Oral History Interview with Romania, Don, & Angela Marshall

“Stories From the Balcony”

Interviews about the Grand Theatre in Frankfort, Kentucky

Interview on Video with

Romania Marshall

On Location at her home in Dayton, Ohio

Tape 2 – 2007OH02.30b

Conducted by Joanna Hay

March 28, 2010

This project has been supported by the Kentucky Oral History Commission

And Save The Grand Theatre, Inc.

BEGINNING OF TAPE 2

Romania Marshall’s husband, Dr. Don Marshall, has joined the interview off camera. Audio only.

HAY: Did you walk in and carry out?

ROMANIA: [Technical interruption] [ ] Fitzgerald’s? We went to Fitzgerald’s.

DON: [ ]

ROMANIA: You couldn’t eat there.

DON: Yeah. Oh yeah.

HAY: Is that the one on the corner?

ROMANIA: And they took their eating out. Rather than let us come in, they took it out.

DON: That was about in the middle of the [ ]

ROMANIA: And what was the drugstore on Broadway and St. Clair, Don? What was the name of it? Was that Seraphini?

HAY: Yeah. That’s…the restaurant is Seraphini now. Was it called Seraphini…was a drugstore?

DON: [ ]

ROMANIA: But what was the one on Main and St. Clair named?

DON: I forget now. Seraphini and uh…I forget now [ ].

ROMANIA: [Cough] I thought of that last night and I couldn’t think of it.

DON: Yeah…uh…

ROMANIA: He’s the one that said he didn’t want our money.

0: 1:00 -0: 2:00DON: [Chuckle] Yeah. Let’s see…the place where [ ] even down on the corner where the train station…uh…somewhere down in there. And this guy was cookin’…oh gosh! He was a fabulous cook. He was a black guy. And we used to have to go in and carry out lunches and whatever you wanted.

HAY: So you would have…you could walk in.

DON: Yeah

HAY: And you could order standing there.

DON: Right

HAY: But you couldn’t sit.

DON: You couldn’t sit. Hmmm.

HAY: And what years were you talking about now?

DON: We’re talking about, I guess, the forties and…and back prior to that. I think it went on up to about ’50, that you couldn’t do this. Then, I think, they started having a movement. She was involved in a movement with uh…

ROMANIA: What’s he saying about me?

DON: With…uh…what’s his name?

ANGELA: Martin Luther King?

DON: Martin Luther King

HAY: Martin Luther King? Because he came to Frankfort.

DON: Right. And then…oh, she was proud.

ROMANIA: Oh yeah! I [ ] told her that.

DON: She was involved with Martin. You remember seeing Martin?

ROMANIA: You were there!

HAY: Do you remember it, Angela?

ANGELA: No. My brother had his autograph and I erased it, I just found out.

HAY: Ooops.

DON: And my wife went with Mrs. Holmes…Helen Holmes…

ROMANIA: Say what?

HAY: Ok

DON: Do you remember…

ANGELA: [Explains the ongoing conversation to Romania in the background]

HAY: I don’t know her. Is that Doctor Holmes’s…well, she said there was a…

DON: Doctor Holmes

HAY: Doctor Holmes’s wife?

DON: Yeah. Helen Holmes taught at Kentucky State. She was in the English Department for about…uhh…thirty years or more. Where, I guess, they’ve probably got a picture, you know, around there because she was a pretty big fixture at that time with Kentucky State. Of course, when I went to Kentucky State, I think there were three hundred students there.

HAY: Mmhmm

DON: Yeah

HAY: Changed a lot since then.

DON: Changed a lot. Oh, gosh! Yeah. And Exim…who they named the uh…

HAY: The uh…

DON: Gym, or whatever it is.

HAY: The student center or the…

DON: Yeah. The student center, yeah. He and…uh…re…uh…what’s his name? The uh…in the uh…Department of Finance? His wife was Biology…uh…she had a doctor…Rigel! Is Rigel still there?

HAY: I don’t know that name.

DON: Ok. He was in the…uh…not the Finance Department, but economics. Yeah

HAY: Ok

DON: Yeah. He was the head of the Economics Department. Of course, I was there under Carmichael. I…uh…of course, when I was in high school, I was…Of course it was…at Kentucky State then, it was about twelve, fourteen, boys and Mr. Carmichael who was in charge of the Sociology Department at that time…uh…he…he got me from down at Mayo Underwood and did Romeo and Juliet. Uh…Gosh! [Chuckle] That was the most learning that I had done. Then after we had done that, he wanted to do MacBeth. I had sort of grown a little bit and my memory wasn’t as rapid so…we postponed. I kept promising that, “Oh, we’ll do that later.”

HAY: It’s hard to memorize those parts.

DON: It came pretty easy. I think that’s what helped me in Medical School. I had a pretty good memory. Sort of, almost, like photographic, you know. Once you get it in there, it’s pretty tight.

HAY: That’s great.

DON: So! Those were the good ole years. In spite of all the hardships, and all the turmoil…

ROMANIA: What’s he saying about me?

DON: And all the regrets…

ROMANIA: Or why are they looking over here? [Chuckle]

DON: She probably wonders…uh…you know…how we stood all this. And came out of it feeling not too bad about it.

HAY: Well, that’s what…

ROMANIA: They’re talking about me.

HAY: That’s what this project, you know, with The Grand Theatre…

ROMANIA: Why are they looking at me?

HAY: The history of The Grand Theatre, and of course the segregated balcony…

DON: Uhmm

ROMANIA: I saw my name come out of Don’s mouth.

HAY: It sort of brings back all of those memories for people.

DON: Right.

HAY: And so much of my goal in this project is for…to hear…you know…

ROMANIA: You’ve got the four-generation picture?

HAY: To hear those memories and talking about it, and uh…

DON: Yeah

ROMANIA: Did you dust it off?

HAY: In reflection, what does it mean now.

DON: Sort of reminisce.

HAY: Yeah.

DON: Yeah. What does it mean now? [Technical disturbance] [ ]

0: 3:00 -0: 4:00HAY: And what did it mean then too? What did you feel…you know…how did you feel about it then and…

ROMANIA: What’s holding me?

HAY: In reflection, how has it changed?

DON: Yeah. Of course, a lot of times when you…when you grew up with something, you know, it becomes a part of you…

ROMANIA: Where’s that picture I want to show them?

DON: To the extent that it’s really not, you know, you know it’s wrong and you know that it shouldn’t be like that, but it doesn’t…a lot of individuals it doesn’t hurt to the extent where it really traumatizes them and messes them up. You know, some of them, regardless, you know, they never did like it, and they want to do something about it and this type of thing. But, you just…I mean, if you wanted to go to the movies, you sat up in the balcony. If you didn’t, [Chuckle] stay at home. That’s what it amounted to. Uh…so uh…those were the good ole years. Frankfort…uh…a lot of memories. And…uh…it’s just a lot of memories.

HAY: Yep. She keeps saying, “Oh, I know I’m getting old because I keep thinking back.”

DON: [Chuckle] She used to be a walking encyclopedia. You’d ask about anybody, she’d give you their birth date and, you know, everything that go along with them.

ROMANIA: Look, Don. I want you to see The Grand Theatre.

DON: Yeah. I sort of looked at it before. [Don enters the camera] It seems to be a trend.

ROMANIA: That’s The Grand Theatre.

DON: Even in Dayton, they’ve…

ROMANIA: Have you seen it?

DON: No

ROMANIA: Since it looked like that? Me neither.

DON: They’ve remodeled downtown.

ROMANIA: It looks like the Big City, doesn’t it?

DON: Yeah. Remember downtown? They did that same thing.

ROMANIA: Huh?

DON: They did the same thing downtown to that theatre.

ROMANIA: Yeah, I think so. Same place isn’t it? They just fixed it up.

DON: No, I’m talking about in Dayton.

HAY: It is a trend to fix up these old theatres.

DON: Yeah. I know. So what is the name of that theatre, Angie?

ROMANIA: Look! I like this right here.

ANGELA: Victory Theatre.

DON: Victory, yeah. They made it sort of a modern art…I mean an art…whatever…what she’s talking about.

HAY: And in Lex…a Performing Arts Center…in Lexington, they’re going to be bringing back The Lyric Theatre, which was African-American…in the African-American community.

DON: Uhmmm

HAY: So…umm…but this is…this is…umm…over nine thousand tickets have been sold since…since September including almost two thousand school children coming to live performances and things.

DON: That’s great.

HAY: Yeah.

DON: It’s good culture.

HAY: Yeah. It exposes kids to live performances. The New York Theatre Ballet came, so they got to see ballerinas in Frankfort. It was pretty cool.

DON: That is good.

HAY: Yep.

DON: Those small towns, they usually miss all that cultural, you know, aspect of living.

HAY: It’s…

DON: They can only read about it and see it on TV and computers.

HAY: Right. Right.

DON: Well!

HAY: So…

DON: So in coming up here, you got a little information.

HAY: I have. We’ve been talking about your Aunt Callie too.

DON: Oh.

HAY: Your Aunt Callie Weathers.

DON: Yeah. She was quite a lady.

ROMANIA: Hmm?

ANGELA: Talking about Aunt Callie.

ROMANIA: Aunt Callie?

ANGELA: Uh huh

DON: She was sort of…it was…uhh…what was it? Four sisters? About five. There was Uncle Lewis. Of course, everybody usually knew Uncle Lewis probably in Frankfort. Everybody.

HAY: Is that your…Weathers? Was he Weathers?

DON: No. He was Harvey.

HAY: Harvey

DON: He was Harvey. He used to ride his bicycle, and he used to work at Muses. He worked at Capitol Church for probably Father [ ].

HAY: Ok

DON: I don’t know what faith you are, but he was at the Catholic Church there. He was sort of, well, the janitor or a fancy name. Sexton or whatever.

HAY: Uh hmmm

DON: And he was there for many, many years, but getting back to Aunt Callie. She was sort of a family centerpiece. You know. That all of them depended on her…and…for information and control and stability, and all that. She was a pretty good force.

HAY: We were talking about Callie Weathers and Roberta Wilson because they both worked in The Grand Theatre.

DON: Right

HAY: And the different types of personalities that they had.

DON: Oh gosh! Miss Wilson [Chuckle], she…she didn’t take any of your stuff at all. Callie Weathers was sort of laid back, you know. And she was the mother of the Doctor Weathers that I was telling you about.

HAY: Oh, your cousin. Yes.

DON: She put him through school. Working. Her husband was a dentist, but he passed away very early, and she put him through school. He went to Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. And she put him through medical school and made all these sacrifices like washing, ironing, and working over to The Grand Theatre. And she got a little pension from the government. But, she put her son through medical school, and that seems to be a characteristic of black families that, you know, they sort of subdued their wishes…desires…to see their children…

ROMANIA: [ ]

HAY: For their children.

DON: Yeah. That was pretty strong in the black family.

HAY: Uhmm Heart.

DON: Yeah, Aunt Callie was quite a lady. All right. I know you’ve got to be getting back. Are you heading back today, or are you going…

HAY: I’m going to head back in a little bit. We’ll…yeah…we’ll finish up…we’ll just be a few…a little more sitting here.

DON: Oh, I’m sorry.

HAY: No, we’re doing great. I was switching tapes, and…I’m just going to…uh…I’m going to interject…this is Tape 2 of our interview with Romania Marshall on March 28th, 2010. And previously we were hearing the voice of Dr. Don Marshall, Romania’s husband. So, I wanted to ask about…I was telling your dad…your husband…about how to me the important part of this project is talking about the fact that the theatre was segregated, and now that it’s back into, you know, it’s alive again, everybody is talking about those memories. And so, could you ask her what she…however you think she would like to talk about her feelings about The Grand as a segregated theatre, and what she felt about it then, and then maybe we’ll ask her about what she feels about it in reflection.

0: 5:00 -0: 6:00ANGELA: Ok. She wants to know how you felt about the fact that The Grand Theatre was segregated.

ROMANIA: How I felt about…?

ANGELA: Segregation

ROMANIA: Segregation

ANGELA: At The Grand Theatre.

ROMANIA: In Frankfort? How I felt about it? Well, I didn’t like it, you know, but there for a while nobody did anything about it, so it just went on and on. Then, when my children were smaller [Technical disturbance], and Angie was about to start school, the NAACP attempted to integrate the elementary school because a nice superintendent had already integrated high school. We had a time of it for a while, but we finally got it integrated because we lived two doors from the school…the Murray Street School. So we used Angie as bait. [Cough] And we had several meetings about it. And we finally got it integrated, because when we were young, we had to walk a mile and a half to school. When there was one right up there on Murray Street, right from us.

HAY: You lived on Murray Street. Couldn’t go to the Murray Street School.

ROMANIA: And then, when we…uh…tried…were going to integrate like I was talking about the drugstores. But I couldn’t be in on going in there, because I don’t think I could let somebody hit me without hitting them back. And one of the things was you didn’t hit. No matter what they did to you, you didn’t hit them. [Cough] So I was on the telephone committee…

HAY: They didn’t want to send you…

ROMANIA: So I wouldn’t have to be in on it. [Chuckle] ‘Cause I told…Miss Holmes was President of NAACP. She was the doctor’s wife there. And I told her, I said, “I don’t think I can let somebody hit me without hitting them back.” So I was on the telephone committee. I watched, and I called and told her the progress of what was going on. And that drugstore…I can’t think of the name of it…there on Main and St. Clair. One of them was Seraphini Drugs.

HAY: That was the one on Broadway.

ROMANIA: Was that on Broadway? Ok. Was it…?

HAY: Muses?

ROMANIA: I don’t know.

HAY: Fitzgerald’s?

ROMANIA: But we went in this one on…

ANGELA: Fitzgerald’s or Muses?

ROMANIA: No. Fitzgerald’s was up there.

ANGELA: Muses?

ROMANIA: Who?

ANGELA: Muses?

ROMANIA: Muses? Muses was a restaurant. And we couldn’t go in there. And you just accepted it, you know. My son said we were the “do nothin’s” because we didn’t do anything about it. [Cough] Excuse me. But, we were…you were brought up like that. You knew you couldn’t go in, so you didn’t go in. And there was a…[Cough] Oh, excuse me. …a hamburger place that was over on the street by the bridge. By the old bridge. And they say…I have to say what they said, because mother wouldn’t let us go in there because you had to come in the back door, and stand and give your order. And they’d give your order in a…they had a great big, long basket with a long handle…and they would give…put your food in this basket. You put your money in it. But, you couldn’t get up front where the people were. You had to be back here. They said…I never saw it. Like I said, I didn’t see it because Mother told us not to go in there. If they wouldn’t serve you right, don’t spend your money. But that’s what they said they did.

HAY: Was that uh…

ROMANIA: But it’s so silly!

HAY: Pete’s Corner? Pete’s Corner? Ask her if it was called Pete’s Corner.

ANGELA: What was the name of it?

ROMANIA: I can’t think of it.

ANGELA: Was it Pete’s Corner?

ROMANIA: Who?

ANGELA: Pete? Pete’s Corner?

ROMANIA: Pizza Court?

HAY: Or The White Light?

ANGELA: Pete’s Corner?

ROMANIA: I can’t think of the name of it.

ANGELA: White Light?

ROMANIA: I don’t think that was it. I… [Romania reads a note] Nooo. Pete Ushini? No. He had…he had a restaurant on Second and St. Clair. Just before you go a block from the bridge. Old bridge. That was Pete Ushini’s place. I can’t remember the name because you just sort of didn’t pay too much attention to it because you couldn’t use it. But Mother told us, “If they won’t treat you like a human, don’t spend your money.”

0: 7:00 …-0: 8:00[Technical disturbance]

ROMANIA: So we never got to go in there.

HAY: But you…

ROMANIA: And this drugstore I’m thinking about, you could go in and buy something, but you couldn’t sit down. And when Angie…it was Donna…Donna and Paula Ann…my friend’s daughter and my daughter…we went in there to buy an ice cream cone, and there was a little white girl in there sitting in her seat all by herself. And, when she saw Donna and them, she fell in love with them, and she wanted them. And she went and got them and sat them in a seat. And I looked at the man…but I made them get up because I knew they shouldn’t, but this little girl…and she cried because they couldn’t sit with her. She gave them a spoonful of her ice cream.

HAY: That’s so sweet.

ROMANIA: But when you think back, it was so silly the things they did. No, Carty! Carty! She knows she’s done something wrong. Look at her. Don’t hurt her, Angie. Make her lie down. She’s friendly. That’s why I know you have to teach them to kill. ‘Cause she…she wouldn’t bother anything. They say they take little kittens and put them in a pillowslip and make them kill them.

HAY: They train them to kill is what they do. They’re trained to kill.

ROMANIA: And I don’t like that fighting. They make them fight.

DON: That was Frankfort Drugs on that corner. Frankfort Drugs.

HAY: Frankfort Drugstore.

ROMANIA: Frankfort [Technical blip]

DON: Frankfort Drugstore

ANGELA: Frankfort Drugstore

ROMANIA: Huh?

ANGELA: Frankfort Drugstore

ROMANIA: Frankfort…?

ANGELA: Drugstore

HAY: On that corner.

DON: On the corner. Drugstore.

ROMANIA: I’m not getting it.

ANGELA: Drugstore.

ROMANIA: Drugstore? Oh, that’s the name of that? Oh. Well, they said they didn’t want our money.

HAY: And at which corner was that?

ROMANIA: And I told my Girl Scouts…

DON: That was uh…that was St. Clair right across from the old capitol on that corner.[ ]

HAY: So Frankfort Drug and St…

ANGELA: Tell her where it was.

HAY: Ok. Not where Seraphini’s Drugs…

DON: Seraphini Drugs…uh…Seraphini’s and Fitzgerald’s really, I think, [ ]

HAY: And then there was Frankfort Drugstore on that opposite corner?

DON: Right

HAY: At St. Clair and Broadway?

DON: Right

HAY: Ok. Across from the Old Capitol.

ANGELA: What did you tell your Girl Scouts? What did you tell your Girl Scouts?

ROMANIA: What what?

ANGELA: Did you tell your Girl Scouts?

ROMANIA: Did we sell it?

ANGELA: What did you tell…

DON: I’ve got to get her a hearing aid. She’s got to make an appointment. The one with the hearing aid was helpful. But, the weather’s so bad, we’ve got to make an appointment.

ANGELA: What did you tell your Girl Scouts?

ROMANIA: Oh! I had a troop of Brownies. When umm…Troop 66 of Girl Scouts. I told them not to go in that drugstore. And one of them went one time and one of them came back and said, “She went in there!” But, I enjoyed it. I kept it until he went to med school, then I had to give it up because I got a job. I worked for the state for four years.

DON: It helped me along.

HAY: Yep. You had to…you couldn’t be earning money then.

DON: Yeah [Chuckle]

HAY: So tell me about the Martin Luther King March.

ROMANIA: What Angie?

ANGELA: Tell her about Martin Luther King’s March. Tell her all of it.

HAY: When he came to Frankfort.

ROMANIA: Oh! Yeah. He came…like…like I said, Miss Holmes was head of the NAACP. She lived across the street from me, right next to Miss Wilson. So when Martin came to town, he came to her house. And she brought him over to my house. And he met my children because you…you had to…

HAY: Shoot, that’s my phone.

ROMANIA: Carty, No!

ANGELA: Carty!

ROMANIA: Sit! Now stay!

HAY: Ok

ROMANIA: Oh, so you had to get permission for your children to go to the march. So I got permission for mine, and we marched up Capitol Avenue. I was holding his hand, Angie was holding mine, and we marched up Capitol Avenue to the Capitol.

HAY: You were holding Martin Luther King’s hand?

ROMANIA: What?

ANGELA: You were holding Martin Luther King’s hand.

ROMANIA: Huh?

ANGELA: You were holding Martin Luther King’s…

ROMANIA: Yeah! I hugged him! [Laughter] I was so glad to meet him in person. He was nice. And we had a…what did we have a…a meeting there. People came. And you opened your house to him. Let him use the bathroom. [Technical disturbance] But Miss Holmes…Miss Holmes was an English teacher at Kentucky State. Head of the English Department. She was Dr. Holmes’s wife. And when she came to Frankfort, he was still in medical school. But that’s about all. We marched up Capitol Avenue and I was holding his…I made sure I was going to hold his hand. [Laughter]

DON: They uh…they uh…arrested some of the folk for sitting in too. We put up some money to help get them out.

ROMANIA: What’s he saying?

ANGELA: When the people got arrested for the sit in.

ROMANIA: When the people…

ANGELA: Got arrested

ROMANIA: Got arrested…

ANGELA: For the sit in.

ROMANIA: For the sit in? Well, see I don’t know about them getting arrested. But, I know one of the waiters threw some water in one of them’s face. That was in that drugstore.

DON: [Don comes into the camera’s view] Was it that we agreed to…

ROMANIA: Huh?

DON: Was it that we agreed to help with the bond if they did get arrested then?

ROMANIA: Did they agree to?

DON: Yeah

ROMANIA: They catch you too?

DON: Yeah

ROMANIA: Oh

DON: I thought they got…

ROMANIA: Was anybody arrested?

DON: Evidently not, if you don’t remember it.

ROMANIA: I don’t think so.

DON: Yeah. Maybe I was…that was the part that I was talking about.

HAY: Part of the…maybe part of the preparation? That if they should’ve…

DON: Right.

ROMANIA: But it was fun.

DON: Part of the preparation just in case, you want everything in place.

ROMANIA: Just to see how people’s mind runs, you know? Because Miss Holmes told them we wasn’t going to buy anything. He says, “I don’t want your money.” He told us that. And I said, “Well, you’re not getting mine.” But the things they did…now when I was in high school, there were four girls from Owenton, Kentucky, and they paid for them to come up to Mayo Underwood on the…on the Greyhound Bus. Each day. And go back. Rather than let them go to school down there. Segregation was expensive, because like Mayo Underwood, it was a wonderful school. But they had to build it…build it for the Afro-Americans because all those other schools you couldn’t go in. And that didn’t make since. Like I said, we lived two doors down from Murray Street School, but Angie and them had to walk a mile and a half.

HAY: To school.

ROMANIA: And walk. Didn’t have a bus.

HAY: Angie, do you remember walking to uh…

ROMANIA: My first…

HAY: It was Donna and Don.

ANGELA: Yeah.

HAY: So, tell the story of Angie going…did you go to Murray Street? Were you the first?

ROMANIA: What?

HAY: Tell that story.

ANGELA: That I was the first uh…to go to Murray Street.

ROMANIA: Yeah. Well, it was a bunch of you all that went.

ANGELA: Yeah. The whole neighborhood.

ROMANIA: But you were one of them.

HAY: And the first year. It was the first group.

ROMANIA: And I sewed four of her dresses for going to school. Did you like Murray Street?

ANGELA: No. I wanted to go up on campus.

HAY: Rosenwald?

ROMANIA: Angie was eight years old when we moved here to Dayton.

HAY: So tell…

ROMANIA: And she cried everyday for month. She didn’t like Dayton.

HAY: Tell that…

ROMANIA: She couldn’t ride her bike around like she could in Frankfort. Like we lived on Murray, and Aunt Callie lived in our house on Second Street, and she could ride by herself on her bike down to Aunt Callie’s. But she couldn’t do it here. When we first moved here, we lived on Benson over there across from the hospital, Good Sam, because my husband was doing his residency there. When we first came up here…when he first came, he did his intern at the V.A.. And we came up for one year. And he promised Dr. Holmes he was coming back and takeover. He got up here. He saw all that money flashing around. He didn’t think about Frankfort.

HAY: Ask her to tell the story of the uh…of you…of what you did so that Angie could go to Murray Street.

0: 9:00 -0: 10:00ANGELA: Tell her about what you did so that I could go to Murray Street.

ROMANIA: Tell her about what?

ANGELA: How you got me into Murray.

ROMANIA: How I got…?

ANGELA: Me…

ROMANIA: You?

ANGELA: Into Murray Street School.

ROMANIA: I did! We integrated.

ANGELA: Tell her.

ROMANIA: It wasn’t anything. We just had them started…when Miss Holmes took over NAACP, like I said, high school was already integrated. [Tape disturbance] So we took on the job of [ ] the Board of Education. The pediatrician was there. His name was Dr. Blair. Well, and…uh…we had several meetings, but we finally integrated it. That must have been in…I’d say it was about…I don’t know. Because I used to know when the last year at Mayo Underwood, but I’ve forgotten now.

HAY: So, if you were seven or eight…or were you six?

ANGELA: I was…

HAY: You were six going into Murray.

ANGELA: Five.

ROMANIA: Huh?

ANGELA: How old? I was five, wasn’t I?

ROMANIA: Five. So that would’ve meant it was ’63. That was just before your daddy went to medical school. No, he went in ’63.

ANGELA: I thought it was ’62.

ROMANIA: ’63, because he graduated in ’67.

ANGELA: [ ]

HAY: Well, that’s exciting to hear about.

ROMANIA: No. No. She’s alright.

HAY: That time. And also your mother’s role in…in that transition. So…let’s see. Ask…I wanted to know…

ROMANIA: People don’t want a big, old dog jumping on them. [Chuckle]

HAY: What did The Grand Theatre mean to the African-American community?

ANGELA: What did The Grand Theatre mean to the African-American…

ROMANIA: What did it mean? It meant the only place they could go for entertainment. They had The Bottom then, but you know, everybody didn’t go in The Bottom. [Chuckle] The Bottom was kind of rough. But, other than…that was the only place you could go for entertainment.

HAY: So when you got there…was your…your friends were there? Your family?

ROMANIA: But, we didn’t know any better. We enjoyed it.

HAY: So your friends and your family were there? At the theatre? So it was a gathering place.

ANGELA: It was a gathering place.

ROMANIA: Gather…

ANGELA: Friends and family.

ROMANIA: Yeah, you’d meet there sometimes.

HAY: See if there’s anything else…

ROMANIA: No, no no.

HAY: I think those were most of my…hang on. I think those were most of my questions. I want to get a photograph. I want you to hold this. Will you hold this for the camera? And tell me about that picture.

ROMANIA: What does she want me to do? Hold it?

ANGELA: Hold it for the camera, and tell…and tell her about it.

ROMANIA: And tell her about it. Ok, this is the picture. Four generations of my family. This is my mother. Me. There’s Angie. And there’s a new baby, Sherika.

HAY: In what year was that taken?

ROMANIA: This was Sherika? Yeah, ’80. 1980.

HAY: That’s beautiful. Is there anything else that you want to talk about, or any memories or stories that you’d like to tell before we finish this up?

ANGELA: Are there any other memories or stories that you want to tell?

ROMANIA: About Frankfort? Let’s see if I know…I’m trying to think of somebody that did something. [Chuckle]

HAY: She’ll think of more tonight.

ROMANIA: No. Let’s see. I can’t think of anybody that’s worth mentioning.

HAY: Now I know she already told it once, and I have it on camera, but I want her to tell about Martin Luther King and holding his hand again. [Chuckle]

ANGELA: She wants you to tell about Martin Luther King and holding his hand again.

ROMANIA: Martin Luther King and what?

ANGELA: Holding his hand.

HAY: I know…just tell. I want to hear it again.

ROMANIA: My children and I marched up Capitol Avenue, and I was holding Dr. King’s hand. I made sure I got to hold it. [Laughter] And like I said, you had to…they wouldn’t let the children out to go. You had to have special permission. So I got my children out though, and we marched up Capitol Avenue. To The Capitol.

HAY: I bet that was a great day. [Chuckle] Alright. I think we’re done. Are we done?

0: 11:00 -0: 12:00The camera is turned off and back on, showing a picture of two children, which is sitting on the floor with a brick background.

0: 13:00 -0: 14:00HAY: So, can you describe what we’re looking at here?

DON: Those are the pictures of my two children, Donna and Don, Junior. And Donna was the one that I told you passed away at the age of twenty-seven. She was an attorney. And my son, Don, Junior, is presently a psychiatrist in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

HAY: Ok. And then this one.

DON: That’s a graduation picture from medical school of Don Marshall with his family in place, and the one to the…my left is Don, Junior. Then Donald E. Marshall, M.D. Then that is my little daughter, Angela. My wife, Romania. And my older daughter, Donna.

HAY: Ok. [Photograph is changed back to first photo of the two children, Donna and Don, Junior] I’m going to do this one again. I might not have had a good focus on that one. [Photograph changes again off camera] Ok. Can you tell me who this is?

DON: This is my younger daughter, Angela. That makes up the uh…the family.

ROMANIA: I’d like to have this taken and lighten it up.

END OF TAPE 2

0: 15:00 …-0: 16:00END OF INTERVIEW

Total time: 1 hour, 42 minutes, 26 seconds