MRS. HATTIE P. CLARK: A Prolific Letter Writer

By Charlotte A. Clark-Frieson

For the majority of her time on earth, Mrs. Hattie Peters Clark made herself known, and heard, through the written word, which often made its way into the local newspaper in the form of "Letters To The Editor".

She was such an astute, literate woman, that I (her daughter), became enamored with HER ability to write. As a result, I too -- inspired by her -- would frequently attempt to vocalize my own discontent with the lagging social progress of African-Americans in our community by writing letters, like she did.

There weren't a whole lot of letters written. I dare say that she only wrote when she had something to say. But, whenever she did, she spoke with astounding moral authority, and her words were POWERFUL!

Some of the ones that we have been able to locate and archive appear in the list below. If you know of other writings of hers, we would love for you to share them with us.

She set a fine example for others (both black and white) to utilize the "power of the pen" through the "Free Press". She freely exercised her First Amendment Right, to vocalize the concern, and dis-content of an entire community, daring to say what others were too fearful or unlearned to express. She taught us through her extraordinary written words that It was OKAY for us to be aggrieved about the mistreatment that was heaped upon us on a daily basis as we tried to go about our daily lives.

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Transcript Of The Letter:
(Because the actual clipping may be difficult for you to see, it has been transcribed here in its entirety

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE CITY OF ROANOKE

Dear Editor:
When I received my city tax notice the other day. I saw it had increased twice the previous amounts.

Many thoughts began to pass through my mind. As these thoughts ran back and forth, I began to exchange ideas with my neighbors and others, so we came to a decision to let some of our views be known publicly.

First I must say that I'm a Negro, a teacher, a parent, and a property owner. I'm also a qualified voter and resident, which makes me a citizen, I suppose. These facts naturally make me interested in what happens in Roanoke.

My tax is doubled, so I sit thinking, "What am I getting?" Unpaved roads, no recreational facilities whatever, not one cent for my child's education from the city in which I live and pay taxes, limited job opportunities, an d there are other things that could be mentioned.

We don't mind paying taxes when they benefit all. But, I for one, am not pleased over paying taxes all of lmy life and then have my children saddled with taxes that we don't get any benefits from.

The school within the city limits which our children attend receives no maintenance or operational expense from the city or county. They money to operate the school is raised by the teachers and pupils. We sell commodities within the school to pay the light bill, wtaer bill, fuel bill, telephone bill, and a janitor to fire the boiler only.

Do your teachers and pupils do this? Now some will say, but that's a county school. Sure, but what about the 300 or more children living in the city limits? What are you doing for them? There are some who may6 say, "Charge a material fee." Yes, we pay a fee, those few who are able. But, very few earn enough to pay a fee to operate a school or build a school.

Where are our recreational facilities? We pay dearly to use Wright Field. We pay a fee for use and then we must clean it up after each one of our games, and yours too. However, this latter part is minor, but unfair.

All we want is to live with human dignity on clean paved streets, and to try to improve our homes and community. So, we signed petitions asking the city for paved streets. Where are they? Look around. Money came to this city for street improvement. What did we get? A little topsoil on some of the streets and more dust. Being aware of the health hazards to all through lack of sanitation, we petitioned the city for sewerage. What did we get? Nothing.

We feel that our city should grow, and we believe that it should be interested in securing industry here for all. Some time back, an announcement came over the radio that all citizens interested in securing industry here meet at the City Auditorium. Many of our people were interested and some went, but they were turned away. The meeting was not for them.

Our youth would be better citizens and our community a better place and our merchants richer if there were opportunities for decent livelihood. Our youth need a chance to stay in school and not drop out to help earn a living for themselves and the family. But, due to many of the circumstances mentioned, our children leave home to
search for jobs, and also some of our best citizens leave and go to other places, thereby decreasing the population.

We have sent committees to the city with petitions, and we have been ignored as though we lived on another planet. We may not shout from the housetops or make a loud out-crying noise but we are dissatisfied with the unequal manner in which the city faces its responsibilities to its Negro citizens in the use of their tax dollars.

Yours very truly,
(Mrs.) Hattie Clark

* * *
EDITOR'S NOTE
Exercising the right of free speech through a free press, the writer of this letter clearly states the thinking of perhaps a substantial part of our colored population. The white majority needs to know what the colored minority is thinking if the community is to progress in a spirit of racial harmony -- and without harmony there can be no real progress.

JULY 8, 1970: FAREWELL TO THE RANDOLPH COUNTY TRAINING SCHOOL

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NOTE: In July of 1970, when my mother wrote this "Letter To The Editor" of the Roanoke Leader, our community had been blindsided, and devastated by the news that the school we loved so dearly, The Randolph County Training School had been closed down because of the Lee vs Macon County Board of Education Desegregation Order, the black community was literally immobilized. Everyone was in a state of panic, because teachers had no idea where they would be working the next year, or even IF they would be working; students had no idea where they would be going to school. Would they be separated from their life-long friends? Every black neighborhood was in a state of uncertainty — we felt like we had experienced the worst form of violation imaginable. And despite those feelings, my mother, the late Mrs. Hattie Lee Peters Clark, was the ONLY individual who spoke publicly in the form of this letter to the Roanoke Leader. In it, she attempts to describe the hurt, heartache, and the devastation that our entire community was feeling at that time.

Transcript Of The Letter:
(Because the actual clipping may be difficult for you to see, it has been transcribed here in its entirety)
FAREWELL TO RANDOLPH COUNTY TRAINING SCHOOL
By MRS. HATTIE P. CLARK
I would like to take this opportunity to say farewell to “Old Randolph” – the Randolph County Training School.

It has been described by many as a sub-standard, unsightly place in which to work and study. Nevertheless, to many of us who taught there for years, it is a place which is dear to us, and it has become a big part of our lives.

We believe that it has been one of the greatest assets within this community as far as black people are concerned. It is all we ever had to call our own. It is the only place where we could go for any type of social recreation or civic endeavors. It is the only building in Roanoke or Randolph County where we as a people felt the warmth of welcome.

The building accommodated many community dances, programs, meetings, singings, and other activities which were sponsored in an effort to improve our status.

Our parents, fore-parents, and other members of the black community helped to raise money to buy the land upon which the building now stands. Many donated hard-earned cash when a dollar was really a dollar. Many never lived to see the fruit of their labor.

But, we had a school which most of the teachers, students, and parents loved and were proud of, because they got out and scraped, begged, and humiliated themselves to get money to make so many of the needed improvements in the school – such improvements as the typing courses, the band, the lunchroom, and library, and the athletic department.
All of this is gone now. All we can say is farewell. All we can do is look back over the years and see many students who became successful businessmen, teachers, and useful citizens in other careers – students who are just as capable as students who graduated from so-called finer institutions.

Though we are grieved to lose our students, faculty, and administration, our greatest loss lies within the walls of the Randolph County Training School building. We have no idea what will happen to the building, but we are told that it will be sold.

Wouldn’t it be nice if it could be obtained for a recreation center? It would be an ideal spot for all types of activities. Where will we go? Where will we meet? Where could we swim? We have no Moose Club. We have no City Auditorium. We have no Country Club. We have no Girl Scout or Boy Scout buildings. We have no teen-age building. We have no building for rent at all.

We can’t pay $45.00 a night to rent the National Guard Armory to give a dance. We have no Little League baseball field, although OEO funds helped build one of the Roanoke fields. Where will the most of little black boys and girls go to play ball? In the streets? We already have had one young boy killed – run into by a motor vehicle, simply because he had nowhere to play but the streets.

Does the city care? Does anyone care? Who will match funds to help us? Now, behind the walls of “Old Randolph” linger only the memories of the many years which we devoted to it – silent memories of pleasure, silent memories not so pleasant.

Behind the silent walls linger the memories of beautiful proms which thrilled the junior and senior classes year after year. Behind the walls of this building remain the silent memories of the sound of the huge bass drum of the RCTS Band. Behind the walls linger the memories of the many cold, chilly winter days, when the boiler wouldn’t work, and the hot smoldering spring and fall days.

Gone are the walks up and down the aisles on the cement floors, causing callouses and blisters on our feet. Gone are the screams of little folk who saw the health nurse coming down the hall. Gone are the dedicated teachers who sat behind the desks and tried to help the slow child and make him or her a part of the class.

Gone, gone, gone; and with it go the memories of generations of students who passed through the Randolph County Training School.

The clipping below captures Mrs. Clark's editorial response following the controversial reassignment of the Ctiy's only black councilman, Mr. George Pool.

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Mrs. Hattie Lee (Peters) Clark

Transcript Of The Letter:
(Because the actual clipping may be difficult for you to read, it has been transcribed here in its entirety)
NAACP publicity chairman voices feelings of many on Pool switch

Dear Editor:
Many people have made remarks and comments concerning the rotation of Councilman Pool. Some used the newspaper, some used the pulpit through the radio, some used the telephone, and some used the street corners, which is their right. Now, I want to use my right to comment on some of these comments and editorials.

First, I too don't believe Councilman Pool was moved wholly because he was black. And I can understand why you would think that way, because neither you nor your wife, nor any members of your family have ever in your whole live been humiliated, mistreated or made to fee less than a decent human being.

I could write a book about those little nasty things. However, many things are still done to people because they are black, nowadays, but they are done in a very subtle, sneaky, underhand, sly way, that won't show out in the open because we have something to offer — money, votes, selective buying habits, etc.

I imagine that you can't reveal your sources of information, but I certainly would like to know how an outsider could get closer to council deliberations than most citizens unless it was you, and it was your duty to report what happened, whether it's good or bad for the city.

Now you said, "In preparing to give the city its first real budget in many years, Mayor Tommy Hill looked closely at the records of spending in various city departments." Do you mean to say that the city did not have a real budget? Was Councilman Pool responsible for that?

You said, "In all departments, controls on spending had been too lax if non-existent." Was that Councilman Pool's responsibility? Or fault?

You said, "If the city was going to adopt a budget and live within it, there had to be some changes in methods of authorizing purchases, and maybe changes in supervision." — Okay, let's change — mayor and councilmen.

Do you think that we are naive enough to think that the mayor and council gave Councilman Pool the authority to purchase equipment and make large expenditures without its approval? You were present in some of the meetings. Did you see this done?

Doesn't the city have a foreman or manager and engineer over the workers? What does he get paid for? Is the councilman supposed to stand over him and tell him what to do? I doubt that. He is supposed to be qualified for his job. I don't know who hired him, but I am sure Councilman Pool didn't. Evidently he was doing a good job before Mr. Pool came to the council, so what's gone so badly wrong now?

Probably the mayor did not deliberately mean to hurt anyone. But was he fair and square about the move? Was it really above board? Was it open? We do not think so. If such a serious and detrimental waste was going on in Councilman Pool's department, and he was being held responsible for it, why wasn't this brought before the council body, and why wasn't this discussed, and why didn't the mayor tell Mr. Pool that he was putting a man in his place, who could bring the strictest possible business management? I'm sure if Mr. Pool did not find out that this was the real reason he was moved until he read the paper, he was very hurt.

I'm not a politician, and I am not in politics, but I think a city government should be organized in such a way that the most common man can understand its functions and what it's all about. The majority of the citizens are poor, and they are not lawyers and a lot of them are not highly educated, but I guarantee you if they don't know "you is" from "you ain't," they know when they are mistreated.

You said the Alabama law governing municipal elections for a city of Roanoke's size provides that if councilmen are not elected from geographical zones or wards they shall run at large for numbered council positions. There is no mention of specific duties attached permanently to certain positions."

Here is the confusion. These council positions are numbered and they have been named in the newspaper over the years — regardless of the explanation. Men have run for these particular positions, won, and served there. If this is not true, and not legal and just a practice the mayor can use to place councilmen where he wishes, then the place names should not be used ever — only the number. The way it is being used now is unfair to all elected councilmen. Anytime the Mayor gets mad at a Councilman, he can move him for (MISSING TEXT) or other selfish reasons.

Over the years, many men have run for seats on the council to feather their own nests. Many people believe that is why Councilman Pool has been moved now. Somebody has a friend or (MISSING TEXT) with houses to be built, new streets to be paved, foundations and driveways to be cut, etc. Your folks think that (MISSING TEXT)

I want to know the law that gives councilmen the right to appoint a Mayor when the elected mayor (MISSING TEXT) may be legal to appoint one, but a (MISSING TEXT) people would have felt better if there had been an election.

You know, it is sad when citizens have to "raise hell" to get the city to (MISSING TEXT) things for them. Just look back over the years. We haven't asked for much. But, we haven't got much either. Roanoke has been quiet and we hope to continue, but most all those nice, soft-speaking folk who were so quiet that used to meet the council with hat under arm, head bent down, scratching where they didn't itch, do not exist anymore.

We don't picket, we don't parade and we are not using any of the tactics some cities have used, but we could (MISSING TEXT) "raise hell," as you say, if we wanted to. And there are lots of things we don't like.

I must say this before I close. There are some good people in Roanoke black and white. We do not think all white people are mean. There are some warm, friendly, wonderful ones here in Roanoke and Randolph County.

Many of our young folks do not know much about the struggles the black people went through to end segregation and job discrimination. Some have been fortunate to be able to do whatever they want as far as many things are concerned. Many have experienced the problems we (MISSING TEXT) about. So they should study more History and they would understand more about what we are really (MISSING TEXT) for.

So I say to them: Don't let anybody put you in their hip pocket. "Be sure brain is engaged before putting mouth in gear."

Thank you
MRS. HATTIE P. CLARK
Publicity Chairman, NAACP

The commentary written in this section was not authored by Mrs. Clark, but by her daughter, Charlotte A. Clark-Frieson. Though not authored by her, it was most definitely inspired by her. .. I was ONLY TOO GLAD to take up the mantle of vocalizing and publicizing the concerns of the community. To facilitate ease of reading, the commentary is transcribed in its entirety below...

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COMMENTARY
Native calls on Roanoke to 'wake up'

(Mrs. Charlotte Clark Frieson, a native and former resident of Roanoke comments on an analysis in the August 29th Star.)
By CHARLOTTE CLARK FRIESON
Several days ago, I read an article in the Anniston Star concerning racial problems of Roanoke, which touched me deeply because Roanoke is my home. I grew up there and attended schools there and went through the initial periods of "forced integration." The extensive coverage devoted to recent racial problems there brought back many not-so-fond memories of those years. I graduated from a so-called integrated high school there. Since then, I have attended three predominantly white post-secondary institutions in the state. So, I'm not unfamiliar with racial problems. And I don't doubt that they exist, especially in Roanoke.

IN THE PAST, we have not held protests. We haven't marched, paraded, demonstrated, rioted, looted, mugged, burned, bombed, or used other violent means to get recognition of our problems. But there are some in the community who know how to do just that. The black leaders taught them to always use peaceful means by meeting the council at the conference table. But, we were always ignored. We were too stupid to sit at a conference table with the "city fathers" and offer suggestions for the benefit of our people. I know this to be a fact, because my father, Wilkie Clark has been president of the NAACP for 20 years or more. And the NAACP directed its energies toward these same issues but no decisions were ever reached until they were forced through the courts.

Mr. Olin Shephard was quoted in the article as having alluded to the fact that 20,000 feet of street had been paved in the black community as opposed to 4800 in the white. But Mr. Shephard neglected to say that the streets in the black community were some of the oldest in the city, many of them more than 30 years old. Another fact he forgot to mention is there isn't a single sidewalk in the black community. The black kids had to walk in the middle of the streets going to school. I was one of them. Now how does Shephard account for the 30 or more years the black community was denied all public works, while white communities got it all?

The new landfill was another issue mentioned. Every city dump in Roanoke has been in the black community. However now they are trying to dress it up and call it a "landfill". No matter how pretty the term used to identify it, it's still a dirty thing that was apparent from the picture shown in The Star. How would the residents of Lakeview Drive, North Main, McArthur Drive, West Point Street and Guy Street like to have the new "Landfill" within 300 feet of their homes? I wouldn't want it near any of their homes. BUT DO THEY CARE enough not to want it near MY HOME? They talked about how SANITARY the landfill would be, but the people don't believe it because the old one was supposed to be sanitary... It wasn't. Blacks in that community protested and were ignored too.

ANOTHER MATTER of interest concerned Councilman Poole's reaction to the NAACP's efforts on his behalf after he was moved from his position on the council. A complaint was filed on Mr. Poole's behalf along with a complaint against the Randolph County Commissioner's Court. Evidently the complaint against the county took precedence over the one against the city. However, the NAACP did engage in some legal action. What action did Mr. Pool take on his own behalf?

I have often heard my father say that our fore-parents were taught to be humble, polite, good and obedient to white people, and to always play a subservient role, to be passive; keep quiet, pray — and let the Lord take care of it — get your reward in heaven. But are we expected to go totally without on this earth? I suppose this is why the council is so arrogant, rude, indifferent when its black citizens appear for negotiation. They flaunt their superiority. And there's many a black person who will, no doubt, say just exactly what he thinks some of them (whites) want to hear, just because they're white. And they'll say they're speaking in behalf of the black community. But they aren't.

Some people have said that the so-called selective buying movement or protest has been ineffectual. Probably it has not been effective. What would be effective? What if the merchants were to awaken one morning and find their store fronts broken and their window displays disfigured? Some people seem to feel that the boycott is distasteful. It's distasteful to us, too. But police brutality is more distasteful. I should know, because I have been subjected to some of the rudeness, and ruthlessness, and off-color language and even to manhandling by a police officer, (and I'm a woman!). I am sure every person in Roanoke feels the same way I do. If a person commits a crime, he should be punished. We're not saying don't make arrests. But criminals are human. Violence breeds violence. I believe many people feel the merchants have let them down. They have the power to end this entire issue. But they are so naive, that they don't even see how they fit into the picture.

I FEEL THAT the Reverend Wright and Mr. Terry, who are supervising the protests have accomplished some good for the community, and I hope for their continued success. But they deserve a lot more help from the community. After all, good policemen and good police protection should be beneficial to all. It is my understanding that some whites have been victims of police hostilities also. Why don't they speak up, too?

I don't think this is a "hate-white-people" campaign." There are some fine white people in Roanoke. I have been in contact with some of them. But none of them are on the City Council.

The final matter that concerns us is Mr. Fetner. Based on past experience, I know the city court system in Roanoke. They didn't do any more in Fetner's case than I would have expected. They manipulated and maneuvered the situation around so the man didn't even have to pay a fine. Then they selected him to head the police department, and when his appointment was protested they pled his case, by saying "give the man a chance." They begged the state's pardon for his offense, and they think we ought to be overwhelmed with joy. But why should be? We know that if one of our Saturday-night drunks gets caught, the police department will hunt us down with bloodhounds until we are found and dragged into court and made to pay an exorbitant fine. You see, that's how the city court system in Roanoke works. It's a package deal, a ready-made kit. They let one man run the whole show. One lawyer acts as the city prosecutor, the judge, the jury, he sets the fines, and passes the sentences, in any way he sees fit.

ROANOKE SHOULD wake up in the area of race relations, as well as economic development, and some other areas. They must realize the city is not going to progress as a whole until they learn to work for the good of the entire community — BLACK AND WHITE, and stop manipulating, maneuvering, playing favoritism, evading issues, and pretending that there are no problems. Everything is fine!! Everything is FAR FROM FINE.

Clark Funeral Home, Roanoke, Alabama