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The Black Guards

Date: 12/11/1968

Citation:

"The Black Guards," Peoria Journal Star, Dec. 11, 1968.

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Categories:

1963–1969: Civil Rights Hits Peoria Segregation and Desegregation

Tags:

Afro-American Service PatrolBlack GuardsBlack Power movementself-defense

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  • 1. The Civil Rights Movement Winds Up (1963-1964)

    • March Until Bus Company Capitulates

      March Until Bus Company Capitulates
      –06/20/1963–

      Racist hiring practices were targeted in a NAACP-organized bus boycott

    • ‘No Racial Tension Here,’ Says Mayor

      ‘No Racial Tension Here,’ Says Mayor
      –06/21/1963–

      Black Peorians were staging a bus boycott, but Peoria's Mayor claimed there was “no racial tension here”

    • Gwynn Says There IS Racial Tension in Peoria

      Gwynn Says There IS Racial Tension in Peoria
      –06/22/1963–

      Peoria's NAACP president argued that racial tension suffused “almost every phase of life in Peoria”

    • Mayor Day Admits Discrimination in Peoria

      Mayor Day Admits Discrimination in Peoria
      –07/03/1963–

      Unemployment and poor housing were problems that couldn't be solved by demonstrations, said Peoria's Mayor

    • Negro Effect on Property Put To Test

      Negro Effect on Property Put To Test
      –08/07/1963–

      A newspaper investigation found property values rarely dropped when a “colored family” moved in

    • Call Inter-Racial Visits Big Success

      Call Inter-Racial Visits Big Success
      –10/28/1963–

      Over 200 people hosted integrated parties for Peoria's Inter-racial Home Visitation Day

    • Landlords Profit While South Sides Goes To Pot

      Landlords Profit While South Sides Goes To Pot
      –12/05/1963–

      For lack of a better option, Peoria's blacks were forced to rent overpriced and poorly maintained housing

    • Carver Variety Show Satire Provides ‘Touch’

      Carver Variety Show Satire Provides ‘Touch’
      –12/06/1963–

      From the imagination of Juliette Whittaker, a Dixiecrat senator's tour of Hell

    • Black Peorians Dropout in Alarming Numbers

      Black Peorians Dropout in Alarming Numbers
      –11/2/1964–

      By November 1964, a 77% high school dropout rate beset black Peoria - higher than Chicago and Springfield.

    • Negro Heroes In Peoria

      Negro Heroes In Peoria
      –11/17/1964–

      The Peoria Journal Star saluted those black Peorians who had entered the middle class

  • 2. Freedom Now—Even in Peoria (1964-1968)

    • Fire Bomb Tossed Through Window Of Rehm Barber Shop

      Fire Bomb Tossed Through Window Of Rehm Barber Shop
      –11/23/1964–

      A barbershop where blacks had been refused service was struck with a Molotov cocktail

    • I, Too, Sing America

      I, Too, Sing America
      –02/1966–

      A glimpse of a musical number from Whittaker's Civil Rights inspired pageant, “I, Too, Sing America”

    • School Board Agrees To Meet After Singing Sit-In

      School Board Agrees To Meet After Singing Sit-In
      –07/19/1966–

      The NAACP staged a singing sit-in to press for changes in school curriculum and employment practices

    • 6 Jailed For Disorderly Conduct

      6 Jailed For Disorderly Conduct
      –07/21/1966–

      The NAACP pressured for school reform with another sit-in — and six were arrested

    • 200 Students Walk Out in Protest March

      200 Students Walk Out in Protest March
      –11/09/1967–

      Teens in the NAACP staged a walk-out to protest inadequate conditions at their school

    • 120 Negro Students, Suspended Yesterday, Barred

      120 Negro Students, Suspended Yesterday, Barred
      –11/10/1967–

      120 Manual High School students were barred from returning to class the day after the mass walk-out

    • School Protests Suspended For Week

      School Protests Suspended For Week
      –11/15/1967–

      After approximately 6,200 total student absences, student demonstrators paused to regroup

    • Black Muslim Group Opens South Side Temple

      Black Muslim Group Opens South Side Temple
      –2/5/1968–

      The Nation of Islam made inroads among Peoria's black population

    • The Black Guards

      The Black Guards
      –12/11/1968–

      Twelve black men took up arms to patrol their community — with the sanction of city hall

  • 3. Riding the Whirlwind (1968-1969)

    • ‘Together In Peoria’

      ‘Together In Peoria’
      –02/29/1969–

      Businessmen in Peoria showed a growing concern for race relations with an $85,000 pledge to Project TIP

    • Meeting Dates Set For Police-Community Talks

      Meeting Dates Set For Police-Community Talks
      –03/05/1969–

      To allay black mistrust of Peoria's police, city leaders planned three-day retreats with blacks, police, and businessmen

    • BU Establishes Black Culture House, Sets Afro Degree Plan

      BU Establishes Black Culture House, Sets Afro Degree Plan
      –03/07/1969–

      Protests by Bradley University's Black Student Alliance resulted in two new academic institutions

    • No Union Men Attend Rights Group Meeting

      No Union Men Attend Rights Group Meeting
      –03/08/1969–

      White-dominated construction unions were no-shows at a meeting to integrate building trades

    • Campbell Pledges Blacks in Building Trades Soon

      Campbell Pledges Blacks in Building Trades Soon
      –03/09/1969–

      An “open society” in Peoria was the goal of the Tri-County Urban League's annual seven-part statement

    • Richard Pryor Returns To Peoria Stage

      Richard Pryor Returns To Peoria Stage
      –03/09/1969–

      A benefit for the local Afro-American Black Peoples Federation brought Richard Pryor back to the Carver Center stage

    • B.U. Statement Sound

      B.U. Statement Sound
      –03/10/1969–

      Three days later an editorial praised Bradley's “Statement of Principles” for enforcing the civil rights of all races

    • Malcolm X Asks: “Who Will Help Mend America?”

      Malcolm X Asks: “Who Will Help Mend America?”
      –1969–

      Juliette Whittaker's Civil Rights fresco

    • Panther Clark Expected Death, Sister Reveals

      Panther Clark Expected Death, Sister Reveals
      –12/29/1969–

      An obituary for Mark Clark — a Peorian Black Panther killed alongside Fred Hampton in a pre-dawn raid by Chicago police in 1969

  • 4. Sin City on Its Last Legs (1965-1969)

    • Prostitution Counts Name 5 Defendants

      Prostitution Counts Name 5 Defendants
      –9/10/1965–

      When police raided the brothel of Richard's father and stepmother, Buck ran and Ann stayed

    • Guilty Verdict in Trial of Alleged ‘Madam’

      Guilty Verdict in Trial of Alleged ‘Madam’
      –10/6/1965–

      Ann, already sick with cancer, was sentenced to jail time for running a brothel

    • Convicted Madam Out as Student

      Convicted Madam Out as Student
      –10/8/1965–

      Richard's stepmother Ann, accused in court of being a "madam," was kicked out of a local vocational school

    • Prostitute Testifies She Met Poos in 1963

      Prostitute Testifies She Met Poos in 1963
      –1/20/1967–

      The notorious Elmer Poos was brought down by an ex-lover who worked for him as a prostitute

    • Ex-Peorian Sentenced to 10 years, Fined $10,000

      Ex-Peorian Sentenced to 10 years, Fined $10,000
      –1/27/1967–

      The FBI joined the crackdown on prostitution in Peoria

    • Vice Raid Nets Man, 56, Woman

      Vice Raid Nets Man, 56, Woman
      –11/15/1967–

      Buck arrested for 3rd time in as many years for running a brothel

    • Prostitution Case Fines Total $700

      Prostitution Case Fines Total $700
      –3/5/1968–

      In the year before his death, Buck was still getting arrested in vice squad raids

    • ‘China Bee’s’ No-Jail Record Remains Intact

      ‘China Bee’s’ No-Jail Record Remains Intact
      –12/24/1969–

      China Bee Parker, wife of Harold, ran a N. Washington St. brothel for thirty years without spending a night in jail

Archive created under the supervision of Scott Saul,
in collaboration with The Spatial History Project at Stanford University
and the D-Lab at the University of California, Berkeley.
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