Attorney, civil right advocate was 83
Of the St. Louis American
Charles R. Oldham, a local attorney and civil rights advocate who argued cases from St. Louis to the U.S. Supreme Court, is being remembered this week for his commitment to equality.
Oldham died last Wednesday (Sept. 13, 2006) at the age of 83.
“He was a pillar of integrity,” said Dr. Jerome Williams, a close friend of Oldham’s for more than 40 years.
“Without his work and risk taking, I might not have had the chances I’ve had in my life,” Donn Johnson, former news anchor and current director of communications for the Missouri Historical Society, writes in this weeks History column.
Charles Klotzer, founder and editor of the St. Louis Journalism Review and civil rights advocate, said he often spoke with Oldham “on the day’s issues.”
“He was one of the (Civil Rights Movement’s) pioneers. I respected him deeply,” Klotzer said.
“His willingness to translate principle into action is what distinguished him from others. He was in the forefront of many issues, and I looked at him as a model of what we should be doing.”
Oldham was among the first St. Louisans to battle discrimination with civil disobedience.
In May 1945, the newly formed Citizens Civil Rights Commission decided it was time to integrate department store lunch counters, which were always closed to black shoppers and diners.
Stix, Baer, and Fuller refused service to three black diners on May 15, 1945, with management offering to start serving blacks if other department stores did so.
Forty black and 15 white women tried to be served at counters at Stix and Famous-Barr on July 8; the stores closed the lunch counters.
During the continuing protest, Oldham would meet the future Marian Oldham, whom he married in 1951.
Williams called Charles and Marian Oldham “a loving, dedicated and active couple.” She preceded him in death in 1994.
“They were peaceful, unassuming and focused on making life better for African Americans while bettering the relationships between blacks and whites,” Johnson remembered the Oldhams.
Johnson also said Oldham played front man for many black families that wanted to buy a home in a segregated neighborhood. “If a white family wouldn’t sell to a black family, he would buy the home in their place and then turn over the keys to them,” Johnson said.
A longtime member of the St. Louis Committee for Racial Equality (CORE), Oldham served as the organization’s national chairman from 1956 to 1963. He represented dozens of clients in discrimination cases, and he represented a union local in a case argued before the Supreme Court in 1965.
Oldham, along with is his wife, were among the dozens of people arrested during the 1963 Jefferson Bank & Trust Co. protests which were prompted by the bank’s refusal to hire African Americans.
The protest not only desegregated the downtown branch of the bank, but also led other companies throughout the city to hire African Americans.
Demonstrations against segregation could be dangerous, but Oldham’s nerves were always steady and he was always in control, according to Williams.
“He was a machine gunner in the bubble under a B-17 during World War II,” Williams said.
“He was in a plane that flew over Hiroshima after the atomic bomb was dropped, and he saw that mushroom cloud.”
An avid bike rider, Oldham rode many miles during a week and also found time to work out three times each week, with his sessions beginning at 6 a.m.
“He was truly a special person,” Williams said.
“He was the best extemporaneous speaker I ever heard. I never saw him lose his cool.”
Among survivors are a son, John C. Oldham, a Kansas City attorney; a daughter, Dr. Lisa Oldham-Anderson of Chicago; and five grandchildren.
Oldham donated his body to Washington University for scientific research.
I remember people asking me if I were related to this gentleman as a kid and I always said idk I went looking today and this is what I found. Things I never knew about but I find interesting and will tell my kids about even though there is no relation only the name.