WORLD WAR II ORAL HISTORY PROJECT
UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS SPENCER RESEARCH LIBRARY, KANSAS COLLECTION
Interviewee: John H. Adams
Date: 26 March 2011
Location: Kansas City, Kansas
Interviewer: Deborah Dandridge, Field Archivist
ADAMS INTERVIEW NO. 1
Tape 1, side 1 begins.
(noise/rustling throughout obscures some sound)
DEBORAH DANDRIDGE: March 26th, 2011, this is an interview with Mr. John H. Adams. Mr. Adams just
informed me that he is ninety-two years old. His home is elegant and I’ve been late in getting here, so I
thank you, Mr. Adams, for taking your time to volunteer to share your story with the research library
and for future researchers. What we’re going to talk about today, your experience during World War I—
during World War II, pardon me. And in doing that, let’s just start out with how you happened to
become a part of the military during World War II. Where were you living, what were you doing at the
time, that—what things do you remember—
JOHN H. ADAMS: Well I was living 2020 North Third Street, I was a motion picture projectionist at the
Princess Theater, which was on Fifth and Franklin.
DANDRIDGE: And this is in Kansas City, Kansas?
ADAMS: Kansas City, Kansas. I’d graduated from Sumner High School and I was working as a projectionist
in my last year.
DANDRIDGE: What year, do you remember what year you graduated from Sumner High School?
ADAMS: Oh, yes, May of 1936.
DANDRIDGE: Do you remember—Did you have any yearbooks or anything from that era? We don’t have
any.
ADAMS: I don’t remember whether I had a yearbook. I know we took a class picture, but I don’t know
about a yearbook.
DANDRIDGE: Uh-huh. Okay, that’s fine. What were your experiences, since you’re a Sumner High
graduate, what kind of memories do you have about Sumner?

J. Adams 1

ADAMS: Well, Sumner High was the only high school that blacks could attend at that time, at least in our
area. But the very—let’s see, dedicated school as far as the teachers giving their all, far as trying to help
the students to progress in their particular choice of academic excellence or the jobs afterwards(??). We
had some of the most dedicated teachers I think we had, all black. I would rank them class one, class A
as far as their dedication to the students, male and female.
DANDRIDGE: Well, any favorite teachers you remember you had?
ADAMS: Oh, yea. Um, my favorite teacher, I guess, was an English teacher, Mrs. Scottie P. Davis. She was
a single woman, as far as I knew, very particular, she wanted the best of her students to perform in any
way possible. And she was very adamant about making sure that you had prepared for your classwork
when you came to class. And I think Mr. A .T. Edwards, the gym teacher was quite dedicated as far as
allowing students like myself who finished and had no idea about attending college at that time, I was
permitted to come back and take his college course in architectural drafting. He permitted me to be a
part of his classroom, I don’t know whether that was possible with the principal or not, but he allowed
me to attend classwork there, take his college work, and hopefully to that I would be able to attend
____(??) college and ____(??). I had numerous teachers. My physical science teacher, Mr. Harwell; Mr.
Thompson, Mack Spears English teacher, Ms. Penman, Ms. Jackson, there’s so many teachers there, Mr.
Mulberry in woodwork and metalwork. All of those teachers gave their time and effort to make sure
that the students who came under their jurisdiction prepared themselves for their regular work but for
their college afterwards or their work afterwards. ____(??) going to college, it was a poor area back in
____(??) I think that was the time of Depression, 1930s, I guess that’s one reason I wasn’t determined to
go to college because I had to go take care of my parents. My father was ill and I had the chance to take
over his job as projectionist there, so I wasn’t going to attend college, I had a job.
DANDRIDGE: Okay. We’ll get back to Sumner and we’ll get right back into the military. Where—So you
were living and you were a projectionist at the Princess; how did you view the war before you be—I
assume you were drafted?
ADAMS: I was drafted; I did not volunteer. ____(??) family, taking care of my parents as I was I was put in
3F or 4F at the time. Later, I guess there was a need for more volunteers and they weren’t coming forth,
I was classified as 1A and I was drafted. So I went to the service October of 1942.
DANDRIDGE: Did you have any sisters? Brothers or sisters?
ADAMS: I have one living sister, Alice Marie, who was a year ahead of me; she was married and not living
at home at the time. I had a younger sister; she died at three years of age of spinal meningitis. There
were only three of us in the family. (phone rings)
Pause in recording.
DANDRIDGE: Okay, so what was your view of the war before you were getting involved in the military?
J. Adams 2

ADAMS: Well, I really didn’t give the war too much consideration far as I was concerned. I wasn’t going to
volunteer. I say again, working as I was and obligated, at that time, to help take care of my parents I had
to register in the draft so it wasn’t necessarily a means of avoiding it, but if I were drafted I had no
problem with going but I wasn’t anxious to volunteer.
DANDRIDGE: At the time that you were drafted, do you remember what race relations was like in the
community at that time?
ADAMS: In the community?
DANDRIDGE: Uh-huh.
ADAMS: Well, living where I was at the time, there wasn’t too much to be concerned about as far as race
relations. It was a segregated school that we attended; there were whites all around some of the places
and some of the students had to pass right by the white high schools and junior high schools in order to
get to Sumner as a senior high and to Northeast as a junior high. So as far as I was concerned I accepted
the segregation as it was. Not a problem with me.
DANDRIDGE: Um-hm. So, at that time, did you hear about or read about in the newspaper any of the race
riots or civil rights protests that were going on at the time?
ADAMS: Oh yes. I was aware of those things that existed and I know that they, as far as we were
concerned, segregation in the downtown areas in Kansas City, Missouri for instance and other places
that were locally segregated—segregation was a prime problem. I remember going down to—I think it
was Taylor’s or some of the stores downtown to get a—well now, as an extra job. And everyone in line
ahead of me was given an opportunity to take an application. When it came to me the particular person
who was handing them that, those interviews and handing out the particular requests for work, she told
me, “We have nothing for you, so you can exit at the next entrance there,” and took the person in the
line behind me. And I think there were only one or two blacks at the particular time requesting work at
that store at the time. But when they came to me, she said, “Well we don’t have anything we can offer
you.” So I was aware of that. We could not sit down in the restaurants in the—what was it?—dime store
or dollar store; we had to stand at the counter or take the food out and participate in eating outside of
the place. All of those things existed as far as being out of your own community. But I say as long as you
were in the area where most of your own race existed, well we didn’t have a problem. But we were
aware of what was going all around us, though.
DANDRIDGE: How did your family respond to your draft, your enlistment?
ADAMS: Well, there wasn’t anything they could about it. So when they say you have to go, I go.
DANDRIDGE: Okay. Where did you go, where did you enlist? Do you remember?
J. Adams 3

ADAMS: I went to Fort Leavenworth as an enlistment; after interviews and tests there, I went to Jefferson
Barracks, Missouri, that was the first camp where we were sort of quartered in tents until we were given
a destination as to what place we were going to go for our training. I went from Jefferson Barracks to—
what was it?—Boston, Massachusetts. I was selected to participate in the drafting class, where there
was engineer drafting or topographic drafting. I had that work in school and I guess that was an
influence in my selection to participate in that activity. So I went to Boston, Massachusetts and attended
Franklin Institute of Technology where I was enrolled in engineer drafting and as a result of—there were
six of us, I believe, out of a class of probably forty, and one of the whites did not seemingly perform
adequately so I was given an opportunity to move up to topographic drafting. (mic movement)
(excess mic noise/rustling stops)
DANDRIDGE: (in background) I’m sorry—Okay, go on.
ADAMS: As a result of that, at graduation, you had an opportunity to select what you want, where you
wanted to go because they had several places, Oklahoma, California, Montana, Texas, and having an
aunt in California, Los Angeles, I selected to go to March Field, which was just outside of Riverside,
California.
DANDRIDGE: Well tell me—let’s go back through the enlistment process itself. How did you travel from
your home to Leavenworth and did you have a going away party or do you remember anything like that?
What kind of preparation did you have to maybe make to leave home?
ADAMS: Well, exit from your job was one thing, if you had one. We traveled from Fort Leavenworth—to
Fort Leavenworth by bus and went from Fort Leavenworth to Jefferson Barracks by train.
DANDRIDGE: When you—What was it like having to—What did you have to do to leave your job? What
did you have to report to them? Do you remember what you had to do?
ADAMS: Just to tell your employer that you were drafted and you would be leaving.
DANDRIDGE: And what did your employer say?
ADAMS: (chuckles) Have fun and come back when you get a chance to discharged from the service.
DANDRIDGE: Okay, all right. Were there other people around there who were leaving for war, too?
ADAMS: Oh yes they had a great gathering of friends and family members at the—I think it was the bus
station out on about Eighth and—Eighth and State I think at the time, and quite a few friends and family
members there from—I think both white and black at the time, but I don’t’ know whether it was
J. Adams 4

segregated buses or not, but I think we all joined together on that one or two buses that were leaving
from Eighth and State to go to Fort Leavenworth.
DANDRIDGE: Did you have to take—when did you have to take your physical exams or whatever else? And
get into your uniforms, was that at Leavenworth?
ADAMS: That was at Leavenworth. They gave you your wearing apparel, shoes, your coat—it was winter
time at that particular time—and they performed, let’s see, the physical and mental exercises as far as
examinations at Leavenworth. And make sure you that you had the shots that you were going to get,
that you were prepared, haircut, shaves, and all that sort of thing. You didn’t have to—You weren’t
permitted to have mustaches or you had to have a certain amount of hair taken off of your head, you
had to pass the physicals and then prepare to get your equipment and be prepared to ship out.
DANDRIDGE: Was there anything about that process that you didn’t like?
ADAMS: Oh yes. I didn’t like shaving off my mustache for one thing. And I wasn’t particularly fond of the
clothes I was going to have to take, but I didn’t have much of a choice about that.
DANDRIDGE: Did you—When you were going through this process, was everybody there who was
checking you and engaging, were they African American or were they white or do you remember?
ADAMS: Well I think the—there was a PFC, that’s a private first class, who met us as we’d get off the bus
and he acted like he, I guess he was the company commander in the way he was giving instructions and
all, but he was—militarily, I don’t find anything necessarily segregating as far as his voice was concerned,
but he just had a job to do to get us processed and ready to go. So he was pretty strict about how he
wanted things carried out.
DANDRIDGE: Was he black or white?
ADAMS: White.
DANDRIDGE: Okay, did you—The other guys who were going through the lines, getting the distribution of
the clothing, were they white or black? Or was it a mixture or was everyone black?
ADAMS: I think it was a mixture.
DANDRIDGE: Okay—So what else did you do, how long did you stay overnight at Leavenworth or—
ADAMS: Overnight. We were ready to ship out the next day and we went to Jefferson Barracks, Missouri.
DANDRIDGE: Okay, what was that like?
J. Adams 5

ADAMS: (chuckles) Cold, they had us in tents; we had to sleep in our particular clothes, coats and all,
because they didn’t have heating facilities in the tents. And we were there in the evening and the next
morning we had to go through physical exams, mental exams, checking as to whether or not we had all
the—needed any dental work, that we had the proper supply of clothing.
DANDRIDGE: Who—In those tents, were they—Was it also racially mixed in those tents or—
ADAMS: No. I was strictly with four or five blacks, I believe. It was large tents but sleeping quarters were
all you were provided for at that time. But we were all segregated as far as I know.
DANDRIDGE: Do you know where the whites were? Was a white company nearby or anything?
ADAMS: I wouldn’t have the slightest idea.
DANDRIDGE: So everybody in that area where your tent was was black or white?
ADAMS: Black.
DANDRIDGE: Everybody was. So did you have some who were officers? Black officers or anything like
that? Or do you remember?
ADAMS: Those coming in?
DANDRIDGE: No those that were in your tent area—
ADAMS: No, we didn’t have any commissioned officers, we had commissioned officers—(phone rings)
Pause in recording.
DANDRIDGE: We’re talking about your experiences in the barracks in Jefferson—Where was it?
ADAMS: Jefferson Barracks, Missouri.
DANDRIDGE: Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. What time of year was that?
ADAMS: Winter. November, December. Cause in December when I went to Boston, course there was a
great deal of snow there, but that tent in Jefferson Barracks, I said(??) there was no heat there, so the
four of five of us in that particular place had to have, slept in our clothes, but we just ____(??) there
overnight.
DANDRIDGE: Uh-huh. Did they provide you with any food or anything?
J. Adams 6

ADAMS: No. This was late in the evening when we got there. I think we ate breakfast the next morning,
but as far as food that night, there was none unless you had something that you wanted to knickknack(??) on yourself.
DANDRIDGE: How—Where—Did you quickly get friends with the guys in your tent or did you?
ADAMS: Well, if I can remember this, most of it was trying to get warm, I don’t think it was too much—
and it was late at night and most of those guys was probably going to get to sleep. And I remember
that’s what I did cause I dozed off until next morning when they came in to wake us up and say it’s time
to come up and get set for your test and that sort of thing. It was a matter of not too much in the way of
conversation at that night and then the next morning we’re just marched off in order to get our
particular examinations and all, so—Being friendly to an extent were(??) we going to be together wasn’t
something that was really considered cause we weren’t going to be together too long. We were
separated into whatever designation they wanted you to attend, whether it was schooling or work,
quartermaster, supply, what—
DANDRIDGE: Were you happy with what choice they made for you?
ADAMS: Oh yes. Wasn’t anything wrong with going to school. I made up my mind when they took me out
of my little private life that whatever I was involved in I was going to try and do it the best I could cause I
wanted to be successful and not necessary with what I heard about the Army with KP duty and latrine
duty and all of those things for those who were trying to get out of the service rather than trying to
make good of what their particular time there.
DANDRIDGE: What about the trip to Boston? You said it was on a train?
ADAMS: On a train.
DANDRIDGE: What was that—Do you remember anything about the train ride?
ADAMS: Oh yes. Well there were about six of us, six blacks going to Boston, for Franklin Institute of
Technology and we became quite friendly because we were housed in one little place—it wasn’t little, it
was a boarding, a boarding house I think. We were segregated, six of us, six blacks were in one group
and I don’t know whether the other—twenty-five or thirty, thirty-five maybe who was housed
someplace else, but we all attended the same classroom but we had segregated sleeping quarters. But it
wasn’t bad, we had six guys all became quite friendly and got a chance to associate with one another on
the train, reading the manuals they gave us, soldier’s manuals, guard manuals, what to be expected of
when you were in the service and how you perform, what your chances were advancement for. So it
was quite pleasant. And the six of us had quite a nice little deal together for the months that we
attended school.

J. Adams 7

DANDRIDGE: Who were some of the other men? Do you remember many? Did they come from Kansas or
did they come from Missouri? Do you remember?
ADAMS: Well, to be honest, they came from all local areas, as far as I can remember. Their homes were
altogether different, but I don’t know whether they were attending school—Some of them were only
eighteen and some of them were in their thirties. I was twenty—twenty-three at the time, I believe.
DANDRIDGE: So it was a wide range of ages that were together? So what was Boston like?
ADAMS: Well as I say again we lived in a segregated barracks, most of the time we were attending class;
we had an opportunity to have some type of social activities on the weekends. They would have soldiers
and sailors—what did they call it?—service units, where a group of young ladies, I think, under the
guardianship of either some organization would come out to the camp and they would have, at the
recreation center, they would have dances and games and that sort of thing for entertainment.
DANDRIDGE: Did you enjoy that?
ADAMS: Oh yeah, weekends were fine. We had a chance, I say—but we met only with whites, there were
no black women at that time, young women at that time. It was a chance to associate with and mingle
with the whites who came out as a group. I don’t know why that was, maybe there were no blacks at
that time who wanted to attend that. But they were quite friendly; it was quite a good sociable event to
have over the weekends.
DANDRIDGE: So, did you dance with white women?
ADAMS: Sure. That was a part of the activities and they didn’t object to it. They were there, and the
fellows that I knew of, I don’t remember, I don’t remember why the—whether the—No, there were no
black women that I saw, so the whites, if they were a part of it, had to accept the fact that the black men
were dancing with the white girls, but there was no, really I’d say, other than the social relationship,
there wasn’t anything to be concerned about or be indignant about. So—But it was just something to do
that the organizations headed for the weekend, period.
DANDRIDGE: So where did you—Where did you eat if you wanted to eat outside of the Institute? Where
did you go to eat?
ADAMS: Well, you mean going to town or something of that kind?
DANDRIDGE: Yes, sir.
ADAMS: Well I don’t think, I ever for me in Boston(??)—I don’t think I ever went out to eat anywhere for
Boston. We had preparations in the barracks where we were housed and, now if you could—as far going
to town you had that privilege to check in and check out, but I wasn’t anxious to leave where I knew
J. Adams 8

where I was and what I expected as far as the association, activities, and that sort of thing. So I stayed in
and studied. And we had a recreation center there; I like to play the piano, so I spent the rest of my time
playing piano.
DANDRIDGE: Oh, you did?
ADAMS: Yes.
DANDRIDGE: So did you ever play for some of the events there, when you had the social events? Did you
ever play and—
ADAMS: Well, during the time, the intermission when they had musical groups that came out, they would
permit the fellows who could play, whether it was piano or guitar or horn or whatnot, to come up and
join in. So I took the opportunity to mingle, to some extent, with some of the events, but not all of them.
DANDRIDGE: So music has been a strong interest to you throughout your life?
ADAMS: Oh yes.
DANDRIDGE: So did—Were—Did you take formal training in piano?
ADAMS: No, my parents gave my sister and me piano lessons when we were young; I guess I was about,
maybe, eight or nine years of age. And at that time they could not afford both of us, so they gave it to
my sister and I just copied the work. I think I took lessons for maybe six months, maybe less than a year,
but it was just something that, at that time, I play sound I don’t play by note, by reading it. If you put it
in front of me, what I can play, I wouldn’t be able to read it. So I know simple that I can solve(??), but as
far as playing as an accomplished musician, I wasn’t.
DANDRIDGE: But you still enjoyed it.
ADAMS: Oh yes, any time I came around a piano I—
DANDRIDGE: Did you play at Sumner? In any of their bands or anything?
ADAMS: No. I didn’t even take music in Sumner.
DANDRIDGE: Oh really?
ADAMS: No, I took drafting and gym work, what else did I have? Tennis, swimming—I didn’t swim in the
school, but they had exercise that they would allow you to participate in. At that time I don’t think
swimming was a part of the schools. But I did a great deal of woodworking, metal working, and that sort
of thing in Mr. Mobury’s(??) class. Activities there, I say, I wasn’t big enough to play basketball, but I did
J. Adams 9

a lot of tumbling. Football was out of the question. I was more or less the bookworm more than
anything else, as far as school was concerned. I enjoyed school and reading and studying.
DANDRIDGE: That’s good. So what were your teachers like in that—Do you remember anything about
your teachers at Franklin?
ADAMS: Well they were all white and as far as I’m concerned they were just as far as they could be
between—and as a matter of fact they gave me an opportunity to move up from drafting engineering
into topographic engineering and they didn’t have to pick that, they didn’t have to allow me—I don’t
know whether it was grades or the alphabetical order of the last names that made it possible for me to
move up from drafting engineering into topographic engineering, because when you graduate they,
those who graduated from the topographic class became corporals, they had two stripes. Those who
grad—from the drafting classes as an engineer draftsmen, they were PFC; they only gain the one stripe.
So it was an advantage to have the opportunity to be a topographic draftsman.
DANDRIDGE: Wow, so you moved up?
ADAMS: Yes.
DANDRIDGE: So after Franklin, then—Did you graduate or how did it go?
ADAMS: Oh I graduated. Out of the class, the—I think all of us were assigned to different places, but
those who graduated in the top were able to select the places they want to go. See I had an aunt in
California, so I chose California. I had a guy from St. Louis, Cleatus Bordeaux(??), whose home was in St.
Louis, but he wanted to go to California, too. So he and I became buddies on the train riding out to
March Field where we were both assigned.
DANDRIDGE: So did you contact your aunt when you got there?
ADAMS: Not immediately, but after I got acquainted with the March Field rules and regulations and knew
where she was, I contacted her by phone to make sure it was all right, if I had an opportunity to visit her,
that she would not object to it. But I made contact with her later on.
DANDRIDGE: So did you write letters back and forth to home while you were doing all of this?
ADAMS: Oh, yes. Quite often, taking care of keeping in contact with my parents and the lady friends that I
had left there, particular time been dating for some three years, I think it was. I kept correspondence
with several friends, male friends and female friends, as well as my parents.
DANDRIDGE: That’s great; did you keep any of those letters?
ADAMS: No, not really.
J. Adams 10

DANDRIDGE: That they sent to you?
ADAMS: (chuckles) I think I did for a while but I began—too much extra baggage was not permitted, so I
had to store(??) some.
DANDRIDGE: So, uh, let’s see, how—What was it like in California? What was that setting like? You want
to describe it; who were the people, what were your living quarters like, that sort of thing?
ADAMS: Well it was a regular barracks, all blacks no whites were involved as far as March Field, it was a
segregated area there, too. But it was nice, got a chance to—And as much as I studied, drill and
callisthenic exercises, I was made the personnel in charge of giving drill instruction in calisthenics and
got a chance to move up and earn my next stripe, became a buck sergeant. It—As far as the barracks
and all were concerned, it was several barracks with two levels of floors, maybe twenty-five on the first
floor, twenty-five on the second floor to accommodate the particular company, it was—
DANDRIDGE: What was the name of your company? You remember?
ADAMS: No, I –the only thing I can remember, it was an aviation engineering squadron or engineering
company. We had about two hundred, maybe, or three hundred individuals in that particular group—
DANDRIDGE: And they were all African American?
ADAMS: All African Americans, yes.
DANDRIDGE: Were there any officers, did you have any black officers?
ADAMS: I’m trying to think, did we have black—Yes. Well I know we had non-commissioned officers that
were black, but whether or not we had—non-commissioned officers that were black, but commissioned
officers, I don’t remember seeing too much of those, in our parades, we didn’t have—Now, I take that
back. The company commander was probably white because we had to pass in review in front of that
particular stand several times during our stay there. They were white maybe; I think they were probably
integrated to that point, white officers and black officers in their different positions. But the noncommissioned officers were all black.
DANDRIDGE: Did—How did—Did they treat you okay? Did you all get along well or—
ADAMS: Well, I can remember one incident, let’s see was that—not in March Field, no—One incident in
March Field as far as volleyball exercising and didn’t have tennis court, basketball courts, they had mixed
groups playing different sports, particularly volleyball. As far as March Field was concerned it was still a
segregated unit, and segregated until—yeah, until I went to Alabama.
J. Adams 11

DANDRIDGE: Okay, and—Well tell me, did you—What town was this place, was this barracks located?
What town in California?
ADAMS: In California?
DANDRIDGE: Uh-huh.
ADAMS: March Field is close to Riverside, California.
DANDRIDGE: Did you ever go to the city there?
ADAMS: Yes, couple of times.
DANDRIDGE: What was it like?
ADAMS: Segregated. You stayed away from—And they had a little couple of ladies who invited me to
their homes to meet their parents who came out on the—was that to(??) regular weekend service unit
to meet with the fellows and to have that social events. Got a chance to go into Riverside and meet the
families of those particular young ladies. I say again they were still in a part, far as I can remember, there
was no great mixture even though the young ladies, because I went to their homes, didn’t really have
any type of racial reaction at March Field at all. We stuck to what we were doing in a group. It was fine.
DANDRIDGE: Okay. So after California where did you go, do you remember?
ADAMS: California—I had an accident of—during the callisthenic exercises I broke the small bone in my
left leg, the tibia, and the organization was put on alert as to go overseas. Well, I guess, fortunately in
one way and unfortunately in another, I was left behind when the company were ordered to leave and I
stayed in the hospital with a cast on my leg for about thirty days, I believe. So, when I was released from
the hospital I was assigned to another company. And as much as I could type, they put me in the office
and I worked as the company, as the—I don’t know what position it was but other than the fact that I
was one of those who was handling the orders and doing the typing, working with that staff. That’s
when I had the opportunity to see on the list, on the board, they were seeking blacks who were
interested in trying to be a part of the cadet training for a possible future as a pilot, bombardier, or
navigator with the 332nd Group of—in the Air Force. I took a chance on—Since I didn’t have the two
years of college training that was required, then the list dropped that particular requirement, and said, If
you can pass the tests, mental and physical test, you would get an opportunity to, if you are accepted as
a cadet or a student. So on my application I had to send for my high school records, and my dad got
those things for me, sent them in and I was accepted to participate in the cadet corps to a possible
future in flying.
DANDRIDGE: So you really wanted—you wanted to pursue this.
J. Adams 12

ADAMS: Oh yes, I didn’t want to stay behind with a company where there’s no need for me. Now the
company I was trained with had gone overseas. So I had—this was an opportunity since the
requirements that I could meet, as long as my academic credits were all right, they accepted me. And I
was accepted to go to Tuskegee, where I took mental, physical, academic aptitude tests and passed
those, and got a chance to be sent to Tuskegee to be a part of the flying program.
DANDRIDGE: So you went to Tuskegee?
ADAMS: Oh yes.
DANDRIDGE: What was it like? Tell me what, you know—How did you get there? By train?
ADAMS: (chuckles) Oh yes. Well I dropped off, I stopped off at Kansas City; I had two or three days to stay
there, to visit my folks. And when I left there, I got on the train—
DANDRIDGE: (interjecting) How long had been from home then? About a couple of years, about a year?
ADAMS: Oh, close to two years. We went there by train and when we got to some border, I think it was
either leaving Kansas or Missouri, we had to change to a train which was a segregated and we had to—
all blacks had to be to one area and the whites had to be in another, far as the soldiers were concerned.
That was my first encounter with the—what they call it, the Mason-Dixon line?
DANDRIDGE: Right, Jim Crow laws and stuff.
ADAMS: (continuing) Yeah, Jim Crow. (chuckles) It was my first opportunity to be a part of that. And we
got, left the fairly decent train and got on a train where the smoke were coming in, and the cinders were
flying in through the windows. It was a pretty sad affair as far as a passenger train was concerned.
DANDRIDGE: But on—But you were relegated to a certain car?
ADAMS: Yes.
DANDRIDGE: And there were other cars that were, that the white soldiers went on?
ADAMS: I assume. I didn’t come in contact with them, cause you see that was a, it was a passenger train
and we had all kinds of individuals going from one place to another.
DANDRIDGE: Right. So it wasn’t just military?
ADAMS: No, no, it was—as I say, when you passed that border-line, wherever it was, you had to
transfer—particularly with the military, now I don’t know about the regular people who paid their way
there, but as part of the military a soldier had to leave that particular area and get in the back of that,
J. Adams 13

get in that train. Now I don’t remember seeing any whites in that area, and I don’t remember seeing,
necessarily, black soldiers, but there were other black individuals on that particular train on where I sat.
DANDRIDGE: So you were traveling by yourself?
ADAMS: Yes.
DANDRIDGE: So then what was—how did you get to Tuskegee? From the train, what did you take?
ADAMS: Uh, I went by bus. (chuckles) I made the mistake of going through the doorway that was marked
for whites only; I didn’t recognize that fact until I had gone through the door and saw on the other side
they had a fountain up there, drinking fountain whites only, and a colored on the other signs(??) and
when I turned around and looked up, I had passed through the door that said for whites only which I
wasn’t supposed to do. But I guess ____(??) this stupid soldier doesn’t know where he’s going anyway,
so they didn’t pay any attention to me. But I remember that explicitly because of the fact there were
two doorways there and they had separate drinking fountains. I had read about that and heard about
drinking fountains for blacks and whites but I had never come in contact with anything like that. But I
didn’t have any trouble with it, I guess they overlooked me cause they thought I didn’t know where I
was going, what I was doing anyway, but I got from—off the train and they had a bus there—
DANDRIDGE: (interjecting) You had your uniform on?
ADAMS: Oh yes, yes I had progressed to tech sergeant. I had three up and two down on my particular
enlistment; that didn’t mean anything. So they put me on a bus that was there particularly for soldiers
and they took me to the—I guess it was Moton Field where Tuskegee School was. So I traveled in a
different area there, not from the institute itself; we attended the institute as far as our academic work
was concerned, but Moton Field was where we were going to get our flying training. So that was an
experience for me, I’ll never forget that.
DANDRIDGE: Yeah. So what was—So you got to see Tuskegee University? You got to see the college itself?
ADAMS: Oh yes, we attended school there. Some of—
DANDRIDGE: (interjecting) Where did you stay when you were at Tuskegee?
ADAMS: We had a barracks that was on the—close to the Tuskegee campus where the other students
were attending class there. But we had an area that was entirely separate from Tuskegee Institute itself
and we had to march from our barracks into Tuskegee for our particular classes and go back to our
barracks, change clothes, and go down to Moton Field where we had our flying training.
DANDRIDGE: So, it—at this place is that where you ate and did everything?
J. Adams 14

ADAMS: They had a separate mess hall, yes.
DANDRIDGE: Yeah, separate—so you didn’t mingle with the college students at the institute?
ADAMS: Not during school time, afterwards you could. They had little places where they had social
events. Their campus was open as far as people attending and you had the privilege of leaving the base
and going into town or going off campus to wherever you wanted to in the town itself.
DANDRIDGE: Did you ever go in town?
ADAMS: Very seldom.
DANDRIDGE: What was the town like, do you remember it?
ADAMS: Well it was segregated as far as I know, and I did not enjoy the possibility of encountering some
difficulties that I had heard when I was a younger person in(??) someplace else out of Alabama about
some of the things that you would encounter. Some of the—the way you would be treated. So I, we had
all kinds of games and things on the base and until I went to Riverside, I went there several times, I
would always go to spend the weekend with my aunt in California, become acquainted with her.
Because she was by herself, she had lost her husband and had got a chance—hadn’t met her before that
time, so when that opportunity for me just to visit with her.
DANDRIDGE: Was that your mother’s or your father’s—
ADAMS: My father’s sister.
DANDRIDGE: Father’s sister. So tell me about the training at Tuskegee, what was that like? What did you
do?
ADAMS: Flying training?
DANDRIDGE: Flying training, yeah?
ADAMS: Well we started off my going down to the, Moton Field, you were introduced to an instructor
and those were mostly blacks that I remember, mine was. Took me up in a Piper Cub—
DANDRIDGE: (interjecting) What is that? What’s a Piper Cub?
ADAMS: It’s a, it’s a small plane with just one wing, mono-wing on the top, not over the canopy and all
itself, were the two-seater. It gives you an opportunity for the instructor to put you through the paces to
see if you have the ability to withstand the flying, whether it’s simple loops, figure eights, spins, and that
sort of thing, to acquaint you with what you’re going to come in contact with.
J. Adams 15

DANDRIDGE: What did you think about that? Were you sure at that time that you wanted to fly?
ADAMS: Well that was my first experience in a plane and I looked forward to it. I didn’t become ill. I
enjoyed it. And, uh, we spent just a small period of time in the Piper Cub; that was—then we had to take
several tests, far as the aptitude tests and mechanical tests, finding out whether or not you were going
to be qualified—better qualified to be either a training for a pilot or training for a navigator or training
for bombardier. They put you through your paces on that.
DANDRIDGE: What did you want to do?
ADAMS: Well I enjoyed the flying; it wouldn’t make any difference to me in what position they felt I was
qualified to perform. So, you have a choice, I think, and your size meant a great deal; the larger fellows
would not necessarily fit into the smaller planes for the fighters, most of them went to twin-engine, I
believe, which is a larger plane. But, as I say again, it was something that really enjoyed at the time and
my first flight was successful enough with my instructor that we went from the Piper Cub to Lower
Basic—we had lower basic, upper basic, lower advanced, upper advanced—So from primary training we
was a two-wing job, the biplane. It was the closest thing to a, at that particular time, to a fighter plane,
open cockpit where you have an instructor and a student in the same plane, that was what we called
primary training we had—I don’t know just how many months we spent at that, but most of the time we
just kind of getting an opportunity to become familiar with the requirements of the plane, studying the
plane, knowing how it works, attending classes to understand the principles of flying, and then you had
the chance to take your first opportunity to solo after a certain amount of training with a flight
instructor. After soloing in the primary, you spend a certain amount of time there with flying by yourself,
doing the different phases of instruction, you went from there to BT-13, which is a much larger plane,
still have lower basic, with a fixed landing gear, the closest thing to the AT-6, which would be the
advanced plane that you would fly in. Spent a certain amount of money—months (chuckles) in lower
basic and when you completed lower basic satisfactory, you went to upper basic. Upper basic you went
to lower advanced, and from lower advanced you went to upper advance and then if you were still able
to be a part of the group you graduated.
DANDRIDGE: So how long did all that take?
ADAMS: Well, let’s see about a year, a good year and maybe fourteen or sixteen months. If you’re able to
survive primary and you were put through your paces then and you soloed all right, well you could make
it provided you had no incidents that would wash you out because of lack inability—lack of ability,
carelessness, poor grades, or something of that kind. But I think the whole course, from the time I went
in until, ‘43 until almost—good year, a good year and a half. (phone rings)
Pause in recording.
DANDRIDGE: So you were talking about your flying training?
J. Adams 16

ADAMS: Yeah. Well, see the different phases from basic to primary to advanced, if you’re able to qualify
and stay in and get your grades that are satisfactory and your performance is satisfactory then you could
look forward to either being put in either a pilot training as a pilot or as a navigator or as a bombardier.
Wherever their need was is what you—your flying training more or less equipped you to be a pilot. Your
navigational training or your bombardier training were performed someplace else, as far as I remember.
But I guess my size and being able to pass the test for the single engine fighters, I was trained as a
fighter pilot. Graduated in 1945, as class of ’45-C. Got my commission as a second lieutenant and went
from there to, let’s see, Eglin Field, Florida for gunnery training and Godman Field, Kentucky for other
training. Walterboro, South Carolina for additional training where we found out that we were getting
ready to be shipped overseas to replace some of the pilots returning from the old Ninety-ninth group.
And then the war ended, they had an excess of pilots, navigators, and bombardiers—
Tape 1, side 1 ends; side 2 begins.
DANDRIDGE: Okay, Mr. Adams you were saying about when you had gone, you were about go to the—you
were going to be called up and then the war ended?
ADAMS: After that, see, there was no great need and we became surplus, I guess, to the service. So they
made a stipulation that they wanted all of the fighter pilots to decide to stay in the service for two
additional years or they were going to have to make some changes either in their particular location,
their commissions, or whether they wanted to be a part of it. That two months later I came, they came
back and said that it’d have to be a three year enlistment or you were going to have to lose your
commission and be put back as a noncommissioned officer or be submitted to some other group
because there was no need for the additional pilot training at that particular time. So they(??) started
giving us inspection duties and officer in charge of guards and all that nonsense; we were only permitted
to fly four hours a month in order to get our flying pay. And I got a little bored with the inactivity and
decided that if there was no need for me in the service as a pilot anymore and there was a need for me
to be back home that I would leave the service and get my discharge, which I did in ’45. I was not one of
those who went overseas, I was fortunate enough to graduate from flying school and I valued that
particular part of my life. If I had been aware of the fact that I would only have one year guarantee of
returning to my job as a form of employment, if I had known that that was all I would have been able to
secure, I probably would have stayed in for the three years that they wanted you to stay and took my
chances on being able to come out at the termination of three years and maybe we’ll get that job that
back or another or attend some school someplace where I could get some information and training as to
another type of employment.
DANDRIDGE: Well, you know I have a—let’s go back to the Tuskegee training. So where did you—when
you started these grades of flying skills, where did you—where were you all flying? Were you flying over
Tusk—over the institute? Where did you, where did this flying take place?
ADAMS: You mean the area in which—
J. Adams 17

DANDRIDGE: Yes sir, uh-huh.
ADAMS: Well most of it took place over Moton Field but we had low altitude cross countries, night cross
countries, high altitude performance over Alabama, Georgia, uh—we flew a variety of routes. Traveling
at, say, between—low altitude cross country, I think we may have crossed parts of Georgia. We had
certain destinations you had to arrive at at certain times, whether it was night or day. To perform at
night was quite a thrill too. (chuckles) I became lost on one of my night flights, missed my destination by
some points of time, decided that I would do a 180 degree turn and get back on course to Tuskegee. We
had, unfortunately, the upper class captain in the class of ’44, I believe, ’43 or ’44, abandoned his plane
on a low altitude cross country at night—
DANDRIDGE: (interjecting) How did he abandon it?
ADAMS: Well, I guess he became lost and bailed out.
DANDRIDGE: Oh, okay.
ADAMS: (continuing) He lost the plane and I guess he had to get back from wherever he parachuted to
safety; but they washed him out because of that. It was a night flight and I couldn’t understand why he
didn’t use his instrument training. His night viewing problems that he had come in contact reason, but
whatever reason they bailed out. And I had encountered the same problem myself on a low altitude
cross country at night. I guess the wind blew me off of my compass reading, but unfortunately the—or
fortunately for me I didn’t bail out. It was a matter of doing instrument flying, training that I had made a
180 degree turn and went back to the direction which I had come and was able to go down and buzz the
towns that I passed. And each of those towns has a name printed on top of some of the buildings and
we have to carry a chart with us—strap it to our thighs as a general rule—in case we became
disorientated, we could go down and buzz the town, find the location of it and head back to where—
hopefully get back to Tuskegee. So that was fortunate for my case; I was class captain, too, at that time,
upper advanced. I didn’t have the same fate that the classmate ahead of me had, but I got back safely to
Tuskegee. Subsequently the next night flight that I had, I had an instructor check me out as my flying
capabilities and I made that successfully so I didn’t have that problem anymore, but it was an
experience, that, I say, that I never forgot. So where did you—when you started these grades of flying
skills, where did you—where were you all flying? Were you flying over Tusk—over the institute? Where
did you, where did this flying take place?"
DANDRIDGE: I can just imagine. Did any of the guys who ended up flying overseas, did any of them come
back to Tuskegee and see you all? Or—did they ever come back to the place of training?
ADAMS: We met some of them in Walterboro, South Carolina, which was the shipping point for
returnees. Whether they went back to Tuskegee or not, got training or accepted instructors or not, I
really don’t know.
J. Adams 18

DANDRIDGE: What kind of stories, after you had gotten to Moton Field, what kind of stories had you
heard about the men who did go across seas and were able to fly? What kind of stories had you heard
about them?
ADAMS: Well, their inability to be placed where they thought that they had earned the privilege and the
priority of being trained and being able to fly with some of the other more experienced pilots. I heard
that, that they were not given that privilege. I can understand that to a point, because as a person
having graduated from training at Tuskegee and with little or no experience as far as flying in combat or
in a theatre of operation, they were limited as to what they were ab—would be permitted to do until
they had the experience of either the bombing, the patrol training or whatnot . I can understand why
they necessarily would not have been given the opportunity at first. But after they had become qualified
and they had to undergo a great deal of training in a theatre of operation, with all combat tactics
involved. Now whether or not they were given that opportunity when they thought, but in the end it
must not have been because the Red Tail Pilots that I read about were given the credit for not having
lost any of the bombers that they escorted to their particular places or any of their other craft. So it’s, I
guess the idea that inexperienced people just graduating from flying school would not have the
qualifications of an experience of a seasoned pilot until they got the adequate training in their theatre of
operations. So I don’t know what factors were involved in that to substantiate what some of them, what
the write-ups were saying they were not given the opportunity. So say again, I wasn’t involved in
overseas, my training in Florida over Eglin Field, shooting at the moving targets, gunnery drills I had to
take were experience, but that’s altogether different from flying at a tour target(??) and flying
somebody shooting bullets and bombs at you, so, I really don’t know what they went through. I have no
adequate knowledge of saying that. There was one fellow that lived in Kansas City, not far from where I
lived at home, John W. Davis, was credited with one kill, I think, and one probable. Now he was, I never
really talked to him about his experience simply because we never actually came in contact with one
another, but I can understand the, say the exemptions they made until they were qualified. But they
met—those who did fly the protecting for the bombers and their mission that they were assigned to did
an excellent job. Whether it was destroying the enemy equipment or the planes or protecting the
bombers that they were supposed—(phone rings)
Pause in recording.
DANDRIDGE: Okay, I get—Is that another—
Pause in recording.
DANDRIDGE: When you were in, when you were in Florida and your other training after you left Tuskegee,
were you in an all-black unit? Or were you in integrated units?
ADAMS: Still all black.
J. Adams 19

DANDRIDGE: Did you ever enter into an integrated unit of—
ADAMS: For flying?
DANDRIDGE: Right.
ADAMS: No, the only encounter I came across in realizing that there was another school of training there,
on(??) low-altitude cross country, I landed at a place where the same ships, the same coloring and all,
the same type of markings and when I pulled up to company headquarters in the plane on the landing
stripe, there were all white cadets there, white officers. I had landed in the field where they were
training whites. And they told me that my particular location that I was seeking as a destination was
about twenty miles—and I forgot the direction where I was going, it was all together ahead of me. Still in
Alabama, but still not that particular place. That’s the only time I recognized the fact that we had whites
training at a different place.
DANDRIDGE: How did—Did they—Were they angry with you or they just told you where you—
ADAMS: No they were surprised, I guess, to see a black man getting out of the airplane and I was
surprised to see all those white faces with the same kind of ships that we were flying from Tuskegee. But
they were obviously training someplace. And there was a guy up to—what was it?—Brotherhood Bank,
was in a training program for whites. Now I didn’t ask him where he got his training and he didn’t get
overseas either, but he took a separate course from the same type of thing because of the fact he had
dropped the college requirements and he got his training in the south. But he was working in the same
mailroom as I was with Brotherhood Bank, as a part-time job. But he didn’t get overseas either.
DANDRIDGE: But he was white?
ADAMS: Yeah, he was white. And that’s the only time that I came in any contact with white cadets or
students flying planes in Alabama.
DANDRIDGE: When you were in the South, how—did you go to any of the towns off the base area, did you
go into any of the towns?
ADAMS: Yes, but not so far as visiting the restaurants or—I went to private homes. I think you’re seeking
something about race relations. I had an incident of passing, uh, about four white soldiers, where was I
coming from?—Visiting my aunt, I believe, going back to the bus station. He said, ”Here come the nigger
lieutenant, let’s salute him.” They saluted me. I saluted back and went on my way. But they called
themselves, I guess, being smart or funny or whatnot, but it didn’t make any difference to me.
DANDRIDGE: Well when you in the South, I noticed you said that you—things were different and you
certainly recognized that, but did you ever go out into the larger white community in any other way in
the South?
J. Adams 20

ADAMS: No.
DANDRIDGE: Stayed right—
ADAMS: No, came in contact with white officers in different places, but—
DANDRIDGE: (interjecting) How were they? How was their treatment of you?
ADAMS: Well, far as I know the only incident that I can remember that brought something questioned to
my mind, I was leading a group of soldiers going, I guess, from the mess hall back to the barracks. But I
wasn’t an officer then, but I passed this—I don’t know whether he was a second lieutenant or first
lieutenant—I was a tech sergeant then. I passed him and I gave the command to salute the officer, you
know. We presented arms as we passed him; I saluted their officers up as they passed. He asked
somebody in his group to stop me and he wanted to talk to me, he wanted to address me because he
thought I was being smart by addressing him, recognizing his particular status with a hand salute. He
thought I was being smart of something. And he brought back—had me back standing attention before
him and said, “I didn’t appreciate that attitude that you presented as you came by here. Was that
supposed to be something(??) clever?” I said, “I was merely recognizing your status as a commissioned
officer, sir, and when I get to be in your same position, I hope to get the same kind of respect.”
DANDRIDGE: What did he say to that?
ADAMS: He said, “Carry on.” That’s the only time that I remember being addressed by an officer who felt
that was being—it’s a group of black soldiers going by him and recognized—I thought he’d be—return
the salute, I don’t know whether he did or not. But it’s just something I always felt you show that
respect for his bars, not necessarily his face whatever, but he was either a second lieutenant or first
lieutenant. And as I say I was a tech sergeant then, but that’s the only time I can remember any incident
with a white officer that I came in contact with.
DANDRIDGE: When you were working with the Tuskegee Airmen what was the social relationships like
within that group? Um, who were some of the other people, do you remember? Not necessarily by
name, but do you remember—where do they come from? Were you the only one from the Kansas
area—
ADAMS: You mean of my class?
DANDRIDGE: Uh-huh, right.
ADAMS: No I had a fellow classmate names Clarence Bee(??) who lived in Kansas City, Missouri; we both
graduated as second lieutenants. I had a William Knight(??) who lived in Topeka, Kansas, he graduated
as a flight officer; I don’t know what made—what qualified the difference—
J. Adams 21

DANDRIDGE: Did those of you from that area, did you all hang together or—
ADAMS: Well we were in the same class. See we had sixty members started out together in primary
training and twenty-three graduated. So—William Knight, Clarence Bee, were all Kansas individuals. I
kept in contact with several guys in—Casey in Chicago, Powell in New York, uh—
DANDRIDGE: Clayton Powell? No—
ADAMS: No, no, his name was William Powell. He got a job as a probation officer when he left the
service. A lot of the fellows, I’d say, I used to keep in contact for a few years and then just some
dropped. But I say out of our group of sixty, twenty-three were left.
DANDRIDGE: So, so what—Did the other guys just have to leave is that what they had to do?
ADAMS: No some stayed in. Those who accepted the idea that they were either going to be put back or
they were going—some volunteered—guess just stayed at three years. We had one classmate—well he
wasn’t in our class after we left, Kenneth Walker, he stayed in; he dropped back to get married. He left
the class in ’44 I believe it was. I don’t know whether it was sickness in his family or what, but he left and
went home and came back, but he was put in a class following ours. Instead of graduating in ’45-C he
probably graduated in ’46 something. But he stayed in and he retired a lieutenant colonel.
DANDRIDGE: Wow, so he made it kind of a career—
ADAMS: Yeah, he made it a career and stayed in Minnesota.
DANDRIDGE: Right, so those are—Well tell me, looking back on your experience, particularly your
Tuskegee training, what do you think you liked most about being in the service?
ADAMS: Well the chance to get an opportunity to fly a plane that I never thought I’d have. ____(??) I
couldn’t afford it as a youngster, didn’t want to put the money into it and all the training as a civilian,
but I always enjoyed the idea of flying. I couldn’t have done that one my own. I could not have gone to
Boston. I was proud of what I was able to achieve as a person who was drafted, my technical training,
flying capabilities, opportunity to put four years of college in, which I spent in an arts school to get my
master’s degree—So—
DANDRIDGE: So you had gone to college aft—this is, you went to college after service?
ADAMS: Yeah.
DANDRIDGE: Okay. What did you experience in the military that you did not like? The least thing that you
liked—the least thing that you experienced.
J. Adams 22

ADAMS: The thing that I didn’t like was the idea that even as a graduate from the flying school, I was not
able to put the time in acquiring the knowledge of how to work around a plane. I don’t know about
inspecting the wings, the ____(??), or flaps, or anything. If they had allowed us to go down to the flying
line and mingle with the mechanics or whatnot, learn that plane, observe how it handles outside—
Knowing how to handle the controls is one thing, but knowing what makes those controls work and how
to inspect that plane so that you don’t leave it to a crew member to do it, put us to good use in studying
what can be useful to us as pilots on a plane and not necessarily have flying time—we had all those days
and hours we could have been put to use—I’d rather go down there ____(??) and you just oil this or you
learn how to manipulate some of the mechanics of a plane, a motor, the construction of it, the controls
of it, than sitting it down making some stupid inspections, doing nothing. I just got bored.
DANDRIDGE: Well tell me, the people who were maintaining those planes you were flying at Tuskegee,
were they black maintenance people or were they white?
ADAMS: I really don’t know. What I can understand we had black—those who were in Tuskegee that I
knew were black. Now whatever obligations they may have had, I don’t know, but those who came out
to put the gasoline in the planes, to inspect them before we took them off were all black. There were no
whites around there at all. Now I don’t doubt that there were some whites someplace on the line,
whether it was—they had a white group of cadets flying someplace else, I’m quite sure they were white,
but they were not together. But I just get bored—you’re going to take me to fly four hours a month to
save gasoline and here you want to send some graduate over there to possibly, even staying in later—If I
had thought I would have the training and the flying experience with another war or whatever else that
could have been done, I wouldn’t have minded volunteering for three years. Now I—it was a come back
to a nickel-and-dime job that I had and taking care of the family was fine, but even at home I’m finding
things to do, I have radio-television servicing, I’ve got a job, I work at the post office, I can radiotelevision service, and I make rubber stamps. I sell mutual funds, life insurance—You give me something
to do and you keep me busy and I’m satisfied. I have to have an income for a family but I don’t like to be
bored and feel like I’m wasting time. And that was seen(??) all the years I spent—years I spent in the
service, just so much that could have been done with that time, that would make it enjoyable and make
it useful.
DANDRIDGE: In terms of your discharge, what was that like? Do you remember what procedure you went
through?
ADAMS: No I just let them know that I decided that I’m going to apply for my honorable discharge. And as
far as I can remember the—whether the office work that was necessary, just going into the company
commander at that particular base and let it be known what you wanted to do; apply for it and in due
time you had it. Really no great procedure to that. A lot more simple than being drafted to go in the
service.
DANDRIDGE: What did—So when you were discharged then what did you do?
J. Adams 23

ADAMS: Well I came home, got my little job for the one year that I was guaranteed. But when I came
back they had a—The black operators were segregated from the white operators and the International
Stage Employees and Motion Picture Projectionists, that’s an entirely white organization for whites only,
they had—seven people had gotten together, some qualified, some not qualified, that’s what my dad
was trying to do, to get together to form a union comparable to what the white International 170 had.
When I came back the blacks had been given the opportunity not only with the three theatres they had,
to get two more the Lincoln and the Gem from the white organization. That would have given them five
theatres and they had seven required members in order to become a part of that. Well they had—
Norville Parker had been instrumental in getting that organization started, they had the Lincoln and the
Gem theatres, which made five. So they put the Princess on the same role of one of those theatres and
their union, which qualified them to have a charter from the International. When I came back (chuckles)
my guarantee for one year made it mandatory for them to release that job with the Princess and I get it
for one year then, after that, they can get it back. But they said, As long as you are qualified and you’ve
had the experience of a motion picture projectionist, we need you to help run our five theatres. So I got
the job as the relief person working at all five theatres, not back at the Princess, at the Lincoln, the Gem,
the Carver, the Regal, and the Princess, and the Castle (??). So over a period of time—when the
stereophonic sound came in and the managers of some theatres weren’t too proud of having blacks in
that particular place—
DANDRIDGE: So some of these theatres were not—they were white theatres?
ADAMS: Well they were white only, yes. In fact most of them were white only, the only—
DANDRIDGE: (interjecting) But I mean who—Were they relegated to white patrons only or was it a
mixed—
ADAMS: Blacks could only attend certain theatres. It was segregated, unless you wanted to sit in the
crow’s nest in some place, just like in the service.
DANDRIDGE: Okay. Did any of these theatres that you were working with, did they have the crow’s nest?
ADAMS: Not the black, but the Electric and the Granada on Minnesota Avenue did.
DANDRIDGE: But you didn’t work there?
ADAMS: No, no. Couldn’t work there.
DANDRIDGE: So you only worked in places where the patrons were all black?
ADAMS: Yeah, until the time that the International set up the segregated union and the Affiliated 170A,
which was black—all the “A” organizations were auxiliary units and they were black. They have to be
J. Adams 24

joined together. So when that happened we lost, because of patronage on the theatres, business fell off,
blacks could go anywhere they wanted to. So they had to close some of the theatres where blacks were
attending only. They could go where they wanted to go. But we became part of that organization, I think
I was the only one in that particularly time, because we lost the other ____(??) and other guys had other
jobs. But I was business agent of the organization, which I had worked up to, and we were mandated to
be a part of the white organization. Of course it was still segregated and some of those operators didn’t
want blacks anywhere near them, so—when it was mandated that it was we had to be together, then
they had to accept us as members, but we had no tenure as far as positions were concerned, we had
bottom of the list.
DANDRIDGE: Even thought you had spent other time, a longer time?
ADAMS: Yeah.
DANDRIDGE: So you had to start at the beginning?
ADAMS: Well, no. You didn’t have your position—
DANDRIDGE: (interjecting, overlapping) You didn’t have seniority. They didn’t count the years that you had
done.
ADAMS: That’s right, that’s right. You were on the bottom of their list as far as work was concerned. But
they gave me—what did I have?—I worked at some of the white theatres, Antioch, Sixty-third Street
Drive-In, Bannister Mall, Union Station, several of those; all whites, the white 170 had those but they
had to give it up to some of us. And I was the only one left who said, who was—who wanted to stay with
them and be a part of the organization. So I was accepted but there was still some who didn’t want me
in that group because I was black and taking their jobs, which they didn’t want. But I got along swell with
most of the organization and stayed with them until I retired from the post office and the motion
picture theatre in ’84, but up until that time—in sixty—what was it? Sixty-one or sixty-two, I think, when
we had to drop out entirely. But I was always a part of 170, previously 170A where we had seven charter
members and five theatres—
DANDRIDGE: (interjecting) Did you all ever have to go on strike?
ADAMS: I went on strike for the white organization down on the Plaza. I walked the picket line there with
them at the Plaza Theater. Now I don’t think they ever got anything out of it as far as—it didn’t stop
people from attending the place, but the 170—the mother organization or the parent organization
didn’t have great success with that because they were putting management and operations together,
where they have big platters(??) now, they don’t have two machines in one booth—I worked at
Bannister Mall, there were five theatres, one operator took care of five theatres. They ____(??) platters
like you have on tapes, one platter over top of the other and there were about five rolls of film for a two
hour show could be put on one big platter four feet in diameter. And it would run from one tape to
J. Adams 25

another, just like a tape does, from one place to another, just like that cassette does. That way one
operator could take care of five theatres, which at Bannister Mall, that’s what I had for a while. But
some of the other places, Antioch only had two machines, Sixty-third Street Drive-In two machines,
Kebo(??) on Main Street two machines, I worked in all those places.
DANDRIDGE: When you—So when you left the military with an honorable discharge, you went right
back—you were able to go back to your job for at least a year with the projectionist?
ADAMS: Um-hm.
DANDRIDGE: Um, did you have other types of employment that you—Did you also go—How did you get
employed by the post office?
ADAMS: Well, I carried mail during the Christmas periods for several years before I went in the service
and I decided that I was going to apply for a permanent job; I could work the motion pictures at night,
work the post office in the day time. So I took the test for it and asked for clerk first. Passed the test and
when they told me you’d have to work nights as a clerk, that would interfere with my night job, so
passed that up. Took the test again and asked for carrier; passed that so I worked post office in the day
time and theatres at night.
DANDRIDGE: So what was your daily routine like? What time did you have to get up and what was your
time schedule like every day?
ADAMS: Well, you had to be at the work post office at 7:00 in the morning; you work from 7 to 3:30. I had
to be at the show at an hour ahead of starting time, 6:30, from 6:30 to midnight, then you go home,
sleep, get up at 6, and get to the post office at 7, and work from 7 to 3:30, five days a week. But I had
Saturdays and Sundays off from the post office, worked at the show; Sunday from twelve o’clock until
twelve and the rest of the time—When I first started, when I came back from the service, I didn’t get my
old job back working seven days a week, but I worked—they let me go at the Council Theatre for, until
they got those other two theatres, the Greeks(??) family that I worked for had another Castle Theater
they owned, the Castle, the Regal, and the Princess. When I left the Princess and I came back, they gave
me the job at the Castle for house manager until the local got the Lincoln and the Gem. Well with my
experience, the manager at the Lincoln demanded that I work there because the others didn’t have any
stereophonic equipment experience. So when Norville Parker became ill, he insisted that I get his job,
which I had. I took Norville Parker’s job and worked as business agent all through the time that I worked
at the motion picture theatre until we joined together. And, I say again, I worked at all of the white
theatres that they had access to.
DANDRIDGE: When you left the military, did you get married?
ADAMS: Yes, that was one reason for getting back home. ____((??), obscured by mic static) Barbara
Harris, she graduated in 1943 I guess it was. Got married in 1946 and had my one year at the Princess.
J. Adams 26

And I went to the Castle for a few months and then I worked as a relief operator and I worked all five
theatres that they had until Mr. Norville Parker became ill and then I got the job at the Lincoln. And I
stayed at the Lincoln until I retired. So I worked at the post office—
DANDRIDGE: (interjecting) Yeah, but those were two good paying jobs.
ADAMS: Oh yes. And I did radio-television servicing on the side. I did my artwork on the side.
DANDRIDGE: Oh, what artwork?
ADAMS: I have a master’s in painting. I went to the Kansas City Art Institute and Kansas City Junior
College in order to get my academic credits to get my B.F.—what is it?—B.F.A. Fine Arts, get a BFA and
then I got my Master of Fine Arts
DANDRIDGE: Now when did you pursue those degrees? Was it immediately after leaving the army or was
it later?
ADAMS: No, it was a little bit later. I had a lawn service out in Leawood and I decided that I wanted to try
and do something with my army time that I had, four years of college. I wasn’t—I didn’t have the
contacts here that I needed for architectural training and I took my DeVry Institute out of Chicago for my
electronic training. So I had art that I could attend classes there and still work. So—
DANDRIDGE: Did the military pay for that?
ADAMS: Yeah, four years—I got four years of school for army, for my time in the army. Spent thirty-seven
months in the service.
DANDRIDGE: So they paid for that?
ADAMS: Oh yes. With the exception of six months to get my master’s I had to pay six months of that in
order to complete it. But otherwise the army, my army time allowed me to have the free training.
DANDRIDGE: When you—So you didn’t get married until after you left the service?
ADAMS: Right. Left in ’45 and got married in ’46.
DANDRIDGE: Okay. Do you have—Did you have children?
ADAMS: Yeah, we have four sons. Those little four there(??) and my wife, four sons there: Robert, David,
George, and John.
DANDRIDGE: So, is your wife still living?
J. Adams 27

ADAMS: No. I lost her in ’98.
DANDRIDGE: And her name was Ms. Barbara Harris was her—
ADAMS: That was her maiden name, yes, Barbara Harris.
DANDRIDGE: Did she ever work outside the home?
ADAMS: Yes, she was—when the boys became of age she was a librarian for Quindaro School, worked in
the educational system, and she got her degree in library science.
DANDRIDGE: Is that right? Where did she go to get her degree in library science?
ADAMS: She got it through the junior college and her training at—where did she have?—Hawthorne
School gave her the academic hours she needed to graduated, gave her credits for that.
DANDRIDGE: That’s great. I went to Atlanta University and a lot of people have gone to Atlanta to their
library school. But, uh—that was a long time ago.
ADAMS: What was your particular field?
DANDRIDGE: My field was history but my friends were—I went to Atlanta University for my graduate
degree.
ADAMS: Atlanta University?
DANDRIDGE: Um-hm.
ADAMS: I’m thinking of a young lady down there, she got her—one got her nurse training and another
was attending—I’ve forgotten the name of that place, but she got her training in Georgia, Atlanta,
Georgia. But I can’t remember the place that she was.
DANDRIDGE: Well, so—And you had four children?
ADAMS: Yeah, four boys.
DANDRIDGE: Did your children attend school here in Kansas City?
ADAMS: Oh, yes.
DANDRIDGE: Okay.
J. Adams 28

ADAMS: (continuing) Washington—when they dropped the segregation, I guess they split the area that
the one of my—John and George went to Wyandotte for their graduation. And Robert went to
Washington High; David went to—David went to Wyandotte, too. See, instead of going to Sumner they
could graduate from Wyandotte, ____(??) those boys—
DANDRIDGE: So none of your sons went to Sumner?
ADAMS: (answer obscured by mic static/noise)
DANDRIDGE: Cause Sumner didn’t close until ’78, right?
ADAMS: That’s the last—
Pause in recording.
DANDRIDGE: So, let’s continue talking about your experiences after leaving the service. So you’ve got
these several jobs. Tell me, when you came back, did you live with your parents? What was that
situation like?
ADAMS: Well, I lived with my parents at Third and Troup for—until I decided that the young lady and I
were going to try this married life together. So September 18 of 1946 we went through the marriage
ceremony and I left my parents and moved into the old Douglass Hospital as a—been turned into an
apartment house. And I lived there with my wife until my number one son, John the third, was almost
five years old; that was in 1955. We moved out to 3133 North Thirty-eighth where I live now, have been
here some fifty-odd years.
DANDRIDGE: Was this neighborhood always—was it a neighborhood at that time or were there just a few
homes here?
ADAMS: Well Brentwood, which is north of here was developed, being developed, and Weaver Estates in
the same area was being developed. There were whites around us and they were moving out. And, of
course, we had white neighbors on the west of us and we had black neighbors on the south and the
north of us in this particular area. But as time progressed, Weaver Estates and Brentwood area
developed and people moved into that particular area and they developed it all as far as west and
Thirty-eighth Street. But we lived here all those years with our neighbors until Brentwood became
developed. Attended Quindaro School with our children and I worked the—I didn’t work my lawn
service until I got a chance to go in the post office. Between the motion picture theatres and my rubber
stamp work and selling mutual funds and insurance, television and radio operation and servicing, I
decided to—the art school was a thing that I—To fulfill my ambition of being a portrait artist, I attended
art school. Got my academic credits required from the junior college here in Kansas and, then, able to
get my B.F.A. and M.F.A. from the Kansas City Art Institute. Since I didn’t want to teach school, I just
J. Adams 29

professed the idea that I would do my—develop in paintings in oil, keep working at the post office. I
didn’t have time for lawn service anymore.
DANDRIDGE: Who were some of your subjects of your paintings?
ADAMS: Well, I did not pick notable individuals; I painted my family, my mother, my sons, my wife. I did
paintings for Roosevelt Butler, for Reverend William Dancy and Mrs. Dancy, beautiful woman. Let’s see
now, did several paintings for the church, Church of Ascension, which was at Third and Steward at the
time—
DANDRIDGE: (interjecting) So you’re an Episcopalian?
ADAMS: Well I consider myself a Methodist now. At that time I guess I was an Episcopalian because I
attended church with my mother. But when my mother passed and my wife was a Methodist and our
sons were baptized and attended the Methodist school First AME, I joined that church, as a family, and
made that a successful event. Still a member there.
DANDRIDGE: Of First AME?
ADAMS: (overlapping) First AME at Eighth and Nebraska.
DANDRIDGE: Um, what other—So you’ve remained an active—what other sort of activities or positions
have you held at First AME?
ADAMS: Well, really, at First AME, I’ve just been a member. I’ve tried to be active as far as finding ways
for the church to earn money. Doing the painting requirements that they wanted for signs painted—I
didn’t do any of the painting on the walls, or anything of that kind, but—when they had conventions and
they wanted signs painted, I took the liberty of doing that for them and working around the church.
DANDRIDGE: Did you ever paint portraits of some of the people in the congregation?
ADAMS: No, not for them. I had several individuals that I did—as I say, Reverend Dancy and his wife, Dr.
Dire(??), Ben Boyd’s daughter, couple of friends out in California that I did work for, large—
DANDRIDGE: (interjecting) Did they pay you for your—
ADAMS: Oh, yes. It’s—Sometimes you make it as a gift. I say again, I have done a painting for a woman at
Fame—what is it?—Faith House in St. Louis. My son was a director there and wanted a painting done, so
he gave me an opportunity to do that one. I painted portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Jones, Sr. at the
funeral home in Kansas City, Missouri. But when I found out there was no great demand for paintings
when you can have the photograph taken and people prefer a photograph in many cases more so than a
painting, you don’t have the time to sit for it, so—
J. Adams 30

DANDRIDGE: Where did you do your—did you have a studio here or where did you do your painting?
ADAMS: Well, when I was at—working in the motion picture theatres, sometimes I’d do my artwork
during the shows—I worked at—When we were at Douglass Hospital I did it in the attic of the old
Douglass Hospital. Here at my home I have activities—I can work sometimes out in the yard, sometimes
here in the house. It’s just a matter of where you have your greatest need and you have the time to do
it. But I found, many times, it’s more profitable to sell mutual funds and insurance than it is to try and
get people to pay for the art work. So, as I say again, I tell ‘em, “Take a picture and then enlarge it,” that
way you don’t have to worry about people sitting up front(??). Ben Boyd wanted a—no, who was it? Dr.
Gill wanted a painting, Dr. Gill and Mrs. Gill wanted a painting done of their mother; I did that. Many
times it’s just to try and accommodate others and I did not want to travel around to try and make myself
known in different places in order to exhibit.
DANDRIDGE: That’s a whole different ballgame.
ADAMS: Yeah, it sure is. I can understand how some people earn thousands of dollars for—if I ask four or
five hundred dollars for a painting that I’ve put sixty or seventy hours on, I’m not going to pay that kind
of money for that, and I don’t blame ‘em, go take a picture. And then do like some people do, spread—
what is that?—shellac over it and make lines(??) on it and you have a painting that satisfies some
people. I went over to the Art Institute—not Art Institute, Bruce Watkins place where there’s all kinds of
enlarged photographs, beautiful work, people don’t want to pay to have someone sit there for an artist
interpretation of some things. I did a painting for Will Florence and her particular area—
DANDRIDGE: (interjecting) Who is that?
ADAMS: Will Florence Robbins? You don’t know her. She was very active in the YWCA, quite active in the
local chapter here—
DANDRIDGE: You mean the Yates?
ADAMS: Yeah, Yates, uh-huh. That painting is still down, that I did is still down on—used to be down on
Thirteenth and Washington. But she had a painting done that the person I thought did a terrible job of
putting in oils what I felt Mrs. Robbins looked like. I knew her from years back; my wife worked with her
in the YWCA and my wife was once a national officer in the Y through Mrs. Robbins contact. But this
person did a terrible portrait of Mrs. Robbins; old and drawn out and cold-like and I talked to her cousin
who had control of her property into allowing me to take that painting and do it over. And I did a more
pleasing portrait of Mrs. Robbins I think that I did. People say that I flatter that which I see—maybe I see
beauty in everything and I don’t have anything wrong with that because sometimes you take a
photograph they’ve ironed out all the lines and things that you don’t want in there. I don’t do that, but I
try and see beauty in whatever I do. In my paintings I don’t try and rob people, as far as money is
J. Adams 31

concerned, I tell ‘em go take a picture, I take pictures in many poses and put them all together as to
what I feel I’m looking at. Sometimes that’s good and sometimes it isn’t.
DANDRIDGE: When you were living at—You said that you were living in the apartments of the old
Douglass Hospital, did Douglass Hospital operate at that particular time or do you know? In 19—when
your son—you went there in the early 1950s right?
ADAMS: Um-hm.
DANDRIDGE: Was there a Douglass Hospital operating at that time?
ADAMS: Out on Twenty-seventh and—north end of Twenty-seventh Street, was out there then. ____(??)
fully in operation then. But this was the old building on Springfield and Quindaro.
DANDRIDGE: Okay, all right. Who owned—
Tape 1, side 2 ends.
End of interview.

J. Adams 32

WORLD WAR II ORAL HISTORY PROJECT
UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS SPENCER RESEARCH LIBRARY, KANSAS COLLECTION
Interviewee: John H. Adams
Date: 12 May 2011
Location: Kansas City, Kansas
Interviewer: Deborah Dandridge, Field Archivist
ADAMS INTERVIEW NO. 2
Tape 2, side 1 begins.
DANDRIDGE: Mr. John Adams in his home in Kansas City, Kansas. Today is Thursday, May 12, 2011. My
name is Deborah Dandridge, interviewing Mr. Adams. And this is the second interview. We’re going to
go into some more detail that we may have missed in our previous interview. So, Mr. Adams we were
talking about when you got to the Tuskegee Air—Army Air Field; what kinds of things did you go through
from there, do you remember?
ADAMS: Well, after the preliminary pre-flight training with one of the instructors, which was one of my
first encounters in an airplane at all, gave me a training mission of different maneuvers. I guess to
familiarize the student with that particular phase of training whether it’s going spins or dives or rolls to
see if that student was physically endure the travel of air—in the air. It didn’t give me any difficulties, so
we flew around for a while making me familiar with the town and the area. And we went back down
after an hour and a half of preliminary flying. From that pre-flight we went to primary training, which
constitutes an instructor in the rear cockpit and the student in the front and the possibility that after a
series of maneuvers with your instructor you get an opportunity to fly solo. After solo flights you’re
enabled to take that plane up by yourself and, hopefully, bring it back successfully with no damage to it.
You are able to complete that particular effort after the preliminary training with the instructor. From
there you are told to go up and practice certain maneuvers, whether they be figure eights, low altitude
cross areas, stunts, stalls, spins, snap rolls if you have read the instruction book on how to maneuver
them and you can try to execute them. So it’s the basis of once you have finished soloing and have been
able to complete the primary course, you advance to lower basic. Basic is the first opportunity to fly lowwing, I guess, simulated fighter ship with fixed landing gear. You have the basic maneuvers to execute in
lower basic. You are exposed to a short field, long field take offs and landings, low altitude flying. You go
up on your own without your instructor and practice your different maneuvers, whether they be
simulated combat flying with another instructor or another student, sometimes you have formation
flying in basic, you have exposure to instrument flying, flying under the hood, which enables you to fly
on a fixed airplane model, which simulated the instruments inside it, and you have blind flying basically
adjudging your altitude, air speed, horizontal instruments, and that sort of thing to guide you without
leaving the ground, that’s what they call hood flying. That’s to enable to be able to fly instruments in
darkness over areas in which you have no sight of the ground, above the clouds; that’s in lower basic.
After you have completed lower basic you advance to upper basic. Upper basic gives you an opportunity
to flight with—fly with numerous other students and their instructors. Simulated formation, simulated
combat, flying as a group instead of just one or two, flying wingman positions you fly with eight, ten, or
twelve ships flying formation in simulated battle. Once you complete upper basic, you, uh, have an
opportunity to go to advanced, where you fly the first time with an airplane that has a retractable
landing gear, the BT-13 in basic had fixed landing gear which you could not pull it up once you left the
ground. In advanced, lower and upper advanced you had the opportunity to fly the AT-6, which has a
retractable landing, is a much faster ship than the BT-13, but is occupied by a student and the instructor
J. Adams 33

for the first basic principles of flying, more or less is simulated combat formation, short field take off and
landings, night flying—let’s see, night flying, cross country, take off and landings at night, simulated
battles, and formation flying. Once you have completed those particular steps in advanced, you have
reached that stage which you have been able to complete the course successfully and get a rating and
you’ll be able to either receive your graduation notice with a second lieutenant or a flight officer—I
don’t know the difference between the two, but that was the epitome of flying once you have
completed advanced courses, that was the ultimatum of flying—And went from there, once we
graduated we went to Eglin Field, Florida for gunnery training. Went to—let’s see was it South—Eglin
Field, Florida—Godman Field, Kentucky, Walterboro, South Carolina, for flying with an actual fighter that
was being used overseas. In our cases—the class of ’45-C, we used the P-47, the Thunderbolt, or called
“the Jug.” It’s a much heavier plane, retractable landing gear, used as a bomber and a fighter, uh that
was the next step prior to the P-51s, which was more or less I think designated in our outfit as the
Redtail Angels, as they were called, those who had been overseas and able to fly in that particular
formation, escorting the bombers to different positions. I never did get an opportunity to engage in
flying the 51, but I did fly several training hours in the P-47. When I found out that they were no longer
needed as far as pilots to replace those who were coming back from overseas, they put us in several
details of inspections and I guess general services around the airbase in which we were attached. But we
were limited to flying only four hours a month in order to get our flying pay. Since I felt they no longer
wanted us and they wanted an opportunity to either encourage us to volunteer to stay in the service for
two years, that was the first qualification for—and they came back about two months later and said
three years was the least that they would accept you on a volunteer basis to stay in the service or you
may take an opportunity to leave the service at your will or possibly you might be demoted and lose
your particular status as a second lieutenant or the flight officer. So I took the opportunity, since I wasn’t
needed there to vacate the service and come home.
DANDRIDGE: That’s excellent, thank you for summarizing all of that. Let me—let’s talk about—What was it
like when you first got on that airplane? Do you remember what you felt or what kind of feelings did you
have about the training itself? Do you remember? Was there some things that surprised you? Were
there some things that you expected? What was it like in your feelings toward it?
ADAMS: Are you—
DANDRIDGE: (interjecting) Toward the airplane flying?
ADAMS: Are you speaking of before we started primary?
DANDRIDGE: Yes sir—or any time, any of the time.
ADAMS: Well, I say again—
DANDRIDGE: Well, before you started the primary, what did you—when you first stepped into the plane,
what did you think about it?
ADAMS: Well, it was my first experience of being in a plane and in the air. I was more or less thrilled to be
given the opportunity to see what it was like, with somebody else piloting the plane. It didn’t upset me
at all. Sometimes, I understood that you—the violent maneuvers in an airplane you could become
airsick, that didn’t bother me whatsoever. It was just a thrilling ride like they have on some of the play
areas where they have the certain rides, uh, I don’t know what they refer to them now—roller coasters,
J. Adams 34

where they have excessive speeds, and they go up and down and twist around and that—That same
type of action, I guess you can experience the plane. But in a plane you’re sitting on a parachute and
you’re strapped in; where in roller coasters and things, I think you’re exposed to a great deal of
openness that you don’t have in an airplane. But I will say again, it was more thrilling more or less to me
just to be able to be—to witness that and someone else flying the plane who was qualified to do all
maneuvers that I expected to do in the future.
DANDRIDGE: And that person who was in that plane with you during your primary, were they black or
white?
ADAMS: Uh, black. We didn’t have white instructors in primary that I remember. Now they may have
some, some ____(??) in advanced class because the number of qualified black instructors was limited,
far as I can remember. There were some white, I believe, who took care of the advanced classes, but
most of the—
DANDRIDGE: (interjecting) Was there any particular reason why there were fewer African Americans?
ADAMS: Well I guess not too many of them were qualified pilots to be—to give that instruction to the
____(??). Some of them came from college, I believe, and they had the opportunity to, should they have
the money and the desire to become part of the training.
DANDRIDGE: (overlapping) So it takes money?
ADAMS: (continuing) Yes.
DANDRIDGE: And tell me, what were the things that you most easy about flying? What things were never
a challenge for you?
ADAMS: Well, I can’t say that every part of the plane was a challenge as far as becoming familiar with
what made that airplane either go up, down, right, left, or whatnot, getting acquainted with the
different maneuvers that you have to go through. But as far as learning, we had to spend a certain
amount of cockpit time as an experience, read the manuals, sit in the plane, become familiar with the
instruments, how to observe them, how to handle the controls, what forces the plan to go up and down,
use of the flaps, the ailerons, whatever instruments that you had to have to maneuver.
DANDRIDGE: Did you ever do some of this on your own, outside of the training sessions themselves? Did
you ever try to familiarize yourself by yourself, you know, do that on your own?
ADAMS: Other than reading the manuals. They give you a manual when you first become a part of the
training session, you have to study that. You have the privilege of sitting in the plane at times, if it’s not
being used and become familiar with the cockpit procedures as they call it.
DANDRIDGE: Did you do that on your own a lot?
ADAMS: Not really. Um, during the student time in training, we had a certain amount of time to spend in
school, in classes, learning the aeronautical theory and then we had the time to go out on the line, sit in
the planes, become familiar with all the instruments and things in them, put into practice what you
learned in the classroom, and put it to use there before you got a chance to fly with your instructor.
J. Adams 35

DANDRIDGE: What—In these classrooms that you were exploring theory, aeronautical theory, who was in
those classes? What kind of issues would you all discuss as a class? Do you remember or do you?
ADAMS: Well, I say again, the theory of flying, what forces the plane to go up and down, what maneuvers
are necessary to divert the control, how do you cover from spins, what do you know the technical term
of stalls or spins or figure eights or slow rolls or snap rolls, spin recovery—
DANDRIDGE: (interjecting) Did you ever do a figure eight?
ADAMS: Oh yes. A figure eight’s a very simple maneuver, it’s just like tying a bow tie on a tie or your
shoes, you just execute on a straight and level but they’re figure eights. Spins and stalls are altogether
different. You put that, put that plane nose up until it stalls out and no longer able to fly and it’s going to
drop nose first towards the earth, you have to learn the procedure of recovery whether it spins to the
right or—
DANDRIDGE: (interjecting) Did you do that? Did you do those kinds of things?
ADAMS: Oh yes, that’s part of the training. You have to stall it first, let it drop down, know the recovery
procedure, how to recover, how to go up make loops, make snap rolls, slow rolls, all those things. You
read it in the books.
DANDRIDGE: It sounds exciting but also very frightening. You never found this frightening?
ADAMS: No. Not once you know what you are doing.
DANDRIDGE: What was it like—you remember the first times, first time you remember doing those
routines? What was it like?
ADAMS: Well, thrilling. After all you’re flying at about five thousand feet, you’ve got plenty of space to
recover, perhaps(??) you’ve read the manuals, and you go through those things with an instructor, you
don’t do it by yourself first. The instructor’s in there with you, if you have the procedure—you do all
those things before you solo. But you have the privilege of knowing those things, that’s what they teach
you in the classrooms and you put that—what you have learned in the classrooms and when you have a
chance to go up and execute those maneuvers at certain levels. But that’s the interesting part about it.
Just like driving a car, the more you drive the better you become familiar with it.
DANDRIDGE: Now, did you—you did some flying, obviously on your own. I remember you talking about
flying to Georgia and back.
ADAMS: Well low altitude or high altitude cross country, yes. Those were planned things by the
instructors. You have certain points of contact that you’re supposed to pass over and recognize and you
have a regular pattern that you’re supposed to fly. Sometimes three or four places making contact, by
visual contact, and you make the last contact back at the base as a rule unless you have been instructed
to land at a certain field to practice short take offs or short landings. But that’s a part of the regular
procedures that’s given you, whether it’s in the day flights or whether it’s night flying.
DANDRIDGE: Um—During all of this training, what worried you the most? Or what worried you at all?
J. Adams 36

ADAMS: Well, being able to satisfactorily complete the course and get a decent rating where I can
become a licensed, I’d say it that way. In this case, it’s to get your commission saying you’ve completed
the course, you have no problems, your grades will decide whether or not you will have one status or
another, I assume, I don’t know that. Otherwise whether you stay in the program to complete is based
upon whether or not you have the fortitude, the aptitude, and the physical and mental endurance to be
able to control that plane.
DANDRIDGE: Did some of ‘em not make it?
ADAMS: Oh yes. We started out with a class of sixty people and—In primary—Let’s see in primary we had
forty-five, fifteen had either washed out some reason or the other. And in graduation, having completed
advanced class, we had twenty-three graduated in single engine out of sixty that began.
DANDRIDGE: So that wasn’t a very great survival rate, was it?
ADAMS: No, not really. But they had numerous reasons, I guess, that they washed you out. Because of
the fact some of them, maybe, their academic work wasn’t satisfactory; sometimes their physical
endurance wasn’t satisfactory; sometimes their flying and executing the maneuvers that you were
supposed to be doing were not satisfactory so—
DANDRIDGE: Did you ever meet and work with and talk with any of the white pilots during this time?
ADAMS: No, never came in contact with any whites. I take that back. Coming in contact ____(??) on a low
altitude cross country I landed at an incorrect field. I recognized, I thought, from the distance height that
I was flying that this was the field that I was supposed to land in, but when I landed and rolled up to the
flight line, all I saw was white faces around the planes and the flight line. And went into headquarters if I
had made an error of landing at the wrong field and was instructed yes, the field that I was supposed to
go to was on course but just about twenty miles, I guess I forgot what direction I was supposed to go.
DANDRIDGE: So you had to get out of the plane and meet these people?
ADAMS: Oh definitely, oh yes.
DANDRIDGE: So how did they treat you?
ADAMS: Well, just as normal, as far as I can say. I guess they were surprised to see my dark face and I was
surprised to see their light faces, too. So I guess they feel this guy is either stupid or he’s off course one
way or another, but I didn’t recognize the fact that white and black were not trained together. Obviously
there was a place in Alabama that was catering strictly to whites or other than blacks or Asians or
whatnot. Caucasians they had one place, I guess, they were training, and the blacks had another.
DANDRIDGE: Did these guys treat you okay? They just helped you on your way or—
ADAMS: Oh yes. I ____(??) contact other than with a couple of people in the office and they were officers
and flight instructors, rather than(??) people around the planes there, I had no contact with them at all
because the minute I found out I was in the wrong field, I immediately go back to the plane and took off
and headed for the direction I was supposed to land at the field where our course, headquarters was.
J. Adams 37

DANDRIDGE: Um-hm. So they didn’t bother you in any form or fashion?
ADAMS: (overlapping) No, no, had no problem whatsoever there.
DANDRIDGE: So after the military, what was your life like after the military? After you decided to go on
and leave the military? What was your life like after that?
ADAMS: Well, I had a job as a motion picture projectionist at the Princess Theatre, where I—
DANDRIDGE: (interjecting) And that’s the job you had before you went in?
ADAMS: Went in the service. I had the opportunity to go back to that, with the idea that I had at least one
year of positive assurance that I would not, could not be taken off that job; that was my guarantee from
the service. But I didn’t realize the fact that many things had occurred there. They had a union had
formed and the operators were all unionized even though there was a separate organization from the
parent organization. And I was not able to hold on to that job after the years’ time because the
management of the theatres had the obligation of giving me that for one year and they were kind
enough to give me a job at another theatre in Kansas City, Missouri, the Castle Theatre, to make up for
whatever time I may have lost before this operators union, which was all people of color. They had a
need for seasoned operators, but of course they were going to get two other theatres that they did not
have access to prior to that, that’s the Lincoln and the Gem Theatres, After about seven or eight months
of working at the Castle Theatre as a house manager they accepted my application to become part of
the union, 170A, and I went to work as a relief operator at the five theatres they had, one night a week
at each theatre.
DANDRIDGE: So when you came back home, trying to work at the Princess, all of the operators had—it
was a union shop in the Princess? Had it become a union—everybody was union and you weren’t, is that
right?
ADAMS: Right.
DANDRIDGE: Was there any reason you couldn’t join the union then?
ADAMS: No, they had no need for it, they only had three theatres and they had seven operators.
DANDRIDGE: Okay, so they had reached their fill on that.
ADAMS: When they got the other two theatres, the Lincoln and the Gem, well they needed someone to
fill in and they needed someone who could work for them because they were already handled by 170A,
which was a white organization, and the managers of those theatres were insisting upon they had
qualified operators, so I went to work at one night each, each of the theatres, for the five theatres they
had. One night—
DANDRIDGE: Were you union by then? You were union by then.
ADAMS: Oh yes.
J. Adams 38

DANDRIDGE: What was it like getting into the union?
ADAMS: Not a problem. I was qualified; I had five years at—
DANDRIDGE: (interjecting) What steps did you have—did someone ask you to be—did you go into it? How
did that happen?
ADAMS: No, I applied for it because I wanted this job that I had had. I worked the Princess for one year as
a qualified operator so my experience was well known, as far as they were concerned. But they had no
need for other men to come in and take the place that were qualified already. With only seven men and
three theatres they had enough far as employees, in order to take care of their jobs. With the additional
two theatres they needed someone else in order—that they could depend to put to work immediately,
which, as I say, my experience put me in a position to accept that. I applied for it, with initiation fee and
whatever was required—That’s all I had to do, and I went to work right away.
DANDRIDGE: Did you ever work in the union itself? You know, ____(??) union meetings, did you ever
participate in that sort of thing?
ADAMS: In due time I became—I think the treasurer was my first promotion. After the treasury job, I took
on the job of business agent since the—
DANDRIDGE: (interjecting) What was the name of this union?
ADAMS: Local 170A. It was International Alliance of Stage Employees and Motion Picture Operators 170A
and A indicated that they were not a Caucasian group. One-seventy was strictly all white, that was a part
of their particular requirements ____(??) it was a white local, no blacks, no Asians, or anyone else
involved. But the mandate came down from Washington that the parent organization must take in the A
locals; there should be no separation between auxiliary locals and parent organizations, so when that
happened, why I—we became part of the 170, We dropped the A, but they only took in—let’s see, we
didn’t have too many theatres at that time because our tenure was low, but I think three of us, at least,
started working with the so-called 170. I was one of those three. Whereas the other fellows had other
jobs, they didn’t particularly care about being a part of it, so—
DANDRIDGE: (interjecting) Were you one of the few African Americans in that union, then, once it
dropped its color—
ADAMS: (overlapping) Yes, um-hm.
DANDRIDGE: So you were treasurer and—
ADAMS: Well I was treasurer and business agent of my local; in that local, when we were joined together,
I was just another member.
DANDRIDGE: Did you ever move up in the ranks of the union when they merged?
ADAMS: No.
DANDRIDGE: Did you try?
J. Adams 39

ADAMS: No.
DANDRIDGE: Why not?
ADAMS: Well, first of all the parent organization, I guess, being interesting enough for those who wanted
to participate to allow them to join. I had an opportunity to be accepted in that local and go with them
on some of their meetings with some of the managers of different theatres, since I was the only one
there. But I wasn’t going to try and jump the gun and trying to think that because I was a minority I had
to have a prestigious job over some of the others because of my tenure. Anybody who came behind me
still did not have the tenure that I would have had. But some of those fellows had been in there for
thirty or forty years—
DANDRIDGE: So seniority plays trumps the race card?
ADAMS: (overlapping) Seniority took ____(??), sure.
DANDRIDGE: So they had been in there longer than you. How did they treat you? When you all merged,
how were you treated by the other union members, white union members?
ADAMS: I have no complaint whatsoever. I know there were some that didn’t like my being in there, but
there were some—
DANDRIDGE: (interjecting) How do you know they didn’t like that?
ADAMS: They expressed themselves.
DANDRIDGE: What did they say?
ADAMS: Not necessarily saying—it was the idea, Why would he be given some of theatres that was their
privilege to have at that particular time, and they made that something that the 170 should give them
preference. They wanted an explanation as to why any—I joined the picket lines and everything else
that they were a part of, so I didn’t feel that I was—I paid union dues so I had the same privilege that the
rest of them had, depending upon what number of years that I had become a part of it. So, I had no
problem.
DANDRIDGE: Right, right. But they resisted you?
ADAMS: Some did, yes.
DANDRIDGE: Did they intimidate you physically or—
ADAMS: No.
DANDRIDGE: They just were not nice people. Were you raising a family then?
ADAMS: Yes.
J. Adams 40

DANDRIDGE: So you had married and had children by that time?
ADAMS: Oh yes. I had—I married in ’46 and had that first child in ’51. And by—let’s see, ’56 we had three
in the family, all three boys. I had no great amount of difficulty racially; I’ll put it that way. I grant you
that segregation as far as people of color were concerned, took away many of the so-called
opportunities for our theatres to stay open, businesses to stay open. Particularly the theatres when the
general public could go to other theatres and be accepted, not necessarily have to sit upstairs or sit in
certain areas, they had much better opportunities and the newer movies and presentations were at
some of the other theatres who had the more prestige and more money. But the black theatres or those
attended mainly by blacks were not able to get the main productions as soon as the other theatres, so
blacks went where they could go. But I—that was an acceptable thing, something to be expected,
whether or not it was in the restaurants or clubs or whatnot, the segregation in some ways was
beneficial and some ways it was hurting, some jobs and locations and that sort of thing.
DANDRIDGE: So when they—And I’m forgetting—So when they finally, when the black theatres finally
went down here, what did you do?
ADAMS: Well I had another job, too, in fact I had two jobs.
DANDRIDGE: Okay, tell us about it.
ADAMS: Well I worked in the post office, went in as a—applied for a job as a clerk, because I thought I’d
want to work inside, but when they told me that, If you passed the examination for clerk, you’d have to
work nights and I didn’t want to lose my jobs as a projectionist, cause I wanted to have both of them. So
I passed that job up, took the exam again, and asked for carrier, where I could be working outside and it
wouldn’t be interfering with my night work. So I worked—I went on as a sub, I worked a limited number
of hours, became regular—I guess it was in about two years. I worked a regular route in the daytime and
worked theatres at night and had a lawn service out in the Plaza in-between, and went to art school—
DANDRIDGE: Wait, wait a minute. Let’s talk about this lawn service. Was this your own, private business?
ADAMS: Yes.
DANDRIDGE: So how did you get started into that?
ADAMS: Well, I worked for the Greek(??) family, who had the theatres, and then doing work in their
homes out in the Plaza and on Leawood numerous people would stop by and ask—I guess after I
became acquainted with the neighborhood, asked if I had any time that I could give them. And worked
up to where I could work six days a week, if I wanted to, in private family, from one person to another
and from friends asking if I had time that I would be able to give them, so I had a thriving business for six
days.
DANDRIDGE: How long did this—So you were working three jobs for about how many years?
ADAMS: Well, let’s see—
DANDRIDGE: Just an estimate.
J. Adams 41

ADAMS: I’d say almost eight or ten years on three jobs; on two jobs for about, from 1957 until ’84, I
worked two jobs, post office and then the theatres. I did the lawn service in-between. When I attended
art school, I had to drop the lawn service because I couldn’t—I had to go to art school to try and get my
degree in illustration and painting.
DANDRIDGE: And what was the motivation for doing that, for entering art school?
ADAMS: Well, all of my young life, I’d say, I had been able to draw and always found a great interest in
drawing and painting. And just thought I’d take an opportunity to put it to use, thinking I could make
some headway as a portrait artist.
DANDRIDGE: What was that art school, what were the classes like? Did you enjoy them?
ADAMS: Well—(chuckles) Well, yeah. The art school was more or less biased, too, in some ways. I went to
the Kansas City Art Institute and they had a limited number of black students there and, from what I
understood, they had certain rules that you—Blacks and whites, sometimes, did not have the privilege
of doing, associating not in the classrooms, but around the campus and off campus, I guess, in that
particular area. But that’s to—was to be expected, I guess, in most schools of that kind. But I had no
great amount of difficulty in that school as far as race was concerned. It was just how you treated
people, how you handled yourself—(phone rings)
Pause in recording.
DANDRIDGE: Okay, Mr. Adams, you were talking about your experience with the Art Institute as a student.
ADAMS: Well, I did very well as far as associating with the men and—young men and young women in
that classroom; I had no difficulty with the teachers. I had all high scores and honor record, as far as the
school was concerned. And I had the opportunity to gain a—what was it?—commission to do a painting
for the funeral home on Forty-seventh and Paseo; I’ve forgotten the name of it now. They had a contest
on doing presentations for—to be awarded a prize from the school. I participated in not only that and
was granted the award for that particular company; I had some of my work accepted by some of the socalled artists and out of town to come through there and ask for—to have them, to send them a
particular copy of some of the lithos that I did in lithograph class. Several models for whom I gave
personal drawings because they felt it was something that they wanted to keep.
DANDRIDGE: Hm, my.
ADAMS: I think I was not only blessed, but just very lucky to be able to do something that I had enjoyed
doing basically all my life.
DANDRIDGE: What years did you attend the Art Institute? I mean was it in the fifties or sixties, do you
remember?
ADAMS: You know, I think it was in the late fifties—late fifties and early sixties, I think it was. Yes, late
fifties and early sixties. I got my B.F.A. and one year and left there to go to junior college to get my
academic credits and came back the next year and spent another year to get my master’s. So I was able
to get two degrees from the Kansas City Art Institute.
J. Adams 42

DANDRIDGE: So, after that—So, let’s say what were you doing—You went on and did some self-portraits, I
remember you talking about—
ADAMS: (overlapping) Locally, yes.
DANDRIDGE: Right. Who were some of the people who you did your paintings—do you remember some
of the people?
ADAMS: Roosevelt Butler, Dr. William Dire, I did a painting for—crucifixion for St.—Episcopal Church
down at Third and Stewart. I did a painting of Mrs. Will Florence Robbins for the YWCA. Let’s see—I did
several paintings for people in the movie business, Mr.—what was his name?—Lloyd Capulis(??), I did a
picture of—I take pictures of a particular individual to save them the time of posing and then I have a
composite painting that I do, in order to satisfy what that person may want for their family. I’ve done a
painting of Dr. Gill, Dr. and Mrs. Gill who live out on Georgia. Did a painting for Reverend William Dancy,
did a painting of his wife for Reverend Dancy. I did a painting for Benjamin—I was going to say Patton,
but that’s not his name, he’s a insurance agent, I’m trying to think—
DANDRIDGE: That’s all right; you don’t have to remember his name.
ADAMS: I’ve done several locally, but—
DANDRIDGE: So you did your artwork outside, in another building outside your house? Where did you do
your artwork? Where did you do these—
ADAMS: Sometimes at the theatre at night, sometimes at home—
DANDRIDGE: (interjecting) So you didn’t have a studio or anything?
ADAMS: Oh no, no. My studio was either my family room or out in the yard or up, when I was in Douglass
Hospital as an apartment, I did it in the attic. Wherever I could work, whenever I had the time.
DANDRIDGE: When were you in Douglass Hospital?
ADAMS: The time when I was first married. We, the wife and I moved to Douglass Hospital after our
marriage in 1946; stayed there until 1955.
DANDRIDGE: Was it operating as a hospital then?
ADAMS: No, it was apartment house. Mrs. Emerzere(??) Pendleton took it over and operated as an
apartment. There were eight families living there.
DANDRIDGE: But that time they had moved to Western, was that it?
ADAMS: No, they were out on Twenty-seventh Street, at the end of Twenty-seventh Street.
DANDRIDGE: Oh, the hospital itself?
ADAMS: Um-hm.
J. Adams 43

DANDRIDGE: So the hospital was still operating, it had just moved from those headquarters?
ADAMS: Yes, um-hm.
DANDRIDGE: Did you ever go to Douglass Hospital, as a patient?
ADAMS: (overlapping) As a patient? No.
DANDRIDGE: Where did you go for hospital care?
ADAMS: Um, let’s see. When I went to the hospital from the(??) bitten by a dog, I went to Bethany down
on Twelfth and Central. I was bitten by dog and had to go there for—
DANDRIDGE: (interjecting) Was that while you were carrying mail?
ADAMS: Yeah. Let’s see where else did I go? That’s the only place—No, I went to—did I go to ProvidenceSt. Margaret’s, I’m trying to think what I had then—
DANDRIDGE: (interjecting) Well, before you went in the military, where did you go to the hospital?
ADAMS: Didn’t go.
DANDRIDGE: You never went to a hospital?
ADAMS: Unh-uh.
DANDRIDGE: What about your folks or anybody or your friends, where did they go to the hospital?
ADAMS: University of Kansas.
DANDRIDGE: Okay. They didn’t go to Provident? They didn’t go to Douglass?
ADAMS: No. They went to physicians, I guess, Dr. Alexander treated at—I think he treated at Bethany. He
had hospital privileges at Douglass, but I don’t think—I think my mother and father went to University of
Kansas. Yes, I know that my mother and father went to University of Kansas for their difficulties.
Whether it was contact from Dr. Dire, whom my mother worked for, or whether it was just the
acceptance of that particular place. Because Douglass Hospital once they left Springfield and Quindaro,
they became known as a place where they did a lot of abortions and I don’t think too many people
wanted to frequent that place, that required services.
DANDRIDGE: But that wasn’t during the forties, that was later right?
ADAMS: Yeah.
DANDRIDGE: Yeah, that was much later. Um by that time, that must have been around the late fifties and
into the sixties, is that correct or do you—it’s hard to put a time on that.
J. Adams 44

ADAMS: Well, having left there in ’55, it must have been. I carried mail in ’57. It had to be sixties.
DANDRIDGE: Yeah, the sixties that it had become that. So, um, what was it, do you remember anybody
going to Douglass Hos—before that time when it was on Western University’s old campus? Do you
remember anybody going to Douglass then, when they had moved there?
ADAMS: Well, I carried mail out there, they were on my route, but I don’t necessarily know the people
who attended that place. But they had a good patronage as far as I was concerned. And they had—
whether it was abortions or what not, they were still very well, I’d say, frequented as far as people
coming there for service.
DANDRIDGE: Right, right. In terms of—Who was your family physician?
ADAMS: Dr. William H. Dire was my physician my mother worked for and he attended my parents most of
the time. Dr. Alexander was another—
DANDRIDGE: And he was African American
ADAMS: Yes.
DANDRIDGE: Did you know any nurses in the community or anything?
ADAMS: No. I knew Dr. William Love, I know Dr.—what’s his name?—the guy that did, I had a small
tumor removed from my left testicle—Becker.
DANDRIDGE: Oh, Dr. Becker, yeah.
ADAMS: Dr. Becker, he performs—
DANDRIDGE: Cause he’s an urologist, yeah.
ADAMS: Who else did I know? Most of the doctors that I had any contact with at all, whether with dog
bites or anything of that kind, were black.
DANDRIDGE: Uh-huh.
ADAMS: Far as attending whites, I didn’t have that necessarily need, the need to a specialist. If I were
referred to that, like Dr. Norman Foster—I went to him for a cyst I had on my left wrist and I was
referred from Dr. Forrester to Dr.—the surgeon out on—from that individual—as much as I know his
name, I can’t think of it now.
DANDRIDGE: That’s okay.
ADAMS: The only surgeon I know of around here. He has a very attractive wife that’s very friendly and
knowledgeable. I’ve got to—Watson.
DANDRIDGE: Oh, Dr. Watson.
J. Adams 45

ADAMS: Watson. From Dr. Watson I went to Dr. Perry, William Perry, and from Dr. Perry I went to Dr.
David Emmitt. That’s the first white physician I went to. But he was because he was a specialist in the
particular field and I wasn’t getting too much satisfaction from some of the—some of us, shall I say, Dr.
Forrester for one and Dr. Perry I didn’t particularly care for his tactics. So when my son, who is in St.
Louis, made the mention of his contacts with different physicians in St. Louis and physicians here that
they got me an appointment with Dr. David Emmett. He was supposed to be one of the top
neurologists—wait, oncologists in his particular field, so that’s how I came in contact with him.
DANDRIDGE: So, what kind of a—I think you may have mentioned this to me, But what jobs—What
careers or employment did your children go into?
ADAMS: Well, let’s see. My number one son, John the third is in St. Louis, he went into Business
Administration; got his master’s from—let’s see, Fulton, Missouri, Fulton—got his master’s there.
Number two son, George, went to KU in the field of music; after his second year he decided he wasn’t
get the musical training he wanted so he dropped out of that and went into TWA working as an
employee there. Number three son is—went into, went to KU for two years and decided he wasn’t
getting the ____(??) he wanted to get there so he dropped out and went into business as, working an
ice cream business. He has his own little business now. Number four son is, didn’t go to college, he
finished high school and decided he wanted to be a musician and went to Brady(??) for years and now
he is, he works with me on helping to take the blind person, plays for a certain church, Greater
Jerusalem Church on—
DANDRIDGE: (interjecting) What does he play?
ADAMS: Drums and keyboards. What else? He also works with a Mrs. Tony Oliver and with part of a
teaching staff that she has; and works several night spots in Kansas City, Missouri and local places out in
the city, whether it’s at Horton, Kansas or Hiawatha or Atchison. He has been overseas to Holland.
DANDRIDGE: Travel due to music?
ADAMS: Yes.
DANDRIDGE: Tell us something about your wife.
ADAMS: Oh. My wife was a very talented woman. I think that she not only had beauty but she had skills
and administrative qualifications. She was a part of the—one of the first blacks to be a part of the
national headquarters of YWCA, through the efforts of Mrs. Will Florence Robbins. She participated in
that for years before she decided that she was going to have children. And, prior to that, she went to
Hartzfeld’s(??) down in Kansas City, Missouri for a job; she worked there for a while and she was noticed
by the employees of Cricket West out in the Plaza and she was asked if she would take a job there as
working as one of the buyers. She left Hartzfeld’s and went to Cricket West.
DANDRIDGE: Did they have any other African American women doing their buying then?
ADAMS: I’m not sure. They must have had a few out there—
DANDRIDGE: No wonder I loved Cricket West, they had good choices.
J. Adams 46

ADAMS: Well, whoever the person was there came down to Hartzfeld’s numerous times and my wife
worked with a Jewish lady, she was using her as a stock girl. And she said what seemingly talent and
appearance she had and her personality, they were going to put her in charge of one of the departments
at Hartzfeld’s. But they had an offer from this person at Cricket West, who was trying to develop the
store there and offered her a job there. So she had an opportunity to be one of the first blacks to be
hired in that area.
DANDRIDGE: How long did she stay with that?
ADAMS: Until ____(??) our son was, let’s see, which was born in ’51, moved out to where we are now in
’55—I think she stayed with Cricket West for three or four years.
DANDRIDGE: So that was in the forties?
ADAMS: Yeah. Late forties and I came out of the service.
DANDRIDGE: So what did she do—did she—
Tape 2, side 1 ends; side 2 begins.
DANDRIDGE: About what your—
ADAMS: I was saying until our sons came of age, where they could be ____(??) come home and be by
themselves, my wife stayed at home. When that passed she worked as a Cub Scout leader, she worked
in the church, and she worked at Quindaro School in the parent-teacher group and was head of the
Parent-Teacher Organization for years. And she finally had a job offer as a librarian—
Pause in recording.
DANDRIDGE: You were talking about Mrs. Adams.
ADAMS: Yeah, she had a job at Quindaro School as an assistant in the library department. And some
contacts that she had in the board of education and her Parent- Teacher’s Meeting Association, she was
asked if she would be interested in participating and becoming a qualified librarian. She’d have to go to
junior college or someplace in order to get her academic credits. And she accepted that and attended
junior college out here on—what is it—Seventy-second? Attended night classes and she became a
qualified library assistant, working with Val Forsythe, who was a librarian, she was a Caucasian who was
in charge there, she got my wife the job there as her assistant and Barb stayed that until the time that
she retired from the board of education—I’ve forgotten what year that was, but she was in her
seventies when she quit that. But she liked that work, she liked working with children. At Quindaro, she
was—I say the first black as far as head of the parent-teachers in that area, in that school. So she did a
marvelous job between the Cub Scouts and her school work and being a career mother and (chuckles)
librarian and community leader, church worker at First AME—I don’t know how she handled all those
things, but she was a very talented, gifted woman. Very patient, as I say, at a time when I was trying to
pursue my career as the—working two or three jobs, that she did the same thing with her activities and
the YWCA and Quindaro School and the national organization. She made trips back and forth to
different places where she was participating in her official capacity. As Hawthorne librarian for years,
J. Adams 47

she retired from there. She was busier as a woman and a mother and all those other things, as a
housewife—say again, she’s an extraordinary, hardworking individual. Very proud of her.
DANDRIDGE: What did she do after retirement?
ADAMS: Well, between the church, First AME, and as far as the school was concerned, she kept her
activities going in different places. And then the library calling her for different bits of information, she
spent most of her time at home and, I say, being whatever she could be as serviceable here. But they
called on her for numerous things, acting in different organizations, she’s presenting—making club
dedications, different clubs ask her to come in and give their officers presentations and that sort of
thing, where she was knowledgeable about Robert’s Rules and club organization and that sort of thing.
She—A busy woman, I tell you, she—She had, unfortunately, contracted diabetes and that sort of
limited her ability to get around and that, eventually, helped to take her life. But, other than that, she
was a very busy, dedicated, woman, mother, and wife.
DANDRIDGE: Thank you very much.
ADAMS: Yeah.
DANDRIDGE: We appreciate your time and thank you so much, Mr. Adams. Thank you.
ADAMS: My pleasure.
Tape 2, side 2 ends.
End of interview.

J. Adams 48

Boston, Massachusetts, 4, 7, 8, 9, 24

Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee, Alabama, 15

United States Army, 12
Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 4, 5, 6
Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, 4, 6, 7
Race relations, 8
United States Army Air Corps
Eglin Field, Florida, 18, 20, 36
Godman Field, Kentucky, 18, 36
March Field, California, 4, 11, 12, 13
Moton Field, Alabama, 15, 16, 19, 20, 35
Race relations, 12, 21, 37
Red Tails, 20, 36
Training, 16, 18, 35, 37
Tuskegee, Alabama, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21,
23, 24
Walterboro, South Carolina, 18, 20, 36
United States Postal Service, 24, 27, 28, 31, 43,
44

United States Armed Forces, G.I. Bill, 29

World War II, 2, 3, 5, 18, 24

International Stage Employees and Motion
Picture Projectionists, 25, 26, 27, 40, 41, 42
Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, Missouri,
28, 31, 44, 45
Kansas City, Kansas
Princess Theater, 1, 2, 25, 28, 40, 41
Race relations, 3
Sumner High School, 1, 2, 3, 10, 30
Race relations
Kansas City, 25, 49
Southern United States, 14

J. Adams 49