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Black Life in the Sacramento Valley (1919-1934) (36 pages)
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Page: of 36
Black Life in the Sacramento Valley Page 14 of 37
Insignia for the Knights of Pythias, a national fraternal organization that had a black chapter in Chico during
Thomas Fleming's boyhood. The letters FCB stand for Friendship, Charity and Benevolence.
6. RACE RELATIONS
In Florida and New York, I had never had any solid contact with whites outside the classroom. But in
Chico, I mingled with all the boys—Asian, black, Latino and white. I did all the things they did: hunting,
fishing, and getting into mischief. There were about six guys that I ran around with all the time—-two
whites, two blacks and two Chinese. Their parents sometimes invited me to dinner at their house, and
my mother invited some of the boys to ours.
But the black girls didn't mix with the white girls. The white parents might have forbidden it-I don't
know. Not until years later did I realize how deeply that wounded my sister.
Because I was black, the other students—including the white kids-seemed to look upon me for
leadership, which was a new experience for me.
Chico had no black section; you could live anywhere that you could afford to buy or rent property. I
think most white people in the town were quite open-minded about race because any neighborhood you
lived in, there would be nothing but whites all around you, and you became acquainted with everybody.
It was a very gossipy little town, and whatever gossip there was about the white families, we heard it
too.
But sometimes I'd be walking through different neighborhoods with Henry, my constant companion, and
kids would start yelling, "Nigger, nigger, nigger!" If we chased a boy up to his front porch, the mother
might come running out and say, "What are you doing to my child?" We'd say, "He called me nigger."
And then she'd turn beet red and tell her son, "You shouldn't do that to people." But he had heard it at
home; that's why he was doing it.
On the outskirts of Chico was a little Indian settlement. A few Indians lived in town and associated with
black or white people, but most of them stayed in their village, by choice.
http://www.cmonline.com/boson/freebies/blackhistory/fleming2.html 12/28/04