 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
Mrs. Lucy Overton Overton is a former teacher in the Portsmouth Public Schools, a community activist, and the wife of Portsmouth's first African American judge, James Overton, Esq. (Audio Interview transcription) A: At the outbreak of World War I, the Norfolk Navy, Naval Shipyard, in Portsmouth, Virginia, was in need for housing for the workers. They, in turn, began to make plans to build homes for blacks, and homes for whites. They homes for the whites were built in Cradock, south of the Naval Shipyard, and the homes for the blacks were built, north of the Naval Shipyard, and that community is called Truxtun. It received its name from uh, war hero, an unsung war hero, by the name of Truxtun, Admiral Truxtun, and they held onto this name. They thought it was a good name. Now Truxtun began to thrive after uh, the persons, the residents moved in, and they began to uh, feel at home being the first real home that they had had. New home. And uh, they began to organize among themselves, and they organized to the extent they had police, four policemen, uh, a town house, they called, they had a manager, city manager, the town manager, they called himself, and they had uh, uh secretaries and what-not to work in this office, they, they chose in the area. Uh, as, as time progressed, some, some facilities moved out for certain reasons, uh, and some others moved in. But on May uh, and some others moved in. But on May uh 25th, 1919, they had uh, their grand opening, and uh, they had around 5,000 people present. And they had speakers and what-not, and, and made plans for future buildings, and uh, and waht-not. The community began to grow, with the building of uh, a school, and they had their church services in an old abandoned uh, barrack that they used for uh, the soldiers. And they used this barrack until they decided to build a church, and that name was First Baptist Church of Truxton. And that church is still standing, that site is standing, of course the church has been rebuilt and rebuilt. And they also uh, were in this same building that they worhsipped in, they used it as a school, until they built the present building we have now, called Truxton Elementary School, and ten years ago, it was turned into a secondary school for slow learners. At the present it has been closed. As time progressed, there were stores built, a grocery store, and barber shop, and in the late years, they had a beauty parlor. The people in Truxton became very close-knit, and they became almost "his brother's keeper." They could leave home and leave the doors open, even go downtown, and no one would bother uh, the neighbors looked out for each other. If a mother had to go out and leave her children, the neighbors would look after her children, to the extent, if the child needed a spankin', they would get theat from the neighbor. And plus, another one when the mother got home. Now at Truxton, uh, has a reputation of bein' ah, bein' uh a neighborhood of uh, of very proud people. Sometime I think its becaue they moved in a brand-new home, and that was uhm, unusual for blacks in, at that time. After, when I moved to Truxton in '39, I became one of those proud neighbors. I had, at that time, children, small children, and I readily uh, uhm, enrolled them in school and in the Sunday School out here, and we began to fall in line with the other residents who'd been out here in the beginning. Now as time went on, uh, things, uh, were, were getting uh, well, there were more people, and where, where there are more people, their, people, more things happen. And home owners, as you know, will keep their property up, but renters, rental people, uh, have a tendency not to keep their property up as well. That happened in the middle forties and on into the fifties, and some of the homes began to run down. And people move out, go back home, or uh, move to another part of the city. In later years, as late as '78, there were nothing uh, uh outstanding happening during the period of from in the fifties and sixties, other than the war, World War II. I was one of the persons who worked, was employed in the Naval Shipyard during the World War II. I went in as a helper, and I didn't like it, at all. My experiences was not, uh, of such that I could be employed in ano, another capacity at that time, and the need for workers was great, because the men were bein' called off to the Army, and therefore, they placed the ladies into jobs that men usually did. My job was in the Shipfitters Shop, Shop II, I can't forget it, my first day at work. I nearly broke my neck stumblin' over pieces of iron. But anyway, I began to get accustomed to it, and I worked on the evening shift. I wanted to be in, at the house when the children left for school, and when they, even so when they got in from school I was home, so this was just, was suited me fine. Now uh, there was some problems in the shipyard, some racial problems. First, first of all, when they, when they, they, they the Navy Yard needed welders, and, and burners, the personnel said they didn't have faci . . ., toilet facilities, so they couldn't hire black men. Well, at that time, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was president. Someone, he got the news somehow and came down. He came down Portsmouth Boulevard, it was Key Road at the time, and all the people were out on the streets, watchin' the President come through. He went directly to the Navy Yard, and had conferences with uh, the Admirals and those persons in charge, and in a couple of days, they had facilities for blacks. Ah, separate fff...facilities. To begin with they didn't have any at all for blacks, therefore they couldn't hire blacks as welders, uh burners and chippers and whatnot, and they began to come into the city. They had separate water fountains, they had separate uh, toilet facilities for the ladies. They had on the door, "White Ladies," "Colored Women." And we didn't like that at all, but we, we couldn't do anything about that, then. I worked and worked and worked and my experiences on those, out on the, on the floor with the men was horrible. If my husband had known he would have had me to quit. But I didn't tell him. I endured it until I couldn't. So I asked for a transfer in the blue print department, and my quarterman was in sympathy with me, and gave me the job. That was a blue. white collar job, and I enjoyed that very much. We made prints for ships, and uh, photostatic copies for ship parts, and it was altogether different from out on the, yard with the, with the men. Well, I could expect some of the things that happened, because men are men. Men will be men wherever they are. And I didn't report anyone, probably wasn't no need to report anyone. And I worked in the blueprint department until the ending of the war, and I received a citation from the Admiral stating that if ever in time of, of, of war, or the country needed my assistance, I would be one of the first to be considered. I came home with my citation, very happy about the whole thing, that I could have done a little to help end the war. After the war, when, I went back into my regular routine, and housekeeper and mother for my children, and uhm, was working now in the NS clerk, assistant at the school, and PTA and at the church, and volunteer work for the city. In 1978, the city saw the need for rehabilitating Truxton. It was deteriorating. So they the planning, from the Planning Commission came out, and talked with a few citizens, and called a meeting at the school, and we organized fifteen citizens out in Truxton, and I was one of that fifteen. And, as a result of that organization, the Old Truxton Community League was founded, was formed rather, and we have been active since 1978, monitoring the program in this area. We have grants, and we have elderly loans to upgrade the homes, now, which was uh, through, through the Federal government, and the people now are taking advantage of these these monies to upgrade their homes. Uh, we have about thirty homes under uh, rehabilitation now, and uh, we hope, by the end of this year, or the first of '82, it will be double or triple that amount, to the extent that the entire Truxton will be rehabilitated. Of course, we are his, in the historic, under the historic uh area, and for the state and scity, and hopefully we will be on the national uh register very soon. In this rehabilitation program, I have enjoyed working, uh from the architectural view, ah I'm on that com, on that commission, and uh, I, I'm on the inside and I can see the, the workin's of what's goin' on, and it's a beautiful thing to work with uh, people who don't quite understand as much as you understand, and you can in, uh motivate them by uh, uh instilling with them the things that you have learned and have worked with, and I have found that it's, it's not quite as bad as it has sound. We've gotten much done through the city, by someone representing an area. That is one of our mistakes we make, I think. We don't have good representation. Therefore, we don't get good results. Through our efforts we have been uh able to get ah curbs and gutters in one area that had never had them. And that was through the efforts of a few citizens in this area. And I find that through cooperation and unity with a spokesman, someone to speak for you, 'cause there are many people who don't quite have the voice to speak out for themselves. They have good hearts, but their voices are pretty weak. So, they have always been behind me, pushin' me. If they weren't I guess I would have been back there with some of the others. But they're behi, they are behind me, and they push me, and they give me inspiration by cooperatin' with me. And all of the projects that we have undertaken out in this area. We have just about completed them. Or we are, half, on the halfway mark. I wish I could uh, say more about this Truxton area. There is much to be told. I can't close without mention', we had our sixty second anniversary year before last. We had a band, we had the whole works. This was the first one that had been had in about fifteen or twenty years, so we had the city fathers out and we had servin' and speakers and we, we had a band, and we had the uh, a big, big thing, the folks say a big to-do. And uh, from that uh, celebration, we learned that we had a hundred, more than a hundred and five educators comin' out of Truxton, in the name of lawyers, doctors, teachers, we have so many teachers we don't know what to do about it. We have a coupla' engineers, we have one or two psychiatrists, and we have a coupla' football coaches, I happen to have one, my son. (Laugh) And uh, we have something to be proud of in Truxton. Very proud of. The only all-black neighborhoode, not predominantly black, but all-black neighborhood, who have kept their homes and their children together and we have, our crime rate is low out here. Uh, our, our people are, are woven together, if you get on one, you have to get on the other. (laugh) If you come out into the Truxton are you will be made welcome, at home, treated with the good old Southern hospitality. But we want them to understand when they come into Truxton we are all for one an done for all. We live that way, and we stay together and we hope to remain. I tell them after I'm gone, there's someone in my footsteps just waiting to take up and carry on. I love out here and, I intend to stay here until I go on to the other land (laugh). Q: The greater reward? A: Yes. Is there anything you . . .? Q: Well,, I was just wonderin' if, if she would mind relating some of those experiences . . . Q: Turn your hand over like that, that's the way you did it a couple times . . . A: That strip there in between the two Portsmouth Boulevard and Deep Creek Boulevard, was, was uhm scheduled for a mini-park. We're workin' on that now. And that was in our plans, our comprehensive plans for . . . |