On April 2, 1902, Annie Skinner was born in Dangerfield Texas. She attended school there until she was about 15 years old, when she married C.B. Mims on August 1, 1917. Annie and C.B. Mims had 2 children: Pearlie Mae Joiner, who currently resides in Springfield, and Willie Mims, who resides in Eugene. Annie and C.B. Mims left a living legacy of seven grandchildren and twelve great-grandchildren.

In 1942, C.B. Mims moved from Marshal, Texas to Vancouver, Washington seeking better economic opportunity. There he acquired work during World War II in the Kaiser Shipyard. After eight months he was able to send for his family.

As W.W.II ended so too did many jobs for African-Americans in the skilled workplace. White workers were given precedence in job acquisition, often replacing established black skilled workers. The labor available in post W.W. II America for African-American’s was very limited and many were forced to select lower paying jobs in the service industry. C.B. Mims was no exception and moved on to work for the Southern Pacific Railroad for several months. In 1947 he initiated a move to Eugene, speculating that employment opportunities would be more plentiful in the booming timber industry. What Mims hadn’t fully anticipated was that a deep root of racism had established itself in this region. He was unable to get a job in the lucrative yet exclusive white timber industry. He became a busboy at the Osborn Hotel. It was ironic that such businesses would hire blacks as cooks, servers, bellhops, and busboys, but disallow African-American’s from being served in those same venues. At least two businesses in town had signs stating “WHITES ONLY” into the 1950’s In many other businesses, it was understood that African-Americans would not be served.

Early racial exclusionary laws, finally abolished in 1926, established a practice of excluding blacks from living in Oregon. In Eugene, this inhibited most African-Americans from residing within the city limits. As a result, in the 1940’s most stayed in a flood prone wood lot on the north side of the Willamette River. Situated just south of Centennial Boulevard, at the present site of the car lots of Alton-Baker Park, this small collection of makeshift dwellings became known as “Tent City”. Eventually, the construction of the Ferry Street Bridge, completed by 1952, brought about the displacement of Tent City’s inhabitants to locations on West 11th Street in Eugene, Glenwood, and Springfield.

The Mims lived in Tent City until Joe Earley, C.B. Mims employer at the Osborne Hotel, purchased this property at 330 and 336 High Street and financed it for the family. This purchase is historically significant because as of 1948 only two black families lived within the City of Eugene.

Joe Earley, pretending to purchase the house for his own use, was able to bypass the racist obstacles preventing African Americans from owning property within the city limits. After the Mims were established on the property at least one neighbor petitioned the neighborhood to have them removed. Fortunately others in the neighborhood supported the Mims and the family continued to thrive here.

The Mims family played a key role in the development of the African-American community in Eugene. In 1948, Annie Mims, along with Pearlie Washington and Mattie Reynolds, founded the present day St. Marks Church. The family also hosted a number of African Americans that were seeking to settle in Eugene, and provided shelter for those passing though the area as hotels were invariably “white-only”. Even established, white sanctioned entertainers such as Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong and Nat King Cole were not allowed to stay in boarding houses in town and thus found shelter with the Mims and Washington families. These houses were also home to many Black University of Oregon students who had difficulty finding residences in town.

During the 1960’s, Willie Mims and his childhood friend Sam Reynolds Jr. were members of the local chapter of the Congress on Racial Equality, which advocates civil and anti-discrimination activities. In 1969 Willie Mims was given the Community Leaders of America Award for his work in racial equality and social justice. In the same year, he was nominated for the Eugene Citizen of the Year Award, but boycotted the formal presentation dinner at the Elks Club because even as late as 1969 African Americans were still disallowed from joining. Mims is still an active participant in many public discussions around these topics. At age 59, he received along with Sam and Mattie Reynolds, an American Civil Liberties Union award for social activism in racial equality.

Blacks had 40 days to pass through the Oregon territory according to the exclusion laws.

Willie Mims videos