In early 2019, I had the opportunity to interview Robert Norman Vickers, Sr., who passed away on Dec. 4, 2021, at 94. One of his three sons, the late Atty. Eric E. Vickers was a long-time supporter of my writing career and good friend. Richard Weiss, founder of the nonprofit, Before Ferguson Beyond Ferguson, was interested in publishing an extensive piece on the civil rights attorney’s family and roots. Initially, I regarded the assignment as a chance to decipher the making of a renowned attorney/activist. Instead, I was gifted with a fascinating three-generational tale of a Black man determined to live the “American Dream” despite racism, without malice or the in-your-face activism of his well-known son.
Robert Norman Vickers, Sr.,began his interview with an incident in the small town of Lerna, Illinois., population of 366 in 1927, the year he was born. Vickers recounted how townsfolk came to the aid of his grandfather, A. L. Robinson.
The Robinsons were the first and only Black family in Lerna at the time, and Ku Klux Klan locals were intent on making sure they didn’t stay. According to Vickers, his grandfather, a craftsman and a blacksmith by trade, was well respected in town. When Klansmen showed up to light a cross on the family’s lawn, they were greeted by protective gun-toting neighbors who issued an ominous warning:
“You S.O.Bs can light that cross if you want, but it’ll be the last thing you’ll ever light,’” Vickers recalled with a laugh. “Well, they got back in their cars and left, and my folks never heard from the Klan again.”
Vickers’ father and mother, James Beverly Vickers and Thelma Robinson-Vickers, raised four of their children in Mattoon, Illinois, about 15 minutes from Lerna. Vickers, however, was raised by his grandparents, the Robinsons in Lerna.
As “the only Black kid” in the city’s schools, Vickers said he was called the “N-word” often, but he maintained that more whites stood up for him than judged him by his skin color.
He excelled in athletics and academics at Lerna High School.
“Not bragging, but I was one of the smartest kids in town,” Vickers said.
He was not only captain of the school’s basketball team, but he also graduated as class salutatorian.
“If not for ‘race,’ I would have been valedictorian,” Vickers said.
Vickers enrolled at Eastern Illinois University, in Charleston Illinois and pursued a degree in industrial arts. He graduated in 1949 and got his first job as an educator a year later, teaching shop classes at Lincoln High School in Venice, Ill, established for black students in 1909. Seeking to reside near his job, Vickers moved to East St. Louis. It was there, in 1950, he met the love of his life, Claire Lee Bush, whom he married.
Vickers was promoted to assistant principal, Principal, and superintendent of Schools of Venice, Illinois, the first Black man to hold those positions. He retired from Venice in 1987 after 38 years of leadership.
In the early 1950s, East St. Louis still had a diverse populace dependent on a thriving economic base. It was fueled by major industries such asaluminum factories, foundries, stockyards, and meat-packing facilities, but because of the city’s rapid decline due to deindustrialization, the Vickers decided they and their four children would relocate.
Claire Vickers had read about University City’s “open housing” movement aimed at recruiting Blacks into the area. The Vickers found a house on Dalkeith Lane and became the first Black family on the block. Somewhat reminiscent of his grandparent’s experience in Lerna, a racist neighbor tossed a burning log through the window and threw black paint on the side of the house while the Vickers were moving in. In a 2001 interview with the Riverfront Times, the late Eric Vickers recalled the image of his 14-year-old self, surrounded by moving boxes, standing in the dark next to his father who peered through blinds with a shotgun in his hands.
As in Lerna, Vickers said most of his University City neighbors welcomed the family. He and Claire lived on Dalkeith Lane until she passed away at the age of 80 in 2012. According to the family, Vickers, Sr. also “passed away peacefully in his home surrounded by family.”
Robert Norman Vickers, Sr., is survived by his daughter Vikki (Vickers) Deakin, and his sister Caryl (Vickers) Taylor, 10 grandchildren, 20 great-grandchildren and four great, great grandchildren. Services will be held on December 13th. The visitation (10 to 11 a.m.) will be followed by funeral services at Austin Layne Mortuary, 7239 W Florissant Ave.
Sylvester Brown Jr. is The St. Louis American’s inaugural Deaconess Fellow.
