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C
hapter
T
hree
:
‘S
uffer
the
C
hildren
…’ (1956 – 1977)
write. About sixty to sixty five percent are
on the welfare rolls and about the same
number are in broken homes. There is
always the question of the percentage of
African American people. It’s smaller than
one would think – approximately twenty five
to thirty percent. We also have a very small
percentage of Native American families
left in our neighborhood. This, then, is a
neighborhood of deserted mothers who
have to find cheap housing while trying to
support their families; of people who have
lost their homes in other parts of the city; of
the migrant workers who come up from the
South in great numbers; of the remaining
Native Americans who have left the
reservation when it was permitted and who
find real difficulty in adjusting to city life
D
E
and the cultural changes; of elderly people
– some (as mentioned) living in a special
housing project for Senior Citizens. We also
have a few interns and medical and dental
students temporarily living in public housing
while in training at the nearby hospitals;
some of the wives of these students and a few
retired teachers help with Kingdom House’s
tutoring plan to keep children from dropping
out of school. Since many of these children
have no quiet place to study, study halls
are quite frequently held in the Kingdom
House chapel. Due to city planning and new
highways (like the Third Street highway)
and several proposed small parks, eleven
agencies which formerly served this area
have been forced to relocate or will relocate
and soon only Kingdom House of the
Methodist church will be left to serve this
portion of the Inner-City.
We have long wanted to have a full time
minister on the staff of Kingdom House.
On February 22, 1962 at the Annual
Dinner Meeting, Bishop Frank announced
the appointment of Rev. Richard Aukema
of Wisconsin to be minister to the Inner-
City working at Kingdom House effective
September 1, 1962.
Largely due to unemployment, there is
always a great need for food and clothing.
The churches and their organizations pour
these commodities into our store rooms
[sic] where they go out almost as fast as
they come in. Emergency calls have been
answered at the rate of twenty or thirty a
day during the deepest times of our recent
unemployment and depression. A staff
person interviews each applicant to be
sure that the food is really needed and not
available at the Welfare Office, Salvation
Army or elsewhere. Ours is truly emergency
service. Help is given in certain situations
as these: A father of a family of three in
Darst has cancer and cannot work. He
receives sixty six dollars a month disability;
pays forty five dollars a month rent. By
the end of the month this family regularly
P
hotos
:
D:
Rev. Richard Aukema on
the left
E:
Tricycle race