This is a transcript of an excerpt of Claude and Mary Buckner’s words about discrimination against blacks in Idaho. The complete audio cassette and transcript are available at the Idaho State Historical Library.

Mrs. Buckner: I never did. You see, by me growing up here, they all knew me like a worn-out stick and so…I’d get along fine. Some of them did have troubles. Now when they opened up the base out here, I worked with them,  and the girls would come in here and the men to buy shirts and suits and dresses and everything—they had a hard time. They didn’t want to wait on them.

Interviewer: When was this—what time period was this?

Mrs. Buckner: Oh the Base had been here… Mr. Buckner: During World War II Mary? Mrs. Buckner: Yeah

Interviewer: Oh, World War II when they put in what—Gowen Field?

Mr. Buckner: Gowen Field, yeah.

Interviewer: I see. How about in the early days, back in the 20’s and….

Mrs. Buckner: But to be frank with you, I’ve never had any trouble. No trouble at all.

Interviewer: When you went to a restaurant or a store you always….

Mrs. Buckner: It used to be that you could go anywhere here and eat and then about the time Gowen Field was started, they made up their mind that they weren’t going to serve Indians and Negroes. We would go. 

Interviewer: You still were served?

Mrs. Buckner: Yeah, but a lot of the Negroes weren’t served at all and the Indians weren’t served. The Greyhound, they quit serving the Negro passengers. If you wanted to eat, you had to eat somewhere else. They didn’t have much time to lay over here to go anywhere to eat and they had a restaurant right in where the bus place is at—wouldn’t serve you.

Interviewer: The Greyhound Bus depot wouldn’t? Was that about the same time, was that about World War II or was that?

Mrs. Buckner: It was about the same time, uh-huh. And Chinese restaurants—they wouldn’t served. They would serve you if you went around to the back door. If you went to the back door, they would serve you. But as far as coming in here to eat, they wouldn’t serve you. Oh, it was terrible. The only place you could get a decent meal was when the Japanese had their restaurant here.

Interviewer: The Japanese would serve you?

Mrs. Buckner: It’s funny how it changed. Before that time it seemed to have been pretty open, although I have talked to people, some people told me it was even hard in the 30’s, late 20’s to get service. Mr. Buckner: Yeah, it was. Mrs. Buckner: Some of them was. It was very hard. Mr. Buckner: Especially now—places to eat, restaurants,

Interviewer: You never had any problems?

Mrs. Buckner: No, I didn’t have any

Interviewer: But you were aware of some of those…

Mrs. Buckner: I know of it. And they take a lot of these Indians that’s come in here from…. Mr. Buckner: Nevada? Mrs. Buckner: No, it wasn’t Nevada. Is it Fort Hall? Mr. Buckner: Not Fort Hall….. Mrs. Buckner: Well those Indians would come in here, and they had little papooses on their back, and they’d gone everywhere around here to see if they could get a bite to eat. And so, I happened to be downtown, and I was on the board at the YWCA and I was coming up and told them to come on home. And they’d kept saying “Lady, lady, lady.” And I said “Yes, what is it?” “We’re hungry, we’re hungry.” “Well, I said “go on down there to…”Ninth and Main was a restaurant. I said go there and eat. “Uh-huh, won’t serve me, won’t serve me.” I said “Why?” I know Ree had been in there, he was served. So instead of me coming on home, I took them down to the Idanha. That man, he wouldn’t serve them. So I didn’t know what to do, so I said “Well, I’m going to be late, but I’ll take you down here and see what my friend will do for you.” This boy and I had went to school together and it’s the Greyhound when it was—was that Greyhound—yes. Down there where the bank is now, on Ninth. That was Greyhound—wasn’t that Greyhound? I went and took them down there. And I said to him “Watson, these people are starving to death and the baby is hungry?” And I said “God made each one of us.”

Interviewer: If he could give them something to eat?

Mrs. Buckner: Yes. And he said “Well Mary, I’ll feed them all the time. You won’t eat?” I said “No, I’ve got to get home.” Because I had another appointment at the Y and I said “you feed them. Do you want me to pay for it?” He said “No, it’s on the house.” And you never in your life seen a bunch of people so happy to get that little bit of food. And he served them so nice. The waitresses was so very nice to them. But they’re the only ones I know, right now to this very day that had a hard time getting a place to eat.

Interviewer: When was that incident?

Mrs. Buckner: Oh, I was on the board at the YWCA when—19 something, ’72…

Mr. Buckner: Was it that late?

Mrs. Buckner: ’72 or ’73. It was way back.

Interviewer: As far as the colored people then, you’re aware that they had some problems getting services. Do you remember when those problems were always there from the earliest times you can remember? For example, in the late teens or early twenties, or do you remember a time when people started to get more and more prejudice?

Mrs. Buckner: Well I’m going to tell you the truth, my dear. I don’t know very much about all this tuff that went on, ‘cause I lived out here and this was considered to be way, way out of town, out here. All the time I would know of anything where the people would be treated would just accidentally pick it up, otherwise, I don’t know. Now before Claude and I married, we could go anywhere and we still can. And didn’t have no trouble. So I don’t know—I guess I didn’t pay no attention to it. I think sometimes people are willing to wait, if they go in the place, if they’re real good. “Well you just don’t want to wait on me.” You know. And I’ve seen that happen down here in the store. “I’m not coming into this store anymore.” Well, everybody was busy. So, I don’t know. People are funny about it.

Mr. Buckner: Times have changed in the late years—the last two years, as far as I was concerned. We have people working in banks and stores and everywhere and as far as getting waited on in restaurants and most places like that, hotels, we would always get waited on and all that stuff. You don’t have that problem anymore.

Mrs. Buckner: That’s it. I try to treat everybody right.

Interviewer: Do you remember—were there any other concentrations of colored people in Boise besides out here on Bannock Street and over in Thirteenth and Fourteenth.

Mrs. Bucker: No, I guess it’s good, bad and indifferent.

Mr. Buckner: There weren’t—since I’ve been here, I’ve been here fifty-seven years, and for a long while, most of them lived on the south of the tracks there—Fourteenth and Fifteenth, down in through there. But you see in late years, why, things have changed. People you see ‘em living everywhere, buying home, bought homes—living all over town, everywhere. So it’s just been a great, big change that way.

Interviewer: Would you say that in the early days they couldn’t do that?

Mr. Buckner: Well at one time, it was that way.

Interviewer: When was it like that? Do you remember kind of a general time reference—before the Depression, after Depression, World War I…

Mr. Buckner: Well, during World War I and all up until World War II there was a lot that way. Slowly its changed since then. But the last few years, why, it’s just changed great, a great lot.

Interviewer: So you’re familiar with, perhaps, some colored people who have tried to buy homes in other parts of Boise and were refused?

Mary Buckner: I don’t know. I know someone who bought a home, but they didn’t have that do-ra-mi. Mr. Buckner: That’s the big problem in late years. Later in the interview the Buckner’s discussed employment in Boise

Interviewer: Well getting back to the labor situation for colored people, was there much chance for career jobs for colored people—man or women, or did they just have to take what they could get, or what?

Mrs. Buckner: A lot of them took what they could get. So many went to—the women went and served in these big private homes as cooks and everything. The men, why, they would go and see what they could get. Some found janitor work and they found out that, knew of someone to do the yard and everything, why, they’d do yard work. And some went in to the barber shop shining shoes.

Mr. Buckner: Around here you had to take whatever you can.

Mrs. Buckner: Whatever you could get.

Interviewer: How about the pay scales—did pay scales seem comparable to what white workers got?

Mrs. Buckner: Now when I was working, we all got about the same pay—it was a dollar an hour. And sometimes…….in your pocket, why, you’d give enough—be sure to have enough to get home in a taxi or something. And those were the horse and buggy days. Then if you didn’t have that extra money, why, you’d have your wife or your sister, somebody, to bring you home and everything. Then they got the place they added on a little bit more, and this catering business, why, if the head cateress was overloaded, well I’d have to do my catering here and then call the cab and get it to where we had to go. Cooking for five or six hundred people. Sometimes if they didn’t have too much to drink, why, they were willing enough to give a little extra money. They said it was very, very nice. When they began to pay good, why, we were just about out.

Interviewer: Is that right?