WEBVTT 1 00:03.000 --> 00:05.000 Okay. 2 00:05.000 --> 00:38.000 And they had money in the bank, that's all they did. The bank done shut up because of it. Didn't have money to pay their taxes, crawled up the line, of which was $300, couldn't borrow it. Went to Frank Gardner and told him about it, he was a lawyer. He the one said to [indistinct 00:00:22] "Well, John, I overlooked it. I overlooked it. I didn't see it. And so here are some back taxes, and income taxes, and they got to be paid." "What happens if I don't have the money?" He recommended to a lady called Mary Johnson. Boy, she didn't pay the money. Close my eyes. 3 00:38.000 --> 01:17.000 Next year, the cotton had that went out in tenths of a pound, couldn't pay again. Next year couldn't pay the $300.00. Kept on, kept on, kept on, kept on like that every year, every year. So he just decided he would just—1948, 1938 he decided he'd just give it up, give it up. He relocated across, over there on the air base. Stayed there about three years, turned it into four years, government taking that. Then we bought it over here, right here in Browning. 4 01:17.000 --> 01:57.000 But that's the way the White folks will do you. They get you in debt. Then when they get you in debt, then they'll close up on you, they know you ain't got the money to pay yet, then they close the deal on you. And then there's a lot of people lose their land on that account, don't have no money. And knew they couldn't pay it back. And then, wouldn't allow them no chance, "Got to have my money, or your property warrant." They got the deal. That was it. That was it. 5 01:57.000 --> 01:58.000 Mrs. Moore, could you tell me something about your family? 6 01:58.000 --> 03:10.000 My family? We were born, as I told you, when we were born, I was born in Carroll County just across the line, and my mother was named Maddy Lou Willis and my father was named Dave Willis. And he passed in 1929, and we lived up there on a plantation, but this man, he was a little different from most plantation owners. He would let us go to school. And now, as we grew up, and got larger, we'd always work to help our mother because weren't nobody at home but the three of us, and after we attended this Browning Elementary School. And after we finished there, we started going to high school, down to Greenwood on Stone Street, which was about, I guess it was about eight miles. Is that right, Reverend Brown? 7 03:10.000 --> 03:10.000 Mm-hmm. 8 03:10.000 --> 03:10.000 —from up county line. 9 03:10.000 --> 03:11.000 Yeah. 10 03:11.000 --> 03:14.000 —About eight miles. And we didn't have no transportation but walk. 11 03:14.000 --> 03:15.000 That's right. 12 03:15.000 --> 03:51.000 So we had to walk every morning to school and back in the afternoon, but there was an old man that worked downtown. And he, his heart I guess was a little different from some of the others. Some days, he would let us ride. He had a truck. He'd go to work every morning. Some days he'd let us ride. Then again, he wouldn't, he'd just pass on by us. And, so that's the way we got to high school. And after we finished high school, I got married in 1940. 13 03:51.000 --> 03:52.000 Mm-hmm. 14 03:52.000 --> 04:24.000 And I moved on down in this community then, and, oh, I went to, I attended Mississippi Valley. Now Alcorn College had extension courses. And I attended that. And then, and they, this building, the Mississippi Valley State University. And we was going to school, and the old, in that recreation center you—Have you been there? Well, it's a recreation center that they have now. They used, they had the old— 15 04:24.000 --> 04:25.000 In Itta Bena? 16 04:25.000 --> 04:25.000 In Itta Bena. 17 04:25.000 --> 04:26.000 Okay, the Brazil Center? 18 04:26.000 --> 04:28.000 Yeah, the Brazil Center. 19 04:28.000 --> 05:01.000 That was the school where the, we attended for Valley State for a long time. We went over there. They have classes there at night, and we would go over at night to classes. And I finished, oh, Valley State, I got my BS degree in '55. I think it was '55. And we was—I was teaching too in the daytime. And I'd come home in the afternoon and go to the field and help work. 20 05:01.000 --> 05:02.000 Mm—hmm. 21 05:02.000 --> 05:50.000 We had a farm, and I had, I was the mother of three children, one daughter and two sons, which was Robert and Charles, and we lost the little girl. We lost her in '43. And I worked in this county from—I've started again at Browning Elementary School, and I taught there, first grade for a while, and they sent me from there to Whaley. And from there to the Pig Stand. Anyway, I'm—From there, I came back, and we, years later they built the Elzy Elementary School. 22 05:50.000 --> 05:51.000 Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 23 05:51.000 --> 06:18.000 And there, I worked there at the Elzy Elementary School a while. And after they built the Rising Sun Elementary School, they transferred me over there to Rising Sun in the same county. And there I stayed until I retired. I retired in '84, and my husband passed in '83, and I retired in '84. 24 06:18.000 --> 06:19.000 You mentioned a Browning Elementary School that you taught in at one point. Is this the same school? 25 06:19.000 --> 06:20.000 The same school. 26 06:20.000 --> 06:25.000 Okay, and had it expanded by that point or? 27 06:25.000 --> 06:40.000 Oh, well, it, it was. It was just about the same. But the older teacher retired, I think, and they hired me. But it was about the same. It had four, just four, four teachers. That's it. Okay? 28 06:40.000 --> 06:48.000 Yeah, in proportion it was about the same, but you can remember that after Professor Hilton became principal— 29 06:48.000 --> 06:48.000 That's right. 30 06:48.000 --> 06:52.000 Oh, yeah, they did. 31 06:52.000 --> 06:54.000 —in 1937. 32 06:54.000 --> 06:54.000 Mm-hmm. 33 06:54.000 --> 06:59.000 Then it was changed to, uh— 34 06:59.000 --> 06:59.000 Vocation— 35 06:59.000 --> 07:01.000 —uh, Agriculture, the Vocation of Agriculture. 36 07:01.000 --> 07:02.000 Mm-hmm. 37 07:02.000 --> 07:18.000 And, and that was added with, teacher were added, and then, we, we had a community club back in that time. And that community club was, was uh, working together. We, we had our own canning plant. 38 07:18.000 --> 07:18.000 Yeah. 39 07:18.000 --> 07:36.000 You know, how we can food and, and the club bought registered hawk. 40 07:36.000 --> 07:36.000 Yeah. 41 07:36.000 --> 07:37.000 —and a registered bull. 42 07:37.000 --> 07:37.000 Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 43 07:37.000 --> 07:59.000 You know, [indistinct 00:07:38] are register, and, and we serviced the community serves, you know, they'll, they'll stock from, from, use the registered stock that the, that the club bought. And there were other activities that the club was really concerned about, and told that they'd be well fair of everybody that lived in this community. 44 07:59.000 --> 07:59.000 Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 45 07:59.000 --> 08:03.000 This, this, this, it was called The Browning Community Club at that time. 46 08:03.000 --> 08:03.000 Yeah. 47 08:03.000 --> 08:08.000 You know. I served as secretary when I came out of World War II, of that club for a number of years. 48 08:08.000 --> 08:08.000 In other words, had blacksmiths shop and canning— 49 08:08.000 --> 08:08.000 Yeah. 50 08:08.000 --> 08:08.000 —outfit and all of that like that back then. 51 08:08.000 --> 08:21.000 Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 52 08:21.000 --> 08:36.000 —you know, and blacksmith shop [indistinct 00:08:21]. Go and have something done to your plows and something. You paid men to work in the shop who did that. 53 08:36.000 --> 08:43.000 Mm-hmm. You mentioned you, you told me about when Robert Moore ran for supervisor. When did people start voting in this part of Mississippi? 54 08:43.000 --> 08:43.000 Now, in 19—In '54, I registered. 55 08:43.000 --> 08:43.000 Okay. 56 08:43.000 --> 08:43.000 That were long before the— 57 08:43.000 --> 09:01.000 The Voting Rights Act. 58 09:01.000 --> 09:02.000 —Freedom Movement. 59 09:02.000 --> 09:03.000 That's right. 60 09:03.000 --> 10:06.000 At that time, the requirement was you had to pay your poll tax. I went down to the courthouse and paid my real estate tax. It wasn't compulsory to pay your poll tax, but if you wanted to register, you had to pay it. So that were one of the requirements, so I told them that I wanted to pay my poll tax. And the lady, she said, "It's going to cost you two dollars." I handed her two dollars. She wrote me a receipt for two dollars, and then, I ask her, I said, "Where do you go to register?" And the county sheriff was standing in the office. And he said, "If you know where to go pay your poll tax, you ought to know where to go to register." And the lady gave me a facial experience, a sign. And I stood. And he was so angry until he went back in his office. And she whispered and told me, "Go downstairs." 61 10:06.000 --> 10:53.000 I went downstairs, and it was a large White lady. And you could tell that she was a poor person, like me, because the way she dressed and the way her hair looked. And she should have weighed over 200 pounds. And she was sitting at a big table. I said, "I came to register." And I handed the poll tax receipt. And she said, "Boy, can you recite the Constitution of the United States?" I said, "No ma'am, I can't recite the Constitution of the United States." I said, "But I can read it, and interpret it." So she opened the book, and I signed. And that's when I registered in 1954. 62 10:53.000 --> 11:48.000 During that time, it was very few Blacks was registered. We had mostly among our educators, but I didn't know my way home. I just know what I wanted to do. And later on, before the Freedom Movement, I was solicited the first time to appear in court. And when I went out there, I was the only Black person, and they began to screen out, ask different questions and find out how you could get off. You didn't have to be in. 63 11:48.000 --> 12:55.000 They finally put me on standby, but I was the only person. And I was discriminated when I went there. I got there soon that morning, and I went to the high sheriff and told him my purpose there. And he told me, "Have a seat back there on that back seat in the courtroom." And I sit down. Then, when he started interviewing us, he called me from back there. And after, there was no ground for me to be disqualified. And he sent me to the room by the rest in that group. And I sit with them. And I'm the only Black there, and they had all the wealthy White people, [indistinct 00:12:34] and lawyers and different thing. They were subpoenaed. And I'm sitting with them. The sheriff came in that was in authority of us. 64 12:55.000 --> 13:55.000 He came in and told me, he said, "We gonna bring some more in, and this other group. You all are group two. We gonna bring in group number one." He said, "I want you to take a seat on the back there." And then, he showed me a seat in the back of the room. I didn't say anything. I got up and took that seat. And they treated him so cold. Everybody else treated him so cold, all the other Whites treated him so cold. Until he didn't ask me to do it anymore. When we were moved, when this jury was moved, when we got a recess and had to come back in, I sat with the rest of the jury. I was the first juryman, I believe, first juror, Black, in Leflore County that was solicited for jury duty. And I was the only there, and this sheriff tried to segregate me from the rest of them, 'cause they were White. 65 13:55.000 --> 14:50.000 And all those other jurymans, they were very prominent people and had authority in the city, the best men [indistinct 00:14:11]. The jurymen were from there. They had lawyers on there, and I'm the only fellow that didn't know his way home. But I was still there, and I wouldn't disqualify myself. So I was on standby. I got paid. That was before this movement. And when this movement started, I know how it started. When it first started, we were meeting in homes. Maybe it wouldn't be over 25 or 30. And then, after that, we started meeting in churches and it was a whole lot of fear during those times. 66 14:50.000 --> 16:08.000 And we endured a whole lot of harassment. And I played an active part as far as it was possible, because I'm the father of seven children. And I raised six from my sister. That's 13 children. And I ain't never had to go to jail yet now. And I don't have a child that looked for a job two weeks. So I ain't have no problem. But anyway, he'd limit my time, but I was in the Meredith March from Tougaloo to Jackson. I was in that march. I've been on the stage with Dr. King and many times shook hands with him. And other, Abernathy, and other stood right with us. Believe it, I've been there, and I know what was goin down. I know what we had, the experience to get where we are. And I know what we have to be sorry for now. Our people asked for something that they don't want. 67 16:08.000 --> 16:08.000 Sure have. Sure the truth. 68 16:08.000 --> 16:33.000 That's the problem now. The problem now, if other communities was unified as well as this community, we would be much better off. We would have something to offer ourselves and someone else. But you're very limited in what you can offer when they have no unit. You're very limited in what you can offer. 69 16:33.000 --> 17:19.000 We have climbed the intellectual ladder to the highest heights. You understand. We got people who can stand anywhere, if they ain't too tall. But because we are not united, we can't work together in unity. Some of those people that stand on top of the ladder cannot offer anybody a job. Had to look to somebody else for a job. And we spend time complaining about the other person who had provided a job for himself and his family, because he won't give us a job. We ought to unite and create a job for ourself and have one offer for somebody else. 70 17:19.000 --> 18:13.000 See, I know why we are falling short. There's two places we've fallen short. We don't have enough real estate. And we don't have no jobs to offer nobody. That's why we've fallen short. You can read history from beginning to end, no nation has ever fought for money. Ain't never fought for cars. They're fighting for land. That's what nations fight for. That's what's what most important in this age, is land. We need some real estate. And without that, we're nowhere. That's the reason why our children stays in jail. 71 18:13.000 --> 18:37.000 It told you about that bond I laid out. It didn't cost me a penny. I signed a real estate bond. And that's the reason why we need it. We need some real estate. Our children gonna stay in jail 'cause we got nothing to bond out with. The other man, didn't cost his child, ain't doing anything, he got some real estate. Boy get in jail, he can call his friend, "Go down there and bond my son out." He got two or three thousand acres of land, he go down there and sign the papers. Ain't nobody have no money. 72 18:37.000 --> 18:59.000 See, and as long as we ain't got no jobs to offer ourselves, we ain't got offer nobody else. And you ain't got nothing to trade. You gotta have something to trade now. If you ain't got nothing to trade, you gotta accept what the person give you. You can't bargain if you got nothing to trade. You don't have anything to bargain with. 73 18:59.000 --> 19:04.000 And it was different back in the day? Things were different? 74 19:04.000 --> 19:28.000 Yeah, our people had more to bargain with back in those days, until this crisis came in the 30s. Because they had that money. Our people, back there, you know, a whole lot of time we young folk, we think we smarter than them. They didn't know their way home. They couldn't sign their name. They didn't know any [indistinct 00:19:23] left. But I tell you one thing, they didn't have to go and borrow no money to buy a new car. 75 19:28.000 --> 19:28.000 No. 76 19:28.000 --> 19:40.000 And they had land. They had a job for to offer their children. Now why. 77 19:40.000 --> 20:21.000 That's all right. That's all right. One thing about the children now, they aren't doing nothing. Lots of them now. Lots of them now it's just a routine. What the town's leaving for. A lot of them don't work. They'd rather walk off from here and go to Chicago, or Detroit, or California, somewhere, and just leave it here. They don't want it. They don't want—That's old time stuff. They don't want no property, now, [indistinct 00:20:03] was coming up. They don't want it. I don't know why. But they let their old home place go to wreck. They ain't staying. Nobody. Lots of them now, don't [indistinct 00:20:18] people. They don't care. 78 20:21.000 --> 21:22.000 I remember I was working, that was in the 60s, when these Freedom Riders come through. That's was back in the 60s. I was working at a [indistinct 00:20:33] down there. Utilities. Dr. King, he came, and the White folks didn't want you to even look out on them marching through town. Call them downtown agitators. "If they speak to you, don't speak to them. Don't be seen with those downtown agitators walking along with your womens, holding their hands. Then the White girls walking along with the Black holding their hands. Don't speak to them, don't look at them when they pass. And when Dr. King, you know, would get chance to speak, in Greenwood, there. Don't y'all go down. I would have liked being at that. Don't y'all go down there and fool around, 'cause you do, you won't have no jobs." 79 21:22.000 --> 21:58.000 Now they had some people working, their only job now, somehow was seeing Blacks. They out watching. Go down, at the church, or wherever else he gonna speak at, watch and see who were all going to be there, working on the job. Even ban [indistinct 00:21:47] down there. Some of them go down there and watch and see who there, then go back and tell him. Then you go, you ain't got no job. 80 21:58.000 --> 22:58.000 My wife was hauling farm laborers. Sometime making 100, 125 dollars a day hauling farm laborers over, picking cotton and chopping, and like that. She kept me away from home. Oh, I didn't have too much to do. I'd ride around with some of them, we hunting for trouble, you know, a water leak or streets broke in, we'd get down and carry it in and have a crew come fix it. He got angry with me. My wife said, "They tell me that they bringing a lot of clothes here, a lot of different stuff here. Do you care if I go up there to [indistinct 00:22:44] on Howard Street and just see? Ain't nothing I want now, I ain't got to have nothing, but I just want to go up there and see." I said, "Help yourself, you're grown." She [indistinct 00:22:54]. She went up there. 81 22:58.000 --> 23:47.000 Whatever she want it, she got it, I don't know. Was not that much. Then, after that, took all of them name. Then they got to march up to the courthouse. March up there and [indistinct 00:23:17]. And if they did it, all right, you gotta do the paper. Everyone of them go up there to sign the paper, and they got their name and their paper. So I [indistinct 00:23:26]. One of them came by and called me, I came out. "What's your wife's name?" All of them know my wife. I said, "She name Annie." "Annie, what?" I said, "Annie Brown." "Annie Brown, that's her name?" I told 'em, "Yeah, that's her name." 82 23:47.000 --> 24:20.000 So they went and told the boss man. He came round, "Jackson, sit down. You out seeing why your wife went up there and march and registered to vote. Did you tell her to do that?" I said, "No, I ain't told her." "Fact is that I see the marching upstairs with some of them downtown agitators, and here he sitting upstairs." I said, "She was, yeah. Take my pistol and go up there and shoot her." "No, I ain't got to do that." "Yeah, but this my pistol, take it and go up and shoot her then send it back up. Then you won't have to worry about nothing." "Man, I don't need your pistol." I said, "If I need a pistol I can go up here to the hardware," I said, "I can have anything I want up there. I don't need it." "Are you crazy?" 83 24:20.000 --> 24:58.000 "I ain't send my wife up there." I said, "Was she trying to [indistinct 00:24:20]?" "No." I said, "Well, there ain't nothing wrong, she's doing what she want to do." I said, "I ain't bothered about that. When we married we didn't marry to fight or push one another. We married to live on a certain basis." I said, "No she went because she wanted to go." Okay. She went up there and voted. "If you say you couldn't help it, we'll let you work on. But if you don't by means, you ain't got no job." I said, "Oh, it don't mean a difference." 84 24:58.000 --> 25:23.000 I worked on that week, about two weeks long, and I worked that Sunday. That Sunday, the third Sunday, my parents were here, I worked that Sunday. Waited on til Friday, and crossed the river over there. I mean, stopping a water leak over there, putting a clamp on a pipe over there. I heard the radio on the truck come in, tell "Bring Jackson Brown in." 85 25:23.000 --> 25:53.000 I had on boots, I got them boots off, and get my shoes out the truck and put on. "What you doing?" I said, "I'm getting ready to go." He said, "Why?" I said, "I heard them told you to bring me in." 'Cause that Friday was payday. Head man up there. I went to the office, "I just want my check." "We ain't got your check. We ain't got it." I said, "Why?" "'Cause we ain't got it." I said, "Well, today's payday." "Well, we ain't got the check." 86 25:53.000 --> 26:46.000 So, I said, "George William got it." I said "George William?" Yeah. Well you see, I got paid from the city hall, not the county, at the court house. I waited till after lunch, I wanted to have my check. "You Jackson?" I said, "Yes sir." He said, "I tell you, I don't know what they sent your check up here for, but they garnished you." "Garnishing my check? For what?" "They said you owe something at a big store here in Greenwood." I said, "I don't owe no so and so nothing." Oh just real mad. Said, "You owe that big store down there on Carroll Avenue." I said, "I don't owe no so and so nothing." "Man, you gotta give me $14 before you can get it." I said, "Well, I ain't got it." I had seven dollars. 87 26:46.000 --> 27:49.000 So I went on back downtown, and when I got down there to town there, my wife had come. She had sold, I believe, 5 bale of cotton. "So how come you off of work?" I said, "Well, 'cause it's a fine I gotta go pay them my check. They got it garnished." "For what?" I said, "I don't know." But you see, she had been hauling some different [indistinct 00:27:13] stuff from the stores up there. And the old Chinese woman, she come out there and get cauliflowers or whatever vegetable she see she wanted, they was Chinese. And so she'd get some milk for my son, he in Detroit, Jimmy, the baby. And she got, I don't know, several cans of milk. But she owe about $7, and they go garnishing me. Said I was responsible for that. But I didn't know like I did now. Hell I had a lawyer get my check. He got my check, and I went ahead home. I got it. 88 27:49.000 --> 27:58.000 I went back up there. Said, "Jackson." Said, "We need you to come back to work." I said, "No, I ain't coming back. I ain't coming back." My wife said, "No, don't go back. Don't go back." 89 27:58.000 --> 28:36.000 I never could see good. Well Dr. [indistinct 00:28:05], he examined my eye. He said, "How long you been working for the city?" I said, "Oh, a long time now, 18, 19 years." He said, "Well, I'm gonna tell you, you ought to put the suit to rest, then you work out here on these streets in case [indistinct 00:28:19]. No, [indistinct 00:28:21] you see there." I said, "Well, I won't do that." Man, he paid now. [indistinct 00:28:28] now. I didn't never go back to work there. No, I didn't go back to work. 90 28:36.000 --> 29:10.000 Let me ask you, all three, a concluding question. When you think back to the old days, back to Browning, who should be remembered? The younger—Who should they know about, that you remember, that's no longer here? Do you get what I mean? Who really was important, as far as keeping the community together, the unity you mentioned? What are the names of the people that should be remembered? 91 29:10.000 --> 30:37.000 If I go back to my time, the person that I was inspired to the greatest degree by was Mrs. Clotilde Thomas, the principal of Browning school, and professor Hilton, who succeeds her in the same office. Those are people in my time that I would always remember. And it's because of the relationship and what they did to help me. My brother, that I was helping to support my mother, got married '41, and all the responsibility of the family fell on me. And Mrs. Clotilde was my teacher, and she allowed me to send my assignments in the school every day. And she would grade them, and send them back to me, and send me assignments for the next day. And I could go out, in other words, I could continue to do the farm work, and haul in the wood, and everything. And that allowed my five sisters to go to school. 92 30:37.000 --> 31:04.000 But for two years, that's the way I completed one grade, to have promoted from one grade to another. Is by teaching up to me like that. And any time, any time of day I could go to school, and I wouldn't be late 'till like the rain come, and I couldn't worry. And other than that, she'd send for me whenever was a test, whenever she was gonna give an exam she'd send for me. 93 31:04.000 --> 32:08.000 Professor Hilton, he was quite an inspiration 'cause he always, he didn't just teach us agricultury, the heart of agriculture, but he taught us how to stay out of trouble too, and how to earn a living. And I could go back to an experience that meant very much to me. One year, he advised every student in agriculture class to take a project. I chose sweet potatoes. I didn't have any money to buy potatoes to bed out, to draw the plants to transplant. I didn't have the money to buy the plants to transplant. So one day, I was walking the road, and the man that was supervising the county farm, White man, his name was—I don't know what his name was, but they called him Calvin Leery. Might have been named Mr. Leery. I don't know what— 94 32:08.000 --> 32:17.000 Lacy. I think. I think it was Lacy Leery. 95 32:17.000 --> 33:07.000 Well anyway, I was meeting him, and he was in a pickup, and I was walking, and I flagged him. I introduced myself, I said, "My name is W.J. McCaskill. I'm Jim McCaskill's son, my mother's a widow." And I told him about the project that I was encouraged to take, and that I didn't have any money to buy the slips, the potatoes, [indistinct 00:32:47] slips. And I asked if he would give me permission to go the county farm. See, the county farm, at that time, they had large truck patches, and those guys, those [indistinct 00:32:58], you know, they set out potatoes, acres of potatoes. And they planted acres of vegetables, different varieties. 96 33:07.000 --> 33:32.000 And I asked him permission to go to the potato patch and cut the vine and set them out. And he told me, he said, "Yeah you can go." I said, "Well, do you mind if I carry somebody with me?" He said, "I don't mind. One thing I tell you, cut them a certain length." He told me what length to cut them, and they'd heal. And if we start on the road, just keep on out till the end 'till we get what we wanted. And it was acres over there. 97 33:32.000 --> 34:23.000 Now, I come back in the community, and I contact Mr. Thomas. That was my teacher's husband. He had a truck, and he needed some vine. So he said, "Yeah, I'll go tomorrow. Ben, I ain't got no money to help. Buy the gas." Then I contacted elders in the community who needed some potato vines. So they fronted the gas. And I gathered up the sacks, and they were just gonna set up small patches, so they soon got through and they helped me fill up all my sacks. I go back in the community, I contact my friends, my classmates, my schoolmates, and they help me set out an acre potato. 98 34:23.000 --> 35:30.000 And that year, my teacher told me about the NYA, the National Youths Administration. That was a program for young people to work from maybe about 18 to 21. You know, to help 'em in school. And I got a job. I remember working on a farm there for 75 cent a day. They work from sun to sun, Monday through Friday. Monday from sun to sun, to Saturday 12 o'clock, and they made only 4 dollar and 10 cent the whole week. They were paying me for 80 hours, sixteen dollars a month, for 80 hours. And I was doing 8 hours a day 10 days, ides of March. And I would walk from here, approximately six miles to work. And then, when I do my 10 days, then I come home. We had one mule, and I took the mule, plowed up the potatoes. 99 35:30.000 --> 36:22.000 And it was a man in the community that had a one horse wagon. I went and borrowed his wagon and went to town, and I sold potatoes for 25 cent a pick, one dollar a bushel. And I made two dollar and a half, and I felt like I was rich man. On my way home, and soon as I took out, I went straight to that man house that night, and I told him, "I'd like to rent your wagon. I need to sell potatoes. I need to keep it every day." He said, "Boy, I don't rent you that wagon. Your mama's a widow woman, you just go take it and use it. And you don't give me nothing. I ain't gonna take nothing." While he were talking, he reached in his pocket and got plug of tobacco out, and took his knife and cut it, and I read the label, Brown Mule. 100 36:22.000 --> 37:04.000 So I went on back the next day and hooked that wagon up, and I made three dollars. I bought a plug of Brown Mule tobacco, about 15 cent. And I gave him the tobacco, he take the tobacco. Well every day I went to town, I bought him plug of tobacco. I don't how much tobacco. I was able to buy material. See, one of my sister's was a seamstress. I bough all the material that they need to make they school clothes. I help them bought the clothes that they couldn't make. I bought that. 101 37:04.000 --> 38:04.000 My brother got cut, and he went to hospital. I paid his hospital bill, because I was making a heap of money. And where boys them days, we had dirt roads and everything, some of them wore boots to school, and overalls. And I'm living on a gravel road, I've had my nice low quality shoes, my sweaters, and my sharp pants, and I was going to school, clean as [indistinct 00:37:33]. (all laugh) So, I told my mother, I said, "I wanna carry you to town and buy you a jacket." She said, "Okay." Thing was so cheap, my mother weighed over 200 pounds. We went to, I believe it was the Kelly store on Callan Avenue. Mama started looking at coats. They started showing my mother coat for $3, and I didn't like it. "How you like that son?" "I don't like it." They went to $4. "How you like that son?" "Mama I don't like it." 102 38:04.000 --> 38:42.000 Then they got a $7 coat. And mama went to begging me, "Son, you don't need to pay no $7. Time is so hard, and all these children, we gotta keep them in school." And back to back go, "Mama, I don't like it." I went to the rack and I pulled out a coat, "Mama try that one on." She tried it on. This woman said, "Boy, that coat will cost $11." Well, that's the one I wanted. Mama, she almost cried, "Son, please don't pay that much. Mama don't need that kind of coat." I said, "Mama, I know what I want." And this White woman said, "Boy, I'm not trying to sell you no coat, I'm trying to sell your mama." 103 38:42.000 --> 39:24.000 I caught mama by the hand, "Come on mama." I said, "You've got your dry goods, and I've got my money. Come on mama." She went to crying, she wouldn't put it on, tears were coming down. And she told my mama—You know, back in them times you was auntie or uncle, boy or girl. She said, "Auntie, I'm a White woman, and I won't allow my son to talk to you like that." Mama said, "I'm sorry lady, I don't have a penny. If I get a coat, my son will have to buy it." I said, "Come on mama, let's go." (all laugh) And mama just resist, she wouldn't come out. That woman dried them tears up and sold that coat. 104 39:24.000 --> 39:58.000 See, $11 was a heap of money. And I know what was at stake. If the owner of that store had known that that woman was double crossing and preventing $11 sale, she'd lost her job. And that the reason why she quit crying. She thought I was a little old boy, a little old mammy's boy. I was a little old man boy, 'cause I had the stuff, I had the business in my pocket. And I know what I wanted. 105 39:58.000 --> 39:59.000 You had the bone of the dog, right. 106 39:59.000 --> 40:15.000 And you don't tell me what I want. I know what I want. I know what I wanted for my mother. But she thought I was just a little old mammy's boy who ran my momma's business. But I'm the one that had the business. 107 40:15.000 --> 40:26.000 So Professor Hilton, and Mrs. Clotilde Thomas was quite an inspiration. Now, my teacher before then was inspiration, she did it in a different way. She had that power to whoop you. 108 40:26.000 --> 40:26.000 Who was that? What was her name? 109 40:26.000 --> 40:26.000 Mrs. Thomas. 110 40:26.000 --> 40:26.000 Thompson. 111 40:26.000 --> 40:26.000 [indistinct 00:40:36] Thompson. 112 40:26.000 --> 40:37.000 [indistinct 00:40:37] Thompson. 113 40:37.000 --> 41:19.000 She was my teacher from 3rd to 5th grade. And if you had seven subjects, and you missed seven subjects, you got seven whooping that time. And then make no difference how many children was in that class, she'd whoop 'em, every one of 'em. But every subject. She was a little old woman, and I know when she was gonna do it. When I saw her walk up on the church ground, the school ground. If she had on that gray dress. And then she read, in a devotion, when I was a child, I thought as a child, [indistinct 00:41:13] child you gonna walk the line that day. 'Cause you didn't get by with nothing. 114 41:19.000 --> 41:22.000 When you'd come on, they'd come on [indistinct 00:41:22]. 115 41:22.000 --> 42:10.000 She was quite an inspiration because she demanded, and she made the kind of student, she made me be the kind of student that I needed to be. She would assign us 150 problems, or 250 problems on the weekends, keep you out of the road, you know, keep from playing. And if you didn't have them Monday morning you got a whooping. And a whole lot of times, I didn't have 'em, because I was four years behind. In size and in age, I was the daddy in my class. And I was concerned about them pretty girls, I was old enough. And I couldn't spend all that time. When I got to haul that wood out, and cut that wood, I didn't have time to get all of my lessons. 116 42:10.000 --> 42:33.000 But she made me smart. I could read a problem, it didn't make no difference what was fractions, long division, adding, or what, I could read that problem off the book and hold a piece of paper in my hand that had nothing on it, and recite it as if I had it on that paper. 117 42:33.000 --> 42:33.000 Yeah, Mrs. Thompson. 118 42:33.000 --> 43:15.000 But all of those teachers back then, they were quite an inspiration. And I tell you another thing, what makes a difference. So many of the parents is responsible that children dropping out the school, and they don't know it. You see, teachers—Parent's back then didn't allow the student's come back saying, telling anything about the teacher and saying the teacher was wrong. They didn't allow that. Even though a parent could know that teacher's wrong. But you didn't tell mama "That old teacher don't like me, the old teacher treated me wrong." You didn't tell mama that. You understand. That teacher was right as far as you knew, from mama's actions she was right. 119 43:15.000 --> 43:47.000 But now, if a child come home and said old teacher don't like me, the parent grab their child and go down there and get into a mental struggle, if not physical, with the teacher. And once that child find out that mama don't like the teacher, and daddy don't like the teacher, the child ain't gonna like the teacher, and the child don't care what the teacher teach. The child not gonna learn. And then when he flunk, and get big enough, he gonna drop out the school. Well, you responsible. 120 43:47.000 --> 44:10.000 And that's our problem now. Parent is too quick to take sides with the child. Our parent back then, you didn't—Regards to what that parents knew about the other adult, you don't come there telling about old so and so, and so and so told a story on me. You don't do that. 121 44:10.000 --> 44:10.000 Oh no. 122 44:10.000 --> 44:12.000 Because they'll tell you in a minute, you don't call so and so so. She grown. 123 44:12.000 --> 44:27.000 You done got so now. You done got so now. I'm scared for the children, and I'm scared for the parents. 124 44:27.000 --> 45:07.000 See, and we don't realize, on our time, our children is ahead of us. One day, my son went to school, he was up in his teens. He was up there. And he came home, said, "Daddy, the teacher and a boy got to fighting that day." And I said, "He did?" "Yeah." And he told me the teacher name. "Then the teacher hit the boy across the head with a brick and he was bleeding." And I said, "Yeah?" So two or three days later, he came back, he said, "Daddy, you hear that old teacher want to jump on me?" Same teacher. 125 45:07.000 --> 45:45.000 Now this really happened, what he told. "Old teacher want to jump on me." I said, "Why?" He said, "I wasn't doing nothing. He wanted to jump on me, and I had to [indistinct 00:45:21] daddy." I said, "Well, I'll tell you what you do." I said, "When you go back to school tomorrow, or any time you're at school, if a teacher want to jump on you, you tell that teacher that your daddy don't allow his children to fight with the teacher. You tell the teacher that your daddy said that if he just want to fight, send for me, I'll be there." 126 45:45.000 --> 46:09.000 He didn't bring it back no more. But he's gonna use what really happened. This thing really happened. You know, he's thinking that far ahead of me. He thought. And then, if I had of said, "Yeah, he's doing you wrong..." He didn't want to go to school in the first place. You know what he's going to do, he's gonna go back to school and literally jump on that teacher. He get's put out of school. He's going to to literally jump on him. 127 46:09.000 --> 46:25.000 But when I told him who's supposed to do the fighting, and tell the teacher who's supposed to do the fighting. Just whatever he do, just tell him, "Daddy said he'd be down any time you send for him."