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Essay Directory
2007 - 2008 Essays
Liberty Ladies
College: A Modern Educational Experience
by Alyssa Emery
Liberty Rising:
the 1934 Fire
by Rachel Ibok
Zerelda Mimms James:
Lover of a
Bandit
by Lindsey Melvin
2006 - 2007 Essays
Convention City
by
Lilia Toson
David Rice Atchison:
A Champion of the
People
by
Jesus Lopez
Dr. Seymore Pearley -
Clay County's First
African American Dentist
by Hayley VanderStel
Humphrey “Yankee” Smith
by Jonathan Entzminger
Missouri City in Black and White
or
Rebuilding a Culture
by Devin DeMoure
The Drake Constitution: When Missouri White
Men Could Not Vote
by
Kali Shipley
The Other James Brother
by Madison McGraw
White Oak: A Tender Side
of the Racial
Divide
by
Evelaca Dobbins
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 Evelaca Dobbins,
psychology major, is a May ‘07 William Jewell College alum. Currently she
attends Avila College where she is pursuing a graduate degree in Clinical
Psychology. She spends her spare time journaling, swimming and watching
the television show Law & Order Criminal Intent. Eve's motto for living is
“Persistence is the winner, but drive is the leader.” She resides in
Liberty, MO where she shares time with her children, family members and
friends.
White Oak: A Tender Side
of the Racial Divide
In the midst of surviving
during the pre- and post-Civil War era, a “free” black settlement lived in
the North Kansas City community of “Big Shoal” for more than ninety years.
Originally known as “Strawberry Hill,” residents renamed the settlement
“White Oak” when they rebuilt the church, Mt. Olive Baptist, using white
oak timber growing on the land. Lines of lineage crossed in “White Oak”,
merging to create a rich mosaic of family history during the mid and late
1800s: White Americans, Native Americans and African Americans.
Lottie Fielder Smalls, an
African American descendent of the Waller-Murray-Johnson lineage, lives to
tell an inclusive story about her great-great-grandfather Fountain Waller,
who migrated to Clay County from Farquier County, Virginia, in 1822.
Although pro-slavery in his worldview, he sympathized with blacks; Waller
deeded the majority of his “White Oak” property, upon his death in 1882,
to his bi-racial son, Richard Waller, and black consort, Pemily Murray.
From personal research, Smalls discovered that Fountain Waller refused to
allow blacks who resided on his property to be placed on the auction block
in Liberty, Missouri.
Waller was a man who
publicly supported the Confederacy, yet privately protected blacks despite
the political and societal climate of the era. Like Thomas Jefferson,
Waller struggled with his conscience on the issue of slavery. The
Waller-Murray-Johnson family will always be a connecting link to Fountain
Waller and the “White Oak Community” of North Kansas City, Missouri. Their
legacy is one with a deep human story.
Unfortunately, historians
give only a small glimpse at what life was like for blacks before the
Civil War and during Reconstruction. After Fountain Waller’s, death, the
emancipated men and women of “White Oak” organized themselves and formed a
local community which sought to educate, to employ, and to offer hope in
difficult times. They established a one-room school-house which was
located just south of Mt. Olive Baptist Church. Many children were taught
how to read, write and do mathematics. Not surprisingly, the
residents were able to organize themselves in such a manner: before
emancipation they were responsible for much of the day-to-day management
of the land where they lived. They had acquired the skills to assemble, to
be productive, and to support the needs of their community.
The white oak timbers of
Mt. Olive Baptist Church provided comfort to a black community that
thrived for over 90 years. According to legend, White Oak, a “free” black
community, provided one of the many stops on the Underground Railroad.
This community did not thrive as much economically as it did religiously
and socially. The residents’ lives centered on the local church. Horace
Hickman, the head carpenter, utilized the white oak timbers from the
residents’ land that were sawed at Nat Murray’s sawmill to lead the
rebuilding of the church. From the stone bricks of an old limestone
basement, to the white oak timbers which were rebuilt into White Oak
Chapel in 1912, the influence of the local church held strong. It was
home— a place of fellowship, of community service projects and a cultural
refuge.
The women formed a
missionary society and went from house to house serving dinner, sewing
quilts and delivering clothing. Members of the church were diligent in
their support of mission activities. Needy families benefited from the
many basket dinners and church socials. At the peak of the church, it had
nearly 200 members and the members were often baptized in Little Shoal
Creek which was located behind the one-room school-house. The community
also organized two fraternal lodges, The Benevolence Lodge and the Sons and
Daughters Lodge.
White Oak was full of
respectable, hard-working, family-oriented individuals. In response to a
1995 newspaper article Mrs. Della M. Lakey, a poor white woman who lived
less than a mile from the White Oak Community, remembers "Boots" Waller who
worked with her dad at the “Old Winnwood Beach” which burned in 1935.
Lewis "Boots" Waller was the son of Richard Waller. Lakey fondly
remembers "Boots" always giving her and her seven siblings a quarter every
time they saw him. She emphasizes that, “We really loved "Boots" and his
family”. Lakey also remembers a man they called "Grundy" who was kind to
her family. “Grundy,” like Lottie Smalls, was a descendent of the
Murray-Johnson family lineage that lived in the White Oak Community.
During Reconstruction and
the Great Depression, families struggled across the country, and the White
Oak Community of North Kansas City had to work together to survive. It
was not just the knowledge of racial inequality and the laws that
supported it that lingered constantly in the residents’ minds; daily
survival was difficult for both blacks and poor whites. Lakey points out,
“We had a lot in common with blacks trying to make ends meet . . . the black
community seemed to thrive better than us, because they pulled together.”
Lottie Smalls also
remembers well what it was like to be an African American living in the
White Oak Community: “It was a gay ole time; life was good for me and my
family as a child.” " Prior to the building of the Paseo Bridge, my mother
and I would travel by horse down to the Missouri river and board a ferry
that would take us across the river into Kansas City. Upon arrival we
would shop at Harzfeld’s among the many other stores along Petticoat Lane;
those are wonderful memories for me.” Lottie keeps her White Oak
memorabilia in special collection scrapbooks and on posters stored in her
home.
Slavery was a tumultuous
time in American history, but there were many individuals who acted with
conscience and cared for blacks, recognizing them as being a part of a
greater family -- the human family. Good and honorable people existed on both
sides of the racial divide. Fountain Waller was one of those exceptional
individuals.
The ties to the past are
still present through the restored Fountain Waller Slave Cemetery located
in the Carriage Hills Subdivision of Gladstone, Missouri. White Oak Chapel
has been re-located on Stroud’s Restaurant property less than a mile away.
Both the cemetery and the church are now designated historical sites.
Today, blacks and whites use White Oak Chapel for meetings and weddings,
further narrowing the gap in the community’s racial divide.
Works Cited
Boeckholt, Joe. “The
History of Harzfeld’s.” Retrieved on February 22, 2007. <http://www.digdesign.com/harzfelds/history.html>.
“History of the White Oak
Chapel.” 1990’s. The Historic Kansas City Foundation, Missouri.
Lakey, Della M. Letter
written to Mike Dodson. October 11, 1995. Dodson & Associates, Missouri.
Robinson, Cecelia Ph.D.
Interview. February 22, 2007. White Oak Community.
Smalls, Lottie Fielder.
Interview. January 20, 22, 2007. Waller-Murray-Johnson family.
Waller, Fountain (1882).
Fountain Waller Will. Clay County Archives.
White, Tanika. “A piece of
the past: Church, history face extinction.” 11 October 1995. Kansas
City Star. C4, Col.1.
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