Cecil A. Partee Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

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Abraham Lincoln Hotel and we were not admitted.
Q: Oh?
A: We were not invited to the hotel for the dinner with our class. And I
lived long enough to be invited to make the principal speech to a similar
class in Springfield. Some five or six years ago, I was invited to be the
principal speaker at the luncheon for the new lawyers who were being sworn
in. And I told them I thought it was interesting that I would be invited
because, when I finished, I was not able to come. And there was a lady In my
class named Jewel Lafontant who was also not able to come who became
assistant solicitor general of the United States. And I said, "I have a
little spot over here. There's a place across the street over here called
the Senate and I'm the presfdent. So, you know, maybe we are making some
progress. I'
But I also suggested to the black students in that class that, although they
were there having dinner and they were accorded their civil rights, there are
still a lot of pockets and areas of racism and discrimination and that they
had an obligation to work hard toward eliminating it, just as we did the
things that we were subjected to. That it was not all over and still isn't
all over.
Q: (pause) Were there any times during your campaign, that first time, that
you wondered whether you were going to make it or not?
A: Never. No, as a matter of fact, I'm not sure we had any opposition. I
don't think we did. During the five times I ran for state representative, I
don't think I had opposition but once. And I don't, frankly, remember that
person's name. It was not traumatic.
Q: Was that primary opposition or in the regular election?
A: Neither. Normally, in the primary, we would have no opposition, In the
regular election, there might have been two Republicans running against each
other for the third spot. But we were so very closely organized here that
getting the nod of the committeeman was all that was really necessary, And
once you had them, you had it, it was a "lock," particularly when you had a
good reputation.
Q: When it came up that this was a possibility, going down there, why did you
accept it?
A: The legislature?
Q: Yes, sir.
A: Oh, I thought it was a step forward, thought it was a very significant
thing to be one of 235 people who made the laws for the state. It was a
real attractive kind of thing from that vantage point. It also meant to me
that I could go out into the world and practice law because the legislature