Alice Clark McClanahan
Alice Clark McClanahan was the daughter of Lawrence lawyer John W. Clark, who was one of KU's first black graduates (in l896). He died in l931. She describes the days of integrated "nickel" movies before theater segregation. Judge Clark's family boycotted the segregated theaters. Mrs. McClanahan was married and had two stepchildren. Her family lived in east Lawrence. She was a fourth-grade classmate of Langston Hughes at New York School. Mrs. McClanahan graduated from KU and was a member of St. Luke AME Church.
Alice Clark McClanahan
Interview by Curtis Nether
MR. NETHER: What is your name?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: Alice Clark McClanahan.
MR. NETHER: What's your marital status, Mrs. McClanahan?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: I am married.
MR. NETHER: Do you have any children?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: No, just stepchildren.
MR. NETHER: What are the names of your stepchildren?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: Tom McClanahan who lives in Kansas City, Kansas, and Russell McClanahan who lives in Leavenworth, two stepsons.
MR. NETHER: What were your parents' names?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: My natural mother's name?
MR. NETHER: Yes.
MRS. McCLANAHAN: Her maiden name was Gertrude Williams, but she passed when I was five years old. My father's name is John W. Clark.
MR. NETHER: What was your stepmother's name?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: Another Gertrude. Gertrude Taylor was her maiden name.
MR. NETHER: What were your parents' places of birth?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: My natural mother's birth, I guess, was here in Lawrence, as far as I know. I don't remember. She passed when I was five years old, but my father was born in Kentucky. I don't remember the town, but he was born in Kentucky and came to Lawrence with this family, I think, when he was five years old.
MR. NETHER: Do you know why his family came to Douglas County?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: I don't recall having heard, but I imagine it was for better living conditions. In those days, all of the people that lived in the South, I mean that were slaves, I don't know as his father was a slave, but they wanted to get out of the South. His grandfather probably was a slave, but I don't know whether his father was or not.
MR. NETHER: Did they have acquaintances here, if you know?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: I do not know.
MR. NETHER: Mrs. McClanahan, I should have reminded you, some of these questions I ask, you won't be able to answer, and don't worry about it. I am just kind of hoping there, so don't worry about that. All right?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: I won't.
MR. NETHER: Mrs. McClanahan, as far back as you can remember now, possibly when you were a little girl, what was Douglas County like? Could you kind of explain if I came to Douglas County as far back as you can remember, what would I see? What would the houses be like?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: I can't remember.
MR. NETHER: Did they have very many paved roads here then?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: The area where I am living now, where I was born, it didn't have paved roads until--streets I mean--where I am living now, and then it was after 1909, it was probably 1910, 1911, that street was paved. It was after 1909, I remember.
MR. NETHER: What about Massachusetts Street out here? Was it paved then?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: I think so.
MR. NETHER: Can you remember if there were very many buildings on Massachusetts Street?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: No. I suppose I would have to get a little bit older to remember that far back. I am not remembering too well way back or recently either. I understand the older you get, you remember way back there better than you do the recent things, but I think Massachusetts Street was paved.
MR. NETHER: Again, a question kind of on the same line. As far back as you can remember, how did whites and blacks relate to each other? Did they get along? Did they intermingle? Did they socialize together or what was it like?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: In my circumstance, my family, which was my mother, father and myself, we always got along better than the rest of the community in as much as my father was a lawyer, but of course the segregation was pretty bad. Back in 1910, 1911, or something, the Negroes could go to the movies. They were called nickels, the nickels in those days I think you would pay. Of course, I can remember when I was small, Mama and I, we would go to maybe one or two places in one afternoon, but later on they got so they segregated us in the Bowersock Building down here by the bus station, that building, and it was Bowersock Opera House. Had movies and the opera there. And I forgot now whether we were segregated when it was an opera house and the shows came. You have heard of Williams and Walker?
MR. NETHER: Yeah.
MRS. McCLANAHAN: They played at the Bowersock Opera House, and I don't know whether we were segregated at those times. In fact, Walker lived in Lawrence, I mean his mother lived here and she was living here till he died and of course Walker was buried here in Lawrence--George Walker. Later on they started segregating at the movies and we would have to sit in the balcony and for a while my father, although I think he was told by the merchants that he could sit anywhere, he and his family could sit anywhere they wanted to, but he resented that. He said he didn't want to go anyplace where the Negro couldn't go, his friends, and other people. So he had mama and I stay away from there as a protest, a personal boycott, it was more or less. And the Varsity, my mother and I went occasionally to that. Of course, we went to others too, maybe, then. But anyway, I remember one time we went to the Varsity and we were in the balcony, but we weren't on the side that they designated for us, so a fellow came and told us we would have to sit over in the other side, and my mother was very outspoken, I mean she held her ground. She said that we weren't going to move. So another fellow came, I think, and asked us to move, and she said, "No, sir." I forget how many times they came, but she told him that we were there to enjoy the picture and we weren't disturbing anybody and if they wanted to call the police, it was all right. The fellow sort of said something about calling the police and she said it was all right with her, we weren't going anywhere, weren't going to move. We just sat there and we didn't care to be molested because we were there to peaceably observe the movie. So the last fellow that came, I don't recall how many different ones or how many came, but he said, well, we could stay there that time, but the next time we came, why, be prepared to sit another place, in the designated place. So of course, all of that has changed now, but that's the way it was in that respect.
MR. NETHER: You know, I can't get over you saying that you didn't have anything to contribute.
MRS. McCLANAHAN: Oh, was that something that you want?
MR. NETHER: Yes. Was your father a lawyer at this time?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: Yes. He volunteered in the Spanish-American War and went to Cuba and he had just graduated from college, and I recall him saying that he told his mother if he could ever get a thousand dollars at one time that he would never be broke again, and so I don't recall how much he saved, how much he had saved when he was discharged. He was discharged as a first lieutenant. Anyway, one of those lieutenants, second or first. And he opened his office and he practiced continuously until his death in 1930. He got so he couldn't be in his office but he had to resign or whatever it was, from the office of Justice of the Peace, as judge, and he passed in 1930.
MR. NETHER: Did your father ever tell you about what it was like for him in the Spanish American War?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: Well, he has, but I don't remember any particular problems.
MR. NETHER: Was he a member—
MRS. McCLANAHAN: He didn't have to do any fighting, of course, because by the time he got over there, why, I believe about all the shooting was done, and I don't recall even how long he was in Cuba.
MR. NETHER: I know the war lasted from April to August, 1898.
MRS. McCLANAHAN: Oh, is that it? You see how good I am in history. I studied that in school. I mean he was over there for a short time, I thought, but I didn't remember just how long.
MR. NETHER: Where did most blacks live here in Douglas County? This is again getting back to when you were a real little girl and as far back as you can remember. Where did most of them live? Were they—
MRS. McCLANAHAN: Over in east Lawrence where I am still living, and quite a number over in north Lawrence.
MR. NETHER: Was it kind of like now where they are mostly in east and north Lawrence and sparsely located all over the town here?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: Of course, not nearly as much as it is now. I think it was a little difficult to get places like they are doing now. Of course, they weren't building as many new houses then, but they weren't scattered like they are now.
MR. NETHER: Could a black move and live on the [old] west side of Lawrence?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: I don't think so. As I say, unless they had a whole lot of money. There was a family that came from Oklahoma or something and lived over about on Ninth and Ohio, somewhere along in there. Escoes their names were. They had to have a considerable amount of money, but they weren't here in Lawrence very long and I don't even recall what type of work the man did. I don't recall, I just remember the name and they lived over in [old] west Lawrence.
MR. NETHER: How did whites and blacks relate to one another? And we kind of answered this earlier. Except for the Jim Crowism, were there opportunities provided for blacks or were they just kind of pushed into domestic work like housekeeping and janitoring and so on?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: That's most of the time, work that everybody did was working at the sorority houses, fraternities, and in private families, and of course, janitorial work.
MR. NETHER: Were there class distinctions between blacks then? Maybe the fact that your father was a lawyer and later judge can help you with this. How did black people relate to you by your dad being a professional and them probably being a domestic, a janitor or housekeeper, or something? Could you see a difference?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: Pardon me. Will you state that again?
MR. NETHER: Were there class distinctions between blacks? How did the blacks relate to one another?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: I think they more or less related to each other, to one another. I don't recall any particular class distinction.
MR. NETHER: Do you think, were there many blacks, I'm sure now I'm not going to give a blanket theory because there's always some, but did you find any blacks that resented the fact that your father was a lawyer, maybe when you went to school some of the little girls resented the fact that here you were a lawyer's daughter?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: I didn't realize it.
MR. NETHER: All right.
MRS. McCLANAHAN: I didn't realize it myself.
MR. NETHER: Okay.
MRS. McCLANAHAN: I was personally always treated all right. I was friendly with most everybody. Maybe those that didn't like me didn't have anything to do with me and I didn't notice it, or something, but I recall a case concerning my father. Of course, I don't know whether you need this or not. But there was a Gleed family here and he ran a produce place out where Rusty's store is out on Twenty-third Street now, where the supermarket is on Twenty-third Street, and he had a son that occasionally got into trouble. When the time came up for election, my father happened to meet Mr. Gleed on the street and he said something about he wasn't going to vote for him on account of him convicting, I guess you would call it, his son is one of the cases that came before him. So things like that, I suppose that—
MR. NETHER: But not anything for color, or race. Something like that maybe any judge has to face.
MRS. McCLANAHAN: By him being a Negro, probably, he felt that he should.
MR. NETHER: Oh.
MRS. McCLANAHAN: Of course, the family was light themselves, lighter than my father. That's the only thing I can think of. Things like that. And whenever he ran for office, I imagine it wasn't the Negroes, I don't think that put him in. He ran every two years. And if it hadn't been for the other people, the white people, he probably wouldn't have been elected. I don't know what it was, jealousy or something, whatever. Maybe that brings out the point.
MR. NETHER: Mrs. McClanahan, now what I am going to do is I am going to ask you things about certain periods in history? And I want you to respond to those questions with just general answers. What can you remember about those specific periods in time? First, at it relates to black history in Douglas County. Can you remember anything about World War I? What was going on here in Douglas County during World War I? Were blacks eager to enlist in the army?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: As far as I can remember, they were. Of course, all through my life after starting in the first grade, I was so busy trying to pass from one grade to the other and then graduate from high school and then from college, I wasn't too much concerned, and of course my father would discuss these things and my mother would discuss these things at home, but they were never of any particular interest to me, since I was the only child. If there had been more of us in the family, I might have been more concerned, but I don't know. I was more or less not secluded, but than I didn't pay too much attention what was going on, I mean other than trying to get my grades.
MR. NETHER: What about things like the Depression? Can you remember what it was like here in Douglas County during the Depression? Were a lot of people out of work?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: They must have been. I think so.
MR. NETHER: What was your early school days like? Where did you go to school at first, elementary school?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: At New York School.
MR. NETHER: Okay.
MRS. McCLANAHAN: At New York School. And I had a Negro teacher for the first and second grades, and all from there on over the rest was mixed in classes.
MR. NETHER: Was it all black children had black teacher for first and second grade?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: In the first and second grades, and I think the same was at Pinckney School. Those were the only two elementary schools, I think, at that time, and they had, as I say, a colored teacher for first and second at Pinckney, I believe it was, because Quincy—from New York School went to Quincy, and I think that was for the sixth and seventh grades, I believe. Eighth grade anyway, because it was white through the fifth at New York School. Over in north Lawrence, of course, there was an all-colored school, Lincoln School.
MR. NETHER: What was your teacher's name, the one that was teaching you in first and second grade?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: Sadie Stone.
MR. NETHER: How long has she been teaching there?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: How long had she been?
MR. NETHER: Yes.
MRS. McCLANAHAN: I don't recall.
MR. NETHER: She wasn't the first there, was she?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: She was the only one that I know that was there, and I am trying to think of whether she was still there when I left the fifth grade, but when she quit teaching at New York School, she went to Germantown, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia, I believe. Anyway, she went to Pennsylvania and taught there, and I don't know how long.
MR. NETHER: And you say Lincoln School, which today is Ballard Center, was an all-black school?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: Uh-huh.
MR. NETHER: What about your junior high school? What was the name of it?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: We didn't have a junior high school per se, but it was called Central School, and it's where the 901 Building is on Kentucky Street there. Office building now more or less, and then the old high school, senior high school, was immediately across the street, east of there, and then right north—immediately north there—they tore that building down, I guess. It was called manual-training building, but they tore the old high school and the manual-training building down, so that was more or less the same as the junior college, because kids came from north Lawrence and all over town to that school because it was seventh and eighth grades.
MR. NETHER: Where did you go to high school?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: Went to high school there at Ninth and Kentucky Street. There was a senior high school then and across the street from this manual-training building that I was speaking about.
MR. NETHER: Was it integrated? Was the high school integrated?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: Oh, yes. All the schools I ever attended were integrated.
MR. NETHER: Did they have black teachers there?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: No. Only black teachers were at the two elementary schools here.
MR. NETHER: When you were at high school could blacks participate in sports, like football, basketball, track, cheerleaders?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: No. didn't have cheerleaders in those days, I don't believe. I don't recall any black participating in anything like that. As I said awhile ago, when school was out, I went straight home and didn't stay long enough to hear too much about what was going on extracurricularly.
MR. NETHER: Can you see today any major changes that has taken place here in Douglas County? What would you say had been the most major changes?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: The ability to live in any area that you have money to pay for. That's to me seemed to be one of the big items anyway, one of the things that have changed.
MR. NETHER: Would you want your children to live here?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: Sure.
MR. NETHER: Okay.
MRS. McCLANAHAN: In fact, my stepchildren, the one that's in Kansas City, he and his wife both went to KU but they didn't finish there, but every so often, they will say how they like Lawrence. He's a mail clerk in Kansas City, Kansas, and said if he could be transferred here to the post office and get the money that he's getting there, they would like to live here. They have said that. I don't know whether they still think that now. But they often say how much they like Lawrence, and I like it very much too, so, yeah, I would want my children to live here.
MR. NETHER: Mrs. McClanahan, when you were younger, let's say high school age, what did you do for fun?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: Fun?
MR. NETHER: Yes. How did you socialize?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: I went to church. That's one thing I did. Went to church. I didn't do too much socializing. Not that I'm not—
MR. NETHER: Did the church provide most of the social functions that did take place blacks?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: I never did need too much to entertain me. Ninth Street Church, when I was in high school and college I don't know just how long it existed, they used to have forum in the afternoon around four o'clock, and that brought town people and KU people sort of together at that. And it was something constructive in entertainment, and it was every Sunday afternoon. I didn't do anything outstanding in the way of entertainment. Go to shows for a while.
MR. NETHER: I may have to apologize for asking this one. But most accounts I could get of say the 1920s, in the 1900s, I hear about taffy pulls.
MRS. McCLANAHAN: Taffy pulls?
MR. NETHER: Yeah. Did you ever go or attend a taffy pull?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: You mean regular making candy taffy pull?
MR. NETHER: Yes.
MRS. McCLANAHAN: These young people, and so young yourself, I didn't know just what he meant, making candy. I haven't heard of any particular time, but I have done it. My mother and I did that at home, such things as that. My mother was very much companion. Not to too great an extent, but things like that together, and when I was younger, why, she would take me places and even when I was older, why we have been very close, and we have been very close all through the years. From the very first, because I can remember when I was just ten or eleven years old, I guess, my father would come home for dinner, and then he would go back—this is before we had a car—and he would walk back to the office, and instead of washing dishes, my mother and I would play jacks and things like that in the summertime, in warm weather, so it's things like that, because I never did play with too many children. Weren't too many children in my neighborhood. By her coming to a new town, I was seven years old when she and my father married, and she was very particular about whom I associated with, not to the extent not that I just couldn't play with them, not to be friendly or anything like that, she believed in me being friendly, but she was particular about—because maybe she thought I was bad enough without—maybe that I didn't associate with bad children. Then after we got the car, for entertainment in the evening in warm weather, we would take rides out to the Harvey farms and had a lot of picnics out at the Harvey farms, and just things like that. As I say, I didn't need too much to entertain me.
MR. NETHER: Do you attend church, Mrs. McClanahan?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: Do I attend church? Yes. I definitely do. I am a trustee of St. Luke Church now and have been for two or three years, and treasurer of the missionary society. I guess that's all I belong to. Oh, I am a member of the senior choir, so I really attend church.
MR. NETHER: How long have you attended St. Luke?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: Ever since 1909, I guess, because my mother came and she joined, and I attended all through those years. I didn't become a member until around 1920 or after.
MR. NETHER: Do you see any major changes in the church between then when you were a young lady and had first started attending to now? What are some of the major changes, if any?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: The main change in St. Luke's is we went heavily in debt a few years ago and remodeled and we are still struggling under that debt, although we are doing, I think, a beautiful job of it, because we serve dinners every Sunday, and it had become more of a community affair than the church affair because we enjoy it because the money coming in from that. We enjoy the fellowship of people from across town and even from out-o-town visitors. Home people that have been attending, if they have out-of-town company, they will bring their guests there Sundays, and the various ministers from other churches—from the white churches, that is—they come and bring their families and part of their congregation, and we have had lawyers and doctors and just sort of—
MR. NETHER: What about some of the ceremonial things that take place within the church like funerals and weddings and so on? Can you see any major changes in these things, these type of functions?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: No.
MR. NETHER: Okay.
MRS. McCLANAHAN: Of course, I used to didn't attend funerals at all unless it would be someone very close or something, so I don't know what changes there are, I do attend more—
MR. NETHER: Do you know Bishop Gregg?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: Oh, yes.
MR. NETHER: Can you tell us anything about Bishop Gregg?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: He attended KU, I understand, and of course that was before my time, and he, I think, acted as janitor or something, I understand, because I heard, attended our church and acted as janitor, but I was quite friendly with his, I guess you would call it—she was either his adopted daughter or foster daughter, Naomi Chereau, and we were very good friends. She lived in Kansas City. Bishop Gregg lived in Kansas City. That was his home, even when he was bishop over in another district--no, that was his brother. We visited him in Kansas City, him and his family, a few times. Naomi got her master's degree from KU and she taught for a number of years in Kansas City. While she was working on her master's, I worked with her on her thesis, and I even went down, went to Kansas City, took my typewriter and we worked one weekend or a day or two on it, so that's my closest association with Bishop Gregg.
MR. NETHER: Okay. Did you go to KU?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: I did.
MR. NETHER: What years did you attend KU?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: The fall of 1920. Then end of my sophomore year, between my sophomore year I came back to senior high school, which was in another location at that time. It's now Central Junior High School, but it was new at that time, and I took a commercial course which they did not have when I was going through high school the first time. I took a commercial course, liked it so well the first year I took two years. That's all they gave of it, I think, two years, and then I went back to KU and got my degree in 1927.
MR. NETHER: Did you belong to any social organizations or sororities?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: I was initiated in the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority my senior year. That was in 1927.
MR. NETHER: Did you see any purpose in some of the black fraternities and sororities? What was their purpose, if any?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: I think it was probably social contact. They didn't have dormitories like they have there now to live in. They had to live in the town area, and so I think that was mostly for social reasons. Of course, they do things nationwide, national institutions, but I didn't stay too close to it long enough to find out.
MR. NETHER: Okay.
MRS. McCLANAHAN: I was asked to join, I think, the AKO. Anyway, I didn't consent to join either one until my senior year, and then that fall I started working at the Kansas Vocational school which was at that time about a mile or so east of Topeka there on highway 40, but so that was the main reason I joined it, just to be sociable.
MR. NETHER: Okay.
MRS. McCLANAHAN: Although I didn't attend too many of the functions. As I say I was out of town mostly and I didn't keep too much in touch with them.
MR. NETHER: What was KU like? Was there much segregation or discrimination at KU that you could see? Were there black professors there?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: Oh, no. We had just one black professor that I can recall and that was Professor L. M. Peace, and he could pass any time. He was in, I believe, the Biology Department. I forgot what department, but he was there for a number of years, and I don't think he tried to pass or anything, as far as we were concerned, because we were very friendly with them, but that's the only Negro professor that I recall being there.
MR. NETHER: Did you ever learn any black history when you were in school, either in elementary school or high school or even at KU?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: Not just black history, no. When I was working at the Kansas Vocational School I was there five years as secretary to the principal, and so I am glad I had that experience because I got to meet Carter G. Woodson. Isn't that his name, the black historian?
MR. NETHER: Yes.
MRS. McCLANAHAN: And Kansas Vocational School used that book as a textbook and I bought that book while I was there, and that was the first black history that I had experienced with any school. And he came to the school one time and I got to meet him personally, so I was glad of that experience.
MR. NETHER: Did your father ever have trouble getting reelected here?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: I think for about twenty-five years every two years he was elected, but one time he was defeated, one time, and I don't recall, just not enough people voted for him. That's all I can see, but no unnecessary trouble as I can think of or remember.
MR. NETHER: Did he graduate from KU also?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: Oh, yes. He was one of the first Negroes to graduate from KU. In fact, he graduated in '96, and I believe the old Fraser Building was the only building on the campus at that time.
MR. NETHER: Did he have trouble setting up a practice here in Lawrence, can you recall?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: It is unusual. We think that being a hometown boy, you know, getting established, but he stayed here and if he had a starvation period, that's before—he lived through the starvation period, whatever it is. And there was another fellow that graduated at the same time, MacWilliams. Do you happen to know Billy Hays that works at the post office?
MR. NETHER: No.
MRS. McCLANAHAN: He lives across the street from St. Luke Church there.
MR. NETHER: No.
MRS. McCLANAHAN: I was going to say this was his uncle. Robert MacWilliams, I believe it was. He tried to practice here for a little while, I believe. I'm not sure about that. But he went to Wichita, but my father stayed here. So I guess he didn't have too much trouble or he would have gone to Wichita or maybe someplace like Mr. MacWilliams did.
MR. NETHER: Were there any other black officials that you can remember here in Douglas County? You mentioned the Harveys, Dr. Harvey.
MRS. McCLANAHAN: Dr. Harvey, yes, he was here. There was a Dr. Kenner. He was an M.D., I think. Dr. Kenner. And in the early days, of course, later on there was a Dr. Rodgers, Dr. Fred K. Rodgers. He was a very good doctor. He was a very good doctor, but he has passed on. Of course, all of these people have passed on, and there was another doctor, I have even forgotten his name. He opened an office thirty years ago, I guess it was, but he didn't stay too long. Never had a dentist, or anything like that.
MR. NETHER: Did you know Langston Hughes?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: Yes, I did. We were in the fourth grade, I think, together, for a period of time. I can't remember whether it was for the whole year or whole semester, but we were, I think, in fourth grade at one time.
MR. NETHER: Can you remember some things about him? What was he like, even in the fourth grade, when you were using crayons?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: I mean this is a little humorous thing that I can remember about him, and I don't guess I made it up, but quite a while ago, I guess maybe was the last time I saw him, I spoke to him about it, and I don't think he remembered it. Of course he had too much varied experience to remember any little thing like this, but the only thing I can remember is the superintendent, I believe his name was Smith, came to the class and we were having reading lesson, and Superintendent Smith wanted to show the importance of raising your voice at a comma and letting it drop at a period. I remember part of the sentence. I don't know why I remember such trivial things when I can't remember important ones. The sentence was, "As I set meditating at my table," the part of the sentence, and Superintendent Smith said, "As I set meditating at my table," and, you know, just emphasized went higher than he really should, and I guess all of the class kind of giggled because it did sound kind of funny, and I believe Langston, I don't know whether he was laughing more than anybody else or not, but seems to me Superintendent Smith made him go in the hall or something like that, so, as I say, that's the only thing I can remember in school.
MR. NETHER: MRS. McCLANAHAN, those are about all the questions I have to ask you.
MRS. McCLANAHAN: As to Langston, his mother and my father were in school at KU at the same time.
MR. NETHER: What was the occupation of his father?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: I don't know. I have a history of Langston, but he wasn't with his father too long. His mother and father were separated I think. Seemed to me he went to Mexico or someplace. I don't know anything about his father.
MR. NETHER: How old are you, MRS. McCLANAHAN?
MRS. McCLANAHAN: I will be seventy-five on the twenty-first of next month.