Neighborhood Troubles in Kalamazoo
From James Donahue’s Journal
Our house on the hill was located less than a block from the I-94 business loop through the city, so there was always a lot of traffic noise. Also the elementary school our children attended was close to our home, but located across that highway, so there was always concern about getting them to and from school safely. Fortunately the school provided safety guards that assured safe crossings.
We lived in a mixed racial neighborhood, so our children attended school with both black and white children. Examination of the school assured us that it was a well-run educational program and that our children had very good teachers. The problem was that Aaron was misbehaving, and doing rather poorly in his class. We attended several conferences with his teacher and always heard the same message . . . he had the potential to do better.
We tried various things to get Aaron back on a better track. One of the things we did was get him a dog. We went to the Humane Society and picked out a full-grown dog. He was a large dog, not house broken, and it turned out to have been a bad choice. The poor creature had to be tied to a chain in the back yard. I don’t think Aaron or any of the children gave this dog much attention and he became Doris and my duty to keep it fed and watered.
I noticed also that Aaron began running with some boys who seemed to be troublemakers. He brought one of his friends to our house on a few occasions, and we always found something stolen after the boy left. We finally had to lay down the law and forbid that boy from entering the house. He was a black youth.
After this, the black children began vandalizing our place. They painted four-letter words on the fence in our back yard, and one warm day when I left the window down in our car, I found that someone had spat on the seat.
While we were trying to deal with this problem, it was discovered that older boys were hanging around the school, introducing the children to narcotics. The neighborhood families were put on the alert and parents began policing the school grounds before and after school to stop this.
Next came the police raid on the middle school, located about a half mile away from where we lived. The police went through the school, opening every locker, and produced a shocking number of guns, chains, knives, brass knuckles and other weapons. Our photographers snapped a picture of all of this paraphernalia laid out on tables in the school cafeteria. The editors at the Gazette played down this incident, however, fearing it would ruin the image of the city. Kalamazoo had won the title of “All American City” a few years earlier, and the newspaper was trying to prevent anyone from scarring that title. I thought it was wrong to bury such a story.
Despite the newspaper’s unwillingness to publish the story, the word spread throughout the city. A special school board meeting was held. What shocked us was that the parents that packed that meeting were angry because the school allowed the police access to the lockers without getting their permission. That a cache of dangerous weapons was uncovered, possibly preventing a deadly gang war in the Middle School, did not seem to be the issue. Doris and I began to think something was wrong with the way the people in that city were thinking. But this was a black and white neighborhood and the nation was going through a serious issue of racial equality during those years. The civil rights laws had been instituted by the Johnson Administration, southern governors like George Wallace were being forced by federal troops to comply, and there was a lot of racial sentiment throughout the land.
That we had black children painting four-letter words on our fence and stealing from our home was not making us happy about having to live among the blacks. It was the first time I had ever had such feelings. I thought it was foolish for the blacks to behave this way because it was not helping their cause.
We had another problem in our neighborhood. There was a family in a house beside ours whose children were about as troublesome as the Brown children had been in South Haven. These children were constantly picking fights with Aaron, smashing our children’s toys, and causing constant havoc. We caught them constantly torturing our dog.
One Sunday the minister at Calvary Bible Church spoke on the topic of dealing with people who give us trouble by turning the other cheek. He suggested that returning bad behavior by doing something kind for your enemy would confuse the enemy and possibly even win him over. I tried dealing with these troublesome children in that way. One day when they were standing in our yard, yelling vile statements, I walked up to them and gave them all a candy bar. I told them I loved them anyway. They had the most confused look on their faces, but went home munching their treats. The trouble with those children diminished after that.
We had an attack of influenza in that house that knocked the entire family down at the same time. We were all laid out for several days, too sick to do anything more than stay in bed and moan. Ayn was so sick we thought we might have to take her to the hospital. But she slowly recovered.
There was one other dark incident that occurred in that house. One night Doris and I had an engagement and we hired a young girl recommended by the people in Calvary Bible Church to stay with our children. When we returned we learned that she had a boyfriend with her at the house. After I took her home, we discovered that our bed was ruffled and suspected that they had used it for sex. We were hopeful that whatever went on was not witnessed by the children.
A few months later there was a big scandal concerning this girl in church circles. It appears that she was quite pregnant and, of course, unwed. We always believed that child was conceived in our bed.
After so much trouble in that neighborhood, we soon were doing the obvious thing. We began looking for another place to live.
From James Donahue’s Journal
Our house on the hill was located less than a block from the I-94 business loop through the city, so there was always a lot of traffic noise. Also the elementary school our children attended was close to our home, but located across that highway, so there was always concern about getting them to and from school safely. Fortunately the school provided safety guards that assured safe crossings.
We lived in a mixed racial neighborhood, so our children attended school with both black and white children. Examination of the school assured us that it was a well-run educational program and that our children had very good teachers. The problem was that Aaron was misbehaving, and doing rather poorly in his class. We attended several conferences with his teacher and always heard the same message . . . he had the potential to do better.
We tried various things to get Aaron back on a better track. One of the things we did was get him a dog. We went to the Humane Society and picked out a full-grown dog. He was a large dog, not house broken, and it turned out to have been a bad choice. The poor creature had to be tied to a chain in the back yard. I don’t think Aaron or any of the children gave this dog much attention and he became Doris and my duty to keep it fed and watered.
I noticed also that Aaron began running with some boys who seemed to be troublemakers. He brought one of his friends to our house on a few occasions, and we always found something stolen after the boy left. We finally had to lay down the law and forbid that boy from entering the house. He was a black youth.
After this, the black children began vandalizing our place. They painted four-letter words on the fence in our back yard, and one warm day when I left the window down in our car, I found that someone had spat on the seat.
While we were trying to deal with this problem, it was discovered that older boys were hanging around the school, introducing the children to narcotics. The neighborhood families were put on the alert and parents began policing the school grounds before and after school to stop this.
Next came the police raid on the middle school, located about a half mile away from where we lived. The police went through the school, opening every locker, and produced a shocking number of guns, chains, knives, brass knuckles and other weapons. Our photographers snapped a picture of all of this paraphernalia laid out on tables in the school cafeteria. The editors at the Gazette played down this incident, however, fearing it would ruin the image of the city. Kalamazoo had won the title of “All American City” a few years earlier, and the newspaper was trying to prevent anyone from scarring that title. I thought it was wrong to bury such a story.
Despite the newspaper’s unwillingness to publish the story, the word spread throughout the city. A special school board meeting was held. What shocked us was that the parents that packed that meeting were angry because the school allowed the police access to the lockers without getting their permission. That a cache of dangerous weapons was uncovered, possibly preventing a deadly gang war in the Middle School, did not seem to be the issue. Doris and I began to think something was wrong with the way the people in that city were thinking. But this was a black and white neighborhood and the nation was going through a serious issue of racial equality during those years. The civil rights laws had been instituted by the Johnson Administration, southern governors like George Wallace were being forced by federal troops to comply, and there was a lot of racial sentiment throughout the land.
That we had black children painting four-letter words on our fence and stealing from our home was not making us happy about having to live among the blacks. It was the first time I had ever had such feelings. I thought it was foolish for the blacks to behave this way because it was not helping their cause.
We had another problem in our neighborhood. There was a family in a house beside ours whose children were about as troublesome as the Brown children had been in South Haven. These children were constantly picking fights with Aaron, smashing our children’s toys, and causing constant havoc. We caught them constantly torturing our dog.
One Sunday the minister at Calvary Bible Church spoke on the topic of dealing with people who give us trouble by turning the other cheek. He suggested that returning bad behavior by doing something kind for your enemy would confuse the enemy and possibly even win him over. I tried dealing with these troublesome children in that way. One day when they were standing in our yard, yelling vile statements, I walked up to them and gave them all a candy bar. I told them I loved them anyway. They had the most confused look on their faces, but went home munching their treats. The trouble with those children diminished after that.
We had an attack of influenza in that house that knocked the entire family down at the same time. We were all laid out for several days, too sick to do anything more than stay in bed and moan. Ayn was so sick we thought we might have to take her to the hospital. But she slowly recovered.
There was one other dark incident that occurred in that house. One night Doris and I had an engagement and we hired a young girl recommended by the people in Calvary Bible Church to stay with our children. When we returned we learned that she had a boyfriend with her at the house. After I took her home, we discovered that our bed was ruffled and suspected that they had used it for sex. We were hopeful that whatever went on was not witnessed by the children.
A few months later there was a big scandal concerning this girl in church circles. It appears that she was quite pregnant and, of course, unwed. We always believed that child was conceived in our bed.
After so much trouble in that neighborhood, we soon were doing the obvious thing. We began looking for another place to live.