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Mr. Eddie Reese, a report, a reporter for the Kansas City Globe newspaper of Kansas City, Kansas. Uh, first of all, Mr. Reese, uh, could you give me your, your full name? Yes, my full name is Eddie. Greece. OK, uh, where were you born, Eddie? I was

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born in the state of Mississippi where? In Grenada, Mississippi, which is About 100 miles south of Memphis, Tennessee and about 100 miles north of Jackson, Mississippi. I want you to excuse me, I have a cold this morning. Today's date is um October 7th, 1976. Uh, what,

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what was your mother's name? Um, my mother's name is Octavia Reese and her maiden name is Hobbin. All right, where was she born? She was born in, uh, Grenada, Mississippi also. OK. What was your father's name? My father's name was Robert Fulton Randolph Reese. And he's

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also uh from Mississippi. OK. Uh, do you, do you know approximate what exactly where in Mississippi? That he's from? Oh, he's from Grenada also, which is the same location that I described to you earlier. OK. Do you know, uh, of, of, of either one of your

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grandparents? Do I know him? Do you know of either one of your grandparents? OK, I knew, all four of my grandparents. Noah. Matter of fact, it's my father's father I never knew. My father's mother, which, which was, her name was Esther Brown, just died here recently,

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about six months ago. My mother's father died about 3 or 4 years ago. Do you know where either one of them were from? They all were from the state of Mississippi, but I don't know. The exact city Mm Uh, do you know if your parents were

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a slave descendant or not? I haven't traced the history, but I suspect that uh they were. But I haven't really did the research to go back that far, but as, as I understand it, I believe they it's a long line of people from the state of

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Mississippi. So evidently they would more or less have to fit into the slavery category. How many brothers and sisters do you have? Grant told in my family there are 7 kids. I have, uh, 4 brothers and 2 sisters. OK. And which and and how many older

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do you have? I have two brothers that are older than I am and. Are they still in Mississippi? Is your family still based in Mississippi? No, my family is not based in Mississippi. They, I still have a bunch of relatives in the state of Mississippi, but

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if you're talking about my Mother and father, immediate parents they all live here in Kansas City, Kansas. Um, Did you, uh, attend school in Mississippi? Yeah, I, I attended school partially. What, what elementary school did you attend? I attended Reed Elementary School. Where is that? That's

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located in, uh, Really to Mississippi also. OK and how long did you attend that school? I must have went there for 8 years. I, if I recall, I was the 1st 8 years. Yeah, the Mississippi school system is not exactly structured like the one is here.

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You go from like 1st to the 8th grade in elementary school, then high school would be from 9th to 12th grade, you know. So what was your first, what, what was your first elementary, what was your elementary teacher's name? You remember? I don't. I remember. A

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couple of my elementary teachers, I think, uh. One was my aunt, so naturally I would remember her. Her name was Bernice Knox. I had another teacher I remember very well because she used to uh spank us all the time, more or less. Her name was Eddie.

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Coral and her first name was the same as mine, so I kind of remember her. Uh, can you remember anything that might have happened? During that particular period that more or less shaped um the ddities of today. As a reporter, let's say, or a journalist. I

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don't, during this time, I didn't have the slightest. slightest uh thought in my mind as to what career I was going to pursue. I think it was more or less a matter of going to school and trying to learn the basics. But as far as uh

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thinking about the field of journalism, it, it hadn't crossed my mind at that time. I think uh I really became interested in journalism, I believe it. When I was in the Republic of Vietnam, I was more or less interested in the broadcasting of it. I remember

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we were. In the bunkers constantly, but we had portable radios and I always heard, there was one brother that used to come on Armed Forces Radio. And I just always thought this is where I should be, you know. This is the ideal job, you know. That

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I should be pursuing, so I kind of got interested in the broadcast thing and I Got out of service, I. I enrolled in the Kansas City, Kansas Community Junior College and I started pursuing that career on to the University of Kansas where I got a bachelor.

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Well, well, hold on, let me, let me get this back up to elementary school. OK. Um, were you involved at all in any type of athletics or what type of a person was was Eddie Reese, um, between the years of, uh, let's say, um, uh, the

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beginning of elementary school to the end, 8th grade. Oh, I think I was the type that liked to play, uh, practical jokes, more or less. I I always, I didn't have too much difficulty with the classes themselves. I remember I always managed to help out other

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people. But I never took it that serious, you know, I always found something to, uh, make fun of, more or less. In the school system. So I was, I didn't participate in any sports at that time. I don't think I was large enough. Do you, do

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you have the, uh, do, do you have the typical, uh, story of having to walk 10 miles to school every morning and that type of thing? Well, yeah Mississippi at that particular time. In a sense, uh. I would say that was true. We did walk about,

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uh, not 10 miles, probably a good 4 miles to elementary school. Then when it came to high school, we were bussed. We were bussed to a school about 15 miles away. Of what occupation were your parents? Oh, my father was a He drove the school bus

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and he was a. He was also doing some farm work also. What type of uh. Uh, the sharecropping type, you know, the Then your parents were farmers, in fact, your father was a farmer, in fact, yeah, right, right, your parents would be classified as a farmer.

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was in fact a farmer. Um, what type of uh. Of the impact of him being of a of an agricultural community have on you today, you think? Oh, I don't In a sense I I haven't really thought about what type of impact it has on me

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today, but I, now that you asked, I think, uh, it probably had a good effect as far as, uh, there was nothing there to get into, you know. There was no banks to rob. There was no stores to rob because everything was pretty well spread out

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and more or less you, the parents. Kept you Pretty well under control as far as things that you could do. You, you were required to go to Sunday school. You were required to go to school every day. You were required to do your homework. So um

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It was the basic rule type story, you know, the community must have had about. 500 black people in it, you know, and there were some whites, but nobody really lived together as far as the, the whites, you know, it was always a separate thing. They always

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had the better house and things of that nature. When did you first become cognizant of the fact that there was a separate, separate situation. Oh, I guess I was aware of it ever since that I was growing up because it was just there, obviously, you know,

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that uh That blacks were on the short end of the stick, you know, because if you work for the uh If you worked for the man, then of course you knew the man was in in control, you know, and whereas your livelihood depended on it, your

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parents had to borrow it from him, you know, to. To live and all this type thing and you had to, did you ever uh uh become involved in your father's work yourself? Yeah, to an extent we had to after we came from school, you know, we'd

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have to uh go out there and Get down with the uh cotton field and all the rest of the stuff. So yeah, doing it and doing the offseason with school also. But that's one thing, uh Unlike many parents that was uh living in neighborhoods as such.

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My parents insisted that we go to school, and he insisted it all the way. Were they educated people? No, my father probably went to the 8th grades and my mother, probably about the same thing. They both were, right? Yeah, right. My father reads very well and

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so does my mother, so they uh. I guess they got a lot of common sense and they got the limited amount of formal education. What type of religious religion background do they have? OK, my mother is Baptist and my father is a Methodist, AME. How did

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that affect you? Oh, to the extent that we split the family split up, you know, we had about 1/3 of the family going to the Baptist Church. I know I think probably more went to the Baptist church than the Methodist myself, I went to the Methodist

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church and two other of my brothers. Do you remember what your pastor's name? Yeah, I remember a couple of pastors' names, uh. What was the name? Several ministers. We had the Reverend TJ Gives this is in Mississippi, right? Right. The Reverend WC Walker. And the Reverend

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Lee. Which one influenced me the most? I think it would be Reverend Walker simply because he was the, the younger one. Which one baptized? I don't remember offhand who baptized me. I Don't recall, but I think it was probably Reverend Lee. But I think uh The

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minister I mostly could identify was Reverend Walker simply because Reverend Walker was more of a He was the youngest minister that we had, you know, before we had the typical old minister, you know, with the bald head or whatever, as Reverend Walker was young with hair

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on his head and a mustache and all. Type things and he. were more down than the rest of them. He could talk to you about other stuff other than the church, you know. So I kind of identify with him more so than any. Did, uh, either

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one of these pastors, uh, being in Mississippi talk about the discriminatory practices of the white community at all? They were basically they weren't into that very much, uh. You must think that I This was before that uh blacks had become involved in the political struggle to

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any extent. But uh basically you didn't hear so much about the. White supremacist, supremacy as you did uh About trying to live for God, so to speak. What they preached about was Trying to be good, you know, try to stay out of trouble, these type of

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things, and the Lord would make a way for you. What size congregation would you say they have? Oh, we must have had a bone. 4 or 500 people I guess. Yeah, in the Baptist church, I believe the other one had about was your father an usher

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or anything like that? He was a Sunday school teacher, he was a Oh, he had another position. I don't remember what it was, but I know. He was pretty well active in the church. Oh, she was also into the Baptist Church. She was. Uh, not as,

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what do you mean by working? Did she work? Was she a housewife? Oh, she worked. She was a little bit of both, you know. Well, what kind of work was she doing? Oh, she did, uh, she did farm work. She did, uh. Little bit of a

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Domestic work, you know, and things like that. Uh, uh, was there any time, whereas, uh, Mhm. Did you ever hear her uh comment in regards to the white community in Mississippi at that time? No, I sure did. I don't think she. Really got into it as

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such. How much did your father? Would you say acreage? Oh, basically something probably around. Anywhere from 10 to 12, something like that. Then you moved a time from one form to the other or was it just one form? If I recall we was, we, we own

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a couple. We, we moved once that I recall to another farm, right. Um, What high school did you attend? Attended Kara Dodson High School. Where is that? That's located in Grenada, Mississippi. Did you have to move? To, no, we were bussed there. We didn't really move.

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How far was the bus ride? It was 15 miles riding on the bus. Um, uh, you, you are a freshman to a senior there? That's correct, yeah, 4, yeah, 4-year high school. Well, what was it like going to high school in the South? Well, it, I

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think it was, wasn't too much different than anywhere else since it was all black high school, you know, since I. Uh, it was an accredited high school. It was a pretty good high school to be in Mississippi. But uh if you're going to compare to a

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good high school here in Kansas City, I don't think it would compare. But it was a I think it was basic, you know, you didn't get all the stuff like languages. We didn't have that often. But we had the basic courses, you know, English and arithmetic

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and all of that. As a freshman in high school, I. I think if I recall, I might have been kind of shy. I was always digging into the books. I'm more or less, uh, I did pretty well as far as, uh, academics are concerned. I think

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my best Classes was probably math, geometry and algebra and I started. I remember one was uh Nathaniel Beauclaire. And we had another one named Mr. Rollins. I don't remember his first name now. Uh, Did you participate in any sports or, or debate or anything at that

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particular time? No, I sure didn't. Well, it's spare time, like I say, when you get out of school, you had to go and work, you know, you had to do farm work or you. Or if you manage to get some other type job, you work on

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that. Oh. My senior class, I think our class we must have had about 60 people I think that graduated or something like that. Well, for the, well, there was nothing to compare it to if you're talking about the high school because there was only one that

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was in the town. But if you go, if you go in the, it's only black one but compared to the white school, I think their, their class was probably 3 times larger than ours, maybe 5 times larger than that. Uh, and you've been, and, and, and

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you've been impressed by, uh, the white schools or the white situation everywhere? No, I hadn't been impressed by it because I hadn't really got into it, you know, as such. I did, when did you first become cognizant. Truly cognizant of the difference. Oh, I guess it's

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probably was. do in the early 60s when uh Political awareness began in practice, you know, then we began to compare some of the things, you know. On what they had and what we didn't have, you know, otherwise you were content, you know, we had a new

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school. It's a new brick school that had been recently just built, so we're pretty well content because we did have a new school, you know, and we had pretty good teachers and things of that nature, so. Our school was smaller, it was a better building than

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the white school, but it just didn't have, didn't offer what they offered, you know. But we were pretty well content there. Did you ever have, uh, a chance to see anything of the Ku Klux Klan in this city? No, I sure did. I. I know about

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probably as much as you do about it, you know, I didn't know anything about any personal experiences of the Ku Klux Klan. Uh, Then what did, what did you do immediately after graduating from high school? I think I, I must have worked for about a year

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then I Oh, I work for Memphis Hardwood Flooring Company. And I help operate a It so That you know, cutting up for her. I think we're probably making uh. Somewhere over $2 an hour or something like that, maybe $2 or $3 an hour or something like

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that, minimum wages, you know. Wasn't very much at all compared to that you probably making the same job here, you know. Then you, then what did you do? I, if I recall, I think I worked there for about a year and then I came to Kansas

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City. I know what your foreman's name was. Yeah, Fred Cunningham. I very well remember him because he cursed a lot, you know. Black or white? Oh, he was white. Who's your best buddy's name In Mississippi. Oh, what was my best buddy's name? James Liddell. I believe

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it was my best friend at that time. Did you ever have a chance to go into, let's say, Jackson or any of the any of the major cities? Yeah, I went to Jackson to visit my 2 brothers that attended Jackson State, and that was the only

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2 trips I've ever been there. Have you considered that point of entering Jackson State yourself? No, I didn't try to enter Jackson State. I was interested in going to uh Mississippi vocational College. Which is now Mississippi Valley State. But I, that never came through, that fell

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through, so I just did that. Well, it fell through because I didn't have any financial things. I was trying to get a grant or a loan or a scholarship, but I wasn't able to get either one, so I didn't really have the financial support to go

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there. So you have the village here. Uh, not at that, well, I, you know the. I think I had been in Kansas City about a year before. Oh, I had a brother here and I All kinds of relatives. I think that's, I've probably got more relatives

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here than I do in Mississippi. So I just came up and stayed with my brother for a while. I got a job working for Macy's department store. Which I stayed on for about a year, then I Enrolled in the United States Marine Corps for 4 years.

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So what happened when you were in Kansas City. Oh, not very much. I Don't really recall anything too exciting. I met quite a few people. I, uh Just worked this job at Macy's, of course it was just a regular job in the kitchen, you know, busboy

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type thing. So financially it wasn't. Really something that was paying off. Oh, I think we must have made around 3 something an hour, I believe 3 or 4 hours. How, how did the city, the size of Kansas City impress you when you first got here? Oh,

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I wasn't too much impressed at all, I. I had been around to cities like Memphis, Tennessee, you know, which is larger than Kansas City and Jackson is a pretty good size. So, so I wasn't too impressed uh with Kansas City. Uh, Kansas City, Missouri was OK,

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but I wasn't impressed with Kansas City councilors at all, you know. How, what were the circumstances of you settling in Kansas City, Kansas? Oh, I guess just because I had relatives and uh Just kind of got attached, you know. And by the time I got out

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of service, my parents had moved here also, so I didn't really have a reason to go back to Mississippi. Um. Um, all right, you joined the Marines, right? What year was that? September '64. 64. Uh, what, why did you join the union? Oh, I, I had

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heard that I was getting drafted and I, I knew so. I don't remember the guy's name anymore, but he worked in downtown at the uh Recruitment center. And he, he was telling me about a bunch of names that was on the list that was going to

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get drafted and I was one of those that was included. But I didn't want to, I had a vacation coming up after my one year at Macy's, so I didn't want to go right away. So the Marine Corps had a program that you can enlist. 4

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months in advance, so I enlisted in that. That's the only reason I was the Marine Corps. I made sure I would be home for the summer. Yeah, yeah, I did get a letter after I had already enlisted, so I just disregarded it. So it sure thing

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I was told. I don't recall. I don't either. So you were inducted from Kansas City? Yeah, well, I enlisted. I would have been inducted from here, yeah. You enlisted from here, right? I enlisted instead, yeah. What were you, where were you shipped to? San Diego, California

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for recruit training. And how long were you there? We were there for 3 months, I believe, 3 or 4 months and then. From there I went to. Camp Lejeune, which is in North Carolina, and I went to school there to uh learn how to cook. And

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cooking school thing. So I stayed over there for about 4 or 5 months. And I went back to California, El Toro, California, as a matter of fact, and I was there for 3 years in the air. And after that I was I doing an air wing?

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Oh, I was, I was a still classified as a cook, so we flew around to various bases, you know, on training missions. You never, you never left the States though. Yeah, my last year left in service, I went to Vietnam. I stayed there for 10 months.

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What did you see as a journalist in Vietnam? Really, I wasn't I didn't consider myself as a journalist while I was in Vietnam. I'm saying as a journalist, what did you see? Oh, I saw Vietnam as one of the most miserable experiences that I ever Ever

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had to uh deal with. I saw Vietnamese people that were Completely. At the bottom of the grassroots. I mean, people that didn't have anything, you know. People that were going through trash barrels looking for food. People that would sell their sisters' bodies for $2. People that

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would put landmines in front of your truck, you know, because you didn't give them a nickel or something that they needed. So I saw a group of South Vietnamese people. That wasn't interested in fighting their own battle. For instance, you go out on the battlefield with

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the uh South Vietnamese forces, and they were the first to retreat, you know. I think that probably is due to the fact that the people South Vietnam had been in war all of their lives. They had fought the Japanese, the French. Now we were over there.

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So the people didn't really uh Get up for the battle, so to speak. You know, they had been doing this all their lives, so they weren't really up. Not only that, they were fighting their own brothers and sisters, because the South Vietnamese. What happened is, uh,

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they just had a dividing line. They said the communists go north, the free people go south, so you had a bunch of family ties that was involved there. Did you ever go to the DMC? Yeah, I was on the DMZ most of the time while I

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was over there. Yeah, it's been, uh, did you actually do any, any shooting? Yeah, I did some shooting while I was over there. You ever kill a man? I don't know. I mean, who's to say when you did you ever shoot anybody? I don't know because,

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you know, everybody's firing and stuff, so you don't really know who hit who. I don't know anything. I don't know for sure that I kill anybody you carry M16. Who was your commanding officer in Vietnam? Oh My goodness, I forgot the major's name, but he's a,

00:28:32.530 - 00:28:53.310

he's a maniac. I don't know what his name was. What did you think of the Mali incident? Milli, I think, uh, I think Lieutenant Calley took the weight for His constituency, constituents in a way because uh It wasn't really Cali, it was, uh, Vietnam itself. It

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happened all the time. He just happened to be one of the few people that was turning in. Did you ever see a massacre? Did you ever see a man, a bunch of people get shot up like that? No, I never really witnessed one myself, but I

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heard of several. What was the black market? Oh, the black market was Real strong over there. Stuff like you, if you had a case of apples, you could get a watch. You could get 3 or 4 expensive watches. If you had some onions and some meat,

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you could trade it for different things, you know. So the black market was real strong. Matter of fact, we had a lot of soldiers that got involved in it that finally got caught, you know, that was doing big time black market stuff. Like what? Oh, military

00:29:44.130 - 00:30:02.500

equipment and things of that nature. What was heroin traffic like? I don't know, uh. I never really got into that. I know it was, I know marijuana was floating around real. Vulnerable, but I, as far as heroin, I don't know really how it was, but I

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know of several people that got hooked while he was over there, so it was available, you know. But yeah, as far as drugs, they were there. Were you, did you ever go out on patrol? Yeah, I went on patrol about 3 or 4 times, I guess.

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So you have a point, man? No, I never was that lucky. You know, I, they normally appoint me in is, uh, not that I'm saying that. When they brought him in, he, he just kind of like had his hands up like he's trying to cover his

00:30:31.959 - 00:30:47.660

face up, you know, he had got shot with a machine gun and fired, you know, he got hit in the face. So I. I thought that was really a One of the worst scenes that I saw there because they brought in about what was the highest

00:30:47.660 - 00:31:06.829

ranking officer that you had association with while in Vietnam. Well, really, uh, What you deal directly mostly is the captain, and the captains usually have a major that's over him. Then the company commander is usually a lieutenant colonel or something like that which you don't really

00:31:06.829 - 00:31:30.020

deal with but you deal with them indirectly but basically you also you got a lieutenant. So you got the lieutenant as your immediate officer, then the captain and the major. OK, who was your top sergeant? Um, my top sergeant was Gunny Sergeant. Sergeant First Sergeant Klein,

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I believe his name was, while I was in Vietnam. I don't remember who my first sergeant was before that, but I had several first sergeants, you know, OK, uh, uh, when, what, what, when did you get your discharge? I got discharged in September of '68 what

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did you do? Oh Oh, I went to San Diego and got locked up for What did I do? Being out of uniform. They thought I was somebody that was AWOL, you know, I still had the military haircut and everything, but I changed into my civilian clothes.

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So the MPs came over and I Matter of fact, I put a civilian picture on top of my military picture that that's basically what they locked me up for. How long were you locked up? Oh, it must have been a couple of hours. And what was

00:32:26.280 - 00:32:40.339

amazing is when I went down there, they, uh, they didn't really lock me up, but they held me there and one of the guys that was there was a. sailor that was aboard ship with me in Vietnam. I said, hey, I remember you. He said, yeah,

00:32:40.459 - 00:32:57.650

you were in Nam, you know. So what they did was they had to call all the way to Washington DC to verify that I had got discharged from the service, then they let me go. What was your impression then of Uh, right before you went into

00:32:57.650 - 00:33:22.089

the military, uh, JFK was assassinated. What was your impression of that? John F. Kennedy, uh. I remember we were working at Macy's during that time when uh. Somebody came back and said that uh John Kennedy had been shot and I If I recall, I think it

00:33:22.089 - 00:33:42.349

was a lot, a little mild conflict went on behind it because, uh, somebody more or less said, so what, you know, and, and offended some black people. So we had a. Moral conflict behind it. But my personally I thought that uh I thought it was a

00:33:43.520 - 00:34:02.510

severe setback because I thought the man was really doing something as far as the, coming from a black perspective. I thought that he was Fighting for blanks, you know, as far as the civil rights thing goes, he was doing more than anybody else had actually did,

00:34:02.589 - 00:34:20.840

you know. So it was just like a revolution, I believe, even though I President Johnson kind of uh kept the program going. I don't think he sincerely wanted to. It was just something that he had to do, you know, to try to stay in Kennedy's footsteps.

00:34:21.139 - 00:34:42.830

What about LBJ? Yeah, I think he, LBJ accomplished a lot. He, he probably accomplished it more than, uh, John F. Kennedy as far as manipulating legislators, legislation and stuff like that. But I, he was kind of a smart politician. He's a Texan. I, I couldn't stand

00:34:42.830 - 00:34:58.159

him. I hated to see him on TV. I thought he was really lousy as far as a public figure, as far as his appearance and his pattern of speech and things of that nature. So I didn't particularly care for him, but I do kind of respect

00:34:58.159 - 00:35:17.709

some of the programs that he got pushed. Nixon, I never did like. Even, uh, but strangely, I, I kind of pull for him during the debates between Kennedy and Nixon. I guess because Kennedy was just. Making him look so bad. I, I kind of felt sorry

00:35:17.709 - 00:35:36.469

for Nixon because Nixon couldn't come out and say that. Hey, this was Eisenhower in the office, you know, so he had to take all Eisenhower's wage, you know, during that time. But uh If you check Nixon's record out, you'll find that On several occasions he, he

00:35:36.469 - 00:35:58.510

had been caught in Doing stuff that wasn't particularly legal, so I wasn't too surprised about the whole Watergate thing and everything. And I I don't know. I, I didn't expect all of that to come out, you know, but I Wasn't surprised because I knew that was

00:35:58.969 - 00:36:29.520

the type of person Nixon was, you know, to, to make journalism career? Oh, I don't go back to school. Yeah, I, uh I attended the first I attended Kansas, Kansas Community Junior College. Yeah, I became interested in the uh you you attended Kansas City, Kansas community

00:36:29.520 - 00:36:47.629

junior college. And there I was, uh, became interested in journalism. Even though they didn't have very much of a journalism course as far as I was concerned, I was in. Interested in the broadcasting end of it. But they had the basics, you know, they had the

00:36:47.629 - 00:37:08.459

basics. That was, I, I geared my classes at the University of Kansas, even though I didn't have the slightest idea how I was going to attend there. So once I did it, get an AA degree from uh there, I I managed to get a Ford Foundation

00:37:08.459 - 00:37:26.040

scholarship which paid for half of my fees. I managed to get a A grant and some loans and things of that nature as well as the GI bill, so I did pretty well when I went down to the University of Kansas as far as the financial

00:37:26.040 - 00:37:47.899

end and I did very well in the journalism as I think I came up with over a 3 point average overall. What, so what did you go to, um, for your second two years? Second two years was at KU, William Allen White School of Journalism. What

00:37:47.899 - 00:38:10.330

majors in radio, television, and film in would actually broadcast journalism, you know, that's what I was majoring in. And I attended there for the last 2 years and I. Managed to get some on-air experience with the locals radio station there, KANU. We did a thing called

00:38:10.330 - 00:38:32.090

Blackness I that came on on Saturday nights and it was a disc jockey news format, you know, and also we had interviews with various black leaders in the Lawrence and Kansas City community. Who was in Lawrence at that time? Oh well. There were no dynamic leaders,

00:38:32.209 - 00:38:52.669

just the person that was. People like some of the black professors, Professor Samuel Adams is one of the people that I did an interview on. He's the token black journalist down at KU as far as in the uh Newsprint department. He's a matter of fact, he's

00:38:52.669 - 00:39:20.449

an award-winning journalist and. What were your black activists? At the, at the University of Kansas, uh. The Black Student Union. Which was actually controlled by the uh A group called Yabo, which was youths. Organization for Black Unity, I believe they are called. At, at that time,

00:39:20.459 - 00:39:38.830

it was called SABU which was Students Organization for Black Unity. They more or less controlled the Black Student Union, you know, as far as uh As far as uh getting the uh actually going out and doing things, you know, as far as uh Attacked in the

00:39:38.830 - 00:39:59.219

various discriminatory things that was going on at the University of Kansas. I was I was involved with the uh Black student union to an extent, but I wouldn't really particularly of black leader or anything of that nature, but I was always there for support, you know.

00:40:00.629 - 00:40:14.870

So I never ran for no office or anything of that nature while I was there. Who was president of the Black Student Union your senior year? At the univer I think it was Mickey Dean, Gilbert Mickey Dean, uh, was charged with the Black Student Union then.

00:40:15.979 - 00:40:38.949

And I believe it's Gilbert Brown now that's the leader. Uh, what was your, uh, uh, assessment of Malcolm X? I think Malcolm X was. One of the real leaders, I I think that he was a little bit ahead of his time as far as uh. His

00:40:38.949 - 00:40:56.560

relationship with the other black Muslims. I think he was the person that was real dynamic, you know, I think, uh. He more or less tried to tell it like it is. He, uh, I believe when he made his trip to Mecca. He came back, uh. With

00:40:56.560 - 00:41:11.989

a candid report of what happened, you know, and he said, I I saw black Muslims, I saw white Muslims, I saw yellow Muslims, and there was no difference. But I believe this philosopher here might have kind of got him in hot water with Muslims leaders at

00:41:11.989 - 00:41:36.750

that time which were Not going for that philosophy. What would you consider his philosophy? Oh, I wasn't that heavy into him, but I believe, uh. He would probably be. I believe he would probably want a more or less. Interested in a universal thing. I believe he's

00:41:36.750 - 00:42:00.000

getting away from just the black Muslim concept, you know. I believe he was more or less interested in people. That had his philosophy, not so much whether it's black or not. But I, I observed here recently that the uh Muslim organization is As tending more to

00:42:00.000 - 00:42:22.239

uh lean to Malcolm's philosophy because you check it now that they, they can, they are admitting white people into the group now. So they are. But I think Malcolm was a revolutionary. I Deep down in, I think he was interested in uh Overthrowing the system in

00:42:22.239 - 00:42:42.409

a sense from a revolutionary standpoint, you know, I think he went too much into the uh capitalist system. Uh, During this period, whose doctrine did you like or did you favor the most? Oh, I don't, I don't know. I kind of. It's hard to say I.

00:42:44.050 - 00:43:10.310

The philosophy that we heard a lot on campus was uh Marxism, you know. Dialectical materialism thing, you know, and. How to, uh, how the wealth should be distributed. I, I thought moms had some. Pretty good philosophy, I I think his philosophy probably worked better on paper

00:43:10.310 - 00:43:25.590

though than it did in uh than it would work in reality because so far we never had a true communist state to base it on, you know, it's. Our true socialist state, you know, so far we never had one as such. But you, I guess we

00:43:25.590 - 00:43:45.810

got some that's kind of close, I guess, but uh. I think Marx had real good philosophy. Practical philosophy, but, uh, part of the um the assassination of Martin Luther King. That had a, that happened while I was strange too, while I was in the Republic of

00:43:45.810 - 00:44:03.659

Vietnam. And that also caused a mild conflict. Because, uh, when the news came that Martin Luther King had been assassinated, somebody said, if Martin Luther King, you know, and I just more or less got something started right there, you know. And we had a mile ride

00:44:03.659 - 00:44:24.679

there in the Republic of Vietnam. Armed Forces Radio. You know, I didn't hear the report directly, but somebody else had been listening to the radio and came over and told us, you know. But the Armed Forces Radio did broadcasts. Oh, they were very objective, you know,

00:44:24.800 - 00:44:39.320

they just more or less a straight news story, you know, I'm for Dr. Martin Luther King has been assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, the black leader blah blah blah, you know, but they didn't really get into the editorializing, you know, they just treated it as a statement.

00:44:39.479 - 00:44:59.610

there was a black activist movement within the military at that particular time? Not a formal black movement, but I tell you, brothers were tighter in the Republic of Vietnam than I've seen anywhere else. For, for example, how? Well, you just, as far as a recognition thing,

00:44:59.760 - 00:45:12.689

I mean, you could not pass a brother in Vietnam that didn't give you the power of a sign, you know. Because I remember a white captain asked me, did did you know him? I said no, I never saw him before. But he said, I just wondered

00:45:12.689 - 00:45:29.620

because all blacks always speak to each other, you know. So it was that sense, in a sense that uh if you was downtown with some blacks, and a fight started, you know, the blacks were automatically sticking together, you know. So I think, uh, but on the

00:45:29.620 - 00:45:53.639

other hand, blacks. On the battlefield itself, blacks and whites got along well too. Vietnamese, uh. I treated brothers very well. Uh, they always say, so brother beco number 1, you know, maybe you souvenir me $2 you know, souvenirs give me $2. So Most of the Vietnamese

00:45:54.219 - 00:46:10.840

seemed to identify with the brothers because they saw the brothers struggle as the same as theirs, you know, they saw an oppressed people fighting an oppressed people. But there was, there was exceptions to this. There were some Vietnamese that didn't really accept the brothers, you know.

00:46:15.239 - 00:46:36.649

What was the uh Viet Viet Cong propaganda element like in regards to black people. Oh, it was, uh, pretty strong. You'd have people on loudspeakers, you know, saying, brothers, come on over. And fight with us, you know, we're the same people. You're the oppressed people, we

00:46:36.649 - 00:46:52.310

are the oppressed people, so why don't we unite, you know, so you had that type thing. You had leaflets. Oh, it wasn't very much the military could do but counter the propaganda, you know, with their own, you know. For instance, what would they say? Well, they

00:46:52.310 - 00:47:06.770

was trying to, they would try to talk the uh Viet Cong into chu horn, which just mean open arms surrender, you know, and they would run a bunch of our philosophy down. So why don't you go ahead and Viet Cong that would come over. Yeah, I

00:47:06.770 - 00:47:21.949

think we had more Viet Cong come over to us than we went over to them, you know, but there were some black people that, uh, deflected the ranks, and, uh, on your way to Vietnam, Vietnam, did you, uh, stop off in France or any place like

00:47:21.949 - 00:47:39.979

that? No, we stopped in, uh, Okinawa and Guam on the way to Vietnam. made two stops. How did you like those places? Okinawa was uh It's pretty nice, but I, the one time we tried to get off base, we was caught, you know, because we was

00:47:39.979 - 00:47:56.889

in stage and battalion, you know, ready to go to Vietnam, so we didn't have liberty to get off base. But I The way I understand it, a lot of brothers dug it, you know. The, uh, Okinawa, the, the people in Okinawa was the same as the

00:47:56.889 - 00:48:18.840

Vietnamese. The economic base was real low, and they would do anything for $2 or $3 you know, whether it be sex or whatever. So you had that same basic people in Okinawa that you had in Vietnam. Um, What did you do immediately after, uh, after, uh,

00:48:18.850 - 00:48:38.050

attending school? Attended school at the University of Kansas. What did you do that? Well, I went to California and stayed there for about 3 months, uh. A friend of mine And I drove out, out to California in a car. We stopped. It's just more or less

00:48:38.050 - 00:48:57.659

a I was celebrating being out of school and he was celebrating being divorced, I believe something like that so we just kind of rolled out. We stopped in Denver, Albuquerque, and Phoenix, you know, this cross country thing. Father Route 66. We got to California, we kind

00:48:57.659 - 00:49:13.340

of looked for jobs and things, but nothing came through, you know. So after 3 months we had more or less ran out of money. So we came back to Kansas City. I Must have stayed here a couple of months or so and I Stopped working for

00:49:13.340 - 00:49:29.520

the Kansas City Globe newspaper. Which was March of last year, March of a year ago, been over about a year and a half ago, I guess, March of '75. Uh, what, what do you think has been the most impressive, important story that you've covered at the

00:49:29.520 - 00:49:57.189

Globe reporters? Oh, I probably Probably a thing I did about a year ago. Police brutality as far as I'm concerned, I I think there's a family on here in Kansas City, Kansas that had really uh Then they had been arrested. One person in the family was

00:49:57.189 - 00:50:16.929

drunk, but the, when the police arrested them, they used unnecessary force, you know, to the extent of kicking people and. With the handcuffs on them, you know, and things like that. What has been your experience in working with a newspaper? Midwestern newspaper. Oh, I, the experience

00:50:16.929 - 00:50:33.060

has been, uh, probably more or less what I expected, you know, there are a lot of people. That don't have too much respect for the weekly newspaper, you know, you find a lot of people don't want to advertise in the weekly newspaper. You find people will

00:50:33.290 - 00:50:51.320

try to manipulate you to uh get coverage, you know, and things of that nature. But I think the experience has been real good, you know, you get out there, you meet a lot of people. I, I know both governors of Kansas and Missouri. Covered the president

00:50:51.320 - 00:51:17.729

and people of that nature, so. You really get that exposure, you know. So And Which direction? Or are you planning to go for? was a journalist from here. Oh, I don't know. Uh. I guess I. Haven't really thought about it in a sense, but I think

00:51:17.729 - 00:51:40.719

that's. Probably still basically into the uh electronics. The media, you know, I. That's, that's what my background is heavier into but I. I haven't really set any goals as such as what I would like to do, you know, and things of that nature. Uh, I have,

00:51:40.889 - 00:52:00.250

I know that the uh the black newspaper. Does a job that the uh local media don't do, you know, and get into. A lot of human interest stuff about black people that the cancer of the Star would tend to overlook. However, I noticed that they have

00:52:00.639 - 00:52:19.659

recently begun to get into the black community more so than they did at one time. I think uh The black media is still More or less. Needed, you know, to, uh, give a black perspective of the news. Have you considered working with, uh, let's say the

00:52:19.659 - 00:52:38.139

Kansas City Star. Well, I guess everybody considers things like that, yeah, originally you check with those people, you know, when you're putting in the throwing out resumes and things of that nature. So yeah, I I had the opportunity to work for a daily newspaper in Bell

00:52:38.139 - 00:52:59.350

Creek, Michigan. And I found that that experience was real good, you know. Daily operation is completely different, you know, you. You're more or less You specialize in one area, you know, you will be assigned maybe as a courthouse reporter and that would be your job, you

00:52:59.350 - 00:53:17.679

know, you stay on top of that. Whereas a weekly media, you got to spread out more, you know, you might have to, you got to cover all kinds of stories. What are the major Handicaps are guns. Oh, the major handicap of a weekly paper is that

00:53:17.679 - 00:53:35.449

your, your news is not up to date. You got to, uh, You know, in other words, when we print, we print something, to cancel the Star can be done ran it 5 times already because of the. of, you know, of the current event thing. What, what,

00:53:35.610 - 00:53:57.820

what do you feel with the circumstances of the, uh, development of the Kansas City Globe? The circumstances of the development. Well, um, um, you have what? Uh, a situation where you have one weekly black newspaper and in immediate proximity to Kansas City Kansas. Uh, uh, what

00:53:57.820 - 00:54:24.669

necessitated a second weekly newspaper? OK, I'm probably not the person that I can give you a little history. The Kansas City Globe originated as the Empire Protest Movement and it was a paper that started just like the name indicates, you know. Protesting, uh, something that had

00:54:24.669 - 00:54:49.669

happened to the, uh, Jordan family and they started it that way then I evidently they saw it as a probable thing. Oh, I'm, I don't know exactly all the circumstances on it, but it was. Involving a uh A high rise building that was to be built

00:54:49.669 - 00:55:06.550

here in Kansas City, Kansas, and Tower State Bank and The bank withdrew its financing and Things of that nature and I, some people went to jail behind it, you know, Jordan brothers. So it was that type of thing. But of course I think they probably could

00:55:06.550 - 00:55:24.000

tell you more than myself because I was At the University of Kansas at this time, but I was kind of familiar with the activities that went on. So that uh initially that's how the paper began started. So they Changed the format and the name to the

00:55:24.000 - 00:55:43.189

Kansas City Globe and it's has been here I guess that's been about. It was the Empire Protest Movement. What's the name of it? Yeah, what's the name of the paper? So I guess that's been about 3.5 or 4 years ago. So it's been here ever since.

00:55:44.860 - 00:56:03.550

Um, In which direction then do you think that you'll be going from here? Will you be staying in Kansas City, uh, or out of the area or what? I mean, I, I kind of like, I would like to stay here in Kansas City because, uh, yeah,

00:56:03.570 - 00:56:22.889

recently Kansas City has become the city that the eyes of the nation has been on, you know, the Republican convention. Now possible World Series, you know, so. And with all the efforts that Kansas City is spending, you know, the monies to develop the town, you know,

00:56:23.129 - 00:56:40.419

to attract the tourists, so I'd say in about 10 years Kansas City will be the place to visit, you know, because, uh, would you, will you be one of the ones, or will you be the one covering the Royals, uh, playoff. Yeah, if anybody's going to

00:56:40.419 - 00:58:18.290

cover it, yeah, I'll be the one to cover it, yeah. I'd like to thank you for this interview, Mr. Reese. Uh, hopefully we'll be interviewing you again in let's say another 5 or 10 years. OK, thank you very much. It was my pleasure. shit

00:58:18.290 - 00:58:39.790

all the damn time. I guess I'm just a square ass ***, you know, I don't know shit. Oh I wish I could have seen, For that. Oh, I saw that shit. That's in Little Rock. I was there in the flesh. I was in Selma, Alabama with

00:58:39.790 - 00:59:17.850

Martin Luther King. I was with Stokely Carmichael when he said black power. I've been in the jail behind the shit, out of jail behind the shit, the whole damn thing. That ain't shit you bitches wear. Whoa. So, Oh Do yeah. Damn

00:59:17.850 - 00:59:37.139

good take, Pete. Got to say so myself. Yeah. What is this right here? That's Malcolm X. That's that brother that got off. That's, that's how, that's how a corpse looked in the morgue. The what? That's how a corpse looked in the morgue when they do. What

00:59:37.139 - 00:59:49.260

is this? Is it, is it? That's when they cut you open. They cut everybody like that. When you, everybody goes to the morgue. that's autopsy. Yeah, they, they're going to perform an autopsy on you tomorrow. That's what you did today. Yeah, but you don't have to

00:59:49.260 - 01:00:13.429

get 10, yeah. You don't have shit to do with that boy. You're dead. I'm talking about if your family don't want one. They got to have an autopsy. Uh, for, in order to get a death certificate, you got to say reason of death. Um-hum. Oh. Everybody.

01:00:13.989 - 01:00:52.590

And it sew you up like they put the clothes on. That's right. No. Uh. You going to see the Staples Center? When are they going to be here? I'll probably get to talk to him. I want to

01:00:52.590 - 01:00:53.750

go to the, I know they,