Race Riot Generation
TTHS – Thornton Township High School. Harvey, IL
During the 60′s and 70′s, our towns were at ground zero of the biggest racial violence since the Civil War.
We were just kids. Innnocent. Most of didn’t hate based on race.
Yet we were thrust into the front lines of our parents ugly biogotry. It was war, with all its trauma and brutality. That’s not hyperbole.
Grade school priest being called “Nigger Lover” by parishioners. Grade school kids watching the high school being tear gassed outside. A white kid watching black kids “literally being tossed under the bus … “ Kids whom he liked, had played basketball with just a few years earlier. Lock-downs were not uncommmon. A white kid in a locked-down room watching another white kid in the hallway getting the shit kicked out of him by blacks. And that’s just for starters.
The graduating classes of 1967-ish thru 1978 can be called “The Race Riot generations.” It was about Blacks and Whites, but it was far from black and white.
This is the place I’m collecting our stories. How you felt then. Send me your stories, photos, reflections.
Talk the way you did back then. Don’t don’t clean it up, sanitize it, or PC foo-foo Nice-Nice it.
It’s ok if you did stuff that was mean. That makes you cringe today when you reflect on it. The statue of limitations is long past. For you. And your parents.
Why do this? To let others learn and gain from our pain. To heal some wounds of our own. To push one more turn of the wheel in the growth of civilization.
Doesn’t matter if were in the middle of a riot or had no conflict in your school. A tough talking leader or a nice kid trying to stay out of it.
No matter where you were, you were there. It was all around you. Making growing up even more crazy than it is.
For me, I was really bummed. No school Spirit. No rah-rah football teams. No dances. No real Homecoming parades – me and some friends got attacked at my first one. No fun dances that any of us wanted to go to.
The excitement of growing up was off, the sharp edge of tension was on.
Hi Everyone! « Nat Cap Club said
[...] Brand New! (Feb, 2011) - Stories from My high school’s Race Riot torn decade – 1968 to ’78 [...]
Linda said
I have to say I never experienced any of this and I graduated from Thornridge in 1971. I got along with everyone and we were the first class to be integrated at T’ridge.
natcapclub said
Linda,
Thanks for writing.
What were the attitudes of others around you? If it was hatred, how did that make you feel?
I spoke to a T-Ridge guy last summer at the Harvey Daze, and he talks of seeing white kids litterally throwing blacks under a bus, and one black kid getting thrown out a window. He was horrified, but he knew if he stood up, he’d get beaten up by the white kids.
Take Care,
Bob
Denise Hryn said
Hello. Denise Hryn. I grew up on the south side of Chicago in the 70′s and 80′s. There was ALWAYS HUGE racial tension in the area I lived in. Always hearing the “N” word, parents pointing out the neighborhoods to stay out of (kill you if they saw a “whitey” on their block). My biggest was when a very nice, average middle class black family moved on to my block,Local kids wore kkk garb and burned a cross on their front lawn. I was apalled. No one talked to the only 2 balck kids at school, who were very smart, excelled academically, but would not make eye contact with any of us out of fear. Here is a family trying to do right by their children, give them a better life than living in the ghetto and there were the people in my neighborhood acting like the uneducated alcoholics most of them were. Because of one black famliy the whold block moved. It has taken me years to NOT be predujudiced against other races. We are all one in God’s eyes.
natcapclub said
Hi Denise,
Very touching story.
Especially the end, where you talk of the long term impact on you.
That’s something I don’t think people who haven’t been thru this think is even possible.
Much less understand. People have such a tendency to go “oh, well, why didn’t you just “get over” it.”
Especially in your case, where the hatred was in your home too.
Was there anyone you could talk to who shared your feelings? Like friends or teachers?
Was there any significant events / people that helped you in your process?
I was lucky, in that my parents were not racist. And I’d gotten into sports and theater, where among us, things were cool.
Take Care,
Bob
Kimberly Woodhall said
OMG, I was just trying to explain at work today, what it was like in the 60′s and 70′s in Dolton. I was asked this by a very hard working,
smart, polite black coworker in his 20′s. I found it very hard to put into words. I said it was very sad, frightening and it made no sense to me. I also said it felt like a war. Thank you for putting it in a context that can be described accurately. Am I allowed to print the above description? Please let me know.
natcapclub said
Kimberly,
Absolutely! That’s part of the value of this – there are young blacks who can’t comprehend what it was like. Their parents probably know, but they may not want to talk about it.
I encourage people to use the language that we did back then.
Even those of us that weren’t predjudice, we called ‘em nigger at times. It was so pervasive, you couldn’t get away from it.
And, being in the minority (not hating), and being just kids, we couldn’t speak out much.
I’d love to have this kids parents jump into this as well. I’m sure they have stories as well.
I’m glad this could help. It’s made me feel good, that maybe this is doing some good.
doug wilcoxen said
I was born and raised in Dolton. My parents and our neighbors paid taxes and built a new high school, so that my classmates and I could go to a local high school, and not have to worry about being bussed to Harvey. I walked to Franklin Elementary grades K-6. I walked to Lincoln Jr. High grades 7&8. I walked to Doltons Thornridge HS my freshman year. Then the federal goverment decided to pass the federal desegregation law. Now I had to be bussed to TTHS anyway.Even when I was going to T-Ridge I didn’t attend classes all the time. When going to TTHS I attened classes even less. After being attacked in gym class during a riot situation one day, I started hanging around a group of guys that wore the three quarter lengh leather jackets. Talked my folks into buying me one and became what was known as a “greaser”. Once again I was jumped in gym class for wearing my leather by a shine known as “Red” and two of his buddies.The police stopped it , only after they beat me and stole my class ring. I was brought before the dean and was given the “opportunity” to drop out or be expelled.Nothing happened to the three guys that assulted me. I do not blame anybody but the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT for thier involvement in shoving bussing on EVERYBODY. I think black and white both liked the way things were prior to bussing.I should have graduated in 1974 but was forced to leave in 72/73. Joined the Army and had many friends that were black and no problems at all. It wasn’t a black/white problem, it was a goverment getting in the way problem. Maybe an attemt to ceate racial problems.
natcapclub said
Doug,
Thanks for your story.
Talking the way we talked back then is part of what this collection of stories is about.
Those were rough times.
We were teenagers, dealing with an adult issue that has plagued America for centuries.
Diana said
I also , was raised in Dolton and bussed to TTHS, beginning my freshman year.(1971), and things then on the racial aspect of things were tense .One day as school was getting out,( I think in about 1972) buses lined the street in front of the infamous Door 15. There were blacks on one side of the street and whites on the other …I do not know where the bricks etc came from but all of a sudden they and everything else was being thrown at the buses as well as each other, and alot of people were hurt.. I also think this was the first time they called in the National Guard in..very violent time..we were chased to whatever the street is called that Jack and the Box was on and all the way to the overpass past there..I remember seeing a guy being grabbed by one of the Guards, he released his belt and the Guard just stood there holding that belt…I too like Doug agree that it was indeed political and we as kids got caught in the middle..blacks and whites. .we had to grow up fast just to survive high school…pretty sad if you ask me..alot of kids did not get to or finish high school because of the riots, because parents were also taking their kids out for safety purposes. I am so glad that my children did not have to endure the riots, and not knowing any better the prejudice..there is still alot of hate out there and I believe everyone deserves to be judged on their own merits not what color their skin is… we were just kids dealing with adult issues, that should have not been forced on us….thanks for listening…
natcapclub said
Diana, Thanks for sharing.
It blows my mind that I don’t recall the National Guard being called in. I was there. I had to have been. Just goes to show how much one can block out painful memories.
I really believe that our stories will help others.
Help create understanding.
Help move the Social Justice ball forward a yard or two. Or help Bend the Arc of Justice, to paraphrase-adapt a Martin Luther King phrase.
Kimberly Woodhall said
I’m amazed how denial works in the mind! Bob, I was sharing, reading your stories and others comments to my x husband, Scott, who is 58 years old, from Harvey, then Cal. City. His exact words were “that’s BS,” tear gas, lock downs and the National Guards! Never happened! I said I remembered this also, I’m 56, from Dolton. He seemed very irritated, so I dropped the subject. Have you seen this kind of reaction before? How can our two memories from the same area be so different? I know this happened there, but I can’t believe his reaction. Let me know. Thx. Kim
natcapclub said
Kim,
I feel for you. Your husbands reaction is mind boggling.
No, I’ve never heard of anyone who doesn’t remember the racial tension – it was all over the South Side.
But, um, there is this thing called “the Library” your hubby can check out. Sorry for the sarcasm.
btw, Martin Luther King Jr. marched in Harvey in 1966.
Last Spring I went to the Thornton Hall of Fame inductee ceremony.
[this is something that a number of high schools are having. It's for teachers and alum]
One of the teachers being inducted told me
“my wife could always tell when there had been a riot – she could smell the tear gas on me”
Check out “Thornridge: The perfect Season in Black and White”, by Scott Lynn. It’s about T-Ridge’s 71-72 championship season. I just bought it.
fyi – I’m offering $1,000 to anyone who can get Obama to view this page, or my book.
Thanks for commenting.
Bob
Karen Cawley said
I do remember alot of racial tension. We were kind of on the tail end of it. But I also was not bussed to a different school. T-ridge was bad enough. I felt sorry for anyone who had to go to Thornton. Doug I didn’t realize that happened to you.
I was jumped at a pep assembly. I always cut the pep assemblies but the one time I went, it was trouble. I did nothing to start it. When done they just dismissed and everyone headed for the door at the same time. I got pushed into some girl behind me and she started after me, my sister (we were always together) jumped in. When I looked up it was just me and Peggy surrounded by black people. Peggy kicked her ass and then got jumped by two more girls, she kicked their asses too. I stood there and held her glasses, loads of help. One of them was in my art class. I had helped her with her macrame project. I thought we were friendly.
I had just gotten out of the hospital and was not well. If Peggy had not been there I would have been seriously hurt. They jumped me, Peggy stepped in and got suspended. It seemed like it took forever for any teachers to get there. Needless to say, Peggy was treated like a queen during that suspension. That year Char (from St. Jude’s) got jumped in the bathroom. She had hair down to her waist and they cut it all off.
This was at T-ridge and things were much worse at Thornton Township.
It was strange, I was not even prejudice but due to the “White Flight” from Roseland alot of parents were. I think the blacks that got bussed in were scared.
My brother graduated T-ridge in ’70 and remembers the racial tension. If Bob changed schools and was in Cal City, it is possible that he was able to forget. It was kinda tramatic. I say, go ahead and let him forget.
natcapclub said
Thanks for commenting.
You’re not alone with getting forced into the whirl of hatred that was all around us. Jesus, we were just kids, teenagers.
A few things:
1) In collecting these stories, I found out from a black person that it wasn’t just whites that lost their property value and had to sell. Middle Class blacks in Roseland lost everything too. He claims that it was the realtors who made a killing on it.
2) The black girl who was in on jumping you – she probably had no choice. She may have felt bad about it.
It was basically a rule, that, even if you were friends with somebody of the opposite color, if it came down to a group fight, you had to stick with your own color. Otherwise, your own color would beat you up. I knew about this rule back then.
Since I started collecting these stories, I’ve talked to both blacks and whites who knew it too.
It was mob rule, peer pressure stuff.
I was never forced into a situation where I had to choose.
3) A former classmate told me last year about “toilet twirls”, done by black girls on white girls.
I do hope that those who got jumped, they are (now, at least) able to see that bad stuff was done by both groups.
Take Care, Bob
natcapclub said
Don’t forget:
there were Assholes in both colors.
…. some people have changed as they’ve gotten older…
…… and some people haven’t.
To be fair, it’s probably more of a continuum as to how much they’ve changed.
natcapclub said
In the category of “Things you don’t know until you find out”.
A few people here have suggested that the race problems were the fault of politicians.
Because they forced Integration, the bussing of black kids from their town, across town to the previously all white high school – T-Ridge.
Well, that’s only part of the story.
In reading a book about T-Ridge’s phenominical 2 year basketball champions reign, it turns out ….
the basketball coaches at Thornridge were jealous that Thornton was getting all these black kids, and kicking ass in sports. Ron Ferguson admitted that they wouldn’t have won without the black kids.
T-Ridge coaches lobbied to get the boundaries changed, and were happy as pigs in shit when the boundaries got changed.
He said he had to be careful, because he didn’t want to piss off the whites.
natcapclub said
Carolyn Pollock Clark facebook, Feb 9
• After reading some of the comments on the “I Grew Up In Dolton…” page I felt compelled to say something. I’m not a friend of the page because I did not grow up there however I have a cousin who did and I see some of the posts on her page. I won’t call her out by name because she may not want to claim me – LOL! However, if you should choose to share any of my comments, feel free and you are welcome to use my name.
I grew up in the heart of the South in downtown Atlanta and graduated from high school there in 1975. As you well know, the South has a horrible reputation in race relations but my experience is so different than the public perception. I am white and when I little we had a domestic worker who came to our home once a week. Her mother had worked for my grandmother and her sister worked an aunt. We were always taught to treat them with the utmost respect and knew that to NOT do that would be a serious offense with serious consequences. As a teen and young adult I remember that the lady that worked for my aunt retired but came to visit her on a regular basis and the two of them would sit on the porch and rock and exchange family stories.
My high school was about 75% black and I cannot remember one instance of there being racial tension or a racial fight. We did have some marches and debates when it was first proposed to recognize black history month in the Atlanta public schools however most of the students considered it an adult/parent issue. We did take advantage though by being so disruptive classes were cancelled. As soon as the TV cameras went away we went right back to being friends again. Our neighborhoods were not very integrated and there was a lot of “white flight” that happened during the decade of the 70′s but it was all peaceful.
By the late 70′s I had had black neighbors myself, had blacks as guests in my home, visited in their homes and had a black best friend and roommate. You cannot even imagine how shocked I was when another cousin moved to Atlanta from the Kankakee area (Manteno) and I found out that he had never had a conversation with a black person or even met one face-to-face! Wasn’t I the one who grew up in the supposed racist, segregated South? To say I was surprised was an understatement.
Don’t get me wrong – I know that there was a lot of terrible racist things that went on in the South during this era. However, I also know based on my own family’s experiences that there was a lot of racism and segregation in the North as well. I’ve also talked with many blacks who had lived in both the North and the South and told me they preferred the South because there was an openness there that they did not experience in the North. In the South if someone did not like blacks they did not hesitate to let you know whereas in the North people kept quiet which led the blacks to not know who to trust and who to be careful around. In some ways – in both regions – things haven’t changed much. Or as you’ve heard said – the more things change the more they remain the same.
Good luck with your research and your book. I admire you for taking this on.
Carolyn Clark
My response to her, via facebook. (March 7)
Thanks Carolyn, I really appreciate your thoughts, and taking the time to write them down.
I understand the sentiment – Upfront vs Hidden
I was hitch-hiking in about 1978 in southern Indiania, and got picked up by an older black guy. He explained how in the South, it was stated up front if a hotel wouldn’t let you stay. In the North, they’d just say they were full up. He said the South was easier.
Have you seen the webpage where I”m going to post this? –
natcapclub said
oH my God ladies – I et the SAME black guy you did!
It was the summer of 1978, I hitchhiked down to Ball State university.
To meet a lady.
On the way back, I got picked up by an old black guy, and he told me the EXACT same story. I swear to God!
What were you doing hitching in Indiana?\
—-
Growing up, did you have segrated stuff – water fountains, bathrooms?
I suspect you did.
Which points out the wierd contortions whites had back then, in order to do some of the things they did.
This is OK:
Black women breast fed the white babies.
Cooked your food.
Raise your children.
NOT OK>
You can’t drink from the same water fountain.
sleep in the same hotels, perform on the same night clubs.. etc
A chapter in my book on how to improve race relations. Getting whites to voluntarily like black people. And insight into why whites have so much hatred. This will trip you out.
Herb Schactner said
Wow, this brings back many mixed emotions. My H.S. expirience at Thornton from ’68-’72 was for the most part pretty good. I had a large friend base while dabbling in all four of the socio-stereotype groups of the time; Socialites, greasers, heads, and blacks, the latter being in school only. That was sad.
The 1968 school year started with the aftermath of Martin Luther King being killed. I was in the cafeteria when all hell broke loose early one morning before school started. That pretty much set the tone for the next four years, culminating th a full scale riot in ’72, my Senior year.
I vividly remember being lined up in the park just north of school.There were hundreds of us whites, facing hundreds of blacks. I remember seeing black guys that were my athlete friends, getting ready to square off with me. They didn’t like it any more than I did, but “duty called”.
High School seniors shouldn’t have to expirience National Guard, tear gas, weapons and getting thrown in jail as we did, but those were the times.
The silver lining in this very dark crowd was being asked as a “white leader”, to sit in on a peace making commitee, after school was closed for almost two weeks.
Basically about 20 of us whites sat down with about 20 blacks in the board room at school and worked it out, school resumed and we all graduated.
The feelings of most in those meetings was of non-hatred sentiment, allthough for the most part going unsaid.
I have lived in Milwaukee for the last 40 years, seldom talking about those days, mainly because it all sounds like unbelievable bull shit.
I today am grateful for those expiriences, having giving me a true sense of racism and how evil it is.
The real racists back then were outside agitators such as KKK, Black Stone Rangers, and of course parents, some of whom were racists beyond belief. We as students and young people really, for the most part, didn’t hate anyone.
Herb Schactner
Class of ’72
Robert T. Jenkins said
My family bought a Cape Cod on Riverside Drive, in the then 99% white South Suburban Village of South Holland in 1985. I was bused to Thornton Township High School, the oldest of the 3 public high schools in Thornton Township District 205, with my white ethnic neighbors. The Chicago south suburbs were a difficult place for blacks to buy gas or shop at “your friendly Dolton K-Mart” right up until my family bought our home.
During the years that I attended TTHS, I guess the student racial identity breakdown was 65% white, 25% black, and 10% other ethnics of color (Hispanics, sub-continental Indians, etc.) A legacy of the TTHS race riots of the 1969-1972 period was the plastic shield/wall which divided the north and south sides of the student cafeteria. Whites, historically, set on the south side of the plastic shield and ate their lunches; blacks and other students of color set on the north side of the plastic shield and ate their lunches during my time at Thornton. In 1985, my freshman year at Thornton, I an African-American, sat on the south side of the plastic shield/wall with my predominately white ethnic neighbors. I sat on that side of the cafeteria until I graduated from TTHS in June, 1989.
Much has changed in the Chicago metro area since my high school days. The year after my family purchased our home in South Holland the “We Love [insert town name here], We’re staying” signs started appearing in the windows of some of our white neighbors. Those neighbors generally were the first ones to sell their homes as soon as some purchaser could meet their asking price. A few months after my family moved into our home, an African-American who had applied to the Village of South Holland Police Department filed a lawsuit because he was not offered a position. The student population of TTHS is probably now 80% black, 6% white, and 14% other ethnics of color.