Aaron Baker Boyd: —they go preach [indistinct 00:00:03] in the Methodist church. So he was a Methodist and I was a Baptist. Rhonda Mawhood: You mentioned earlier that there were police in New Bern, but not in James City. Aaron Baker Boyd: Not in James City. Rhonda Mawhood: Right. Well, what kind of relations did the people in James City, the Black people have with the police of New Bern? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, if anything come up, they just call them in and they'd come over. See, because we was in Craven County anyway and that's what it consisted of, the laws, Craven County. And so that's how we got them. I remember some years back, they had a [indistinct 00:00:58] lived, not in this area, but across a place called Brices Creek over there the way, called—I forget what the name. But he was a [indistinct 00:01:12] and he could come and arrest you. But we didn't have nothing right in here, we didn't have nobody. No. We had mighty little violence happening in here. Supposed to be a quiet place. Rhonda Mawhood: Were people in James City ever afraid of the police? Aaron Baker Boyd: No, I don't think they were. Rhonda Mawhood: When you were growing up, Mr. Boyd, how did your parents teach you to act towards adults? Aaron Baker Boyd: How did they teach us? Rhonda Mawhood: How were you supposed to treat your elders when you were growing up? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, I supposed to respect my elders. Rhonda Mawhood: How would you show respect for them? Aaron Baker Boyd: By speaking to them and listening to them, whatever they had to say to me, not talk back to them or anything. Rhonda Mawhood: How were you supposed to treat White people in particular when you were growing up? Aaron Baker Boyd: I was supposed to treat them with respect, just like I would a Black. I didn't take them about what color they were. Take them just who they are. Yeah, and I still don't believe in that right now. Rhonda Mawhood: You still don't believe in—? Aaron Baker Boyd: Not the color. Rhonda Mawhood: Okay. Aaron Baker Boyd: No. Rhonda Mawhood: Did you have a hard time understanding—when you were a child, sometimes children don't understand. Did you have a hard time understanding— Aaron Baker Boyd: No, I didn't. Rhonda Mawhood: —discrimination? Aaron Baker Boyd: No, I didn't. I just felt like, well the Whites maybe didn't want be with the Black. Maybe the Blacks didn't want be the White. Until the Civil Rights movement come and Martin Luther King said that when the little Black boys and little White boys be walking down the street hand in hand. So I seen that. I seen it. It's coming. Rhonda Mawhood: Did you think when you were younger that you would see that? Aaron Baker Boyd: No, I didn't. No, I didn't. Rhonda Mawhood: So what kinds of changes—this is a big question, but what kind of changes have you seen in James City in the years that you've spent here? Aaron Baker Boyd: I've seen a bit lot of change in James City. Yeah. Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: What kinds of things have changed, sir? Aaron Baker Boyd: Black, we worship the service together in church. We had White ones sometimes coming out to church. We have had them join there. They soon went away and they had one, the last one, White man was taken in there. He died and his folks come and had the funeral and we sent them some flowers and all like that. So our doors always had been let open for Whites, whether we could go to theirs or not. But we always opened the doors for whomsoever, we will let him come. That's what the Bible said. Rhonda Mawhood: Yeah. Did everyone in your church agree with that? Or were there people who maybe didn't? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, you couldn't tell no different. They didn't show no different. The last time I was interviewed right in this house by some lady, she asked me, could they come to my church and call me on the phone after interview was here. So I told her, "Yeah." So that Sunday they come there. Then they brought—excuse me. Rhonda Mawhood: Excuse me. Aaron Baker Boyd: They brought somebody else. They had another one to bring, so we had three that Sunday. So I think more or less, they want to come and see how we operate. So they would treat us nice and everything. Yeah. Yeah. That was the last time I was interviewed right in here. Rhonda Mawhood: Well, I have to tell you that I've visited quite a few Black churches this summer and everyone has always been very nice to me. Aaron Baker Boyd: Right. Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: I really appreciate it. Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. I looks at it all on the television, the Blacks and Whites in the choir together singing. Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: When you were growing up, did you think that you would see White people in church? Aaron Baker Boyd: No, I didn't think I would see something like that. But now I see different. I see different. Rhonda Mawhood: What other kinds of changes have you seen around here, sir, besides in your church? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, I've seen changes in the stores. The Blacks, employees in the stores where the Blacks wasn't in there. So it's a big difference. Rhonda Mawhood: Which stores, sir? Can you think of any in particular? Aaron Baker Boyd: All of them. Belk's store, JC Penny stores, Sears and Roebucks, all those stores, is a big difference. The way they got the Blacks, we got them in there. And you treated with courtesy. Rhonda Mawhood: Did you ever go into stores in the days before the Civil Rights movement, where you weren't treated with courtesy? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah, I was treated all right. Rhonda Mawhood: So you were treated all right? Aaron Baker Boyd: Right. Rhonda Mawhood: Were there— Aaron Baker Boyd: Maybe I wouldn't been treated all right if it wouldn't have been for Civil Rights movement. Rhonda Mawhood: Right. Well, before the Civil Rights movement, were there times when you were not treated all right? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah, it was different. It was different till the Civil Rights come in there. Rhonda Mawhood: Can you tell me about any of those times? Would you tell me about any of the times when you were not treated properly in the stores? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, just right around the Civil Right come through here, I guess you remember when it come through here or you was young [indistinct 00:08:21] when they come through here. Rhonda Mawhood: Well, I was young. I was born in 1966 and I'm from Canada. Aaron Baker Boyd: Oh yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: So it was different there. But I read about it. I've read a lot about it. Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Well it was about, along that time, about '46 or something like that. I remember my wife went into Copeland and Smith. There was a Copeland and Smith in New Bern. And she said the lady trying to tell her what kind of hat. And she told her she know what she wanted. So she just walked on out the store and then she went to the water fountain and get some water and the Black water over here and the White water over there. But that soon went out when the Civil Right movement come to us. Rhonda Mawhood: Did— Aaron Baker Boyd: Black water and White water. Rhonda Mawhood: Did you ever hear of anybody or know anybody who drank from the White water fountain? Aaron Baker Boyd: Not until they lifted the ban off of them. Rhonda Mawhood: So people did abide the rules? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Because I mean, down on the base, now you're told not to be no discrimination down there, but it was Black restrooms and White restrooms down there. Just as I mentioned one time before about the cafeteria, it had a wall between for the Black and White. And they tore that wall out and done everything in, done away with that White water and Black water. Rhonda Mawhood: Did you see them tear that wall down, Mr. Boyd? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah, I was working there at the time. Rhonda Mawhood: How did you feel about that when you saw the wall coming down? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, I felt like it was nice if I wanted to go and sit with them to eat, I'd go sit with them and eat. I had the purpose of doing it if I wanted to. Rhonda Mawhood: Did you and your wife have any children, Mr. Boyd? Aaron Baker Boyd: No, we did not. Rhonda Mawhood: Did you have nieces and nephews or other young people around? Aaron Baker Boyd: That's some of my wife people up there. Rhonda Mawhood: Okay. Aaron Baker Boyd: Them children there. There's a girl right there. Rhonda Mawhood: I know. Beautiful picture. Very pretty. Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. She was crazy about her. After her mother born, her mother was working at a health department and my wife was take her and keep her till her mother knock off from work and I learned her how to walk around this table. I was learning her how to walk. I think she about 17 now. This is her last year in school. Rhonda Mawhood: Okay. She's about 17, she's young lady now. Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. No, we were fortunate, we didn't have no children. But her brother had so many children and we took—one of her brother boy, took him here when he was two years old. It wasn't no [indistinct 00:11:48] that store right there, open that store. We kept him until he got grown. And he got married. And he got married, was staying right here. And we didn't know he had been married two weeks and the minister where he married him come in here one night and say, "I got your boy." And he told us that he was married. He was in and out and we didn't know he was married. Rhonda Mawhood: Oh my. Aaron Baker Boyd: So after a while, about two weeks after he was married, he asked her "Couldn't she get him out?" She told him no. Said, "I didn't get you in it." Yeah, he did. Rhonda Mawhood: How old was he when he got married? Aaron Baker Boyd: He was about 25 years old. Rhonda Mawhood: Oh. And is he still married? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. He's still married. Yeah. I got his picture here somewhere. I got a whole lot of pictures here. Rhonda Mawhood: So he stayed with you and it sounds like you raised him. Aaron Baker Boyd: We did. We did. Because he didn't know his father and mother. That what he called us. Till my wife would keep on telling him that she was just his aunt. She had to tell him. And every Easter, we would buy him a suit and carry them over there to his mother and father, let them look at him. And his sisters and brother, they would run to him and he'd back off from him. Back off from them. One or two nights, wanted to stay over there. He'd get on the telephone, call us, tell us, come get him. Yeah. Yeah. Robert. Rhonda Mawhood: Okay. Could I ask you why Robert lived with you and your wife and not with his parents? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, as I stated, my wife brother had so many children, so we didn't have none so we took him so it would take some of the pressure off, but she didn't want take him, letting him know that she was his mother and I was his father. But that what wound up being, till she had to keep on telling that we wasn't his father and mother. Rhonda Mawhood: So he loved you like a father? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Because he didn't know no other because he was two years old when we got him. Rhonda Mawhood: And how old is Robert now? Mr. Boyd? Aaron Baker Boyd: I think Robert's about 30-something years old. Rhonda Mawhood: So he was born around the 1950s? Aaron Baker Boyd: Something like that, yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: What kind of work did your sister's brother do? Aaron Baker Boyd: Beg pardon? Rhonda Mawhood: Excuse me. Your wife's brother. What kind of work did your wife's brother do? Robert's father. Aaron Baker Boyd: He was working at a place called Medical Arts right there by the hospital. Rhonda Mawhood: Medical Arts building? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: What kind of work was he doing there? Aaron Baker Boyd: He was janitor. Rhonda Mawhood: So you mentioned earlier when you hurt your finger, you went to see the doctor. Other times when somebody got sick in your family, what would you do? Aaron Baker Boyd: We had some Black doctors here. They'd come out on house calls and all that. Even had one doctor had a horse and a buggy riding the horse and buggy. Yeah, Dr Mann. Rhonda Mawhood: Dr Mann. Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Yeah. So we had [indistinct 00:15:35] Black doctor. They about four or five Black doctors. Just like undertaker, we had about four of them, I think. We had one Black undertaker had some White person and they had turned Black. And he turned back and the White wanted to get his recipe, but he didn't let him have it. But he turned him back White. Rhonda Mawhood: How, why had— Aaron Baker Boyd: That's right. Rhonda Mawhood: Why had he turned Black? Aaron Baker Boyd: I don't know why he turned Black, but they got this man, got this Black undertaker. He was the only one could do it and he turned him back, turn his color back. Now that's for real. Rhonda Mawhood: But the Black undertaker wouldn't say how he had done it? Aaron Baker Boyd: No. Rhonda Mawhood: Oh my. Aaron Baker Boyd: He wouldn't give the recipe. Rhonda Mawhood: Do you remember the name of the Black undertaker, Mr. Boyd? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. IP Hatch. Rhonda Mawhood: Mr. Hatch. Aaron Baker Boyd: Hatch. Rhonda Mawhood: I've heard of Mr. Hatch. Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: Okay. Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, he dead now. Rhonda Mawhood: How would people pay the doctor, Mr. Boyd? Aaron Baker Boyd: They paid out their little salary what they make, I guess. Rhonda Mawhood: So they would pay him only in money? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: And there were midwives around? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah, they had midwives. Yeah. Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: Did you know any midwives? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah, I knowed a lady named Sue. Dorcus White, as I believe it was. And Fanny Garrett. Rhonda Mawhood: Fanny Garrett. Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. They were midwives. It was two of them over here. I know they had some in New Bern, but it was two over here. Rhonda Mawhood: How did the midwives learn their profession? Aaron Baker Boyd: I really can't say how they did, but they had it. Rhonda Mawhood: They might have learned from others maybe. Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: Did your mother had midwives to her childbirth? Aaron Baker Boyd: Right, right. Her midwife was Fanny Garrett. Rhonda Mawhood: Did you ever have to get the midwife for your mother? Aaron Baker Boyd: No. Father did. Rhonda Mawhood: Your father? Aaron Baker Boyd: Maybe my sister too. Well, my sister, she's 94 I think. 94. Rhonda Mawhood: She's 94 now. Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: Did your sister get married? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: So she's your big sister? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. And my only sister. Rhonda Mawhood: If you ever did anything bad when you were a little boy, Mr. Boyd, who would discipline you? Who would set you straight? Aaron Baker Boyd: My mother and my father. My father, he would get on us. Rhonda Mawhood: What kinds of things would they get on you for? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, any mischievous thing that you do, you wasn't supposed to do it. Rhonda Mawhood: Did anybody besides your parents discipline you? Aaron Baker Boyd: No, of course, I have known parents get at a child and he just take what they say and go on because if he didn't, if they [indistinct 00:19:44] home, then the parents would get on them too. During that time, [indistinct 00:19:53] parents raised the children. They raised the children. Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: But with your family, it was just your parents? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: Do you know why that was? Aaron Baker Boyd: Do I know why it was? Rhonda Mawhood: Why your— Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, because we tried to try to mind them, do whatever they say to do. Rhonda Mawhood: Who did you look up to when you were growing up, Mr. Boyd? Was there someone who you really looked up to who was like a hero? Aaron Baker Boyd: What do you mean by—I looked up to my father and mother and all that. And then elder people too. Rhonda Mawhood: So did you try to be like them? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: Quite a few people have told me that. Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: They have nice memories of their parents. Of the brothers and your sister who live to be grown, you said your sister is alive. Are your brothers still living, sir? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: There's John IV in Harlem? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: And then— Aaron Baker Boyd: The other one's in Pollocksville. Riley Boyd. Rhonda Mawhood: Do you still see them? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah, I see him yesterday. They took me to his home, out to Pollocksville yesterday. Rhonda Mawhood: It sounds like your family is long-lived? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah, they is. Rhonda Mawhood: Were your grandmothers long-lived also? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: Is there some kind of family secret, how to live to be old? Aaron Baker Boyd: No, my father died in 1950 and my mother died in 1960. Rhonda Mawhood: How old were they when they died, sir? Aaron Baker Boyd: They was pretty good and old. Rhonda Mawhood: Did they live by themselves when they got old? Did they live with someone in the family? Aaron Baker Boyd: No, we lived ourself, at our own home. Rhonda Mawhood: Mr. Boyd, I know that you're someone who knows a lot about James City. Are there things that you would like to tell me about James City that I didn't ask you about? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, I think I hit basically some things about James City, about I was talking about the industry that they had in there, the mills that they had in there and that's about all. The farms they had. They had a farm [indistinct 00:23:10] out there in and I forgot what the name was, but they had a farm work out there. That was some of the industrial. And all those mills, them four mills over there. Then people, they would have gardens, had tomatoes and corn and stuff. They'd take it to New Bern and selling it. You could be on one street and hear him hollering, "Corn, tomatoes and beans!" and all that stuff. So that's how they got the living. And most women, they got by, by working out in service. Some of them worked for some White family, good White family. Then some washed the clothes. I know my mother washed some clothes, but my father, he soon stopped it. He didn't want her doing that kind of work. So that's how they managed to get through. Rhonda Mawhood: So she gave that up after a— Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. So we come from a long way. Rhonda Mawhood: Do you feel like your life was very different from your parents' life, Mr. Boyd? Aaron Baker Boyd: No, I don't feel like it was. No, I don't feel like it was because I try to carry myself in a way. And I try to live the life that they did. Rhonda Mawhood: If I asked you, what kind of advice you would give to young people coming up today to give them the benefit of your experience? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, what kind of life I would give to them? Rhonda Mawhood: What kind of advice? Aaron Baker Boyd: What kind advice I would give? Rhonda Mawhood: Mm-hmm. Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, I would give the advice to try to get in the church, stay in the church and work in the church and try to get their education in front of themselves so they can follow themselves. But most of them drop out, maybe like I dropped out and I would like to see them, they go further so they could be able to get just what they want when they finish school. That's what I would like to see. Rhonda Mawhood: I think that's very useful advice. Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: Thank you. I'd just like to ask you a little bit about your church. Has your church been involved in community affairs? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: What kinds of activities? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, we have our Bible study and vacation Bible school. Two weeks during the summer, it just closed out. Then we had a Bible camp out there. We just closed it out. So it almost taking up the time because it's near about time to go back to school. So it kind of kept them out of the street and kept them in the church. [indistinct 00:26:40] in the church. Rhonda Mawhood: Yes, I saw the church. It's a nice church. Aaron Baker Boyd: Huh? Rhonda Mawhood: I saw the church. It's a nice church. Aaron Baker Boyd: Our church? Rhonda Mawhood: Mm-hmm. Aaron Baker Boyd: You ain't been in there. Rhonda Mawhood: I saw the one across the street. That's not it? Oh, yours is down the road. Aaron Baker Boyd: No, mine right there. Rhonda Mawhood: I haven't been in there. No. Aaron Baker Boyd: I want you go in there. I want you to go in there. I've got me a nice church. What church you been in? Methodist Church? Rhonda Mawhood: I haven't been in any churches here yet. I've seen them from the outside, but I haven't been in them. Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, we got a nice church. Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: Is the church open? Aaron Baker Boyd: I got a key. Rhonda Mawhood: Got a key? Oh, maybe would you like to show it to me? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah, I wanted to show it to you. Or is she over there to John Moore? Rhonda Mawhood: No, Karen, she's going to see Mr. Moore another day. Not today, but she's gone to see someone else. Aaron Baker Boyd: Oh yeah. I thought she was over there. Rhonda Mawhood: But we could go and visit the church if you'd like. Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: All right. [indistinct 00:27:42] Aaron Baker Boyd: I thought Grace was—[indistinct 00:27:43] was coming. Rhonda Mawhood: Oh, I'm sorry. No. Aaron Baker Boyd: She told me that she might stop in there. Rhonda Mawhood: She might? Okay. Well, she's— Aaron Baker Boyd: Because I'll see her tonight. We supposed to have a meeting tonight. Rhonda Mawhood: Okay. Yes, I heard about that. Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah.