short memores of the segregated medical and business environments in Lawrence, Kansas

I,  Lamerle  (Bolin) McCoy,  was born in Topeka, Kansas, in 1916. I spent much of my adult life in Lawrence, Kansas.  I worked at the University of Kansas in the Greek system and was later the first black nurses' aide at the Lawrence Visiting Nurses Association. I have received numerous awards for volunteer work in the community--at the Ballard Center, EKAN, Hannah's House, Children's Hour Nursery and other organizations. I and my husband, Harry, were the parents of one daughter.

I have been a member of the Church of God and Christ for more than fifty years and a licensed evangelist since 1965. On May 12, 2007, I and my  sister, Arlene Wilson, received honorary doctorates from the Faith Bible College in Independence, Missouri.

Segregated Medical Professions

I remember that we had a dentist and black medical doctors.  And, of course, they made house calls.  I have no recollection of anyone that I knew going to the hospital when I was growing up because the doctors made house calls and children were delivered in the home, not in the hospital like they are now.  And, see now it's mandatory that they go.  But at home they had the midwives that would help the doctors or the midwives delivered the children.  And, oh, also if you had to go to the dentist it was... and I can remember there were three dentists I think, Dr. DePriest and Dr. Ransom, I can't think, but there were three black dentists.  And, Dr. Ransom, the dentist, had a brother that was an MD.

Dr. Ransom loved to eat and he was a large man.  And when he would come to make a house call, please don't have anything cooking because he wanted to know what that was before he would look at the patient.  If he didn't get to eat before he saw the patient, you can rest assured that if it was something he liked, he was going to eat before he left. I thought that was kind of cute. Nine chances out of ten he wasn't going to get too much money. If he would go to place where they were canning vegetables, his pay was subject to be a couple of jars of vegetables and maybe they would kill a chicken.

Visiting Nurses Association

 When the Visiting Nurses was started, Lawrence felt that it had  no need for that type of service.  So, when we started, there was a director, registered nurse, dietician, a therapist, secretary, and aide.  That was it.  And I was spread out in I don't know how many areas.  But, not only was the Visiting Nurses' service not well received, it was the fact that the only aide that they had was black.  And that didn't peel over too well.  I was rejected a lot of times.  And I learned to roll with the punches, and some of my dearest friends...  I acquired some of my dearest friends from working with the Visiting Nurses.  Whereas, when I first went there, they did not like black people.  They not want me there, and they would let me know that they didn't.  And that, of course, made me feel like, uh...  you know?  But I learned that there was a way to deal with that.  That was my job.  I was working and I had a job to do.  So I would let them know that "this why I'm here, I was sent here to do this and I will tell you what I was told to tell you.  And if you want to accept it that's fine.  If you don't, I will not perform what I am supposed to do and I appreciate you listening," and go on about my business.  And most of the time they accepted it.  But there were always some that didn't. 

My Sister's Hat

 She saw this hat and she went into the store and, oh, she wanted that hat, and the lady kept trying to discourage her really, because she told her the price and all this kind of stuff.  And, so, my sister settled for that. So, she said,  "Well, when I get the money I'm going back there and buy that hat."  And that's what she did.  So, she waited until the lady was at the back of the store.  Because when you catch  the transportation, you stand there on the street waiting for your ride or your bus.

When my sister  looked in there and saw that she was at the back of the store, she ran in there real fast, got this hat and put it on. She put it on and, see, that was  a "no-no," because you did not try on any hats  because she was black.

When the lady found that she had this hat on, she ran up there and said,  "Uh, could I help you?"  My sister  said,  "I want to buy this hat."  The lady  said,  "But you're not supposed to."  And she was just looking around, I guess for her boss, looking around to see if she was going to get fired for letting this woman try this hat on.  And, so, my sister said,  "Don't worry about it, I'm going to buy this hat."  And, so, of course the lady was relieved.  But it was so funny how she just ran up there to get that hat off her head.  Because it was just that way, you didn't try on your hat, you didn't try on too many clothes that I know of.  Now maybe there were some stores that you could, but the ones that I know about you could not.  Especially a hat store, you did not try hats.

Restaurant Service

Wherever they would sell food, you could buy it,  but you couldn't sit down and eat it.  And then there were some places that, if you did eat, it would be back out of sight.

A little restaurant had  wonderful hamburgers and hotdogs.  And, posted up them great big letters "NEGROS AND MEXICANS SERVED IN SACKS."  You could buy it and take it out.  And when it said that, that means that black people would have to take their food out in a sack, the Mexicans would have to take theirs in a sack.  I can remember that very vividly, because before I moved here, we used to come down here for different things of entertainment, and we'd go there to get a hamburger and that sign was there.