High School Mechanics Teacher

Blacks weren't allowed to do this job [aircraft engine maintenance instructor] in the [U.S.] Navy or they just, they would miss--they were directing blacks away from those kinds of jobs?$$In the Navy, there was a difference between the Navy and the [U.S.] Army. If you had a, had a, a degree from a college, you would get a commission going into the, you know, to the, to the Army. And you could get a commission going into the Navy if you were white. So all of the blacks that, that was up at, at, at Smalls, Robert Smalls Camp [Camp Robert Smalls at Great Lakes Naval Training Center, Waukegan, Illinois], you had some guys up there with Ph.D.s, but they, they couldn't get a commission because they were black. So that, that, that was the difference, so I wanted to work with, with, with that group when I came out here. I mean, well, that, that's, that's when I went up to the, to the, to Great Lakes. But this, where I was teaching up in CVS [Chicago Vocational High School, later, Chicago Vocational Career Academy, Chicago, Illinois], the building then [Naval Air Technical Training Center, Chicago, Illinois], they were just all-white recruits coming in that we taught. Some of 'em were good; some of 'em were washed out. But then when the war [World War II, WWII] was over in the Pacific [Theater], and they didn't need as many men, then they wanted to close the school. And they didn't take any more recruits, and they sent the instructors to Burris Airfield [Waukegan, Illinois] from all over the country. And they sent some of, some of the blacks they sent to Pensacola, Florida, and they sent 'em back 'cause blacks couldn't teach whites in the South at that time. So, that ended that. So then they closed the school, and it was just ten black instructors left in the whole building. And we'd go there every day and sit down and play cards and have a good time. Our pay went up the service, you know, increments, and we really had a nice time. And then when they really closed them down, then they sent us out to Great Lakes, which they didn't have a school, and we were civilians. We just went there every day and sat in the cafeteria, and kibitzed, and got in our cars and come back home in the evenings.$--Sir, what was the most rewarding aspect of teaching?$$I en- I've enjoyed the students that I have, just to watch them grow, you know, just to watch 'em grow. Now, most of the students that come around to see me, they've bought their own homes, you know; they send their kids to, to college. It's rewarding. Now I had, I had two boys to come to my class. One boy's father owns a tavern. They're, they're teenagers in high school, and they're buddy buddy. So they come into my shop eight o'clock in the morning, and they stay until lunchtime. They have free period then. When they come in, I can smell whiskey on 'em. I call them over. I say, "Hey, fellows, tell me what's going on." I say you, "I know you've been drinking. I can smell it." I said, "Now you know you can't, you can't be in here drinking liquor and working on these machines 'cause you'll get hurt. So what I want you to do"--I have a big tool room--"go back there in the tool room and go to sleep. Don't come out. Stay in there, and I'll come and get you when it's time for you to go get your lunch." Okay? Now his father owns a tavern, and it's his job to clean it up before he comes to school, and of course his buddy is with him. You know, teenagers, they gon' sample some whiskey. That's, that's natural, you know, get a taste, so okay. So I said, "Now time to go to lunch, and when school's over come back here. I wanna talk to you." When they come back, I said, "Now you know you spent three hours with me. I don't want you to come back drunk anymore." I said, "Don't do that." I said, "But you don't owe me three hours. You owe me twelve hours, and you've got to make it up before you graduate." And they made it up.$$What did they do to make it up?$$They come back after school--$$Okay.$$--and make them hours up. Now, just that one boy, his father died. He's got the taverns. He's still running the taverns, and he's doing fine. And he comes around. He just had a big party at his place up at Union Pier [Michigan] for all of his classmates. He's doing very well. I had one boy, he used to play tonk in the lunchroom, and he had his deck of cards. Said to him, "What you doing with them cards (unclear)?" "Oh, Mr. Lee, I'm, I'm making money. These dummies around here, they don't know nothing." I said, "You don't know nothing either." I said, "Now you shouldn't do that." I said, "Because really you don't know the game." "Oh yeah, I know (unclear)." "Oh yeah, okay. Tell you what, one day when it's nice out, and I don't feel like going out to lunch, can we have a little tonk game, you and me?" "Oh yeah, yeah, yeah," him and his buddy. I said, "Okay." So one day I say, "Hey, got your cards?" "Yeah." I said, "Well, I'm not going out to dinner--to get my lunch--can we play a little tonk at lunchtime?" He said, "Yeah," so we played tonk. So in about a half an hour I had his ten dollars, put it in my pocket. So his buddy say, "Mr. Lee [HM James Lee], you gonna give him his money back?" I said, "Did he give you yours back?" He said, "No." I said, "Well, I ain't giving him his back. I told him he didn't know how to play."