Ruby Nathanial, 1973

File — Box: 2, Folder: 10

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Mrs. Nathanial was born January 17th, 1907 and attended Edison Elementary School, West Jr. High, and West High School. She was very shy in junior high and had few friends. She worked mostly as a maid for private families, beginning when she was thirteen years old. She didn’t have trouble getting jobs and says her employers were nice people. During the Great Depression, both she and her husband experienced wage cuts but were ultimately okay. The first time Mrs. Nathanial ever saw another African American was when she was twelve because all of her childhood friends were White. However, she rarely ventured out with her White friends because she felt she would be discriminated against or turned away from a place of business such as theaters.

Mrs. Nathanial had no trouble buying her house, possibly because she bought it from African Americans. She was often turned away from restaurants based on her race and mentions that people weren’t allowed to try on clothes at shops. She mentions clubs that protested these restrictions, such as the Women’s Federated Club. There were also many social clubs.

Mrs. Nathanial belonged to the Calvary Baptist Church. Although she didn’t hear anything about the KKK in Utah, she remembers a campaign that occurred trying to get African Americans to move out near the oil refineries. She only knew one African American lawyer and no African American doctors. As far as she knew, the only African American businesses were cafes or similar places to eat. She had not heard about drug problems in the youth until 1944. She says that she doesn’t believe that young African Americans get educations to better the race, but themselves, and she believes that if everyone did this it would help the race overall. She says that her views on race relations have changed: it took her a while to trust White people, but that getting into the Church of Religious Science has helped. She mentions instances when African Americans were harassed by having their cars and houses painted when they moved into predominantly White neighborhoods. She says there are more opportunities now, but that people aren’t taking as much advantage of them as they could because they don’t realize that to get what they want they have to put in the work. Audio CD A0038_B-26_01.

Dates

1973

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