The family that started it all

By ELISE CATCHINGS
news@columbiamissourian.com

More than 50 years ago, Clara Miles sat on the front porch of her home on Pendleton Street waiting to reveal to her husband, Earl, an idea she’d been stewing over for quite some time.

Earl came home from work around noon after a full shift of baking at the Wigwam Café. He remembers what his wife said to him as he made his way to the front door.

“She asked me, ‘Do you want to take a ride? I’ll drive.’”

He thought it a little strange that Clara was so eager to take the wheel, but soon they were driving away. Earl had no idea where his wife was headed, but he could tell she had planned the drive in advance. She pulled up to a home near the corner of Russell Boulevard and College Park Drive, where a $75,000 house sparked Clara’s imagination.

She called it her “dream home” and pictured herself and Earl living in a similar house.

The time was the late 1950s, when housing options for black families in Columbia were slim. Most blacks lived in small homes or apartments in central Columbia, almost exclusively north of Broadway. But Clara had her heart set on a new home, away from what she called her “soup bowl” of a house.

The Mileses never moved into the Russell Boulevard home, but it inspired an even bigger project.

“This was a vision,” Earl said. “She got this from a dream.”

That dream — to create a new neighborhood for blacks in Columbia — came from God, Earl said. In 1959, Clara became a pioneer, developing an upscale housing neighborhood for black residents that was later named Miles Manor.

In 1956, just a few years before Miles Manor was established, the Columbia Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority and the Columbia Housing Authority were established. The two commissions set about the task of destroying deficient homes and building public housing in the area along Providence Road across the street from Douglass High School. Clara and many other blacks viewed that period of urban renewal as an opportune time to leave the segregated area. Clara started planning a new neighborhood that would give blacks the chance to live in their dream homes.

“At that particular time, they were starting to build projects,” Earl said. “Everybody lived in the Douglass area neighborhood. “(Clara) was trying to get a different place for blacks to live.”

But first she needed property. She asked a white farm couple if they would be willing to sell her and other families some of the land they owned just south of Stadium Boulevard in the area that now is home to Forum Shopping Center. The couple refused and instead referred Clara to their neighbor.

“They said that they wanted more prominent people to buy the land for their retirement fund but that just east of their land was a black pig farmer who might sell us some,” Earl said.

Clara took the couple’s advice and contacted Blue Harvey. To her delight, he was willing to give up his 30 acres for $20,000.

Earl remembers his wife being so optimistic about the project that he had to bring her down to earth.

“I told her, ‘I don’t have any money.’ She said, ‘Where’s your faith?’ I said, ‘It’s not about how much faith I got, it’s about how much money we got.’”

Within a month, though, the Mileses and several interested neighbors had come up with $15,000 as a down payment. But it took about five years for things to really get going. Would-be residents had to land loans and pick lots. The property had to be cleared of thick brush and trees.

And finding a contractor wasn’t easy. Clara approached the builder of her “dream home” and asked if he would also be interested in building in a new neighborhood for black families.

The Chicago builder was fearful. Earl remembers him saying that if he built one house for blacks in that neighborhood, “I’ll never build another house in Columbia.”

Eventually, though, the Mileses found a willing contractor to build their white-and-black split-level home in 1964. Aside from the huge and once healthy tree that is now leafless in the front yard, the Miles’ home has changed little inside or out during the past 48 years. Their basement is home to several old pieces of furniture that have been there as long as the house, including a table-and-chair set crafted from beer barrels. Two handmade woven quilts that the Mileses received as gifts years ago are draped over cream-colored couches that form an “L” in the living room. Awards and pictures lining the basement walls are a testament to Earl’s pride in the achievements of his family, including Miles Manor. Finally established in 1959, the brand-new subdivision was one woman’s idea turned into reality.

Earl calls his wife the “Rosa Parks of Columbia.” Her dedication and perseverance played a significant role in establishing more housing opportunities for blacks in Columbia during the late ’50s and beyond.

“If it hadn’t been for this,” Earl said, “it wouldn’t have happened for many years.”

Almost four years have passed since Clara’s death, but the families that remain in the neighborhood say her “vision” remains in focus. Twelve of the original 23 builders and their families still live in the quiet neighborhood. Today, about 26 split-level and ranch-style homes make up the three-street subdivision. Trees that started as stems now tower over and shade each home. Even though the look of the community has matured, residents say the character of the community is unchanged.

“It was the first subdivision of its kind created by blacks of the time,” Earl said.