Hastie Price interview recording, 1994 June 08

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Michelle Mitchell	Wednesday, June 8th, 1994. Now, you said you came here in 1927.	0:04
Hastie Brown Price	1927.	0:10
Michelle Mitchell	And where were you born then?	0:13
Hastie Brown Price	I were born in Lumber Bridge, North Carolina.	0:15
Michelle Mitchell	Lumber Bridge?	0:22
Hastie Brown Price	L-U-M-B-E-R B-R-I-D-G-E.	0:24
Michelle Mitchell	North Carolina. And is that close to John's?	0:27
Hastie Brown Price	No. You know where Fayetteville is?	0:32
Michelle Mitchell	Yes, ma'am.	0:36
Hastie Brown Price	Well, it's 20 some miles from Fayetteville.	0:36
Michelle Mitchell	Okay. And did you go to school there the entire time?	0:40
Hastie Brown Price	I finished the seventh grade in Roberson, some people call it Roberson County.	0:51
Michelle Mitchell	And how do you spell that, ma'am?	1:01
Hastie Brown Price	R-O-B-E-R-S-O-N.	1:03
Michelle Mitchell	Okay.	1:06
Hastie Brown Price	I completed the seventh grade there. I went one year. It was State Normal School then. Now, it is State Teachers College, but at that time, it was State Normal, and I finished the eighth grade there. In 1954, I finished high school here in Durham, the adult education. We were taking the same courses that Hillside.	1:09
Michelle Mitchell	At Hillside?	1:47
Hastie Brown Price	I know, but we were taking the same courses that Hillside took.	1:48
Michelle Mitchell	Okay.	1:52
Hastie Brown Price	And went to the 12th grade.	1:58
Michelle Mitchell	That's wonderful just going back in 1954.	2:03
Hastie Brown Price	That's right, 1954.	2:06
Michelle Mitchell	Did you have to get off of work to do that?	2:06
Hastie Brown Price	No. What happened when I worked at night, I would go to the day classes, and when I worked in the day, I would attend the night classes. See, we had day classes and night classes.	2:10
Michelle Mitchell	That sounds like an awful lot to balance, ma'am.	2:29
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah. See, when I work, I had to work at night, and then I would go to the classes in the day and then get my rest and go back. I enjoyed it. I have my certificate where I finished in 1954.	2:32
Michelle Mitchell	That's just so amazing that you balanced all of that.	2:56
Hastie Brown Price	After you get out, stay out from school so many years, and then you have to come through so much, a lot, keeping house and doing all these things, but I still enjoyed it. Somebody asked me, "Well, why are you doing it?" I said, "It has to do with everyday living." And I learned a lot by me going to church, trying to teach Sunday school and doing things like that, I had to stay ahead of the children. You have to stay ahead of them to keep life going.	3:04
Michelle Mitchell	Now, before I forget to get this on tape, ma'am, because I've got so many questions, given what you've already told me, I need to get on tape the proper way to spell your name, your first and your last name.	3:46
Hastie Brown Price	Okay. My first name is Hastie, H-A-S-T-I-E. Some people call it Hasty. Well, it's Hastie.	4:01
Michelle Mitchell	And the last name is P-R-I-	4:12
Hastie Brown Price	C-E, Price.	4:13
Michelle Mitchell	And you said that you came here in 1927?	4:17
Hastie Brown Price	1927.	4:18
Michelle Mitchell	Did you come here to work, did you come here just to experience something different?	4:20
Hastie Brown Price	No, I came here to see my mother. Well, what happened, my father died when I was two years old. I don't remember anything about my father, and I was raised under a stepfather, and he wasn't a good stepfather. He was kind of cruel, and my mother left him, and she came here. Then she sent back, and that's why I'm here. She sent back home. And in fact, she didn't send back. She came back, and that's why I'm in Durham. So when I got here, then I went to work, and I've been here ever since. She passed in 1942, I believe. Yeah, that's when, 1942.	4:26
Michelle Mitchell	Just so I can get things clear, that means you were born what date?	5:46
Hastie Brown Price	When I was born?	5:52
Michelle Mitchell	Yes, ma'am.	5:52
Hastie Brown Price	April the 16th, 1903. I am 91 years old. I tease them, I tell them I'm 19.	5:53
Michelle Mitchell	Switch it around. Well then, you do have a lot to tell me, because that's just so much experience in history in terms of being here in North Carolina. I think that I want to sort of back up and make sure I've got things clear that you spent the first 24 years of your life?	6:07
Hastie Brown Price	It must have been somewhere like that. I can't remember just how long, but it had to be somewhere like that, because I'm 91 now, and I came here in 1927.	6:40
Michelle Mitchell	Yes, ma'am. What sort of work did you do in Lumber Bridge?	6:53
Hastie Brown Price	Oh. Well, we worked on the farm. Yeah, we worked on the farm. We raised cotton and cucumbers, cantaloupes. That was our early way of getting money. And then you see, the cotton, that was raised in the fall. In the fall, that's when you would pick cotton and sell your cotton and all. Have you ever seen a bale of cotton?	7:01
Michelle Mitchell	I sure haven't.	7:42
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah. Well, that's when you get your money in the fall. It would grow up in, oh, it would have bolls, we call cotton bolls, and you pick that out of the burr and put it in a bag, and then you get so many hundred pounds would make a bale. Then you'd take it to a gin, and they get the seed, the lint off of the seed, and then they get the lint off of the seed, and they take those seeds and they make some kind of oil out of them, what they call cotton seed oil.	7:44
Hastie Brown Price	And then the lint, that's what they make clothes out of, cotton clothes. The lint is made into different things. Go through all the process and make clothes out of the cotton. And that's where you make your money in the fall. In the early part of the year, that's when your cucumbers, you pick them and ship them off, and that would make money. Strawberries also, strawberries grew.	8:25
Michelle Mitchell	Did you work with any other type of fruit or vegetable? Because it sounds like a lot with strawberries and cantaloupes and cucumbers.	9:10
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah, well, peaches, they picked peaches too. When the time comes for them, they picked the peaches. They'd ship, see, they pick them and put them in crates and ship them off, and that's the way you made your money.	9:20
Michelle Mitchell	Do women and men do the packing?	9:39
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah. Well see, the women mostly do the picking, and the men mostly do the packing. Some men is not strong and they do the picking. I don't feel much air. Do you?	9:44
Michelle Mitchell	No, ma'am.	10:05
Hastie Brown Price	I don't know what in the world is wrong with this—	10:05
Michelle Mitchell	Not all the men were strong enough to do the packing. So does that mean there's some strong women would do that?	10:12
Hastie Brown Price	Well yeah, we had some women who were strong enough to pack, just like you have women today doing men's work. Because a lady came the other day and connected the telephone up. Long and then, women didn't do as much work like men do, didn't do as much men work then as they do now. But they would do some, because I was reared with two boys. I had two brothers. I didn't have never had no sisters. I had two brothers, and I was reared with them, and I learned to do whatever they doing. I have plowed. See, that's a boy's job. The plowing is the boys' job, and chopping the cotton and using the hoe, that's the women's job. But I plowed, because whatever the boys doing, I would do some of that too, even climb a tree. I learned to climb a tree like the boys.	10:18
Michelle Mitchell	Did you feel like you had to do the same work that they did plus other work that they didn't have to do, stuff in the house?	11:42
Hastie Brown Price	Well, I don't know. I didn't do too much housework, because I was reared with the boys, and I just like outdoor work. My mother used to tell me, she said, "You should have been a boy, because you like to do boy work." But I liked outside work. I never care too much about keeping house. I liked to do whatever the boys doing, I like to do that. And see, we lived in the country, well, we called them wild grapes would grow in the woods, and I would climb a tree and climb the vine and get those grapes. Whatever the boys done, that's what I done there too.	11:47
Michelle Mitchell	And I'm curious, what did you wear when you were outside working?	12:43
Hastie Brown Price	Well, then boys didn't pay attention like they do now. Because boys would go in what they called a shirttail, long shirts. Now, you would always have them bloomers. They call them. It's something with the rubber around the knee, rubber around the knees, seeing that protected you. So you climb that tree and didn't think nothing about it.	12:51
Michelle Mitchell	That's just something, because I have these pictures of people being dressed certain ways, and it sounds like it's very practical just to be able to—	13:25
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah, yeah, yeah.	13:36
Michelle Mitchell	When you were outside working, how long were you outside during the day?	13:37
Hastie Brown Price	Okay, you would work, we'd call it from sun up until sundown. You would rise in the morning early, and you work until sundown. Now in the middle of the day, you usually would go home, maybe go to the house around 11:30 when it get real hot, and maybe you stay in until 2 o'clock, something like that, until it kind of cool off. And then you'd go back and you work until sundown then, because the sun go down. Yeah, Hon, you make some long hours.	13:46
Michelle Mitchell	Oh, yes. If you got up that early, who would do most of the cooking?	14:34
Hastie Brown Price	Well, when I grew up to so I could cook, I would get up, and my stepfather, see, I didn't know then, well, I probably thought it was praising then, because see, he was the two boys' father. And he would say, "You should have been the boy, because you up doing what them lazy boys should be doing." But see, I was smart. I didn't mind didn't getting up. I would help him, the cotton. When you pick the cotton, you would pick 1200 or 1300 pounds of cotton. That would have your seed and everything, that would be all your cotton.	14:38
Hastie Brown Price	When it was ginned out, which we call, you would go to something, a place you call a cotton gin, and then it would separate the seed from the lint. And then when the lint was packed up, it would make a 500 or 600 pound bale. They call it a bale of cotton, and it would be 500 or 600 pound. That would be pure cotton. The seed would be out of it then. But see, when you picked your cotton, you put it on sheets. You've seen a bed sheet, it's got four corners. All right. The difference in a bed sheet and your cotton sheet, your cotton was, I know you seen a sack, a bag of—	15:35
Hastie Brown Price	Okay. It was something you'd call a bag. I don't have one I could show you, but that's what a sheet was made out of, something that was made, a four—cornered sheet.	16:38
Michelle Mitchell	Four corners.	16:59
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah, four-cornered sheet made just like a bed sheet. The only difference in it, it was made out of something we used to call a bag of stuff. But anyway, it was a four-cornered sheet, and you would pick this sheet full of cotton, and then you would empty it on this sheet and you would weigh this sheet. Sometimes, it have 250 pounds, sometime 175. I have picked 375 pound a day. Yeah, 375 pound of cotton a day.	17:00
Michelle Mitchell	That's some work.	17:42
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah, but see, you would pick your cotton and put it in the bag and then carry it and empty it on the sheet. And then when the evening come, you would tie them four corners, tie a sheet up, just like you tie a four-cornered handkerchief. And you would tie that up, and then you would weigh that on the scale, and you would put 1300 or 1200, whatever you wanted to put in a bale. And then when you took it to the gin then and the seed was separated from the lint, then it would be a 500 bale or 600 bale or whatever it was. Then you would sell that. That's where you would get your money. And this lint was what would make your clothes, like clothes you wear now, cotton, so much cotton and so much. Cotton clothes now is higher than silk.	17:44
Michelle Mitchell	Oh, yes. Yes, ma'am. This is true.	18:43
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah, cotton is valuable.	18:49
Michelle Mitchell	When you were doing this work, whose land were you working on?	18:54
Hastie Brown Price	All right. Some people owned their own land. When they owned their own land, they would work what you'd call, well, they could work half crops, what you called half crops. If they lived on their own land, they would work what you call half crop. My stepfather didn't own no land. We done what you call sharecropping. He would get two thirds, and we'd get one third.	19:00
Michelle Mitchell	That you'd have to split?	19:41
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah, yeah, yeah. One third, that's right.	19:42
Michelle Mitchell	And about how much would that be, ma'am?	19:48
Hastie Brown Price	Well, it would be according to how much you took up that year. See, when you're sharecropping, you have to get your food. You didn't have no way of getting your food. But this White man had a, we'd sharecrop with him. He had what you call a commissary. That's my telephone.	19:55
Michelle Mitchell	No problem.	20:24
Michelle Mitchell	Okay. You were telling me about the White man who owned the commissary.	20:26
Hastie Brown Price	Oh, yeah. They had what we call a commissary, and they would raise hogs, and they would kill hogs, and they would have hams and sausage and all this stuff in the commissary. Then that's where we would get our food from. And then the corn, they raised corn for meal, and they raised wheat for flour, and you'd have to go the store to buy your sugar, but all our flour and meal and stuff. See, we could raise maybe a hog, but we couldn't raise enough to carry us through all the winter like they did.	20:29
Hastie Brown Price	And we would have to go and buy from them, and they would keep down whatever you bought. See, my stepfather, he didn't have no education. And when I went to school, I told him to let me try to keep up with what we would buy. He said, "Oh, that's all right. They'll keep up with it." See, but after I had went to school for the eighth grade, I wanted to keep up with what, but he said they would keep up with it. Well, if they said at the end of the year in the fall when all the cotton was sold and everything, they called it settling up, and when they settle up.	21:24
Hastie Brown Price	If he said sometime maybe you cleared $50, maybe you cleared $200, or whatever you cleared, that's what they would give you. See, they would figure how much your third was out of what was raised, and then they would subtract whatever you got that winter. Your food that you got, that was subtracted from what your one third was, and that's the way you would. And sometimes, you didn't get anything. No, ma'am. Sometimes, you didn't get anything. They'd say you ate up all you had.	22:20
Michelle Mitchell	Why did your—	23:21
Hastie Brown Price	Then when that happened, we would have to go out and pick cotton in somebody else's field to get our winter clothes from. We would go in somebody else's field and pick cotton. Sometimes, cotton was you would make 50 cent a hundred. You'd pick a hundred pound, 50 cents, because that went a long ways, because everything else, food was cheap. You didn't pay but 10 cents for a soda, five-cent pack of peanuts, and all things like that. Everything was down equal.	23:23
Michelle Mitchell	You said that your stepfather, when you wanted to keep up, [indistinct 00:24:18]	24:09
Hastie Brown Price	He refused to.	24:15
Michelle Mitchell	He just refused.	24:15
Hastie Brown Price	He refused to let me do it, because he said the White man would do it. See, there have been a time that some of our people just believed everything the White man said. They just believed it, and he didn't want me to keep up with it.	24:17
Michelle Mitchell	But you didn't believe it.	24:41
Hastie Brown Price	No, I didn't believe it. Even though I hadn't had no experience or nothing, but I was taught to try to keep up with things and things like that, and I asked him. Because the part I couldn't understand, he could trust me for weighing the cotton, he was real proud of me. Because we had scales, what we called scales, they had a long scale, and you had a weight on them scales, we call it a weight on the scale.	24:44
Hastie Brown Price	And I was allowed to weigh the cotton, and he could trust me to weigh the cotton, but he wouldn't trust me to keep up with what we spent, that's right. But he would say, "She can tell you about how much, after she weighed them sheets of cotton, she can tell you about how much that bale would weigh. If it was 1300 pound of cotton in the seed, then it would be about maybe 600 pound after the seed was out." And he would trust me for things like that, he would trust me to weigh the cotton, but he didn't trust me to keep up with how much we—	25:26
Michelle Mitchell	Do you think if you had kept the books, do you think that White people in the area would've been upset with that?	26:17
Hastie Brown Price	They probably would have. That might be the reason he wouldn't let me keep it, because they would probably think you was trying to be smart or something.	26:24
Michelle Mitchell	Yes, ma'am. Were there a lot of White people in the area, or did they just own land?	26:39
Hastie Brown Price	At that time, we only had a few Blacks that owned their own land. Every now and then, maybe in this community here was a Black man. I remember the Blacks. We had Johnson and Ed Wilkerson, just a few. Every now and then, a Black person owned some land, and they were in better shape than the person who had to depend on the White man for all their support. We weren't enslaved just like our fore-parents were, but it was still, to me, it was slave. To me, it was still slavery, because we didn't have the privilege of doing just like we wanted to do about things.	26:50
Hastie Brown Price	And there would be times, I remember a man came here from home. You have a lot of different activities to go to now, where at that time, we didn't have a lot of activities. 4th of July or certain holidays, you would have something to go to. Then all of the small places around, all of the little small towns, everybody would go to this, whatever it was. This man had told his boys if they plowed and catch up, they would call it laying by, you would hill-up your corn and your cotton and whatever you had to lay by, when you call it laying by, that would be finishing it up. Finishing it up until it growed up and produced whatever it was going to produce. And the White man told him that the boys couldn't go to this to-do.	27:58
Michelle Mitchell	Did they do that often in terms of preventing people from having leisure time?	29:35
Hastie Brown Price	Well, not at all of them didn't do it. But you had some every now and then would do that. I'm not going to call no names, but they did have a White man that did this. So you didn't have privilege like you do now to go.	29:38
Michelle Mitchell	Just the way you vividly said that life was like slavery.	30:18
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah, well that's what I said. It was a little different from my fore-parents, who was enslaved, because they said they used to whip them, but I don't remember them whipping my parents or nothing like that. No, they didn't do that. But it was part slavery in a way.	30:22
Michelle Mitchell	So just so I can get this clear, your grandparents were slaves?	30:55
Hastie Brown Price	No, my grandparents were not slaves, but maybe some of their parents were, but my grandparents were not slaves. I remember them good. They worked on a farm, but he didn't own no farm or nothing, he didn't own no land or nothing. We had to do this sharecropping.	30:59
Michelle Mitchell	That's good stuff. I guess I want to just get a sense of exactly what you mean when you said life is like slavery, because like I said, I can sort of conjure up images. But I guess, first of all, was Lumber Bridge mostly Black, partly Black, mostly White?	31:32
Hastie Brown Price	Well, it was partly Black but was more White, I believe, than Black.	31:53
Michelle Mitchell	Where did they live in respect to Black people? Was it all sort of together?	32:02
Hastie Brown Price	Well, they would live on the farm, all of them would live, but they would live in a big house. They would live in a big house, and you lived in probably a small house. Your house wasn't built as nice as their house was and all like that.	32:08
Michelle Mitchell	But it would be in the same area?	32:37
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah, it would be in the same area. You wouldn't be about a mile or half-a-mile from their house, something other like that. It wouldn't hardly be a mile sometimes from where they live. And not all of them was not real mean or nothing, because my mother used to keep her children when she had to go off. Her children would come and play with us. And when my mother had to go off, we would go there. We all stayed out in the yard. Nobody played in the house or nothing like that. We played out in the yard, but they would keep us, and my mother have kept their children. We have stayed with them, because my mother would go to town, we'd call it to go to town and back home.	32:38
Michelle Mitchell	So White people would keep Black children?	33:43
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah, yeah. They would keep Black children. Yeah, my mother, we would all play out in the yard together. We'd all play out in the yard together. And when they would come to our house, we all played out in the yard together.	33:46
Michelle Mitchell	This is very interesting. This is very, very intriguing. When did you stop having so much contact with White children?	34:08
Hastie Brown Price	After you grew up. When you are small, that's when you're there. But after you grew up to be young women, because see at that time, it was not like it is now, integrated, and after you grew up, then you didn't—I mean you'd speak to them and all like that, but you didn't have dealings with them like you did when you were young. Because you growed up and there weren't no associating with Black boys and White girls. When you grow up, then you see everybody went their way. Their separate ways. That's right, that's right. They didn't associate together then like they do now.	34:18
Michelle Mitchell	And it was the same way when you came to Durham in 1927 or no? How different was it?	35:21
Hastie Brown Price	No, when I came to Durham in 1927, yeah, it was the same way. You worked together, but you didn't socialize. Is that's what you call it? That's the way you call it?	35:32
Michelle Mitchell	Yes, ma'am.	35:45
Hastie Brown Price	You worked together, but you didn't socialize together.	35:45
Michelle Mitchell	And when you say that you worked with Whites—	35:48
Hastie Brown Price	And I worked in the factory, I worked at Liggett & Myers Tobacco Factory, Liggett & Myers Tobacco Factory. White and Black all worked together.	35:54
Michelle Mitchell	Men and woman?	36:03
Hastie Brown Price	No. The men, mostly what it was they were bosses, the White men were bosses. See, they had another part over there on Duke side. That's where the White women worked at. And I don't even know whether any Black women worked over there at that time or not. They do now, but at that time, I don't remember no Black women working over there.	36:07
Michelle Mitchell	So you worked in—	36:46
Hastie Brown Price	At Liggett & Myers Tobacco Factory. See this part was where the tobacco was manufactured in, was stripped off of the leaf, and prepared to go over to get ready to make cigarettes out of it. The White women worked over on the side where they made the cigarettes out of it.	36:48
Michelle Mitchell	Okay.	37:14
Hastie Brown Price	Cigarettes out of it.	37:14
Michelle Mitchell	So White women made the cigarettes, and the Black women were sorting the leaves.	37:18
Hastie Brown Price	Sorting the leaves and doing that [indistinct 00:37:26]	37:25
Michelle Mitchell	When you were at work and you would take breaks, because you said that White and Black didn't socialize together, but if you're working in the same plant, the same area—	37:29
Hastie Brown Price	No, they were working on one side of the street, and we were working on the other side of street.	37:39
Michelle Mitchell	They were literally working on one side of the street?	37:44
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah, one side of the street, and the street was in between where we worked at. They call one the stemmer side. That's what they called it.	37:45
Michelle Mitchell	So when you would take breaks, it was with other Black women?	37:57
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah. All Black women worked on this side. See, the machines, when I first started working there, the work that we done with our hands, they were doing it with machines whenever I quit working there.	38:04
Michelle Mitchell	And when was this?	38:26
Hastie Brown Price	In 1956, about 1956, I believe, when we stopped working. And I started there must have been 1928, because right after I come to Durham, I started working there.	38:26
Michelle Mitchell	Was it the first job that you found in Durham?	38:47
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah. Well, that's when I say about 1928, because I worked at the Hosiery Mill a little while before I worked at the factory.	38:49
Michelle Mitchell	That's a mill?	38:53
Hastie Brown Price	The Hosiery Mill, making socks.	38:54
Speaker 3	Okay. Okay, Ms. Price, I'll be back in a little bit.	39:01
Hastie Brown Price	Okay.	39:05
Michelle Mitchell	What was that work like then?	39:09
Hastie Brown Price	Have you ever seen a shoe lash?	39:16
Michelle Mitchell	No, ma'am.	39:17
Hastie Brown Price	Lord have mercy. Well, a shoe lash is made with a foot on it. It's standing up like that, just like a foot. And then you put that sock over that and turn that sock, and that's what I was doing, turning the sock. Put it over that and turn the sock and bundle up a dozen, maybe a dozen in a—See, that would be six pair, a dozen socks would be six pair, and you put them in a bundle and throw them over there, and they came on where they belong to the finishing room. And then they had some kind of steamer there that they press them out.	39:20
Michelle Mitchell	Now, where you worked at the Hosiery Mill, was that all Black women too where you worked?	40:10
Hastie Brown Price	When I worked at the Hosiery Mill?	40:13
Michelle Mitchell	Yeah.	40:15
Hastie Brown Price	I'm trying to remember. Did any Black—Where I worked at was for Black women, because we worked in the machines up there. Where I worked at was Black women. I don't remember. We had White bosses though, because I remember the boss' name and all. You had White bosses, because before I left Liggett & Myers, we had Black men bosses. Yeah, we had Black men bosses, Black men wearing collars and ties just like the Whites. But when I first started working there, well, they had a few Black bosses, but they weren't keeping no books like the White ones. They would just go around and tell you what to do, like that.	40:18
Michelle Mitchell	Was the money at the tobacco factory better than at the Hosiery Mill? Better money?	41:12
Hastie Brown Price	Oh, yeah. When I worked at the Hosiery Mill, honey, I don't think it was about $3 or $4 a half a week or something that you made. You didn't make no money there. And Liggett & Myers, I thought that was a whole lot of money. See, I was making 18 cents an hour, which would you give you $7, I believe it was $7.80 for five days, and $8.40 cents when you worked 7 until 12 o'clock, something like that. $8.40 cents when you worked 7 until 12 o'clock.	41:24
Michelle Mitchell	That's quite a bit of difference in terms of money.	42:08
Hastie Brown Price	That's what I'm talking about. Yeah, that's why I left the Hosiery Mill. And at that time, you could get plenty of work to do, because the man would tell us to go out and bring, say, "If you see anybody want to work, bring them in."	42:10
Michelle Mitchell	Really?	42:29
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah. See, because people didn't care about working then.	42:31
Michelle Mitchell	Plenty of work. This is around 1928, right before Hoover times, right before the hard times, The Depression.	42:39
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah, this is The Depression.	42:46
Michelle Mitchell	And they would ask for people to come work?	42:48
Hastie Brown Price	Well, that's when I first started the work there when he would tell me to bring people in to work when we first started to work. Anybody you see want a job, bring them in. Because see, there was a lot of hand work then. But when they come to bringing machines in, that's what took the place of hand work.	42:50
Michelle Mitchell	And when did the machines come in there?	43:18
Hastie Brown Price	The machines, they started to coming in, well, before they were putting them in, when we stopped working, they cut us off in 1958, didn't they? Yeah, 1958. Well, the machines started coming in, wants to come in 1940 and all like that, because see, they were getting ready, they were preparing all that time to cut us off. They told us that we would be, because the boss man come around told me, he said, "Hey, save your money, because they going come a time you ain't going to have a bit more job up here than a chicken." That's just the way he said it. But I appreciated him telling me, he said, "Machines just going take your place. You don't have to do nothing but push a button, and everything'll go to work."	43:22
Michelle Mitchell	When that happened, in 1958, when—	44:21
Hastie Brown Price	When I got cut off, what kind of work did I do?	44:28
Michelle Mitchell	Yes, ma'am.	44:30
Hastie Brown Price	I went to work for 50 cents an hour. I worked in service doing cleaning. I didn't cook much, but I cleaned, do cleaning. They called it domestic work, and that's what I've done. I've done that for over 17 years, I reckon. I raised, because whenever I started to work for this family, the girl was about two years old, and the boy, I think he was about 14 months old or something like that. But before I stopped work, he was bringing me home, driving the car. And I worked for them 17 years. I retired. When did I retire? I must have retired in '58, I believe. No, that's when I retired, I believe, in '58. Yeah, somewhere along in there, I retired.	44:32
Michelle Mitchell	From all work?	45:59
Hastie Brown Price	No, I done volunteer work. Yeah, I done volunteer work. I got certificates from Raleigh where I go there to state meetings. I would call, well, answer the telephone if somebody need calling. I would go to the nursing homes and write a letter for somebody needed their letter wrote or whatever they needed.	46:01

Michelle Mitchell	Okay. You said that you were doing volunteer work. You worked at Butler for six—	0:03
Hastie Brown Price	Butler for six months. I would go to the nursing homes and write a letter or do whatever needed to be done there to help them. At Butler I would comb their hair and read to them or whatever. Things like that need to be done, helped to dress them.	0:08
Michelle Mitchell	This was, Butler's a nursing home?	0:40
Hastie Brown Price	That's Butler. No, Butler is, yeah, it's a hospital.	0:46
Michelle Mitchell	Huh, okay. It's a hospital.	0:46
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah. Butler's a hospital.	0:46
Michelle Mitchell	Ma'am, was any of your volunteer work connected with the church, or was your church work and your volunteer work—	0:53
Hastie Brown Price	Well, the volunteer work were different. See, the volunteer work is set up at the, we would get credit for it. Durham Technical Institute. They call it, let me see, RSVP, Retired Volunteer Senior Citizens. That's what RSVP would stand for. Or people. At the recreation center, W.D. Hill, you see some plaques back up there that I got for some volunteer work.	1:01
Michelle Mitchell	Oh, what wonderful plaques.	1:52
Hastie Brown Price	Some of it is from my church, one, and then that's a—	1:55
Michelle Mitchell	Oh, that's beautiful.	2:02
Hastie Brown Price	That was from W.D. Hill, I believe. Ain't that right?	2:05
Michelle Mitchell	Yes, ma'am. Oh, that's a beautiful plaque. Oh, you've got a lot of plaques over there. I want to go over and look at those and ask you some questions about those too. I think I want to get, I mean, it just sounds like in terms of this volunteer work, that doing that would take up a lot of time. I'm wondering if you did other things for the church. When did you get involved with Lincoln Memorial?	2:08
Hastie Brown Price	Oh, Lincoln Memorial.	2:37
Michelle Mitchell	Yes, ma'am.	2:38
Hastie Brown Price	Well, I joined Gethsemane Baptist Church in 1924 or '27, somewhere like that, when I came to Durham. First year I came to Durham, I believe it was 1924. I joined Gethsemane. In 1956, we organized Lincoln Memorial in 1956.	2:39
Michelle Mitchell	How much has the church changed since then? Do you think it's changed any?	3:13
Hastie Brown Price	Well, when we started out, we started out with 50 members, and it has grown some. I think we have around 230 or 240 members, somewhere like that. The church has grown. We have been able to purchase, one, two, three, three lots. We have three lots now, three vacant lots. We have a house, the house joining, the house right next to the church. We've been able to purchase three lots. Three lots and one lot with a house on it. We purchased two vans because we bought one van and wore it out. And now we have another van. We purchased two vans. We had a young, well, he was a young man. He wasn't a teenager, but he was a young man. He was employed at Durham High School, Jimmy Graves. We have a scholarship named after him, Jimmy Graves Scholarship.	3:29
Hastie Brown Price	Each year they give to some worthy student. They donate so much money to them. Not just the student from Lincoln Memorial, but any student in the community who proves that they need help, who is smart and prove that they need help. Why, they give them that scholarship, not just Lincoln Memorial. Because they said that wouldn't be fair because, see, the widow, of course she's married again now, but the widow is a teacher and she said she didn't feel—She's a teacher, and she didn't feel that it would be fair just to give it to Lincoln Memorial and not help the others in the community. So it helps whoever is smart, that need a scholarship and need help, that's who they help.	5:32
Michelle Mitchell	Can you say, what was the community like back in the thirties, forties, and fifties when it was—Because now Jim Crow is gone.	6:43
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah.	6:50
Michelle Mitchell	Supposedly. What was it like then in terms of dealing with Whites, in terms of Black people in the community, Black businesses? What was it like back then?	6:51
Hastie Brown Price	Well, back in there, I'll tell you the truth, back in there, Blacks owned—I mean, well, now homes, a lot of Blacks own their own homes now. More Blacks own homes now than they did then. But there's less Black business now than they were then. It's less Black business now than they were then.	7:05
Michelle Mitchell	Yeah, I understand there's DeShazor—	7:37
Hastie Brown Price	DeShazor, that's what I'm telling you about. You had DeShazor's Beauty, you had, oh, well, Miss Rogers had a beauty shop. We had a Black hospital. We don't have no Black hospital now. Lincoln Health Community Center, that's what that is, a community center now. But see, that was a hospital then. All up and down Fayetteville Street, the Blacks own barber shops and little stores, little grocery stores. But we don't have it now. We had a nice YWCA, Black, and now we don't even have no YWCA. They done sold the place to a church, a Holiness church, and they have their conventions and things there.	7:42
Hastie Brown Price	See, we don't have, only thing we have in Black now that the Black can say is theirs is North Carolina Mutual. What else? North Carolina, Mechanic and Farmers Banks, we have them. We don't have, that's all we got. We don't have no Black, we ain't got no, we don't have no Black. Because this health community is, this Selma, it's not run all by Black. It's White and Black. What happened, I don't know why, we had Black people who were able to keep these things, but for some reason they didn't do it. And it got away from us. We don't own like we used to.	8:54
Michelle Mitchell	Just talking to people, it sounds like Pettigrew Street used to be lined with business.	9:58
Hastie Brown Price	It did. We used to have our own motel.	10:02
Michelle Mitchell	Biltmore?	10:03
Hastie Brown Price	Biltmore. Honey, that's right. Biltmore, I couldn't hardly think of name of Biltmore Hotel. Regal Theater. Though we had another name. What was the other theater? We had two Black theaters.	10:10
Michelle Mitchell	Two?	10:28
Hastie Brown Price	Yes, ma'am. We had, now I think we got a little part of the drug store there by the chicken, by Church's Fried Chicken place. Well, now that used to be on Pettigrew Street. That was a big drug store.	10:29
Michelle Mitchell	Big drug store.	10:51
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah, on Pettigrew Street. What's the name of it now? Oh my gracious alive. What's the name of—I can't think of his name who runs it. He runs a little place there now. Not far from the chicken. Garrett.	10:52
Michelle Mitchell	Garrett. Okay.	11:16
Hastie Brown Price	Garrett, that's right. Garrett Drugstore. See, all that. Now uptown, I think we got, what is that drugstore up there now? But it's not run all by all Black, because it's mixed up with White. Yeah, it's mixed up with White. We don't have things like we used to have, just like you said, all down Pettigrew Street was, all up and down Fayetteville Street was, even shoe shops. We had our own Black shoe shop. Boy I used to go to the school with run the shoe shop. Even had a Black furniture store. Baldwin Furniture, the store. But all that's gone now. We don't have anything.	11:17
Michelle Mitchell	Just driving down Pettigrew Street, it's just tracks.	12:16
Hastie Brown Price	That's right. That's right.	12:21
Michelle Mitchell	It sounds like in terms of the thriving Black businesses, did you feel a need to go into White sections of town? Or did you feel like you could get everything that you needed without really dealing with White people at all?	12:25
Hastie Brown Price	Well, I know maybe some things you would have to deal with them, but I feel like if our Black people who were able, if they had kept [indistinct 00:13:02], I feel like we could have dealt without them. I feel like I could have lived without, because we had what we needed.	12:41
Michelle Mitchell	You had what you needed.	13:10
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah, we had what we needed. We had Black—I remember Smith used to run up there right side the theater. I was trying to think about, I'd like it to come to me the name of theater, but I can remember the Regal. But there was a theater before the Regal Theater. There was a theater before then. Old man Watkin used to run it. I don't know. People used to call it Watkins Theater, but that wasn't the name of it. But that hotel I remember. That was Biltmore.	13:14
Michelle Mitchell	Were there lots of—	13:57
Hastie Brown Price	Now we too, we do have that now. Carolina Times. That's run by Black. That was Louis Austin on that Carolina Times. [indistinct 00:14:13]	13:58
Michelle Mitchell	Were there lots of signs in Durham about "White only," "Colored only"?	14:18
Hastie Brown Price	Well, at that time, before the integration, before it was, everywhere you went was a Black. The water fountains was close together. And that would be Black over there and say White here. You would drink out of the White. When you got on the bus, you knew not to sit down at the front of the bus. You went to the back of the bus to sit down. Since it's been integrated, some White people refused to go to the back. They would stand up rather than go to the back and sit down. When we have some Black people, and I'm glad they don't get up, they sit there and let them stand up. And that's the way, that's the way. Because I haven't rid the bus in a long time now, but when I was riding the bus, we had a lot of people who would not, White people would not sit down. They would stand up rather than sit down.	14:22
Michelle Mitchell	Did you ride the bus to work, ma'am?	15:52
Hastie Brown Price	Did I ride the bus to work? Mm-hmm. Yeah, I used to ride the bus to work.	15:54
Michelle Mitchell	When did they integrate the buses here in Durham?	15:59
Hastie Brown Price	They integrated the buses when everything else was integrated, along with everything else. The buses. You could go in the Woolworth where you ate at, you would go in there, and after everything else was integrated, then you could go and sit down and eat in there. But you couldn't sit down and eat in there before. You could buy something and take it out and eat it. But you couldn't sit down in there and eat it. But after that. Black people worked in there.	16:03
Michelle Mitchell	Sure.	16:48
Hastie Brown Price	But you couldn't, yeah, they worked. They cooked. They eat their cooking all the time, but still they didn't know they couldn't work.	16:49
Michelle Mitchell	Did you ever have a really nasty experience with Jim Crow here in Durham? A really bad experience?	17:00
Hastie Brown Price	Well, no more than the bus experience. I wouldn't say nothing because I'd just sit right there and wouldn't get up.	17:06
Michelle Mitchell	Really?	17:19
Hastie Brown Price	I mean, after it was integrated, then I knew I had a right to sit to the front. When I sit down to the front, I would just sit right there. They could stand up over me, and I wouldn't say nothing because they were supposed to go to, there would be seats in the back, and they were supposed to go back there and sit down. If I was to come walk in and White people was sitting up to the front, then if there was a seat in the back, I would go to the back and sit wherever the seat was.	17:21
Michelle Mitchell	Yes, ma'am.	18:00
Hastie Brown Price	Because I was supposed to. Because they had a right to sit up there to if they wanted to, then they had a right to go, if I was sitting up there, they had a right to go to the back.	18:01
Michelle Mitchell	But they wouldn't.	18:13
Hastie Brown Price	But I didn't ever get in no argument with them because I just didn't say nothing. I wouldn't say, "There's a seat in the back. Go sit down." But the bus driver would tell them, there was seat in the back sometime, and they'd say, "That's all right." Because see we haven't always had Black bus drivers in Durham. When I came to Durham, we didn't have no Black bus drivers. All the bus drivers were White.	18:14
Michelle Mitchell	All of them.	18:44
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah, all of them was White. They were not a Black bus driver in Durham. And they were not a Black policeman. Because we, in the Durham [indistinct 00:18:56] Union, we hoped to get the Black policemans in Durham. They wasn't no Black policemans or no Black bus drivers. But now you got more Black bus drivers than you do White. And police is equal. You even have some polices now, some Black polices, is the hated policemen, some of them.	18:46
Michelle Mitchell	Yes, ma'am. How are you doing? Because I need to ask some few last questions about the family history and then stop things off so we don't stay too long.	19:21
Hastie Brown Price	That's all right.	19:35
Michelle Mitchell	Okay. I am wondering if there were any other things, if you ever went to a White drinking fountain or if you just avoided it.	19:40
Hastie Brown Price	Oh yeah. I just avoided. I didn't push in on nothing. Now I have walked with them, when they walk. When anything come up as a group to go with them like that, I would go with them. But I have never ran into nothing myself, because I always didn't try to pick nothing to get nothing. Now I have been asked questions. "Well, what do you think?" The lady that I worked for asked me if I would like for the girl that I raised. See, I raised a girl and a boy, and she asked me how would I like for my daughter, the girl I raised, to marry a White boy. I told her, "No, I wouldn't like it." And she said, "I wouldn't either. I wouldn't like. I think each race is, there's enough of each race." Somehow she had it like that. "There's enough for each race of their own to stay in their race."	19:52
Hastie Brown Price	But I knew why she didn't. I knew why she asked me, you see. Yeah, I knew why she asked me. So I told her, I said, "No, I wouldn't like it." I think now people have a right to do whatever they want to do, if they want. So far as my concern, if I was young, well, I can't say if I was young because I don't know what might run in my mind if I were young. But I don't feel like I would want no White man. That's just the way I feel. But see, with somebody else, it's different. Yeah. With somebody else, it different. I think if it's integrated and they have a right to marry, if they want to marry, I think they have a right to do it, if they want to do it, if that's what they want to do.	21:09
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah, I don't think—But I have never had to run into no argument. I don't know what, quite a few times she would ask me questions, something kind of like that. "What do you think of the voting? Who do you think ought to get it?" Or so on, so on. See, especially if a Black person was in for a leader, then those questions would be asked to you. "What do you think of so-and-so?" Well, I think whoever get the most votes, that's the one who'll win. Something like that. Yeah. Because we have some Whites here who voted for Black, because if they hadn't, no Black would never have gotten in.	22:05
Michelle Mitchell	Oh, yes, ma'am. Did you register to vote when you first came to Durham?	23:03
Hastie Brown Price	I can't remember whether I registered to vote when I first came to Durham or not. But I know after, I can't remember when I first—But there was a time that we were not allowed to vote. I do remember the first time I voted. I had to go to the courthouse. I don't know why, but the first time I voted, I had to go to the courthouse to vote.	23:10
Michelle Mitchell	About when was this, ma'am?	23:43
Hastie Brown Price	That's what I'm trying to think. I can't remember whether that was when I first come here or not. But I do remember that when the first time I voted, I went to the courthouse. Then after then, they came around and told me I would vote at different, I vote at school over here now, not far from where I live now, at Pearson School. Called it Pearson School, that's where I vote at. But the first time I voted, I voted at the courthouse. I don't know for what reason. But it changed up. Because see, it was a difference when I first came here than it is now.	23:46
Michelle Mitchell	I imagine.	24:37
Hastie Brown Price	Yes, honey, everything has really, really changed. Some things has changed for the best and some is not. Some of the things is not for the best, and some of the things have been for the best. I really, it hurt me whenever the hospital was, whenever it got away. Because it was all Black.	24:40
Michelle Mitchell	Lincoln was all Black?	25:13
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah, Lincoln was all Black. But I had been there and I enjoyed it and it was all right. But see now, of course they have some—A friend of mine, her son, I believe he's the president of Durham Regional Hospital now. Lord, I'm trying to think of his name. But he's the president of Durham Regional. But yeah, there's still, see, I mean people with skills, naturally, some of them have climbed up, which is good. But as a whole it's not good.	25:13
Michelle Mitchell	You said, ma'am, that some things have changed for the good, and some things for the bad.	26:14
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah, that's right.	26:21
Michelle Mitchell	Did you think that life was really hard back then with segregation? Or was it just, you had a thriving Black community and life was pretty good?	26:22
Hastie Brown Price	Well, yeah, some things went pretty good, and some didn't. Because I wonder some time now at the way, well, the way they working with the schools and things like that. I'm wondering if they were doing better then seem like than they are in some ways now. A lot of the schools, what has happened, they have a lot of the school buildings that they had, the White buildings, they added onto them, added more room and things onto. A lot of Black schools, they have torn down and I can't see, and them they haven't torn down, they cut out. I can't quite understand it. Now, Hillside, they're building a new Hillside now. Some people is saying when they get it built, they going to have more Whites. I said, "Well, I don't know, there's no telling."	26:32
Michelle Mitchell	No telling.	27:59
Hastie Brown Price	That's right. You can't tell.	28:01
Michelle Mitchell	Yes, ma'am. So were there a lot of Black schools?	28:03
Hastie Brown Price	Well, let me see. Merrick-Moore was a Black school, they closed that down. Morehead was a Black school and they closed that down. Oh, good gracious. I don't know. I can't remember all of the Black schools that they—Let me see, what other school? Well, they changed Hillside, I mean, they changed old Hillside. They made a new Hillside. And I don't know why of that. It's because they built a new Hillside and now they getting out of that and building another one, bigger than that one. I don't know when they get it built. That's right. Seemed like, I don't know whether they closed Lyon Park, I don't whether they closed Lyon Park school up or not. But they changed around so much. It's been a lot of change. Some of the White people took their children out of school and put them in private schools.	28:09
Michelle Mitchell	Yes, ma'am.	29:36
Hastie Brown Price	Put them in private school. But see, a lot of Blacks weren't able to put the children in private school. Some people was saying that the children was getting better, they had a better opportunity when they were in the all-Black school than they are since they're mixed up. Some of them, I don't know, some people say some White teachers don't take up time with them. But I don't know. If a teacher is a teacher, if she's a real teacher from her heart, she take as much time with the Black with the White.	29:37
Michelle Mitchell	Oh, yes, ma'am.	30:21
Hastie Brown Price	But some of them won't do it. Some of them, we have some White that is like that. Because I have worked with some White people that have feeling for you, and they treat you like—Well, one White lady that I worked, when I worked for this lady, I'll tell you, I worked for the whole 17 year. She had a friend. I would go maybe once a week. That was some years after I had started with her. I would help her half a day or maybe a day once a week. That lady would, she hadn't missed, I've been retired ever since 1958. She hasn't missed a Christmas of giving me $20. She hasn't missed a Christmas of giving me $20 for Christmas present, and my birthday, she'll either give me $10 or else she'll bring me a dress or she'll bring me something. My birthday, she haven't forgot my birthday nor Christmas since I quit working.	30:23
Hastie Brown Price	But the lady who I raised them children, them two children for, her son is, he's way off somewhere. Now I forget, oh, it's way off in a foreign country. It's not London, but it's somewhere. But when he come home, he comes to see me. But his mother gave me $100 since I quit working for them. And that's it. I ain't heard nothing from her. One day I was going to the fish market, and she says, "Oh, I guess you think we forgot you. But we haven't. We never will forget you. Because you're the cause of my children being like they are today. Both of them is doing good." And she handed me $100.	31:55
Michelle Mitchell	That was it.	32:51
Hastie Brown Price	That's it. I ain't seen her. But this other lady, I just worked for her a little, little. But she give me every Christmas and every birthday, and she comes to see me. She still comes to see me.	32:51
Michelle Mitchell	That says something.	33:08
Hastie Brown Price	She calls me to see if I'm doing all right. Yeah, some people, it's difference in people.	33:11
Michelle Mitchell	Did you think it was difficult? I mean, the woman that you said that you raised the children for, do you think that she was like most White women with just, you worked for her and then—	33:25
Hastie Brown Price	That was it. That's all she cared.	33:34
Michelle Mitchell	That's all she cared about.	33:36
Hastie Brown Price	That's all she cared about was the work. Yeah. That's all she cared. Because if she did, she would call me sometime or she would—She's right here in Durham, see, she's right here in Durham. The other lady moved away. Well, the other lady's husband died and she married again. This man she married had a cottage on the water, I mean, out like at a lake. She come and got me and I went and spent the night. They came out on the boat and everything. Then that evening we went to, that evening for dinner, we went out, and each one of our dinner cost $15. I enjoyed it. See, there's just a difference in the two people. All White people is not mean. No, no. Some people hate all White people.	33:37
Michelle Mitchell	Yes, ma'am.	34:54
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah, but all White people is not mean. It's not the color, but it's the principle.	34:55
Michelle Mitchell	Yes, ma'am.	35:05
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah, what you have. Some people have a feeling for you. Because, see, way back in then, if some White people hadn't had a feeling for you, back when things were bad, it would've been kind of pitiful. But some people had a feeling, people has always had a feeling for you.	35:06
Michelle Mitchell	So even back in Lumber Bridge, some White people—	35:31
Hastie Brown Price	Yes, ma'am. Some White people had a feeling for you. Some did and some didn't.	35:34
Michelle Mitchell	This has just been wonderful. This has been absolutely wonderful.	35:51
Hastie Brown Price	Well, I'm glad you could get a little something, a little something out of—	35:56
Michelle Mitchell	Well, this is going to, because you've given me so much information, this interview is going to be, if I have your permission, will be made available to local community groups. It'll be also kept at Duke University. I think North Carolina Central is going to keep a copy, but I'm not sure. But that's why I need to get some formal information on you, if that's okay. Because this is, I mean, in terms of what you said about sharecropping, we'd like to make this available for people, future generations. So would it be okay if I got some information?	36:06
Hastie Brown Price	Mm-hmm.	36:45
Michelle Mitchell	Thank you. Thank you. And your last name is Price.	36:47
Hastie Brown Price	Mm-hmm.	36:47
Michelle Mitchell	And your middle name?	36:47
Hastie Brown Price	B. [indistinct 00:36:58]. It's B.	36:47
Michelle Mitchell	B-E-A?	36:47
Hastie Brown Price	No, just B. Because I was a Brown before I married.	37:01
Michelle Mitchell	Oh, that's your maiden name. Okay. Get my stuff straight here. Price. Your maiden name is Brown. Your address is 711 Madison.	37:35
Hastie Brown Price	Madison Avenue.	37:36
Michelle Mitchell	Okay. You want your name to appear just like that.	37:37
Hastie Brown Price	Mm-hmm.	37:50
Michelle Mitchell	Okay. I've got your birthdate, which was April 16th, 1903.	37:54
Hastie Brown Price	1903.	37:57
Michelle Mitchell	Okay. You were born in Lumber Bridge. Robeson?	37:58
Hastie Brown Price	Let me see. Yeah, Robeson Country. Lumber Bridge is in Robeson County. I mean, I lived in, I was reared up in a little place named Shannon. But Lumber Bridge and Shannon is right close together. They both fell in Robeson County, I'm sure. I'm pretty sure. You can look it up. Maybe you can might look it up.	38:12
Michelle Mitchell	But Shannon was where your house was.	38:41
Hastie Brown Price	Huh?	38:44
Michelle Mitchell	Shannon was where you lived.	38:44
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah, yeah. Shannon was where I raised up at. But I was born in Lumber Bridge, but I was raised in Shannon.	38:47
Michelle Mitchell	Shannon was basically the same sort of thing. Partly White, partly Black.	39:02
Hastie Brown Price	Oh, yeah. That's all. It was all the same, White people and Black lived there together.	39:06
Michelle Mitchell	Were you, not that anyone can remember how they were born, but did your mother have a midwife?	39:15
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah, yeah. Midwife. They weren't no, they weren't going to no—In fact, then you didn't have but a few doctors. We didn't even, there wasn't no doctor right in the place where I was reared up at. I was raised in Shannon. The doctor was in Red Spring, Dr. Johnson. Red Spring is about three miles from Shannon. In Lumber Bridge, there wasn't even a doctor. The doctor was in Parkland. Dr. Curry, yeah, I remember, Dr. Curry in Parkland, North Carolina.	39:21
Michelle Mitchell	These were White doctors.	40:11
Hastie Brown Price	White doctors. All White doctors. When I left home, I don't know no Black doctors. No, when I left home, there wasn't no Black doctors there that I remember. All of them was White, just White doctors.	40:14
Michelle Mitchell	They would see, they saw Black people?	40:30
Hastie Brown Price	Oh yeah. They saw Black people. Yeah, they would see Black people. Let me see, it was Red Spring with Dr. Johnson and Dr. Roscoe, Johnson and Roscoe. And Dr. Kerr was White. He was in Parkland, North Carolina. That was the closest to Lumber Bridge. That was the closest doctor to Lumber Bridge. When I came to Durham, now they had Black doctors. When I came to Durham, they were Black doctors, Dr. Darnell, Dr. Mills, and Dr. Warren. All them were Black doctors. They got a library here named after Dr. Warren. You know, Warren Library.	40:31
Michelle Mitchell	Okay. Yeah, I was just there the other day. [indistinct 00:41:31]	41:26
Hastie Brown Price	Well, that's right.	41:30
Michelle Mitchell	Yes, ma'am.	41:30
Hastie Brown Price	Well, that's named after Dr. Warren.	41:30
Michelle Mitchell	Ma'am, are you single, married, divorced, or widowed?	41:42
Hastie Brown Price	No, I'm a widow.	41:44
Michelle Mitchell	What was your husband's name, ma'am?	41:48
Hastie Brown Price	My husband's name Louis Price.	41:50
Michelle Mitchell	L-O-U?	42:00
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah, L-O-U-I-S. Louis.	42:00
Michelle Mitchell	Did he have a middle name, ma'am?	42:02
Hastie Brown Price	No, uh-uh.	42:03
Michelle Mitchell	Do you remember when he was born and when he died?	42:04
Hastie Brown Price	No. I know when he died. He died in 1972.	42:11
Michelle Mitchell	Do you remember the month?	42:18
Hastie Brown Price	March.	42:18
Michelle Mitchell	If you don't remember this, this is fine. But do you remember when he was born and what kind of jobs he did?	42:25
Hastie Brown Price	He was born in Hartsville, South Carolina.	42:33
Michelle Mitchell	Hartsville?	42:35
Hastie Brown Price	Hartsville. H-A-R-T-S-V-I-L-L-E.	42:36
Michelle Mitchell	South Carolina?	42:40
Hastie Brown Price	Mm-hmm. He died, [indistinct 00:42:47] where he died at? You don't need that?	42:45
Michelle Mitchell	No, I would like that, actually.	42:51
Hastie Brown Price	Well, he died in Newark, New Jersey. Let's see. There was something I was—I don't know, something I thought about, but it left me now. He was born in Hartsville, South Carolina.	42:53
Michelle Mitchell	When did you, did you meet him here in Durham?	43:16
Hastie Brown Price	Mm-hmm. Yeah, met him in Durham.	43:18
Michelle Mitchell	Was that in early thirties?	43:25
Hastie Brown Price	I got married in, what was it, 1930, I believe.	43:30
Michelle Mitchell	I know it's on this form somewhere, so I'll just fill it in for right now. That was in Durham, ma'am?	43:38
Hastie Brown Price	Mm-hmm.	43:44
Michelle Mitchell	What did your husband work at, for a job?	43:47
Hastie Brown Price	American Tobacco Company, here.	43:51
Michelle Mitchell	Did he work in the warehouse?	44:00
Hastie Brown Price	Oh, he worked on some kind of machine.	44:04
Michelle Mitchell	If we have time, I'll ask you a couple questions about that later. If I could ask for your mother's name.	44:15
Hastie Brown Price	My mother?	44:21
Michelle Mitchell	Yes, ma'am.	44:21
Hastie Brown Price	My mother's name is Susie Brown.	44:22
Michelle Mitchell	S-U-S-I-E?	44:24
Hastie Brown Price	Mm-hmm.	44:24
Michelle Mitchell	Okay. Did she have a middle name, ma'am?	44:25
Hastie Brown Price	She had, what was my mother's name? Susanne [indistinct 00:44:39]. I was trying to think about my aunt. They used to give them a long name. Hattie Rogenia. Susanna, that's what my mama name. Susanna. Hattie Rogenia, Susanna, Emmaretta, and Leanna. I don't know why they give them two names, but they give them all two names.	44:35
Michelle Mitchell	So her name was Susanna?	45:04
Hastie Brown Price	Susanna.	45:05
Michelle Mitchell	That's pretty. Okay. Do you remember her maiden name?	45:06
Hastie Brown Price	That was her middle name. Anna. See, her first name was Susie. Susanna.	45:09
Michelle Mitchell	Okay. Did she ever tell you her maiden name before she got married? Did she ever tell you what that name was?	45:16
Hastie Brown Price	Oh, she was a McLeod before she got married.	45:24
Michelle Mitchell	McLeod.	45:24
Hastie Brown Price	McLeod before she got married.	45:24
Michelle Mitchell	That's M-C.	45:28
Hastie Brown Price	L-E-O-D. That's funny way to spell it, isn't it?	45:30
Michelle Mitchell	I always thought so.	45:33
Hastie Brown Price	But they say if you spell it like cloud, C-L-O-U-D, that's like cloud.	45:38

Michelle Mitchell	—Susanna McLeod. And then it was Brown.	0:01
Hastie Brown Price	Brown.	0:03
Michelle Mitchell	And do you remember when she was born or when she died? Either one.	0:06
Hastie Brown Price	I don't know.	0:09
Michelle Mitchell	You told me—	0:09
Hastie Brown Price	I meant that she was—Her birthday was August the second. And you can figure it out. She was 15 years older than me.	0:10
Michelle Mitchell	Okay.	0:28
Hastie Brown Price	She was 15 years older than me. Now she died in 19—Whatever, 1941 somewhere. Yeah, 1940. Yeah.	0:32
Michelle Mitchell	And was she born in North Carolina or South Carolina?	0:45
Hastie Brown Price	No, she was born in North Carolina.	0:48
Michelle Mitchell	North Carolina?	0:50
Hastie Brown Price	She was born in Lumber Bridge, the same place I was.	0:51
Michelle Mitchell	And you said that your—Oh, your mother, she worked doing sharecropping too?	0:58
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah, uh-huh, yeah, yeah, yeah.	1:04
Michelle Mitchell	And you remember your stepfather's name?	1:11
Hastie Brown Price	Stepfather named Neel Brown?	1:13
Michelle Mitchell	I-L, Neil?	1:18
Hastie Brown Price	No, N-E-E-L.	1:21
Michelle Mitchell	Okay.	1:22
Hastie Brown Price	I don't remember nothing about his or his—I know his mother was named Hannah Brown and his daddy was named Peter Brown, but I can remember them. But I can't remember his birthday and nothing like that. I don't know nothing about his birthday.	1:27
Michelle Mitchell	Do you know what your father's name was?	1:52
Hastie Brown Price	My father's name John Smith.	1:54
Michelle Mitchell	John Smith?	1:59
Hastie Brown Price	Mm-hmm.	2:00
Michelle Mitchell	And you said you had two brothers, ma'am? Do you remember their names?	2:10
Hastie Brown Price	My brother named Charlie Brown. Charlie Brown. Now my other brother, he was my half—Well, both of my—Were my half brother, but he wasn't—My mama wasn't his mother.	2:15
Michelle Mitchell	Okay.	2:36
Hastie Brown Price	He was—Yeah, he was named was Henry Johnson.	2:40
Michelle Mitchell	Okay. So, your mother wasn't Henry's mother?	2:45
Hastie Brown Price	That's right.	2:46
Michelle Mitchell	But she was Charlie's mother?	2:49
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah.	2:50
Michelle Mitchell	Okay.	2:50
Hastie Brown Price	That's right. That's right. That's right.	2:50
Michelle Mitchell	Henry Johnson?	2:58
Hastie Brown Price	Mm-hmm.	2:59
Michelle Mitchell	Do you happen to know around when they were born and when they died?	3:02
Hastie Brown Price	No. My brother Charlie Brown, he died in my house. Here in Durham. What year was it? I clear, I can't remember.	3:09
Michelle Mitchell	Well, that's—I mean, I'm happy to get the names, very. And you were older than Charlie?	3:33
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah.	3:34
Michelle Mitchell	But younger than Henry?	3:35
Hastie Brown Price	No, older than Henry too.	3:36
Michelle Mitchell	Okay.	3:37
Hastie Brown Price	Because I went to [indistinct 00:03:43] when he got sick I went and stayed with him. And went back to his funeral when he passed. He hadn't been dead, I don't know, maybe 10, 11 years, something like that.	3:38
Michelle Mitchell	And your children, what were their names?	4:09
Hastie Brown Price	I don't have any children.	4:10
Michelle Mitchell	No children?	4:10
Hastie Brown Price	Mm-mm. No children. Have no children I birthed, but honey, I got more—They call me, "Ma [indistinct 00:04:26]."	4:10
Michelle Mitchell	Yeah. Because I heard you when I first came here, mentioned about your godchild.	4:29
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got a lot of children.	4:34
Michelle Mitchell	That's wonderful.	4:38
Hastie Brown Price	And then see here, so many, I've been taking roomers for years and years, and I'll take roomers children from Mississippi on all up the road.	4:40
Michelle Mitchell	So you're taking roomers too?	4:52
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah. Uh-huh, roomers from Mississippi too, girl. They make this home. They're nice to me. People that marry and they come back in the North Carolina Central level. When they have homecoming, they always come back to see me, come out and see me.	4:55
Michelle Mitchell	They come back and visit?	5:24
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah, come back to visit me. And one lady stayed with me, then her two daughters, that was year before last, they stayed here. Her two daughters. One was going to school in Chapel Hill and the other must been going down to Central. And they stayed with me that summer and went to summer school.	5:25
Michelle Mitchell	Goodness. And how long have you been doing, I mean, have you been doing this in—	5:50
Hastie Brown Price	Ever since I quit. Yeah.	5:54
Michelle Mitchell	Ever since you quit?	5:54
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah. Ever since I—Yeah.	5:55
Michelle Mitchell	How long have you lived in this house, ma'am?	5:59
Hastie Brown Price	1942.	6:02
Michelle Mitchell	And you've lived in Durham. Have you lived anywhere else but Durham?	6:13
Hastie Brown Price	No, from Robeson County to Durham.	6:16
Michelle Mitchell	Got a lot of community ties. And you told me the names of your schools. And both of those schools were, I think you told me all of that, that you went to State Normal School.	6:24
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah, one year. That's when I finished.	6:42
Michelle Mitchell	Was that in Lumber Bridge, ma'am?	6:44
Hastie Brown Price	No, State Normal's in Fayetteville.	6:45
Michelle Mitchell	It's in Fayetteville?	6:46
Hastie Brown Price	See, it's Fayetteville Teachers College now.	6:48
Michelle Mitchell	Okay.	6:51
Hastie Brown Price	See, it's Fayetteville Teachers College. But it was a State Normal School then. See, at that time, it didn't go any higher than the—I believe it was the 12th grade. But see, it's a big state teacher's college now.	6:53
Michelle Mitchell	And then in Robeson County. Do you remember the name of the school?	7:13
Hastie Brown Price	Well, we're just—	7:17
Michelle Mitchell	Just the county school?	7:17
Hastie Brown Price	Just county school, that's all it was. County school.	7:21
Michelle Mitchell	You told me a lot of information about your jobs. And you're a Baptist?	7:30
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah, Missionary Baptist.	7:39
Michelle Mitchell	And you told me about Gethsemane Church?	7:46
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah, I joined Gethsemane when I first came here in 1956. One of the founders of Lincoln Memorial.	7:48
Michelle Mitchell	How many founders?	7:57
Hastie Brown Price	Huh?	8:02
Michelle Mitchell	Were there a lot of you that founded the church?	8:03
Hastie Brown Price	Well, no, there were just about three of us decided to.	8:06
Michelle Mitchell	Uh-huh.	8:14
Hastie Brown Price	Uh-huh. Yeah. But we had 50 members that day when we organized, but just—	8:15
Michelle Mitchell	And it's been at that location—	8:27
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah, been—	8:30
Michelle Mitchell	—[indistinct 00:08:30] and Roxboro?	8:30
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah, that's right. It's been there ever since. That's where we've been.	8:30
Michelle Mitchell	Very quickly, you told me earlier about the plaques that you received for volunteer work?	8:43
Hastie Brown Price	Mm-hmm.	8:48
Michelle Mitchell	I think—	8:51
Hastie Brown Price	Well, Lord—Hold—	8:51
Michelle Mitchell	I'll make it easier, I'll just pick this up.	8:53
Hastie Brown Price	But now, this—Lord, I hate for you to come in here, but I have, come on. Come on, you can see.	8:58
Michelle Mitchell	Okay.	9:04
Hastie Brown Price	You can see. I have made up my bed today. I got a terrible room. Oh, let me take that. Let's see. See, the award of [indistinct 00:09:21].	9:05
Michelle Mitchell	Oh, goodness.	9:22
Hastie Brown Price	Now that little black thing over there, that's when I finished the seventh grade, I believe. See, do you see Robeson County?	9:27
Michelle Mitchell	Yes.	9:35
Hastie Brown Price	Robeson County up there.	9:35
Michelle Mitchell	Excuse me, ma'am.	9:37
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah, just go on. I hate for you to see the house looking like this.	9:37
Michelle Mitchell	Oh, it's a beautiful room. I love the colors. It's beautiful. Oh, this is gorgeous. And this is the volunteer program you were telling me about?	9:45
Hastie Brown Price	That's right. That's one and I don't know what that—That's—I don't know what that—	10:13
Michelle Mitchell	The Durham Technical Institute.	10:15
Hastie Brown Price	Oh, yeah. That's right. That's right, I forgot. I forgot I took what? Computer. That's right. I forgot. Yeah, I took computer.	10:16
Michelle Mitchell	Did you like it?	10:28
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah, I enjoyed it. That was in 1985. That ain't been, I believe '85. So—	10:28
Michelle Mitchell	Well, now this is nice, human resources.	10:34
Hastie Brown Price	I couldn't put them all up. I got—Oh, yeah and I was recognized last year for Bethune. What is it Bethune?	10:40
Michelle Mitchell	You mean Bethune?	10:54
Hastie Brown Price	Mary McLeod—	10:55
Michelle Mitchell	Bethune-Cookman.	10:56
Hastie Brown Price	—Bethune-Cookman. The program they give for her, for my church. I'll show you. I got that out here.	10:59
Michelle Mitchell	You got YWCA too?	11:04
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah. I'm a life member of the YWCA and a life member of the NAACP too.	11:05
Michelle Mitchell	When did you join NAACP, ma'am?	11:22
Hastie Brown Price	A long—	11:28
Michelle Mitchell	Time ago?	11:28
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah, I can't remember.	11:28
Michelle Mitchell	Okay.	11:28
Hastie Brown Price	I don't know what this—What is this?	11:51
Michelle Mitchell	Oh, this is by Pilgrim Baptist?	11:58
Hastie Brown Price	Oh, yeah. That's another church. I forgot that one. That's not my church. That's another church.	12:00
Michelle Mitchell	Oh, you belong to the National Council of Negro Women too?	12:22
Hastie Brown Price	No—Yeah. Yeah. Well—	12:25
Michelle Mitchell	Okay.	12:27
Hastie Brown Price	They—	12:27
Michelle Mitchell	And let me see the year on that, ma'am. 1993. Oh, this is beautiful. Okay. Let me see. Oh, this is a beautiful award right there.	12:34
Hastie Brown Price	That was, let me see. Oh, this right here?	12:55
Michelle Mitchell	Uh-huh. Yes, ma'am.	12:59
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah. My niece gave me that when they recognized me at the Durham City Recreation Departments. And my niece came from Fayetteville and she gave me that. And I got, that's from Durham Recreation Departments. One of them, some of them from [indistinct 00:13:24]. That one, that one there. That's from the NAACP, I believe. That white—	12:59
Michelle Mitchell	It sure is.	13:39
Hastie Brown Price	Life membership.	13:42
Michelle Mitchell	You've got this award from the mental ward at Butner?	13:54
Hastie Brown Price	That's Butner. That's right. Butner. That's when I worked there to volunteer. That's volunteer work out there.	14:00
Michelle Mitchell	The Friendly Ladies Club too?	14:08
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah. I'm still president of that.	14:12
Michelle Mitchell	You're the president of that? Oh, this is just—And then you've got the Lincoln Memorial Awards too?	14:16
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah. Yeah.	14:27
Michelle Mitchell	And this is a one from a Deaconess Board?	14:46
Hastie Brown Price	Yeah, some—Yeah, Deaconess Board.	14:48
Michelle Mitchell	You have really, really been so gracious. I appreciate it.	15:06
Hastie Brown Price	Well, you're welcome. I—	15:11
Michelle Mitchell	Let me turn all this off.	15:12

Item Info

Title:

Hastie Price interview recording, 1994 June 08

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r44m9ck5h

Date:

June 8, 1994

Creator:

Price, Hastie Brown

Contributor:

Mitchell, Michele

Description:

Name: Hastie Brown Price; Date of birth: 1903-04-16; Place of birth: Robeson Co., NC; Occupation(s): tobacco worker; boarder; domestic; Residence: Durham, NC
Informant ID: 374; Interviewed by: Michelle Mitchell.

Identifier:

RL00170-CS-0580
RL00170-CS-0581
79413565-d748-4b05-ad5e-eec1a195c1d0
behindtheveil
40e72091-8800-4fc2-b6be-b9c360778110
ark:/87924/r44m9ck5h
40e72091-8800-4fc2-b6be-b9c360778110

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Behind the Veil

Source Collection:

Behind the Veil: Documenting African American Life in the Jim Crow South interviews, photographs, and project records, circa 1864-2011, bulk 1990-2004

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Language:

English

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Provenance:

The David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library acquired the Records of the Behind the Veil Oral History Project from the Duke University Center for Documentary Studies in 1997, 1998, 2000, and 2002.

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Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC 4.0

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Copyright for content created by the Behind the Veil project is held by Duke University and made available to the public using a Creative Commons Attribution / Non-commercial (CC-BY-NC) license.

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Hastie Price interview recording, 1994 June 08

Transcript

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1. Hastie Price administrative file, 1994

John Hope Franklin Research Center

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John Hope Franklin Research Center

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