Gettysburg park officials stop protesting their new black officer
The Secretary of the Interior hired the first black park officer because the army would not hire any skilled black employees. The other workers at the Gettysburg office protested until they realized that Dr. King, the new employee, did excellent work.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Clark Foreman, November 16, 1974. Interview B-0003. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
I found that the CCC was set up, you know, to give
employment relief to people. They had Negro camps and white camps, but
in the Negro camps they would not employ any Negro skilled, intellectual
labor or any . . . . And the army people there were all white, even in
the Negro camps. So I went to the head of the CCC to complain about this
and he said "Well, there's nothing we can do about that. The
reason we can't do anything about it is that the army is in charge of
assigning people to the camps and they are assigning white officers.
They don't want the white officers to be eating with Negroes."
I said "Well, I better go and see the army
about it." So I went to see the army and the man in charge was
a Major Major. His name was Major Major. As soon as I made him aware of
who I was and what I'd come to talk about, he said "Well now,
Mr Foreman, I leave here usually at 4:30 and it is now 4:20." I
said "Well, Major what I have to say won't take more than ten
minutes. Really, the problem is, why can't we have Negro officers in the
Negro CCC camps?" He said "Well, it would never work.
You don't understand. Obviously you don't understand the
South." I said "Well, in the First World War there
were Negro companies in the South and Negro officers and no trouble as
far as I know and I don't see why you couldn't have them now. It doesn't
make sense to me to give employment only to the most ignorant,
illiterate Negroes and not give employment to the officers who are
trained and to the educated Negroes." He said "Well
obviously you don't understand the South. Where are you from?"
So I said "Well Major, I'm from Georgia. Where are you
from?" "Well, I'm from New York, but I've lived in the
South a lot." "I don't think I need to take any more
of your time, Major. You still can get out on time. It's not 4:30
yet." So I got up and left and I went back and reported this
conversation to Ickes and said "I have found out that you have
a right, as ecretary of the nterior, to appoint the people in the camps
in the parks of the country." Because the National Park Service
was a part of the Interior Department. And any CCC camps that were set
up in the parks, he could appoint the people. He said "Well,
all right, you write me a peremptory order to the Park Service saying
that the next job that becomes available
in"-intellectual work, I've forgotten what they
called it-"should go to a Negro." So I wrote
up the peremptory order, all right, and sent it down to the Park
Service. A few days later they came in, a delegation to see me and said
"We have this order from you but it's not going to be as
easy as you think. The job that's become
available is that of an archeologist who will do some work for us in
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania." Finding an unemployed Negro
archeologist in 1933 was not an easy job. But we scoured the countryside
and found a very fine fellow named Dr King from West Virginia and sent
his name down to the Park Service for the job. A few days later a
delegation came back to my office and said "Well, the man's
name that you sent down is obviously the best qualified that we have for
the job. But we don't believe that you can understand what the situation
is in Gettysburg, Pa. There the CCC office is in the same building with
the post office, just above the post office, and there are only white
people there and they're not used to working with Negroes and not used
to having Negroes around. If you insist on this, there will be riots and
bloodshed and it will be on your head." He was trying to scare
me into backing away from it. I said "Well now look, my
grandfather fought at Gettysburg to keep the Negroes slaves. And your
grandfathers fought there to liberate them. If there's any more blood to
be shed on this issue, there's no better place for it than Gettysburg.
So I think you should go ahead, get the job done and give it to Dr
King." They got up and were furious and marched out. For days
after that I looked at the paper every day to see if there were any
riots or bloodshed in Gettysburg, you know. But weeks passed by. I got a
call later, from Gettysburg. It was some colonel there who called, said
he was coming to Washington the next day and could he see me. I said
yes. He came in. I didn't know what to expect. He said "Well,
Dr Foreman, I understand you are responsible for recommending Dr King to
take the job with us in Gettysburg." I said "Well yes,
that's true. I was responsible." "Well, I just wanted
you to know that if you have any more like him, we'd like them. Like to
get them. We've never had a better person. We haven't had a bit of
trouble. The whole time he's been there,
everything's been fine." So that's always stood out to me as an
example of how, if you allow yourself to be intimidated, you see, you
can lose an opportunity. But once we went through with it and King got
the job, then the whole question of Negroes eating . . . Dr King was a
Negro and he sat there and he ate with the officers. Then they put Negro
officers in, later on. Other jobs they gave to Negroes. It was a
question of really trying to intimidate me on the part of the Park
Service.