YWCA of Asheville

"I'll tell you just a little funny story, just a little funny story...My aunt was a caterer. There were some Japanese young people that were at Adrian College where the daughter was going to school. These young people would come home with my cousin for the weekend and my aunt would let them work to help her with her catering. So, when the Japanese invaded, you know, they took all the Japanese families other than those people who could find a sponsor. If you could find a sponsor, you didn't have to go to the camps. My aunt took this Japanese girl named Ruby. Ruby and my cousin came to Asheville to visit me at Christmas time when the segregation was going on. We went in Newberry's. It was cold: we were doing a little shopping and it was cold. And I said to my cousin, who is very fair skinned and looked like white and here is this Japanese girl and her is this brown girl -- I said, "They won't serve us." Ruby, the Japanese girl said, "Why? Because of me?" I said, "No, because of me! They'll serve you and they'll serve Barbara because she looks white, but they won't serve me". We wanted chocolate. We went up to the counter and the clerk said, "You have to come down to the end of the counter." And, Ruby said, "There are no stools down there." And she said, "But you have to come down." We didn't budge, and then she cam back and she said---she just ignored me and said to the two of them---"What do you want?" And they said, "Hot chocolate" she said, "Well, I can serve you, but you can't drink it at the counter" And they asked again, "Why?" She said, "Because we can't serve her -- she can't sit at the counter [meaning Julia] and you can't drink your chocolate here." So my cousin and the Japanese girl started loud talking "Why, I never heard of such a thing! Where did they think you were going to sit? " And they just kept carrying on until they just served us. People began to gather around. They served us, and let us drink it there just to shut us up. That happened way before the thought of integration. But, that's how --- you look back over that and you cannot understand the reasoning, can you?" Julie Ray
1935 - The Phyllis Wheatley Branch sponsors roundtable discussions that focus on Better Inter-Racial understanding.
1943 - The Public Affairs committees of the Central YWCA and the Phyllis Wheatley Branch prove to be the pushing force toward integration, by attempting to foster better race relationships.
1946 - "Wherever there is injustice on the basis of race, our protests must be clear & our labor for its removal vigorous & steady" YWCA handbook
1953 - A Study of the Market Street YMCA and the Phyllis Wheatley YWCA and Related Needs of Negro Youth was sponsored by The United Fund of Asheville and Buncombe County, Inc. The objectives of this study were 1)to develop and adopt a plan of action which will improve character building youth services with Negro people in Asheville and 2)to suggest ways in which the Market Street YMCA can make the greatest contribution to the total plan, either by itself or in some form of cooperative relationship with the YWCA.
1953 - YWCA Public Affairs Committee, in preparation for the desegregation of public schools, hosts an inter-racial forum in conjunction with the PTA Councils, Council of Jewish Women, and the United Church Women. "Those of us who were working at the Y just liked people. We didn't see color." Pat Laursen "Different people in all colors, sizes and shapes."
1956 -- The YWCA’s commitment to equality was showcased in 1956 when the YWCA Public Affairs committee invited Eleanor Roosevelt to speak in Asheville. Eleanor Roosevelt visited Asheville on a speaking tour for the United Nations. She specifies that will only speak to non-segregated groups. The YWCA is the only place in Asheville willing to host an integrated audience. Eleanor Roosevelt spoke to an overflowing audience in the YWCA auditorium, November 27, 1956. "She talked at Grove Street Y, in the gymnasium. She was a very excellent speaker. There was no fuss or feather or commotion about the whole thing. It made you realize how simple life could be then." Florence Ryan "The day she came, it was snowing. She arrived by train and spend a full day here." John Boyce "I think the figure sticks in my mind, that there were 800 people. I do remember that Mrs. Roosevelt was absolutely charming. So many people had packed themselves into the YWCA on the floor, up against the walls, it was just jam packed." Photograph courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum

1963 - "They had an integrated swimming class, the first one. They were going to try it. We had three girls, two were black and three little boys and one was black. This was in the old pool at Grove Street Y." Una May Lindberg
1960s - "It was intentional, everything that we did was no haphazard thing. Thelma Caldwell "We sat down and calculated the risk and also sat down and said who would help us do it. So many who were glad to be part of it, trying to break on that side. wanted to be saying they were helping. We didn't have that much of a problem."
1963 - South French Broad Avenue YWCA organizes community meetings on The Challenge of Integration, a series of integration workshops and issues a report, by the Public Affairs committee, to the Asheville community. Asheville's mayor and City Council established the foundation for integration in Asheville. We as responsible citizens, must continue to build solidly on this foundation with courage, understanding and wisdom. Some 250 people attended the meetings and were increasingly aware that there are many underneath feelings and situations which will erupt if continuing progress is not made. This report requested City Council to appoint a qualified negro to the City School Board and requested county schools begin integration now.
1960s - "THESE WERE TIMES OF VIOLENCE AND UNREST IN THE BLACK COMMUNITIES OF OUR COUNTRY, WITH SIT-INS, LOCK-INS, ETC ; TIMES WHEN OTHER MINORITIES -- BOTH ETHNIC AND WOMEN, BECAME CONVINCED THAT THEY, TOO, HAD THE POTENTIAL TO BETTER THEIR LOT IN LIFE. THESE WERE THE TIMES THAT THE NATIONAL YWCA MOVED EVER MORE ASSERTIVELY TO HELP THESE GROUP REALIZE THEIR DREAMS." Thelma Caldwell
1963 - Central YWCA Board of Directors passes a motion to accept all women and girls regardless of race or creed in all facilities, programs and services of the YWCA

1964 - "W. Roland...owned a jewelry shop. He had concerned children ---black children---come into his jewelry shop. That's where they had their meetings and planned their strategy. The first thing that the children did was to integrate the bag boys for the local Winn Dixie stores...In trying to integrate the bag boys, none of the stores would let any black teenagers work. At that time, you see, the ladies would get their groceries in bags and the boys would push them out or take them out and load them in their cars. They don't do much of that anymore, but they did it for everyone back then." Julia Ray - " Mr. Roland didn't want anybody to get upset, but he never quit trying." Una May Lindberg
1964 - South French Broad Avenue YWCA coordinates study halls programs to bridge learning gaps for previously segregated Negro students.
1965 - Thelma Caldwell is hired as Executive Director of the YWCA, making her the first Negro YWCA Executive Director in the South, and only the second in the U.S.A. "I was there when Mrs. Caldwell was elected, chosen, the Executive. We had a real fight because we had been saying that there should be equality and letting Thelma get the position. People were reneging and wondering if it was the right thing we should do. We did go ahead and do it. But, it changed the whole face of the YW, without a doubt." Jane Craig
1968 - The Federation of Negro Women's Clubs of Asheville present a $1,000. check to the YWCA to reduce debt on the South French Broad YWCA. "The history of this Federation records many of its members as having served as volunteers on the YWCA board of directors; committee on administration, and other civic groups; as workers in campaigns; and as financial contributors to many individuals, groups and organizations."

1970 - The YWCA hosts the Black and White Dialogues, Community Workshops, as the beginning to get people to open their eyes to see problems that confront them with integration The Asheville Citizen-Times reported on Tell it Like it is!, designed to offer citizens the opportunity to express themselves on the Black and White Dialogues. July 27, 1970
"We were under a National Convention Mandate to move with all deliberate speed to rid our local association of the wasteful method of operation forced on us by segregated programming and to help our community prepare for the changes that were to come. So our YWCA began to work INTENTIONALLY to bring black and white women together on a more equal basis." Thelma Caldwell
1970 -- " And the merging of the Y's really caused opposition. I can remember even to the last day when we took the vote, we wondered if we would have enough to pass a vote to merge." Una May Lindberg -- "One of the objections was that they didn't want to meet at night. These were all socially prominent women, most of them and they said they had to be home at night -- they had to meet in the day. Those of use who wanted them to merge and meet at night because of the working people -- there was great opposition that. Do you remember?" Llewellyn Perry
January 14, 1970 - Letter to the Editor, Asheville Citizen expresses opposition to the desegregation plan of the City of Asheville Board of Education. "We feel that the present plan is discriminatory because it places the burden of school desegregation on the black and poor community". Letter was signed by 37 members of the Racial Justice Institute, YWCA.
1970 - Phyllis Wheatley Branch and the Central YWCA merge and become the YWCA of Asheville - 185 South French Broad

1970 - Miss Wilma H. Ray, director of the Community Service Division of the Michigan Civil Rights Commission spoke at the YWCA annual meeting. Wilma Ray, the daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Jesse Ray, was member of the YWCA board of directors. Racism is a dirty word, a controversial words, but more significantly, it is a virulent, active, infectious malaise of the spirit. The Asheville Citizen-Times reported Miss Ray expressed the hope that Asheville would not be a party to the Southern Strategy...designed to forestall the prospects for the kind of institutional, behavioral and attitudinal change which will make equality of opportunity a reality.

1970 - The 25th national YWCA convention resolves the thrust of the Young Woman's Christian Association ...elimination of racism where it exists and by any means necessary. Delegates elected the first negro woman to serve as national president. Asheville Citizen-Times April 22, 1970

1970 - Merger of YWCAs in Asheville Running Into Stiff Opposition headline in Asheville Citizen-Times. "Making one YWCA out of two when the basic ingredients are black and white is proving about as easy in Asheville as mixing oil and water." The YWCA board voted to close the Grove Street YWCA for financial reasons 9th facility was 38 years older than the South French Broad YWCA. It was also voted to add a swimming pool to South French Broad YWCA. "The Asheville YWCA has been one association---on paper at least---since 1968. It was the first officially integrated YWCA in the South, in practice, however, only one branch is used freely by both blacks and whites, and that is the building at South French Broad." October 23, 1970

1971 - Project Aware, program designed to provide an outlet for new better relationships between blacks and whites, received a $24,008 from U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. This grant included the YWCA, and several Asheville-Buncombe County government groups.

2000 - The YWCA is one of the original organizations to form the Asheville-Buncombe Education Coalition, a community-wide effort to improve the educational achievement gap.
UNCA Student Paper: Eliminating Racism, Empowering Women by Helen Whisnant

2005 - The YWCA holds its first Black & White Gala at the Orange Peel.

2006 - The YWCA, in partnership with Children First, opens the Latino Learning Center, offering free computer classes in Spanish.

Martin Luther King Day January 19, 1998
"I think the Y made the integration possible. They made it so much smoother in this area tan in some other places. You see, the leadership has always been a very fine type woman. These women made public sacrifices. I understand that some actually did so against the feelings of their husbands. In some cases, it might have involved their businesses, but they went right ahead and did what they thought was the right thing to do the time. They really made sacrifices. We have great appreciation for those women." Ollie McCool Reynolds "Central was not a branch, but it was the white group. Phyllis Wheatley was the Branch. They all dedicated. For a long time, our purposed was to do away with racism by any means, and we had a lot of resistance to that because they didn't like that "any means". But, they stuck to that purpose for a long time. These were women of integrity. If you are part of this movement, there is a dedication that is different from any other movement, other than the church. That's the Christian part of it. "

2006-2007 - Collaborative Grant from North Carolina Humanities Council - YWCA, UNCA Asheville, YMI.