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Biography

Born and raised in Cedar Rapids, Julie has been cast in roles which vary from the first and only black child in school, to the first black child to have a role in the junior high play, on to the role of Mama in her high school drama, A Raisin in the Sun, then as director of the Cedar Rapids NAACP’s production of The Wiz. She has also worked in television, the African American Museum, and as a new author. Her book will be published in late 2010.

Transcript

Date of Interview: May 4, 2009

Shawndell Young: Hello today is May 4th and my name is Shawndell. Today I will be interviewing Julie Mitchell. Well, I’m just going to ask you some simple questions, just give an answer. You ready to get started?

Julie Mitchell: Yes, I am.

Shawndell: Okey-dokey. Well, the first one is, where were you born?

Julie Mitchell: I was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Born and raised here.

Shawndell: And, where is home now?

Julie Mitchell: Home now is in Cedar Rapids. I’ve lived several different places, all over the United States but this is my home. I lived in Des Moines, Iowa and Minneapolis and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, but this is where my relatives and things are and this is my home.

Shawndell: So, where did you go to school?

Julie Mitchell: I went to school at Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa. That’s where I received my BA. Now, as far as when I was young here in Cedar Rapids, I started at Tyler Elementary, which is Metro [High] School now. In those days we were going through a lot of changes. There were lots and lots of changes happening and I was right in the middle of it. What happened was my parents decided that they were going to move. We moved from what was called Oakhill-Jackson area, when we lived on 6th Street Southeast, to a place that was all white. It was 30th Street Drive Northeast, which is off of 1st Avenue quite a ways.

Shawndell: Did you live by the Oakhill-Jackson Cemetery or by the Oakhill-Jackson Church?

Julie Mitchell: Well, we didn’t actually in the Oakhill-Jackson. This was all concerned “Oakhill-Jackson.” We lived on 6th Street Southeast which is where the old post office is. In that area, it’s on the southeast side of 8th Avenue on 6th Street. So, little house that’s no longer there anymore and a really neat little house. But, we moved and my parents moved before I moved because there were a lot of threats against my mother and father for moving into this area. They felt it was better if I stayed and went to Tyler instead of going to Arthur Elementary, the school where I was supposed to go. So I lived with my grandmother for a little while. What happen was because I was in a different district, my parents lived in a completely different district away from Tyler, the principle at the school, and it was a woman principle which was very unusual in those days, this was like in 1960, I think. Her name was Miss Smithy. I will never forget that woman. She had a meeting, a huge meeting, with all the parents and things of the children that were at Arthur Elementary, which was a pretty upperward scale elementary school and it’s still that kind of an elementary school even in those days, in the early ’60s. They decided that, or she told everybody that I was going to come to school there because my parents now lived in the area and there’s no reason for me not to. So, I went to Arthur and I was the first black child to go Arthur Elementary ever in the whole history of Cedar Rapids. After I’d been at Arthur for a couple of years, my sister started. She was about five years younger than I was so I was like in 6th grade or 5th grade and she was like in kindergarten and then there were two of us at Arthur. But it was pretty interesting and a very different time.

Shawndell: How was the Civil Rights Movement affected you?

Julie Mitchell: Oh, it has affected my greatly. Like I said, I was one of the first black children to go to an all white school. There were others very shortly after I started to go, in and around Cedar Rapids, but I was one of the first. There were a lot of things that happen, both good and bad. I got to know a lot of kids. They found out that I was just a fun little girl who liked to play Jacks and Hopscotch and Barbie. Barbie was the big thing because Barbie had just come out at that time. So we kind of got together and they found out that I was no different from any other little girl and then I was pretty, started being a little bit more accepted at that time.

Shawndell: What was segregation like for you during that time?

Julie Mitchell: Well, there was, really, like I said, I was in the middle and kind of the beginnings of the end of segregation in Cedar Rapids. After I moved into this new area, there were lots of other black families that had started to move into white areas also. I was, continued on through school and went to Washington High School for my sophomore year. We did something that was completely unheard of. We did A Raisin in the Sun and I played Mama in the lead part and it was pretty much an all black cast except for one white person towards the end of the show. We did, it was a wonderful, beautiful show and just incredible. People just couldn’t believe we were going to do it and we did it. I was kind of hooked on theater at the time and I was acting in theater and things at Washington. I was also very active in orchestra; I played the violin during that time. I started that in high school.

Shawndell: Can you describe the role of the African American church back then in your community?

Julie Mitchell: Well for me, growing up, it was a lot of fun. Going to the schools, I went to Franklin Junior High and there were only a very few, a handful of black children there. When I went there were about maybe seven, six at Franklin. Of course when we got to Washington there were many, many, many more. But, the church was a good place to go to see all my black friends that I had originally met and started to grow up with at Tyler. But, I started to go, I missed greatly because I was going to another school and I really wasn’t seeing them. So on Saturdays and Sundays, on Saturdays we’d had choir practice. I remember specifically the holidays. Christmases and getting dressed and doing pieces and having Christmas candy and being in the youth group with all of my friends and things. It was a good place to go. It was a place of learning and growth and it was just a really good place.

Second Video Begins

Shawndell: So, have you been involved in any Civil Rights organizations or movements?

Julie Mitchell: Yes. After I came out of college I was still very involved in theater. I was working at KCRG television, channel nine for about four or five years but I still wanted to be active in theater and things of that nature. The NAACP was doing a lot of youth outreach. They were trying even in those days and this was like in the mid ’80s or so. They were wanting to do something for the young people. So, what we did, we came together and I had an idea to do a play, a musical, that was called The Wiz. I directed it and we had about seventy people. There were adults that played, some of the junior high and high school kids played like Dorothy and The Tin Man and things of that nature from The Wiz. There were some adults that played little bit more adult parts and then we had some very, very small children who played the Munchkins and things like that. I directed it. It was produced by the NAACP here in Cedar Rapids and we did it at the Paramount Theater. Within the next two years we did another play that was called Kismet. And again, it was, there were a lot of young people involved that had most of the major parts and things and did the singing and had orchestra and costumes and the whole works. This was also sponsored by the NAACP. So they were really trying at that time to give young people a good feeling about themselves, self esteem, pride in being able to get together and actually produce. You know, go from the being, the middle, and the end and produce something that was wonderful and people could come to see.

Shawndell: So, why did you choose to get involved in that?

Julie Mitchell: Theater had always been something that was very exciting for me. When I was young I was very shy and I decided that I didn’t want to be shy anymore. This was a wonderful way of doing something and being involved with people in my junior high. I started out my first year I was doing costumes for a play that they were doing. That was in seventh grade. Eighth grade I think I did make up and costumes that year for another play that they did. Finally, in ninth grade I got the gumption up to go and actually audience for a play and I got my very, very first part. It was a funny, funny little play. It was called The McDonalds or something like that, I can’t remember exactly. The part I had was called the Lingerie Lady and she was a real funny kind of a salesperson. But, it was the first time that a black person had a part at Franklin Junior High School in any of their programs and things. So it was pretty unusual but it was just a blast, it was just the most wonderful thing.

Shawndell: How did you family feel about you deciding that you were going to get involved?

Julie Mitchell: Well they wanted me to get involved. I had parents who were very, very much in Civil Rights movement. Both my mother and father were in sit-ins right here in Cedar Rapids, Iowa at the Kresge’s store and the Kresge’s counters to allow black people to be able to eat lunch there. They were young people at that time. I was not necessarily born yet. They were very, very into the NAACP themselves and they felt it was very important that I try to do as much as I could. They always told me, “There is nothing you can’t do and to go ahead and do it.”

Shawndell: So, as we’re wrapping this up, what would you say is one of your biggest accomplishments?

Julie Mitchell: Well, I think, working with young people and giving them the feeling that there is nothing that you can’t do in this world. That everything that you attempt is important and that you should try and if you fail, you try again, and you continue on.

Shawndell: Also, what would you say is the most important thing that you would think that we should know? What’s the lesson that we should get from this, from your story?

Julie Mitchell: Everything changes, nothing stays the same. The amount of changes that we have gone through as a people in the United States will affect people in the future forever. This is a wonderful thing and a good thing and something that was should always try to remember as you go along towards the future.

Shawndell: Okey-dokey. Thank you for interviewing with me.

Julie Mitchell: Sure, thank you for interviewing me.