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Biography

Most people in Cedar Rapids know Beatrice Jackson for her gifted singing. She shares the gospel and her love of God as she shares her musical talent. However, she is also a nurse, trained in Mississippi where she was born. She has faced blatant and overt discrimination, and dealt with it with charm, humor and a solid determination to make the goals she set. She participated in the bus boycotts and the pranks at school to defy the unfair norms of the day and age. Even now, she is slow to anger and quick to praise.

Transcript

Date of Interview: July 15, 2009

James Hall, Jr.: Good morning. It’s July 15th, 2009 and I am interviewing Beatrice Jackson.

James: Where were you born?

Beatrice Jackson: I was born in Madison, Mississippi.

James: Where do you call home now?

Beatrice Jackson: Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

James: What brought you to Iowa?

Beatrice Jackson: I ended up coming to Iowa, because my brother had acquired a job at a company here and we moved here because of him.

James: Ok. From elementary through college where did you go to school?

Beatrice Jackson: I went to school in Jackson, Mississippi. Jackson, Mississippi, I graduated from Laniar Junior-Senior High School. Then, went to nursing school for three years, whole year round, at Mississippi Baptist Hospital, Gilfoy School of Nursing, with some courses at Jackson State College. It’s Jackson State University now. And after that, worked a while in Jackson, Mississippi and then I moved to Iowa in ’79. Moved to Cedar Rapids in 1979.

James: Did you have any issues in nursing school, like any segregation issues?

Beatrice Jackson: Oh we had plenty of issues. The first thing we started off, when we were issued the uniforms and name pins. Our name pin said, nurse: our first initial and last name. Like I was Nurse B. Jackson. We thought that was really cool, until we got in the class rooms with the white girls and saw they had Miss, first initial and last name. So in the course of the training to keep from calling us Miss we were called Nurse. Course I’m in the process of writing a book now, I’m doing the manuscript and in it I tell how many times we conveniently misplaced that pin that said “Nurse Bla,bla,bla.” We mail ordered some pins to say Miss like everybody else, but then we got in trouble, because that’s not a part of “You girls” uniform. Then in the hospital part I had a lot of incidents were the patients didn’t want you taking care of them; the white patients didn’t want you to touch them. We were getting shuffled around. So there were numerous incidents.

James: Could you compare your time in Mississippi as a nurse and in Iowa as a nurse?

Beatrice Jackson: OK. Back in the ’60s, of course when I moved to, I told you some of the experiences in Jackson in Mississippi Baptist Hospital. Course we decided that we would never work there after we graduated so I never worked at Mississippi Baptist Hospital after graduating. After moving to Iowa in ’79, I’m trying to think, I worked down at Oakdale, the Iowa Classification Medical Center which is the prison. It’s the classification center where everybody who goes to prison in Iowa has to come through there first and get the medical workup and etcetera, etcetera. I worked on the Pysch Unit. There was not obvious discrimination; there were mostly employees, after I was there for three months, because of my work ethics, I know that’s what it was, my co-workers, there became a vacancy for head nurse and my co-workers lobbied, actually lobbied, to get me in that position although I didn’t have the seniority. So the Director of Nursing actually appointed me there and I got some flak from some co-workers to the fact that I had to call them in one day and I talked to them to let them know that if they had the grievance, because they were acting very differently towards me than when I first came, I let them know that I did not ask for the job and it wasn’t because of what color I was it was ’cause my co-workers actually thought I did the job well and they liked working with me. I worked the Psych Unit at Mercy Medical Center here where I worked chemical dependency on the night shift. I had a few incidents. Intoxicated patients who I took care of and they used the N-word quite liberally. I just ignored it, kept doing my job. Also worked St. Luke’s, Six West Rehab. Really no overt problems, as far as I know, I don’t know what went behind but everybody seemed pretty nice. So, the work… I really never had any problems getting a job.

James: Was it like a relief when you finally retired?

Beatrice Jackson: Oh yes it was, because I retired early. I’m thinking I didn’t want to put it on race. But my very last job was working in a Doctor’s office. The other younger employees... techs etcetera, were very nasty to me. Now the Doctor I worked for was a beautiful woman of God and she asked me if I wanted to file discrimination. But I didn’t want to do that because I’m not one to say, “They’re doing that because of my color.” I never really knew what it was. I told her that it was like coming into enemy territory every day. So instead of waiting until I was 65, actually, I retired when I was 62 and I was relived because I really didn’t want to go back there anymore.

James: Could you tell us more about the book that you’re writing?

Beatrice Jackson: OK. The book that I’m writing, tentatively I’m calling it The Gilfoy Days,, ’cause I haven’t come to a catchy title yet. But it’s going to outline from the day we went into nursing school until the day we walked out. It kind of outlines numerous incidents. Like, let me tell you about the first day, after the orientation and we did the book stuff, when they had us to go on the floor. My very first patient, since the instructors were all white and they didn’t want to go on the black floors, in the hospital, in Mississippi Baptist Hospital, there were only two units, two small units on the second floor. That’s the only floor that the black patients could be admitted to. If those beds overflowed they were just put out in the hallway. So the instructors did not want to go down there, so consequently we had to train on the white floors. Even in that hospital, the hospital was separated into the nicer floors for the higher paid or people who had insurance, the middle class floor, then there was the poor white floor, for patients that didn’t have insurance or money. That was the first floor I was assigned to. My first patient was a blind man. I went in to what we had been told you establish rapport with your patient. So I went in to establish rapport, talk to him a little bit. There’s no running water in the room, so in our talking he said to me, “You know, you sound just like a Yankee.” I said to him, “Oh no but, I’m from Mississippi, I just don’t have the southern drawl.” So I went out to get the water to give him a bed bath, and when I came back in he said, “Oh, you color.” Well he was in a four man ward so the others had told him, because he couldn’t see me he didn’t really know what color I was. And so at that time everything was hunky dory, then after they told him that, he tried to talk to me a little bit, but, you know, I recognized the difference. There were incidents like that all throughout the three years I was there for the training. So there were lots of incidents that would take all day, if I tried to tell you all of them.

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James: Did you have any doubts that you probably wasn’t going to get through nursing school after all the segregation that happened against you? Did you have any doubts?

Beatrice Jackson: No, there were seven of us and we were just, we were just unified. We were determined we were going to get through. We supported each other and no matter what, we were determined we were going to get through. We really didn’t have any choice because if we didn’t make it there our parents didn’t have the money to send us anywhere else. We started off with eight black girls and about forty some white girls in the class. After the first week, one of the girls whose parents could afford to send her to a four year college, she left ’cause she said she couldn’t take it. But we were determined. I really had no doubt that I was going to make it.

James: How has the Civil Rights Movement affected you?

Beatrice Jackson: Well I was in the middle of the Civil Rights thing in Mississippi. Like the boycotts; the bus, when we couldn’t ride the bus. We had to find transportation to get everybody to work. Sometimes people would run late and they maybe get in trouble on their jobs, because their employers knew that they were late because, they wouldn’t ride the bus and they were waiting for a ride. And when it was time to vote, it was difficult for the black people to vote, because you had to...in addition to paying poll tax you had to also interpret a portion of the Constitution, before you could registrar to vote. So consequently, people who couldn’t read or write were not able to registrer to vote. We went through the process. Fact of the matter I still at home....I was looking through some stuff the other day. I have a copy of the receipt where I paid poll taxes. Way back in...it’d have to be in the ’60s.

James: Why did you choose to get involved with the Civil
Rights Movement?

Beatrice Jackson: Well I was just thrown right in the middle of it. You either lay down and pretend nothing is happening, or you get involved.

James: Well, how did your family feel about getting involved with it?

Beatrice Jackson: Well actually the entire family was involved back in that time. There was my brother and my mom. Everybody did their part. If there was a call for a boycott you were a part of it if you boycotted. Don’t get on the bus! So there were a few stragglers that got on the bus, but not enough to make it matter and consequently the buses stopped running, ’cause there was nobody on it. So it was pretty...I would say 99% participation back in those days in Mississippi.

James: What’s the role of your African American church in your community?

Beatrice Jackson: Well the church in our lives that’s one of the mainstays. Because that’s where the meetings were; that’s where we worshipped. That was kind of like the sanctuary, even today in being involved in the church as I say, in music. I’ve always done gospel music. And so I worked in the church a lot. I played piano and did vocals. And that was mostly my thing, was music. That’s just a big part of my life. I‘ve tried going to different churches and just sitting and not being involved, but it just doesn’t work. I have to be involved in the music.

James: What would you say your biggest accomplishment is?

Beatrice Jackson: I would say. Let’s see. The biggest accomplishment? Well, the first one was getting through the nursing school in my right mind, ’cause it was pretty terrible. Then the fact that over the years in applying for jobs I’ve pretty well gotten some pretty good jobs based on my work ethics opposed to what color you are. Then I would say raising my children; having them to turn out to be creative, working citizens.

James: What was you say your happiest and saddest memories are?

Beatrice Jackson: Well, I guess the happiest was the birth of my children. The saddest was about three years ago when my grandmother died, because my grandmother raised me. She’s the one that kind of set the ground work for my beliefs. So that was the saddest when my grandma died.

James: In twenty years down the road, what would you want people to remember about Beatrice Jackson?

Beatrice Jackson: That I probably will be remembered for; that’s the little lady that sings and plays in church. I think that mostly. And hopefully that, in the community, being a registered nurse, even though I am retired , I kind of make house calls if somebody wants their blood pressure checked and stuff like that. So in the community, that I have been a help to somebody. There’s that song that goes, “If I can help somebody then my living will not be in vain.” And that’s kind of how I feel.

James: Is there any other questions or anything you would like to share with us?

Beatrice Jackson: When I go back to Mississippi now, and I go back at least twice a year, the atmosphere, everything, has totally changed. Like coming up as a little girl, you never saw black people on TV, or the clerks in the stores, etcetera, in the restaurants, in the hotels and now, it’s predominantly... you see your black managers, you see your black anchor women and anchor men on TV. The clerks they are the managers, even the mayor is a black man now. I can see the changes for the better. We have come a long way. We have not yet totally overcome, but we have come a long ways. Like the commercial says, we’ve come a long ways baby! So, thank you for this time.

James: Ok. Well, it’s been a pleasure interviewing you today. I appreciate it.

Beatrice Jackson: Ok. It’s been a pleasure to be here. Thank you.