I think an older man was killed, and in each of these incidents there was a
racial eruption. Were the Panthers around during the first couple of those
riots that we had in Lima or was it only with Mrs. Ricks?

A: Okay, I think the Panthers as a whole were only around for Mrs.
Ricks, but the same people, mostly the same people who were Panthers
was here for the other two killings.

Q: Okay, can you recount for us just a little, the incidents that happened
after Mrs. Ricks was killed by the police. Mrs. Ricks was killed August
5th 1970 and there were a lot of things that seemed to happen after the
word got out that she was dead and a lot of it seemed to focus around the
Panthers. Can you just give me a brief account of what was happening
right then?

76

A: Okay, one of Mrs. Rick’s sons, one of her sons was a Panther and at
the time, what they did, we decided we were going as a whole group to
pay respects to Mrs. Ricks’ family or just a few of us was going to go and
somehow we decided we was all going to go as a group. We were going
to walk, we were walking down the sidewalk and we got to, we weren’t
expecting, we hadn’t intended, we hadn’t started out walking with any
intentions of anything happening. We were walking from Panther’s
Headquarters that was at that time on 4‘” Street.

Q: That’s 4th and Union?

A: Where “Old Joe’s” store used to be, it’s a motorcycle disco or
something now—yes and we were walking there straight down Main
Street, going to Mrs. Ricks who lived on the 700 block of South Union
and when we got to Main Street there were policemen there. They had the
street barricaded, we couldn’t cross the tracks and they weren’t going to
let us cross the tracks and everybody just kept walking. They threw tear
gas and they started picking them up and throwing them back and they just
kept on walking. Then they got guns and wouldn’t let anyone cross the
tracks. So we started walking down the tracks until we came at the
crossing at Vine Street and they were there trying to push them back.
There was too many of them to push and there wasn’t enough of them
pushing. They had on helmets, the whole bit—I think it was the first time
they got to wear them helmets.

Q: Now was it only the Panthers that was walking or was it people in the
community too?

A: People in the community who had joined us as we were walking.

Q: I’d like to just interject here just for a minute, what was the feeling
that you were having at that time? Were you fiightened of the police?
What kind of feeling was going on inside of you?

A: I was excited because I was there you know, and I’ve had the kind of
upbringing that would allow me to be there and it was happening. I
wasn’t scared because I was caught up in the mood of the whole thing that
was happening and that we weren’t going to let them stop us. I wasn’t
afraid at any point, not that particular time. Then when they started firing
tear gas everybody became afraid. They didn’t know it was just tear gas at
all. They fired tear gas and the guy up fiont picked it up and threw it back
and when they threw it back everybody picked it up and threw it back.

We made it to Mrs. Rick’s home and that Sunday the Panthers had a
memorial service at the Mizpah Center and the firneral was the following
day.

77

Q: Was that the first confrontation?

A: That was the first confrontation, the first, see what it was there hadn’t
been a confi'ontation, you know there wouldn’t have been no
confrontation, well I don’t say there wouldn’t have been no confrontation,
they were trying to find out, there were some people, you know a lot of
sympathizers in the community. Black people and White people with pull
who would get in and out of places that we as citizens couldn’t have the
ability to get in and out of. They kept us informed or they found out
things for us. That’s how we found out that Mrs. Ricks had been shot 5
times and not 2 times like the paper reported. It wasn’t ‘til Paul Jones27
volunteered the information to us, or we wouldn’t have known.

Q: I can remember though, going down myself that afternoon after the
news had come out that she had already been killed going down to the
Panther’s Headquarters and there had already been some incidents of
violence, if you will, that people getting off of work at BLH, that white
people’s cars were you know, rocks or bricks that kind of thing.

A: Yeah, but because there were those people who only knew to lash out
to white people and white people is the ones who had them oppressed and
they knew it. So when they lashed out, it was white people they lashed
out against.

Q: Now, there was also some trouble at night if I recall, because that was
the incident where the squad was brought in.

A: Yeah, that night after the return from Mrs. Ricks it wasn’t that night,
I’m sure it was the following night, but after I returned fiom the march we
were planning a community play or talent show. At that time there was
this lady who was helping us and she was supplying us with fabric to
make the scenery and the costumes for the Mrs. Black America Pageant,
when they had a man in from Uganda here as one of the judges. We were
going over fabrics or something inside of headquarters and we were the
only three people inside the building. What happened was they were just
out in the parking lot, out in front of headquarters and word had spread
fast because there was an organization here from Dayton, and there was
two from Toledo one was a white organization and one was a Chicano
organization.

Q: They had come in after they heard Mrs. Ricks had been killed?

A: Right, and they were offering their services to the community and they
were at headquarters. They were all standing outside and they were

 

27 Paul Jones was one of the first black undertakers and proprietor of Jones Funeral Parlor in Lima (Stark
1993).

78

talking outside of headquarters when the police paddy wagon came and
the guard had a megaphone and said, “Citizens of Lima.” They had
established a curfew, streets had to be cleared, everybody in their homes.
They started throwing rocks at the paddy wagon and that’s when they shot
tear gas into the headquarters. There was three of us in there, but it didn’t
reach us because we just went out the back door.

Q: Okay, you were one of those in the headquarters?

A: Right, myself and another lady, a wife, another lady who was a
member of the Panthers and we were coming out, we went out the back.
By the time we came around to the front there was this one person
standing and throwing garbage cans. They were sitting there, out front at
the time, so they could pick them up. They threw them against the paddy
wagon and the force made the paddy wagon rock. Then there was gunfire,
the police, I don’t know who fired first, when they fired that tear gas,
some of the Panthers returned fire.

Q: So the Panthers fired back at the police?

A: Yeah, put a whole bunch of tear gas in the police car and then they left
and when they came back, see they hurried up and got out of there, a car
turned around and got out of there before the paddy wagon got out of
there. I think that was the first year the paddy wagon was used, but
anyway the police came back. The curfew was in effect, it was on the
radio, on the news, “curfew at 6 o’clock.” And anybody, everybody was
being arrested on the street after curfew. The police were moving down
the street and they were firing flares and everything trying to see because
they shot out the light at 4th and Union, all the streetlights were gone. It
was blacked out man. I was right beside this man with a gun who was
firing. I remember standing there looking at him like Lucas McCain, he
had one of those rifles that just went pow, pow, pow.

Q: Across the street from the Panther Headquarters?

A: Right and because everybody had moved over there because there was
protection on that side of the street. They was firing tear gas and shooting
at the headquarters and he told us to get down. I remember I was afi'aid
then, you know, because of the gunfire, so when he told us to get down, I
got down. I remember we were laying in the wet grass, we heard shots
cause they were shooting back and forth. They had cleared out and we
were all at this lady’s house and they had cops all around it. People were
coming and going and there were people, it was like a telephone system,
you know from house to house they were calling to tell us where the
police were on foot in back of people’s yards.

79

Q: Police were?

A: Yes, and there were people in the community who would call and tell
us what they were doing and where they went and how many there was.

Q: So at that point, at Mrs. Ricks’ death there seemed to be some
solidarity between at least a portion of the community.

A: I think that’s when it came closest in its relationship.
Q: When they had the fight?

A: Yes, because after that the community became unconscious to a lot of
things—well anyway we were in this house and the next morning there
were curfews at 6 o’clock and the next morning we all left this lady’s
house. We headed for headquarters and there they were, the National
Guard, all laying on top of cars, guns trained on us. They told us to stop
and then they read us an order.

Q: What did the order say?

A: Telling us that headquarters was under siege until an investigation was
over. That didn’t bother me because there wasn’t nothing in there but
newspapers and headquarter trapping posters. We couldn’t go in but they
couldn’t keep us out of the area, at one point the National Guard, their
trick was they had to replace several of them because they couldn’t stand
up under the worries, the verbal abuse that was coming from the people
from the community.

Q: The verbal abuse?

A: Yes, now they didn’t touch none of them but they got awful close,
close enough to breath on them. People was saying stuff and they had to
replace several of them. There was this black dude fiom the Lima Chapter
of the Guard, he wouldn’t go. He worked for the telephone company and
when they called him he wouldn’t go and there was a big thing about that
too, him not doing what he was supposed to.

Q: Now 50 was it after this that the Panthers began to decline? What
happened to them then, they are no longer in existence?

A: Okay, see at that time they began harassing people and arresting
people for minimal things, curfew violations, a whole bunch of junk, you
know arresting people and actually having trials, the whole bit. People
lost their jobs and couldn’t get jobs. The FBI came around questioning

8O

people and made it difficult for them to get jobs, the FBI did they made it
hard for a lot of pe0ple to get jobs.

Q: Did you experience that personally?

A: Yes, I did. One day I was at home, this was about a month or so after
Mrs. Ricks got killed and the phone rang. I answered it and it was a man.
I’ve always been cautious howl answer the phone and he asked if he
could speak to me. I said, “who’s calling?” He said, “Excello.” I said,
“Well she’s not here right now could you tell me what you’re calling
about?” He said, “insurance and I want to find out if she works here.” I
had never put in a day at Excello and I knew it was the police. I said,
“well she’s not here right now, you’ll have to call back later.” I just knew
that was them because I had heard other people’s experience.

Q: This was the police or the FBI?

A: FBI, and I went upstairs and I seen them go down the street and turn
around. I was curious so I went downstairs to see what was happening
and they were already in my yard. My brother-in—law was on the porch
telling them I wasn’t home, but I didn’t know at the time cause they asked
me my name and I told them. They said they wanted to talk to me so I
told them to come in. We were in the living room and he say he wanted to
know where I was on the night of August 5th. I told him to give me an
idea of what he wanted before we started talking and then I’d know if I
wanted to talk about it or not. He said it didn’t work like that. He said he
wanted to know where I was that night because there was a car with one
headlight on it that had been seen driving away fiom the Naval Reserve
that was firebombed and somebody had reported seeing me in that car. I
responded that I wasn’t in a car that night——we kept playing each other
and he kept asking me questions and he couldn’t trip me up on anything so
he finally said, okay, “why do you hate the police?”

Q: And this is the FBI?

A: Yes, a detective, a FBI agent, but he said why do you hate police. I
said I don’t. He said you don’t? I said no, see that lamp, I was pointing to
my mom’s lamp, I don’t care nothing about that lamp and I don’t care
nothing about the police, I don’t have time to hate them.

Q: Wow, that’s deep.

A: Yeah, so he said we know you been looking for a job and everything
and he said we might be able to help you find a job. I said, I ain’t looking
for a job. He pulled out this legal pad with every place I’d been looking
for a job, phone numbers, everything. I got mad and that’s when I decided
no, I don’t know nothing, I’ll find a job when I find one, if not this

81

couldn’t go on for a lifetime. I told him I didn’t want him to find no job
for me, matter of fact all I wanted him to do was to get out of my
Momma’s and them house before they got home.

Q: So was your interpretation of what he was saying was that they had
been involved somehow in you not getting a job?

A: Exactly, we could help you get a job at the filling station—I told him I
don’t want no job and I didn’t get one for two years.

Q: So you’re saying that all these kind of questions made the Panthers not
be involved?

A: Yes, it forced the key peeple in the Panther organization to leave town.
Q: For jobs, some of them had families.

A: Yes, they had families to support and there was this one who lost his
job as a result of bad publicity, a smear campaign. He didn’t get his job

back but they had to pay him fiom the time they had fired him for no

legitimate reason. Until they made that decision they didn’t give him his
job back.

This exchange is illustrative of both structural forces and the agency of the black

community during the period of active involvement of the Black Panther Party in Lima.

The informant clearly describes the early participation and support of the citizenry, both

white and black, of the Panthers by the level of individual surveillance of police activity

and reports by professionals to the Panthers concerning confidential information. This

narrative is also very telling of the tension between the police department and area youth.

It is interesting to note the association of the federal government in the form of the

National Guard and the FBI in the racial unrest, which is characteristic of their

connection to rebellions, and civil unrest in other parts of the Midwest, particularly

Detroit (Fine 1989). The informant clearly indicts the FBI in blocking access to

employment, black balling those who were employed, and sanctioning blacks who

82

resisted participation by refusing to serve as protective elements for the government
against their own people. The fact that she mentions the resistance of a local black
National Guardsman indicates strategic planning by members of the black community
who firnctioned in the formal economy. The issues raised show the critical analytical
skills of the community during the Panthers’ reign and provide a clear example of the
beginnings of unity between black youth in the Westend and Southend of Lima.

The informant is insightful of the role of the media in both instilling fear and
shaping the image of the Panthers as agents of destruction in the mind’s of the local
community. She provides the often-missing explanation of why groups like the Panthers
felt the need to assemble. In the case of the Lima branch, they formed after a series of
shootings by the police of local blacks. The shootings intensified strained relationships
between black citizens and members of the police department. The Panthers not only
garnered support from the local community, but drew in other like-minded support
organizations, which marked the development of unity among people of color based on a
shared sense of inequality at the hands of law enforcement officers.

The structural elements used to constrain black citizens materialized in the form
of curfews, city ordinances, and police surveillance of daily activities. In the end, those
in control attempted to place the blame of the volatile climate on the people themselves.
The FBI agent’s question, specifically, “Why do you hate the police?” illustrates this
point.

The agents demonstrated resistance and intelligence in the following ways:

fighting back; shooting out street lights that made it harder for the police to both see and

83

conduct their jobs; and using mental intimidation to wear down the National Guard. All
of which are representative of practical resistance strategies.

Lastly, Black Panther involvement by Lima area black youth was also impacted
by the Vietnam War, which was a military struggle, fought from 1959 to 1975 (Gilbert
2002). The United States became involved in this conflict in 1965 and sent troops off to
fight in this war. Both white and black males fiom the Lima area were drafted and sent
to this battle. The United States claimed it needed to take part in this war to prevent the
South Vietnamese government from collapsing, but failed to achieve this goal and
Vietnam was reunified under Communist control in 1975 (Gilbert 2002).

Lima’s branch of the Black Panther Party was officially disbanded during the late
fall of 1970 and replaced by the National Coalition to Combat Racism that lasted until

1971 (Davis 1978).

M Politics in this Erg

In 1964, Furl Williams, a black citizen, ran for city council but lost (SQHC 1971).
At that time, he expressed that his loss was due to political apathy in Lima’s black
community. Further, he complained that they were not using all their political strength,
and that they could have a bigger influence on elected officials if more would register to
vote (SQHC 1971). In 1968, community activism, spearheaded largely by politically
aware black youth, resulted in a massive voter registration drive and Williams was
elected Lima’s first black councilman (SHRP 197 8).

The drive to vote in council elections could not surpass the structural restraints

built into the local election procedures. For instance, the Board of Education, which had

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always been white, was elected at-large, making it more difficult for minorities to elect
representatives to that body than to city council (SQHC 1971).. When one considers the
importance of the public educational establishment in Lima, both in terms of its budget
and its influence on the thinking of the students, faculty, and the community, it was
imperative for the black community to organize to have its own interests represented on
the school board. Organization in this capacity never occurred and proved to be an
important omission that played out in the racially charged student disruptions of the late

19605 and early 19705 at Lima Senior High School.

Ra_cial Clashes in the Lim_a Public Sch_ool Systems

The late 19605 and early 19705 saw the formation of several new organizations
and an increase in trouble in Lima’s public schools. In 1962, a charge of racial
discrimination was brought against the public school system. The case involved twenty-
two black children who were denied admittance to an elementary school that left the
school with an all white attendance (SQHC 1971). The school claimed they refused the
students because they did not live in the district. The children’s parents countered this by
calling the practice segregation and formed an organization called “The Concerned
Parents Group” and boycotted the school (SQHC 1971). Even though they took this
gallant action their children were never admitted and returned to schools in their districts.

1969 marked the beginning of racial conflicts at Lima Senior High School that
commenced with a student walkout one year after the assassination of Martin Luther

King28 and continued with a string of racial incidents in 1970 and 1971(SQHC 1971).

 

28 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was an African American minister, Nobel Prize winner and one of the
principle leaders in the American Civil Rights Movement of the 19605. His role in that movement was to

85

Newspaper accounts indicate that the activities were at times explosive and racially
charged. The following account is taken from a concerned citizen who advocated for
black students at Lima Senior during a disturbance there on February 10, 1971 (SQHC
1971). The account is presented in its entirety as versions of it were shared to me by a
number of community members, indicating its importance in the collective memory of
Lima’s black community.

It started over a letter written by a white girl to her boyfriend in which she
criticized a black girl and called her a “damn nigger.” This was
Wednesday morning. The incident was brought to the attention of the
principal who proceeded to get both girls involved in settling the issue. It
was possibly another of those well meaning attempts to bring about
resolution and to maintain apparent harmony by suggesting that one or
both parties acquiesce. For the white girl, it would mean apologizing. For
the black girl it would mean dismissing another demeaning attack upon
her integrity as a black person.

However, word spread and the entire student body was soon on edge with
the long smoldering problem of racism. This culminated in the outbreak
of several fights, first in the cafeteria during lunch-hour and then
spreading throughout the school. About twelve persons were hurt, but
only one seriously enough to go to the hospital. School was dismissed.
The black students gathered in the auditorium to further air their
grievances, conducting themselves in a very orderly and dignified manner.
They left school at about 3:30 pm. while the faculty continued with their
meetings in the cafeteria.

After the faculty meeting, several parents and myself met with the
principal to discuss the policy of the school in regard to the black students’
settling some of the issues themselves. It was understood at the beginning
of the discussion that the black students would be allowed to meet in the
auditorium the next morning before school started and that classes would
continue. One of the parents suggested that it might be wise if the school
was actually dismissed the following day to avoid any further
conflagrations and that the blacks be allowed at least two hours, if not the
whole morning, to get their grievances together to present to the school
administration. The principal accepted the suggestion but said that he did
not have the authority to dismiss school. He phoned the superintendent of
schools, who came down to the school and talked to the principal

 

 

challenge segregation and racial discrimination through nonviolent protest. He is a respected icon in the
African American community and worldwide. He was assassinated by a sniper on April 4, 1968.

86

privately. When the principal came back, he had taken a different stance.
He made it clear that there would be no mass meetings in the morning
even though there had already been an understanding among the black
students who had left and that the meeting would be re—adjoumed in the
morning. The parents were quite shocked by this complete about face and
counseled that the new decision would create the possibility of greater
turmoil and violence. The principal explained that this was the only
position he could take.

On Thursday, February 11, at 8:00 am. students (both black and white)
had gathered in school. A group of white students congregated in the
cafeteria. Since the auditorium doors had been locked, the black students
also gathered in the cafeteria. Eventually the white students left and
reassembled outside on the lawn. Those in the cafeteria now numbered
150 or so black students and 15-20 parents, teachers and ministers. The
students, in attempts to settle the situation among themselves, continued to
conduct themselves in an orderly manner. There were several expressions
fi'om various students concerning specific degrading experiences of racism
and condescension. Obviously, the situation had become much broader
and deeper than the relatively minor incident of the letter.

The principal and the superintendent of schools eventually arrived. The
principal cited to the group his attempts to involve black students in the
school. There was a short period of questions and answers between the
principal, the superintendent and the students. The superintendent then
told all in the cafeteria that he could not allow the group to meet in the
school and that everyone in the room would be engaged in unlawful
assembly and would be arrested if they did not leave. The students,
however, decided that they had committed themselves to staying in school
in order to settle school problems, and that they would not leave even if it
meant that they all had to go to jail.

Mayor Morris then entered and read a Lima ordinance concerning
unlawful assembly. The superintendent presented a deadline at 9:15 am.
and said that all those not out of the building by then would be arrested.

At 9: 15 am. the police arrived and under the direction of the
superintendent proceeded to arrest those whom the superintendent pointed.
The 10 or so students left without resistance. The adults in the room were
dazed by the Gestapo-like tactics employed. The superintendent then
announced that he would allow another 5 minutes at which time another
batch of people would be arrested.

It was at this point that Reverend Loo felt an obligation to point out the
discriminatory enforcement of the law. He got the attention of the
audience and suggested that if this be done fairly, either everyone in the
room (including adults) should be arrested or that the students now being

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arrested should be released. “If some of the students are arrested, then all
of us should be arrested. The few students should not be used as
scapegoats, public examples or lambs of sacrifice. If the ten were guilty
of unlawfirl assembly then everyone in the room was guilty of unlawfirl
assembly—including the superintendent who actively participated in the
assembly. Therefore all should have been arrested or none should have
been.” Before Reverend Loo could complete his statement, the
superintendent “fingered” him as worthy of arrest and had arrested 10
more. It was interesting to note that after 40 plus students and Reverend
Loo had been arrested, they did not bother to return to arrest the remaining
100 or so who remained in the cafeteria. Reverend Loo ends up by
saying: “As I reflect upon these events, I find myself appalled, both as a
citizen of the US. and as one who is called to proclaim the Gospel of
Christ, that there is so much blindness to the problem of injustices and
racism. I appeal to those whose consciences have not been paralyzed by
fear to face the real problems in this city, reflected so well in the school
system. It is the challenge of a new openness and understanding that takes
seriously Christ’s command to love our neighbor as ourselves.”

This example shows how structural forces, in the form of school officials and city
ordinances blocked progress of blacks in the Lima area. It is a clear case of how public
policies are used by the power structure to disregard both the people’s voices, political
activism and equal treatment under the law. Reverend Loo exerted agency by
demonstrating how unjust both the mayor and the superintendent of the schools were,
which resulted in him being escorted to jail. Loo’s assessment of the administrations
need to address the “real problem of racism” in the city which he saw reflected in the
school system went unheeded. After this incident Reverend Loo became a popular leader
among blacks in the city.

The role of students was in the form of nonviolent resistance to the issue as such
they exerted agency by attempting to resolve the dispute using methods that were part of
the structure, specifically school policy. It is an example of the growing discrimination

against blacks in the law enforcement in the area and occurred on the heels of the

88

previous clash involving Lima’s police department and the Black Panther Party and
served to enhance growing racial disparities. The divide was deepened when Reverend

Loo accepted a position in San Francisco and left the area in 1971 (SQHC 1971).

Whom in the workforce by the NAACP

In 1943, the local NAACP began working on the problem of the integration of
blacks into the local workforce, but no major changes occurred until 1960, with the
election of Dave Powell in the position of vice-president. Powell dedicated the
organization to the task of acquisition of jobs for blacks in local industries and was
instrumental in getting more blacks hired at Westinghouse, Davis Enamel, Superior
Coach and BLH (SQHC 1971). He was the driving force leading to the hiring of blacks
in stores and banks in downtown Lima (SQHC 1971).

Another of his successes was the local UAW. In 1962, he took thirteen blacks to
the city to take the civil service exams. Eleven of them passed their exams—they were in
electrical, welding, plumbing, pipe fitting trades and one in the meat cutting trade (SQHC
1971). All together, Powell processed 175 jobs for blacks through the NAACP during his
period in office (SQHC 1971).

In 1966, the NAACP filed a suit against Laibe Trailer Court due to an incident
involving unfair housing practices (SQHC 1971). The incident began when Richard
Lyons, a black man who was in the US. Air Force, attempted to move his family and
trailer to the Laibe Trailer Court in Lima, but was denied a space even though there was
some available (SQHC 1971). The reason given for this refusal was that the other

residents voiced their objection of the move to the court manager. The NAACP talked to

89

them and found that they had no objections, which allowed Lyons to move in, and the
case was settled out of court (SQHC 1971).

In 1963, Standard Oil only employed five or six blacks. In that year they
eliminated all of their jobs except one, who according to an informant of the SQHC
(1971) “looked white and had gotten hurt on the job so he had a lifetime job”. In 1969,
the local NAACP decided to do something about the employment practices of Standard
Oil, so they sent information to the national NAACP office. They, in turn, sent notices to
all of the branches to boycott the company (SQHC 1971). The real pressure came from
area farmers who stopped buying chemicals and automotive products unless the truck
driver was black (SQHC 1971). The strategy proved to be effective and the company
hired more black employees.

The activities of the NAACP reveal the effectiveness of their agency and active
resistance to the structure in place. Successfirl organization and focusing of leadership
enabled them to make great strides concerning the hiring practices of local industries.

The broadening of opportunities to Lima area blacks would continue into the 19705.

New Construction: flctories and Community Organizations

The decade ended with the addition of a new manufacturing industry and a civic
organization geared toward investment in firture orientation for the area’s youth. Proctor
and Gamble surfaced on Lima’s industrial landscape in 1968, produced the product
Downy—a liquid fabric detergent—and employed over 500 people (The Lima News
March 2, 2003). Community interventions regarding area youth in the Southend was

spearheaded by the opening of the King-Kennedy Center in 1968 (SQHC 1971). Its

90

mission was to provide local black students an adequate place to study and served as a
resource for those who were planning to pursue college. At this point in the history of the

city, the quality of life for some members of the black citizenry was looking up.

Conclusions

The late 19605 and early 19705, were a time of unity and leadership development
for blacks in the Lima and nationwide due to gains made by organizations like the local
area churches, the NAACP, the Black Panther Party, and the UAW. The fundamental
point of these organizations was that there was a problem with the system, specifically,
that it was not inclusive of all Americans. Sparked by the Civil Rights Movement, they
challenged the structure by actively organizing differing segments of the community that
included church members, area youth, students, workers, and politicians and policy
makers.

The structural forces involved in this transformation included civil organizations,
area factories, public schools, and social service agencies. As institutional forces
succeeded in acquiring employment for some local Afiican Americans in the established
industries, their identities began to shift to blue-collar workers making them dependent
on factory owners for their livelihood. The changing identity was embodied by area
youth as they began to witness the affects of stable employment on their quality of life.
The period marked a transition in the quality of life of some of the city’s Afiican

American inhabitants.

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Chapter 4: Life fpr Blacks in the 19705

You better not look down if you want to keep on flying, put the hwnmer down,

keep it full speed ahead You better not look back, or you might just end up

crying, you can keep it moving if you don ’t look down. BB. King29
Local Area Politics

The 19705 were the beginning of another large change for Lima area blacks.
More black candidates ran for city council and this time, perhaps inspired from the
actions of the Lima City School Board concerning racial incidents at Lima Senior High,
ran for seats on the school board and pivotal positions in law enforcement. In 1976,
Lewis Hamilton ran for County Sheriff and lost (Davis 1978). In 1977, Frances Napier
ran for City Council and Cheryl Allen ran for the Lima City School Board (Davis 1978).

Though none of the political pursuits was successful, they are noteworthy, signal an

increase in political involvement, and suggest a growing awareness of in the community.

Iadustrial Grth and the Development of flue Collar Working Classes

This decade witnessed significant growth in employment of Lima area blacks in
the larger industries that were in town, namely Proctor and Gamble, Ford, Westinghouse,
Sheller Globe and Dana and provided the income needed for some blacks to move up to
the middle classes (Davis 1978). Equal participation in the larger economic system was
crucial in the evolution of the area’s blue-collar working class however it did not change
their status on a national level. Lemelle (2001) explains the phenomenon and points out
that the higher income of blue-collar blacks indicates, primarily, their evolution as

consumers. In this role they function as the producers needed to strengthen those who

 

29 BB. King from the song “Better Not Look Down” on the album entitled Take it Home (1979).

92

 

 

control the means of production by allowing them to continue to regulate society through
the distribution of wealth.

This examination of an aspect of western capitalism was first proposed by Max
Weber where he described class as a two-tiered structure based on two inter-related
factors, income and status (Gilbert 1998). His analysis is useful in demonstrating power
differentials inherent in the two-tiered configuration. Further, blacks that attain income
based class risk a chance of becoming complacent. As such they are not viewed as a
challenge to the larger system and, in fact, support the structure that oppresses them.

On the other hand, a change in class by status signals social movement in the
infrastructure. Lemelle (2001) describes the characteristics of this process as the ability
to control regulation of society (political power), productive distribution of wealth
(economic power), collective wealth and corporate and financial institutions. In his view,
blacks in America have never experienced 3 grth in class status and therefore do not
control decisions that regulate or redistribute wealth in the social order.

Ogbu (197 8) expands this observation with the addition of a political focus. In
his view, the fact that blacks in America have only acquired a change in economic class
is the crux of the argument. He clarifies his comments by detailing what he describes as
a caste-like system that prohibits them from gaining status and suggests that it is inherent
in the institutionalized racial structure of American society. Other scholars have joined
Ogbu and evaluate it as a system that prohibits upward and downward mobility by acting
as a means of regulating unequal social relations between blacks and whites (Scott 1997,

McKee 1993). The historical legacy of this practice is that blacks in America, no matter

93

what economic class are below the lowliest whites in the social hierarchy, due to
membership in the white caste system (Scott 1997, Omi and Winnant 1986).

The integration of blacks into the blue-collar classes in Lima is illustrative of
what Harvey (1990), in The Condition of Postmodernity calls “time-space compression”
which is a crucial process in understanding the levels of developing consciousness.
Harvey (1990) details the mechanisms of Fordism in framing his concept. In his view,
the practice starts by the owners of the means of production convincing the first
generation of laborers that their labor is quantifiable and can be reduced to time. New
world industrialists, like Henry Ford, instituted this concept by paying workers a
minimum salary for their hourly labor. It was effective in changing the concept of time,
which progressed from a natural process to a calculated structured practice, in this way it
could be counted. In the resulting paradigm shift it went from being something people
did to buy food to becoming a part of who they were. This mentality was further instilled
in the second generation who began to normalize the 40-hour workweek as a way of life,
which led to the development of a disciplined work force. In the third generation of
workers it was firrther enhanced as they not only accepted the 40-hour workweek but
fought for time and a half. As people began to loose their skills and work for wages there
was a tremendous dr0p in their quality of life and a growing dependence on the system
for their livelihood. Job retention in the factory was determined by the ability to perform
rote mechanisms on the assembly line, which set boundaries on the development of
artisans and skilled laborers (Georgakas and Surkin 1998). The end result was the
creation of a percentage of the population that was linked and dependent on the jobs

available in the manufacturing industry.

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The group of black blue collar laborers, in the Lima area, that participated in
industry during this time, were second and third generation laborers who followed their
fathers, mothers, and siblings to employment in the factories. They worked 60, 70 and 80
hour work weeks which led to greater economic stability and they invested their earnings
in real estate and automobiles in the same way that local whites had. Acquired property
was largely limited to the West and South ends of town, which did not alter their
segregated status (Davis 1978). The two—tiered class structure was at work; specifically
the gains in income did not transform status in the larger community.

Lima area blacks developed a blue collar working mentality that affected some of
their children evidenced by their future aspirations centered on lifetime employment in
one of the local manufacturing enterprises (Davis 1978). This finding is supported by
other scholarship (Farley et a1 2000, Georgakas and Surkin 1998). One informant, who
was a teacher in the Lima City Schools, summarizes his interpretation of the mindset that

developed in some of the locals in the following way:

The vision of the parents for their children in the Lima Public Schools at
that time, the mid 70’s was the same as their vision for themselves. You
know, the job that I have is a laborers job and if my child can just simply
get out of high school and get this type of job that’d be fine. They had that

mentality.

Additionally, educational aspirations beyond high school for some youth was not
Str 01'1eg supported or encouraged and many of the locals planned their lives around their
per“lament employment in area conglomerates. Positions in the manufacturing realm

were viewed as prestigious, practical and a status symbol for both black and white

members in the community (Davis 1978).

95

 

 

 

Lima Public Schools an_d the Introduction of Black Studies

The Civil Rights Movement and incidents of civil unrest fostered the development
of radical activism in black communities which was evidenced by the challenges of
politically aware citizens who advocated for the inclusion of black studies in both public
and university education systems (N orment 2001). The purpose of these programs was
four-fold: to study the culture of Black American ethnicity as historically and socially
defined by the traditional literature; to promote the development of new approaches to the
study of the black experience; the development of social policies that would impact
positively on the lives of black people; and to provide an all inclusive voice in the telling
of the story (Norment 2001). Marable (1998) ties the importance of the initiation of such
programs to the enhancement and restoration of identity and self-esteem and suggests that
a possible result was that students would use the information that they learned to
“interpret their collective experience for the purpose of transforming their actual
conditions and the totality of the society around them” (p. 4).

Though this was the rhetoric, some members in the black community viewed the
situation in a different light and interpreted them as the establishment’s answer to
politically savvy blacks that knew how to push their agenda (Norment 2001). Others saw
the adaptation as an answer to fear in the white mind that failure to instigate such an
initiative would result in a repeat of the urban rebellions of the late 19605 (Marable
1998). The pressure was on and the federal government heeded the call by providing
funding to support black studies programs in the standard high school curriculum on a

national level.

96

Lima Senior High School responded to the mandate by what was termed “Black
History Wee ”. Black students in the local area were influenced by the national
sentiment and were enthusiastic about the addition in the high school curriculum (Davis
1978). The following interview fiom a black student at Lima Senior High school who
participated in The Spedy Historical Research Project (197 8) articulates the process.

Q: Were you a student at Lima Senior throughout the 10‘”, 11th and 12th
grade?

A: Yes.
Q: What year did you graduate?
A: 1976.

Q: Do you remember what year they started to have “Black History”
week at Lima Senior?

A: They started in 1974.

Q: That was the first one?

A: That was the first one; it was instigated to be a kind of pacifier or
something to give the black students an identity within the school system.
That year, ’74, they didn’t do anything, everybody went home. Nothing
came off. Everybody kept waiting for whatever, you know, they hadn’t
asked school participation or anything, it was just a black history week.
Q: What do you mean nothing came off?

A: I mean, you know, they didn’t offer, they didn’t plan a program, tell us
we had the use of the auditorium or any of the you know school facilities
or anything like that, you know, or they didn’t have a program planned
where they had asked for student participation or anything like that, it was
just a black history week.

The Lima School Board initiated a black history program on paper, but in

actuality never implemented it in practice. No information was uncovered to suggest that

the proposal ever became part of the high school curriculum. Since no blacks had

97

 

successfully been elected to the Lima School Board, neither black history nor black

studies ever became a part of the regular high school curriculum.

New Social Organizations

This period in Lima’s history witnessed the development of federally funded
programs geared toward easing racial tensions. One such organization was the King-
Kennedy Community Center that was founded in 1968 and fully functional in 1971
(Davis 1978). The King-Kennedy Community Center was one of the neighborhood
opportunity centers funded by a block grant given to the Community Action Council
(CAC) (Davis 1978). It was located in the Southend of town on Union Street in the
Mizpah Center and provided recreational and educational activities for Lima area black
youth (Davis 1978). The center’s programs included tutors from nearby Bluffton College
who assisted youth with their homework two nights a week, the development and staffing
by community members of a community newspaper, and housed a community food co-op
(Davis 1978). Utilization of the center by local area black youth was high and they began
producing a community newspaper, The Lima Voice, which became an important media

source for Lima’s black citizenry.

Liang Conditions

Despite the activism of local area ministers in the 19505 and 19605, about the
living conditions of Lima area blacks, housing for those who lived in the Southend
continued to decline. To gain insight into the inherent structural deficiencies in the
system that sustained and supported this occurrence the following interviews from the

SHRP (1978) are helpful.

98

Q: Ifyou had any changes that you could make yourself, what would you
do?

A: Like what?
Q: Environmental.

A: Well, there’s so many, there’s so many things I don’t suppose you
have enough room to write down all the things that need correcting.
Number one, we have a, I guess I’m black I could notice our plight
quicker than anybody else that is not, we have a horrible condition in the
Southend of Lima. For one thing, if I was in a responsible position where
I could really do something about it, I would start with the Southend of
Lima. The Southend of Lima has been neglected far too long. We’re way
overdue. I used to come in here more than 30 years ago and the Southend
was practically a mud hole and today it is not much better. But I would
make some great changes in the city of Lima.

Another interview:

Q: And what is your prognosis for Lima, as far as the black community is
concerned. I feel youth thought the need to have some changes several
years ago—have you seen any of the changes having been implemented,
are there any other changes or things you think need to be done in Lima or
you’d like to see done?

A: Yeah, for changes at the time, some of the changes were implemented
but now I mean those changes that were necessary at that time were really
small in comparison to the ones that need to be made now. I think the city
is responsible for the city you know and if they just did their part you
know, but they don’t because the Southend of Lima, you know, or black
people in general, you know they hurried up and gave people their poverty
program jobs, they only last a minute anyway, it’s a lot of changes that
need to be made. I’d like to see an investigation in living conditions in
areas, in different areas of town for those areas designated as quote “black
areas” unquote. You know, investigations, even health department
standards, how they live, two and three families in a two-bedroom
apartment, you know nine people in a two-bedroom apartment. That’s
because where else is there to go? Where are they going to go? I mean
the village30 is packed, every place is packed, overflowing and nothing is
being done about it, nothing. Every new housing development that is
being established is for Senior Citizens. There is a lot of discrimination
against blacks in this city, a lot of it.

 

3° The informant is referring to Victory Village—a housing project that was erected for the black workers
recruited by the Ohio Steel Foundry during the 1940-1945 migrations.

99

 

These citizens are voicing their concerns about the lack of available housing and
living conditions in the Southend of town. They are also very clear that poverty
programs were not effective and that the city’s trend in housing was geared toward
building new facilities for the elderly. The economic picture for local blacks was varied
and a number of them espoused aspirations outside of the blue-collar world. Those who
came from families who could not afford to send them to college took advantage of
Affirmative Action programs and pursued degrees and upon completion returned to the
city (SHRP 1978). This revival was short-lived as many could not find local employment
in their careers of choice and some encountered the structural constraint of racism, which
surfaced in the hiring strategies of the local infrastructure; specifically whites with the
same qualifications secured the best positions, so many blacks were forced out of the area
on the basis of economic survival (SHRP 1978). An example of some of the brain drain
from the city of educated or progressive blacks comes from an interview conducted by
the SHRP in 1978.

Q: Could you tell me some of the changes you have seen in Lima since
you’ve been here?

A: Well, I’ve accepted Lima as it is, my children all graduated fiom the
high school here in Lima. They have all gone out and made something of
themselves. I have one son who’s a pilot; one daughter is an executive
secretary of The Allen County Council for Retarded Children. I have one
that’s a supervisor at the General Electric in Cleveland, Ohio and another
girl has a nursery in Warrensville Heights, and my other daughter is a
secretary to the Lazarus Company in Columbus and my one son’s a
minister. So they’ve all done well by being raised in a small town like
Lima to leave here and do these things.

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Black Leadership

By the end of the 19705, a unified black leadership had not emerged a factor that
was not limited to Lima but to the nation as a whole (Cruse 1967). Difficulties to
unification of Lima area blacks were problemitized by dissimilarities among those who
hailed from different backgrounds, classes, residential areas, and age groups. The strong
black leadership that emerged among black ministers during the Civil Rights Movements
of the 19605 was only barely visible. Neither they nor their churches ever assumed or
took the initiative to provide leadership to the locals as they continued to voice the
inequalities that existed between the black and white communities in Lima (SQHC 1971).
Instead, these churches and their ministers assumed a “middle of the road” position,
meaning that they were not controversial and largely stayed out of area politics (SHRP
1978). Traditionally, when racial trouble had occurred in Lima, black ministers and
church leaders were called upon by the black populace to give emotional and social
support in times of crisis. By the end of the 19705, their role was reduced to socialization
leading to a divorce between area youth and church activities and a weakening of their
status in the community (SHRP 1978). Local ministers decreased, and in some cases
ceased, their involvement in local and national politics. Area churches, ministers, and
their congregations were aligned with the status quo (Davis 1978). Attainment of
property, long-term job security, and family health benefits contributed to a reduction in
the financial stress of many local area families creating an atmosphere that was not
conducive to rebellion against the system. Local area blacks became complacent, a factor

that can be attributed to their economic investment in the system.

101

On a national level, the seeds of fixture leadership of the black community took
root among the youth at a different level. It appeared in the form of black male artists
who performed what would later be termed rap music. The genre was appealing to the
masses of black youth because of it was culturally relevant. Some scholars suggest that
this is tied to it’s reliance on oral tradition, a feature that comes from the traditional black
church (Kitwana 2002). Others suggest that its’ critical force grew out of the cultural
potency that racially segregated conditions foster (Rose 1994). Regardless of the
explanation, its presence was loudly felt by the nation’s youth.

The first rappers to emerge from this new art form largely focused on the
commonalities encountered in day-to-day life. The music they produced was replete with
danceable rhythms and upbeat and the youth of the time strongly identified with it. One
of the first rap records of the period was 1976’s Curtis Blow with “The Breaks” in which
he parodies the troubles one goes through in life. Examples of some of his lyrics are:

And Ma Bell sends you a whoppin’ bill

With 18 phone calls to Brazil

And you borrowed money from the mob

And yesterday you lost your job

And he told you the story of his life

But he forgot the part about his wife

Well these are the breaks, break it out, break it out, breakdown

This was followed by the Sugarhill Gang’s “Rappers Delight” in 1979 in which
the group introduces the world to the concept of rap (Rose 1994). Some words from that
single are:

What you hear is not a test

I’m rappin’ to the beat

And me, the groove, and my friends are gonna try to move your feet

Well I am Wonder Mike and I’d like to say hello
To the red, the brown, the purple and yellow

102

 

Rap artists were becoming the voice of black youth in a variety of ways; some of
their messages were simply to get people dancing, while others had much more political
and social undertones. They were singing about their quality of life and their experiences
of being black in America. One very telling example is a line fi'om Grandmaster Flash’s
“The Message” (1982):

Broken glass everywhere

People pissin’ on the stairs you know they just don’t care

Roaches in the front room, rats in the back

Junkies in the alley with a baseball bat

Tried to get away but I couldn’t get far

Cause the man with the papers repossessed my car

Don’t push me cause I’m close to the edge

I’m tryin’ not to loose my head

It’s like a jungle, sometimes it makes me wonder

How I keep from going under

Nationally, those in powerful positions at the larger record companies paid little
attention to the emergence of this new art form (Riddenhour and Jah 1997, Rose 1994).
Their general prognosis was that it was a fad that would quickly go away. However,
these earlier artists, who were primarily black males, persisted and made cassettes of their
music from home-based stereo systems and began to distribute them to club owners, local
area D.J.‘s or sold them out of the trunks of their cars (Riddenhour and J ah 1997, Rose
1994). Distributed tracks were played at parties by local D.J.’s and black youth of the era

were receptive to it. The influence and development of rap artists on black youth at both

the national and local level would grow stronger in the 19805, 1990s and 2000.

Conclusions
In the 1970s, many African Americans in Lima acquired employment in local

area manufacturing. Inclusion in this sector led to the development of a blue-collar

103

mentality among the some of the citizenry whose future goals were limited to obtaining
lifetime employment in local industries. For this reason, they did not acquire the skills
needed to survive in a shifting economy and relied soled on an industrialized employment
base. Through this means, some of the local African Americans experienced upward
movement in the financial class structure however; there was no change in their class
status, so they did not gain economic or political power over the means of production,
which would have sealed their future roles in American society.

The facade of this decade was that life for many Lima area African Americans
was on the mend. There was a firm belief that things had gotten better for many
community members. It was a climate was not conducive to the development of the type
of African American leadership that had surfaced in the prior decade. At the same time,
the youth were impacted by an awareness of Afiican American cultural elements
awakened by progress made during the Civil Rights era of the 19605. Chief among these
was the development of the cultural art form of rap music a genre that influenced identity
formation because the artists who performed it looked like area youth and sang about
issues they could relate to. The introduction of rap music served as the initial seed that
African Americans, primarily males, channeled to exhibit agency and develop a new type
of leadership. The type of movement that this music would create had not existed in the

youth movements of the past.

104

Chapter 5: The 1980s in Lima

I was in Arizona State Prison shooting a film with Gene Wilder and I noticea
strange thing. 80% of the prison population was black. What’s strange abor
that is that there are no black people in Arizona. I asked myselfi “what we 1
doing, bussing black people in to fill up the prisons here .7 ” Richard Pryor”1

Reaganomics

In the 1980s, Lima began to experience the pinch of the recession, which wa:
impacted by the election of the new Republican president, Ronald Reagan. The Rea
administration strongly favored de-regulation of industries previously regulated by
federal government policies that were enacted in response to civil and human rights
legislation fought for during the Civil Rights Movement of the 19603 (Kitwana 2002
Boger 1995). “Reaganomics”—a term coined in reference to these administrative
policies, impacted America’s social, political and economic system on a national lev

The aftermath of the sweeping structural changes was witnessed in Lima int
form of drastic downsizing in area industries. Localized conglomerates, specifically
Motor Company, Westinghouse, Dana, and Ohio Steel shifted two of the major
components in their business modes. First, they adopted technology that increased
productivity but required less manpower to operate, and they began to employ non-u
laborers. These changes led to a decrease in employment opportunities for the local:
limited the workers’ voices in the decision making process. The Ford Company, in

particular, shifted the base of its Lima Operations to Atlanta, Georgia and began to

“——

31 Richard Pryor from his live recorded performance entitled Live on Sunset Strip in 1982. It is a sig
Event in Pryor’s comedic life because it is the concert tour where he vowed to end his use of the wort
Nigger” in reference to black pe0ple.

105

specialize, exclusively in the production of small motors in the Lima-based plant (Th
Lima News, March 2, 2003).

The local area’s economic base began to change, evidenced by an influx of Cl
stores in the Lima area; they included Super Kmart, ValuCity, and Wal-Mart, which
all part of large national chains allowing them to charge lower prices for their produc
The impact of this marketing scheme was two-fold, it attracted low-wage earning
consumers, and it drove smaller community stores out of business due to limited fina
capital. The large competitors dominated the consumer market and hired low-skilled
workers for minimum wage service opportunities. Consumers were at an all around
disadvantage, especially in small towns like Lima, due to limited shopping and
employment options. Another consequence was the growing reliance on overseas lal
to assemble products as companies found this labor source cost effective (Bogger 19‘.
These developments resulted in a reduction in the blue-collar labor base in Lima.

Nationwide, the country began to experience the efl‘ects of the change in mea
production and experienced a recession in the middle 19805. Lima residents with ski
or who could get transferred by their companies took advantage of the opportunity ar
did so. One informant who was a Lima area proprietor of a small business discusses

the recession of the 19805 forced him out of business.

During the recession of the 803, ’85 and ’86, this thing went so bad

because my business was geared to the steel industry, Ohio Steel Foundry.

We were making deoxidized bars, buying scrape aluminum, converting it

into deoxidized material and selling it to the steel mill. A combination of

things resulted in the business not being profitable to the point where I

decided to leave it. The equipment I sold to a company out of Pittsburgh
and I just closed the business down.

106

ThLGrth 9fLin31_a_’_s Prison Indr_i_st_ry

There was a decrease in funding for Lima area youth’s initiatives culmi
the closure of the King-Kennedy Center in 1978 (Davis 1978). The Bradfield *
remained open but due to a drastic reduction in federal fimding was unable to r
wide array of programs. Literature reviews indicate a similar trend in the depl:
youth recreational facilities around the country (Taylor 1996). Participation in
activities became severely limited for those hailing from families with restraint
household budgets, characterized by employment in the low-wage sector. The
young peOple fiom these economically disadvantaged groups experienced a m:
reduction in the availability of positive outlets to channel their energy.

The closing of recreational facilities was not the only concern and in IS
was a change in national policy that had very clear racial implications (Boggs '
Reagan administration initiated a “War on Drugs”, which refocused earlier ant
efforts from rehabilitation to punishment (Kitwana 2002). The decade brought
of legislation aimed at getting tough on crime. Some of the crime bills that we
were the Omnibus Crime Bill of 1984, the 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act, and the
Omnibus Anti-Drug Abuse Act (Kitwana 2002). Funding for prison facilities
consequence of the get-tough stance. Federal reports reveal that the impact of
massive construction of prisons was largely felt among AAM as they account :
than half of the prison population in the US. (U .S. Department of Justice 1997

In accord with the national trend, Lima, like a number of small commu
invested in building and refirrbishing local area correctional institutions. In 19

Correctional Institution (LCI) was converted into a facility to hold adult males

107

News, February 9, 2003) followed by the opening of Allen County Correctional
Institution (ACI) in 1987 (Ihe Lima News, February 9, 2003).

LCI housed 2,000 inmates and required 500 support staff (which translates into
jobs); while ACI housed 1,500 inmates and 330 support staff. Both were ranked as
medium/minimum security risks by the Ohio State Department of Corrections (The Lima
News, February 9, 2003). The introduction of prisons impacted the local economy in two
ways, it became a source of middle class employment, and created new inmate facilities
for Ohio’s overburdened corrections system. On both the national and local level AAM
became the bodies that would predominately fill prison cells.

According to Span (2000), Black males constitute only 6% of the nation’s overall
population but 46% of the country’s prison population. In the late 19803 and early 19903
more black males of the age’s 20 to 29, nearly one in four, were in prison or on parole
than in college32 (Starks 1993, Taylor Gibbs 1988).

In the case of Lima, and black males that live there, the following statistics33 as of

July 2003 were available, regarding the demographics of the prison populations based in

 

 

 

these two facilities.
Table 1- Allen Correctional Institution
Black Inmates White Inmates Hispanic Inmates Other Inmates
512 691 29 8

 

 

 

 

 

 

Total number of inmates as of July 2003=1,240

\

32 The accuracy of this statistic is in current debate among scholars of black males in the United States.
Chldeya (1995: 197) challenges its’ accuracy in the following statement, “In 1991, there were 136,000
black males aged 18-24 in prison, and fully 378,000 black males of the same age in college. The
sentencing group’s statement is misleading; comparing black male prisoners of all ages to the
gvemhelmingly young college population gives a very false perception.”

e source of this information is the internet website for the State of Ohio’s Department of Corrections.

108

Table 2- Allen Correctional Institution’s Operational Statistics 2003

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Total Staff 313
Total Security Staff 167
Annual Operating Budget $28,018.9l6
Annual Cost Per Inmate $23,721.60
Daily Cost Per Inmate $64.99

 

Table 3- Lima Correctional Institution

 

—|

Black Inmates White Inmates Hispanic Inmates Other Inmates
261 352 0 8
Total number of inmates as of July 2003=62l

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table 4- Lima Correctional Institution’s Operational Statistics 2003

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Total Staff 441
Total Security Staff 279
Annual Operating Budget $17,269,083 fl
Annual Cost Per Inmate 12,252.84 %
Daily Cost Per Inmate $33.57

 

In 1990, the total population in Lima was 45,549 (US. Federal Census 1990).

1 0,949 of those pe0ple were black, of which 5,873 were black males with a median age
of 27.7 (U .S. Census 1990). Ifthe definition of disproportionate complies with the
national standard, specifically plus or minus 10% of the percentage of their total number

in the population (Chinn and Hughes 1987), then black males are disproportionately
represented in Lima’s prison population. There is a lack of available data to confirm or
deny the percentage of incarcerated black males that originate from the city. Requests for
Current statistics from Warden Jesse Williams of ACI and Warden Terry Tibbals of LCI
Were denied and labeled “a breach of security.” A discussion with a number of
in13‘01'mants proved helpfiil in establishing the quantity of black males fiom the Lima area
l1(3llsed in either facility. Excerpts fiom their Life History narratives (See Appendix A)

are as follows.

109

What would be the name of the second chapter?

Teen Life.

What kind of stuff would you talk about in there?

‘bout how I lost my brother when I was 12, he was killed.
He was killed here in Lima?

Yes.

How was he killed?

He was shot.

Was your brother’s killer black?

Yeah.

0?9?9?9?Q?9

: And he’s locked up here in Lima, in one of the, aren’t there three
prisons here?

A: Yeah, he out there in one of um.
Another interview:

Q: What would be the name of that chapter and what kind of things
would you put in it?

A: I would call it “Too Grown” and talk about how I ended up in jail.
Q: You ended up in jail here in Lima?

A: Yeah, in juvenile, I did 65 days, it wasn’t long but it was long
enough—it seems like it just goes on and on—I would tell about how my
brother got shot in the face.

Q: Here in Lima too?

A: Yeah, how I been shot at.

Q: But you were never actually shot right?

A: No, but my brother got shot.

110

 

Q: So how many brothers do you have?

A: I have two.

Q: And they’re both younger than you?

A: I’m the youngest, I’m the baby, at the time my older brother, he’s my
dad’s son, not my mom’s son, he was doing time, he had did 9 and a half
years for murder, but I really didn’t know him. Since he been out I just
started knowing him. I was young when he went in; he went in like in ’90.

Q: That was in Lima too?

A: He was doing most of his time in Marion and the last part of it, the last
3 years he did here in Lima, that’s the one I said got shot in the face.

Q: But he lived right?
A: Yeah.

Q: Well that’s good.
Another interview:

A: My brother got a lot of talent and a couple of things but he let it all go
to waste by going to jail and everything.

Q: He went to jail here in Lima?

A: Yeah, he been going to jail here in Lima since he was 14, he’s 21 now.
Q: What kinds of things has he been going to jail for?

A: Oh stuff like; there was a time he got caught with a stolen vehicle or
fighting or stuff like that. Here recently, the recent one, he was in prison
here and he had to do 4 years, they had got him for a gun underage and
breaking and entering, so he got arrested for that. He got out last
December. He was in school while he was in prison and everything like
that. I think prison actually helped him.

An analysis of the narratives reveals an aspect of the quality of life for some

AAM in the Lima area in which there appears to be little stigma associated with

Incarceration. Further, following the national trend, they are being incarcerated largely

111

k ___

 

for violent acts committed against each other and property crimes (Kitwana 2002, Dyson
2001). Stints in prison are normalized and the agents are submitting to the larger power
structure through structural constraints that are out of their control illustrating the active
nature of domination and resistance to the system. Additionally, the exchange is a
conversation with key informants who are between the ages of 17 to 21 and reflects the
worldview of young men that may be considered developmentally appropriate. Examples
from the narratives include engaging in property offenses, and physical altercations.

In Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (1977), Foucault critiques the
structures’ role in the normalization process of incarceration in Western societies. He
discusses their use as vehicles of surveillance, which is an important element in the
process of transforming prisoners into “docile bodies” (Dreyfus and Rabinow 1983).
According to Foucault (1977), the prison system functions by reducing docile bodies into
records that must be analyzed by authorities to produce more knowledge about
delinquents and serves to break down collective identity and individualize the
perpetrators. Societal forces seize on this opportunity and present these bodies as
diseased and deviant instilling a sense of fear in the public’s mind. Structural constraints
surface in the form of correctional institutions that serve as protection of the citizenry,
which takes the accountability off of the system and places the blame on the individual.
The end result is a transforrnative process that places the responsibility of changing on
the individual not the environment. At both the national and local level, current statistics
reveal that AAM have surfaced as a crucial element in the process, and have become the

docile bodies that fiiel the system (Chideya 1995).

112

Popular Rap Artists: Public Enemy and NWA

Nationally, the prominent rap musicians in the 19803 consisted of groups that
symbolized the link between AAM and the criminal justice system. Representative
examples include Public Enemy (1988) with the album It Takes a Nation of Millions to
Hold Us Back and NWA (1988) with the album Straight Outta Compton. Impressionable
youth was influenced by their display of signature clothing styles, such as monogrammed

34” and dressed

sports caps and sports jerseys. NWA was characteristic of “Gangsta Rap
in extra large shirts and pants in all their public appearances marking the beginning of a
fashion trend that was displayed on the bodies of young black males in many black
communities across the country. Dyson (2001) asserts that these clothing styles are
inspired by prison gear, and reflect prison culture, specifically intake in which shoelaces
and belts are confiscated by prison guards and inmates are issued prison clothing that is
often too large.

Additionally, musical lyrics addressed life for black males in the penitentiaries
and prison systems of the nation. The words in the songs were filled with prison
metaphors, the strength of street knowledge, and the state of the black community,
especially as it was becoming synonymous with the word ghetto. The musical genres
that emerged characterized the geographic locations of the artists. Two types of
distinctive styles emerged, one was labeled East Coast and featured musicians who

originated in the Eastern part of the country, and the other was labeled West Coast, which

emphasized performers from Western states.

 

3" An informant explains his interpretation of the term in the following way: “gangsta rap refers to like
gang bangin’, like beefin’, like talkin’ about guns, fightin’ on the streets. What I know what can happen, a
big stat like, messin’ with such and such can get you kilt, just drama about gansta.”

113

 

Public Enemyz'5 is representative of the genre that was developing on the East
Coast, primarily New York and New Jersey. On a national scale, their music was highly
political and rebel rousing. Public Enemy consisted of group members, Chuck D36 (who
represented the educated black man), Flavor-Flav (who represented the stereotyped urban
black male e. g. dark glasses, gold teeth, and overly flashy attire), and Terminator X (who
was the official mix-master). An entourage of three black men dressed in military attire
accompanied them on every tour and represented “The Security of the First World”—a
term that referenced third world nations and communities of color (Rose 1994). Public
Enemy questioned the trials and tribulations of the real world in their music and sang
about highly controversial and relevant issues in black society. In this way they served as
the political voice of the generation by problemitizing such things as the high
incarceration rate of black males, white supremacy, police authority, racism, social
isolation and inequality, the disproportionate amount of liquor stores and check cashing
businesses in black communities, crack addiction, the strength of the media, the failure of
the system to provide public services to inner city neighborhoods, and black male’s
parental responsibilities. Additionally, they taught black history through their lyrics, and
wrote the highly controversial song entitled “By the Time I Get to Arizona” the lyrics of
which addressed the state of Arizona’s refusal to honor the Martin Luther King Holiday.

Their musical forum was highly accessible to black youth and they were featured in

 

3" Public Enemy was labeled controversial by the authorities because of their connection to The Nation of
Islam, which has been described as the “Black Muslims” and is an organization that was founded by Elijah
Muhammad but is more commonly associated with the charismatic, prolific scholar and activist Malcolm X
(Riddenhour and Jah 1997).

36 Chuck D is a product of the early Headstart Program set up and managed by the New York branch of the
Black Panther party of the 1960s. Currently he is involved in motivational speaking, conducting
community teen forums, and is an active participant in a public service announcement drive that
encourages the renewal of art and music programs in public schools nationwide. In his book entitled Fight
the Power: Rap, Race and Reality he describes rap as “the CNN for young people all over the world”
(1997: 256).

114

Spike Lee’s movie “Do the Right Thing” in 1988. On the album cover of, It Takes a
Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, lead singer Chuck D and group member Flavor-F lav
peer out fi'om behind prison bars and indict the federal government as “the number one
killer and destroyer of black men.” Lyrics from their song, “Black Steel in the Hour of
Chaos” illuminate how the high incidence rates of incarceration of black male were
shaping their identities.

I got a letter fi'om the government the other day

I opened and read it

It said they were suckers

They wanted me for their army or whatever
Picture me giving a damn I said never

Here is a land that never gave a damn

About a brother like me and myself

Because they never did

I wasn’t wit’ it but just that very minute

It occurred to me

The suckers had authority

Cold sweatin’ as I dwell in my cell

How long has it been?

They got me sittin’ in a state pen

I gotta get out—but that thought was thought before
I contemplated a plan on the cell floor

I’m not a firgitive on the run

But a brother like me begun, to be another one
Public Enemy serving time—they drew the line ya’ll
To criticize me for some crime—never the less
They couldn’t understand

That I’m a Black man and could never be a veteran

The lyrics are politically charged and question the govemment’s authority to
incarcerate a black male for refusing to participate in the armed forces. The artist
justifies the appropriateness of the decision to refiise to contribute to a war for “. . .a land
that never gave a damn, about a brother like me and myself.” The song questions the

govemment’s use of authority to accomplish this goal.

115

NWA—which stands for “Niggas Wit’ Attitudes”——hailed from the West Coast.
Their music aided in the normalization of the term nigga in reference to one’s friends,
and the plural niggas to express collective identity among young urban black males.
Additionally, they drew upon their experiences as gang members in Los Angeles,
presenting a glorified depiction of the lifestyle that was replete with violence, drugs, guns
and confiontations with law enforcement officers. The music they produced was later
termed “Gangsta Rap” and gained a huge following, especially among urban black youth.

When their album, Straight Outta Compton was released in 1988 it sold 3 million
units, a record for rap albums of that time (Rose 1994). NWA featured group members,
Ice Cube”, Dr. Dre”, Easy-E39, DJ Yella, Arabian Prince and MC Ren. In September
1988, Music Television Video (MTV) refused to air the video for “Straight Outta
Compton”, stating the clip was a re-creation of a police sweep of black teens and
glorified violence (Rose 1994). The song was labeled anti-establishment.

NWA popularized the ideal of equating women and girls to the status of bitches

and ho’s in their music and videos. They metaphorically used the word bitch to refer to a

 

37 Ice Cube would eventually leave the group and become a highly successful solo artist, producer, actor,
and director. Some of his most popular films were, “Boyz in the ‘Hood”, “Friday”, “Next Friday” and
“Friday After Next” “Boyz in the Hood” is significant because it depicted gang life in Compton. When it
was released it was banned fi'om many inner city theaters by state infrastructures. The ban played on the
fear of the myth of black rage in the white mind in that the viewing of the film by blacks would incite them
to riot and commit acts of violence against whites nationwide (Kitwana 2002). John Singleton, the
producer of the film was successful in ending the ban and the film debuted in local theaters in 1988 with no
single incident of violence erupting

38 Dr. Dre would go on to become a highly successful producer and would produce such mega artists as
Eminem and 50 Cent. Eminem is significant, because he is a white rapper from Detroit. Dr. Dre publicly
commented that his strategy with Eminem reverses the traditional way artists are brought to the attention of
the masses. The usual trend is that black artists are produced by whites. Dr. Dre’s hand in marketing
Eminem’s music reverses this with a black producer using the voice and image of a white artist to both
profit and gain access to youth in the white middle classes. The success of the venture is evidenwd by the
high volume of record sales in 2003 of both Eminem and 50 Cent (personal communication 2003).

39 On February 24, 1995 Easy-E was hospitalized for what he believed was a case of chronic asthma. On
March 16, 1995 his attorney, Ron Sweeney released a statement disclosing that Easy-E had contracted
AIDS. On March 26, 1995 Easy-E died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles at the age of 31.
The cause, according to his doctor, William Young, was complications from AIDS (Rose 1994).

116

weak male. The group was started by Easy—E who financed them through money he
earned as a profitable drug dealer in the section of Compton in Los Angeles (LA),
California (Rose 1994). Their music aided in the de-stigmatization of certain elements of
society like gang life, drinking 40 ounce bottles of malt liquor, and living in the inner city
ghetto. NWA instilled a sense of pride in culturally specific terrain through the use of
declarative statements such as, “it’s time to put Compton on the map” or “our music is
not about a salary but about realities” of the quality of life in Compton. These elements
were relevant to the lives of many black males with similar experiences throughout the
country.

In this context, a discussion of the city of Compton is warranted due to the
national reputation of the antagonistic relationship between the LA police and black
males living there. Further, it is representative of a black ghetto, an element that will
continue to resurface as a characteristic of the genre. NWA depicts the quality of life in
Compton is by consistent references to the relationship between the local police and
AAM. The national image of the area is depicted in the stand-up comedy routine of
Robin Harris, a former resident who is now deceased. On the album Robin Harris
(1988), Harris explains that one night, while he was intoxicated in Compton; he decided
to make a long distance call to hell. He goes on to say that he picked up the phone, dialed
the operator, and asked for her assistance in completing the call. The operator asks where
he is calling from. When he responds that he is calling from Compton, the operator
states, “you don’t need my assistance sir, a connection fiom Compton to Hell is a local

call.” Through his routine, Harris is making keen social commentary of the two places—

117

which in his mind are one and the same—to live in Compton is living in hell and vice
versa.

The most controversial song on NWA’s album Straight Outta Compton is, “Fuck
the Po’lice”. When the group sang it on stage it created a controversy that was played up
by local and national media. The song was revolutionary was viewed as so threatening to
the authorities that in September of 1989 the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) sent a
letter to NWA’s record label, Ruthless Records, warning the group that they did not take
kindly to the single (Rose 1994). In the lyrics, NWA questions the police’s tactics and
discusses the injustices perpetrated against black males in the inner cities, especially gang
members. It is elucidatory of the strained relationship between the police and AAM and
successfully depicts the agents’ ability to strategize against the power structure. Some of
the lyrics from the song are:

Fuck the po’lice comin’ straight fi'om the underground

A young nigga got it bad cause I’m brown

And not the other color

So po’lice think they have the authority

To kill a minority

Fuck that shit cause I ain’t the one

For a punk mothafucka with a badge and a gun

To be beatin’ on and thrown in jail

We can go toe-to-toe in the middle of the cell

F uckin’ with me cause I’m a teenager

With a little bit of gold and a pager

Searchin’ my car lookin’ for the product

Thinkin’ every nigga is selling narcotic

You’d rather see me in the pen

Then me and Lorenzo rollin’ in a Benzo

NWA’s observations are supported by recent scholarship that suggests that AAM

are disproportionately singled out for more scrutiny and suspicion by local police forces

across the nation (Booker 1999). More importantly, as observed by Booker (1999), the

118

practice frequently results in the detention, arrests, and engagement in behaviors by the
police that brutalize AAM. It is a structural constraint in the day—to—day lives of AAM
that is psychosocially damaging and prohibitive to their freedom to move around the
country unharassed by law enforcement officials.

Gangsta Rap and its image had an impact on the identity of black males because
the artists who were producing it came fiom the streets. It was a voice for the
disenfranchised by expressing their pain and the inequalities inherent in the system.
There was a rallying quality to it that challenged authority at the highest level. Another
significant feature of this art form is that it originated with black male youth, a
development that had not been witnessed in the previous generations of other musical
movements.

On a local and national level rap emerged as a source of social status in a
community whose older local support institutions were rapidly being torn down along
with larger sectors of the environment (Rose 1994). Rap artists used their style as a form
of identity formation that plays on class distinction and hierarchies by using commodities
to claim cultural terrain. In this way, they utilized clothing and consumption rituals to
testify to the power of consumption as a means of cultural expression (Rose 1994).

The importance of the classlessness of rap music to its’ listening public cannot be
understated. Analysis of interviews indicates that participants are drawn to the music
regardless of class status, material possessions, or educational attainment. It is relevant to
their life experiences and what they witness on the streets everyday. The influence of

national rap artists on local area youth is evidenced by the replication of clothing styles,

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incorporation of slang terms, and the shared experience of the impact of an increased rate

of incarceration among AAM in the local population.

From Bla_ck to African Americap

The final significant event to be discussed is the change in terms used to identify
blacks. During the decade, the word used to distinguish them shifted from black to
Afiican American. Harper (1996) credits this development to Ramona Edelin, who was
Jessie Jackson’s secretary. According to Harper (1996), in December 1988 Jesse Jackson
was meeting with a group of black policy makers in Chicago. Edelin suggested that the
Chicago Conference employ the term African American when Jackson asked her to act as
official scribe for the meeting. Edelin posed these words in hopes that their use would
restore a sense of pride and connectedness to the roots of the black community. Jackson
favored the change and made the following observation, “Black tells you about your skin
color and what side of town you live on, Afiican American evokes a discussion of the
world” (Harper 1996: 59). Noted sociologist, Ruth Hamilton, agreed with Jackson but
problemitized the transformative potential by the following statement, “I’m willing to call
myself African American, but Ithink the crucial question is, “So what, does it really
change the social conditions and consciousness of people” (Harper 1996: 58). Further
analysis of the transition by linguist and scholar of African American vernacular English,
Geneva Smitherman, points out the shift’s potential impact on ethnic pride and identity.
She comments that “language plays a dominant role in the formation of ideology,
consciousness and class relations” (Harper 1996: 55). These remarks suggest that there

is really not a common acceptance, among black Americans, of the transcending

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possibilities of the term in daily vocabulary. Currently, it is used predominantly in
academic and politically correct formats, and has yet to be exclusively agreed upon by all
Afiican Americans. An excerpt from one informant explains current perceptions:

Q: Do you use the term African American or Black to describe yourself?

A: I like the term Black, African American doesn’t really say anything, it

could mean a black person living in South or North America, firrther I

think we’re too removed from Afiicans to connect with them, most of the

people I know still call themselves black.

The finding suggests that the idiom African American has not been internalized
by everyone in the black masses. Further evidence that supports this claim comes from
the results of a national survey conducted by the Urban League in 2001 entitled “The
State of Black America Survey”. The National Urban League surveyed 800 African
Americans concerning the state of Black America. The first question asked was, “Are
you, yourself, black, African American, black Caribbean, black West Indian, or some
other race?” 51% of the respondents answered that they were black, while 43% reported
that they considered themselves African American that could indicate that there is not yet
a clear consensus of which term is the most appropriate among Afiican Americans on the

community level. Nevertheless, it has been adopted as the national collective identity on

the federal level“).

 

4° Davidson (2001) takes this argument one step further by advocating for a national discussion of the
differences between “race” and “ethnic group” when describing traditional African American culture. He
argues that the African American community should be viewed as an ethnic—which he defines as distinct
culture—rather than a racial—which he defines as a non-cultural group—group. He bases the observation
on the claim that this type of change is crucial in restructuring the African American community as one that
has distinct core values, norms, and beliefs. Further, according to Davidson, this transformation would aid
significantly in shaping the gray area that is based on skin color with more of a shared collective identity.

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Conclusions

The structural constraints of the 19805 included an economic recession,
downsizing of local area factories, privatization of industry, and a rapid grth in the
local prison industry. The introduction of this means of production impacted the identity
of AAM due to the large numbers of them that were incarcerated in these facilities (See
Tables 1 and 3). Evidence of the impact of mass incarceration on AAM is best illustrated
by the lyrics and clothing styles of the popular rap musicians of the period. Examples
include baggy pants, extra large shirts, and laceless shoes that are strikingly similar to the
fashion trends exhibited by inmates in which belts and shoelaces are removed by prison
officials for security reasons (Dyson 2001). The existence of these aesthetic features on
some AAM both inside and outside prison walls suggests collective identity formation.

Lastly, their identity was fluther impacted by the structure’s installation of a
different term to identify them. The terminology went from black to African American.
Though this change was not widely accepted by everyone in the Afiican American
community, it was adopted as the politically correct way to refer to them and was
standardized in the collective identity through use on federal forms, academic literature,

and an assortment of media sources.

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Chapter 6: Lima in the 19908

This generation mourns T upac

As my generation mourned Till

As we all mourned Malcolm

This wonderful young warrior

T upac told the truth

There are those who wanted to make him the problem
Who wanted to believe that if they silenced T upac all
would be quiet on the ghetto fiont

There are those who testified that the problem wasn ’t
the conditions, but the people talking about them

But he will not go away

As Malcolm did not go away

As Emmett Till did not go away

Your shooting him will not take him from us

His spirit will fill our hearts

His courage will strengthen us for the challenge

His truth will strengthen our backbones—Nikki Giovanni41

Privatized Prisons and the Link Between Prisons and Ga_ngActivity

 

In 1992, the Bush Administration created the Violence Initiative—a series of
federally fiinded studies seeking behavioral and biological markers for predicting the
propensity for violence in young males—that developed violence intervention models
and anger management classes to “study” urban violence. Civil Rights groups protested
the programs arguing that they were an attempt to statistically confirm that young black
males were biologically prone to violence (Kitwana 2002).

The initiative was continued in 1994, when the Clinton administration enacted a
Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which earmarked nearly $10 billion
for prison construction alone and sanctioned the death penalty for federal crimes such as
carjacking and drive-by shootings (Kitwana 2002). It targeted gang members with new

and harsher penalties for drug crimes, and made life imprisonment mandatory for federal

 

4' Nikki Giovanni fiom her poem dedicated to Tupac Shakur entitled “All Eyes on U” (1996).

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offenders after more than two state or federal convictions for violent felonies or drug
crimes (Kitwana 2002). The initiative was branded “Three Strikes and You’re Out” and
changed the lives of both inmates and corrections officers. The impact was largely
witnessed by rapid increases in the levels of violence inside prison facilities and a
decrease in incentives among incarcerated individuals to change their behavior. To
attract potential employees, individual states raised starting salaries making employment
in prison corrections a job of choice for many people struggling in the rapidly de-
industrializing communities of the Midwest (Chideya 1995). Nationwide increases in the
number and availability of criminal justice programs suggests the broad range
marketability of the industry.

The final legislative act that directly connected to AAM and high incarceration
rates occurred in 1994 in the form of a law allowing adult prosecution of thirteen and
fourteen-year—olds charged with certain violent crimes (Kitwana 2002). Enforcement of
the legislation was experienced primarily by young AAM, who received longer and more
frequent incarcerations (Booker 1999). Prison markets were viewed as wise investments
at the state, local, and private levels.

Lima’s first privatized facility is Oakwood Correctional Facility (OCF). OCF
officially opened in 1994 as a medium security prison contracting with the State of Ohio
Department of Corrections (The Lima News, February 9, 2003). An article in The Lima
News, February 9, 2003, lists the total number of inmates as 168, a staff of 288 and an
annual budget of $24, 171, 185. In that piece, State Representative, John Williamowski,
argues against the privatization of the prison system in the state of Ohio. Williamowski

bases his disagreement on the claim that privatized facilities unfairly tout their savings

124

 

over state facilities. He details this dispute by stating that they only accept healthy
inmates, which leaves the more costly unhealthy inmates to state facilities. According to
Williamowski, “These are the inmates everybody wants because that’s where the profit
is. That’s why the private prison demands the state send those inmates. It makes the
private prisons look good.” Williamowski’s comment is illustrative of the
commodification of prison inmates in which they are no longer seen as people but
reduced to monetary values.

Findings from this study suggest that the growth in the local prison industry and
the disproportionate amount of AAM there have contributed to the development of
gangs42 in the area. The gangs that developed are the Crips, Bloods, Disciples, and Folks
who formed strong affiliations with AAM both inside the prison system and in the city of
Lima. They aligned on the city’s long established rivalry between AAM living on the
Southend of town and those living on the Westend. Westend AAM identified with the
Bloods (red is the color that symbolizes the affiliation) and Southend AAM became
associated with the Crips (blue is the color that symbolizes the affiliation). Both gangs
originated in Los Angeles. The Disciples and Folks took hold of the section of Lima
called the Neutral Zone. The Neutral Zone is located in the center of the city. The
Disciples and Folks are gangs that originated in Chicago.

An informant, who is currently a gang member himself, explains the connection

between Lima’s gangs, the gangs in Los Angeles and the prisons that are there:

 

’2 In general, gangs are characterized as spontaneous groups of marginalized individuals who integrate into
society through conflict. Nationally, they are not new phenomena. Gang behavior stems, primarily fiom
adolescent concerns, specifically; the need for peer respect and approval, security and protection, group
support and acceptance, and age and sex role identification (Taylor 1990). Recent scholarship indicates
that they may also be linked to lack recreational facilities and other creative outlets for youth (Taylor
1996).

125

 

Q: Where do the Crips and Bloods that are now in Lima come from? Are
they affiliated with the gangs in LA?

A: I think it’s when somebody that was in jail ended up meeting
somebody that was from LA. I guess they got enough rank to take you
under they wing, put you in it, give you knowledge and you give um rank
so much to start the rest of they group. WCSR that was the West Coast
Southside Rule, West Coast meaning it started out in LA. It’s somebody,
you know what I’m sayin’, that was either associated with them from LA
or was in the pen with somebody who’s home is in Lima, so they come
and start that there. Bounty Hunter Bloods, which is from LA, same thing.
People branch off. They was one set called Crenshaw Mafia, ain’t no
street called Crenshaw in Lima it comes from LA.

With the introduction of gangs via connections in the prison system the level of
violence increased in the Lima area. Shootings, and gang banging—which is fighting
between two rival gangs—were intensified and was felt in the larger community and in
the schools. A community member shares views on how things have changed with the
introduction of gangs into Lima’s Afiican American neighborhoods.

Q: How would you compare what living in Lima was like in the 705 and
80s as to how it is now?

A: Before Lima was a pleasant place to be and we didn’t have all this
killing and shooting, we didn’t have it. You could walk down the street
any time, morning, noon and night and you wouldn’t be apprehended by
anyone or slugged or killed. Nothing of the sort, it was very, very few
things that happened like they are now.

The sophisticated organization of LA based gangs in Lima is better expressed by
key informants who are gang members, know gang members or grew up among gang
rivalries. Their stories are as follows.

Q: How are the gangs organized here in Lima?

A1: I don’t know about the Crips, whatever or how they dissed

somebody, cause there was some branch of Folks from the Bloods or

whatever. Most of the people I know, grew up with, my brother, they

were Bloods. They hung around out West and stayed in like a Blood
neighborhood. It’s all about money, you got to sell dope to get money or

126

you ain’t in. You makin’ money illegally, rather than flippin’ burgers at
McDonald’s and you got your hat to the left that was considered Blood
money. The two coasts of this country, East and West are more Bloods
and Crips. As you come in more like Chicago that’s where the Folks and
Vice Lords are. They’re like the Bloods and Crips of the Midwestern
states. So the more you come in they got like they own gangs. Mainly,
the more you come in land, the Midwest and inner states that ain’t around
water, there are Folks and Vice Lords.

A2: You see comedians talking about it on BET“, like Comic View, they

was in LA and this dude fi'om New Orleans, alright ya’ll killin’ over

colors, huh, niggaz in New Orleans killin’ cause they in a bad mood, that’s

real New Orleans is the murder capital of the world, Shorty.

A3: It’s beyond that you wearing the wrong color, it revolves around

money, material things and money. But along with that it comes with

more haters and if you a Blood or a Crip or whatever set you still is to this

day. If you blew up and got money your own Crips, your own Bloods,

they gonna eventually hate you and try to knock you off. It revolves

around money retrieval; I don’t see no middle class. Ifyou got money or

you don’t got money.

The previous dialogue suggests that integration of gangs among some Lima area
youth has contributed to the normalization of violence process there. Involvement in
gang activity is not surprising in a community where there are limited employment
opportunities and few recreational activities for the youth. They also demonstrate the
awareness of class divisions among participants’ in the following statement “It revolves
around money retrieval. I don’t see no middle class.” Another interpretation of this
response is that the speaker views involvement in a gang as all inclusive. In other words,
everyone has an equal chance as long as they are willing to work and bring in money to
the principle unit. Gang involvement fills the need for a formalized structure that is

culturally relevant to this particular subset of the population. The major gangs, in the

Lima area, originate from distant locations, which could indicate how organized they are.

 

 

43 Black Entertainment Television

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It is an example of agency in that they appear to have developed out of the need for this
marginalized group to find a place in larger society.

Further, though informants’ acknowledge that their original attraction to gangs is
their inclusiveness, they admit that once a person joins they are considered a member for
life. The following statement illustrates this point, . . if you a Blood or a Crip or
whatever set you still is to this day.” Ironically, gang life becomes more restrictive then
public institutions—like schools or prisons—that some informants rebel so vehemently
against.

Gang affiliations also appear to foster a collective sense of identity as informants’
detail what parts of the country particular gangs originate from, awareness of gang signs
(i.e. the reference to wearing a hat on the left while working at McDonald’s—wearing a
cap to the left symbolizes an affiliation with the Bloods—wearing a cap to the right
signifies the Crips). These actions are explicatory of the agents’ resistance to socially
sanctioned norms and speak to the importance of the variable of age and the inherent age
appropriateness regarding rebelliousness to societal rules. Gang involvement stretches
the behavioral norms of western adolescent development by raising the stakes of the
outcomes of such rebelliousness. Socially sanctioned society is replete with rebellious
actions initiated by adolescent youth, however many of those who rebel eventually
succumb to the rules of the larger social structure as they age, acquire employment or
become active participants in the dominant culture and economies. Rebellious acts that
are played out in gang culture yield to different ends. Ifone is successful in acquiring
material goods and wealth through this means they have the potential of being killed by

another member as is evidenced in the informant’s following statement, “If you blew up

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and got money, your own Crips, your own Bloods, they gonna eventually hate you and
try to knock you off.” The reward for a youth who successfirlly commits to this lifestyle

can be death, which is a striking finding.

The Begipping of Gang Activity

There is a lack of written documentation to determine exactly when gang activity
started in the Lima. I reviewed newspaper articles from 1995 to 1996 to collaborate my
informants’ information. No newspaper articles appeared in the local media that detailed
the introduction of gangs on the local scene, which could indicate that the infrastructure
was unaware of the growing trend in the area. Law enforcement officials were not
included as community participants in this study because I did not want to compromise
the confidentiality of key informants nor my street credibility. To this end, a key
informant was helpful in establishing the origins of the phenomenon in the Lima area.

Q: What year did gang banging start here in Lima?

A: When I was growing up there was gang bangin’.

Q: What year would that be?

A: That would be around 1995, mostly all the gang bangin’, that’s when it

got about original with Lima as far as I know. And then like in ’96 was

probably the worst year, cause ’96 was nothin’ but pain.

Q: What gangs were here?

A: As of right now?

Q: In 1996?

A: In ’96 it was Bloods, Crips and Folks that’s about it.

129

 

 

Additionally, informants were asked when they started gang banging and elicited
the following responses:

Q: So you started doing that kind of stuff when you were in the 5th grade?

A: Well, I wasn’t doin’ it, it was just like my big brother was in it and we

used to play sports on the corner then a drive-by came through and they

shot at us.

Q: And nobody was killed?

A: No, but a couple of people was shot.

Another response:

...then goin’ for my 10 goin’ into teenage years the stuff I tried to do, or

who I tried to be, I tried to be like my brother or be the people he hung

around. Ithought it was cool. I thought it was cool to be in a gang or

whatever, smoke cigarettes; believe it or not I started smokin’ weed at 9.

So I’d probably tell about how I started to grow fascinated with just being

high, tryin’ to be a Blood or be down. I also got into it like at the skating

rink, I almost got jumped by a whole bunch of Crips because I was
wearin’ red and on they set.

The exchanges are telling in that they elicit how normalized gang activity
has become to some of the informants. In this sample, participants address how
traditional role models, specifically older brothers, transmit the normality of gang
violence and involvement into the everyday lives of their younger siblings. Gang
affiliation, typical adolescent teen activities (drug use, smoking, fighting) and the

violence that accompanies it (use of weapons, e. g. killings, drive-bys) synthesizes

into a community norm.

The School-Gang Connection
Due to the high prevalence of gang involvement among these informants, it is not

surprising that their activities have carried over to the local schools. In many instances,

130

 

school gang connections in the Lima are a significant part of daily life for some study
participants and they divide the city up by Blood or Crip territory. Further, they
developed a set of rituals that consisted of hand signals, color strategies, and vocabularies
that identified their particular “set” or gang affiliation and became part of the collective
identity of many of the young men involved in this study. Young AAM who went to
both of the area schools were involved as incidents fi'om their life history narratives

indicate:

At graduation from Lima Senior High School:

I just let um know which side of town I was from and which block I hung
on. K block and grabbed my diploma and shake hands and marched down
there.

At Lima Senior:

The Southside/Westside beef that was real strong in junior year, but I
never got involved in none of the conflict. I may have put my two cents in
or whatever, or they throw down44 Westside, I’d throw it down too. There
was this one altercation that year, this dude throwin’ it down and I’m in
lunch line, so I throw it down too. An upside down W is an M and I’m
like you’re not from North Memphis Tennessee, that’s what they throw
up. So he throw off his clothes and he swing, step out here, do whatever.

I told him like if you swing firck the Southside, fuck the Westside; it’s me
gettin’ in your ass. That’s what it’s about. I’m not repin’ no side of town.
Yeah, I’m from the Westside or “Goody—Goody” how ya’ll put it. I’m not
none of these lil’ wanna be thugged out or gangsta or hold they own
people from out West. And when I said that he said he was cool, we been
cool ever since.

Analysis reveals how much the environment influences those who live in
the city. The historical tensions among the Afiican American community on the South
and Westend naturally became the dividing line for gang affiliations and activities.
Additionally, they were class based, which is better expressed by the following statement,

’4 Throwing down refers to hand gestures that symbolize the particular gang one is affiliated with.

131

 

“Yeah, I’m from the Westside or “Goody-Goody” how ya’ll put it. I’m not none of these
lil’ wanna be thugged out or gangsta or hold they own people fiom out West.” As such
they are illustrative of how entrenched class divisions are in the ideology of Afiican
Americans living in this city. Study participants follow the long established pattern of
disenfranchised people who fight and rebel against each other instead of the system that
equally oppresses them.

A collective identity has been established with the formation of gangs that appears
to have developed into a tradition, esprit de corp, solidarity, and attachment to each local
territory. In this study, gang affiliations gave Lima area AAM a sense of community in

the disenfranchising environment.

The Hip Hop Generation

Rap music developed further and represented what art historians have labeled
pastiche—which means to borrow from the past with images from the future. Some
began to label the new forms of rap as “Hip Hop” and the decade’s youth the “Hip Hop
Generation.” Kitwana (2002) defines the Hip Hop Generation as black youth who were
born during the years 1965-1984, after the civil rights and Black power generation. As
such they are the first generation of African Americans to come of age in the era of
globalization (Kitwana 2002). Globalization impacted them through the widening
division of the haves and have-nots. Additionally, they have had to face the realities of
rising unemployment rates, reliance on the underground economy—particularly the

crack-cocaine explosion of the late 198OS—and the boom in incarceration rates,

132

especially among AAM. Lastly, they are the first generation of Afiican Americans to
come of age outside the confines of legal segregation.

Hip Hop culture is attractive because it is classless in a sense, and in that manner
is all inclusive. An understanding of this generation is crucial in understanding their
identity formation. Characteristics of it include rap music, music videos, designer
clothing, popular Black films, and Black television programs (Kitwana 2002).

Rappers of the Hip Hop Generation are highly influential to AAM at both the
local and national level. The use of pastiche is ever present in their art forms as they
blend melodies from previously recorded musicians in the African American world with
new and original musical forms. It is evident in the visual media through Hip Hop films,
and elaborate music videos, a medium that is equally accessible to the Hip Hop

generation on a national and international level.

Popular Rappers: The Legacy of Tupac

 

The most significant and influential rapper to AAM who participated in this study
was Tupac Shakur a finding that is collaborated by recent scholarship (Dyson 2001, Rose
1994). Tupac was another rapper who had affiliations with the Black Panther Party his
connection was through his mother who was a former Black Panther. He was a product
of the School of Performing Arts in New York though he never graduated from that
institution (Rose 1994). The music he produced questioned the status quo and was laden
with perceptive social commentary. Though he never formally graduated fi'om high
school he was a voracious reader (Dyson 2001). According to interviews of Tupac’s

contemporaries by Dyson (2001), the use of classic literature in his music inspired many

133

of his rap mates to read seriously, many for the first time and led to his development as
an icon to the age group. In this aspect, he is as important as Martin Luther King and
Malcolm X were to previous generations.

Tupac was gunned down and killed in 1996, a crime that has never been solved.
Some of his fans espouse the theory that his assassination was a political action to silence
his keen analysis of the social inequalities of life for Afiican Americans in the black
ghettos (Giovanni 1996).

Other members of the Hip Hop Generation believe that he was never really killed
and cite the continuous release of his new recordings as evidence. In this sense, he has
emerged as a kind of “Black Elvis” and conspiracy theories abound (Dyson 2001). Some
informants explain their theories:

I don’t feel like Tupac dead. I don’t, people say I’m crazy, I don’t. I got a
paper about how this man took and broke down how everything that
happened (to Tupac) had something to do with God—it was like 13 shots
in the car, that happened on the 7th day—it was so much stuff, I don’t
think Tupac dead. On his last CD, at the end, you know what he say,
“expect me to come back like Jesus came back. I’m coming.” That’s
letting you know the man ain’t dead. He say on one of his CD’S, he say,
“I’m over in Jamaica sipping daiquiris.” Tupac, then he got a CD, my girl
tripped off it yesterday, where he says, “Rest in peace to my Biggie
Smalls45.”—everybody try to cover it up and say he made all these songs
before he died because he felt it coming. Certain stuff man, now doggone,
just like Eminem, Eninem came out way after he died, on one of his songs
he say, “Eminem, white boy shut up”—I don’t believe the man dead.

And another:

This white woman on MTV, she talkin’ bout how people’s trippin’
because Tupac’s still coming out with albums. That man ain’t went in the
studio and made that many songs and they can’t be that accurate. He got
killed in ’96, now it’s 2003 and he’s still talking about stuff and new CDs
are still comin’ out. There was a comic one night on BET who said Bin

 

’5 Biggie Smalls was another East Coast Rapper who was gunned down in 1997, one year alter Tupac
(Kitwana 2002, Dyson 2001, Rose 1994).

134

 

Laudin and Tupac are the only two people I know that they keep sayin’
dead and keep comin’ out with tapes.

Tupac was prophetic, he discussed culturally relevant issues in his music and gave
his songs titles that showed he was not only well read, but understood the power of
metaphor and simile. He was a wordsmith and used the skill to his advantage. Themes
in his music centered on life in prison, death, and the social isolation of an AAM living in
the racialized ghettos of America. There was a fatalistic quality to his music that
centered on suffering (Dyson 2001). Study participants’ related to this theme three-fold:
in terms of the self; the shared suffering of others; and causing others to suffer.

His music also popularized descriptive terms that still color Afiican American
street slang. Examples include hatin’—which is a term used to describe someone who is
jealous of another’s possessions; and the term thug which can translate both into
something desirable someone wanted to be or can be used to talk about an undesirable
quality in a person. For Tupac part of being a thug was to stand up for one’s
responsibilities by keeping it real, which translates into—saying how one feels, right or
wrong (Dyson 2001). He described thugs as “the nobodies because we really don’t have
nobody to help us but us” (Dyson 2001: 113).

Tupac vigorously embraced and popularized the term “thug life”, a concept that
emerged during a 1995 prison interview of the artist (Dyson 2001). During that meeting
he explained the term as, . .it’s not an image, it’s just a way of life. It’s a mentality. It’s
a stage we all go through. It’s just like that for white kids or rich kids. They get to go to
the military academy or ROTC, or they take all the risk, energy and put it into the armed

forces. And for a black male, Puerto Rican, or Hispanic person, you’ve got to put this in

135

the streets; that’s where our energies go. It is part of our progression to be a man”
(Dyson 2001: 113).

The following excerpts are illustrative of Tupacian Theory in the lived experience
of study participants’ who were asked what they liked about Tupac and what songs they
like by him.

Al: One of the songs that I really like by Tupac is called “White Man’s
World” and “Keep Your Head Up.”———I like how he bases his songs on
what is real.

A2: I like Tupac cause he kept it real, in all aspects, before he got rich he
acted the same way he act now. You know what I’m sayin’. He didn’t
start talkin’ proper on camera. “Oh I’m rollin’ a blunt right now. I’m
drinkin’ Hennessey.” He just kept it real, he didn’t sugar coat nothin’,
whether he was broadcast on a million stations and they seen his every
move, he did what he did behind closed doors, no cameras, no lights, he
kept it real.

A3: My favorite song by Tupac is, I’d have to say, “It Ain’t Easy.”—It
was just like he was referrin’, it ain’t easy being him. It ain’t easy being
who you are. He was basically sayin’ that some of the stuff you can relate
to that he do you do. Or you just say it ain’t easy being me at your little
job, or seeing somebody get kilt or gettin’ shot or whatever happened to
you in your life. Your life ain’t easy. You could be the richest person in
the world but it ain’t easy.

A4: I like all of Tupac’s. I like about him cause he don’t fear no man.
Anybody want to battle with him or fight with him or whatever, he’ll fight
back. He hold his own ground. I like his music.

A5: Tupac, he real, he speak his mind, he tell it like it is. He don’t hold
nothin’ back and that’s the type of person I am. I’m real and I tell it like it
is. I don’t like holdin’ nothin’ back.

A6: The song I could feel him on was, “Fuck All Ya’ll.”—Cause it’s
some stuff, this country is the best country, but it’s also the worse country,
in my opinion. It’s so much stuff messed up with this country. But on
that note the rest of the song go like “I don’t need nobody.” I was feelin’
that, everybody feel like that rather they rich or poor, whatever, I could
relate to that.

136

A7: Tupac sung a song, “I See Death Around the Corner.” That song, a
lot of times when I’m depressed I think about that song. You know,
because I done come so close to death, but thank God he saved my life.
Yeah, I think about it because it definitely is right in my face a lot. But
God right there. It’s like God keeps snatchin’ me away like, it ain’t time
for you. Sometimes I be like, I wish He would just take me in.

These responses are illustrative of the themes of suffering that characterize so
much of Tupac’s music. He spoke to the disenfranchised, the forgotten. He spoke to the
pain of what it meant to be an AAM. Many of the people interviewed related to this
sentiment as evidenced by their elaborations on the lyrics of his songs that speak to these
issues. The reference to his ability to “keep it real” points to a shared sense of otherness
and indicates Tupac’s and the participants’ awareness of the two-tiered class system so
prevalent in Western societies.

Additionally, one informant used T upac’s music to rationalize his use of violence.
The violent act he was involved in was an altercation with his uncle in which he beat
him so savagely that his uncle was hospitalized and remained in a coma for a two week
period. The following quote illustrates how he uses Tupac’s music to normalize his
behavior.

This is the thing that happened with me and my uncle. I could have kilt

him. I could have let him die, but Tupac say the realist thing, “I ain’t a

killer but don’t push me.” Nobody is a killer but everybody can become a

killer. Everybody has that point where you done pushed me to far. You

pushed the wrong button, whether it be fiom physically beatin’ somebody

down or getting a weapon and doin’ it. Everybody is a killer, everybody

can be pushed to that point, but don’t push me. You can try to be peaceful

and be real, be you and be blunt. If I say somethin’ that offends you, I

didn’t put my hands on you. So there’s no need for you to put your hands

on me. No need for you to go get a gun to go shoot me. That’s just howl

feel about that. That’s why I believe nobody’s ever gonna surpass Tupac.
Tupac could make you feel sad, happy, mad whatever.

137

In the interviews that were conducted, informants’ acknowledged that Tupac’s
music was not always used to exemplify negative or sad occasions. The positive aspects
of his musical legacy are evidenced by one participant’s interpretation of his song, “Dear
Mama.”

Tupac’s song, “Dear Mama” I like that one cause, like me, his dad’s dead
now. His dad didn’t care. His dad didn’t come around, so he’s givin’ all
the praise to his mom. The one who stuck with him even when he was
gettin’ on her last nerves. I can relate to that, my mom is a strong Black
woman. She did what she had to do for her children. She took it upon
herself, that’s my responsibility. So he was givin’ her all her props back.
Even when I act crazy, you know what I’m sayin’, even when I do stuff
you don’t agree with. The main thing, you had my back. You always kept
it real, whether you liked somethin’ I did, you told me stuff for my own
good.

On the other hand, his music was used to explain relationships some informants’
had with their fathers and is revealed in one participant’s interpretation of Tupac’s song,
“Papa’s Song.”

In “Papa’s Song” Tupac was talkin’ about Daddy’s home, he be like so,

you act like that means something to me. You been gone a mighty long

time for you to come home with that daddy’s home shit. He just

explainin’ like, me and my mother and my brother been gettin’ along fine

without you and he’s made it. He’s like now you can step the fuck off

pops. Fuck you. I had to play catch by myself, a sorry sight. I was like

man that is just so real. I lived that. In the video his pop’s got locked up

so, in a way he was kinda held back, but he still could have communicated

with them or showed he cared or whatever. He tried to show up when he

done made it.

Tupac’s music dealt with an issue that first surfaced in the American cultural
realm in the 1970s. The particular topic involved the notion in the public’s mind in
which living in the ghetto became synonymous with Afiican American culture. In

Tupac’s song, “I Wonder If Heaven Got a Ghetto” he discusses this theme and the

connection. The lyrics from this selection have an eerie quality. He questions the value

138

of a black man’s life on earth and ponders if the same type of segregated existence will
continue upon his death in the “ghettos of heaven” that are reserved for AAM. To
understand the significance of the word ghetto to contemporary images of African
American culture and identity formation an historical review of the term is warranted.

In Sociology and the Race Problem, McKee (1993) discusses the origins and
conceptualization of the word “ghetto” in an American context. According to McKee
(1993) the origins of the word date back to 1926 as a reference to the areas of the city
where immigrants, who were largely coming to America from Europe, lived. Sections of
town were allotted to these newly arriving persons and a form of accommodation
between two divergent population groups was established in which one group effectually
subordinated itself to the other. What emerged was an historical form of dealing with a
dissenting minority within a larger population.

Further, early ghettos were constructed as transisitional housing and collective
ethnic identity. Assimilation was a central factor and newly arriving immigrants viewed
their inhabitance in there as a temporary placement, which is an important factor because
it lessened the stigma. People entering these sections were able to secure employment
that allowed them to move up the social structure by income and maintained class status
via white skin privilege (Sugrue 1996, Massey and Denton 1993).

In the 1950s and 1960s, the image of the ghetto transformed into inner city
housing projects whose construction was termed urban renewal (Fine 1989). McKee
(1993) summarizes that during the two decades the principle inhabitants of these
developments shifted to socio—economically disadvantaged African Americans. Clark

(1989) takes this analysis firrther and suggests that as the inhabitants changed, the earlier

139

vision of them as transitional housing evaporated and they developed into racialized
ghettos and instruments of social control (Clark 1989). The term became standardized by
sociologists’ as a way to characterize the developing pattern of residential segregation of
African Americans in Northern cities.

Print and visual media aided in the social construction of the place as reservations
for Afiican Americans. Common characteristics included a shared hopelessness, lack of
future orientation, and lack of positive mentors. Further, these images have been used to
hypersegregate lower income Afiican Americans and present all African Americans as a
monolithic group. The depiction of Afiican Americans as ghetto inhabitance continues to
permeate society through the media. The internalization of this representation is evident
in the words of rap music, like Tupac Shakur’s, which is a reflection of how African

American culture is viewed by the larger society.

Limp Alternative School

In the 19903, there was a national trend toward the creation of Alternative Schools
for students who have been labeled behaviorally disordered“. The creation of these
schools, and their inherent bias towards AAM, gained importance after the results from a
recent study conducted by Harvard University Law School called The Civil Rights
Project, was published. The major finding of the project was that AAM were twice as

likely to be diagnosed with behavioral disorders as European American males (Losen and

 

4" Behavioral disorders are characterized as patterns of behavior that violate the basic rights of others or
major age-appropriate societal norms or rules. They are classified by a pattern of negativistic, hostile, and
defiant behavior (American Psychiatric Association 2000). The types of behavioral disorders most
frequently identified in students by classroom teachers include: assault/violence, self abuse, lying, off-task,
out-of-place, physically inappropriate, and vocally inappropriate (Council for Children with Behavioral
Disorders (CCBD) (1989).

140

 

Orfield 2002). Other conclusions were that this pattern has lasted over twenty years and
that there are major statistical disparities between these two groups depending on the
state (Losen and Orfield 2002).

A number of studies conclude that the behavioral and verbal styles of many
AAM, adolescents in particular, frequently result in misinterpretation and inappropriate
behavioral disorder classification by mainstream professionals (Patton 1998, Porter 1997,
McIntyre 1996, Harry and Anderson 1994, 1999). Additional research suggests that what
is being labeled behavioral disorders is, in actuality, a social construction by the power
structure to maintain the illusion that AAM are violent, deviant and diseased and as such
are in need of placement in alternative schools (Price 2002, Daniels 1994, Starks 1993,
Kunjufir 1985). Starks (1993) has critiqued the role of these schools as geared more
toward controlling behavior rather than academic performance. Dunbar (2001) sums up
the findings and inserts that they firnction as a gateway into the juvenile justice system.

In keeping with the national trend, Lima opened its first alternative school in
1992. The school’s mission was as follows, “to provide a hands-on approach designed to
enhance at-risk47 youth’s environmental literacy and awareness” (Annual Report of the
Allen County School Board 1992). Lima Alternative School was located in a formerly
vacant elementary school behind Lima Senior High School with a total capacity of 300
pupils (Annual Report of the Allen County School Board 1992). Students from all four

of the area middle schools and the senior high school were eligible for placement there.

 

47 Currently, the use of the term is being debated in the social science community. Criticism largely centers
on the notion of its use as a code in formulating public policy to mark both underprivileged and minority
Children (Price 2002, Harry and Anderson 1994). One informant, who is currently a high school principal
in one of the neighboring large cities, described “at-ris ” in the following way: “There’s a group of people
Who say that’s a buzz word for black folk who are not academically inclined. That’s a buzz word for poor
folk. That’s the buzz word of continuing the status quo in terms of the working class. There are people
Who would believe that.”

141

The main criteria was that they were displaying behavior, emotional or academic, that
either interrupted the flow of the regular classroom or they were lacking the sufficient
skills needed to successfirlly complete state mandated and federally sanctioned tests
(Annual Report of the Allen County School Board 1992). The goal of the alternative
school was to provide a much more one-on-one experience by a student to teacher ratio
of 1:13 (Annual Report of the Allen County School Board 1992).

Lima Alternative School quickly developed into a place where the worst students,
especially behaviorally, were sent. The structural features of the school were reminiscent
of a correctional facility with a metal detector located at the entrance and a key punch
admittance system. This finding is consistent with scholarship on alternative schools in
other localities (Dunbar 2001, Devine 1996). The types of students chosen, the reasons
they were sent there, and the environment at the school are better illustrated through
interviews of former students at that school.

Q: Would you describe a typical school day at the alternative school
while you were there?

Al: For me, it was kinda hard because the principal ain’t like me. He
doesn’t too much believe in inner-racial dating and my baby mama is
white, so he didn’t like that. He just kept givin’ me and her problems. I
also didn’t like goin’ through the metal detector everyday and punchin’ in,
so I jus stopped goin’.

A2: They started scanning in, or punchin in if you ain’t had your card.
Just go to class. It was like separated, 11 and 12th grade wing was to the
right of the main. doors and to the left was the 9th and 10th graders.

One informant elaborated on the curriculum a little further:
A3: I go to science, it’s okay. Leave science, I go to English, which is
okay, social studies then I go to lunch. Then I go to this class called,

“Jobs for Ohio Graduates.” Then I leave there and go to electronics for
like four periods and it’s like the boringist class ever.

142

Q: What do you think of the jobs class? Do you think that they’re
preparing you for a job after you finish high school?

A: Uh-huh.

Q: What kinds of things do they teach you in there?

A: Well they teach us like, how to fill out a resume and make sure we got
our references and everything down. They teach us like responsibility as
we get older.

Q: In the vocational part of the class what do they teach you?

A: Electronics.

Q: Do you think they’re giving you enough training in electronics so that
you’ll be able to get a job in that field when you graduate?

A: They’re giving us training but its kind of boring because we’re in there
for four periods straight and like you do your work 1St and 2"d period, 3“l
and 4‘” period you can do what you want to do.

Q: What do people do during 3rd and 4"“ period?

A: Some people sleep, some are playing games, some are sitting around

the classroom talking, things like that.

These responses indicate that racial tension was prevalent at the alternative school

e. g. the principal’s reference to inner-racial dating. The division of students in separate

wings is depictive of how youth are separated in detention centers. According to one

informant, there is a vocational structure to the curriculum with large blocks of time

allotted to non-constructive activities. The finding is significant as previous research

indicates that boredom is often the most cited reason students’ give for dropping out of

school (Polite 2000, Davis 2000, Hilliard 1991, Willis 1977).

When asked about the racial and gender make-up of the school respondents’ made

the following observations.

143

 

A1: Almost everybody is black and mostly males, I would say there’s
only about two white dudes in the whole school, yeah about two.

A2: I have to say it’s more males, it was more black males and from what

I seen it was way more black males on the male-female/black-white thing.

But it was way more males than females there.

The informants’ observations that the majority of students who attended
alternative school were black males is significant as the most recent census of the Lima
area, United States Federal Census 2000, reveals that whites outnumber blacks by three
to one. This finding is consistent with national studies that assert the overrepresentation
of AAM in these types of programs regardless of proportional racial distributions (Losen
and Orfield 2002, Harry and Anderson 1999). When a meeting was requested to clarify
the findings and verify the racial and gender divisions with the former principal of the
alternative school—who is currently the 10th grade principal of Lima Senior High
School—the appeal was denied. However, results from a study conducted by Dunbar
(2001) that was based in an alternative school in the Midwest, concludes that statistically
the ratio of AAM to European American Males (EAM), in alternative school placements,
is three to one.

When asked why they had been sent to alternative school informants’ gave the

following responses.

A1: They told me it was because it would help me out because it would
be smaller classes, so they would just send me there.

A2: Well, I got put into this other school because I was told it was going
to be easier, but I guess it’s not. It’s not the same but it’s kinda harder.

Another student answered the question and chose to elaborate on the behaviors
he was displaying at the regular school before he was sent to the alternative one. This

example elucidates the normalization of violence and violent behaviors. In that regard,

144

there is a level of remorse in the informant’s analysis, which could suggest that his
actions were not a random act of violence but a cry for help in the only way that was
accessible to him. Therefore, the authorities could have chosen a more appropriate
referral, specifically a psychotherapeutic or psychiatric intervention.
A: It’s like if you bad, like real bad and they feel like you need help, they
send you there. You know, for whatever reason, whether you truant a lot,
whether you ah. . .as in my case try to burn the school up or fightin’ too
much, or cussin’ out teachers. They’ll send you there so you can get help.
That’s basically what it is a program to help, the kids that, that got

problems you know, attitude problems.

Q: Okay, what was happening when you said you were trying to burn the
school up? What’s up with that?

A: I felt I wanted to die at the time. I wanted, you know, to burn the

school down and if everybody was goin’ with me, then everybody was

goin’ with me. Ifthey got out, they got out. That’s jus how I felt at the

time. But, you know, I seen the light and that ain’t the way to go, so I left

that alone.

Lima’s use of alternative schools to house behaviorally disordered males is a
national phenomenon critiqued by scholars who describe the development of alternative
schools as environments that hypersegregate AAM (Losen and Orfield 2002, Dunbar
2001, Harry and Anderson 1999). Recent research questions the value of education
received there and finds that they are not geared at challenging students academically but
function in the role of behavior management (McIntyre 1996, Harry and Anderson 1994,
Starks 1993, Hilliard 1992). Additionally, they are profitable for school systems due to
the compartmentalization of behaviorally disordered youth where each student who
enters is assigned a team of experts that handles a different aspect of his behavior (Losen

and Orfield 2002). Team members can include any or all of the following: youth

detention facility staff, therapists, social workers, counselors, and behavioral health

145

 

 

specialists. In this way, the staff support needed for alternative schooling is not cost or
academically effective and has been linked to later placement in the juvenile justice
system (Dunbar 2001).

The Lima Alternative School was also a site of gang culture as detailed in an
interview by a key informant.

I had a folder and I wrote my nickname down, I was called Mr. Wicked.

And I wrote down K Block, which is Kenilworth. And the principal seen

my paper and he pulled me to the office and he called my mom to come to

school. He had the police officer there, and he was like, who’s Mr.

Wicked?—I was like, that’s my nickname and he says do you know what

that means? I says yes, I looked in the dictionary and it means bad and

evil. And he says so what’s K Block? I say that’s Kenilworth it’s a street.

13 it a clique or are ya’ll a gang or anything? I was like no, I was like K

Block that’s where we grew up at, everybody that’s out there we grew up

there ever since we was little. We pretty much family or real close

fiiends. So he was like, if I move onto Kenilworth would I be able to be K

Block? If you was real close friends with us or family yes, you would be,

as of right now no. He got mad about it and said I’m goin’ to give you an

in-school suspension and if I see anything like this again I’m a have you

arrested.

K block is considered Blood Territory in the structure of organized gangs in the
city of Lima. K block or Kenilworth is located on the Westside of the city. The
informant’s response describes his connection in familial terms and K block is discussed
as part of his collective identity. In his analysis, initiation is based on long established
family ties with the area. A sentiment he expresses in the following sentence, “. . .K
Block, that’s where we grew up at, everybody that’s out there, we grew up there ever
since we was little.” In the informant’s ideology K Block is an exclusive location, and

one can not become a part of it by simply moving there, rather they must have a

connection to the inhabitants. The sense of connectedness to place in the dialogue is

146

significant and an example of agency over the power structure. It is a location of pride
and shared collective identity.

Similarly, another informant shared rap lyrics he had written about the meaning of
K block to his identity. The lyrics are as follows:

So you bets stay in yo’ section or they’ll be readin’ about you in the

obituary section of the Lima News, have you singin’ the blues when you

battered and bruised, I got the get48 so nobody move, nobody get hurt

unless you want yo’ face on a shirt”, six feet under dirt, that’s how this

nigga works, bullets whistle while I jerk the gun, nigga you done, we dead

serious, ain’t no reason for being curious, we ain’t playin’ no games

Elm Street to Spring Street, K-Block,

Damn, Spring Street to Market, K-Block,

Damn, Market to High Street, K-Block,

Damn, High Street to Oakland, K-Block,

Damn, Oakland to Brice Street, K-Block, Bitch

This exchange illustrates how extensive K block or Blood Territory is in the
larger Lima area. In fact, the example reveals that it takes up half of the Westend of the
city. Additionally, the lyrics suggest that the informant is willing to kill to protect his
territory (e. g. “I got the gat so nobody move, nobody get hurt unless you want yo’ face on

a shirt, six feet under dirt”) It is a firrther indication of the normalization of violence

among this sector of Lima area AAM.

Afrigrn Americafn Progress in the 19903
There were a number of positive aspects of life for some AAM who lived in Lima

during the 19903. Moreover, there was an equal share of African American women who

 

’8 A “gat” is a gun, of the submachine type that has been associated with the Gangsta Rap Movement and
lifestyle.

49 A tradition has been established, by some African American youth, in which a photograph of a young
man that has been killed in a violent confi'ontation is put on a t-shirt and worn by his fi'iends. The practice
serves to memorialize his death, show respect, and humanize the individual to the community.

147

 

were participating in activities and the community witnessed a grth in political,
professional, and business proprietorships. An article that appeared in the February 1999,
edition of The Lima Voice—the current paper of the African American community, lists
these accomplishments.

0 Jerome O’Neal a 36 year old Lima area African American is the owner of two
major senior care facilities in the city.

0 William White, formerly of Lima and the son of Reverend James White is a
professional football player for the Atlanta Falcons.

o Reverend Sharon Jefferson became pastor of her own church in Lima called,
“Word of Mouth Christian Center”. She also opened “Happiness House” which is
a shelter for battered, homeless and drug addicted50 women.

0 Vann Pruitt purchased the Lima-Lincoln Mercury car dealership, his brother Mike
Pruitt purchased and runs Mike Pruitt Ford. The significance here is that they are
the only two African American owned dealerships in the city.

0 In the late 19703, Antelle Haithcock became the first African American television
broadcaster regularly on the WLIO television station. In 1980, she became
promotions manager at that station and host of her own television show, “A
Gospel Sound.”

0 Desarai Downs came to the city in September 1996, to become station manager of
the city’s first station with an urban music format. She was joined by Joan Garcia
who hosts a contemporary jazz program and Devon Jones who is the host of

D.J.’s place on that same radio station.

 

’0 The highly addictive drug crack hit the Lima scene in the 19903. Homelessness began to surface as well.
Both are indications of the area’s declining economic conditions.

148

 

In 1989 Yolanda Putnam became the health reporter, LaTanya Fletcher became
the education reporter and Boyzell Hose was the photographer for The Lima
News.

Chris Jackson became a fire inspector and was named “Firefighter of the Year” by
the Lima Noon Sertoma Club in October of 1998. He also volunteers his time as
president of “100 Strong Men5 1.”

Jennifer Pughsley and Frances Napier have served together on the City Council
since 1996.

Kathy Roberts is one of the few Lima area Afiican Americans to hold a
managerial position with the City of Lima, she manages 11 parks as well as
forestry and recreation programs.

African American attorney Jerry Pitts was appointed to the Ohio Supreme Court
for a 2-year term in 1993. He also served as council for the Minority Contractors
Assistance Program”.

In 1991 the Ohio Arts Council commissioned Dr. John Scott from Bowling Green
University to compose a video history project that focused on selected elements of
150 years of the African American experience in Lima. It consisted, primarily, of
the oral history narratives of Afiican Americans living there from 1900 to 1950.
The video project that Dr. Scott produced is entitled, “Hats, Handkerchiefs, and

Fans” and was distributed by American House in 1993 (See Appendix F). The

 

5‘ The group’s mission is to provide mentors for local area AAM youth.

52 Currently, there are a number of new construction jobs opening up in the area. The construction projects
included a new senior high school, major additions to Lima’s two hospitals and a gentrification of the
downtown area The formation of a minority contractor’s group insures equal distribution of some of the
new construction business.

149

 

video’s production illustrates how important the oral history tradition is in the

collective memory of Lima area African Americans.

Lima’s Changing Industries

In the 19903, a service-oriented economy developed on a national scale and
created a demand for highly skilled workers, while simultaneously decreasing the need
for low-skilled workers (Farley et al. 2000, Kitwana 2002, Rose 1994). The shift in the
occupational structure produced new forms of inequality in which there was a sharp
divide between an affluent, technocratic, professional white-collar sector and a low-wage,
low-skilled sector (Farley et al. 2000). Nationally, the second sector was made up of
African Americans and Hispanics (Rose 1994).

Following the national trend, Lima experienced a drastic increase in the number
of fast food businesses, check cashing stores, and lotto outlets. The service jobs they
provided were low skill, low pay, and provided no health insurance benefits. The Allen
Economic Development Group’s statistics on the changes in types of area employment

and the unemployment rates from 1997 to 2001 are displayed in the following charts.

Table 5 - Unemployment Rates for Allen County
(Source: Allen Economics Development Group—January 9, 2003)

 

 

YEAR 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001
Average 5.6% 4.9% 4.7% 4.7% 5.1%
Unemployment

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

150

Table 6 - Employment by Sector in Allen Countys’

(Source: Allen Economics Development Group—January 9, 2003)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Industries 1980 1990 1998 2000
Private 66,640 74,810 81,065 94,222
Employment

Agricultural 250 610 691 625
Services

Mining 190 150 128 433
Construction 4,050 4,350 5,430 39,444
Manufacturing 22,800 22,720 20,261 18,086
Transportation 3,230 3,590 3,881 4,231
& Public

Utilities

Wholesale 3,160 3,090 3,795 3,191
Trade

Retail Trade 13,430 15,690 17,701 17,638
Finance, 4,590 3,560 4,061 3,028
Insurance &

Real Estate

Services 14,760 20,360 25,117 33,935
Government 8,430 9,930 10,392 9,758
Employment

 

 

 

 

 

These tables are illustrative of Lima’s current employment structure. Table 6

 

presents an indication of how private and service employment has significantly risen in a
twenty year span. At the same time, manufacturing jobs have significantly fallen which
suggests a climbing service industry and is consistent with findings in other Midwestem

cities (See Farley et al. 2000).

 

53 The total population in Allen County in 2000 was 108,473 (us. Census 2000).

151

 

 

Growth of Lima Area Hospitals

Lima hospitals were another local industry that witnessed a great deal of grth
in the following ways: real estate, construction, patient population base, and
employment. One explanation summarizes that there is an increase in the area’s elderly
population and as such is symptomatic of a national trend. The two area hospitals are St.
Rita’s Medical Center and Memorial. Time lines provide a visual representation of

localized events that contributed to their enlargements.

Table 7 - St. Rita’s Medical Center’s Time Line
(Source: The Lima News, March 2, 2003)

 

 

YEAR EVENT

 

1918 End of WWI, during an influenza
epidemic the Sisters of Mercy open St.
Rita’s Hospital

 

 

 

1948 7-story addition is built adding 150 beds

1967 Another 150 beds are part of a new air-
conditioned addition

1977 8-story patient tower is added to the

hospital and the name changes to St.
Rita’s Medical Center

 

1993 New Century Project is completed adding
a 5-story building, renovating surgery,
intensive care, radiology, same-day
surgery, endoscopy, outpatient and
maternity areas

 

2003 With about 2,800 employees, it is the
county’s largest employer, its capacity is
450 beds

 

 

 

152

Table 8 - Memorial Hospital’s Time Line
(Source: The Lima News, March 2, 2003)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

YEAR EVENT

1899 Incorporated as Lima City Hospital

1904 First commencement of nursing school

1923 Name changes to Lima Memorial
Hospital

1933 State of the art, $55,000 Lima Memorial
Hospital opens at it’s new site

1950 A new 3-story addition opens, increasing
the capacity to 250 beds

1984 More expansion, hospital adds 6'”, 7m and
8th floors

1996 The Family Birthing Center opens and
expands a year later

2003 Construction underway for a $15 million
emergency room to be completed 2004

 

 

The drastic growth in the area hospitals indicates that there is a large enough
senior citizen population to warrant an investment in the hospitals’ expansion. In 2000,
St. Rita’s became the top employer in the Lima area. Though jobs were created through
this expansion, the professional jobs, such as nursing, physicians, and pharmaceuticals,
were largely filled by whites who lived in the smaller outer lying cities in Allen County
(informant 2003). African Americans, on the other hand, tended to fill the service

oriented jobs, specifically in maintenance and the dietary unit (informant 2003).

Conclusions

In the 19903 Lima witnessed the incorporation of yet another prison into the local
economy that differed from the other two because it was a privatized facility. The prison
industry is significant in the transformation of the identities’ of local AAM because of its

role in establishing national gang connections and affiliations of area youth. Among

153

many of the informants interviewed, gang membership increased and became a normal
part of what it meant to be an AAM living in Lima. Drugs and firearms surfaced to
finance this activity. The introduction of these vices in the inner metropolitan areas of
the city led to an increase in both violent and illegal activities.

The most popular rapper of the period was Tupac Shakur. Shakur’s influence on
the identity of local AAM is reflected in their speaking patterns, specifically the use of
words like, gangsta, gang bangin’, hatin’, nigga, thug, and keepin’ it real. Shakur defined
thugs as “the nobodies because we really don’t have nobody to help us but us” (Dyson
2001: 113). The local disenfranchised, socially isolated AAM could relate to his
message.

Simultaneously, local AAM were being hypersegregated into alternative schools
due to behavioral disorders—defined as behavior that interrupts the flow of the regular
classroom. The impact of cultural and structural components resulted in an identity of
AAM that glamorized extemalized aggression and internalized a shared sense of
suffering.

Lastly, there was a drastic change in the type of employment available to Lima
area citizens. Manufacturing jobs that had been lost in the prior decade were replaced by
low wage service oriented jobs that were problematic and offered very limited income
and no health insurance benefits. The conversion of the employment sector from
manufacturing to service oriented is consistent with the national trend.

At the same time, there was an increase in African American participation in local
politics, civil services, local media, ownership of local private enterprises, and public

visibility in professional roles. There was a growth in denominations of area churches,

154

 

inclusion in local youth oriented mentorship programs, and a escalation in social services,
specifically, homeless and battered women’s shelters. Lastly, there was a drastic

expansion in area hospitals with St. Rita’s Medical Center emerging as the top employer.

155

 

   

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Chapter 7: Life in Contemppragy Lima

Everybody who hear our music, say, ‘them ‘lil ’, they label us niggaz though, they
say, ‘you ‘lil niggaz got talent’. Informant 2003

Current Demogmphigs

What events are occurring in contemporary Lima that shape the identities of
AAM? What is the quality of life for the Afiican American community there? A
discussion regarding basic demographic, employment, health, and housing availability
statistics are usefirl in providing a current sketch of these aspects on the lives of local
citizens.

The Federal Census (2000) lists the total population for the city of Lima at
40,081, which is a drop of 5,461 from the previous decade. 27,776 of those citizens
identified themselves as white/European American and 10,614 identified themselves as
black/Afiican American. In the space of a decade, the area lost 355 Afiican Americans.

To gain some insight into an aspect of the current economic structure reports from
Allen County’s poverty level statistics and the top employers of the area are helpfirl. The
county’s poverty rate is 11.5%; for people under 18 the poverty rate was 17%; for
children 5 to 17 the poverty rate was 14%; the median household income for a family of

4 in Allen County was $36, 857 (US. Census 2000).

156

 

 

 

   

 

   

   

 

 

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The Top Employers for Allen County in 2000 is illustrated by the following chart.

Table 9 - TOP EMPLOYERS FOR ALLEN COUNTY—2003
(Source: The Lima News, March 2, 2003)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Employers Workers
1. St. Rita’s Medical Center 2,400
2. Ford Motor Company 1,696
3. Lima Memorial Hospital 1,388
4. Allen County 1,212
5. Lima Schools 822
6. Sun Mgmt Services (Supermarkets) 611
7. Roundy’s 550
8. Premcor 500
9. Meijer 500
10. City of Lima 500
11. Lima Correctional Institute 500
12. Allen Correctional Institute 350
13. Oakwood Correctional Facility 300

 

 

 

Analysis reveals that the hospitals and Ford Motor Company are the top
employers of the county. Strikingly, the total employment figure for the three prison
facilities in the area is 1,250, which almost doubles the number of people employed in the
Lima school system making them the fourth largest employer and a viable industry.
Concurrently, the unemployment rate has reached an eight year high (The Lima News,

May 3, 2003).

157

The Link Between HIV/AIDS and Incarceration Rm

Reports fiom the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) (2000) confirm the high
prevalence of HIV/AIDS among African Americans on a national level. The reported
cases of HIV/AIDS is eight times that of European Americans even though they only
make-up 13 percent of the total population (Zook 2003). Further, fifty percent of African
American adults living with I-HV/AIDS are women. The rate at which American women
are developing AIDS has tripled since 1985 with African American women representing
64 percent of newly diagnosed cases of HIV infection (Zook 2003).

Pregnancy54 is a key source in obtaining HIV rates among women in lower
socioeconomic groups because it is often the only time that they seek health care (Zook
2003). A culturally specific explanation that is helpful in clarifying this increase is
termed the down low syndrome, which occurs when men have sex with men without
telling their female sex partners (Winters 2003). The phenomenon has been tied to the
massive incarceration rates of AAM in which they engage in same sex practices while
there, but due to the stigma that is attached to homosexuality in the African American
community, fail to disclose this practice to their spouses or girlfiiends (Wright 2003).

As of March 2003, the HIV/AIDS prevalence rate of reported persons living with
the virus in Ohio is 111.8 per 100,000 of the population (Ohio Department of Health
2003). Further, recent statistics indicate that minorities have been disproportionately
impacted by I-HV /A1DS. The March 2003 prevalence rate in Ohio, among African
Americans, was over six times higher than the rate amongst European Americans (Ohio

Department of Health 2003). Additionally, in Ohio HIV/AIDS is increasing among

 

’4 In 2000, Allen County had the 17th highest teen pregnancy rate and the 6th highest live birth rate among
88 counties in Ohio (The Lima News, March 16, 2003).

158

women. As of March 2003, they represent 23% of reported persons living with HIV and
16% of reported persons living with AIDS (Ohio Department of Health 2003).
Demographics of the impact of reported cases of people living with HIV/AIDS in Ohio

and Allen County illustrate the impact on African Americans living there.

Table 10: Persons Living with HIV/AIDS in Ohio and Allen County as of
March 31, 2003
(Source: The Ohio Department of Health HIV/AIDS Quarterly Statistical
Summary, March 2003)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Demographics Reported Persons Living Reported Persons Living
with HIV/AIDS in Allen with HIV/AIDS in the
County State of Ohio
# % # %
Gender
Male 55 61.1% 10207 80%
Female 35 38.9% 2489 20%
Race/Ethnicity
European American 43 47.8% 6326 50%
Afiican American 42 46.7% 5303 42%
Latin American 3 3.3% 589 5%
Age
<13 2 2.2% 92 1%
13-19 1 1.1% 65 1%
20-29 14 15.6% 969 8%
30-39 35 38.9% 4366 34%
40—49 23 25.6% 4958 39%
50+ 15 16.7% 2248 18%
Race/Gender
European American 32 35.6% 5471 43%
male 1 1 12.2% 855 7%
European American 19 21.1% 3954 31%
female 23 25.6% 1348 1 1%
African American male 2 2.2% 410 3%
Afiican American 1 1 . 1% 179 1%
female
Latin American male
Latin American female

 

 

 

159

 

 

These statistics confirm the growing epidemic of HIV/AIDS in Lima’s African
American community. If the trend continues it will become one of the leading causes of
death, particularly for those in the 20 to 49 age group. The high incidence of the virus
among this particular section of the population is consistent with studies on a national

scale (Winters 2003).

Birth and Death Ra_1e_s_

Death and birth rates for all of Allen County are reported in the following chart

Table 11 - Allen County Resident’s Death and Birth Rates 2001
(Source: Annual Report of the Allen County Health Department 2001)

 

 

 

Totals 2001 2000 1 999
Total Deaths 966 1,038 1,056
Total Births 1,474 1,429 1,523

 

 

 

These statistics indicate that the birth rate is only slightly higher than the death
rate in some years, specifically 1999 and 2000, but surpasses it in 2001, which suggests

that there is a substantial elderly population in the Lima area.

Cauaes of Death

The top three leading causes of death, as reported by the Allen County Health
Department in 2001, are heart disease, cancer, and stroke, which is significant as they are
chronic diseases largely, attributed to ecological and behavioral factors. Industrial plants

produce environmental waste, which has been associated with increasing rates of cancer.

160

Additionally heart disease is associated with diets high in fat and sugar that largely
dominate the food options available from the growing number of fast food restaurants in

the area. The leading causes of death are illustrated in the following chart.

Table 12 - Leading Causes of Death in Allen County 2001
(Source: Annual Report of the Allen Coungy Health Department 2001)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disease 2001 2000 1999
Heart Disease 342 372 336
Cancer 199 219 213
Stroke 92 96 73
COPD* 45 48 59
Accidents 12 10 12
Suicide 8 9 10
Homicide 3 7 6

 

 

* Respiratory Disease (Chronic Pulmonary Disease)

Foreclosures

Foreclosures in the Lima and Allen County area are at an all time high and have
been steadily increasing since 1994 (The Lima News, January 12, 2003). According to
county officials, the move is not confined to Allen County but is a growing regional

trend. The percentage of those who have lost their homes to foreclosure is illustrated in

the following chart.

161

 

 

Table 13 - Allen County Foreclosures as of 2002
(Source: The Lima News, January 12, 2003)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Year Foreclosures Sheriff Total Value of
Filed Sales Sales (in millions)
2002 678 498 $8.91 1
2001 583 390 $7.016
2000 415 296 $6.63 1
1999 440 276 $6.585
1998 336 338 $3.852
1997 242 210 $1.977
1996 206 214 $1.851
1995 164 222 $2.683
1994 194 172 $1.270

 

 

 

These statistics confirm the growing number of Lima’s citizens who have lost
their homes to foreclosure and sheriff sales. No information was uncovered concerning
the relocation of those who have lost their properties though the increase in homelessness
provides one explanation of their plight. It was noted that The Community Access
Channel advertises a number of programs for the homeless and the workshop, “Bridges
to Understanding the Culture of Poverty” which signals the growing significance of
homelessness and the issue of poverty in the Lima area. Further, the opening of
Happiness House—which is a shelter for battered, drug addicted, and homeless women——

provides an example of the need for shelter for this segment of the population.

162

Mayor’s State of the City Address

On May 4, 2003, Lima Mayor David Berger issued his annual State of the City
Address and stated, “The city may need to heed calls for a new revenue source to get
through its problems. If the economy does not rebound very soon, we may need to heed
this call.” He also acknowledged the city’s current budget problems, noting deficiencies
in the fire department’s buildings and equipment, problems with the streets department’s
equipment, along with ongoing state and federal cuts as confounding Lima’s problems
(The Lima News, May 4, 2003). The mayor’s comments reflect a shared sense of

community apathy regarding the city’s economic infrastructure.

Rappers of the 21St Century: 50 Cent

At the beginning of the decade, the normalization of violence for AAM living in
the city of Lima had come full circle. The most popular rap artist, among the people who
were interviewed, is 50 Cent. 50 Cent is a rapper from the East Coast and is produced by
Dr. Dre, former group member of the now defilnct NWA. 50’s claim to fame is that he
was a former drug dealer and in that role survived nine gunshot wounds, one of which
was to his face (informant 2003). He represents the placement of violence with success,
the kind of material attainment that disenfranchised AAM have been gravitating to since
the mid 19803. Informants’ compared 50’s music to Tupac’s in that they could relate to
the issues his music addressed especially regarding their daily life experiences. The
following responses were elicited to the question, “What do you like about 50 and what

are some songs that you like by him?”

163

Al: 50 like another Tupac, he don’t bar none. He don’t hold nothin’
back. He gon' tell it like it is. That’s how I am, I don’t bar none. I tell it
like it is. He just another Tupac to me, he ain’t as tight as Tupac to me. I
‘ont think nobody’s as tight as Tupac, but he cold wit it.

A2: It’s a song on his CD called, “21 Questions”—it’s like a love song
almost. It’s just like, kinda like I be feeling about stuff. He asks like, if
she still love me if I was riding on the bus, if I was pushin’ a Bentley, just
stuff like that, if I was poor would you love me, if I was rich would you
love me.

A3: I like all his songs, but one of my favorites is “What Up.” Uh, I like
him because he raps about what he saw in the street. He raps real stuff.
He ‘ont rap about nothin’ fake. Like he don’t tell people like he’ll shoot
um and then he probably won’t, so I guess he say he’ll probably do it
cause he been shot 9 times.

A4: 50 is, if I show you that DVD, 50 he sit there, you know what I’m
sayin’, he got shot 9 times. He sittin’ on a video at the place he got shot
and laugh about it. It’s like this nigga ain’t really tryin’ to kill me. He
like ran over and shot me, boom, boom, boom—like I’m layin’ on the
ground tryin’ to shoot him and he shot me in my hand again. He laughin’,
he like he wasn’t really no thug cause he would a kilt me.

A5: 50 Cent is the hottest thug out. The song, “Many Men Wish Death
Upon Me” is very powerful—it’s real. What he went through getting’
shot an all that. Many men wish death upon me, Lord I don’t cry no more,
I don’t look to the sky no more, have mercy on me, have mercy on my
soul, somewhere my heart turned cold—that’s a good song. For the
lifestyle he livin’, even when he wasn’t ballin’ people wanted him dead.
That’s just real, he could sit and write about it and put it in a song.

The admiration of 50 Cent and the things he represents follows closely to an
observation made by Anderson (1994) in his article “Code Of the Streets” in which he
describes the code as it applies to the AAM he studied in Philadelphia. The excerpt is
telling of how multiple acts of violence are equated with the status of manhood.

On the street young AAM are taught that in order to become a real man

one must first gain respect. One of the most effective ways of gaining

respect is to demonstrate “nerve.” Nerve is shown when one takes another

person’s possessions, “messes with” someone’s woman, throws the first

punch, “gets in” someone’s face or pulls a trigger. True nerve unmasks a
lack of fear of dying over the principle of respect. AAM who internalize

164

this notion and convincingly display it in their public bearing are among
the most threatening people of all. It is commonly assumed that they fear
no man. Not to be afraid to die is by implication to have few regrets about
taking another’s life. Participating in violent acts becomes a way of life.
Violence becomes the accepted norm (p.62).

The normalization of violence among Lima informants’ is exposed as they discuss
current violent events among AAM living in the city. The structure employed to frame
these incidents is the life history methodology.

Q: What would be the name of the next chapter and what would be in it?

A: Starting my adult life.

Q: What are some of the things that would be in there?

A: I would tell how I live my adult life. As a teen I had the habit of
carryin’ a gun, that’s where I got myself in trouble, when I was a teen by
carryin’ a gun. I had like 6 charges when I got arrested and 2 of um was
felonies. Thank God they all got dropped down and I didn’t get any
charges. Starting my adult life I almost found myself in the penitentiary a
couple of times. I done calmed down now, but I always been a hothead.
When it came to violence I was down to roll wit it. That was just me. If
you came to me with gun fightin’ we dealt wit it--—like I said I never been
no wild thug.

Another informant:

...he got 2 brothers, okay he have a brother who shot 2 cats and he doing
19 years. Then he got another brother he shot 2 cats when he was 16, did
8 years, got out and wasn’t out a whole year and kilt another cat. The
blood run through they family. Them 3 killers. They all killers. The last
brother kilt that boy, he shot that boy down cold blooded. Shot him about
7, 8 times. Called him to the car and he got to the car and he opened fire.
He used to love to sing lines from Master P that go, “Pac and Biggie
taught me a lesson to never leave home without my Smith and Wesson.”

Another informant:
...don’t act like you no gangsta but you really ain’t. I don’t say I’m no

thug. I ain’t no killer. I ain’t never kilt nobody and I pray to God I never
do. I pray to God I never shoot nobody and nobody shoot at me. But if

165

 

you come at me, if somebody come through that door, I won’t give um a
break. Like Biggie say, you nobody til somebody kills you.

A conversation with another informant:

I see so many playaz around here talkin’ about they such a macho guy but
they soft as butter. Like so many playaz around here start gettin’ so much
money, now they hard. Where that hardness come from? I had to check
this one lil’ dude a couple of months ago. He started runnin’ wit a group
called “Swat House” he messed around and got shot one night. Somebody
messed around and shot him accidentally outside of the club. They wasn’t
even shootin’ at him. I’m talkin’ to him and he talkin’ fly to me. I had to
check him, “who is you?” ‘cause you got shot now—who is you? You
still sorry ain’t nothin’ changed. I ain’t hard but I bar none. I fear no man
but God.

Q: What club did he get shot at around here?

A: The Bayou Gator, it ain’t nothin’, I wouldn’t even go back, it’s
somethin’ every week or they shootin’ outside. Some of them pimps
playin’ that they so tough, but they really ain’t.

Q: There was something on the news yesterday (April 8, 2003) about
some brother carjacking people at the Lima Mall and then they drove the
car to the Miejer parking lot.

A: Yeah, I heard ‘bout that, one of Tupac’s CD3, how they go, they say,
you got cops killin’ blacks, the white man killin’ blacks and blacks killin’
blacks. That’s all we doin’ an it’s real. White man sittin’ back and they
ain’t got to kill us no more. We killin’ each other. Not sayin’ we should
go kill them, but why are we killin’ each other? ‘Cause nigga you on my
block, you in my ‘hood, the red and blue, over a rag. The white man,
instead of him stop makin’ the rag, he steady makin’ the rags so you can
put um on your head and keep killin’ each other.

Q: That’s deep.

A: Yeah, cause shootings a big thing here in Lima. Pe0ple ain’t tryin’ to
fight hand-to-hand or face up, they just tryin’ to shoot and just get it over
with. It ain’t even worth it. That’s why I’m not on the streets like I used
to be, cause you’ll think it’s somebody that’s so perfect and all of a sudden
they be on the news for killin’ people. So I ain’t messin’ with the streets
no more. In Chicago I saw Bloods walk up to people and just shoot um. I
saw Crips killin’ people. I was in the grocery store, Eagles and I saw a
black guy got kilt by the police. I saw a lot.

166

Analysis of the responses reveals that they are testaments to the growing level of
violence on the streets of Lima. The types of crimes, such as car-jacking—which is
usually associated with the inner cities—are starting to occur in. this small Midwestern
town. Further, the activities discussed in the dialogues have been associated with
growing rates of unemployment, poorly structured school systems, high incarceration
rates, and lack of recreational facilities (Giroux 1996, Devine 1996, Taylor 1996,
Anderson 1994). The presence of these behaviors should be of great concern to
community activists and city administrators as they consider viable solutions to the
growing trend.

Additionally, interviews reveal that the relationship between Lima area AAM and
the local police still appears to be at odds and, according to one informant, harasses them
at unprecedented levels. He details the police’s specific actions to support his statement
and describes the inherent racial disparity in the practice:

The Lima police, a lot of them dirty, I ‘ont hate all police, a lot of them they dirty,

just cruel, they see a group of blacks walking down the street they want us to

separate—for what, we ain’t doing nothing—just like a couple of summers ago,
some black boys had brought some motorcycles, they made the black boys split
up, they can’t ride their bikes together, but you got all these white men coming
down the street with Harley Davidson’s and they can ride 20 deep, why they don’t
bother them? A lot of white police don’t want to see black men have nothing,
nothing. They think we from the ghetto and we gonna stay in the ghetto. This

2003, people changing, people looking for more goals and coming out the ghetto

just like white men.

Future Goals: “I wanna be a rapper”

The influence of the rap world and the connection to the formation of AAM
identity is demonstrated when informants’ comments, concerning their firture goals, are

examined. Some of those who were interviewed are contemporary rappers while others

list this occupation as one of their aspirations. The names of some of the area rap groups

167

 

 

are, “The 419er Boys””, “The Young and the Restless” and “12 Rounds”, and follow the
territorial lines in place in Lima’s African American communities since the migrations of
the 19403. Thus, rappers in Lima identify the side of town they are from when discussing
their rap. Examples are as follows:

Q: Tell me about your goal of becoming a rapper, how long have you
been a rapper here in Lima?

A: I’ve been rappin’ for a long time, most everybody in my family rap, or
has some talent in music. I been rappin’ since I was 8.

Q: So you’ve been doing it for a long time.

A: Yeah, that’s what I like doin, I like to challenge people. People
normally look at you by your looks, say he ain’t ‘bout nothin’, so I like to
challenge them, do somethin’ good. I ain’t gonna lie I do gangsta rap.
That’s what I do. That’s what I like to do. And some people tell me,
that’s not gonna get you anywhere. But I tell um just sittin’ down doing
nothin’ ain’t gonna git you nowhere. At least I’m tryin’ to do somethin’.
I ain’t tryin’ to do nothin’ else on the streets to mess up and get kilt.
Drama can git you kilt. But really I ain’t doin’ no beefm’ with nobody. I
just challenge people rappin’.

Q: Tell me about the gangsta rap that you do?

A: In this generation it’s really not gangsta, it’s just like somethin’ that
will make somebody say oh and ah. And make them like you, like let
them know your name. Tell people about you and doing sinriles and
metaphors and stuff like that. Cause that’s what I’m good at. I ain’t good
at singin’ or anything. I’m good at rappin’. My hobby is like gang
bangin’ like, cause that’s what we lived around. We lived around gang
bangin’. Like now there’s nothin’ but gang bangin’, that’s all we know is
gang bangin’. So I just come out wit it. Now I’m not gang bangin’, that’s
not what I’m about, but I let people know I fear nobody. I just rap about
basically everything I see on the street. I just say that our click, our rap
click is the hardest around so people understand that. What I say in my
raps is real. I let um know what I seen on the streets, like drive-bys, I saw
people get kilt all that. So I let them know that’s what I saw. I let them
know I fear death but I also let them know I ‘ont fear no man, but God.

 

55 419 is Lima’s telephone area code. The fad of using them to “represent” where a person lives was started
by a rapper named Ludicris whose style is an example of rappers from southern states—or in the vemacular
from “The Dirty South.” It also symbolizes collective identity.

168

 

Q: Are all your raps about violence?

A: I also rap about love. I rap about girls and howl feel about them.
There was a shooting on Eureka Street in 2003 at the beginning of it, it
was January. There was a robbery for drugs and the baby was cryin’ so
they put a gun in a 3 year old baby mouth and shot her and kilt her. So I
was makin’ slow songs about that.

Q: Did they catch the people?
A: Yeah.
Q: And they were from Lima?

A: Yeah, they fount um I believe in Dayton, in a hotel. They kilt 2
people. So I rap about that. I rap about death and how its sad and it
shouldn’t happen, but I also rap about beefin’ too. People will think they
so hard in rappin’, it’s good to think that, but I’m like don’t take it to the
extreme, don’t get your head to big about it. Like sayin’ you the best
rapper around. Cause I’m sayin’ I ain’t so you ain’t either—everybody
could be a little better.

Q: In Lima is rap divided by sides of town?

A: Yeah, there’s not much Eastside rappers here, there’s people who try
to rap like Eastside, Westside, Southside.
Q: What do you consider yourself?

A: I consider myself East and Westside; I don’t like all that A, B, C stuff.
Pick any word that come to your head and write that down. I like
challenges. It’s not easy, rappin’ is not easy. You can say you get done
quick, but you ‘ont want to get done quick cause it just makes it sound
boring. You don’t want people to understand it til they listen to it about 5
times. Then they like, okay, I understand what he said.

Q: How do you handle comments from people that say you’re just
wasting your time?

A: I laugh at people who talk bad about me like I’m low life. I ain’t
gonna be shit or whatever. But when I make it where I am, or if I get to
where I want to be on rappin’ or whatever, I’m a put they name on a song
and say, “hi” I am somebody. I’ll even give them money if they let me
smack um with every dolla. Like I’m a low life, smack, smack, I will give
you money.

Q: What are your short term and long term goals?

169

A: My short term goal is to finish my CD. My long term goal is to make

it big. I ‘ont care about the money or the fame, it’s just to get the point

across.

Q: To make it big rapping?

A: Yeah, like it’s just the point across that if I can do it without my family

and stuff anybody can do it. Nobody ain’t better than nobody. I’m tryin’

dancing music and I’m tryin’ to make music to get people thinking. When

I do that I got to be isolated from everybody else because I get distracted.

I got to really think cause quick stuff don’t last long. You got to put time

into it. I’m tryin’ to put Lima on the map. Most people ain’t never heard

of Lima.

Q: Do you plan to be here in Lima when you’re 21?

A: If I’m here, I’m a represent Lima still. Cause it’s just getting’ too deep

here with the killings and all of that. I don’t want to get mixed up in it, but

I’m a represent Lima. Ifit come down to makin’ the first video, I’m

gonna make it here in Lima because it’s my hometown.

Analysis of the data reveals how perceptive young artists are to what is happening
around them. (e. g. the graphic descriptions of area murders, drive-bys, and the fear of
death). As informants’ discuss the thoughts they put into composing rap lyrics the theme
of suffering is prominent. Examples from the interviews include: “I rap about death and
how it is sad and it shouldn’t happen.” “I let them know what I seen on the streets, like
drive-bys, I saw people get kilt all that.” They also appear to View their skills as rap
artists as a way out of the seemingly hopeless confines of the city boasting about their
alliance to the place and state, “I’m tryin’ to put Lima on the map. Most people ain’t
never heard of Lima. If I get famous I’m a put Lima on the map.” Rap music appears to
shape their identities and indicates local AAM interest in entrepreneurial enterprises.

The growing rap industry has not gone unnoticed by corporate conglomerates on a

national scale. According to Rhea (2000), hip hop music is the second best selling genre

behind country music. In 2000, sells of Hip Hop music were close to 2 billion dollars

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(Rhea 2000). In fact, it is one of the only two musical varieties that continues to grow in
earnings as the overall industry revenues slip. Hip Hop artists are now over selling many
international music icons (Rhea 2000). Further, the music continues to influence other
parts of the hip hop economy. Examples include: the domination of hip hop formats on
major radio station markets; the production of hip hop music videos with their bold
styling and million dollar budgets; the creation of a multi-million dollar film industry
where artists are both producers and actors; a score of local and national publications that
are quickly becoming the top-selling magazines among the youth of the nation; and
individual hip hop artist’s clothing lines and production studios, which all aide in shaping

the identities of today’s youth.

Lima’s Rap Industry

There is massive interest in producing CDs and rapping nationwide which could
be attributed to media images of both new and established rappers and advancements in
technology. Independent recording studios are materializing in people’s homes and
reflect the current demand, research uncovered that Lima is no exception to the trend.
Emerging rappers share where they produce their rap CD3 and who owns these
neighborhood studios.

Q: Where is your studio at?

There are so many of them.
Are they owned by AAM?

There’s a couple of um here that’s owned by whites.

9????

How much do they charge for studio time?

171

 

A: Well the one we in now charge $20 for an hour, if they like you alright

and they’ll sign you, you’ll get free studio time. The one on Cole and

Lathum Street charge $35 and CRG charge $40 to $45.

Q: Which one do you like best?

A: They say CRG the best because they got all the equipment, its all

engineering and everything. They’ll master mix for you right there and

then.

There are a number of recording studios in the Lima area and they are run by both
black and white pe0ple. The price that is charged varies, and there is a belief that a
recording of one’s group is crucial in obtaining a recording contract. I conducted several
interviews in what were termed recording studios and noticed that they are where large
numbers of AAM congregate. In this sense, they are becoming places where youth can

go to socialize and a welcome break to the growing levels of violence in the streets of

Lima.

Other Future Goals

Though rap was by far the most popular response other future goals and regrets
were mentioned. The following answers were given to the question, “Where do you see
yourself at 21?”

R1: I see I’m going to make it big. I see a lot, I see myself happy,
anything that makes me happy, that’s what I see.

R2: Hopefirlly, I get a good decent paying job and be done got my GED
or diploma by then.

R3: In college, majoring in computer technology, carpentry, I got a little
experience in construction.

R4: 1 want to start helping kids, speaking to kids about how I lived my

life, I got a goal, if I can st0p 5 kids from livin’ they life the way I lived
my life I’d be proud.

172

 

R5: I would like to be married; I would like to have kids. I would like to

show them the father that I didn’t have. I would like to do some things

for them that my father didn’t do with me. I would love to take them all

around the world. I would love to give them everything they ever wanted

even if I had to struggle and had holes in my shoes. I would love to be a

millionaire one day. I would love to give my wife everything she wants.

The variety of responses humanizes those who were interviewed. The crucial
element is that there is a sense of future orientation, an example of this is that one of the
interviewees has gotten a scholarship and will be going to Ohio State University in the
fall of 2003.

It is also interesting to note that two of the informants see their role in the future
as one that will involve children. One states that he would like to get married and give
his children all the things that he was unable to have and discusses a willingness to
sacrifice himself for his children and his plans to marry one day which is an endorsement
of societal norms. The other is remorsefirl about his life, but would not like to see others
go down the same path that he has chosen for himself, an observation that should be
nurtured by current community leaders. Additionally, each person is realistically
assessing the probable future for themselves, which may suggest that they have come to
terms with the reality of their lives.

A few informants answered the question by talking about things they regretted
doing in their current lives. Curiously, those who expressed the most regrets were those
who stressed how “hard” they were in their earlier interviews. Examples include the
following:

R1: I wish I’d have listened to all my aunts, uncles, my mother, my

brother, even the ones I was tryin’ to look up to, the Bloods, the Crips,

Folks, all of them who was tryin’ to tell us lil’ niggaz, “hey you tryin’ to

be like me, slow down, stop doin’ this, stop doin’ that, you need to
smarten up.” I really wish I would have listened. Sometimes at night I sit

173

and cry cause I still ain’t forgave myself for the little things I did. Even
the people who was out there doin’ bad they had words of wisdom for me.

R2: I admit I cry a lot about it, like going to jail, I had people tell me how

to avoid going to jail, but no I didn’t listen, so I found out the hard way.

Maybe that was good for me, a good learning experience. It let me know,

when I look back and I’m older and understand what they was sayin’. A

lot of people had love for me and still do.

These are significant findings as much of the media coverage of AAM who have
gotten involved in self-destructive behavior excludes their multi-dimensional aspects.
The individuals’ interviewed obviously see themselves as connected to the larger
community and offer a step beyond the mask they display amongst their peers. In the
code of the streets, one gains respect through displaying a tough exterior and crying is not

an option. The informant admits to crying in the night, when he is alone, away from his

friends, which softens the tough guy image so prevalent in the self displayed in public.

Challegges for the Future of AAM in Lima

If Lima persists in the current trend of mirroring the social ills of larger cities by a
lag of five to ten years, the following issues will start to become prevalent. The rise in
cases of AIDS ( See Table 10 for local and state statistics) (the soaring rates of AIDS in
African American communities nationwide has been associated with the trend of high
incarceration rates of AAM as well) (Kitwana 2002, look 2003), the rise in suicides,
homicides (especially among AAM); and the rise in cancer rates. The increase in rates of
cancer is already becoming a major concern as both St. Rita’s Medical Center and
Memorial Hospital have constructed treatment centers as part of their hospital systems.

Though these challenges seem steep there are some innovative programs that are

starting to take place in the Lima Public School scene and AAM are receptive to them.

174

With the closing of Lima Alternative School in the 2002/2003 school year, students who
had been hypersegregated there are now being included in regular classrooms at Lima
Senior. Additionally, in the 2002 school year an intervention program called “Amer-I-
Can” was introduced in the high school curriculum and targeted at AAM.

Amer-I-Can is a program that was started by Jim Brown, a devoted Afiican
American activist and former football star. The mission is to provide mentors for AAM
in public school systems that are not funded by state or federal monies but by private
donations to the nonprofit organization. The goal is to utilize transformative
intellectuals—defined as those who seek to instill future orientation in youth—to provide
an essential aspect of future orientation to their charges (Arnowitz and Giroux 1985,
Giroux 1996). Mentors are often former gang members and “shot callers” who can relate
to the life worlds’ of participants. As such, they target at-risk youth by teaching them
skills in critical thinking. An example of the effectiveness of the program at Lima Senior
is illustrated by a participant there. His response is as follows.

Q: Do you think you’re being taught things in school that will help you
reach the goals that you have set for yourself?

A: Yeah, one class in particular, my last period class for this semester,
called, Amer-I-Can, it’s like a program tryin’ to deal with kids, not bad
kids, just kids in general. Teaching you how to deal with everyday life
struggles and how the real world is. It just really teach you stuff you
know. Help you on your attitude and the workforce, what they be looking
fo’, you know it help. It mainly do help out blacks more then what it do
whites, but some whites that grow up around us know the same thing, the
same struggle. It help them out too. But its mainly aimed at the black
youth trying to get them to realize what, what they say the white man is
tryin’ to do, you know. Have us in a little box, try to get us out that and
just explore everything we can and live life to the fullest. I like that class
cause it really teach you a lot of stuff about politics and stuff like that.
Like with the election we was really gettin’ on that. Mainly my class
don’t like Bush. We get on what the black people had when his dad was
president to him and maybe the same thing will happen again. Crime rates

175

 

might go up more now, more drugs might be sold like it was in his father’s
day. I really like that because it really helps us out like with the real world
and how to deal with certain things. And help you know life ain’t fair.

Q: Who teaches that class?
A: Mr. Smith
Q: Is he a black man?

A: Yeah, he like from, he from Dayton, but he really got to do with some
school in Cleveland, some college, and he went on a football scholarship.
And he, you know, like I did think of football as my career, I just stopped
early; I wanted to do somethin’ else. He stopped once he got there, he just
stopped and then had to decide or plan that he wanted to do something else
with his life cause football ain’t everything. So I guess he went into
sociology or something, talking to youth or whatever. And he liked it and
met Jim Brown, the owner of Amer-I—Can, cause he work for the
government, he don’t work for the school. So he getting’ paid from the
government.

Q: So he can pretty much plan his classes based on what he wants to
teach and not what the school wants?

A: Yeah, yeah.

Q: That sounds very good. How do you see yourself? How would you
describe yourself as a black male?

A: Ah. . .I always express myself, but I always like, can’t come out wit it
without thinkin’ about the consequences. You now, you say this or what
might happen. I just come right out with it and expressed myself to the
firllest without thinkin’ about somethin’ goin’ right or wrong. I never
thought about it like that. Ijust blurted out whatever I had to say and now
I think about life in general like after high school, cause I used to think
before this, you know, oh high school going to be the bomb. Be when my
mind’s made up. It just roll up on you man, I’m a junior now and I got
another year to think about what I really want to do and I ain’t got my
mind made up. I got my mind right but I ain’t got it made up yet so, you
know, you just gotta sit down and realize that nobody’s gonna be a kid
forever. You gotta work out and look at the real world and look at what’s
really goin’ on so, I changed and looked at things from a different
perspective. I still express myself but to a degree. I think about if one day
this what might happen or say I got a beef wit a teacher or a student, if I
fight the student and I get caught for startin’ the fight, I’m gonna get
kicked out for 10 to 13 days and that’s gonna affect my grade. I cuss out

176

the teacher and it’s gonna be the same difference. He still gonna get paid
whether I learn what I need to learn or not. You know, that’s how I feel
about myself now. I look at it from a different perspective. I like analyze
the game before I go in to do what I’m gonna do.

Q: That’s outstanding. Well I appreciate your time. You really helped
me out a lot. 13 there anything else you would like to say?

A: Oh, what Ijust said about analyzing the game, you know, the teachers

are gonna get paid whether or not. Mr. Smith taught me that. He taught

me that you gotta look at it this way, “we gettin’ paid regardless” whether

you just come here and get what you need and leave it’s all on you. Cause

they gonna get theirs regardless so, you might as well get what you came

for and then go ahead with your life. You may never see um again but as

long as you gettin’ your education right, you can be in the same position

they in, gettin’ paid. Whether the person is doing something right or

wrong you still gettin’ yours, that’s about it.

Q: That’s very good advice. Thank you again for this interview.

A: You’re welcome.

The interview offers a telling example of the importance of culturally relevant and
specific programs in education. He acknowledges his internalization of the stigma that
was attached to being assigned to the alternative school in his reference to bad kids
versus kids in general. He offers insight regarding the inherent biases in the current
system in his statement that Mr. Smith, “don’t work for the school” and so he can teach
what he wants to teach and refers to Amer-I-Can as teaching about how the real world
works and the importance of struggle. The informant acknowledges that there is a shared
struggle between black and white students especially among white students, who come
from the same background that he does, or in academic terms, from the same class.
When we look back at the racial divide between black and white students in the Lima

Senior of the 19603, the contemporary analysis is significant and may indicate that

student’s in the new generation are grappling with the shared experience of white

177

classmates on the economic front. The success of Amer-I-Can in other school situations
has not yet been determined, but it is a step in the right direction.

There is another innovative program that is available to youth in the Lima area
and is aimed specifically at those who have dropped out of the public school system. The
person in charge is a retired teacher who has constructed a regimen that consists of
tutorial sessions at the Bradfield Center that focus on providing assistance in completion
of Graduation Equivalency Diplomas (GED). A unique feature is that he allows youth to
make their own decisions concerning what element of GED preparation they would like
support with. Additionally, the class is structured to allow students to leave for such
things as smoke and dinner breaks, which is an element that allows for freedom of
movement a tactic that has proven successfirl in other research aimed at keeping AAM
engaged in educational endeavors (Span 2000, Davis 2000).

Another important aspect of the endeavor includes a level of flexibility that allows
students to change their schedules if the situation in their home or community life
warrants it. Previous research suggests that this element is crucial as many youth who
opt to drop out of regular school do so because of work schedules or disruptive family
and personal lives (Dunbar 2001). They are also provided information about community
resources like mental health centers, treatment centers, and shelters for the battered and
abused. Students can elect to come to sessions after any length of time, which is an
addition that attends to the reality of their lives where periodic spells of incarceration
abound. Self reports from the coordinator reveals that the rewards are two-fold, not only
does it give him something useful to do; it also provides a needed community service.

He also confided that since he has been conducting the program he has noticed that

178

 

people may not return for a year, yet come back in the next year, or only attend every
other month, the choice is left totally up to each individual. Outcome data regarding the
retention rate of participants’ that complete their GEDs in this less structured atmosphere
is crucial in evaluating the effectiveness of like initiatives.

The cultural relevance of experimental targeted youth educational engagement
classes has not been determined. However, the loose structure of such programs supports
the findings of previous research that suggests that one of the key mechanisms this group
of students employs is an opposition to authority figures by refirsing to submit to a
rigorous curriculum (Willis 1977, Bowles and Gintis 1976). Perhaps these alternatives
will assist in bridging that divide as they appear to account for the differing behavioral
and verbal styles of the targeted population. Programs of this nature are highly suggested
to begin to encourage AAM in Lima to pursue and obtain a general education.

AAM themselves are not totally left off the hook. Kitwana (2002) reports that
one of the responsibilities of the Hip Hop Generation is to acknowledge the damage they
have done to themselves. The damage he is speaking about concerns the popular culture
of AAM that is best witnessed through rap lyrics and ‘hood films that promote violence,
flashy materialistic lifestyles, disrespect for women, and every day life situations which
include inadequate parenting, resentment-filled interpersonal relationships, and inferior
educational performance. Kitwana (2002) cites these issues as examples of AAM going
counter to traditional ideals of Blackness—he is referring to the massive strides African
Americans have made as a whole—and proposes that members of the contemporary

generation owe an indebtedness and respect to the many courageous souls who have gone

179

before. He suggests that they not forget from whence they came and forge ahead to make

the crucial adjustments that will make the community a better place for all its inhabitants.

Conclusions

Throughout this study, the identities’ of AAM have been impacted by a number of
structural constraints. Their roles in the community have shifted from being independent
landowners, to dependent laborers, to prison inmates. Local economic indicators do not
suggest an end to the downward trend (See Tables 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13). The prominent
rapper of the period, 50 Cent, represents the placement of violence with success, which
serves to encourage and support the normalization of violence. The influence of his
music is further evidenced by an analysis of life history narratives of key informants’ in
which violent acts are glorified. However, all is not lost and there is a sense of firture
orientation that is brought out when they discuss goal attainment, and innovative
educational programs. The growth and support of the local rap industry is consistent with
the national trend (Rhea 2000) and may indicate the possibility of entrepreneurial

enterprises among the locals.

180

 

Chapter 8: Conclusions

People are always speculating—why am I as I am? To understand that of any
person, his whole life, from birth, must be reviewed Everything that ever
happened to us is an ingredient. Malcolm X56

The interpretation of the above quote is that in order to understand a person one
must first consider all the aspects of his/her life. It is instructive as the major question
this research strove to answer was, “How have structural constraints impacted the
identities and the quality of life of Afiican American males living in this city?” Through
an historical examination of major events and figures of African Americans living in
Lima, Ohio that question was explored.

This study began by investigating the influx of the first African American settlers
to Allen County. Locating this data proved to be a difficult task due to the limited
amount of information available at the Allen County library. To firrther complicate
matters, the majority of the resources listed in the card catalog were no longer in the
possession of the library and were described as lost (see Appendix F).

The firtility of this search resulted in a trip to the library in the Allen County
Museum where a scattered collection of “The Black History of Lima” was located. The
compilation amounted, essentially, to two large dusty boxes tucked away on a back shelf.
Investigation into this source uncovered a number of unpublished documents written by
former members of Lima’s African American community consisting of a social history of
success, struggle, and strategies that often went against the norm. This proved to be
crucial in establishing a precedence of how everyday people strove to obtain a better

quality of life for themselves. Recurrent themes in the literature included a long

established pattern of economic inequality and discrimination in the areas of housing,

 

5" Malcolm X from TheAutobl’ography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley and Malcolm X (1964).

181

 

quality of education, and employment options. There was a long history of racial
segregation and an antagonistic relationship between the Lima police department and the
Afiican American populace. Lastly, documentation was uncovered that revealed the
strengths and importance of the African American church in the daily lives of area
citizens and civil rights struggles.

Data fiom “The Spedy Historical Research Project” (1978), proved to be of
crucial importance to the research, which began in 1976, when Lima resident Vera Gales
set out to record Lima’s version of “Roots” by collecting oral history narratives from
local residents. The unpublished materials from that endeavor consisted of taped
interviews and transcriptions that were unquestionably a key component in adding the
people’s voices in the telling of the story. Not only did they enrich the narrative, they
proved usefirl in illustrating the changes in the structure of language through time in
Lima’s African American neighborhoods.

A comparison of past and present interviews reveals that the area’s speaking
patterns have steadily moved away from standard forms of English an occurrence that
could be attributed to the long history of isolation, alienation, and segregation between
African Americans and European Americans in the city. As a result of this long
separation, African American English has become progressively more uniform across the
socially disadvantaged areas of the city and has developed into a speaking pattern that is
increasingly remote from that spoken by European Americans there. The problem,
therefore, becomes that the less contact African Americans have with European
Americans, the greater their reliance on African American English and the less their

ability to speak standard American English. The importance of this is it limits their

182

capability of obtaining employment in the emerging service oriented economy where
success is tied to effective communication. Further, it attests to an unintended
consequence of segregation and social isolation. Other scholars have documented the
occurrence of this phenomenon in similar Afi'ican American communities on a national
level (Rickford and Rickford 2000, Smitherman 2000).

This investigation was followed by a meeting with a local private historian who
granted access to her personal collection of an assortment of historical documents,
photographs, and newspapers. From these resources, the African American heritage of
Lima began to emerge. That history began with the migration of free, manumitted, and
runaway African Americans from states in the Upper South who founded cities in
Mercer, Shelby, and Allen Counties in about 1830 (McGee 1980, Bennett 1969). These
courageous early settlers set up firlly fiinctioning towns some of which were reputed to be
stations of the Underground Railroad and as such welcomed all incoming Afiican
Americans (McGee 1980). However, their prosperity was short-lived and they were
driven out of the area by the terroristic tactics of European American settlers who were
arriving at the same time.

The African American settlers who left relocated in Lima and were segregated in
the Westend of town. The only jobs open to them were in positions of subservience in
which they surfaced as maids, butlers, housekeepers, laborers, and the like. Though they
were assigned to subservient roles there were resistors among them, one of whom became
politically active and attempted a run for mayor of the city in 1888 (McGown 1921). The
African American church was a large part of their existence and firnctioned as the center

of social activities. They opened and ran restaurants, barbershops, and drinking

183

establishments. Though they did not socialize much with Lima area European Americans
their lives were well rounded and the Afiican American community began to thrive.

The structural constraints that were imposed by the larger society were in the
form of segregated housing, theaters, eating establishments, and recreational facilities.
The period set the stage for a process of social isolation that would continue to mark and
divide the African American community in Lima. Lastly, towards the end of the 19th
century, John D. Rockefeller made a major purchase of land that would later become
Standard Oil (Stemen 1998).

Industrial grth is a large part of the history of the city because of the number of
jobs they created. Even though Afiican Americans were not directly working at the
factories they benefited indirectly as they provided an income for European Americans
who attained these jobs, enabling them to hire Afiican Americans to do the more menial
tasks of domestic service and day laborers. Though the work was tedious, it provided a
financial base for African Americans to grow and progress. Evidence of this was a small
growth in entrepreneurial enterprises in which goods were sold and traded (McGown
1921)

In 1929, the country experienced the Great Depression, which was a critical
historical force for Lima and the whole country. It was felt by most members of the
community and created a fear among people of government institutions, particularly the
banking industry (Frazier 1957). It also signaled a shift in African American political
affiliations which changed from Republican—their original support was tied to the

Lincoln administration and the Emancipation Proclamation—to Democrat—this support

184

 

was tied to the Roosevelt administration and the New Deal which provided
governmentally funded and supported social projects and services.

The Depression dovetailed into World War II and both Afiican Americans and
European Americans were called to fight in that war. However, they were segregated in
housing and in duty assignments, with Afiican American soldiers allotted to subservient
positions (e. g. cooks, cleaning the camp site) and the dirtiest and most undesirable jobs
(e. g. assembling dead bodies for transport home). The war created a labor shortage in the
Ohio Steel Foundry who began to recruit laborers from the Deep South, specifically
lower Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana to meet the demand.
These states were known, during slavery, for their particularly harsh and large plantations
(Hale 1998). This was the second migration of African Americans into the area.

Those that came to Lima, under these conditions, were indebted to the Ohio Steel
Foundry and found their life similar to what they had left behind in the South. The cotton
field was replaced by the foundry and they were given the dirtiest and least desirable jobs
and segregated in the Southend of town. Eastern and Northern Europeans, who had been
living in there prior to their arrival, objected to living with them and moved out of the
area in droves.

Curiously, they met with the same type of hostility fiom their African American
peers who were living on the Westend of town. They did not welcome the newcomers
who they considered backwards, coming from the rural and largely agricultural South. A
rift between the two was created that would continue to characterize the two groups into

the contemporary period.

185

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The early Civil Rights Movement in Lima began at the end of WWII and was
sparked as African American soldiers, returning from EurOpean tours, began to question
their segregated status at home. Their thoughts evolved and inspired the locals to start
focusing on the disparities in the system and led to the formation of a local chapter of the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). This
organization firnctioned in the role of inquisitor and began to question housing patterns,
segregated swimming pools, employment practices of local area industries, and hiring
practices at local hospitals and medical facilities which proved to be the first step in the
battle between European Americans and African Americans in the city for equal rights.
Early Civil Rights activists’ surfaced in the form of church ministers who guided their
congregations towards active resistance.

African American women and their organizations were not left out of the fray.
The founding of the Mizpah Community Center is an example of their dedication and
hard work toward providing affordable and available daycare for Lima’s working Afiican
American women. The major organization credited for this center was the United Church
Women, which was the women’s division of the United Presbyterian Church (SQHC
1971)

In the 19603, African Americans in Lima were impacted by changing conditions
in the world market, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Vietnam War. It was one of the
most active periods for area churches and ministers began to organize and voice their
discontent with the quality and availability of housing in the African American
community. The period witnessed the development of organized labor unions that

prompted the hiring of Afiican Americans in the industrial sector.

186

On both a local and national level the end of the 19603 and the beginning of the
19703 ushered in a rise in civil unrest and Afiican American militancy. Community
members began to protest the unequal treatment of African American students at Lima
Senior High School, and the racist actions of the Lima Police Department. This era
witnessed the development of the Lima branch of the Black Panther Party whose voice
was so powerfirl that the city mayor called in reinforcements from the National Guard to
deter their carefully orchestrated protests (The Lima News, August 5, 1970). The
Panthers questioned the segregated and horrific conditions that prevailed for African
Americans living in the Southend of town and are historically important as an example of
Lima’s youth taking a stand against the racist and corrupt police force and city
administration. Unfortunately, the period was short lived and people who were identified
with the Panther party were systematically banned from employment, harassed, or drafted
for service in the Vietnam War. The potential for Afiican American leadership quickly
shifted and no substantial leader was produced, a feature that was mirrored in African
American communities on a national level (Cruse 1967).

Though the reign of the Panther party was short lived, it was successfirl in
planting the seeds of future orientation in Lima youth. The implementation of Federal
Affirmative Action Programs provided the catalyst needed to encourage some of them to
attend college, which was, for many African American families in the area, the first
generation to accomplish this goal.

The development and threat of militancy also challenged the city’s white power
structure and jobs for Afiican Americans opened up in the local manufacturing

enterprises. Those who gained employment in this medium shifted fiom jobs of

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subservience to jobs of monotony in which they conducted repetitious tasks. Through
employment in this sector they were able to participate as consumers in the economic
middle class, however there was no significant change in their status on a national or
local level.

Additionally, the period marked the beginning of the involvement of African
Americans in the political infi'astructure of the city and they began to run for seats in the
City Council. Though they were not successfirl they set the stage for filture candidates.

The 19803 was marked by the Reagan Era that was largely responsible for
eliminating federal programs in Lima and on a national level (Kitwana 2002, Boggs
1995). Characterizations of the administration included a poor civil rights record, non-
initiation of fair housing legislation, and endorsement of a de-industrializing economy
(Boggs 1995). Afiican American in the Southend of Lima who had been
hypersegregated became more socially isolated, witnessed a decrease in the quality of
community schools, and had little opportunity to obtain the technological skills needed to
compete in the evolving global economy. Local plants downsized their operations or
relocated to the South where cheaper non-unionized labor abounded. Lima’s youth felt
the sting as employment became hard to find, and many of their parents found that they
had to work two jobs to survive, leaving their charges unsupervised. The area
experienced a high incidence of “brain drain” and many African American citizens—who
had marketable skills or wanted greater choices in employment—left the city, many
never to return.

On both the local and national level employment opportunities remained largely

service oriented (Farley et a1 2000, Rose 1994). Decades of intense social and economic

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isolation had left Afiican American street culture increasingly divorced from the basic
American ideals of family, work, and respect for others (Kitwana 2002). Lima’s reaction
to these rising problems was evidenced by a grth in both the prison and hospital
industry.

The prison industry impacted the area two-fold. It both provided employment for
residents and jail cells for the area’s young adults, who had been disillusioned by the lack
of jobs or recreational facilities. The result was a grth in differing forms of
delinquency. The city’s answer was an increase in law enforcement, and incarceration
rates, predominately for AAM.

The hospitals benefited in two ways as well. First, they were able to expand at
rapid speeds (See Tables 7 and 8) second; they became the top employers in the area (See
Table 9). The growth of area hospitals is also significant because they attest to the
growing number of elderly in the area (See Table 11) (Age is a crucial factor as
government infrastructure’s decide on the level of healthcare required to obtain the
maximum health of the population); and the growing rate of chronic diseases in the area
(See Tables 10 and 12) (Chronic diseases require extensive and costly treatment
regimens).

As the prison industry grew and more AAM in the city became a part of it; they
made connections to members of both West Coast and Chicago gangs and a strong gang
affiliations were nurtured in the city. Gang culture was aided by the mindset fed to the
Public by the media that demonized AAM, labeling them as the criminal other. Further,
community-police relations continued to be at odds, and AAM continued to experience

alienation from the local law enforcement infrastructure.

189

Rap was the music of choice for this generation of AAM because the artists who
produced and performed it not only looked like them, and sang about issues they could
relate to. The recordings focused on two major themes, suffering and conspicuous
consumption. The suffering theme is consistent with older Afiican American art forms,
namely the Blues and Negro Spirituals (Titon 1994).

The suffering theme, in the contemporary period, is further divided up into three
areas: the suffering of self, empathy towards the suffering of others, and causing
suffering to others. The sentiment voiced by artists is revealing of how AAM themselves
interpreted their quality of life. National media, specifically television and newspapers,
public intellectuals, and policy makers offered a different reading holding that the
predominant subject of the art form was violence. The explanation is problematic in that
it serves to create and sustain the image of AAM as violent, deviant, and diseased in the
public mind. Society’s portrayal leads to the acceptance of the labels and influences
them to favor the use of structural constraints as protection them from these individuals.
Correctional facilities and alternative school programs were the manifestations of the
process and insurgents were sent there so experts could begin to cure them. By managing
perceived behaviors in this manner, the responsibility for the situation is taken off of the
system and attributed to the individual. Instead of the system, it is the individual that
must change. It is the individual that must be disciplined and taken out of the society due
to societal norms that endorse the system’s role in control individual citizens instead of

making structural adjustments that promote a more equally balanced society (Foucault

1977)

190

Further, the development of high tech media played a role in providing greater
access to the medium of rap music to the masses. Rap artists, like many others, took
advantage of these advances and began producing videos, clothing lines, and ‘hood
films’7 (Kitwana 2002). Conspicuous consumption became part of the cultural milieu for
a growing number of disenfranchised AAM that were not only surfacing in Lima but
around the nation as a whole (Rose 1994).

Simultaneously, funding in education was decreased in the Lima area and
countered by an increase in financial support for the local prisons. With less spent on
schools, test scores began to drop and the quality of education, for those in the public
school system, began to deteriorate. Additionally, much of the firnding for recreational
facilities, namely parks and youth centers was drastically reduced. The youth in the city
predictably were becoming bored. Involvement in the local gangs, for AAM living in the
city, became their collective identity (See Appendix H). Due to a lack of employment in
the formal economy they resorted to the informal economy of drugs and guns to finance
their operations. The result was the introduction of the highly addictive drug; crack, in
the Afiican American sections of the city. Distributors came to Lima from the larger
cities of Chicago, Cleveland, and Detroit. With the introduction of drugs and guns the
level of violence and violent crimes began to escalate.

In summary, the following factors have impacted the quality of life and identity

formation of AAM living in contemporary Lima:

 

’7 ‘hood films began to make the contemporary arena in the late 19803 as an attempt to explain the
generation gap (Kitwana 2002). The question they seek to answer is, “How is it that the hip-hop generation
is so different from their parents’ generation?” The majority are produced by AAM featuring the music
and acting talents of popular rap artists, and the images of African Americans in the roles of gangstas,
hustlers, pimps, playas, bitches and hos. Many glorify a criminal lifestyle as the only way out of the hip-
hop generation’s poverty, legitimize their outlaw status, and promote the accumulation of material
possessions (Kitwana 2002).

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Segregation and Economic Inequality— Carefirl review of the history of Afiican
Americans’ in the city of Lima reveals how long they have been segregated, and in the
case of those living on the Southend of town, hypersegregated fiom European American
citizens. Massey and Denton (1993) describe this process as “American Apartheid.” In
American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass, the authors
thoroughly and systematically analyze how this came about in Afiican American
communities nationwide. In their view, Afiican Americans, predominantly in the under
classes, have been confined to certain areas of the city by economic disadvantage, racism,
and segregation. Given the reality of their situation, their powerlessness, alienation, and
social isolation they have ceased to question their segregated inferior status.

Additionally, economic inequality is a reoccurring theme in the lives of many
African Americans in the city as well. Economic inequality has surfaced in structural
features of the city such as type of available employment and quality of housing. The
persistent economic disadvantage of members of society that make up the lower classes is
telling of their perceived powerlessness in the larger structure. Sugrue (1996) in The
Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit puts it thusly,
“Economic inequality constrains individual family choices. They set limits on human
agency. Within the bonds of the possible, individuals and families, resist, adapt, or

succumb” (p. 5).

De—industr'ializationwAs Lima went through a massive de—industrialization period

during the Reagan Era, those who could, fled the city in search of more lucrative

employment opportunities or higher education. Those that were left behind were largely

192

products of generations of blue-collar families who previously had invested their futures
in the lifetime manufacturing employment of their fathers, mothers, relatives and siblings
before them which left them unprepared for employment in the highly service oriented
and technologically driven economy of the contemporary period. Additionally, the jobs
that were available paid wages that were far below those of the factory and offered little
or no health benefits. The income earned by contemporary workers is inadequate for
decent housing options. Many AAM who are employed in Lima’s service economy
cannot afford apartments or homes and live with their parents or relatives. Most are what
social scientists call the ‘wvorking poor,” and their wages relegate them to a standard of
living just above, at, or below the poverty line. This finding is consistent with previous

scholarship on a nationwide level (Kitwana 2002, Farley et al 2000).

Growth of Prison Economy—The Reagan Era witnessed the grth of the prison
industry in the area and on a nationwide level (Kitwana 2002, Rose 1994). In the short
span of twenty years, Lima has become the home of three prisons, which have surfaced
as the fourth largest local employer (See Table 9). The rise in correctional facilities
coincided with an increase in the incarceration rate of AAM (See Tables 1 and 3).
Involvement in the city’s prison industry has been linked to the development of gang
connections and affiliations and an escalation in the incidence of HIV/AIDS on a local
(See Table 10) and national level (Wright 2003). The impact of structural forces has led
to the normalization of a violent counter culture that is at odds with the basic values and

goals of the dominant culture.

193

Over 100 Years of Environmental Pollution—Historical analysis reveals that the Lima
area has been home to over 100 years of environmental pollution largely in the form of
the numerous industries that have continuously inhabited the local landscape. The
following companies have all played a role in this development, Sheller Globe, Standard
Oil, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, General Electric, Proctor and Gamble, and
Dana to name a few. The impact of environmental pollutants is evidenced by a review of
the leading causes of death in the area, namely heart disease and cancer (See Table 12).
The extent of the damage on the health of the locals warrants firrther investigation, which

goes beyond the scope of this study.

Drastic Decrease in the Quality of Education—Currently, the quality of education in
public school systems in this nation is in rapid decline (Price 2002). In the Lima area, the
deterioration has been attributed to a number of factors. Leading the list is the rapid
decrease in area families’ incomes. As they became lower and lower the tax base needed
to fund the public school systems became less and less. With a decrease in firnding Lima
City Schools became less able to attract teachers, leading to understaffmg,

overpopulation and limited availability to technological resources. These deficits serve to
weaken the employability of the area’s young people and deepen the growing digital

divide between the haves and have-nots in the city. According to recent scholarship, this
phenomenon is not only isolated to the city of Lima but is occurring on a national level
(Price 2002, Kitwana 2002, Farley et a12000, Massey and Denton 1993).

Simultaneously, the area witnessed a drop in positive recreational activities for the

youth resulting in a large percentage of adolescent males with little to do and little

194

prospect of a firture. Out of this environment emerge AAM whose aggressive behavioral
styles are appropriate and essential to survival in their home environments, but
detrimental and inappropriate in public school environments (McIntyre 1996, Anderson

1994, Starks 1993).

Impact of Massive Foreclosures—The importance of the increasing number of
foreclosures and sheriff sales—beginning in 1994 and nearly doubling in 2002 (See Table
l3)—suggests the troubled state of Lima’s real estate. The loss of homes has affected the
community as a whole, which is witnessed by the growing phenomenon of homelessness
in the area—an issue that in the prior decades was principally confined to larger more
urban cities.

The loss of property has impacted the types of retail establishments that have
emerged. The major franchises that dot the landscape are check cashing stores, Rent-A-
Centers, “Super” Goodwill Stores, and a large variety of fast food restaurants which
impacts AAM by limiting employment opportunities and experiences crucial to the
development of filture-oriented goal attainment. (See Appendix I for an example of a
study participant’s resume, note that there is not much job experience that would indicate

that he has attained the skills needed to reach his career objective).

Decrease in Political Activities—The quandary of voter apathy is apparent in the arena
of politics at both a national and local level. This issue is especially relevant to Afiican
American communities as the current political trend appears to be targeted toward the

abolition of civil rights and affirmative action legislation (Rubio 2001). Further, if these

195

programs are successfully eradicated, it is the African American community that will
experience the greatest hardship.

Another component is the lack of a strong united front involving both the African
American church and the African American community. It is a crucial omission as
historical analysis illustrates how influential the church was in challenging Lima’s
political infrastructure. A current trend of both local and national Afiican American
churches is to “grow” or become more institutionalized and less personally responsible
for parishioner’s welfare (Williams and Quinton 2003). The results of the change is seen
in the community-church relationship as many churches have failed to address the crucial
issues in the African American community namely: HIV/AIDS (See Table 10); quality of
education; lack of recreational facilities for youth; growth in the incarceration rate of the
youth; the massive availability of drugs and firearms; the growing gang culture; and the
rise in unemployment. Recent scholarship confirms these findings (Williams and

Quinton 2003).

What recommendations are there for these challenges? What realistic and
practical things can be initiated to make the city a better place not only for AAM but for

everyone to live in? Some suggestions include:

Continue to develop and nurture innovative school programs whose main feature
is that they are taught by someone who has no links to the school. They are effective
because they deal with real life issues (6. g. poverty, drug abuse, unemployment, racism,

the importance of political awareness and voting, attainment of education, acquiring

196

marketable job skills, gang membership, peer pressure, economic inequality, and future
orientation)—deal with practical issues (e. g. how to write a resume, how to find a job,
how to get a GED, how to fill out an application, where to go if you need shelter, food,
help with a drug addiction or grief)——and allow some flexibility to participants. The
drop—in or drop-out feature is attractive to youth whose main objection to traditional
schooling is that it is too rigid and perceived as too authoritative (Giroux 1996, Willis
1977). Further, recent studies found that this factor is commonly the basis many high
school drop-outs offer as the reason they do not like school (Davis 2000, Polite 2000,
Willis 1977). These initiatives listen to what youth have to say, a feature that is sorely
missing in many parts of their lives. Lastly, they allow students to explore their own
creativity and value that as an important cultural resource, coping mechanism or guide to

begin the process of critical thinking and firture orientation.

Provide a living wage with real insurance for families in the community, which is
a growing issue in neighborhoods across the local and national spectrum. The change in
employment from manufacturing to the service sector has greatly impacted Lima’s
Afiican American community. In 1997, the service sector produced more than 46 million
jobs, 5.6 million of which went to African American workers (Kitwana 2002). Unlike
the working class jobs of the previous generation, most of the service oriented jobs lack
the wages and benefits that afforded low-skilled workers in the 19703 a middle—class
existence. The previous generation’s low-skilled workers could afford to buy homes and
cars, had paid vacation time, and full health insurance. In contrast, the lack of income

and benefits of today’s low-skilled workers is fireling the growing divide between the

197

haves and have—nots in the country. Contemporary AAM find themselves trapped in a
vicious cycle. In the case of those in the Lima area, many have opted out of participation
in the formal economy in favor of the more prosperous, but short lived informal

economy, which is characterized by drugs and violence.

Provide decent and affordable housing that is integrated into the larger fabric of
the community. This will limit the effects of living in hypersegregated, socially isolating
environments which prohibit the passing on of practical knowledge (like code switching
when seeking employment) and provides positive role models or mentors (that is people
who are actually doing something productive with their lives that young people can see)

for youth living in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Provide governmentally sponsored and funded environmental research initiatives
that address health problems that are associated with toxic waste. This is especially
crucial for the city of Lima because of the large number of major industries that have
environmentally impacted the city in every decade of the 19th and 20th centuries. Further,
these studies should include both quantitative and qualitative methodologies in order to

gauge the true impact on the community.
Admit that racism exists and is a problem, which is an issue that can be addressed

in a number of ways. Some suggestions include: sponsoring community forums,

creating courses in the public schools, and conducting local televised debates. The nation

198

has not and can never heal if it does not admit the very real impact of racism on the

fi'agile relationships between Afiican Americans and European Americans in America.

Acknowledge the job growth potential of the national phenomenon of the
economically viable Hip Hop industry. Lima’s homegrown rap industry is an example of
the youths’ interest in this entrepreneurial enterprise. Local leaders should take note and

help craft it towards a positive end.

Lastly, the intent of this study was to shed some light on the major historical and
structural features that have aided in the social construction of the identity of AAM in the
city today. Examining their shifting identities is crucial as it refocuses the light away
fiom the literature that largely centers on the plight of AAM in the larger inner cities to
those in the smaller towns and is instructive of how entrenched many of these issues are
on a national scale.

Finally, the status of AAM youth has deteriorated in employment, delinquency,
homicide and suicide on a national level (Dyson 2001). The tragedy is that this has
occurred despite fifteen years of Affirmative Action programs and two decades of
economic progress (Farley et al 2000). African Americans living in the ghettos of
America remain separate but not equal, dependent on the paternalism of the white power
elite, disenfranchised and powerless, treated as second class citizens, dehumanized,
depersonalized, exploited, extorted, neglected, and narcoticized (Giroux 1996). The
unintended consequences of Civil Rights legislation and anti-poverty programs was that

they benefited working and middle class African Americans who were in better positions

199

to take advantage of them (Boggs 1995). The result was that it served to create a wider
gap between middle class and socially disadvantaged Afiican Americans who remain the
most isolated and hypersegregated. Social isolation provides a ripe environment for the
perpetuation of gang culture and the violent activities needed to sustain it. Gang leaders
have emerged as mentors and gang affiliations as a sense of localized collective identity.
On the other hand, the Hip Hop industry is another force that has surfaced as a
rich source of identity formation on AAM in this study. As such Hip Hop culture has an
important role to play in constructing positive identities. Will this music and the artists
who perform it serve as the catalyst needed to begin to produce African American
leadership, rebel against structural constraints and instill in its listeners the desire to

transform their lives? Only time will tell.

200

Appendices

201

Appendix A

Life History Interview

1. If I asked you to describe your life as if it were a book what would the name of
the first chapter be?
a. What kinds of things would be in that chapter?

2. What would be the name of the second chapter?
a. What kinds of things would be in that chapter?

(The rest of the interview continues like this until the person decides that they would like
to conclude the book—at that point the interviewer asks for the name and contents of the
concluding chapter)

The final question posed is: “If you had to name your book what would you call it?”
(an alternative form of this question would be “What would be the title of your book?”)

202

Appendix B

Teacher/ Administrator Interview

. What is your occupation?

. How long have you been a teacher/administrator?
. Describe a typical day in your classroom.

. Do you feel that you were adequately trained to perform the job that’s asked of
you?

. What is the process that a student goes through to be assigned to your class? (i.e.
what tests do they take, teacher recommendations, physician’s recommendations,
parent’s recommendations, ect.)

In your opinion, do Afiican American males, in your classroom, present any
special problems? (i.e. disciplinary, attitude, extra aggression)

. Do you think African American males are more ‘behaviorally challenged’ than
other males?

. Do you think that Afiican American males need special attention in school? (If so,

what are some of the things you would suggest that the school do to give them
special attention?)

203

Appendix C

Student Interviews

. What school do you attend?

. Describe a typical school day?

. How are race relations at your school?
. What are your future goals?

. Do you feel that you are being taught things that will help you to attain your
firture goals?

. Is graduating from school part of your future plans?
. Who do you go to for advice?
. Who are your favorite musical artists and why?

. Where do you think you will be or what will you be doing when you’re 21?

204

Appendix D
Consent form and information about:

The Shifting Identities of African American Males in Lima, Ohio
INTRODUCTION

Jill Rowe Adj ibogoun, a graduate student and a researcher fiom Michigan State
University is conducting a study to understand the behavior of young adult males in this
community. As a person residing or who resided in this community you are being invited
to participate in this study.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study is to determine how students, parents and community members
feel about the behavior of young adult males in this community, and how that behavior
impacts or is impacted by the school system and the community. As a part of the study
the researcher hopes to gain a better understanding of the behavior of young adult males
in this community.

PROCEDURE

Ifyou decide to take part in this study, you will be asked to consent to an interview that
will involve answering a series of questions about your life in this community. The
questions allow you and the researcher to have a conversation for approximately one
hour. Everything you say will remain confidential, only the investigator will have access
to your identity.

RISKS

Although it is highly unlikely, there is a chance that you might feel uncomfortable during
the course of this interview. If at anytime you get fatigued, wish to refrain from
answering a question, or simply wish to stop participating, the interview can be
postponed and/or stopped so the experience is a positive one.

BENEFITS

The researcher cannot and does not guarantee you will directly benefit if you take part in
this study. Through your comments and conversations the researcher can gain valuable
information about the behavior of young adult males in this community.

PAYNIENT OF SUBJECTS

As a participant in this research study you will not be paid for your input.

205

ALTERNATIVES

The alternative to participating in this research study is to decline. Participation is purely
voluntary, and for research purposes only.

CONFIDENTIALITY

Procedures will be followed to protect the confidentiality of the information you give.
Information will be kept in a locked file at all times and only Jill Rowe-Adjibogoun will
have access to these files. After the study is complete, all files will be destroyed. No
individual identities will be used in any notes, reports or publications, which may result
without your permission. F urtherrnore, your privacy will be protected to the maximum
extent of the law. The researcher will not reveal your identity if she publishes the results
of this study.

QUESTIONS

Ifyou have any questions concerned with the protection of volunteers in research projects
you may contact the University Committee on Research Involving Human Subjects
(UCRIHS). You may call Dr. Ashir Kumar between 8:00am-12200pm and 1:00pm-
5:00pm (Eastern Time) Monday through Friday at (517) 355-2180 or by writing:
UCRIHS, Michigan State University, 202 Olds Hall, East Lansing, MI 48824-1046

Dr. Judy Pugh, the researcher’s faculty supervisor, can be reached at Michigan State
University, Department of Anthropology, 354 Baker Hall, East Lansing, MI, 48824 or
(517) 353-9634, Jill Rowe-Adjibogoun, the researcher, can be reached at Michigan State
University, Department of Anthropology, 354 Baker Hall, East Lansing, MI 48824 or
(517) 353-2950.

CONSENT
You have read the information in this form. The researcher has answered your questions

to your satisfaction. The researcher will give you a copy of this form for your records.
Your signature below indicates your voluntary agreement to participate in this study.

 

Participant’s Signature Date
Please Print Participant’s Name

Responsible Researcher’s Signature/Telephone Number

206

Autism

Letter

Dr. John Scott

Humanities Chair & Director
Performing Arts Center
15800 NW.

Miami, FL 33054

July 8, 2003
Dr. Scott,

My name is Jill Rowe-Adjibogoun and I am a graduate student in Anthropology at
Michigan State University. I am writing regarding a research project you conducted in
Lima, Ohio. The project was specifically focused on the Afiican American experience in
Lima and was a collection of oral history narratives from 1900 to 1950. The piece was
made into a video recording entitled, “Hats, Handkerchiefs, and Fans” in 1993.
According to records at the Allen County Library in Lima this recording was done by
American House.

I am interested in this particular piece because I am writing my dissertation on African
American males and identity. My research is based on a case study of 27 Afiican
American males in Lima. 1 am interested in your piece because my dissertation will look
at life for Afiican American males in Lima historically, specifically at how life was for
the very first African Americans there and moving up to the contemporary situation. I
have tried to locate your piece via the library in Lima but the only copy they had was lost,
additionally I requested the piece from Bowling Green University but they state that they
don’t have a copy. Lastly, I have looked into various resources, i.e. Amazon, ect, but
have not been able to find any resource that has a copy of your video.

I am writing to ask if you still have a copy of that video and if so, if I may purchase a
copy or make arrangements with you to view it. I have access to a car and can drive to
Bowling Green and view it at the university if that sounds like an option. My interests in
the history of Lima are not only scholarly, but I am an African American who was born
and lived there for the first 15 years of my life. Additionally, my family home is still
there and I have both a brother and a sister who still reside there. I was able to make
copies of several historical documents, individual studies, and individual events from a
collection of Black History at the library in the Allen County Museum in Lima. 1 have
also conducted a series of interviews with the males in my study. I am in the beginning
stages of writing my dissertation and feel that your video is crucial to my understanding
of the dynamics of life for African Americans in Lima

207

Any advise or information that you could share with me regarding this issue would be
deeply appreciated. I would also be very interested in knowing of any other resources
that might have a copy of the video. I would love to purchase a copy to have for my own
personal library. I look forward to hearing fi'om you. I can be reached by phone or e-
mail: rowejill@msu.edu or (517) 853-0643.

Respectfully,

Jill Rowe Adjibogoun

PS. The Allen County Library in Lima also lists the following, “Telling the Afiican
American Story in Lima, Ohio” Video Recording/American House (1993)—could this be
in reference to your work as well? According to library records this item is lost as well.
Any help you can give me regarding either item would be GREATLY appreciated.

208

Appendix F

Example of Study Participant’s Poetry
Love
Love is every time I look at you I see Heaven in your eyes
Love is every time I hear your voice
Love is every time we make love without touching
Love is every time we hold each other
Love is every time we clown with one another
Love is the day you had my daughter
Love is the day I laid my eyes on you
Love will be the day you become my wife

Love is every time I wake up and see you laying there

But most of all love is you

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Appendix G

Example of Study Participant’s Poetry
For the Love of the Bloods

For the love of the Bloods

I bust them slugs

For mean mugs

From these wanna be thugs

Who never sold drugs a day in they life
That’s why I stay low

And try to get my mayo

But niggaz always gotta throw in they say—so
So bodies start droppin’

Guns get to poppin’

People stoppin’, like what’s happenin’
That’s when I snap in another clip

I’m on some other shit

And there’s no stoppin’ it

Cause I’m always grabbin’ the gun and cockin’ it
And demanding everything

I keep heavy things

So you betta think twice about bringin’ ya team
You got tossed in the mud

Cause it’s all for the love of the Bloods

Feel me, family

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Appendix H

Example of a Study Participant’s Résumé

Statement of Pugpose

To be the CCO of my own interactive multimedia business which involves web page
design, video and audio clips, graphic design, and projection clips. I would like to
create a video game that involves writing the story, creating the character, and
creating the whole environment.

Career Objective

To become successfiil at whatever I choose to do.

Education

Lima Senior High School
1 Spartan Way

Lima, Ohio 45804

Class of 2002

Skills

Creating a web page, web page design, video creating/editing

Work Historl

1 998-1999—Tudor’ s
23 83 Elida Road
Lima, Ohio
Position: Salad Bar Organizer

1999-2000—Taco Bell
2050 Allentown Road
Lima, Ohio
Position: Production

2000—2002—Steak-N—Shake
3165 Elida Road
Lima, Ohio
Position: Production

211

 

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7.3.3