When construction crews bulldozed St. Paul's Rondo neighborhood to make way for Interstate 94 in the 1960s, they destroyed the center of the city's African American life, forcing many of the community's residents to move. But the spirit of Rondo lives on among its former residents and their descendants. Among them is Daina Stanley, a University of Tampa junior. When she spoke with members of her family about the Rondo they knew and loved, that helped her find home.
This is part of MPR’s Young Reporters series.
Awarded:
2015 The Gracie Allen Award, Radio - Outstanding Series category
Transcripts
text | pdf |
DAINA STANLEY: When I was 10, my family moved from St. Paul's to a mostly white suburb. My parents had immersed me in African-American history from an early age. But after the move, things changed. I began to lose pride in my culture. My mom, Stacie Stanley, says this is exactly what my parents were trying to avoid.
STACIE STANLEY: And so it was this idea of moving out to the suburbs for a better education. And you think that you're staying connected because you're going to church or something like that. But the reality is, as much as you might connect and be at church on Sunday maybe and for an event during the week, it's just not the same.
DAINA STANLEY: Not the same as living in the city or in the heart of the Black community. I remember riding bikes with my brother and sister when two white men in a passing car shouted racial slurs at us. After that and similar incidents, I started to feel like an outcast in my new neighborhood. Even though my parents made an effort to keep us connected to the African-American community, being in a predominantly white school caused an identity crisis. When I was in high school, my mother had an epiphany about who my siblings and I really were.
STACIE STANLEY: You guys really were middle class, suburban kids and that's a different experience.
DAINA STANLEY: Different from what my mother experienced. She grew up in St. Paul as a daughter of Rondo. My grandmother, my great grandmother, and my great great grandmother lived in Rondo. My ancestors owned houses and were founding members of Mount Olivet Baptist Church.
They owned businesses too, including the Booker T. Cafe in Tavern. In fact, that's where my grandfather, Luther Jones, met my grandmother. He was a 23-year-old Air Force ammunition specialist stationed at Fort Snelling. He showed up one night at the Booker T.
LUTHER JONES: So I sit down at the bar and I ordered a Miller's High Life. And I said, and you along to talk to me while I drink it. She said, mister, I just serve the beer. I don't go along with it.
DAINA STANLEY: Grandpa marry my grandma the next year. I only recently heard this story, but this is the type of story my grandpa told all the time when I was growing up, stories of my family's life in Rondo. These stories had more meaning after I started researching my family history this year.
I've learned my family has deep roots in Rondo. There's even a picture of the bar where my grandparents met at the Minnesota Historical Society.
DAISY MAE HARPER: OK, here's what I'm looking for.
DAINA STANLEY: And we have pictures at home too. Daisy Mae Harper is my grandmother's first cousin. She flips through a photo album and finds a picture from the 1940s. Relatives are standing outside a house in Rondo.
DAISY MAE HARPER: Let's see. That's Warren. I'm spelling his name, right? W-A-R-R-E-N, that's why it looks wrong. R-R-E-N, OK.
DAINA STANLEY: The photo brings tears to my eyes. This is one of the few childhood photos I've seen of my grandmother and the first time I've ever seen a picture of my great great grandparents. Cousin Daisy smiles while she tells me what Rondo was like when she and my grandmother were growing up.
DAISY MAE HARPER: I missed the baseball games. I missed the ice skating. I learned how to ice skate, I had a pillow on my butt and I walked across-- I tried to walk across over there and fell and everything.
DAINA STANLEY: She says, back then, everybody watched out for everyone else.
DAISY MAE HARPER: You could leave your doors open. You could leave the windows open. People would always be there checking.
DAINA STANLEY: Seeing pictures and hearing the stories of my family helped me reclaim my history. My mother hopes this journey helps my future.
STACIE STANLEY: Because too many folks are unconsciously ashamed to be African-Americans. And I think it just gave that sense of pride and just natural sense that African-Americans are successful. That was the hope.
DAINA STANLEY: I wasn't born in Rondo and I never lived there, but I am connected by the lives of my ancestors. I have found that home is neither in the white picket fences of the suburbs nor in the vibrant streets of old Rondo. Home is in me and I carry the spirit of Rondo. I'm Daina Stanley, Minnesota Public Radio News.