BETSY BRINSON: This is the second part of an Oral History Interview with Dr. Sam
Robinson. The interview takes place in Dr. Robinson’s new office at the Urban Montessori School in Louisville, Kentucky. The interviewer is Betsy Brinson. Sam give me a voice level just so I know what. . . Well Sam yesterday I attended the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights Ceremony; their tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King. And I was interested in Governor Breathitt’s comments, but also your introduction to him; and I wanted to go back and ask you when the two of you were both involved in the uh, three-year Lincoln School project, um was Governor Breathitt the Governor at the time?DR. SAMUEL ROBINSON: Yes he was.
BRINSON: He was. Okay.
ROBINSON: Yes.
BRINSON: And did he, was he ever actually ever involved in any of the hands on
with the school or . . .ROBINSON: Definitely, definitely, he was involved in identifying individuals to
be in the--you know involved in the planning, and developing a mission, a mission statement for the school. And uh, yes, he was very hands on with the committee, which included, Dr. H. Ralph Jackson, who was a minister in Frankfort, Kentucky; and Dr. Whitney M. Young, Sr.; Mr. Don Bell, who at the time was a, an Associate Superintendent at the State Department of Education; and those were some of the people involved at that time.BRINSON: Okay, and did he help to hire you? To bring you on the staff?
ROBINSON: Yes, he was part of the process. But mainly that was part of the
University of Kentucky uh problem—issue--that they were involved with. Well, I have to tell you this, that when the Lincoln School closed, Dr. Young was very concerned about my welfare. So my--so I did not move even after the school had closed--I mean when the school had not closed, there was a group working on the future of that site. And so what I did--for one year I was involved in the planning and execution--and uh--and really I was kind of the caretaker for the Lincoln Foundation property. And I did not--and so I was employed by the--to be very honest with you I have forgotten where--no I think I received my checks from the University of Kentucky.BRINSON: And we talked about the school the last time, and the dissertation you
gave me was very helpful to understanding that more. One of the things that I wanted to ask you though Sam, was, how do you get to the campus of the Lincoln . . .?ROBINSON: Well the Lincoln, as you know, it’s the Whitney M. Young Job Corps
Center; and it’s about thirty miles east of Louisville on U. S. 60. And if you are traveling from Louisville to Frankfort you can’t miss the building--the first building built there was Berea Hall named after Berea College. And uh, there is a center part, and then there is one-purpose center, there is one extension. One what do you call it when one side is--the original intent was to have the center, and then have at the--at the one side classrooms, education, you know; and on the other side a chapel for the students, you know; but that never happened. So the building was never fully completed as planned.BRINSON: I have been talking with the film crew over this documentary that we
are doing about actually going out and wanting to interview you, at some point for the film; but doing it on the site of the campus.ROBINSON: Yes, because it is very historic. You have Belknap Hall which is named
for one of the industrialists of the early days. You have Extine Norton Hall. All of these halls are named for, mainly for um affluent business people in and around the state. Really mainly from the Louisville area. You also have the Whitney M. Young Hall; you have the Carol Hall, which was name for Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Carol, who spent together maybe fifty years as a couple living on that campus. And one was the Principal of the school, or they call it Dean of Education; then her husband taught school and he was the Vice President to Dr. Young. Um, but it is very interesting about the titles at Lincoln Institute because uh Mr. Carol had the title of Vice President, but he taught classes. He had at least--maybe one period less than the other teachers to attend to the Vice President duties. And uh, but many times he didn’t have much to do because Dr. Young was pretty much in charge of what happened and so forth. So he made the major decisions.BRINSON: Okay. Uh, what, what I want to do for most of our time together today
is talk about you and the Lincoln Institute. You’ve just stepped down after . . .ROBINSON: You mean the Lincoln Foundation?
BRINSON: Lincoln Foundation, I’m sorry, um--you’ve just stepped down after
twenty-six years . . .ROBINSON: That’s right.
BRINSON: And uh, I have never met anybody who has had so many celebrations and
retirement parties given for them, and [laughing] and so many photos in the paper; um; but I’m interested to know, tell me how did you actually move to join the staff of the Foundation?ROBINSON: Well, it was very interesting. I was in the Army, and I had planned to
try and look for employment, I did not want to return to Memphis because I had two older brothers and sisters who lived there.BRINSON: Let me stop you because maybe I know. You and I, when we talked before
we talked about you going to the Lincoln School and your work there.ROBINSON: No, the Lincoln Institute.
BRINSON: The Lincoln Institute.
ROBINSON: Institute, because the Lincoln Institute and the Lincoln School
different . . .BRINSON: Separate.
ROBINSON: Separate institutions.
BRINSON: So the Lincoln Institute – then the Lincoln School is the government
funded program?ROBINSON: Yes.
BRINSON: That Governor Breathitt funded?
ROBINSON: Yes, through the legislature.
BRINSON: And then that closed?
ROBINSON: Right.
BRINSON: And then . . .
ROBINSON: I went to Shawnee High School as Principal and then uh, after three
years I left there to complete a Doctorate at Indiana University, and then I came back. And what I did was took a leave of absence because I--just to be sure that things would go right--but, but one of the most interesting aspects of that is that I um, I was to be the first African-American to be the President, I mean the Executive Director. And later would have the chance to be President. But, uh, I was very much aware that there was some reluctance on the Board’s part to employ an African-American in that position. And I thought it was because of the aggressive nature of Dr. Whitney M. Young, Sr.. Uh he hand-picked me for that role because he advised me that, to go on and get my Doctorate; go on and to have it so that there will not be any questions related to your qualifications. However, it was most interesting that my--the person I--who uh – the person that I took his place, you know the person that was in charge before I came there, did not have a Bachelors’ degree.BRINSON: Now was that the white fellow?
ROBINSON: Yes. Mr. J. ( ) Tidings.
BRINSON: Yes.
ROBINSON: And so uh, I picked up that he was very involved in the human
resources--the organization that representative ( ) talked about--human rights workers; the National Association of Human Rights Workers. And I always felt that he would have liked--and going back to some of the minutes, I think that he would have--he knew people and that--and I think that that would have been possibly his choice; for someone who had a human rights, human relations background, because that was his background. He served as the editor of the official journal of that group for many times, and he was, he was not paid. That was just something he did and was part of his work as Executive Director of the Lincoln Foundation.BRINSON: Did he retire from the Foundation?
ROBINSON: Well it was most interesting, most interesting what happened. Um, I
was employed--well when I left I worked--before I went to. U. I worked one month at the Foundation because I needed the money, you know; because I was not going to be employed. And my wife stayed here and I came home on the weekends. But uh, Mr. Tidings was not involved in fundraising. He basically served--I think his role, his role was he was a community resource, and that was part of his job was to serve--he went to a lot of meetings dealing with human relations, uh desegregation, so forth. He went to a lot of meetings and he was not involved in fundraising. But, when I was asked to take the job, I was told that I would have to be very aggressive in identifying funds to pay my salary, because the first year was to be one where both of us were to be there. That they were going to--he was going to go mentally through the process, because I had not worked for a foundation; and you know I was--I knew about the Foundation from a distance, because Mr. Tidings did not make frequent trips to the Lincoln Institute. Because we would see him when the Board meeting was being held, and once in a while I would run into him coming to talk with--have conversations with Dr. Young.BRINSON: And you told me before that they had moved his office downtown . . .
ROBINSON: Downtown.
BRINSON: Off the campus, earlier.
ROBINSON: Yes, and I also reminded you that Mr. Tidings did not work for Dr.
Young. He worked for the Board of the Foundation because his father-in-law was T. C. Gaines, and that was the understanding. And that was uh, that was uh, a constant source of friction, that both of them talked about the relationship, you know. Because there was a certain amount of distrust because of the relationship.BRINSON: So they hired you, and you were to work with him for . . .
ROBINSON: One year.
BRINSON: One year to go . . .
ROBINSON: To allow, and uh--it was very explicit in terms of what I was supposed
to be doing. I was supposed to mainly, earn my keep, while they paid him with the money that--because we are talking about small sum of money; we where talking about less than one hundred thousand dollars--because the Lincoln Foundation gave out a few scholarship loans. And usually the projects that uh--well to be very honest with you, Mr. Tidings had a free rein, in terms of what he did because the Board didn’t meet but twice a year. And it was just maybe to rubber stamp his projects, which one of them was Youth Speaks, which was an excellent program which brought about early communication between African-American and white students. And what their TV programs--and they would talk about issues related to desegregation, inequities in our society, and how can we bring about more inter-racial corporations. Also, Mr. Tidings was very involved in a movement called Moral Rearmament, which goes back to that time--which was basically yet again inter-racial type of individuals; who would go to this place in Mackinaw Island was their meetings and so forth. And it was very interesting because Mr. Tidings was well respected and he was really one of the forerunners in terms of inter-racial cooperation; because as you know he was fired from the Jefferson County Human Relations Commission because of some of his stands, and so uh, he was there, but he was also paternalistic, now that’s my assessment.BRINSON: Okay. Okay, so at the end of the year he departed?
ROBINSON: No.
BRINSON: No?
ROBINSON: No, he--what happened was that I took--I came to the job in August,
after I had completed my work at I.U., around mid-August, Mr. . . .BRINSON: This was around nineteen . . .
ROBINSON: Seventy-four.
BRINSON: Nineteen seventy-four, okay.
ROBINSON: And Mr. Tidings became ill about, well maybe a month after I took the
job and he never recovered, he died. So that was, there wasn’t really . . .BRINSON: So there really wasn’t any notice.
ROBINSON: And we had--Mr. Tidings and I had some minor problems at the
beginning. I thought that he was--as I said I thought that he was paternalistic. And one issue that really concerned me had to do with the budget, the preparation of the budget and so forth. And he did that alone and indicated to me that he thought that he--that I could not do that; although I had been the Principal of a school--of a school with eighteen hundred kids and budgets had to be prepared. And I, I uh, I let him know that I was displeased with that because if I--I thought that he was putting me at a disadvantage because I should have been involved in the budget planning; and I was very displeased about that.BRINSON: Especially if they were looking to you to help raise the money.
ROBINSON: That’s right.
BRINSON: How did you go about doing that, in the early years?
ROBINSON: Well, we’ve always had--we have always had people involved in
supporting the, uh you know, the organization; but they had never been asked to give funds for support. And since the beginning--since we began that fundraising effort we have had an anonymous giver who has been extremely supportive of the Foundation. In fact, the last donation that we received from this anonymous person for this year, one person, was one hundred seventy-five thousand dollars . Because he was giving, or she was giving the funds for the transition that was taking place since Dr. King, Dr. Charles King, has been with the Foundation since August on payroll, and then you know we had two big payroll, I mean salaries. He has had all of his benefits and all of that, but he didn’t really assume the role until December First, when I took a months vacation and he was in charge during that time. So this person--and to be very honest with you, I have never really had a real issue about raising money. I, I don’t know it’s, I think it has a lot to do with a person feeling that you will be a good--what is the word I want to use, a good uh--oh what is the word I want to use--that you would use the money wisely, that there would not be any hanky-panky and that you will--in fact, I have uh, always--in fact, right now, when I began to move out of the office, I took a lot of the stuff; like for instance, a lot of the artwork I bought myself, because I didn’t want the Foundation to think that I was ever trying to be extravagant at their expense, so I bought--well I would just buy things. And so it just started to--not, in twenty-six years--I have always had a balanced budget, I never had a year in the red, because I was frugal and I tried to use the money for programs more than anything else.BRINSON: As fundraising though, over the years Sam, been a big part of your job?
ROBINSON: Yes it has. Yes it has been, and program development. And my strategy
is to see where the resources are, and then try to develop programs with that in mind. A good example, the Minority Aids Program. We have a three hundred thousand dollar budget for that. When I started out, we started out with ten thousand dollars; but there is quite a lot of money out there, locally, state, so forth, for minority aids programs and so forth; and so I have taken advantage of it. I’ve had . . .BRINSON: I know with the minority aids program now, I had seen in the Lexington
paper that you actually have a program now in Lexington now as well as Louisville . . .ROBINSON: I have three other ones. We have--I was thinking in the past, now I
have to think of the future. We have programs in Bowling Green, Hopkinsville, and Lexington, for which we received a million dollar grant to fund these programs.BRINSON: From?
ROBINSON: From uh, from CDC, Center for Disease Control. And there are so many
programs out there like that, nearly every program I have we identify--when you give to the Foundation, you’re not giving just for general support, you’re supporting a particular program. For instance, National City Bank, University of Louisville, uh, Loews, LG&E, they will support a program we call, Project Build. A program of introducing high school students going into their senior year to the world of business. So I partnered with the University of Louisville and we use the University of Louisville’s business school for their classes. And so this is a partnership developed with the University. Another one has to do with a math and science program, we have. We have four hundred plus kids in math and science at the University of Louisville. The University of Louisville has assisted me by giving me a large sum of money, as well as the Jefferson County school system to do this; and the University of Louisville did not charge us rent for these students, and these programs we call Job Start. It’s a program where a student--whatever course they are going to take in the fall, they take four weeks, two hours per class, in math and science, so that when they enter the class in the fall they will have a jump-start. And these are classes in physics, calculus, chemistry, biology, algebra I, algebra II, and so forth. A very popular program that we have had there since 1978. Now the other nuance that I like--I am a--the build program came out of a program called Project Lead, out of . . .BRINSON: Spell lead.
ROBINSON: L-E-A-D.
BRINSON: Okay.
ROBINSON: It’s an acronym.
BRINSON: To Project Build?
ROBINSON: Well what I was doing was I was recruiting students to go to
institutions out of Louisville, for instance, students went to the University of Pennsylvania, Northwestern, and all. And it was a program for minority students, and again, I said, “Now why if they’re doing that there, why don’t I replicate it here?” So I am an excellent replicator. And the same thing happened with the Whitney M. Young scholars, that came out of Dr. Lange’s program,” I Have A Dream,” in New York. I said, “Well why can’t we replicate what they are doing?” Because Dr. Lange indicated to those students that if they stayed in school then they would all have scholarships to go to college. And that is basically what we are doing. And what I have been able to do is get all of these institutions to buy into that. So, because these young people are academically talented, and they are economically challenged, what you do is--what I go to the school--to be very honest with you, they are fighting over our kids. We have, at our—each year at least a million dollars worth of scholarship assistance that is available, and we only use five hundred thousand of that.BRINSON: And why is that?
ROBINSON: Because, uh, because of choices made by young people. One of them is
that we have always had this opening with Berea for ten scholarships. And we always have difficulty in getting students to choose Berea, because these are urban kids, and when they go there they say, “Oh God, we do not want to go to a school in the country.” And that--plus some of them don’t like the work ethics of attending Berea. And so, they want to go, not that they are lazy, but they just perceive working as being hard labor and they don’t want to be any part of it. So uh, there are nearly all of those many institutions in--nearly all of the institutions here in the state will say, “If your kids meets the criteria they will have a four year package.” Now what we do is we work with the institution to be sure that they are eligible for Pell Grants, SELG Grant, work study and all of that, and then we supplement that with funds that we have received from an endowment of a million dollars that we raised. We raised five--I had six months to raise a half a million dollars for a challenge grant from the Brown Foundation. I raised seven hundred twenty-five thousand dollars . And so there at the Foundation is a million dollar endowment just for Whitney M. Young scholars, which is only, which is for scholarship assistance. Now part of that is that all of the graduates of the program receive a five--no matter where they are going--they are given a five hundred dollar scholarship from the Foundation. Then, the additional assistance is determined by need. They write and say that they need this amount, or they will need this to supplement, and then so forth. But we also continue to assist these young people when they are in college by--every time they receive funds at the, in December, we always ask them to give us their college grades, and show that they plan to enroll for the second semester. And then we give funds in August when they get ready to go, and so that is determined by how much we have received from the income from the endowment. We do not touch the principal, we just use the income. But we also have a program--a self-help program called Dollars for Scholars, and that’s a program that involves parents and students, who have various fundraising efforts. For instance, they are having in February a fashion show, and they contacted the stores and the students fashion and everything. And then whatever they raise is put in the pot, but only those who have been involved with Dollars for Scholars will get--at the end of their graduation will they get some funds; but those who do not participate will not get any of that. We have pretty good support from that, but it is also an excellent way to get parents involved in the process.BRINSON: How many children, do you think, have been helped in some way by the
Foundation, in your twenty-six years tenure?ROBINSON: I would say at least five thousand. At least five thousand, because
all of those students have not officially enrolled in programs. I help anyone, if a student--and that’s what I get--a lot of it is informal. A student will come in--for instance, there was a young man that came to me this summer, and although we did not--we made some special rules--we do not usually take students after tenth grade. But this one student--and I have broken the rules several times--but this student just hadn’t heard of the program, and he had a twenty-eight and a 3.8 GPA; and had not, nobody had talked to him about what college he wants to attend.BRINSON: Twenty-eight ACT?
ROBINSON: Twenty-eight ACT and a 3.8, and he was--he came to the summer science
and math program, and uh, he had enrolled; he already had calculus, but he wanted to get close to the program so he took it again, just to serve as a resource, a mentor.BRINSON: Stop right there.
END SIDE ONE TAPE ONE
BEGIN SIDE TWO TAPE ONE
BRINSON: Okay.
ROBINSON: This young man served as a mentor to the others who was taking
calculus; because you know calculus, many students perceive as being very difficult. So this young man is now a Whitney M. Young scholar, and I have already secured--there are two places that uh he has a full four year scholarship to Florida A&M University, and he also has a four year scholarship to Centre. So he can take any--he’s economically disadvantaged, single parent, works at McDonald’s to assist himself; the epitome of sophistication.BRINSON: And he is how old?
ROBINSON: Seventeen.
BRINSON: Seventeen. Wow.
ROBINSON: Now one student I would love for you to meet, he’s at U K Law School.
He is a Whitney M. Young scholar, he graduated four points from ( ) from our Central high school and he had a twenty-eight on the ACT. He received nearly an entire financial package to Yale, and he now is in law school. And we have given him already two thousand dollars of support from the Whitney M. Young scholarship; and we will support him. Now this kid lived with his sister, he did not have the--he was in and out with his parents. His parents--I mean he is phenomenal. I haven’t ever seen anyone who has the sophistication of a middle-class kid, and he is, well I’m telling you too much and I don’t want to do that. Okay he had a brother, the same young man, he goes to Purdue and he is an engineer; had a 3.0 GPA, 3.2 or 4, at uh Purdue, and graduated. And it’s really--they are extremely handsome guys, and they carry themselves in a very middle-class manner; and I often say, “Gosh, it makes me wonder.” It just makes me wonder about a lot of things you know. How much do genes--are genes working with which to determine how you present yourself? I really think about that because, um in my own family, we were very poor but we acted middle-class. I went to the opera and so forth, and when I was in eighth grade I had been to La Traviata, I had seen Carmen and so forth; and uh, I just kind of acted middle-class. To come out of this extremely impoverished environment, I played tennis; I love to play checkers; I learned to swim; I did my--I think it had something to do with my upbringing, because my mother would never have allowed me to wear these clothes that, you know that hang down and so forth.BRINSON: Well you took advantage of the opportunities that were there to you, it
sounds like.ROBINSON: Yeah well, I think that the influence was more that my mom and dad--my
mom worked for this domestic family and she often said--and working there I received a lot of clothing. And that is what I received, because my classmates would have--I don’t know, have you ever heard of Drapes?BRINSON: Um-hmm
ROBINSON: I mean where your down here and there's a loop and all of that. All of
my classmates would wear all of that. In fact, I was labeled the “little white boy” because I dressed, you know, I bought my clothes of the rack and these kids--although they were economically disadvantaged--many of them worked and had jobs at the hotel and they had a lot of money and they dressed well. But uh, then they would come laughing, and here you come with these store bought from rummage sale clothes, that you know--and then half the time what would happen in our neighborhood was that on various corners there would be these rummage sales.BRINSON: We’ve talked about that, I remember that, that’s a great story. Of all
of the programs that you have been involved with at the Lincoln Foundation, do you have a favorite?ROBINSON: Oh yes I do. It’s the Whitney M. Young scholars program. It is, and
that is the one that I am having more trouble in getting—‘cause I have already, I was always close to the youngsters. And my role, since the beginning of the program, is to work with seniors and their parents. I talk directly to the college admissions people, I arrange that and the ( ) sessions; I arrange all of those, that was mine. And so each youngster in the program would have to see me and interact with me twice, for a one on one, and I determined, you know--what’s your GPA? What’s that—you’re not—you’re not talking about going to Harvard with a 2.0, no, no. Let’s get realistic in terms of what--here you are making a ten on the ACT and you want to go to Centre, no, no. We are going to do this realistic. And sometimes there, there are schools that take marginal students, that is their market. Are you aware of that?BRINSON: Oh yes.
ROBINSON: They take marginal students, and I’d say, “Now, come on, what you do
is go there and let’s see how you do after one year, if you do very well then I will assist you in getting into this other one that you want to do, want to get into.” And that is how I have done. I uh, extremely monitor their grades to see how--and that’s how I built--I want to be close to the youngsters, because otherwise I could be pre-occupied with fundraising and administration and program development. I feel like an administrator needs something to be hands on with young people, and it keeps you humble.BRINSON: You mentioned some students that were special to you, how about staff?
Do you have any favorite staff people who have worked with you over the years?ROBINSON: Yes, yes. One was a white person uh, who came to me and assisted me in
the beginning of the program, extremely uh, dedicated in terms of sharing my vision. In the early years he coordinated the science and math programs for me, he was uh, taught in the Catholic schools, uh he eventually left and went to New York to teach because his wife was from Columbia; Columbia the country. And she had just received her MBA from Bellarmine and she thought the opportunities were limited, so he uh, left here to teach in New York City.BRINSON: And his name?
ROBINSON: Patrick Compton.
BRINSON: Patrick Compton.
ROBINSON: Patrick Compton. Now he was extremely dedicated in that he joined in
my African-American fraternity, and uh that was some--there really . . .BRINSON: Tell me about that. That’s pretty unusual.
ROBINSON: Well, well what was going on was that Patrick and I had an excellent
working relationship, but some of my friends and some of my colleagues were suspicious of his motives. And they often would share that to me, that the relationship should be--there should be more of a distant relationship because the feeling was that he was positioning himself to succeed me as the President of the Lincoln Foundation; and so uh, that’s not unusual, the ( ) brothers joined the fraternities that I belonged to.BRINSON: Was he white also?
ROBINSON: He was African-American.
BRINSON: But at the time was your fraternity, obviously was predominantly
African-American, but open to whites?ROBINSON: Oh yeah, yes, it was, . . .
BRINSON: Tell me the name of your fraternity.
ROBINSON: Phi Beta Sigma the fraternity. We founded in 1914 at uh, umm at Howard
University, and some of our steady members are – were George Washington Carver, L A. Lott, Hughland Jack, who was the rural ( ).BRINSON: Well how did the members of the fraternity feel about Patrick joining it?
ROBINSON: Well, I , I – well things were open and Patrick could have easily, you
know this has been recent, and he could have recently, uh – said that it was discrimination which kept him out.BRINSON: Uh-hmm, this would have been how recent, what period are we talking about?
ROBINSON: Let me see, it was eightyish, eightyish.
BRINSON: Okay, Sam I got to stop if you going to ( )
ROBINSON: No, okay, okay, okay, all right, okay. It was eighties.
BRINSON: All right, it was eighties.
ROBINSON: Yeah and he, and especially when we had the Lincoln Institute reunion
one year, I mean they came down hard on him; because he was there for every activity. He was right there with me, he was my right-hand person, and then they said, “Uh-oh, Dr. Robinson you’d better watch what’s going on.” And so, I was--well to be very honest with you, I think if he had continued in that road he would have been the person to succeed me. Because it was based on the work ethics that he showed and the compassion that he had for all students.BRINSON: How long was he with you?
ROBINSON: Um, maybe eight to ten years. I mean in the summers he would work and
so forth. And uh, anytime I needed him to do something, we didn’t have to get into – you know to negotiate it, it was, “Here I am, and I want to support you.” And he took a lot of pressure off of me by addressing issues. And he was very much involved in – he was a friend to Father Robinson, if you ever read – uh Father Robinson was definitely one out there leading before his time. Uh, Pat was a member of the NAACP.BRINSON: I don’t know Father Robinson.
ROBINSON: Okay, well that is another story in itself. That’s the story of the
Urban Montessori. This is a man, that his death, when he was buried, he was an extremely – well that’s a whole new story.BRINSON: He’s a Catholic Priest though?
ROBINSON: He was at one time an Episcopalian Priest. And they went back, and he
came from a very affluent family; but he has pastored African-American kind of congregations. He lived in the West end at one time, uh he--all of this is--well eventually, well--all of this property that we own is not in a trust; but at the demise of the person--the sister, all of this will become owned by Urban Montessori, but we have three locations and so forth. But Father Robinson was a very, very liberal person, and when he died, which has been four or five years ago, uh he was a – his body, he had an African-American Funeral Home to, uh, be in charge. And his statement was that he wanted to bring white folks to the West end. He said, “If they wanted to see him, they had to come to the west end.” Really a dear friend of mine, and that’s why--well I get such a kick out of--this job is that uh, I know Father Robinson is smiling because – I was nearly compelled to do this by our friendship; and because he had been very, very generous in terms of donations. And again that came from – that is basically how we developed relationships with people. Going where—said, “We’re going to go up and see the Kentucky Center for the Arts, the Louisville Orchestra, so forth,.” And to me, you know I feel that people give to individuals who have good causes as their vehicles.BRINSON: So you basically uh, culted – developed your development scheme by
being a good net-worker.ROBINSON: Of course, yes. Yes. And knowing exactly what I was after I mean,
because many times people are very busy and going to the Orchestra at intermission I could catch you, and pigeon-hole you and talk to you. Otherwise I, some person on the--uh Administrative Assistant would give you flack in terms of trying to see you. And so that’s, that’s part of it, you know. Sometimes I have had to pay personally to go to an affair that costs maybe four or five hundred dollars, and I would use my own money; but I did that because it was an excellent place for me to meet some people and so forth, I’ll be seated at the table. Fortunately, I’ve had a wife that has been very supportive of that. In fact, last night--well last night the Mayor made a reference to his wife--his wife and I are uh, love to go to yard sales and consignment stores--and he brought out that I was very much involved in that. And so uh, my brothers and sisters all teased me about that because they would say, “Gosh, you make a very good salary, why do you continue to go to . . .” But that is just something I like to do. And so uh, umm. . . .BRINSON: Right, you shared the history with me when we talked earlier.
ROBINSON: Yes about the rummage sales.
BRINSON: And also, some incredibly good buys that you had found that way.
ROBINSON: My I knew you should have been in my home.
BRINSON: Yes.
ROBINSON: Unbelievable pieces of antiques and so forth, that I have gotten, but
uh, some peoples junk is others treasures. [laughing]BRINSON: Sam, talk to me a little bit about the Board um, the history of the
Board at the Lincoln Foundation. You said that uh prior to your being there they only met twice a year.ROBINSON: Yes. Yes.
BRINSON: Do they . . .
ROBINSON: Now the board meets quarterly.
BRINSON: Okay.
ROBINSON: But uh . . .
BRINSON: Who do you – who are the board members?
ROBINSON: Well, to be very honest with you, most of the present Board members
have been recruited by me. Yeah, have been recruited by me, and usually if there--if someone comes along, they ask me how I feel they will work out. Many of the Board members have come about by persons I have seen leadership skills and so forth, that have been--that I have asked to come on our Board, you know. For instance, a good example, Ted Rosk is presently Chairman of the Board. When Ted and I served on the Louisville Orchestra Board together, I said to Ted, I said, “Ted, you would make an excellent person to serve on my Board, on our Board.” And so I give the names to the nominating committee and so that is how it has been done over there. Another example is uh Allen Houston, Alice Huston, the mother of Allen Huston who plays for the New York Knickerbockers. Now I have known Alice a long time, and Alice first worked with the Urban League and she worked in recruitment at U of L; and her husband served as an Assistant Coach to Denny Crum. And you know he did become the coach of the University of Tennessee at one time. Now Alice--Alice has done quite well with trucking firms and so forth, and I said, “Alice you need to be on the Board.” And she said “Okay.” And that is basically how--then lately what we are trying to do is interest young people whose parents were very good Board members to come on board with the Foundation. Now that is tricky business because many of the times the young people do not share the same compassion. They have other causes and so forth, and then you have to nurture them, and develop them so that they will come on the Board.BRINSON: What about young people who actually have benefited from the programs,
as they matured, have you ever put any of them on the Board?ROBINSON: Yes we have. We have several, for instance, one of the Doctors, who
has received assistance for medical school from us, he is an, an anesthesiologist; and now he has changed his practice to pain--this whole new area of pain. He has served as a person on the Board. We have had several of our young people on the Board. For instance, right now that was one of the goals that we were going to do, is to--this year, is to begin to involve the young people in an advisory group, to help us with fundraising in terms of Lincoln Institute Alumni Associates, or something like that. Because many of them want to help, but they don’t know how to help, you know so that’s a--what we have attempted to do.BRINSON: One more question. Uh, now that you have retired from the Lincoln
Foundation and you’ve come on with Urban Montessori, and I take it you are going to do some big development work here too . . .ROBINSON: Yes I am.
BRINSON: . . .um, what else for you?
ROBINSON: Well I have, there is one position that will be announced later, that
I haven’t even told you about because we are in the negotiations stage.BRINSON: Okay.
ROBINSON: There are, with this school, two areas which need attention. The areas
are enrollment in some of the schools, and development. Uh, we need to increase the amount of--and we have a dinner coming up the twenty-fifth and it is sold out. So what we have to do in terms of the tables is that we have to start going to ( ) because we could not sell--and so next year we have to look for a larger venue. And uh I already envision that, but I have to be very careful that I do not try to steal some of the Lincoln Foundation supporters; but I think there is a lot out there for everyone and I am in the process of generating new supporters. Some of those that have not been tapped before, because, I mean we are very reluctant to even do that because I, I think it would not be the right thing to do. So I have been staying very clear, very clear of – because I see this as a door--and so some of this, some of these accolades will enhance my efforts.BRINSON: I believe I read, Sam, in one of the articles that you and your wife
were celebrating your retirement and you were going to buy an orange Mercedes. Did you do that?ROBINSON: Yes I did.
BRINSON: [laughing] Okay.
ROBINSON: I did, I did, I just like that. Well it was just something that uh,
that I just wanted to do. And I did it, and uh, uh,BRINSON: And your enjoying it?
ROBINSON: Well, not really. I, I haven’t gotten to the place where I, I you
know, could figure out the approach to this, and driving it, and so forth; because it would be ostentatious to some people, you know turn off some people; and I haven’t worked out that. I just kind of keep it uh,--right now it is in a parking place that I reserved this week because I know I’ve got to start this week driving--because I just don’t have time. As old folk would say, “I see that as a going to church car.” You take it home--and Huella tells me that I need to drive it to keep it in good shape.BRINSON: Is there anything else that you would like to add?
ROBINSON: You know I really would like to add something about my children and my
church. My wife and I have different demeanors. My wife is a very kind and compassionate person, and she has always been showering--she had difficulty in punishing. And I did not have any problem with punishing. And uh my daughters--punishing girls can be, you know somewhat difficult at times. But we--from my perspective, I reared them as if they were males in terms of expectations. Uh they always had jobs in the summer, as they could come here and work with me; and know that Dad doesn’t know when to come home. We’ll be working from eight to eight or whatever. They always had chores, I attempted to screen them from uh – by taking an interest in their boyfriends, and what they were telling them. We lived in a--then when school desegregation came they had always been pretty mobilized, and pretty much the only African-American--my daughter was the only African-American cheerleader at Ballard High School--but she developed that determination, I think, from what I tried to do with her. She is now the Director of Staff Development for the Beverly Enterprises, the Nursing Senior Citizens Home in Atlanta. And she says that both of us have played a role in terms of her having this aggressive nature. She is aggressive, very, very aggressive. But I also say that she has developed excellent human relations skills because of her upbringing. She has always been in an atmosphere where she was one of two African-Americans and she has been able to hold her own. Uh, the other thing that . . .BRINSON: Now she’s the oldest?
ROBINSON: She’s the oldest. And, and, she – the younger daughter is not as
aggressive. For instance, within the family you will say--everybody calls her my daughter. And my other younger daughter is my wife’s daughter.BRINSON: Tell me their names. The oldest . . .
ROBINSON: The oldest one is Debra. Debra, and she is married to a young man who
is – who is right now preparing to become a Lieutenant in the Atlanta Police Department . . .BRINSON: I have to stop and turn this over.
END SIDE TWO TAPE ONE
BEGIN SIDE ONE TAPE TWO
ROBINSON: . . . in the uh, Atlanta Police Department, he works in homicide. Now,
he also is a part-time Funeral Director. His father owns a funeral home in Atlanta. So uh, that – the other daughter, Charlotte, is uh married to a fine young man who is a--works in computers, and uh, she works as a respiratory therapist at DeKalb Medical Center in Atlanta. She lives in Stone Mountain, and the other daughter lives in Gwinnett, and they both own their homes. They are buying their homes. And my one daughter, the oldest daughter, has two boys, and they are twelve and six; and the other daughter has two daughters, three and five. And my daughter informed me, my younger daughter, informed me that--at the Christmas holidays--that she will be having twins in July.BRINSON: Oh my, your going to have your hands full.
ROBINSON: Yes, yes. So we have always been extremely supportive and we are very
blessed that we have two fine sons-in-law who, they belong to church, they go to bible study and so forth. Um one issue that I have more than any other has to do with uh, the availability of items for my grandchildren. I think that in many instances, that they uh, over do it. I think you can over do it, and I think that I would like to see them become a little old and more aggressive in discipline and so forth. Each group of young people spend two to three weeks with us in the summer so I get a chance to work on some of that, and you know we are trying to develop – they are extremely bright children; and uh, its just that they’re going to have to be nurtured.BRINSON: Well thank you very much.
ROBINSON: Thank you.
END OF INTERVIEW
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