Code,915019
Subject,Winston Richie
Date,6/29/2012
Interviewer,?
Abstract,"Winston Richie, a Shaker Heights resident, was the Vice Mayor of that city. He describes his chilhood experiences and how issues of race affected him as a child. Some of these issues were faced by his children while they were going to school. While Richie used race a light-hearted source of humor during his campaign, he takes the integration of Shaker Heights very seriously. It was the most important issue for him during his time in office. He is proud of his efforts in Shaker Hieghts and of his small role in the Civil Rights Movement. He shares interstesting stories about how he and his wife went to the March on Washington in 1963 and heard Martin Luther King's ""I Have a Dream"" speech."
Special Notes,
minutes:,
0,Winston Richie was born in Jersey City but grew up in Glenville. then his family moved to Shaker.
1,"Actually, he was born in Chicago.  His family moved to Shaker so he could go to the schools. He went to Western Reserve University"
2,He got his dental degree from Western Reserve. He lieved in Cleveland for a while.
3,Richie spent a lot of time hanging around the schools playing in the play grounds like Alexander Hamilton. He hung out with school friends rather than neighborhood friends.
4,Richie 's kids went to Shaker schools.They built a house on Green Road in 1961.
5,The kids  had a good experience in the Shaker schools.
6,The Richies were friends with another black couple who lived near them.
7,Richie experienced some racism. Someone wouldn't sell him a lot. Richie called him stupid.
8,There was a Supreme Court decsion preventing that.
9,Richie introduced himself to the neighbors when he moved in. He didn't experience any overt racism in Cleveland.
10,"Richie worried about his kids experiencing racism in school but there wasn't any in Shaker schools, which would not have been true in other city schools."
11,The Richies lived in Lynhurst for a while after the kids were grown before moving back. His daughter went to Germany as a AFS student. His son went Kenya in the Peace Corp. His other kids went to Spain and Hong Kong.
12,Richie was the Vice Mayor of Shaker.
13,Richie ran into a group of black children and one asked him what white kids were like. He decided that he didn't want his kids to grow up like that.
14,He wanted his kids to know there were all kinds of people. So he sent them to Shaker schools. One daughter has a Ph.D. and runs an integration program in Chicago. His other daughter is President of WMBA.
15,Hsi son works for John Hancock. Another daughter works for a bank with a Ph.D. He is happy that his kids beleived that they could go to any school they wanted. Three kids went to Dartmouth and one went to Cornell and another went to Duke.
16,It was fu being Vice Mayor. Richie enjoyed shocking people and doing the unusual.
17,The incumbants in Shaker usually handpicked their replacements and Richie was one of 3 running for office and the only African American.
18,"At a meeting Richie and the two others running for the empty seat, they had to say why people shoudl vote for them. Richie thought the other tow guys were good people and canidates."
19,Richie encouraged voters to vote all three of them in to the three empty seats.
20,"The other 2 canidates were white so Richie said, ""I hope you will agree that I am a shade better than the others."""
21,One guy laughed so hard he fell offf his chair. Richie didn't have any problems because of his race in the election.
22,Richie had a lot of fun in the election and Shaker was ready for a black canidate.
23,Richie sent a program about what Shaker was doing to integrate to surrounding communities and as far away as Autstralia.
24,There is sill work to be done but Richie did his part. Keeping Shaker integrated was a big issue while he was Vice Mayor.
25,Shaker was unique community in terms of integration. He worried about the predjudice his kds would face even going shopping in Parma. They faced some discrimination in college which they had never encountered before.
26,They learned that the world wasn't all like Shaker.
27,There were even lessons to be learne by whites. Whites who went into black neighborhoods could be harassed and called names.
28,His son was once chased home from a shopping center and Richie was occassionally called names.
29,It made Richie susupicious of everyone. He would sometimes mistake kindness for harasment.
30,Integration was the most important issue to him while he was Vice Mayor. The Rapid Transit was an issue but he let other people handle it.
31,"There were not blacks on the police force, the fire dept, or in city hall when he moved in."
32,Housing was the foundation of integration. He is concerned when all white people make the dicisions.
33,"Richie doesn't think that Shaker is as integrated as it could be but ""it's better than nothing."""
34,
35,Other communites were interested in what Shaker was doing to integrate.
36,Richie was one of only a black few students in high school and college.
37,He believes that this had a positve effect on him. He passed that lesson on to his kids who attended mostly white colleges.
38,Richie and his wife went to the March on Washington in 1963.
39,Richie's mother babysat all 4 kids (8 and under) for the 2 days. There was bus that took people to the March.
40,Richie said it was very croweded.
41,"There were several speakers not just Dr. MLK, jr."
42,There were lots of big names in the Civil Rights Mov't there.
43,"""I Have Dream"" Speech was the high litght of the march. The Richies joined a white church and worked to integrate it."
44,
45,Richie is proud to be a part of the Civil Rights Mov't.
46,Richie reflects on Obama's success.
47,The furor over integration only really calmed down in the 90s.
48,There are still issues of race today especially in Cleveland.
49,Richie is not involved in integration efforts now but there is still work to be done.
50,
51,Richie is writing a book around his experiences.
52,Conclusions
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