Arizona sun., 1947-08-22
Neighbors Object to Their
Color But Wilkins FomiIy
Has Friends in Los AnqeIes
BY HELEN TAYLOR
Peoples World Staff Writer

Los Angeles, Aug. 18.-It was a
dignified, two-story white house
with a well-kept lawn on quiet,
shaded side street.
Inside, polished floors and a big
broad, curving staircase lent fur
ther dignity to the beautifully-kept
home of DR.. Alonzo Wilkins, Jr.,
and his wife, the mother of three
small youngsters. But there was
trouble in this quiet household at
2425 Sixth Ave. as I found when
was ushered past the cleaning
white door.
| The trouble started not with the
Wilkins but with their neighbors.
Ordinarily, residents in any neigh
borhood would welcome such
family as the Wilkins, whose home
is a place of gracious hospitality
and friendliness.
But the Wilkins are Negroes and
solely for that reason white neigh
bors are determined they shall not
! live in their own home.
The Wilkins are fighting re-
strictive covenant suit brought
against them by four white neigh
bors, Frank Clayton, Eleanor Boyd
and John w. and Dewey Chartrand,
all of whom live on West Sixth ave-
nue..
The suit, with resultant expen-
sive legal tangles, court appear
ances, and lawyers conferences, is
a special hardship on the Wilkins
family, since DR.. Wilkins has suf-
fered from tuberculosis for four
years and needs constant attention,
not to speak of expensive drugs
and medical treatment.
'NEVER ENFORCED"
"I bought this home for my son.
said Mrs. Wilkins, Sr., a charming
white-haired elderly woman, "be-
cause he just had to have a place
that was big enough and quite
enough for a sick man."
When Mrs. Wilkins bought the
house, she said, she was told there
was a restrictive covenant on the
property "but our lawyer said it
was just one of those things that
was never enforced"
"We certainly found out fast
enough how the .neighmorS felt
about our moving in here though"
put in the younger Mrs. Wilkins, a
pretty animated young woman in a
bright summer dress.
"The neighbors got wind a col
ored family was moving in," she
said, "and they stood around in lit
tie knots while our furniture was
being unloaded from the moving
van, peeking and pointing. We were
afraid for awhile we weren't even
going to get our furniture in the
house."
Then the neighbors began to
meet at each others houses, Mrs.
Wilkins said, and in June the fam
lily was informed a suit had been
started against them.
The neighborS sought tempor-
ary injunction to get the family
out while the suit was being settled
and this was upheld by Superior
Judge Frank Swain.
This decision was appealed to the
U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals by
the Wilkins attorney, Everett Por-
ter, and the family is now await
ing the outcome of the appeal.
DR.. Wilkins practiced medicine
in the small Georgia town of Girf-
fin, near Atlanta, for about seven
years, using the same office his
father, dentist, occupied for many
years before his death.
DIR. Wilkins attended Howard
and Fisk universities, then got his
degree in medicine from Meharry
medical school in Nashville, Tenn.
The Wilkins children came tumb-
ling in about this time, all three of
them lively, attractive youngsters.
There's Lucille, 5, Inez (who
wants to be an actress some day
and is quite little mimic already
and Alonzo III, 9.
Like all children everywhere,
who don't know about prejudice
until adults teach them, the neigh
borhood kids were eager to play
with the young Wilkins.
"But their mothers won't let
them," Mrs. Wilkins said, "my chill
dren play by themselves"
Recently, the Wilkins were ap-
preached by a group of citizens in
the community who want to organ
ize a neighborhood committee to
help fight the Wilkins suit as well
as other restrictive covenant suits
brought against Korean, a jap
anese and Chinese-American fam
lily in the next tract.
''We certainly do appreciate the
interest they're taking in our case,"
Mrs. Wilkins said, land the interest
you've shown in your paper, too.
"You know, it helps lot to know
you're not fighting alone"