CHAPTER 5 CONTINUED. . .

Deacon Clinton C. Falana

I am Deacon Clinton C. Falana of First Institutional Baptist Church. I was born near Ocala in Flimington, Florida on a farm. I left there when I was around 8 years old. I came to St. Pete in 1932. I lived with my sister, Sallie Mae for a little better life, because out in the country there wasn't a whole lot. My mother and father stayed there. It was nine of us. I went to Davis School, where Graham Park Apartments are now. I went to Jordan Park a little bit, then I went to Gibbs High School. I joined First Baptist Institutional Church under Pastor R. A. Crumwell when it was down where Webb City was located. Now the AAA (American Automobile Association) is there. My sister was a member of that church. It was in the family.

Deacon Falana, as he is affectionately known among many in St. Petersburg, is considered an unofficial historian and archivist of African American history. Most information is simultaneously filed in his memory bank as well as in his trunk. Newspaper clippings often substantiate his recollections. For example, once the St. Petersburg Times mistakenly reported that the first woman principal at Gibbs was a recent phenomenon. He wrote the editor and informed the newspaper that an African American female had achieved such distinction years ago. Deacon Falana was one of the key organizers of the Methodist Town reunion. It was an event designed to bring together former Methodist Town neighbors who were primarily dislocated by redevelopment. One could easily imagine Deacon Falana as curator of a museum or a history teacher. In another sense he is. He is a oral historian of the local history.

Instead of becoming a mortician that he dreamed, he distinguished himself as the first African American to drive a city bus in St. Petersburg. In 1964, he embarked on a service that would bring him many rewards as a safe and courteous driver for more than twenty-five years. Even after he officially retired, his former employers asked him to return and drive the Tampa-St. Petersburg route during the mornings.

One of the most popular uses of life history is to investigate how the sociocultural system affects the individual's role behavior, self-concept, and values (Watson and Watson-Franke 1985:135). When examining Deacon Falana's life story, two themes dominate. He is active in his church and community. His religion is not presented as a medal of valor but as a heart that's kind and considerate. For example, during holidays he and his wife prepare an enormous meal and invite to their home community members who would otherwise be alone. "One year we had 114 people, 8 were blind, 4 were in wheel chairs, and 35 or more were above 60 or 70 years of age," Deacon Falana recounts. His sense of humor, an integral part of his persona, puts people at ease. He has never drank or smoked. His life is also undergirded by a strong commitment to work as symbol of personal integrity. Perhaps one of the most striking aspects of Deacon Falana's life history is that he does not explicitly discuss racism. While it is implicit in his description of African American life in St. Petersburg, he instead focuses on their accomplishments and interpersonal relationships. His conversations chronicle a life that is predominantly African American.

Deacon Falana was raised in Methodist Town. He describes it as a place where everything went on and people were "close." For example, he remembers Mr. Simon Mathis, a furniture store owner allowing him to have a dresser when he could not afford to pay the ten dollars that it cost. 'He told me not to worry but to pay when I got it,' he explains. "In the early days particular in the era of the 1920s through the 1940s Methodist Town produced a number of energetic and dedicated businesses and professional people We had sixty businesses at that time," Deacon Falana asserts. He lists those businesses:

Idella Williamson had one of the first nursing home. Jesse Abrams who now owns a business on Thirty-First street. Primus Butler has a shoe shop at Jackson Street and Third Avenue. J. P. Moses had a dry cleaning on the corner of Jackson and Fourth. My sister opened her first grocery store next to McCoy's filling station. All of these are black owned. That is the kind of business skills they had.

After identifying some of the major entrepreneurs, he recalls other significant persons in his neighborhood. He reminisces that Mrs. Edna Dunn taught piano lessons and played music at his church for 77 years. Summers at South Mole, now known as Demen's Landing are remembered. "That is where we had to swim. You couldn't swim across at Spa Beach (designated white only). His neighborhood included more than seven churches. Bethel A.M.E. often referred to as Mother Bethel has existed there since 1896.

This sense of community extended to the school. Describing his Gibbs High school experience, he defines his days there as filled with love. "The teachers took pains with the children," he suggests. He explains how an 'I doesn't know,' response to his biology teacher brought a lesson about the verb "does" that he will never forget.

Deacon Falana recalls the physical structure of the school as small and the county's support as being inadequate. While attending school there, the county did not furnish buses. To provide transportation for its students the African American community had to purchase the school's first three buses. A ten-cent ticket entitled a child to a round trip on these recycled Florida Motor Line buses. The Gibbs High community renamed these buses the Blue Goose(s) and used various senior males to drive them after many of the other bus drivers were drafted into World War II. Deacon Falana was one of the students.

Like the senior school bus drivers before him, he was also drafted into the army. The day after he graduated from high school he had to report to the draft board. He remembers leaving his mother on the front porch crying. However, when he reported the Board told him that his unit's departure had been delayed until August, 1944. When he returned home that morning, he found his mother still sitting on the porch sobbing.

He served for two years in Europe, the Pacific and the United States with the Ninety-Second Division. His travels included Rome, Justinberg, Missouri, and San Antonio, Texas.

He is asked, "Did black people ever have any question about going into the armed forces?" "Not that I know of. Black people have always been very loyal to the United States. They thought it was a patriotic duty. But the older parents always thought that surely their children would not come back home. During World War I so many were lost," he explains.

I came back April 4, 1946 and started to serve my apprenticeship with McRae Funeral Home. I graduated from New York School of Embalming in 1948,1 took the State Boards in 1950. I made a 91 on the orals. When I did not pass, l left there and went to General Material Concrete. I started hauling 500 bags of cement from Tampa a day. The fellahs said that I wouldn't stay two weeks. I stayed fourteen years. I mixed most of the concrete for the first Skyway Bridge. That was built in 1953 and 54 and it opened in 54. Before the bridge there were three ferries that would take you to Manatee County.

He left General Material Concrete after the manager of Central Life Insurance told him that insurance would be a better job for him. He decided rather than just quit, he would write a letter of resignation. His brother suggested that it was a ridiculous notion because he "only had a truck driving job." Deacon Falana argued that he carried out his plan because he may have needed this job again one day. He recounts, "I hen- pecked out on the typewriter at the funeral home that night and made carbon copies and sent them to manager and director. He recalls, I told them:

Dear Sir: For the past few months because of rising living conditions, I have had to work three jobs to provide for my family. Therefore, I am trying to better my conditions. I have been offered a position, that I truly believe and hope will increase my finances and status. I, Clinton C. Falana wish to terminate my services as of Friday evening, August 16, 1963. If I can be any help to you at any time please feel free to call on me. For the past 13 years that I have been with the company, I have tried to do my best and trust that my services have been satisfactory. If I am not asking too much, I would like a letter of recommendation for future use. I shall remember you in my prayers for I always pray for everyone. Prayerfully submitted, Yours in Christ, Clinton C. Falana.

After selling insurance for a few months, he was delighted to have written the letter of resignation. His insurance income was not as much as he anticipated. Plus, he discovered that his personality did not match the insurance business. He explains, "At the first of the month everybody paid their insurance for the month. I would collect $500.00 and I made $100.00 because we would get only twenty cents out of every dollar." The rest of the month he would make approximately twenty-five or twenty-six dollars. Without hesitation he returned to his former job. He concludes, "I didn't like insurance too much."

He stayed on that job for one year but continued to look for another job. He recalls sitting in his truck having lunch, a common practice he explains. "I never was around people where they were saying bad things . . . and causing trouble." One day he read a newspaper article reporting that Dr. Leggett had arranged with the city for African Americans to take the examinations to drive city buses. He asserts that the Lord worked it out so that he was off from work the rest of the afternoon. Therefore, he went to City Hall and filed an application. The next night he took the examination. He passed the test and was hired along with five whites, he recounts. Therefore in the early part of 1965, he made history in St. Petersburg. However, his intent was merely to find a way to better support his family.

He infers that until 1968, when the Sanitation Strike occurred, bus drivers often worked long hours without benefits. For example, he remembers working 96 hours a week without time and half pay. He only made $1.60 an hour. He credits Don McRae, Judge Sanderlin and Joseph Waller with helping to improve the conditions, which he describes as "kinda bad."

Driving the bus not only eventually enabled him to better support his family but also led to for meeting his wife. Deacon Falana is married to Lillie Falana who moved to St. Petersburg in 1956 from Georgia. She is one of thirteen children and came here to help support her family financially who remained in Georgia. Deacon Falana describes their courtship as a wonderful story and instructs his wife to tell me the details. She says,

He was driving a bus and I was working. I was getting off at 3 o'clock. I would always get his bus every day. I was single and had been single for some time because I said i would never get married again. At first I could not stand him. Everyday I would catch this bus and we would always speak when I would get on and we just started talking. He asked me if he could take me out to dinner and I said well, I will think about it. Finally, I said yes. Then in 1969, he asked me to marry.

Together, they have five children. Mrs. Falana is the step-mother to four of the children. She married Deacon Falana seven years after the death of his first wife. In the interim, he raised his three daughters and son alone.

Deacon Falana perceives himself as a strict disciplinarian. He recalls an instance in which his son's teacher sent a note home that he was often clowning in the classroom. He addressed the problem in this manner. He went to the school to observe his son's behavior. He suggests that he found his son clowning and making the children laugh. "I walked inside and put my hand on his (son's) shoulder and walked up to the front of the classroom, I took off my belt." In front of 29 children he punished his son. He told the teacher that the principal had given him permission. The principal later informed him that his approach had resolved the problem. Deacon Falana says his son who is a sergeant in the service, recently wrote that he often did not understand the reasons for his punishment. But having matured with love, he realizes that it was for the best. Deacon Falana notes that his son included fifty dollars in the letter. Deacon Falana feels vindicated.

He considers all of his children successful. Clementine has worked for a major grocer for 25 years. Cynthia has been employed in the cable television industry for 17 years. Before that she was a manager and buyer for a major department store. Roselyn is a nurse and Carrie is a Pinellas County deputy sheriff.

Many changes have occurred since he moved to St. Petersburg. However, Deacon Falana has consistently demonstrated a Christian life, maintained pride in his work and shown a capacity to humor others. His character has won him awards in his work and respect in his community and family.