By Cole Boehler
With an African American population so small as to be statistically insignificant, it is easy to imagine that in Montana we have always, therefore, exhibited very little prejudice: small ethnic minority, little bigotry, right?
Wrong, though according to Bill Lindsey, long-time owner of the Little Chicago Club in Great Falls, and Bill's brother, Bob, Montanans have made real progress--may have almost succeeded entirely--in erasing the color barrier.
The Little Chicago was featured a number of years ago in the Montana Tavern Times, and the Times published an article on Bill's sale of the business and subsequent retirement in 2006. So we won't go into his business and career in depth here. Rather, we were more interested in what it was like growing up African American in Great Falls, arguably the most "typical" of Montana cities, post World War II.
Bill and Bob, 70- and 69-years-old respectively, were born and raised in Great Falls by a black father and a mother who was of mixed black and French descent. And the sons are acutely aware of their heritage, it seems.
Bob is in fact an interested genealogist, having traced his family tree back to his grandfather, James, who was born in slavery in Virginia during the Civil War. Learning more about his slave ancestors has proven to be a genealogical dead-end for Bob, as records are nonexistent or obscure.
That grandfather later joined a black cavalry unit of the Union Army. Bob figures it was either the 9th or 10th Cavalry as he says they were the only two black units operating in this part of the country, specifically Ft. Assiniboine.
The fort was established in 1879 six miles southwest of present-day Havre near Hwy. 87. Indeed, historical archives cite the presence of the 10th Cavalry, known by the Native Americans as "buffalo soldiers." At one time the 10th was commanded by famed U.S. General John J. "Blackjack" Pershing.
Bob says that when Grandfather James was discharged from the Army, he stayed in the Montana territory and established a livery business. James and his wife had two daughters and one son, William, born in Great Falls in 1893, who was Bill and Bob's father.
The late William Sr. found work swamping the old Mint Saloon and cleaning the Big Six and Silver Dollar barber shops. In addition, he shined shoes at the barber shops until 6 p.m. His janitor work kept him busy until the barber shops opened at 8 a.m., usually putting in 10-12 hour days, his sons say.
Naturally, Bill and Bob helped out with the shoe-shine work as they grew up, starting in the third grade and shining shoes through high school. They attended elementary, junior high and Great Falls High School, both graduating in 1957.
"Bill repeated first grade," Bob says with a laugh, "so I guess that makes me the intellectual."
Bob says he didn't sense too much prejudice from his classmates, though adds, "Kids don't have prejudices... until they learn it from their parents, the adults. The Indian kids got treated a lot worse than we did. They weren't allowed in many places."
The Lindsey family, along with six or seven other black families, lived in Great Falls' "lower south side...where they'd let us, I guess," says Bob, the more talkative of the two.
And both acknowledge there were plenty of places in Great Falls where those of their African heritage were clearly not welcome or would be refused service.
"Blacks couldn't go to all the bars and a number of restaurants would also refuse service," Bill says. "Trudy (Bill's wife) and I got refused service in a Chinese place in 1961 or '62," he says with some irony.
Bob pipes up, "There are still plenty of places I won't patronize today because they wouldn't serve blacks back then. If they didn't want my money then, they're not getting it now," he says with a wry laugh.
And Bob tells of his recent 50th class reunion: "A lot of my classmates didn't remember" there being any prejudice; "a lot of them didn't want to remember."
Bill adds, "They lived in a different world. They go under the assumption there wasn't any color difference. Some were just flabbergasted" when they were set straight.
"We had our little community," Bob says. "We attended the AME church."
AME?
"The African Methodist Episcopal Church," Bob replies.
And Great Falls' blacks had their own jazz club, too. The Ozark Club, a subject with which Bill and Bob are quite familiar, operated there from the end of World War II to 1962, when it burned.
"The Lamar family owned it," Bob begins. The Lamars were also of African descent, so the clientele, many of whom came from the nearby Malmstrom Air Force Base, were also black. Whites, though, were apparently welcome and even occasionally sat in with the black jazz bands on the "chitlins circuit" that also played stops at the Ozark.
"My cousin Richard, Aunt Pearl's son, played drums at the Ozark," Bob continues. "The Lamars sent him to collect some money, a bad check, from a white guy. The white guy used profanity, said, 'Get out of here, ya nigger.' Richard ran but got shot in the back."
During high school the Lindsey brothers excelled in markedly different ways: Bob gravitated more toward the arts, particularly theatre where he acted and sang in, and directed, school productions. Today, Bob remains the extrovert while Bill is more introverted.
Bill was a standout athlete in basketball and baseball and an all-state running back on the 1956 Great Falls High state championship football team.
"I was the bigger of our two running backs," Bill says. "I was 150 pounds and the other guy was 145," he says with a laugh. "We beat Butte."
Bill says of Bob, "He's the joke teller. I'm the competitor. Give me a football or baseball glove or basketball...I loved to kick someone's ass" in sports.
Bob adds, "Pop was really proud of Bill. Pop had a lot of pride. Not a lot of education--he only went through the third grade--but he had a lot of smarts--street smarts. And an outstanding work ethic. He gave us that, too. You can't get anything without working for it."
When the boys graduated high school, their father, William, sat them down and said, "Now what are you going to do," Bob recalls. "Well, I was planning on loafing a little," he says with a laugh. Of course that option wasn't included in the family ethics, so the next day Bob joined the U.S. Navy and Bill joined the U.S. Marine Corps.
Bill says that he was only on active duty with the Marines six months, then was in the reserves for five and half years. After active duty discharge, he worked in a filling station where he pumped gas, performed lube jobs and tune-ups and other light mechanic work.
But in those days, perhaps the best jobs around Great Falls were working for the Anaconda Co. smelter there.
"On the job application," Bill recalls, "there was a question there for nationality. I put down 'negro' or 'black.' I got passed over twice. After that I never liked that Anaconda Company. I had a wife and kids and wanted to upgrade ourselves and the Anaconda smelter was the place to work."
Recalling the years of shining shoes, Bob says, "I don't think we could just get a job like everyone else. We could sell papers and wash cars."
The railroads hired blacks in those days, Bill says, but adds blacks were hired only in service capacities such as porters, not engineers or conductors; those jobs were for whites.
Then Bill got a break. He found the financial wherewithal to buy into the Little Chicago club which was a premiere Great Falls pool and billiards venue. Bill was quite a "stick" himself so he thought he could play pool and throw darts all day, he says with a laugh. "Then I found out owning a place was real work. I opened this place every day and closed it every day seven-days-a-week for 30 years."
Meanwhile, Bob pulled a four-year hitch in the U.S. Navy, then joined the U.S. Army. After serving in Vietnam, he was stationed at Fort Jackson in South Carolina where he encountered a grossly bigoted sergeant, he says.
"I went back to Vietnam to get away from it," he says.
He also recalls having an Army roommate from Louisiana in 1962 who was terribly bigoted. "He was one of those folks who said blacks were no better than dogs. I challenged it, the prejudice."
Eventually, the man evidently opened his mind and gave Bob a fair chance.
"He changed," Bob says. "He found out (the myths surrounding) prejudice weren't true." The two became fast friends and are in communication today, 45 years later. Bob says the fellow eventually moved to Colorado to get away from the prejudice he grew up with in Louisiana, and now refuses to go back to the state.
Bill eventually retired from the Army in 1979 and went on to work as a civilian for National General Supply, the outfit that provides all the "nuts and bolts" for Malmstrom AFB. He also worked for 11 years as the civilian supervisor of the base dining hall.
He even sold cars for a year and pulled a four-year stint at Wal-Mart before completely retiring after becoming disabled from worn out joints and diabetes.
In his later career, Bob says prejudice was not a factor. "Equal rights had come in."
Bill concurs that racial bigotry has waned and all but disappeared in Montana.
"I never encountered prejudice once I got into business," he says. "I learned about quality service when I worked at the service station and I used that in the bar. I treated everyone the same, I treated everyone well, unless they proved they deserved otherwise. I won people over."
Many in tavern business circles never knew Bill was of African heritage. Some said they assumed he was of Middle Eastern descent or even Mediterranean--Greek or Lebanese.
See, Bill's skin is significantly lighter than Bob's, an almost olive complexion. That, the brothers attribute to their mother's French genetics and lighter skin tone.
So, having different skin shades, did the brothers have different experiences with racial prejudice? They say not.
"I knew that was coming!" Bob says to the reporter with a boisterous laugh. "A lot of people didn't believe I was Bill's brother."
Bob says these days he and his Korean-born wife, Socha, are "happy and content. It's a different world today...a lot better one." Bob and Socha raised three sons, all educated engineers and successful, he says.
Bill and Trudy, in turn raised five successful children of their own.
Bob says, "I don't really recall much prejudice the last 30 years. There's a lot more black people who live in Great Falls now. A lot of them retired here from the base because its a good place to retire and raise children.
"If you want to work, you can find a good job."
Bill sums it up, "The work opportunities are better. You don't have to shine shoes anymore."
Source: The Montana Tavern Times, February, 2008, published monthly by Continental Communications, 125 W. Granite St., Suite 102, Butte, MT 59701.