Chapter 32

This is Gemma Kane, speaking with husband and wife, Denton and Lula Mae Wright, friends of my mother, at their home in Kiro, Kansas, a suburb northwest of Topeka. Today is Friday, May 26, 1961, and the time is 7:45 PM.

Gemma: (Pushes back from table) What a fantastic meal. Those collard greens were delicious.

Denton: Home grown. Gardening keeps me busy since I retired.

Lula Mae: (Gently boxes his ear) Even better, it keeps him out of my hair. You brought us up to date on your mother over dinner. Now, how about you?

Gemma: I’m a labour reporter for the San Diego Union. My husband Todd is a lawyer, a public defender. (Laughs) I guess you could say we’re both do-gooders. And our son Frankie finished college last year, majoring in architecture. You can imagine how proud Tazia is, another Italian carrying on the great tradition. He’s getting married next month to a wonderful girl named Julia, which, as I mentioned on the phone, is the reason I’m on this “quest” to find his grandfather.

Lula Mae: (Raises eyebrows) You’re doing this for him, not yourself?

Gemma: (Holds up hands) Okay, there’s a little self-interest. Not that I’m being very successful.

Lula Mae: Did you ever think you were asking the wrong questions?

Gemma: (Defensive) I’m a reporter.

Lula Mae: Maybe you’re trying to find your daddy when you should be looking for your mama.

Gemma: (Reluctant) I’m beginning to think so too, but I’m not ready to abandon my search for him. (Looks at photographs of children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren on mantel) Tell me about Mirlee Bee and her family.

Lula Mae: Her husband Thomas works for the post office. Those four children there are theirs. The oldest one is expecting this fall. Mirlee Bee’s been teaching almost a quarter century now.

Gemma: Good for her. I remember when the two of us played school, Mirlee Bee was always the teacher and I was her “star” pupil. (Laughs) We both thought highly of ourselves.

Denton: Got that from your parents and ain’t nothing wrong with it. Beats growing up ashamed. We wanted Mirlee Bee to be proud of her background, just like your mama wanted for you.

Lula Mae: You and Mirlee Bee had enough burdens to bear, her on account of being a coloured girl and you because you had no daddy. We had to make you both strong. I’m glad to see you turned out fine. (Leans forward) So why you want to go and shake things up at this late stage?

Gemma: Not shake things up, Lula Mae. Just take care of unfinished business.

Denton: (Lights pipe) I always believed in minding my own business.

Lula Mae: Not me. (Everyone laughs) Drove your mama crazy. I bet you poking around like this is driving her crazy too.

Gemma: I can’t say she’s happy about it. But my mother knows that once I’ve made up my mind, nothing stops me. That trait serves me well in my work.

Denton: (Puffs, smiles) Your mama the same way. Wouldn’t even back down when a bunch of rednecks threatened to burn down her house. She tell you about that?

Gemma: No, but I heard a little about it from Mr Tapper. He said white men came out to the farm and then chased you all back home. He said there was a bloody battle in the street.

Lula Mae: Your mama gathered up all the women and children and took us to your house. Then that itty bitty woman scared off them drunken hooligans when they came calling. I bet they didn’t admit that to their wives. (Hoots)

Denton: You get down to it, coloured and white men ain’t so different in front of their womenfolk.

Lula Mae: Some of the women didn’t want to go at first, refused to trust your mama. Couldn’t figure out why a white woman would choose to live with us or want to help.

Gemma: So how did my mother persuade them to take shelter with us that day?

Lula Mae: (Points) Put you up to it. You told the children there was toys and cookies at your house and they followed you home. Their mamas had no choice but to go along too. Your mama was as poor as the rest of us, but she made sure there was enough to go around. Won them over.

Denton: Lula Mae and me tried to help your mother get along with our neighbours, but in the end, she helped herself more than we helped her.

Gemma: You were already friends with Mama before the white farmers attacked the community?

Denton: Only because my brother Elvan sent her to us. He knew her from the meat packing plant where they worked in Chicago. We wouldn’t have taken Tazia in if Elvan hadn’t vouched for her.

Lula Mae: Speak for yourself.

Denton: (Abashed) She’s right. My wife would take in anyone, she’s that good, but I was scared. It wasn’t natural, and I was afraid for my family. (Lula Mae gives him the eye) And for myself.

Gemma: E-l-v-a-n? (Denton nods) Do you know which plant?

Denton: Armour.

Gemma: (Writes down this second clue; smiles) I thought so. To this day, Mama won’t buy their products. What was her relationship with Elvan?

Lula Mae: Nosy as I am, some things ain’t none of my business. Your mother and Elvan be one, your mother and your daddy be another. I’m sure she done got her reasons for not wanting to talk about him. On some accounts, white and coloured women ain’t so different neither. (Stands to get more coffee) Mirlee Bee should be coming round about now. She won’t eat my dinners, says all that fried food’s too fattening, but she ain’t above helping herself to my desserts.

Denton: You and her always find something to feud about.

Lula Mae: (Skips Denton’s cup) Mirlee Bee and I get along just fine, Mister, and I bet that except for this dustup, Gemma and Tazia ... (Back door opens, Mirlee Bee comes in)

Mirlee Bee: (Hand over mouth) Dear Lord. Gemma?

Gemma: (Overcome) Mirlee Bee. (Long and tearful embrace; step back to look at each other)

Denton: (Red faced, looks down, but smiles) Now, now ladies.

Lula Mae: Here you two. (Hands us each a wad of tissues)

Mirlee Bee: Mama, how come you didn’t tell me Gemma was coming? I might have missed her.

Lula Mae: You wouldn’t have missed my sweet potato pie. I knew you’d show up. (Points at us to sit; cuts slice of pie for Mirlee Bee and seconds for the rest of us; refills Denton’s coffee)

Mirlee Bee: (Waves toward pictures) I’m sure my folks done told you all about my family.

Gemma: I hear you became a teacher.

Mirlee Bee: My mother says it’s on account of your mother that I did. (Looks at Lula Mae)

Lula Mae: Tazia paid the farmer’s daughter to teach you when she saw you weren’t learning nothing at the Negro school. Then she paid extra for Miss Nellie to teach Mirlee Bee too.

Mirlee Bee: School bored me. I might have dropped out if Nellie hadn’t hooked me on learning.

Lula Mae: (Eyes drill into me) This visit be worth something if you go back and tell your mama thank you for us.

Mirlee Bee: (Nods in agreement) It made all the difference in my life. So, catch me up on yours.

Gemma: (Changes tape) Your parents can fill you in on the details; no need to repeat myself and bore them. If you’re wondering why I came back to Topeka, though, it’s because I’m on the trail of my father. Not having much luck, I admit. But with my son getting married in a few weeks, I thought it would make a terrific wedding gift to present him with his grandfather.

Mirlee Bee: I was too young when you lived here to be much help with that. But seeing as how I’m going to become a grandmother in a few months, I think that if you find him, he’ll be excited to know he’s a granddaddy. Hopefully, it won’t be too long before you’re a grandma yourself.

Lula Mae: (Cuts Mirlee Bee another slice of pie) I bet Gemma let Tazia dote on her boy Frankie. Mirlee Bee complained I spoilt her babies rotten. Wouldn’t hardly let me look after them.

Mirlee Bee: Mama! How can you say such a mean thing? (Shoves away plate; folds arms) You wait and see if I bring that new great grand baby around after that. Humph.

Denton: (Wags head at me) See what I mean about them two always feuding? Over nonsense.

Gemma: (Laughs) At least Lula Mae speaks her mind. My mother holds it in.

Lula Mae: I’m sure your mama done talk proud about you being a reporter. (Squeezes Mirlee Bee’s hand) Just like I’m proud of my daughter teaching.

Mirlee Bee: (Squeezes back) My folks encouraged me, and Nellie Tapper was a mentor. By then, Negro schools weren’t as bad as when we went. In fact, of the five districts in the Supreme Court case, Topeka was the only one where conditions were almost equal to the white schools.

Denton: Mirlee Bee knows all about this legal stuff. My girl could have been a lawyer.

Mirlee Bee: Coloured children still had to travel a long way to school though. Topeka argued that the district provided free busing, but they didn’t say those poor children got to class too tired to learn. I used to start the day with nap time instead of a reading lesson.

Gemma: I read that Negro parents protested as far back as 1917, when we still lived here.

Lula Mae: Your mama wanted to march with us, but we were afraid seeing a white lady on the line would start a riot. So she stayed in the background and fueled us with coffee and sandwiches.

Gemma: You weren’t even asking for the schools to be integrated, just better. All the same, you were forty years ahead of the times.

Mirlee Bee: Brown changed the law seven years ago. It remains to be seen if reality catches up with it. Especially in the suburbs.

Denton: White parents tried to stop us Negroes from buying houses out here in Kiro. Didn’t want little coloured children going to their schools.

Lula Mae: Ain’t no one ever again gonna tell me where I can live or my grandbabies can learn.

Mirlee Bee: (Shakes head) I’m convinced the testimony that swung the Court to a unanimous decision came from the doll research by those Negro psychologists at Harvard.

Gemma: (Smiles at Denton) She’s not only a legal expert; she’s a shrink expert too.

Mirlee Bee: Negro kids as young as three preferred white dolls over coloured ones. Thought they were prettier and smarter. That’s what finally shot down the idea of separate but equal. Children growing up seeing themselves as dirty and dumb.

Gemma: Did you see yourself as inferior to me?

Mirlee Bee: I envied your hair. It was curly like mine, but not as unruly. And your skin made me think of snow, especially on hot summer days. Did you ever think I was ugly? Or stupid?

Gemma: Gosh, no. From the moment you taught me how to play leap frog, I thought you were smarter. I also wanted dark skin that didn’t show dirt, so Mama would stop trying to clean mine all the time. (Everyone laughs) More than anything, I envied your family. From what I saw living in our part of town, all Negro children had fathers.

Denton: (Puzzled) White kids did too.

Gemma: I didn’t know any other white kids, except for those two orphan children at our school.

Lula Mae: You knew other white children at church.

Gemma: I didn’t make the connection, maybe because church wasn’t the same as home.

Lula Mae: For your mother, they were. God lived in your home.

Gemma: Yes, but she didn’t bring our home to church. Mama was always wary about priests prying into our lives. I suppose because she felt guilty about my not having a father around.

Lula Mae: So by bringing that man to church for your son’s wedding, are you absolving her or making her feel worse?

Gemma: I’m ... Wait a minute. The tape’s about to run out. I’ll get another.

Lula Mae: No need. We done said enough. (Hugs me) You come by for dinner before you leave on Sunday. You’re even welcome to go to church with us beforehand. (Winks) I won’t tell your mama if you pray with us Baptists or report you if you skip the Catholic service and sleep late.

The interview ended at 9:45 PM.