Interview of Oscar Stanback

Interview Team: Forrest Parker, Anton Graphenreed, Crystal Nguyen

Faculty Facilitator: Mr. Harrington, Mr. Linn

Date of Interview: 11-9-2006

Oscar Stanback was born in Columbus, Georgia, on May 18, 1924. In 1941, he was 17 years old, and living with his parents at 1724 8th Avenue (located on the current site of the Medical Center). His mother was a domestic worker, and his father was a common laborer. He had attended Claflin School through the seventh grade, and was attending Spencer High School when the war broke out. His mother, wishing for him to complete high school, was able to obtain for him a deferment from the draft. Upon graduation in May, 1943, he received his draft notice and reported to Fort Benning for training 10 days later.

He remembers that he did not learn of the bombing of Pearl Harbor on Sunday, December 7. Few black families owned radios at that time. He and many of his friends heard of the bombing when they arrived at school on Monday. As a three sport athlete (baseball, football, and basketball), he became a member of the Spencer High School Victory Corps, whose members encouraged other students to buy victory stamps and war bonds. As a member of St. Johns AME Church, he also recalls that the church invited African American soldiers to attend services on Sunday, and that church members would regularly take soldiers home on the weekend for a home-cooked meal.

Rationing was a problem for everyone, but since his Aunt was a cook for the City Hospital, she would bring home leftovers after work. Gasoline rationing was not a problem since the family did not own a car. Public bus transportation cost five cents per ride, and usually his mother would give him ten cents a day to get him to school and back. However, many times he would walk to school and back (from 18th Street where his house was to 8th Street where Spencer was located) and use the money to buy a snack after school.

For entertainment, he remembers playing baseball at the South Commons. One could skate from his house down to Golden Park—having to choose his routes carefully because some of the streets weren’t paved. It was downhill all the way, but the trip home was not as easy. The YMCA for African Americans was located on 9th Street and 6th Avenue, and this was also a popular hangout for the athletes. Around the corner was the black USO Club, where dances were held for the soldiers, but rules barred local teens from entry. He recalls that A.J. McClung ran the USO Club. The University of Georgia and Auburn University used to play their annual football game at Memorial Stadium in Columbus, and he and his friends would go down to the stadium to get a peek at the game from the earthen embankments around the stadium. The Liberty Theater showed movies for five to ten cents, and most kids used tokens to get in.

In a non sequiter, Mr. Stanback mentioned the subject of “privies”, outdoor toilets frequently seen in Columbus even in the 1940’s. By this time, privies were not holes dug in the ground as in former times, necessitating frequent filling and moving. Containers were provided by the city, and emptied regularly as a city service. Nevertheless, this observation gives an insight into a rarely mentioned area during this era—city sanitation.

Growing up, Mr. Stanback worked at many jobs to help make ends meet for the family. He noted with pride that he was able in most cases to handle his own needs from the money he earned. He worked at the clothing store Schwobilt as a presser; some weekends, he shined shoes at a local barber shop for five cents a pair—earning 70 cents was a good day’s work back then. He also worked at V.V. Vick’s jewelry Store in downtown Columbus. In high school, his football coach, Mr. John Martin, was head waiter at the Bama Club in Phenix City. He would take the senior athletes who had good grades to work weekends at the club. It was hard work—starting at around 5 or 6 o’clock in the evening and working until 3 or 4 o’clock the next morning. Things got pretty rough at times—especially when the paratroopers came in. Mr Stanback commented, “It was rough—they couldn’t keep bouncers”. Then he added with a grin, “The paratroopers were the bouncers”. However, his Aunt put a stop to his working at the Bama Club after she learned how “rough” things were.

After graduating from high school in May, 1943, college was “out of the question”, and joining the military was a “way out”. In June of 1943, Mr Stanback was in the army and stationed at Fort Benning, playing ball for Special Services, who had found out about his athletic exploits in Columbus. When not involved in athletics, Mr. Stanback worked as a mail clerk, and also with the Special Training Unit, teaching illiterate trainees enough writing skills to sign their names on the payroll sheet. Although his family lived in Columbus, he lived in barracks on post, since only married soldiers were allowed to live off-post. When “limited service” soldiers (wounded soldiers able to perform light duty) began returning from combat areas, they took over these duties, and Mr. Stanback was assigned to Fort Indiantown Gap for six months to be trained before deploying to the Pacific Theater. He arrived in Okinawa as the battle for the island was raging, and his unit stayed busy unloading ammunition and equipment off ships until the end of the war. Air raids were common, usually striking the U.S. Forces in the evening around 6:30 to 7:00 pm in the evenings. When the Japanese surrender was announced, he and his buddies were packed and ready to participate in the invasion of the Japanese Islands—they “rejoiced” when they heard the news.

Mustered out of the army in April 1946, Mr. Stanback wanted to continue his education, but didn’t know where. Morris Brown had offered a baseball scholarship, but his parents thought that life in Atlanta might be a “little too fast”, so he decided on Tuskegee Institute. He met his future wife there, getting married in 1946. In 1950, with a Physical Education degree, he was the first black physical education teacher hired in the Muscogee County School District. After teaching and coaching, he steadily moved up the administrative ladder in the district as assistant principal, principal, and an assistant superintendent before retiring in 1980.