Lola Hendricks interview recording, 1994 June 22

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Tywanna Whorley	Can you please tell me your name?	0:00
Lola Haynes Hendricks	My name is Lola H. Hendricks.	0:04
Tywanna Whorley	What does H stand for?	0:08
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Haynes, my maiden name.	0:09
Tywanna Whorley	Okay. When were you born?	0:15
Lola Haynes Hendricks	December 19th, 1932.	0:16
Tywanna Whorley	1932. Here in Birmingham?	0:17
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Here in Birmingham.	0:17
Tywanna Whorley	Do you remember where you were born?	0:20
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Yes. On Fourth Avenue and 15th Street South on the south side of Birmingham.	0:23
Tywanna Whorley	The hospital that you were born in, was that it—?	0:27
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Born at home.	0:28
Tywanna Whorley	Born at home?	0:28
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Yes.	0:32
Tywanna Whorley	Oh!	0:34
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Doctor came out and delivered me at the house.	0:34
Tywanna Whorley	May I ask you, do you have any brothers and sisters?	0:38
Lola Haynes Hendricks	I have one sister. And she too was born at the house. She's four years younger than I am.	0:41
Tywanna Whorley	Did your parents tell you why you were born at home instead of the hospital?	0:50
Lola Haynes Hendricks	I'm assuming it's because of the days of segregation. And either my parents did not want the condition that they had to go in the hospital or the doctor just refused to carry them to the hospital if they made Blacks have the babies at home possibly. I never discussed that, but we both were born at home.	0:56
Tywanna Whorley	Do you remember if it was a Black doctor?	1:17
Lola Haynes Hendricks	It was a White doctor.	1:18
Tywanna Whorley	A White doctor. You remember the name?	1:20
Lola Haynes Hendricks	I don't remember his name right now.	1:27
Tywanna Whorley	Okay.	1:30
Lola Haynes Hendricks	It doesn't ring a bell. I had known it, but I can't remember right now.	1:30
Tywanna Whorley	Okay. Can you tell me a little bit about your parents?	1:36
Lola Haynes Hendricks	My father was born in LaGrange, Georgia. My mother was born in Standing Rock, Alabama. They moved to Birmingham after they were married. And my father worked as a laborer at a coal yard and my mother was a cook. She worked private duty in homes for a while, and then she later got a job in a King's drugstore on the south side, which was White. She cooked there.	1:49
Tywanna Whorley	Did she ever talk about walking over there in that area?	2:17
Lola Haynes Hendricks	About the prejudice and things like that? She had never. I have never heard my parents bitter about differences shown between the races. I looked at them as being the Blacks that were submissive to White. They felt like they had to stay in their place, so I've never heard them say anything about any problems, any encounter they had with Whites in all their work history. Never.	2:22
Tywanna Whorley	Do you remember your grandparents?	2:57
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Yes, I remember my grandparents. I know very little bit about my grandfather on my daddy's side. I know my grandmother on my daddy's side. She was born in Georgia and lived there all her life and they were sharecroppers. The same is true with my mother's father and mother. They were sharecroppers and they lived in Georgia all their life.	2:59
Tywanna Whorley	Just for the record, do you remember the names?	3:28
Lola Haynes Hendricks	My mother's parents were Maggie Strong and Bonnie Strong. My father's mother was named Clara Haynes. I do not know my grandfather's name on my daddy's side. I've never heard anybody discuss him.	3:35
Tywanna Whorley	Okay. Where did you go to school?	3:56
Lola Haynes Hendricks	I went to school here in Birmingham at Cameron Elementary School. And I graduated from there and went to Ullman High School for two years. Then in '49, I went to Parker High School for two years. And I graduated from Parker High School in January '51.	3:59
Tywanna Whorley	You said the second school you went to, how do you spell that?	4:21
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Ullman, U-L-L-M-A-N.	4:24
Tywanna Whorley	Okay.	4:25
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Ullman.	4:25
Tywanna Whorley	Okay. That was the second time I heard.	4:27
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Yeah. Ullman.	4:30
Tywanna Whorley	How was that in terms of going to school?	4:34
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Elementary and high school you want?	4:35
Tywanna Whorley	That's right.	4:40
Lola Haynes Hendricks	You want to know about both? Elementary school we went to a little wooden building, Ferris, everything segregated then. We were poor. We laugh about it now. We had to get grown to know we were poor. We all were on the same level pretty much. There were a few students that stood out whose parents were teachers and maybe worked for the railroad, few doctors during that era. But we had very little to work with, very bad books and things that would be torn that were provided for us to read. And we had excellent teachers. We have to really give praises to the Black teachers that we had during that era. They were committed to our being better students or equal students on the same level with the Whites with less accommodation for us. They taught us more than what was in the books. They taught us how to prepare ourselves to be the best that we could be with whatever talent that we had.	4:42
Lola Haynes Hendricks	We did not have access to a lot of cultural things during my high school era. Elementary school was just basic reading, writing, arithmetic. And when we got to high school, we had very little cultural thing other than the choirs. At Parker, we did have a drama club and we did have a speech club. But as far as going into the community to do things, we did not have as much exposure as a White student. And it was very, very segregated. Separate but equal. We were really treated badly as far as our exposure compared to the Whites that grew up when we did.	5:49
Tywanna Whorley	Okay. In terms of going to elementary school, what was that in relation to your home? Did you have to How far?	6:30
Lola Haynes Hendricks	We had to walk. There was no public transportation, no specials to take us. We had to walk to school. The only time we had specials, when we got to high school, they would bus us to high school. And that was only because they had us segregated to Parker or Ullman. Those were the only two high schools in the city of Birmingham that you could graduate from. So Ullman was a two years high school. Parker was a four year. So those people who lived on north side went to Parker the whole four years. But we lived over on the south side, so we had to go to Ullman two years and the other two years of Parker.	6:37
Tywanna Whorley	Did you ever find out why two years at Ullman?	7:17
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Well, Ullman was not suited for a four-year school. They set it up as a junior high and not a four-year school. And that's what happened.	7:21
Tywanna Whorley	I heard that people who went to Parker had to catch the trolley or the buses.	7:29
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Yeah, had to ride the bus.	7:34
Tywanna Whorley	And that they had the token—	7:37
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Yeah, that's true.	7:39
Tywanna Whorley	Were you able to afford that? Because some people said that they weren't.	7:43
Lola Haynes Hendricks	No, we were not able to afford it. We were very poor, like I said. My mother at that time when I started high school, if I remember correctly, she was still working in the home cooking for a family. And my father working as a laborer at the coal yard did not provide much money for us to have to live on. And not only that, there were other problems with my mother and father. My father was one who liked to drink and gamble. That didn't help us have any more, so we really had it. We were very, very poor. We were.	7:46
Tywanna Whorley	So how did you get to school sometimes?	8:20
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Well, we'd have to walk. And when I started going to Ullman, we would walk. So we were on the south side, so Ullman was on the south side, so we just had to walk.	8:22
Tywanna Whorley	Okay.	8:32
Lola Haynes Hendricks	We walked to our elementary school, we walked to Ullman. And when we got to Parker, we did get to ride a special because we had to come from—No, I take that back. When I went to Parker, I did ride a special, but I happened to be living on the north side at that time when I went to Parker. My mother and father moved to the north side.	8:32
Tywanna Whorley	Where on north side?	8:50
Lola Haynes Hendricks	I think it was 1128 13th Court South. Over there, at that time, it was referred to as an alley where Black people lived. White people lived on the streets and we lived in the alley. Yes. And that was an alley we lived in.	8:52
Tywanna Whorley	Can you talk about the neighborhood?	9:08
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Neighborhood was all Black. Our house that we rented happened to be in the back of the house where my mother was cooking for these White people. And it was just rows of houses and everybody in there were Black. And pretty much they were probably little houses that Whites who owned them were built there and they used her for extra income. But that's how we lived in the alley at that time. In fact, both of our living arrangements in the city when I was growing up was in alleys, on the south side as well as over there.	9:10
Tywanna Whorley	If your parents ever talk about it, I guess, you said that you were in terms of poor, but growing up during the Depression time, do you remember that?	9:55
Lola Haynes Hendricks	I was born in Depression time. I know nothing about it. I was born there too, and that was a year of the Depression. And I was too little to know about the Depression and how bad it was. I heard my mother talk about how bad it was.	10:04
Tywanna Whorley	What did they tell you about?	10:17
Lola Haynes Hendricks	They talk about that how bad people were starving, hungry and they couldn't get anything, that they were just living off of whatever they could raise. They would have little gardens of whatever, whatever they could to survive. But I did not know anything about the Depression. I was born during that time.	10:19
Tywanna Whorley	Okay. When you finished Parker, what did you do?	10:38
Lola Haynes Hendricks	When I finished Parker High School, I got a job working at the University Hospital. It was called Hillman Hospital then. It's now University Hospital, part of the university complex, but it was Hillman Hospital. I got a job driving in the elevator. And I finished in '51, I worked there maybe a year. Then I finally saved up enough money to convince my mother, I thought I wanted to be in beauty culture. I went to Ruth Prowse School of Beauty Culture and finished there. And I got out there and found out I didn't like that. And later I got married, I think in February '53. And after I got married, I convinced my husband to send me to Booker T. Washington Business College. And I finished Booker T. Washington Business College and I got a job working for a Black insurance company, Alexander Insurance Company, owned by John J. Drew and his wife Deanie.	10:42
Lola Haynes Hendricks	And I worked with them there until '63. This is coming into the civil rights era then when the doors start opening for Blacks in the federal government. And I took a federal examination and passed it and was hired in July of '63 with the federal government.	11:53
Tywanna Whorley	When you got your first job, how did you go about getting a job?	12:13
Lola Haynes Hendricks	That first job at the hospital?	12:17
Tywanna Whorley	Yes, ma'am.	12:18
Lola Haynes Hendricks	The White people that my mother worked for, the lady was influential in getting someone there at the hospital to hire me. She referred me to some White man at that hospital. I can't remember his name. He hired me to drive the elevators over there. But I was referred by the lady that my mother was cooking for.	12:22
Tywanna Whorley	Do you remember how much you got paid?	12:49
Lola Haynes Hendricks	No. It was very little. I can tell you that. You asked me how much? I remember I got paid in Social Security administration, well, I can tell you that it was very low. But I don't remember what I paid. I'm sure it was very little bit of money. I don't remember. The wage and hour was so low back then. It was '51. I finished junior at '51. I got a job that same year.	12:51
Tywanna Whorley	Question I wanted to ask you about that is, do you remember the hours that you worked?	13:15
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Yes. I worked eight hours a day. I think I went in 7:00 and worked till 3:00 or 3:30 or 4:00, something like that, depending on how much time we had for lunch, I don't remember. But I worked eight hours.	13:24
Tywanna Whorley	Were you still living at home?	13:31
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Yeah, I was still living at home. I stayed at home until '53 when I got married. I never had any money to move out. Never.	13:32
Tywanna Whorley	Can you talk about, I guess, your family in terms of how close you are?	13:43
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Then?	13:47
Tywanna Whorley	Yes.	13:47
Lola Haynes Hendricks	We are very close. We're very close family. And my sister and I and our children are still close. We are very close family.	13:47
Tywanna Whorley	Okay. Can you tell me a little bit about, I guess, did you frequent the Fourth Avenue a lot growing up?	14:02
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Yes. Not too often because our parents were strict on us. But every chance I had to go to Fourth Avenue, I did go. Yes.	14:06
Tywanna Whorley	Where'd you go?	14:15
Lola Haynes Hendricks	We went to the Zanzibar Cafe, went to Brock's Drugstore, went to Bob's Savoy. I went to the Masonic Temple upstairs for dances. And anything that we could slip out and go to, we did.	14:17
Tywanna Whorley	Did you go out as a group or—?	14:36
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Sometimes we went out as a group, but most times it was with your boyfriend, with your date.	14:39
Tywanna Whorley	You said your parents were strict.	14:44
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Yes, very strict. They were very strict. They were strict to the point that they didn't want us to go to parties and we could not have boys hanging around the house if they were not there. Everywhere we go, we had to be screened and at that time the boys didn't have any cars. They'd come to your house and sit. And they had certain hours for them to leave. If they didn't leave, they'd come and invite them to leave. And then the other things they did not allow, they had curfews. If you went to the movies with a guy, you had to be back at 10 o'clock or else she was standing at the door to embarrass you. So, not my daddy, but my mother was the strict one. And I thought if I had ever, ever get grown, I'm going to leave this place. But I really appreciate that now. I learned to appreciate. I told her there's no telling what I would've developed to be if I had not had those curfews and strict things on me.	14:46
Lola Haynes Hendricks	And she had to make sure she screened all the guys that we dated. She'd ask about his parents and what his potentials were and things like that. Were very strict.	15:53
Tywanna Whorley	Just a question I just had in my head. You said your parents didn't talk about segregation. When did you first become aware that there was something—?	16:14
Lola Haynes Hendricks	I think primarily when I started working in '51 and had to ride the public buses in Birmingham, and you had to sit behind that Colored board. And you could be seated behind that Colored board and the Whites on the front, and if more Whites got on that bus, you had to get up out of that scene. And he'll move that board back, you had to stay in. That's when I began to realize a difference in how we were treated, only because of the color of our skin. Of course it didn't make any sense, but they would do that. They would make us get up and the White people sit down.	16:26
Tywanna Whorley	Do you think your parents isolated you when you were little, especially when you were going to the schools?	17:04
Lola Haynes Hendricks	No, I don't think they isolated us from that. We lived in a segregated neighborhood. The Whites were on the streets, we were in the alley. That in itself said something to me. And we went to segregated school. We rode the bus, we were segregated. We went to segregated church. That was a way of life. And they accepted that way of life. They were submissive Blacks.	17:10
Tywanna Whorley	What about yourself?	17:44
Lola Haynes Hendricks	I am not submissive. Not at all. No. I'll holler about discrimination in a minute. No.	17:45
Tywanna Whorley	So when you experienced that on the bus—?	17:55
Lola Haynes Hendricks	It did something to me.	17:57
Tywanna Whorley	What did you do?	18:00
Lola Haynes Hendricks	I said, if I ever had the opportunity to do something about this, I will. I just cannot stand that we are mistreated because we are Black. We deserve to sit down here. If I got on this bus bus first and had this seat, I shouldn't have to get up and I shouldn't have to have a board to separate us. Little boards sat in those little holes and they'd move it all over the bus, depending on the crowd. You'd never see the move it up when Blacks got on, but when the Whites got on, they would move back to get us up.	18:02
Tywanna Whorley	Did you ever talk about it with your friends in terms of—?	18:30
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Oh, all of us talk about it. In fact, my high school class reunion, we organized and we talk about, all the time, how bad things were when we grew up.	18:35
Tywanna Whorley	Did you think things would get better?	18:45
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Think they will get better?	18:46
Tywanna Whorley	During the '40s and '50s, did you think things	18:46
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Would get better? No, I had no idea we would make any impact on as much as we did without King. I couldn't even dream of what really happened. I never would've believed that would've happened.	18:46
Tywanna Whorley	I guess I can't imagine knowing that things might not change, but knowing that you can't go through this. What did you and your friends talk about in terms of trying to do something at that time, immediately?	19:03
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Back then?	19:24
Tywanna Whorley	Yes, ma'am.	19:25
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Nobody talked about anything. I didn't talk about anything. But I would voice it to my parents. And I can remember telling my mother how I could not stand those boards and the fact that they moved. I was always just so arrogant about that. And she said something to me like, "Well, you know you have to stay in your place." And that didn't jive with me at all. And I didn't want to get in, no confrontation with her, so I just let it be. That's why I knew that they were submissive.	19:25
Tywanna Whorley	What did they teach you at Parker about—?	19:57
Lola Haynes Hendricks	At Parker High School, our teachers told us about the importance of becoming a voter. When we reached the age of 18, I can remember vividly, Mr. Henry Williams used to talk to us very candidly, history teacher. And he'd take part of his history lessons and tell us about, he wanted to make sure that we became 18. He wanted us to become a voter so we could make a difference in this country. Also, Mr—Oh, I can't think of name now. There was another man who was very instrumental in telling us all the time about being the best we could, we did not have to hang our heads, because we were in a segregated setting that they had given us their best knowledge and their experience, and they was hoping the future would better for us, and they wanted to make sure that we were ready to accept this challenge. I can't remember his name right now. But Henry Williams stood out because he never let a week go by he did not drill in our head about becoming a registered voter once we attained the age of 18.	20:00
Tywanna Whorley	Did you, once you turned 18?	21:24
Lola Haynes Hendricks	I sure did. I went there and endured. I don't think I had any problems. As much as I can remember, I think I was able to pass whatever questions they asked, because they made it very difficult for us to register, asking us all kinds of silly questions. But I didn't have any problem, I was able to register. I was registered when I did go and apply.	21:26
Tywanna Whorley	What was the first election that you voted in?	21:47
Lola Haynes Hendricks	I can't remembe.r whatever year I turned 18. But I registered because I registered immediately. Let's see. That must have been in 1950 because I turned 18—Yeah, it had to be 1950. So that was the first election I voted in, 1950.	21:54
Tywanna Whorley	Okay. So, a presidential election?	22:12
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Yes.	22:18
Tywanna Whorley	I also know that Parker had a dress code.	22:21
Lola Haynes Hendricks	It was great. We thought it was bad then, but now as I look back, it was the best thing for us, poor as we were. It did not have us involved in the have and the have-nots because since we all were poor, those people who did have a little bit more income from their parents being professionals would have out-dressed all of us poor children. So in order for them to keep it on that level, I think it was great because we all had to wear those blue uniforms and the guys the khaki pants. And then when you got to be senior you could wear white. But we just hated it. But when we look back now, we realize that it was the best thing for us being poor.	22:25
Tywanna Whorley	As a little kid, why did you hate it?	23:14
Lola Haynes Hendricks	We just got tired wearing the same thing whole time. That's what made us hot is that we wanted to change. I want to wear some red or some green or whatever. And we had to wear that Indian head blue. And then when we got to be seniors were white and the guys could change into black pants.	23:17
Tywanna Whorley	Oh, okay.	23:36
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Yes.	23:38
Tywanna Whorley	Do you remember a lot about, I guess, the community in Birmingham, I guess between Whites and Blacks? Was there any racial incidents or people talk to you about what when on?	23:38
Lola Haynes Hendricks	In Birmingham?	23:47
Tywanna Whorley	Yes, ma'am.	23:48
Lola Haynes Hendricks	The first racial incident that I was aware of that really was a turning point in my getting involved, when Reverend Shuttlesworth started the Alabama Christian movement. The first racial incident that really got me in Birmingham was an incident in 19—I can't remember what year now. It was in the '50s. A guy named Judge Aaron, and from all indications now, he probably had a little mental illness of some kind. He was walking the streets in Tarrant City, Alabama. I think it was three White Ku Klux Klans picked him out, stopped him, and took him in the woods and castrated on that poor man. And it hurt me so bad. Only because he was a Black man, they picked him out. They just wanted to do something to a Black man. And I was just furious. I thought, "This is so cruel. The color of our skin make them hate us. They don't know nothing about what's on your heart. They don't know what kind of person you are, or what you may become." And they just took advantage of that man and messed him up for life.	23:51
Lola Haynes Hendricks	And that was the first incident. That was a turning point for me to know that I'm ready to get in any organization, anything that's going to help us change this condition in Birmingham.	25:12
Tywanna Whorley	Was there any outrage in the community?	25:26
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Oh, yes. Ministers spoke out. Whites too. But very few Whites because, see, that was during the era if you spoke out then you was a nigger-lover. So most of them may have felt bad, but they were afraid to say anything.	25:29
Tywanna Whorley	So nothing came about?	25:44
Lola Haynes Hendricks	No. I don't even remember if the man even got sentenced, if they even caught him or whatever. But I do know it happened. And Judge Aaron was castrated.	25:46
Tywanna Whorley	Do you remember Bull Connor?	26:02
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Well, do I remember Bull? Yes. I had the pleasure to ask Bull Connor for a permit to parade downtown when Dr. King was here. And he told me he would march me to the city jail. Yes.	26:03
Tywanna Whorley	I guess that was in the '60s.	26:15
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Yeah, '63.	26:17
Tywanna Whorley	But do you remember when he was here in the '50s?	26:19
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Oh, yes. They had Bull Connor and he got caught and all that stuff.	26:21
Tywanna Whorley	What do you remember about it?	26:26
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Well, I remember he was real tough on Black folks. He hated Blacks and he did everything he could to prohibit Blacks from even meeting together, even at the church, anywhere else. He just fought everything that had to do with mixing. And there were some laws made, and he got caught. I think he was instrumental to getting the law passed. And he got caught in the same law that had been passed at the hotel, an incident with a female. And boy, that broke his back. Made public news and TVs, and that started the beginning of his downfall. I remember Bull Connor.	26:28
Tywanna Whorley	When the elections came, I guess city elections, was there a Black voter turnout for elections?	27:09
Lola Haynes Hendricks	When we talk about changing the form of government? Oh, yeah. Great Black turnout. That was because we knew the only way that we could make any changes in Birmingham we were going to have to get out this three men commission. See, it was only three people presiding and running the city at that time when Bull Connor was in. So with only three people in position and Bull Conner there being the bully, then we knew that the only way for the city to progress is we must get a mixture of Blacks and White on a nine members city council. So it was a great voter turnout then, yes.	27:17
Tywanna Whorley	I'm curious as to how you get people to come out and, first of all, to register to vote, but then to vote.	27:58
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Well, during that time, people were conscious that there needed to be a change. And they knew as long as we had that three man commission with those three White men running this city, there was never going to be any growth for the Blacks in this city. So every organization, every church started putting out literature, pamphlets, knocking on doors, telephone committees to get people out to vote, even if you had to go pick them up and care of them. Churches used to have vans to take them to the polls to vote. That's how it was done. Mass involvement.	28:05
Tywanna Whorley	What church did you belong to?	28:42
Lola Haynes Hendricks	New Pilgrim Baptist Church.	28:43
Tywanna Whorley	Where is that located?	28:44
Lola Haynes Hendricks	About six, eight blocks up over on Southwest [indistinct 00:28:50].	28:46
Tywanna Whorley	Okay. Were you a helper in that?	28:50
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Oh, yes. Anything to do with bringing about a change in the city of Birmingham that was most needed, I was there. Remember the NAACP, working with them, working with Alabama Christian Movement, work with SALC. Yes.	28:54
Tywanna Whorley	Can you tell me work about working with NAACP?	29:09
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Working with the NAACP, that was the only time when we were doing that voter registration campaigns. We worked with getting people registered. I helped people to register. I helped people to fill out the application to go down to register to vote. We went over and drilled them at the church. We had all of our church members about our neighborhood to come. We had sessions set up at the church where we would orientate them and what was going to be asked of them so they could pass those tests.	29:14
Tywanna Whorley	How did you get the questions?	29:42
Lola Haynes Hendricks	We got somebody slipped out there. We did have a few White friends that trusted us and knew that we wouldn't tell and got them to get us a copy of it. And we passed it around everywhere.	29:42
Tywanna Whorley	Did anyone ever find—?	29:58
Lola Haynes Hendricks	No. Nobody ever found that. No, they never knew.	30:00
Tywanna Whorley	It was probably a shocker, have all these people just coming in—	30:04
Lola Haynes Hendricks	They were. Right. And then they got to the point where much easier to register to vote, and those things and more of those questions were obsolete and they would start registering people. You got people now, ordinary citizen now, who can bring the papers out to the church and register at a church meeting. Yes. So it's great now. You don't even have to go up to the courthouse to register.	30:09
Tywanna Whorley	Did you ever come across someone that you really had to actually sit down and talk to and try to convince that this was in their best interest?	30:38
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Not really. I don't think I had to do that because what we did was we worked primarily through churches. And Black people as a whole back then followed their ministers. If the minister said this was right for them to do, they would do it. And they trusted their pastor and they felt the pastor knew what they needed. And this was an era of people who maybe did not have much education. So they felt he was going to lead him in the right direction. So if he stood in the pulpit and said, "If you're not a registered voter, you ought to be ashamed. You need to do something," and challenge them to come, they came out. So we didn't have to coerce them, he had already laid the groundwork. So they came willing to learn how to pass the test to get to be registered voters.	30:47
Tywanna Whorley	Was there any who were illiterate, in terms of-	31:40
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Oh yes. That's why I said there were some, we had to sit and just show them how to write their names. We had to go take them to school. We had to do that. I worked with several people in the church who couldn't write their names and we would show them how to do the alphabet and get them on their way and as happy as they could be. Yes.	31:40
Tywanna Whorley	What about with the questions? I know they had to actually go down to the register's office and fill out the questions.	31:51
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Well, you see what they do if they go in there and they could not read, then they would read it to them. The registrars would read it to them and tell them what the question was, and then they would have to give them the appropriate answer. So that's why we drilled them with it. We learned that technique and we worked. Yes.	31:51
Tywanna Whorley	When did you join NAACP?	32:23
Lola Haynes Hendricks	I guess in about '54, '55, early on.	32:27
Tywanna Whorley	Were there a lot of women who were part of the—	32:31
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Oh, yeah. They had the women's group of NAACP.	32:35
Tywanna Whorley	Oh, really?	32:37
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Mm-hmm. They got a women's group of NAACP.	32:37
Tywanna Whorley	Back then?	32:40
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Yeah. They got a women's group. Women have always been active in NAACP. The men were the leaders, but that's a women's group.	32:40
Tywanna Whorley	[indistinct 00:32:48].	32:46
Lola Haynes Hendricks	I didn't work with the women's group per se. I just worked within the NAACP in the local area to work in to get the voter registration and things like that. Any campaign they had, I was there soliciting, calling or doing whatever we need to do. We called people up to get them to vote, see if they need rides. Anything that they need to do I was there during that.	32:50
Tywanna Whorley	Oh, okay.	33:06
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Right.	33:06
Tywanna Whorley	Where was their office located?	33:10
Lola Haynes Hendricks	They've had several office. Mainly their offices is downtown Masonic Temple Building.	33:12
Tywanna Whorley	Was it there in the '50s, that time?	33:17
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Yeah. Masonic Temple Building. The headquarters for most Black organizations.	33:19
Tywanna Whorley	Was it the Masonic?	33:24
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Right. All the Fourth Avenue area pretty much has most things for Blacks.	33:25
Tywanna Whorley	Okay. How was it working with? Because I'm sure you worked with Mr. Patton in there.	33:28
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Yeah, W. C. Patton well. Mr. Patton is nice. Great man. He's paid his dues to this city. Yes, he has. He's been a loyal man and I say that's why the Lord's keeping him here to see some of his works because he has been a hard worker all into the little towns. Now, he didn't work just here. He worked all over the state. Yes, he's a great man. I also worked with his son Jarvis.	33:32
Tywanna Whorley	So was there any opposition to the NAACP?	34:00
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Oh, yeah. Plenty of opposition in NAACP. The one striking opposition that outlawed the NAACP was in 1956 when the state of Alabama outlawed the NAACP for not turning over a membership list to them. And when that came about, then Mr. Patton, I'm told, he says that he called Reverend Shuttlesworth when the out in them and told him that you all need to get together and start another organization. And that's what Robert Shuttlesworth did. He started the Alabama Christian Movement of Human Rights and we went from there.	34:06
Tywanna Whorley	When they decided that they were going to attack the NAACP, did you think, "They coming after this now?"	34:54
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Well, I didn't have any fear about them coming after anybody. I was proud of NAACP for not turning over their list. They had as much right to maintain the privacy of their membership as any Ku Klux Klan, White Citizen Council, anybody else. So I was very proud that they took that stand. And then when I read in the paper the next week, or the same week that it happened, when Reverend Shuttlesworth organized the Alabama Christian Movement of Human rights, I missed that first meeting because I didn't know about it. But I was at that second meeting. So, hey, we picked up, went on. No use to just outlawed any NAACP, that's all, because we going to go on.	35:03
Tywanna Whorley	So I know this gets in the '60s, but when the NAACP came back, reorganizing that, state of Alabama, did the people who joined Mr. Shuttlesworth—	35:39
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Still maintain loyalty to the NAACP, too, worked with both organizations. And pretty much after the '60s, the Alabama Christian Movement of Human Rights lost a lot of momentum, lost a lot of people. So therefore people started going back to the NAACP to help. Because right now the Alabama Christian Movement is just a meeting organization. They are not functioning to do anything, direct action, anything like that. So most people felt better about doing things with the NAACP.	35:50
Tywanna Whorley	During, I guess, the mid '50s, what else was, if you remember, the NAACP was doing it besides voting?	36:25
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Well, they also were taking litigation cases, people who were being brutally attacked or any legal case that was brought to them. They were regular filing lawsuits all at the same time. That was forwarded up to New York, and they handled it from that level. But they were also involved in that. They were just busy and has always been what they are today. They have really been the background for the Blacks because they were there when no other organization was.	36:36
Tywanna Whorley	Did you ever hold any offices?	37:13
Lola Haynes Hendricks	No. Just a member.	37:13
Tywanna Whorley	Did you ever go down to downtown that much during the '50s?	37:14
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Oh, yeah. Yes. Sure, that's what all the shopping was. We didn't have any malls and things. So downtown was a shopping area.	37:19
Tywanna Whorley	How was that going down there knowing that everything was segregated?	37:23
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Well, we shopped and did like everybody else until '56 when the Christian Movement was organized. We followed all the rules. We rode the segregated elevators and we ate it to downtown part of Newberry's, if that's what you wanted to eat down there in the segregated setting. So everybody up until the Fred Shuttlesworth formed organized the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, we did everything we've been doing all along.	37:27
Tywanna Whorley	Did you ever leave Birmingham? Go up north, or anything?	37:54
Lola Haynes Hendricks	I left Birmingham, went to New York in '51 after I graduated high school. Went to see my aunt and uncle. Thought I may want to stay there. But no, New York was not my town.	37:59
Tywanna Whorley	Why did you say that?	38:08
Lola Haynes Hendricks	I was disappointed in New York itself. I don't know what I thought it was going to look like. I was really surprised at the living condition in Harlem and Bronx, in that area, I was really shocked. And I did not living over those stores and things. And I said, "Oh my God! We living bad enough down here." And I didn't like that at all. And the people there, in the southern hospitality, you passed by people in your apartment, you speak to them and they don't even look around at you. And I said, "oh, this is too cold up here for me. I'm going back to the south." So I didn't stay.	38:10
Tywanna Whorley	How did you travel up there?	38:48
Lola Haynes Hendricks	I think I went by train. I know it wasn't no plane. I think I went by train.	38:49
Tywanna Whorley	I'm sure it was segregated.	38:55
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Yes. Oh, yeah. You was segregated from anywhere until you got pass the Mason Dixon Lounge. When you got on up in the other areas, they may not segregate you. But you were segregated from here till you got in the northern area.	38:57
Tywanna Whorley	I don't know if you remember how much you paid for a ticket.	39:09
Lola Haynes Hendricks	No. Can't remember that. That's too far back. That's 40 years. I can't remember that.	39:13
Tywanna Whorley	So how was that different? You talk about Southern hospitality, but in terms of Whites, how long did you stay?	39:19
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Well, I didn't say long. I did stay there about three weeks. I didn't have any encounters with the Whites. I didn't really notice anything different. Whites and Blacks were talking and going on around up there. But that never bothered me and I didn't pay that much attention.	39:26
Tywanna Whorley	What about, I guess, the neighborhood that you lived in here in Birmingham, compare that to where your relatives lived?	39:49
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Well, the structure of the buildings were better because we just had this wooden houses and those alleys when we were living. But in New York, those were those brick buildings all congregated together, three and four levels. But it was in better shape than what we had here.	39:49
Tywanna Whorley	What did you do when you went up to New York?	40:06
Lola Haynes Hendricks	I looked around, went down to Radio City and that area, and looked in the papers and looked at jobs to see if I wanted to work there. But I decided to tell my mother I decided that was not the city for me. So I came back home.	40:08
Tywanna Whorley	Do you remember your house? Can you describe the house you lived in, in Birmingham?	40:28
Lola Haynes Hendricks	You mean the one on the south side?	40:32
Tywanna Whorley	Yes, ma'am.	40:35
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Let's see. The house had 5 rooms in it. It was one of those houses straight back. You walk into the living room, then there was a kitchen and there was a little back porch out there, that was a little enclosed. And on this side, there were two bedrooms. And that was it. And then the other house that I lived in, it was just three straight rooms straight back. That was it. And you had the outdoor toilet at that time. You had to go outdoors to the toilets.	40:37
Tywanna Whorley	Did you have running water?	41:10
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Yeah, we had running water. Never had to use a well, did have running water.	41:13
Tywanna Whorley	How was it the community that you lived in the Black neighborhood here? For instance, if someone needed something?	41:18
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Oh, we shared. Wasn't no problem going over and borrow a cup of sugar or flour, a meal or do you have a can of milk. We share. And my mother, when she was working at King's Drugstore, if there were food leftover, she'd bring home and she shared with our neighbor, Mrs. Meribel. She had three children and her husband became ill early on and she had to try to work and my mother would share food with her. And it was a sharing thing. Nobody suffered from eating because we share whatever we had with any neighbor in the neighborhood who needed some help.	41:27
Tywanna Whorley	Did everybody watch everybody in terms of-	42:08
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Everybody watch everybody's children. If Ms. Meribel told my mother that we'd had any boys in that house while she was gone, or if we had done anything wrong, she would tell my mother. My mother would tear us up. That's right. Sure. And the same with her children. If she saw Junior or Thelma doing something bad, Ms. Meribel came, Ms. Meribel took care of her children and whipped them. And everybody was watching out for you. And looking at it, I think they told those people, "Look out over here. I'm going to be gone." But anyway, they kept watch on us. That's true. That's the difference in then and now. Yes.	42:08
Tywanna Whorley	So would you, I guess, classify your upbringing with being happy?	42:48
Lola Haynes Hendricks	It was happy. Yes, we were happy. We had a very happy family. There's only one bad thing that I can remember. My mother and father stayed together in spite of his drinking and the gambling. Only one bad incident that I can remember. And that's the one where my father came home, I believe it was either 4th of July or a Labor Day weekend. He came home, my mother saw him. He always would gamble, come home without any money. And if he'd given her some money, he wanted her to give it back to him. So this particular day, he came down the street, my mother went out there and she saw him coming. His nickname, she called him Pens. She said, "I see Pens coming home. He's shining like new money. I know he drunk."	42:55
Lola Haynes Hendricks	She said, "If he comes here today clowning, I am not going to take it." And she said to me before he got home, she said, "Now, when he comes here, if he start fussing and want me to give him some money back, I'm not going to give him because I'm going to pay these bills." She said, "And if he threatens to get the gun—" Because one time he threatened to get the gun on her. She says, "If he threatened to get that gun, I'm going to knock him down on the floor and I want you to take the gun from him." And I did. And after, when I thought about how dangerous it was, he could have killed all of us with me tussling with him with that gun. But I did tussle with him and got that gun out of his hand.	43:45
Lola Haynes Hendricks	But in the meantime, I tore one of the ligaments in one of his fingers, he never got over that finger lost and the feeling in it. That's the only bad incident that I could ever know. I never knew about any fighting with my mom and dad. They never did fight. He'd fuss and come on the money back. But never any fighting, nor abuse, hitting her, beating her. But that was the only time that she had knocked him down. And she told me, she said, "I'm going to knock him down the floor because he going to be drunk and I can knock him down." She was a strong woman. She says, "I can knock him down." And she knocked him down that floor. And I grabbed that—It was a shotgun. And I tussled, and I tussled and twisted until I finally got his hand, but I broke that ligament and he had to go to the hospital.	44:28
Tywanna Whorley	When did your mom pass?	45:15
Lola Haynes Hendricks	My mother died in 1990. She was 88.	45:15
Tywanna Whorley	Is there anything else that you remember about that time? Because what we are trying to do is that even though you were growing up, not in an isolated environment, but you were aware of what was going on around you. I guess what I'm trying to ask is, growing up in that area where you kids played together and things like that, did you at any time see White kids playing around there?	45:23
Lola Haynes Hendricks	No.	45:55
Tywanna Whorley	No?	45:55
Lola Haynes Hendricks	No. We never played with White kids. Never. We had never had any experience with White kids. The only experience you'd have with White kids if your mother worked in a house where the White people live and you had to go over some time and help her, she'd take you with. That's the only time you saw those White kids. But they never came out and played with us. No.	45:58
Tywanna Whorley	So how did you interact with them once you got older, if you'd never been—	46:16
Lola Haynes Hendricks	With Whites?	46:24
Tywanna Whorley	Yes ma'am.	46:26
Lola Haynes Hendricks	It came naturally because they were a human being like I was. I didn't look at the color of skin. I treated them however they treat me. If they treated me friendly, I was friendly. If they were snobbish, I'd be snobbish. And if I felt they were genuine, and I could pretty much tell when I was with a White that was sincere about what they were doing and they were not prejudiced or phony. So I treated them however they came across to me. I had no problem relating to Whites because I didn't have any hate against them. Because for the most part, the Whites that I was working with and became involved in were not responsible for their upbringing. I knew it was instilled in them from their parents. They were taught to hate Blacks and they were taught that we were inferior to them and that we were not as good as they are. So our teaching was not that way. Our parents didn't ever talk to us about mistreating a White or hating—	46:26

Lola Haynes Hendricks	So I decided that I would not be prejudiced toward them. I would not mistreat them. I'd treat them the way they treat me. Because I always knew and was always in that church. I was raised in a church, a very good minister who taught us to love everyone. And I never did see them based on their color of their skin. Other than if they treated me in a way that I know that they were White and they were prejudiced, I wouldn't associate with them.	0:02
Tywanna Whorley	How important was the church for your family's life?	0:30
Lola Haynes Hendricks	How important was it? It was everything. It really has been the foundation for me and my family and I'm very blessed to have had a mother who made us go to church, even though she had to work on Sundays. But whenever she was off, she'd carry us. But when she worked, we had to go to church and I brought my children up the same way. I carried them to church and they're still in the church today. So it was very important and it has been all that we have need to manage to make it to this point with God on our side.	0:32
Tywanna Whorley	Do you remember the Montgomery bus boycott?	1:08
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Mm-hmm.	1:13
Tywanna Whorley	What did you think when you heard about it?	1:15
Lola Haynes Hendricks	I was excited about it. I thought it was the best thing could ever happen to start this civil rights matter in this country. It was time. [indistinct 00:01:26] Rosa Park's [indistinct 00:01:27]. I was glad she got angry that day and wouldn't move.	1:15
Tywanna Whorley	Did you think they were going to be successful?	1:29
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Oh, yes. Had no doubt. Especially after they got Dr. King to be the leader. There was something about that man had magic. There's been nobody yet who can corral a crowd like he can. Nobody can appeal to the masses like he. And I just knew in my heart that he was their man.	1:31
Tywanna Whorley	So what was, I don't know if you remember, what were people talking about when they heard that Montgomery was starting this bus boycott?	1:50
Lola Haynes Hendricks	We were excited. We were all sending money to help them. We were excited. Very proud to see them do it. We knew it was time. We just had a feeling. It was a beginning.	1:57
Tywanna Whorley	Did you think about starting something here during that time?	2:13
Lola Haynes Hendricks	No. No. My daughter is coming, I want to get this off.	2:18
Lola Haynes Hendricks	[INTERRUPTION 00:02:23].	2:22
Tywanna Whorley	Another question I wanted to ask you is, in terms of the meals that your mom used to cook, do you remember your favorite meal that she used to—	2:22
Lola Haynes Hendricks	You mean at home?	2:37
Tywanna Whorley	Yes, ma'am.	2:39
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Yes. Let's see. The chicken and dressing and the greens, the cakes, because she loved to cook and she cooked cakes and pies. That was about the basic thing that we had. Other things were just regular, like white meat and cabbage, stuff like that. And cornbread. We didn't have much. Occasionally we'd get the vegetable and the chicken and dressing, but it was rare. We had peas and cornbread and things like that. We had to have that.	2:45
Tywanna Whorley	In terms of managing the money, who did that?	3:31
Lola Haynes Hendricks	My mother. My mother. She had to to. Told you about my father. She had to.	3:35
Tywanna Whorley	I'm sure it wasn't, like you said, it wasn't that much. But how did she make it stretch?	3:45
Lola Haynes Hendricks	By bringing a lot of food home from the other people. From where she worked.	3:50
Tywanna Whorley	Mm-hmm. I forgot what I was asking.	3:54
Lola Haynes Hendricks	You was asking about controlling the money. Who controlled the money? My mother did.	4:02
Tywanna Whorley	Okay. Do you see any significant changes that have happened comparing now and back then in Birmingham?	4:07
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Yes. Tremendous changes. Tremendous. It is just great. I'm proud to live here now. Yeah. I'm really impressed with all the things that have occurred. All the changes. Very impressed.	4:14
Tywanna Whorley	Can you tell some of them?	4:25
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Okay. The fact that we can sit anywhere we want to sit on the bus, we can go to any movies, we can shop anywhere. We can try on dresses now, where at times when we were, before the integration came, we could buy our dresses, but we couldn't even try them on in a department store. We can go to a restaurant and sit down and eat now. Any restaurant we want, we can go to a hotel, get a room and stay anywhere. We can travel anywhere we need to travel and use the bathrooms anywhere we go. And we can worship at any church we want to go to, any school we want to. It is just great.	4:28
Tywanna Whorley	So when you had your kids, what did you try to instill in them?	5:09
Lola Haynes Hendricks	To get to be the best that they could get. To do the best. To do the best that they could. Do the best they could. Be your best. Yeah. Be your best. So they did. They did well. Both went on to college, finished high school and went to college.	5:14
Tywanna Whorley	You said in terms of trying on dresses, I guess when your family did go downtown to buy—	5:34
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Shop. Mm-hmm. If you see a dress, you like it, you buy it. But some of those stores wouldn't let you try them on.	5:40
Tywanna Whorley	What about, and one of the things I found is that a lot of times, especially with Black women, when you went into these stores, they called you by your first name?	5:51
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Mm-hmm. And others were Mrs. Whites come in the store, "Hey, Mrs. Jones." Yes. I was Lola. But Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Davis for the Whites. Yes.	5:58
Tywanna Whorley	Did you take anything of that or—	6:07
Lola Haynes Hendricks	No. It didn't bother me at that time. But later it did. Of course, during the Birmingham civil rights institute, I mean civil rights marches and demonstration, when we had the boycotts, we closed our [indistinct 00:06:22] accounts downtown. We closed them. Wrote letters and sent them our charge cards back.	6:09
Tywanna Whorley	Sent them back?	6:25
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Yes, sure did. We wrote letters and sent them back. Told them until they know how to treat us the same as they do to others. And now we're Mrs. down there now. That's right.	6:27
Tywanna Whorley	Some of those places that used to segregate, do you go down there now?	6:38
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Oh, honey. There's nothing to go to now. They're all closed.	6:43
Tywanna Whorley	They closed?	6:44
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Mm-hmm. Birmingham downtown is dead. There's not a major department store in Birmingham downtown. Not one. They're all gone out to the shopping malls now. Mm-hmm.	6:46
Tywanna Whorley	What were the name of the movie theaters that you went to on Fourth Avenue?	6:58
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Carver Theater and The Famous.	7:02
Tywanna Whorley	The Famous?	7:03
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Mm-hmm. With Sonata Jazz Hall of Fame. That was a famous theater. And there was another called The Carver. And if you went to The Lyric, you could go upstairs. White folks went downstairs. You had to go upstairs at The Lyric Theater.	7:04
Tywanna Whorley	Where was The Lyric Theater?	7:16
Lola Haynes Hendricks	It was on Third Avenue and 18th Street. Mm-hmm. Blacks used the side door and go upstairs and the White folks went into the front and sat downstairs. But the two on the Fourth Avenue was Carver. There was Carver and The Famous and The Frolic. There was a Frolic Theater too there that went out early. [indistinct 00:07:39]. Mm-hmm.	7:18
Tywanna Whorley	You remember how much it cost to go see a movie?	7:43
Lola Haynes Hendricks	No, I don't remember. We didn't go that much no way but I don't remember. But I'm sure it was very cheap. Because like I said, we were very poor. We didn't have much. Even the boys you dated didn't have much money. Didn't have all those good Burger King jobs and things they can get now. Didn't have all of that. It was bad.	7:43
Tywanna Whorley	Well, you talked about some of the significant changes, but do you see anything else that needed needs to be changed in terms of race relations?	8:01
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Yeah. I still see a lot of things that need to be changed. We need to see a lot more, and it's gradually getting in there, a lot more integration within the church denominations. Blacks and Whites. Because we have prejudice on our part too, of Blacks and White. Doing more in the line of working together in the churches and in the conventions and the congresses and things where they need to start integrating more and sharing pulpits where they need to get involved in something. Like I was in involved locally in something called Bridging the Gap, where we need to start doing things that we are not comfortable with. We need to start visiting White churches and White church members need to start going to Black churches and learning one another.	8:09
Lola Haynes Hendricks	You'll never get to learn them as long as we keep having these churches separated like that. And we learn one another, we get to interact better. And it's going to make a big difference in the world. That's right. We need to interact together. Stop doing everything that's comfortable for us. Stay in your Black setting. Go in a White setting. Somewhere you're not comfortable. And it's a challenge to do that. Mm-hmm. That's right.	9:00
Tywanna Whorley	So back then, I guess this wasn't going on.	9:26
Lola Haynes Hendricks	No.	9:30
Tywanna Whorley	The integration of the churches.	9:31
Lola Haynes Hendricks	No, no. We hit on them a little bit during the days of the segregation, I mean the direct action that we had in '63. We did hit on some of those churches. We did go. And some did open their doors and some of them are better. But it's still mass Black churches, mass White churches, mass White congregations and conventions and things.	9:33
Tywanna Whorley	I wanted to ask you. Do you remember the Brown decision back then?	9:52
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Yes. 1954. Yes.	9:58
Tywanna Whorley	What did you think when you heard that?	9:59
Lola Haynes Hendricks	I was proud of that. I was proud of that. I was proud of that and really proud of it because so many things has been affected by that decision. So yes, I was very proud of Brown decision. Thought it was timely. I just think everything that has happened for us, it was time. The time has come.	10:01
Tywanna Whorley	Once that decision came out, do you remember what happened here in terms of the schools in the fifties?	10:23
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Nothing happened that time. We had to take him to court. Yeah, we had to file a lawsuit. Alabama Christian [indistinct 00:10:30] Human Rights did that. Had to take them to court to get the integration done. James Armstrong. Have you interviewed him?	10:23
Tywanna Whorley	No.	10:35
Lola Haynes Hendricks	You haven't? Well, his sons were the ones who was the lawsuit. James Armstrong. You need to talk to him.	10:35
Tywanna Whorley	Okay.	10:43
Lola Haynes Hendricks	That's where the lawsuit is in his name. So you need to talk with James Armstrong.	10:43
Tywanna Whorley	[indistinct 00:10:56].	10:49
Lola Haynes Hendricks	His children went to Graymont. I thought it was Graymont School and tried to get in. They refused. And then he came back and Reverend Shuttlesworth with the Alabama Christian Movement filed a lawsuit against the Board of Education. But the lawsuit is in his name, Armstrong vs. the Board of Education.	10:56
Tywanna Whorley	How long did it take before the decision came back saying [indistinct 00:11:19]?	11:14
Lola Haynes Hendricks	I don't remember.	11:18
Tywanna Whorley	You don't?	11:19
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Uh-uh. We filed a lot of lawsuits during that time. We had that one, one for the Park and Recreation Board to integrate the parks. Had a lot of lawsuits going back to back. Those things moved so fast. So we just couldn't keep up. We really did not know it was going to be that impact. And we really had no idea what it was going to do to this nation or this city. So to know exactly what went on during the filing of those cases, it's just hard to remember because so many things went down during that period. It was a period in our life here in Birmingham from about '56 to '64. It was just back to back situation. Just one after the other.	11:19
Tywanna Whorley	Was it [indistinct 00:12:08], was it the sixties that you won all those cases that you've filed lawsuits against?	12:08
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Some were won before the sixties. Some were won before the sixties. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Some of them were won before the sixties. Because I can remember the one they had to file against the Terminal Station, Birmingham Terminal Station. The waiting rooms were segregated and the Baldwins set up there and that lawsuit started that case. So it was just one situation after another. Test case. And they went to court.	12:12
Tywanna Whorley	Do you remember a place called Dynamite Hill?	12:39
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Up there where Arthur Shores lived. Yes. Mm-hmm. And the congregational church, the Catholic Church, First Queens University. Yeah. Sure.	12:45
Tywanna Whorley	Having these houses bombed constantly, what did y'all [indistinct 00:13:02]?	12:57
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Well, I'm going to tell you what my pastor and a lady named Lucinda Robie and I did. And we could have been killed for some of this crap. (laughs) But when the bombs would go off, we'd call one of them and say, "Well, do you where it went off?" We said, "No." And we said, "Okay." My pastor said, "I'm coming to pick you up. We going to see." Because we want to see if what damage and who was there. We could see what had happened and see what we could do. So we would go to every bombing. Yes, we showed up on the scene. And we think about it now, we could have been killed. But my pastor, Lucinda Robie, who's now dead, and I used to go over there to those bombings. Yeah.	13:01
Tywanna Whorley	Do you have an image of what you saw [indistinct 00:13:46]?	13:42
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Yeah. We saw the dust and debris and stuff scattered everywhere. And the buildings damaged. Yeah.	13:46
Tywanna Whorley	Do you remember which houses?	13:56
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Shore's was primarily the one because they were after him more than anybody else. Some other people got other damage around there, like the Davis's. I can't remember the person who lived right on the next houses from Shores. Several of those houses were damaged several times, I believe. They were after him primarily because of his being involved in taking a lawsuit. Filing a lawsuit.	13:58
Tywanna Whorley	How is it possible for, I don't know if you know this, but for these people to plant these bombs in their community?	14:23
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Well, no policemen were there to protect anybody. And they was able to do it because I assumed nobody was out. They planted them during a time when nobody was out and could see them.	14:30
Tywanna Whorley	So was it, I guess—	14:42
Lola Haynes Hendricks	And so they could go and pose as a repair person or somebody with a truck so nobody would suspect them of doing anything like that. See, because they owned the jobs. They had all the jobs. So they could easily plant it. And a tree. At the base of the house and pretend like they were reading the meter or something. Yes. They had all control of everything. And they did everything they could do nasty. Yes. That's true.	14:45
Tywanna Whorley	So is that why Birmingham got the name Bombingham?	15:12
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Bombingham. Yes. That's why. Mm-hmm. But that bombing there and Reverend Shuttlesworth house was bombed about three times too.	15:15
Tywanna Whorley	Did anybody find out why they bombed Davis house? Why? Because I can understand why they were after Shores, but why—	15:23
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Well, the Davis's, the Davis house was pretty close to Shores. They was in the same neighborhood as Shores. They lived in the same neighborhood. That's why. Because they were not involved in the movement at all. Uh-uh. Because Angela wasn't involved. Angela was protected. Because I had a chance to see Angela at Brandeis. I went up to Brooklyn in 1952, I believe it was, with Reverend Howard Mellett. It was Southern Conference Education Fund during that time. And he took me on a tour of that eastern area up there. And Angela was at Brandeis and I spoke at Brandeis College. And she sat in awe and just was shocked when I told her her about all the things that occurred here. And she said, "I was protected from that." Said, "I did not know that was going [indistinct 00:16:23]." Said, "My mom and dad had shielded me from that." Said, "I didn't know what was going on." She was shocked when I told her all the things that we've been through.	15:30
Tywanna Whorley	And this was in '50?	16:33
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Yeah.	16:33
Tywanna Whorley	1950?	16:33
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Yeah. Mm-hmm.	16:34
Tywanna Whorley	You spoke at Brandeis.	16:35
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Mm-hmm.	16:36
Tywanna Whorley	What'd you [indistinct 00:16:39]?	16:37
Lola Haynes Hendricks	We were in the middle of boycotting and doing things here in Birmingham, and Reverend Shuttlesworth was involved with Southern Conference Education Fund. I was on the board at that time. And they wanted someone to come up in that area to talk to the northern people about what we were doing here. And during the time of that boycott was when— When I went up and spoke, they sent back things if I had kids for Christmas, because we weren't shopping and just loads of stuff was sent back for kids here to keep us from shopping. And that's what they wanted me to go. And I went on a tour with him. Went to Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut. Mm-hmm.	16:38
Tywanna Whorley	[indistinct 00:17:18].	17:16
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Yeah. And it was great. That was a great experience. Just about every audience I had was pretty much predominantly White. Mm-hmm. That's right. That's where the money was. And they were rich, so he wanted me to hit those areas so they would send some money down there for us. And they sent money, toys, clothing. Our kids didn't want for nothing. We had enough to supply the church that was involved in the movement. Mm-hmm. They were great.	17:17
Tywanna Whorley	So what did you say to them in terms of—	17:40
Lola Haynes Hendricks	I told them about the things that we were going through here, what was happening here, and the lawsuits we had filed and how bad things were. And we planned to continue. We were not going to give up. And I spoke at houses, at churches, at schools. But Mellett, Reverend Howard Mellett set me up to do that. He planned the tour for me, and it was most beneficial to us.	17:42
Tywanna Whorley	So I guess the audience, you didn't know prior that the audience that you were going to-	18:10
Lola Haynes Hendricks	GI didn't know who they were going to be. No. And we stayed in the White homes. We stayed in the homes there. Yes. He had set up homes for to stay in. They were just jewels. They were very sweet. Very nice White people. Mm-hmm. I loved Massachusetts the most. I was impressed with State of Massachusetts. Yes.	18:10
Tywanna Whorley	Where in Massachusetts did you go?	18:26
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Several places. I know I went to Kennedy's area in Brookline. Great, honey. It was pretty. Connecticut was a pretty state too. Yeah, I just really had a good time. And enjoyed telling the story. Yeah. See, I served as Correspondent Secretary for the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights in '56. So I went to work inside the federal government. And Reverend Mellett thought that I should be the one to come. And he chose me to come to go on that tour. But they sent a lot of money back.	18:28
Tywanna Whorley	Oh yeah.	19:04
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Yeah. They sent a lot of money back to us. Yeah.	19:04
Tywanna Whorley	[indistinct 00:19:05] sympathetic to the—	19:04
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Oh, to the cause. Yeah. Very supportive. Mm-hmm. Yes, they were.	19:05
Tywanna Whorley	So did that change, I know you said you didn't have any resentment towards Whites—	19:10
Lola Haynes Hendricks	No.	19:15
Tywanna Whorley	But did you think that, I guess going to these audiences that maybe there might be a chance that we can work together?	19:16
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Mm-hmm. I knew it right away when I went to Reverend Mellett's house. His wife had never met me. I had met him because we were both on the board together. And his children all were just jewels. Yeah. So it was really nice. It was a nice tour. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Made a lot of friends.	19:24
Tywanna Whorley	So was that an interracial group? That was an interracial group?	19:48
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Mm-hmm. That was interracial group. Right. Mm-hmm.	19:48
Tywanna Whorley	Who were some of the people that, were they from Birmingham area?	19:48
Lola Haynes Hendricks	No, they were from across the country. New Orleans, Kentucky. Because Anne and Carl Bradon were in Kentucky as a husband and wife team. And Reverend Mellett was in New York with Reverend Shuttlesworth. Then at that time, I think it was in, he was still in Alabama, I believe. I don't think he'd gone to Ohio then. And then Jim Donbrosky was in Louisiana, and Evelyn Falkosky was in Huntsville. So it was just a mixture of people across the country.	19:49
Tywanna Whorley	Oh, so you were [indistinct 00:20:17]?	20:16
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Mm-hmm. Yeah. Anne and Carl Bradon. Yes. Know Anne real well. Yes.	20:16
Tywanna Whorley	Oh wow.	20:20
Lola Haynes Hendricks	And Carl is dead now, right. Yeah. I know them. Mm-hmm. Yes. Anne and Carl Bradon. Yes. She's a great soul. She's not too well now, I understand.	20:21
Tywanna Whorley	Yeah.	20:31
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Mm-hmm.	20:34
Tywanna Whorley	I got a chance to meet her this past [indistinct 00:20:40]. I went to the Southern [indistinct 00:20:42] Conference.	20:39
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Oh, okay. Yeah. You got a chance to meet her? Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Have you talked to Judy Hand here?	20:46
Tywanna Whorley	No. Judy Hand?	20:49
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Uh-huh. Judy Hand. She works with him on the Southern poverty. Judy Hand. She works with him. Look her up.	20:51
Tywanna Whorley	Okay.	20:56
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Mm-hmm. She's a pretty nice White female.	20:56
Tywanna Whorley	Do you see any, in terms of what you taught your children and what you experienced yourself, that you see needs to be taught today, to children today?	21:07
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Yes, I sure do. Sure do. We need it very badly. Because of the way the children are now. We need it very badly. We've lost the moral teaching. There's not enough discipline and not enough involvement in the church. Because that's going to be the answer to the problem. They got to get their love taught to them. And where else but in the church and shown in the family? In our era, from what I see now, there has been a breakdown in the teaching. During the time we came along, it was the church, the school and the family together. And you don't have that. The line is broken down. So if that's not available now, then the kids are going to continue with this violence. Not enough love. Not enough love.	21:20
Tywanna Whorley	So would you say that was the most important thing from that time period that you had?	22:29
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Yes. Yes. Even though we were poor and whatever else, we had love. Yes. We had love. In spite of the condition we were living under, there was love. Yes.	22:33
Tywanna Whorley	Anything else you want to say anything?	22:46
Lola Haynes Hendricks	No. I think that's about all.	22:47
Tywanna Whorley	Thank you.	22:47
Lola Haynes Hendricks	Okay. Mm-hmm.	22:47

Item Info

Title:

Lola Hendricks interview recording, 1994 June 22

Date:

June 22, 1994

Creator:

Hendricks, Lola Haynes

Contributor:

Whorley, Tywanna

Description:

Name: Lola Haynes Hendricks; Date of birth: 1932-12-19; Place of birth: Birmingham, AL; Occupation(s): civil service; EEOC investigator; Residence: Birmingham, AL
Informant ID: 705; Interviewed by: Tywanna Whorley.

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Language:

English

Digital Collection:

Behind the Veil

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Behind the Veil: Documenting African American Life in the Jim Crow South interviews, photographs, and project records, circa 1864-2011, bulk 1990-1999

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The David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library acquired the Records of the Behind the Veil Oral History Project from the Duke University Center for Documentary Studies in 1997, 1998, 2000, and 2002.

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Copyright for content created by the Behind the Veil project is held by Duke University and made available to the public using a Creative Commons Attribution / Non-commercial (CC-BY-NC) license.

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Interview number: 174
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Lola Hendricks interview recording, 1994 June 22

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1. Lola Hendricks administrative file, 1994

2. Lola Hendricks slides: Color portrait: left to right - Jan Hendricks (daughter), Lola Hendricks, and Audrey F. Hendricks (daughter), 1980s

John Hope Franklin Research Center

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Lola Hendricks interview recording, 1994 June 22

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