Code,990025
Subject,Donald Ramos
Date,6/24/2013
Interviewer,Mark Souther
Abstract,"Donald Ramos was born in 1942 in New Bedford, Massachusetts, to a family of Portuguese descent.  He attended the University of Massachusetts, served in the U.S. Army, and enrolled in the doctoral program in Latin American Studies at the University of Florida.  He accepted a position in the History Department at Cleveland State University in 1971 but soon moved to First College, a newly created unit in the university, where he stayed until 1997, when he returned to chair the History Department.  He lived in East Cleveland on the edge of Cleveland Heights in a faculty enclave and later moved to Cleveland Heights.  He recalls an atmosphere of veiled racial tension in East Cleveland and contrasts it with the much smoother race relations he observed in Cleveland Heights.  Ramos discusses his role in the Heights Community Congress and comments more broadly on the fair housing movement in Cuyahoga County's suburbs."
Tags,"Portugal, U.S. Army, Latin America, Cleveland State University, Brazil, First College, East Cleveland, Cleveland Heights, Heights Community Congress, Cuyahoga Plan, blockbusting, fair housing, Central American Network, Nicaragua"
Special Notes,
minutes:,
0,"Donald Ramos Born 1942 In Massachussets, raised in a fascinating home that was ""anything but normal"""
1,"His family lived together, a very diverse family, politically, ""dinner was always a fireworks display"""
2,His father worked in the looming industry.
3,"His mother was a seamstress, walked to the mills. Both parents very active in the Union."
4,His parents both came to the states when they were young. they were involved in anti-salazar-ists (Antonio de Oliveira Salazar of Portugal) his parents hosted portuguese exiles in the U.S.
5,As a union leader it was important for his father to be bilingual.
6,Family enviroment was great-various political backgrounds/debates
7,"he spoke only portuguese at home, and did not have ESL programs in school."
8,Hespeaks portugal portuguese to brazilian portuguese. Attended Roosevelt Junior High. Large pop. of white kids & african american students.
9,"He took up french in college, and attended school though his parents barely finished education, his father had just 1 year."
10,"his parents were insistent on him attending college, went to the University of Mass."
11,"He went into the Army, and decided he would do Brazilian History and teach at the college level."
12,"He ended up in the army pre-vietnam, Served in ft. Huachuca"
13,"Decided to teach, and went to the University of Florida"
14,The G.I. bill had first been passed so he went to Florida to learn with that funding. Enjoyed it there very much
15,"Latin American Studies were really great becuase there was always a speaker, or latin dance crew visiting the school"
16,There was a family-like structure there. Professors were kind.
17,"when he came to Cleveland State, it was very different."
18,he had applied to Cleveland State and had been rejected
19,And then Julias WIneberg had called about his dissertation (from cleveland state) (PHONE RINGS*)
20,"And he was hired without ever coming to Cleveland, he assumed it was a more liberal environment, the city scene."
21,"he has very close contacts with his mother's family, but not so much with his father's side of the family."
22,his first study was about the women being the head of households in Brazil.
23,"His father was raised by a single mother, so were his brothers and he hadn't known that. His mother was upper-class in portugal."
24,"His parents met as part of the ethnic community (new bedford, an isolated community) assumes his parents met at a social gathering."
25,"his father originally went to California, but decided California was not for him."
26,he went to Mass to work in textile mills. His mother's family made their money with pineapples for export to Europe.
27,"His grandfather grew grapes. ""From which you get wine, from which you get drunk"" so the grandmother wanted to come to the states"
28,Donald assumes they met at a social gathering
29,he has tried to do census/family tree tracking but it is difficult to do with immigrants/changing names etc.
30,"Family's religion: Has always been a diverse family, which often divided the family."
31,"""First College""  (an experimental unit/not a mainstream college)  '72"
32,It was interdisciplinary.
33,Workshops: 8 credits. Made heavy demands on student research. They still have First College reunions.
34,"It was a college that ran within a college.  he was director, and constantly putting out fires"
35,But then First College was chosen for one of the Program Excellence awards in Ohio (some said it may have done better had it not been through CSU)
36,Had a unique and exceptional English program
37,"As director, started the Freshman student Orientation Program"
38,"They met, one day a week, every week. They were able to talk about a specific student."
39,He liked that sense of reaching down to individual students.
40,"Many ethnic families would send their sons to larger schools, and their daughters to CSU so they could keep and ""eye"" on their daughters."
41,He didn't like that in the History Dept. he was unable to watch the students grow individually
42,"Set up the first IBM lab in the college,"
43,"It was a talkative lab, they wanted the students to be able to speak out."
44,Students who weren't First College students used the lab becuase it was recognized as a place to recieve good help.
45,"""It was a good experiment, it ran it's course."""
46,"SUBJECT CHANGE ""I remember our first arrival to Cleveland""...."
47,"They came into downtown, and when he arrived, it didn't strike him as the downtown and they drove past the ""downtown"""
48,"They were the first occupants of Rhodes tower. They moved to East Cleveland first right near ""McGregor Home"" they rented a duplex."
49,"It was a really nice, warm environment. They lived there 4/5yrs. They decided they wanted to buy a house. Went to Cleveland Heights."
50,Enjoys his immediate neighbors in Cleveland Heights. John Kerry/Laura Martin lived in their house
51,"They painted clouds on one of the ceiling, Can you imagine John Kerry in a house with clouds on the cieling? (House on ""Stanwood"" is the east cleveland home)"
52,He didn't remember there being a big issue with traffic/people driving too fast.
53,"There was a good amount of ""CSU"" people living in the area. East cleveland had already ""changed"" when they moved in."
54,"They moved into an integrated ""Pocket"""
55,"Their problem with East Cleveland, were the schools..And their neighbors pulled their kids out of the schools. Their daughter grew up in a really mixed environment."
56,"Their daughter's babysitter was adopted, like their daughter. There was no conflict, no tension (on their street) but felt tension in the majority part of the city"
57,"But not so much because of race, but because of economical class, ""Class within the context of race, race within the context of class"""
58,"He's interested in this issue in Brazil, as well."
59,"Their daughter went to school with African american kids. He remembers when the kids gave names to their skin colors ""coffee"" ""black"""
60,"It was interesting to see their daughter grow up , she identifies as Brazilian."
61,"They lived in Brazil for two years, and Monica was not officially adopted, they went to Belem to get the paperwork."
62,"They arrived in Rio, and the people said ""there is no such flight"" back to Belem"
63,"Then they ended up in Jamaica. He was horrified by the tension, there was an unease that he felt, and he cant quantify it. ""You know what you're out of place, and that's what I felt in East Cleveland"""
64,"He didnt feel danger, but he felt like people were staring. But you could feel it."
65,"There was, and is, in Cleveland, a difference. a lot of it is class-based."
66,"They talk about race frequently with friends, you enter the topic because it is so sensitive."
67,"Moved to cleveland heights, 1976. He became involved in the Heights Community Congress"
68,"**Begins story, about some kids had written some anti-semitic stuff on a garage, and he helped paint over it. The tone of the street was good"
69,His sense of getting involved was strong.
70,"He spoke with black realtors, ***He used to get letters ""your neighbors home has been sold to a black family sell your house now."""
71,Original mission of the Heights Community Congress: Objectives (he appreciated them)
72,"The odds against cleveland heights ""pulling it off"" were immense. Prime reason for people coming into the heights was for the schools"
73,"*Phone rings* we don't talk about race, he hopes that the boom in the latino pop. will start open discussions about race"
74,"He remembers being stunned"" that the votes were unanimous for the fair housing ordinance"
75,"Cuyahoga Plan, they used his ""checkers"" to identify problems within the real estate industry."
76,"They dealt with specific agents, they weren't all independent (realtors)"
77,He thought they should have been more diligent with the consequences of these realtors
78,"There may have been age issues ""the stantard excuse was 'I didn't know we couldn't say that'""  which was also what the older realtors said."
79,"he remembers being out in the front yard and seeing the real estate agent saying something ,"
80,that was clearly in violation of the ordinance: The racial make-up of coventry school
81,"He called to rent a place once and they asked him his ""race"""
82,"The steering was ""invasive"" at all levels: mentions Kermit Lind"
83,"White couple, white real-estate agent (refering to the guy who was talking about the race make up of the school)"
84,"They recieved ""clients"" for the realtors from the communtiy, people who saw these offensive acts. they had frequent discussions about patterns they would see."
85,"What seemed to him a more ""poll"" process the places Af. Americans were being shown instead of the places they weren't"
86,"Doesn't remember dealing with cases north of mayfield, the area that integrated ""early"""
87,"June ""Wortman"" she was very well-known on issues in the area regarding race."
88,"Mr. Ramos Drafted Legislation for HCC, drafted the proposal ordinance for the City Council's consideration."
89,"He did a lot of the writing for it, studied Oak Park for comparative notes."
90,He always thought that cleveland Heights was under more realtor pressure than Shaker Heights.
91,"When he first game to cleveland, he thought he lived in cleveland, it took him a while to figure that Shaker Heights is its own city."
92,"The Cuyahoga Plan was very good, but people just didn't want to come together."
93,"""It's doable, but it's very hard to do politically"""
94,"In Cleveland Heights: An Infusion of Af. American Kids, their parents did what all parents did and moved to CH for better opportunities for their kids."
95,It's a class issue
96,"Issues relating to movement in class, Cleveland system (education) is the root of a lot of issues"
97,He thinks its nice that parents come to CH to provide their kids with something better. He acknowledges the recent white-flight from the Cleveland Heights Public Schools
98,"He thinks you can still get a really good education at cleveland heights, if you focus."
99,He is more bothered by the charter schools who haven't proved that they are any better.
100,"Charter schools use private money, there should be some sort of oversight over them, since the money is public. It weakens the public schools system."
101,"If you isolate the education, then you isolate the community. He would like to move to portugal, because of the issues in here."
102,"In the 80's and into the 90's he was highly aware of U.S. policy in Central America. Two groups: a religious group, and a secular group"
103,"and they formed an organization called the ""Central American Network"" they published a newsletter"
104,"they had lively discussions, they had photographs in the newsletter."
105,"It lasted for almost 10 years, and people came together for the mailing. That was their biggest ""thing"" that they did. They did educational outreach as well."
106,Tried to just focus attention on the despicable acts of the U.S. in Central America.
107,The secular group ended up being exhausted on the subject
108,"The inter-religious task force has broader justice issues,"
109,"He went to Nicaragua twice, he taught a course, and he went down to see if the things he read were true, essentially."
110,
111,"He remembers talking with a child, who kept saying that he didn't like ""el presidente"" Daniel"
112,"His second tour down to Nicaragua, people were fuming about the sandinistas"
113,
114,He felt as a professional and politically responsibility to be involved.
115,
116,Closes