Oral History Interview with Raymond Clement, July 6, 1983 Page: 14
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Clement
14Marcello:
Clement:
Cummings :
Clement:
Cummings :
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out in public just by being Daddy.
Now I assume that when you were playing football in high
school, Bowie did not play any schools that had any blacks.
We never played a team that had a black. There was no
blacks in the county and no blacks playing on a white
team anywhere in the State of Texas.
So even up until you graduated from Bowie, you had never
seen a black athlete playing any kind of sports?
No, I had never seen a black athlete competing.
Had you read about black athletes in the newspaper or heard
about them over the radio?
Not a whole lot. Not really. Jackie Robinson was the only
black that we were familiar with at that period of time,
and then gradually Roy Campanella came into being, and Don
Newcombe and some of those. Baseball was the only sport
that was giving the black a chance, so other than baseball,
no. And that was just what I'd seen on TV or what was on
the radio.
If those black baseball players were the only black athletes
that you were aware of or remember being aware of, what was
your attitude toward them playing with whites?
As I said before, it didn't bother me one bit. In fact, the
story I told you awhile ago made it appear I didn't want to
play with blacks. That had nothing to do with my wanting to
quit school. It was just tougher than I wanted it to be.
What about some of your friends, your peers in high school?
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Marcello, Ronald E. & Clement, Raymond. Oral History Interview with Raymond Clement, July 6, 1983, book, July 6, 1983; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth223649/m1/16/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Oral History Program.