Interview of Mrs. Eleanor L. White

Interview Team: Chandler Anderson, Kelsey Malkin, Christal Judge

Faculty Facilitator: Mrs. Sonya Boyd

Date of Interview: November 9, 2006

Eleanor White (Lindsey) was born on December 5, 1928, in Phenix City. As a young girl, the family moved to Columbus, and she attended 5 th Avenue Elementary School, and later Spencer High School, which was located on 10 th Avenue at that time. In those days, students graduated in the 11 th grade—there was no twelfth grade in Columbus schools. During WWII, the family lived on 8 th Avenue across from the Liberty Theater. Her mother worked as a secretary and her father worked at the Sun Ray Cleaners.

Mrs. White does not remember the school being extensively involved in activities supporting the war effort, although she recalls that students could buy stamps for purchasing war bonds. Much of the community support activities revolved around the USO Club, which was around the corner (now a parking garage for the Columbus Department of Public Safety), and her church, the First African Baptist Church of Columbus, which was down the street.

Rationing during the war for many African American families did not have the impact felt by many in the white community. Most of them did not own automobiles, and therefore gas rationing was not a big problem. Although bus transportation was available in the city, the black shopping and entertainment center was fairly compact and located within blocks of the Liberty Theater on 8 th Avenue. 5 th Avenue Elementary was three blocks away, and Spencer High School was on 10 th Avenue. All these locations were within walking distance, so for the children, bicycles and walking usually sufficed. In the Lindsey family, there were five siblings (three brothers and a sister, besides herself), and Mrs. White recalled that shoes and sugar—two items that were rationed—were not a problem because of the number of ration books allowed. Ration coupons could be combined and used for the child who needed shoes at a certain time. During the war, wages and prices were frozen, and nobody had a lot of money. “We didn’t realize how poor we were back then—it was only later”.

Entertainment was limited due to limited funds, but for black children, there was the Liberty Theater across the street, the Dixie Theater on 1 st Avenue, and the Royal Theater further down on 10 th Avenue (later the Three Arts Theater). At the Royal, African Americans had to sit in the balcony. Since Mrs. Whites’ father was from Phenix City, they would visit his relatives there, and she recalls the popular Chicken Comer’s Barbecue. Football was a big event back then, as it is today. Georgia and Auburn used to play their game at Memorial Stadium. There was a big parade in those days down 4 th Avenue to the stadium, but because the universities were white, it was a “white affair”—blacks understood that and did not attend. The Tuskegee Morehouse game was another matter.

Many black soldiers attended the First African Baptist Church, to which Mrs. White and her family belonged. She remembers with a smile that the minister, the Reverend T.W. Smith, would go around the corner to the USO Club before services. He would play pool with the soldiers, then invite them down for services. There was always a large contingent of soldiers there, and afterwards, the Reverend would ask them to make donations to the church. Many families in the congregation also took soldiers home for Sunday dinner. Those families that had extra rooms rented them out to soldiers and their families from out of town. She also recalls that the Reverend ran a delivery service before services—going down Cusseta Road to pick up various parishioners that did not have rides. She laughs and says it was lucky back then that they didn’t arrest people for having too many people in cars, because the reverend’s car was always overfilled.

The USO Club was a hub of activity for black soldiers. They could play pool and cards there, eat at the snack bar, and on weekends there were live bands and dances. On the post at Fort Benning, there were also dances, and Mrs. White said that there would be chartered buses to take the young ladies to post. Several marriages resulted from these wartime acquaintances, and many of the soldiers came back to Columbus after the war to settle locally. At Spencer High School, many of the boys of draft age were drafted before they completed high school. She recalls that several returned after the war to complete their education.

News in those days came mostly through newspapers and the radio. Mrs. White recalls listening to the radio on December 7 th and hearing about the attack on Pearl Harbor, and wondering what would happen—a question answered the next day when Congress declared war on Japan, and later Germany declared war on the United States.

She clearly remembered getting the news of President Roosevelt’s death in 1945—“everybody was just sad all over”. News of the defeat in Germany and later over Japan were occasions for prayer services at local churches.

Mrs. White met Mr. White after the war, and they were married in 1952. She worked for years for the Parks and Recreation Department, remembering some of the turmoil resulting from the time that that the city and county governments were consolidated. She has stayed active in retirement, serving on the City’s Board of Elections and on the City Retiree Board. She loves to play bridge and has had two granddaughters attend Shaw High School. Her nephew, Chris Lindsey, was an assistant principal at Shaw before becoming the principal at Carver High School.