Joe Thompson, Sr. interview recording, 1994 July 22

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Michele Mitchell	When you were born and where you were born?	0:01
Joe Thompson, Sr.	I was born in 1914 on the first day of September in the third ward of Library Parish. Now, the man who raised me, I was born in his house and I stayed there until I was twenty-four years old, until I got married. You got that? Now, what else you would like to know?	0:13
Michele Mitchell	You were telling me about your grandmother who had her own land.	0:58
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Yeah, that's what I tell you. Grandfather.	1:01
Michele Mitchell	Your grandfather.	1:04
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Step-grandfather, who had their own land and we lived there, we used to have a crop and we would live on that until he would start harvesting sugar cane and we would go work for the sugar cane factory. I mean company. And when that would be done and we would work on our farm until I got big enough to go out and seek a job for myself. And I went work with these White people on their farm. I worked there a good while.	1:05
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Then, after that, I went to work in the swamp cutting log and I worked there a long time. Then, after that, I left and I went work on a farm with a guy, a White guy, he wasn't from here, he was from Kaplan and he helped me out a good bit. When he gave me the job, I was in need of it. And after, I worked for him a couple years, then he left. This next year, I caught a bus, a train, and I went into Beaumont. I was married then and I worked for a company there delivering beer. And the people say— When I got there that morning, it was two o'clock and I went into working. When I got there, I hadn't find a place to steal nothing. I just went in the warehouse and start to working.	2:06
Joe Thompson, Sr.	The lady come in there, about seven o'clock, she said, you and who working over here? I said me by myself. She said you done all of this work by yourself? I said I didn't see nobody with me. I said, now, there could be a spirit slipping behind me and getting someone of them boxes. I said, but I just know I was in here. She said you better rest up. I said for what? Because I'm not tired. She said, you done done more in three hours than the fella do in two weeks. That's what that White lady told me. I worked for them a good while and then, after that, I left them and I went to Texas. I mean Orange. And I worked for a White man over there and we was about twenty-five Black. But when I went there I think he fell in love with me, so I got to be the head stick beater.	3:39
Joe Thompson, Sr.	And I worked for him a good while because, in 1957, at the time, I sent my first daughter to college and I asked him to loan me two-hundred and fifty dollars. He said if I give you two-hundred, would you sell for that? I said, yeah, you know I'd sell for that. I said because I don't owe you nothing. And then, when he hand me the two-hundred dollars, he told me, he said, now, if you need more money then I'll lend it to you. I said I'm making do with that. And that's when I first started my Karen in college. And then I would work different place and everything. But, any job that I took, I came to be the head stick beater. See?	5:07
Joe Thompson, Sr.	I didn't talk on nobody. I liked everybody and I helped everybody because they have a man, he live on the Louisville Highway, because every time we would work he would say, Joe, where you going tonight? I'd say I'm going to Sylvia Lake Yard or— In Beaumont, I'd go there and work, after I'd make eight hour on the job, and I'd go work in them other places. And he said I want to go. I say, yeah, I want you. I got you the first man. And that's how I just work. And then after that we moved over here.	6:17
Joe Thompson, Sr.	And he was living in Jeanerette, then he moved from Jeanerette over here. But when I went work for him, he treated me nice because he'd give me work and he'd say if it rain falled or something, he would come out there and say, everybody go home until tomorrow, it might stop raining. He said Joe. I said yes sir? He said you can't go home, you got too many children. You go to the warehouse and clean up and make your days work. I went over there and made my day's work and, when we moved from Orange, we moved to New Iberia and that come to be the same thing. He had a partner and the partner wanted me to call him mister and I told him I raised him and I'm not going to call him mister, so his pa said what's that going on? I said John wants me to call him mister. He said John got to be crazy, you didn't finish raising him, now you got to call him mister? He said, John, I don't believe that in you.	7:11
Joe Thompson, Sr.	The White man told me to come to work and I went to work again over here. And when he left here, then I start the job and then after that, in 1959, January the 9th on a Monday, I took a job with a garbage truck. And I work on that truck from '59 to 1985. Yeah? When it was? Six what?	8:45
Rosalee Thompson	'58 when Glenda was in college, Glenda went to college the year after [indistinct 00:09:44] and we had [indistinct 00:09:47] in college at one time.	9:33
Joe Thompson, Sr.	I took that job in '59, January the ninth, on a Monday. I was living in my other house on Anderson and I work on that job until 1985. I just forget— I can't tell you exactly what month that was because I didn't kept that up. And then had a company came here, a private company. They taking my job away from me because they wanted to throw me out the business. They wanted to charge me more than I was making. I left the job, I quit it, and then I left and went to California and I stayed there one or two weeks and I came back over here and I knew the fella, me and him were just like brother, and he was running for sheriff and I helped him and he won. Then, when I needed him, I went to him and I told him I needed a job. He said you got one. I worked for him six years and, after, I began to— My eye got bad, had cataract, and my two foot— I'm still suffering with it because it's my circulate of the blood.	9:48
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Then I couldn't work no more. They wanted me to be a transportation deputy that transport people of Alexandria and everywhere else. But I told them I didn't see good enough to see on that highway like that, so I had to retire altogether. But I still have say so with them. When I go over there, they called for me to come over there and talk with me because I used to give them all advice in that place and I treated the people so nice and everything, so that everybody had liked me in that sheriff department.	11:57
Rosalee Thompson	He never told you how many children he had?	12:41
Michele Mitchell	How many children?	12:41
Rosalee Thompson	[indistinct 00:12:54]. He just met all off the wall and he's not explaining things to you like it's supposed to be explained to you. He doesn't— We had the sheriff department thing just happen the other day and I [indistinct 00:13:04] the thirtieth up to the fiftieth.	12:53
Joe Thompson, Sr.	She tell me to tell her. I tell her what I think about. I didn't have but thirteen— She had taken thirteen children and she sign it on my name, so I took the blame.	13:05
Rosalee Thompson	You raised eleven.	13:17
Joe Thompson, Sr.	What's that?	13:23
Rosalee Thompson	You raised eleven?	13:23
Joe Thompson, Sr.	We had thirteen and we raised eleven.	13:23
Rosalee Thompson	We had one [indistinct 00:13:31].	13:23
Joe Thompson, Sr.	There it is up there.	13:23
Rosalee Thompson	He had six girls and seven— I mean six boys and seven girls. We raised eleven. He had ten of them [indistinct 00:13:47].	13:37
Speaker 1	That's beautiful.	13:47
Rosalee Thompson	[indistinct 00:13:52] and he born on Friday the thirteenth. And they all finished high school except the one on this end. She went to the [indistinct 00:14:04] because she had a nervous problem. The big one on the end. She the only one that didn't finish high school. She finished back in eighth grade. But all the rest finished high school.	13:52
Michele Mitchell	That's wonderful.	14:10
Rosalee Thompson	This little girl, right there, the girl that was in college. They finished college. And the boys [indistinct 00:14:11]. Claude went to college after he come out of school, my oldest boy. My second boy went to college. He didn't finish but he managed two years. My third boy behind him finished college and he also got his master's degree. He teaches in Los Angeles. And one of my daughter teaches in Los Angeles, day and night. My second daughter with— My oldest daughter just retired from teaching in Monroe. She retired for thirty-two years. My second daughter was a dietician at Method Hospital in Houston, Texas.	14:11
Rosalee Thompson	She died about five years now. And then the other daughter was in construction, the girl on the [indistinct 00:15:13] on the back. She own the construction company in Los Angeles, California.	15:02
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Her brother.	15:22
Rosalee Thompson	With her brother, the big guy on the end is her brother. They run the construction company and the other one behind him, works for them.	15:22
Michele Mitchell	Oh.	15:22
Rosalee Thompson	The little one in front, the one that teaches, got his master. The other one here works at the post office here and, the other one, he teaches in medicine in Los Angeles. One next to his daddy. He come out the Navy. He came out the service [indistinct 00:15:49].	15:30
Speaker 1	That's beautiful. You must be really proud of them.	15:51
Rosalee Thompson	You ought be proud of me. I've done the hard work.	15:54
Michele Mitchell	Yes. Hard, hard work.	15:57
Rosalee Thompson	Yeah, it was. They were good children. I must give them that. They worked when they were in school, they worked when they was in college and they helped us all along. We didn't do it by ourself. They helped us. They was good kids. I never had no trouble with him. I never had to go to the jailhouse or nothing.	16:02
Michele Mitchell	How'd you do it?	16:13
Rosalee Thompson	Work. Hard work. I worked. Along with him. I kept sometimes a job, ran the drive-in one time and he'd go to work in the morning and I would run the drive-in and when he'd come home, at noon, and he'd run the drive-in, I'd go to work in the afternoon, kids come from school and they'd help us in the drive-in until night, until 10 o'clock at night. Ran that for a couple of years and that really give us a good boost. When the girls would come from school [indistinct 00:17:00] time and I would sew. I sewed. I made all these clothes and I was a good seamstress too. They all the good seamstresses. [indistinct 00:17:08], they want dresses, they ask on me and I done her dress and my dress.	16:34
Michele Mitchell	Really?	17:10
Rosalee Thompson	The other cub done they own dresses. They all be good seamstress. And they all pretty good cook. I'm not bragging. Yeah. Then they come home, on vacation time, they would sew, because I wasn't able to go in the store and buy clothes for them. I would buy material and stack it up there. When he'd come, I'd take material [indistinct 00:17:44], when he come, he'd just go and collect what he wanted and get on the machine and make his own clothes after they were [indistinct 00:17:50] for themself. That made college. They never get bored of it. Wearing their made clothes to school. Everything was made from home.	17:17
Michele Mitchell	It's a lot of work.	18:02
Rosalee Thompson	Yeah. But I think we enjoyed it at that time and we didn't have patterns, you go and buy patterns now. I used to make them the patterns. I used to put patterns on myself with some newspaper and they [indistinct 00:18:23]. I used to get up in the morning, four o'clock in the morning, and go to work there and come back and go to school and didn't miss school. Now, I got— The little girl, the last one on the end there, elementary school for seven years. Never missed a day of school. Every day to school. Donnie went eight years at Livington and never missed a day of school. And they both got a award for not missing a day school. One thing about it, we stayed in school, I didn't have to worry about going to school.	18:03
Rosalee Thompson	And I lived not far from the high school and he would come home at twelve o'clock and I was at work. They'd come home and take the clothes in because they had to hang clothes on the line at that time, they didn't have dryer and we used to hang clothes on the line. He'd come take their clothes in, when he'd come from school, they used to take it on the ironing board and iron and take their own clothes. And after the three older girls, in college, [indistinct 00:19:25], the boys used to do their own jeans. They would iron their own clothes. I kept ironing board up, the ironing board was never closed. And they were clean children, they went to school clean. I didn't have to worry about that. And what's the thing I did after they come from school because they kept the house up, they kept the clothes up.	18:57
Michele Mitchell	Got to work and help out.	19:51
Rosalee Thompson	[indistinct 00:19:58].	19:52
Michele Mitchell	Will you tell me about what it was like to cut logs? What was it like to cut logs?	20:03
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Oh, that was just fun. Cutting log. See, we was in water and then we would cut them in a [indistinct 00:20:19] and it was nothing to that because, if you a working man and you like the work, you'll do anything. And that was just like fun. We'd get in that water and float them logs in and bring them there at the rescue. That wasn't no hard work.	20:10
Michele Mitchell	It wasn't dangerous.	20:56
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Yeah, it was dangerous. But we didn't worry about that. They say you die when your time come. We didn't worry. We believed in that. If you had to die, you'll die. If you didn't, you'll still live. You didn't worry about that. And we would come in, sometime the water would go down and the sand would leave our foot. And when we get to the camp, we'll pull our [indistinct 00:21:42] off and we had to get in, we had some ashes and alum, we put our foot in there and then we had to run around for a few minutes because it was burning. But then, next morning, we were ready to go back again. Yeah, logging wasn't— The kind of logging that we did, it wasn't tough because we was in water all the time.	20:57
Michele Mitchell	You did that here in Louisiana? You did that here in Louisiana?	22:19
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Oh, yeah. I did that in Louisiana. I had a chance to go to Guatemala but I didn't go. I changed my mind. They wanted me to go to Guatemala and cut it all. But I didn't go. That was before I married.	22:29
Rosalee Thompson	[indistinct 00:22:52].	22:48
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Yeah, I wouldn't have your trouble.	22:54
Rosalee Thompson	[indistinct 00:23:00].	22:55
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Yeah.	23:00
Michele Mitchell	You were cutting logs before 1938? You were cutting logs before 1938?	23:02
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Yeah. Oh, yeah. I was cutting logs.	23:07
Rosalee Thompson	After '38 [indistinct 00:23:14] we were married.	23:09
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Yeah, I know after that— I cut that all between. If you was hungry, you had to eat pepper. Many times I had to eat pepper but I made it.	23:13
Michele Mitchell	You mean pepper, like hot peppers?	23:41
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Yes.	23:44
Rosalee Thompson	That's [indistinct 00:23:47].	23:46
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Yeah. But, after then, I got married. We built a home in [indistinct 00:24:02], then we stole it and went to town and we lived in that house thirty-two years, I think, if I ain't mistaken. And then it got so tough with that dope and I was living on a corner of a project and them fella what comes in there, they wouldn't stop at the stop sign. They keep on straight into my yard and run into my house. My children died. They didn't want nobody to kill me, so they decided, they come over and they say you been nice, daddy, I'm going to buy you another home. They come to me and say you'll move. I said I'll stay anywhere, it don't make me no difference.	23:51
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Then they bought me a home. In '90, they bought me a Cadillac. Now, I just got my ticket today. I'm going to California, if I don't die, before the sixth. I'm going to the picnic. Call it [indistinct 00:25:34] in California. You might have heard of that. You see, then after that, my daughter was living and she got two home. She lived there to teach school and she come leave there on the weekend and go to Las Vegas. I guess when we get over there, we're going to go to Las Vegas. I go there every year. They buy me the ticket. They treat me nice, just like I treated them nice.	25:05
Michele Mitchell	How did you manage to do all these jobs to send your children to college? That's a lot of work.	26:17
Joe Thompson, Sr.	How I managed to send them to college?	26:26
Michele Mitchell	Yes, sir.	26:28
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Oh, that was easy. I had a job. I was a garbage collector for twenty-six years and then, the twenty-six years, that's how I send my children to school. I was making [indistinct 00:26:45] of dollars because that, and what I tell you, [indistinct 00:26:48], she used to call herself trying to beat me. She would go in the box and take some money. And my other two daughters would tell her, daddy, Shirley did six and fifty things. Oh, that was nothing. Sometimes it would get tough. But, them White folk, all I had to say is money and they would hand their hand out. But I paid them.	26:29
Joe Thompson, Sr.	I ain't had no problem to send my kid to school. I went to a man, he was a Senator of Louisiana and he was given scholarships. I went to him and I asked him to give me some scholarships. He told me I'll give you one, said that's all I got, so I took the one. But I had a White buddy, he was the assessor for New Iberia, and I told him, I said I went there, [indistinct 00:28:09], I said I asked him for a scholarship and he give me just one. And he said, how many you need? I said three. He said sit down. He called this White man. He said, Sam, I got a good friend of mine here, you see, he need two more scholarship. Sam said, oh, send him over. But he didn't know that was me. I went to him and he said I was calling you. I said, yeah, but I know he was lying, so I didn't worry. I said give me the scholarship, so he gave me the scholarship.	27:20
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Then, I met another White man, he told me he wanted to be the Senator, asked me if I was going to be with him. I said yeah. I got him to run for the Senator and I told him, I said, look, I got a cousin, she built a nightclub, she needs some shell and if you get her some shell, she going to get all [indistinct 00:29:20]. That's further down the road. And when I went to her, she say, oh, yeah, if he send me some shell, I'm going to get all [indistinct 00:29:31] to vote for him. And I was picking [indistinct 00:29:36] out of the garbage, and I went in there one morning and he told me, he said, come in here and have a cup of coffee.	28:49
Joe Thompson, Sr.	I said yeah. I told them boys, I said, y'all wait for me out there. I went inside and they still had the coffee and they both was crying. He said I wonder what I done to the people. And, like I told you, I was a nervous man, if I had something to tell you, I'd tell it to you. See. I say yeah. What you did? I said, look me, pick your garbage, I give you my truck job to fix out your place. And you asked and I wanted to haul some trash and you told me you were going to look and you ain't never give me none. And I said I'm going to tell you, you done lost your seat. I was in his house. I said because I'm one-hundred percent with that other man. I said he's more on the Black side than you is.	29:43
Joe Thompson, Sr.	When we won, I had— This daughter had to take the men into Louisiana, between Baton Rouge in New Orleans, and I went to him and told him I had to go to Dr. Kicking and I wanted him to help me. He said, oh, wait a minute. He said let me call him. He called the man and told the man that I was coming over there with my daughter and it was far from him where I live. I wanted to see him before it would get dark. And, when I got there, that lady come there was looking for Joe Thompson. And I said, yeah, I am. She said you come on. And they had people at that door like that. I just passed by him and I went in there and talked with Dr. Kicking and left my daughter in there and then I come on home.	30:54
Michele Mitchell	When was this?	31:56
Joe Thompson, Sr.	When that was? Now you got me. Do you know exactly when I brought Casey to the men in Louisiana? I didn't keep the date or nothing like that. But I took this big one over there, and that White man, after he won, he respond for me because I was a good helper to him and everything. But it was in between all them years I have lived. Now, I didn't kept the date or nothing or what year that was that I took her, no way. You see, because I didn't worry about nothing I didn't thought I had to come up with that no more. I said, all hours after, getting and gone. I got it and I did that for many years. When them White folks wouldn't treat me nice, I wouldn't tell them nothing but I'd say I'll wait for your downfall and when their downfall would come, that was my time to kick it over. And I took it over and I don't care. You can come in here and them people, all year, knew me.	32:01
Joe Thompson, Sr.	And they ain't got no Black live on this street. I'm the one the Black and then I ain't Black. I'm just like them. And they treated me like that. I'm not a fellow to run in front the White folks and be laughing and showing my teeth. But they're at my respond. They help me. They'll do anything. I don't have to worry. When I leave here, I leave my house in their care. When they leave, leave their house in my care. That's the way we live over here.	33:25
Michele Mitchell	I'm curious, do you remember Huey Long?	34:12
Joe Thompson, Sr.	If I remember who?	34:16
Michele Mitchell	Huey Long. Governor Long?	34:17
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Yeah. Governor Long was a good man.	34:19
Michele Mitchell	You think so?	34:21
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Oh, yeah. He was a very nice man because, a little before he got killed, he had give free book, see? And I'll never forget that day when my Aunt holler, oh, Lord, they killed the governor. She said a man I did love. He was a very good man. Hugh P. Long. He was a good fella. Far as I know, in my coming up, I kept track of him, and him and the [indistinct 00:35:07] and all of them. But all these fellas that is good to the Black, they kill them. You got no business living because you're too good to the Black. I remember the day, when that was? In 1963, '68? When they killed Kennedy. I know it was in the sixties. That '68? '68, huh?	34:23
Rosalee Thompson	'63.	35:36
Joe Thompson, Sr.	'63?	35:36
Rosalee Thompson	They killed Kennedy.	35:36
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Yeah. In '63. And when my wife called me and told me they'd killed him, I thought he was a very good man. He was a very nice man. Because I used to look at him all the time when he would make that speech. And I loved to hear him make that speech. Kennedy. If all the White folk would like the Kennedy, we wouldn't have had nothing to worry about. Because I follow him all the way through, when Martin Luther King, I don't exactly know what place he was, but I remember, but when he was there and he called the Kennedy and they answer his call because they was in love with him because they took care of him.	35:47
Joe Thompson, Sr.	I don't care what jail he was, he had to get out. And I think about that often. He said free at last. Great God almighty, free at last. And I'll tell you, if the Black people in Louisiana would be like the people elsewhere, we would got along better, we'd been receiving better. But they were coward, they were scared, and they had a lot of them with Uncle Tom, and I said the best thing I do is stay to myself and do what I got to do and don't worry about them.	37:02
Michele Mitchell	Why do you think people were so frightened? Why were people so afraid?	38:05
Joe Thompson, Sr.	You see they were killing them, they was whipping them and a lot of them raised up on these farms. And the White folks used to do them so bad until they were just scared to take a chance. But I wasn't raised on no farm. I wasn't scared to take no chance. I took chances. Because, many times, when I'd hear a thing happened, it would just make my blood rise.	38:13
Speaker 1	When you were younger?	38:50
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Yeah, when I never could do nothing by myself. Because, when I was the president of a [indistinct 00:39:06] and they had some doctors over here, they came out of different place and they was my doctor for my [indistinct 00:39:17]. See, I had a sick— Give people doctor medicine and bury them when they dead.	38:50
Rosalee Thompson	Society. [indistinct 00:39:29] Society.	39:25
Michele Mitchell	Which one?	39:25
Rosalee Thompson	St. John's [indistinct 00:39:36] Society.	39:25
Michele Mitchell	That's the one?	39:35
Joe Thompson, Sr.	And then, when I was working in Texas, and when I came back they told me they had run the doctor and them out of town. And they had took one and dragged him and he died.	39:38
Michele Mitchell	Which one was that?	39:55
Joe Thompson, Sr.	That was Hardy.	39:57
Rosalee Thompson	He wasn't the doctor.	40:04
Joe Thompson, Sr.	No, but he was one of the leaders.	40:04
Michele Mitchell	Hardy was the one that died?	40:04
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Yeah, I think so.	40:06
Rosalee Thompson	He wasn't a doctor. He was the one riding the [indistinct 00:40:13].	40:07
Michele Mitchell	But you both were in Texas when this happened. You were here?	40:21
Joe Thompson, Sr.	I was in Texas.	40:26
Rosalee Thompson	He was working in Texas. [indistinct 00:40:31].	40:27
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Because, when I came back, I made a speech on Donnell Road up there at a church. And I'll never forget that. Then I was on my way to Texas and the man stopped. He said I want to stop and say hello to my girlfriend and then we going on. I said okay. We walked in there, they had a lady, I had my uncle had rhythm and, when I walked in there, the band was playing. I said, shuck, I better make a round. I walk up to her. I said, come on, let's make around. She said, oh, Mr. Thompson. She said that song, when you preached the other day, she said, and you still want to dance? Oh. Just turn around and left away. Oh, yeah.	40:32
Michele Mitchell	What was it like here after they ran the doctors out of town?	41:28
Joe Thompson, Sr.	All the White folk got tough. They was tough. They was [indistinct 00:41:37]. I didn't pay attention to what they were doing or nothing. Because I wasn't worried about them. I said— And they really, the Black people, when the Black doctor left, because, you see, when I was in business, I was a marshal. I used to go get the doctor and I had one, Dr. J. Y. Sanders, he told me, he said, let me tell you something. I said yes sir? He said, you see them Black doctors? I said yes sir. He said that's who you should use. I said what you refer to? He said because they know know more than I do.	41:32
Joe Thompson, Sr.	He said a Black doctor can't come out, letting him make a hundred school but, you see, I can buy my way. I'm White. I can buy my way. And I had two of them to tell me that. Him and Dr. [indistinct 00:42:54] and told me that's who the Black people should use because they was the best doctor. But, when you raised amongst White and the daylight and the night come, they want light too. But they didn't think like I thought. Not because he was Black, that he wasn't good. See? That's the way that thing was. It took a long time. Then after I cross over, I took over, I got to be the president and then I could get it like I wanted because I was the president.	42:30
Michele Mitchell	President of St. John? President of St. John?	43:56
Joe Thompson, Sr.	St. John's Society. Yeah.	43:59
Michele Mitchell	What kind of things did the society do?	44:06
Joe Thompson, Sr.	What did they do? They give doctors medicine and bury you when you die.	44:08
Michele Mitchell	Do people have to pay dues?	44:20
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Yeah. And, them time, was paying fifty cents a month. Fifty cents was— That's worth [indistinct 00:44:30].	44:22
Michele Mitchell	Who joined it? What sort of people joined the St. John's Society?	44:29
Joe Thompson, Sr.	What kind of people?	44:37
Michele Mitchell	Yeah. Who joined?	44:38
Joe Thompson, Sr.	All of the Black people, the children. Everywhere. We didn't specify no age because, when I got in there, I got some older people and I took care of them while they was in there. When they couldn't pay their dues, I would tell my secretary to write them up. But some of them would kick against it. But I didn't pay no attention to them. I wanted to let them know, you put me here to run it and I'm going to run it. Now, when you feel like I'm not doing your work, you put me out. And he couldn't put me out by himself because the members of that [indistinct 00:45:23], there was pride of what I was doing. Because they say I was about the best one that ever come up in there. They had plenty other officers but they didn't do what I did.	44:42
Michele Mitchell	You were the president in the 1950s?	45:37
Joe Thompson, Sr.	I was the president in 1940 until 1956.	45:42
Michele Mitchell	1940 to 1956.	45:47
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Yeah. That's about sixteen year of president. But I had belonged to that when I was a little boy and then, when I was fourteen, I got to be a marshal. I took my stepfather's place.	45:52
Michele Mitchell	You became a marshal when you were fourteen?	46:08
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Yeah.	46:09
Michele Mitchell	And what does that mean?	46:10
Joe Thompson, Sr.	That I'd get doctors and medicines for sick.	46:11
Michele Mitchell	You got medicine for the sick?	46:17
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Yeah.	46:20
Michele Mitchell	Did you take it to people?	46:21
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Yeah, I take it to the people. I'd go deliver it because the— I'll never forget the first visit. When he was in— A lady came there to get the doctor and we was three of us. He said I don't know which one I'm going to let you— I said I'll take it. And I grabbed the book and I left running. And just as I got to the front, on the highway, the doctor —	46:21

Joe Thompson, Sr.	— stayed in Louisville. So when he got there, he seen the lady. Then he brought me to town, and he brought me back. And when I got home my grandfather said, "When you going to go get that medicine?" I said, "I done went and got it." He said, "You done went and got it?" He said, "Go away, boy. Don't lie to me." I said, "I'm not lying to you." I said, "The lady got her medicine." He said, "Well I'm telling you, you move faster than lightning." So then I explained him how that happened. "Oh," he said, "Well, boy, you lucky. You got the job."	0:00
Joe Thompson, Sr.	So that's when I kept on going in there. And then after that, in 1940, well, they had election. So they elect me to be the president because I would be in there. And when they would come up with something that I feel like it was going to make them annoyed, I would get up and talk to them and tell them. See? I would say, "We didn't come here to fuss, neither fight. We come here to make business and good business." Because I went to the drugstore man, and I said, "I want to deal with you on credit."	0:41
Joe Thompson, Sr.	He said, "Who you is?" And I told him. He said, "What society?" I told him. He said, "Well, that society owe me thirty-five dollars." I said, "That ain't no question." I said, "If I pay you, would you let me get credit?" He said, "Oh, yeah." So I went and got him a check. And that Christmas, a lady went up there. He say, "This St. John's?" She say yeah. He say, "You know that president of that St. John?" She said, "Yeah, I raised him." He said, "Well I'm glad to know that." So he went there and got me a box of cigar and sent it to my house for my Christmas. Oh, yeah.	1:31
Michele Mitchell	Which drugstore did you go to? Was it a Black drugstore?	2:14
Joe Thompson, Sr.	No, White. They had just one Black drugstore, it was [indistinct 00:02:23] Drugstore. I used to deal with him, but I had to have two, three drugstores because if you deal with just one man, they'll try to up their medicine and sell too high. So I went and got this man because they was a wholesale, and they were cheaper.	2:17
Michele Mitchell	And what was it like when people were buried? Did you provide a big service for them? What was that that like?	2:52
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Yeah. Well, they would go to the churches. And the undertaker, you see, I was dealing with the undertaker. When he would bury them, I would pay him.	2:59
Michele Mitchell	A Black undertaker or a White undertaker?	3:09
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Yeah, Black. Yeah.	3:12
Michele Mitchell	What was his name?	3:14
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Flicker. Wasn't Flicker, name is?	3:14
Rosalee Thompson	[indistinct 00:03:19].	3:14
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Woodward Flicker. Winfield Bell.	3:20
Rosalee Thompson	Excuse me.	3:21
Joe Thompson, Sr.	And then one day he sought, met me. He said, "I got something for you." I said, "What you got for you?" He said, "I got ten dollars for you." I said, "For what?" So when he explained me, I said, "Look, brother, you don't have to give me nothing. If you treat the members good, they'll choose you all the time." I said, "Just don't try to rob them, and don't give me nothing. I don't want nothing. I get paid where I'm at." I say, "I don't want that." I say, "If I take ten dollars from you, you going to have to put ten dollars more on the funeral and make these poor people suffer." Because they didn't have that much work, that much money. And the people were trying to survive.	3:28
Michele Mitchell	Were these people who worked cutting cane and work in the mines?	4:34
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Yeah.	4:37
Michele Mitchell	What'd they do?	4:38
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Well, they used to do everything, work in the mine, work in the cane, work in the street, different things. Everybody had a different job. That was— What I want to leave with you and tell you, if you do some good thing, you going to get some good deed. So I did some good things, and I really believe that the Lord respond to my call. That's how come I didn't have trouble with my children, to send them to college and nowhere, because the Lord opened the way for me. I learned that. If you use some good thing, you'll get some good deed. The Lord will bless you.	4:40
Joe Thompson, Sr.	You see, if I help you, and it be good, you don't have to thank me. The Lord going to do that. So that's the way I came up, and that's the way my belief is. If you do some good things, you get some good deed. The Lord will look out for you.	6:03
Joe Thompson, Sr.	So my next birthday, I'll be eighty, and I don't have no complaint about God work because he have been good to me. It's just like if you start plowing a row from one hay land to the other one, sometimes people run into some rough thing. They have to stop. But I just kept on plowing till I got to the next hay line. See? So my row that I drawed was straight. And when you do good things, God going to see that you get some good deed. And that's how I believe we come today to live here amongst these people.	6:42
Joe Thompson, Sr.	When we come here, they say, "Who that is?" They say, "Joe Thompson." They say, "Well, we want him." I don't care where you go. They going tell you they had love me because when I was campaigning for the [indistinct 00:08:04] sheriff, I'd go to them people house, and they would tell me, they say, "Come on in." I said, "No, ma'am." He said, "It's hot." I said, "That ain't nothing." He say, "It's cold." I said, "That ain't nothing." All I want is my money. When I got my money, I knew what I was going to do. And that job had got a lot of things that I had needed.	7:44
Joe Thompson, Sr.	I remember one time I went to a White man house. He had just moved from New Orleans, and he had a box. And it was hard. He said, "You the garbage man?" I said yeah. He said, "Can I join?" I said yeah. So he asked me how much it was, and I told him. He said, "Look. You see that box there?" I said yeah. He said, "They got all of my daughter [indistinct 00:09:20] in that box, you see. If you want it, you can have it." I said, "Yes, I want it."	8:39
Joe Thompson, Sr.	And that girl, well, I tell you surely, when I down two house, she was going to college, and I brought that box over there. And my wife opened that box. On top of that box, they ain't have nothing but fingernail polish. And she washed that off. And all them clothes to the bottom was like brand new. Then she took them clothes. She went to college, and a lady asked her, she said, "What do your daddy do?"	9:29
Joe Thompson, Sr.	She said, "My daddy has an international garbage collector." Okay. You see, she used to wear them dresses and didn't know where they were coming from. The people would help me. That lady would live cross there, when I'd come there, and she was about the size of my daughter. And she told me, "Joe, I got all this that can help you." I said thank you.	10:11
Joe Thompson, Sr.	That man who give me that box, he live cross over there. You talk about some nice clothing. I'm telling you. We made it. We didn't suffer for nothing. And they start picking up cans. We pick up cans sometime. I'd go sell cans. I had eighty-five, ninety dollars worth of cans. I'd stop at a store and buy me eighty-five, ninety dollars worth of meat. I knew I was going to eat meat because I like meat. But that's how I made it through them seventy-nine years.	10:39
Michele Mitchell	But when you first started working as a garbage man, as a garbage collector, I thought that only White people had that job.	11:20
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Well, I'm White.	11:26
Rosalee Thompson	No, they had another Black guy that run it many years ago. But he was a private garbage man.	11:27
Joe Thompson, Sr.	See, I work as private.	11:36
Michele Mitchell	A-ha.	11:36
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Oh yeah.	11:36
Rosalee Thompson	[indistinct 00:11:45].	11:36
Michele Mitchell	Okay.	11:36
Joe Thompson, Sr.	And the Whites had love for me to pick the garbage because I used to get it from behind the house. The White man met me one time. He said, "Look, me and you going to have to talk." I said, "What going be the talk?" He said, "We going to make them people put that garbage to the street."	11:46
Joe Thompson, Sr.	I said, "Look, you run your business, and I run mine." I said, "You do what you want to do, and I'll do what I want to do." So when I quit, I quit the way I start. And today, if people meet me, "Joe, we sure miss you. We would like for you to get your job back because them people here aren't worth a damn." That's how, I guess, they're doing. Yeah. That's the way that thing was.	12:03
Michele Mitchell	You told me earlier that you were born in the third—	12:36
Joe Thompson, Sr.	In the, what?	12:39
Michele Mitchell	You told me earlier that you were born in the third ward of Iberia Parish. Where is that?	12:40
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Right down the road, down the other highway, going into Louisville. Yeah. I was born on a twenty [indistinct 00:13:01] land in a two-room house and a little kitchen. Well, it wasn't connect together. You had to go down the step to go in the kitchen.	12:46
Rosalee Thompson	It was a room. The kitchen was an extra room.	13:21
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Well, you call it what they want.	13:23
Rosalee Thompson	[indistinct 00:13:30].	13:25
Joe Thompson, Sr.	But we raised plenty chickens, plenty hogs, plenty goose, plenty duck. Then we'd catch plenty possum, plenty corn. We eat all that that was eatable. We had meat. We never suffered for no meat because we could get out at night and kill what we want of meat, and march hare and everything, and make a living off it.	13:30
Michele Mitchell	But when the flood came, it didn't hurt your family?	14:07
Joe Thompson, Sr.	I didn't have no family when the flood came.	14:09
Michele Mitchell	I mean—	14:12
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Yeah. Well, we left the house. That's when I told you that White man came over there in that big car and brought up the stuff and say we didn't have to bow to them White folk that lived around us. He was from Dauterive Landing up on the other side of Louisville. That's where that White man— You see, my grandmother was a midwife, and she took care of all that White man children. So he took care of her when she needed.	14:12
Michele Mitchell	She did.	14:43
Rosalee Thompson	She delivered him. [indistinct 00:14:54].	14:45
Michele Mitchell	So did your grandmother know a lot about medicine? She delivered babies?	14:55
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Huh?	15:02
Michele Mitchell	She delivered babies.	15:03
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Yeah.	15:04
Michele Mitchell	And she knew about other medicine too?	15:04
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Well, and you see, in them times, the Black people could do a lot of things.	15:06
Rosalee Thompson	My great-grandmother was a midwife in [indistinct 00:15:17] .	15:16
Joe Thompson, Sr.	You see that daughter up there? You see one of my daughter up there? She was the oldest one, and she took sick with the bronchitis. And the doctor give up, and they had two old women at my house. She said, "Well, give us the baby." And they took that baby and laid that baby in front of that firehouse, and they rubbed— They took their mouth and draw that thing from the nose and everything. Blow breaths in her. And about two hours, she was crying. She said, "Well, give her a bottle." Before she couldn't get no bottle. They worked on her with [indistinct 00:16:09] and stuff like that. They rubbed her, and it's right in front of the firehouse and got out of there and saved her life when the doctor had give up.	15:16
Michele Mitchell	That's amazing.	16:21
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Yeah. I'll tell you, it is. You see, in them times, you didn't take too much medicine because they had plenty remedy for people to take. Like if you get a cold, they had a thing they called moringa. And that was just bitter as gall. And you drink that, that'll knock that cold out of you. And I was glad that I wasn't a feeling that. I hated medicine because I drink anything— Because I work on my truck twenty-six years, and when it sleets, storms, and everything, and when I get cold and look like I was going to catch a cold, I'd stop at the store and get me a bottle of three six and drink half of it, and I'd put the other half my pocket and hit the road. And when I get home that night, I drink that next morning. I get up. I was feeling good. And I didn't do that just one time. Done that a lot of times. Twenty-six years I'd work on that truck and didn't get sick.	16:23
Michele Mitchell	Not once?	17:45
Joe Thompson, Sr.	No.	17:57
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Yeah, that was a time.	17:57
Michele Mitchell	Was it difficult dealing with White people? You said that you just would say what you thought when you were dealing with White people. It wasn't difficult when you were young in the '20s and '30s?	18:04
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Well, yeah, it was difficult. But you see, I didn't pay the White folks no mind because I didn't live on their place. And I'd get out and go get me a job somewhere out of town. I would go. That's when I started swamping. See, because they wasn't paying nothing in the field. But sometime, I'd come in. I'd go work a deal or two like that for a man. And he treated me nice and everything because I shucked his rice. And I went in there one morning, one evening about twelve o'clock. I went to get my dinner. And when I got back, my wife, my grandmother was a midwife. She hadn't cooked dinner. And when she was boiling beans it take a long time to boil.	18:12
Joe Thompson, Sr.	So I just did that til them beans cooked. I said, "I ain't going nowhere till they're cooked." When they cook, I ate and I went back, and the White man got mad. And I told him, "Look, I don't have to take that." So when I turned around to come back home, he jumped off there and cussed me. And when he cussed me, I had one of them piece of iron with a hook on him, and I caught his shirt and took it off him. And he left hollering, calling the boss. And the boss came. He went to them White folk, and them White folk said, "Who that is?" Said monkey. He said, "Well, I'll take you. Don't go back there where that old man at." Said, "Because that old man, he ain't going to stand nobody coming."	19:12
Joe Thompson, Sr.	He said, "He old. He don't care if he die. Nah, nah, you don't want to die." He said no. He said, "Well, don't you go back there. Catch him in the road and whip him." And my stepfather and another man was there. He said, "He going to have trouble, then, if he jump on Monkey. I know it's going happen." So that's the way it was. Then the man come back. My grandmother said, "What you want?"	20:02
Joe Thompson, Sr.	He said, "I want Monkey. I want him to come to work." She said no. He said, "You don't have to worry about nothing." He said, "I promise you ain't nobody going to do him nothing." She said, "No, I don't want him to go up there and get himself killed." But I said, "Oh no, Mom, I'm not worried about dying." So I left and went to that White man anyhow, let him know I wasn't scared of him. It was something else. Oh yeah, there was. Them Cajuns was something other.	20:35
Michele Mitchell	So these were Cajuns?	21:10
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Mm-hm. Well, that's where I call them. Yeah, that's a Cajun country. But a lot of them say, "I'm going to get you." I said, "Well, I'm there." But they ain't, none of them. Ain't never done nothing. Because the White man told me one time he was going to kick me. I said, "If you kick me, you ain't going to have to buy one shoe because I was going to cut that foot off." I said, "I don't care." See, I had made up my mind before I let a man hit me, I'd kill him. Or he'll kill me. And I'm still like that.	21:16
Michele Mitchell	Really?	22:08
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Yeah. So they don't. See, when I leave here, I go to the courthouse, walk in there. It's, "There's Mr. Thompson." That's the way they called me, Mr. Thompson. Mitchel know that. Yeah. Yeah. That's was the time. But everybody couldn't come in because a lot of them didn't have nowhere to live. And if they would open their mouth, then they had to get outside and hunt somewhere to stay. And they have nowhere to stay. That's what made it so tough on the Black people. And I didn't blame them to keep my mouth closed.	22:09
Joe Thompson, Sr.	But it was something else. Because the many day I stood up and look at them, and they would whip the Black people. And I would tell them, "Come in the street. We'll fight." But they were too scared to leave where they was standing up. Oh yeah, that's the way that thing was.	23:18
Michele Mitchell	They with Black people who were working in fields?	23:56
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Yeah.	23:57
Michele Mitchell	Which? Those Black people?	23:58
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Oh yeah.	23:59
Joe Thompson, Sr.	But one man couldn't do it all. So what I did, I just stayed to myself and let bygones be bygones. But every job I went on, they treated me nice. I used to go there. They'd call me the head stick beater because I talked from my right. I did with them White folk. Then if we was a gang working, I was living in Moberham, just to the next road over there. And they had a White man there that he say he shoots first and talk after. And me and him had got into it. We was on waterproof, and Monday morning when the man come to get us, so the boy asked him, he said, "You got Monkey?"	24:07
Joe Thompson, Sr.	He said, "No, we ain't got Monkey yet." He said, "Well, when you get him, you let us know." He said, "Because we ain't going letting he go." So the man came to me. He said, "You coming to work?" I said, "No." He said, "Why?" I said, "Look, I don't want to go nowhere where we going to be brutalized. I can get me a little job around here. What I can make, I'll make it." But I said, "As long as you got that man on your job, we not coming."	25:19
Joe Thompson, Sr.	He said, "Well, if I fire him?" I said, "We'll come." So I got in the truck, and me and him got the man. And we went to work. So he fired the man. Then later, there was another man by the name of Tom John, he was the boss. And he cussed my brother, and I turned the table over. And they fire him. He said, "Well, the best thing we do get you a Black."	25:56
Joe Thompson, Sr.	I said, "You'll be doing a good thing. You'll be getting my color, and we going to live together." I said, "But you get them White folk, they don't care what they call you." And I said, "I ain't going to stand for it." So we was back at Patterson at that time. Oh no. I'm just glad I made it up together because a lot of Black people said, "Man, them White folk can kill you." I said, "I be just a dead nigger. That's all. But I ain't scared of them. I ain't stuck with them." What? Is rain out there?	26:32
Michele Mitchell	Yeah, it looks like it. Yeah. It's coming back.	27:08
Rosalee Thompson	[indistinct 00:27:18].	27:08
Joe Thompson, Sr.	What tree? Oh no. Ain't nobody I can sue for all them, for all them limbs fall out that tree. Huh?	27:17
Rosalee Thompson	If it's God's will.	27:24
Joe Thompson, Sr.	That the paper? Well, I didn't see O.J. today. See, I don't guess what they got in the paper, I'm worried about it. What you think about O.J.?	27:28
Michele Mitchell	It's a mess.	27:47
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Yeah, I know.	27:47
Michele Mitchell	It's a real mess. Any way you look at it.	27:51
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Well, quite natural, them White people he killed. Or who killed them. But they got him blamed.	27:54
Michele Mitchell	Yeah.	28:00
Joe Thompson, Sr.	But I believe, and I trust, he got three lawyer that they going to fight it until the last.	28:04
Michele Mitchell	I think so. I think so.	28:15
Joe Thompson, Sr.	I hope so.	28:15
Michele Mitchell	I just have a few more questions to ask you about your family. Is that okay?	28:26
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Yeah.	28:30
Michele Mitchell	Your wife's name is Rosa?	28:30
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Her name is Rosalee. Rose is a Mexican. That's the way the Mexican pronounced the name Rosa. But her name is Rosalee.	28:44
Michele Mitchell	Rosalee. Ma'am, were you born here in New Iberia?	29:19
Rosalee Thompson	No. Parish Iberia.	29:19
Michele Mitchell	Paris Iberia? In 1919?	29:19
Rosalee Thompson	Yes.	29:19
Michele Mitchell	What month?	29:19
Rosalee Thompson	December 28th.	29:19
Michele Mitchell	And, ma'am, you said that, you worked running the drive-in and stuff like that. What other jobs have you had?	29:20
Rosalee Thompson	Domestic.	29:24
Michele Mitchell	And, sir, with your mother's name?	29:30
Joe Thompson, Sr.	You talking to me?	29:30
Michele Mitchell	Yes sir. My mother's name was Mary Mouton.	29:53
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Mouton?	29:54
Michele Mitchell	Mm-hmm.	29:54
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Do you know when she was born? Who? Her?	29:54
Michele Mitchell	Yes.	29:56
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Oh no, I wasn't born yet to know all that.	29:56
Michele Mitchell	Was she from this area?	29:58
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Yeah.	30:05
Michele Mitchell	From Iberia Parish?	30:05
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Yeah.	30:05
Michele Mitchell	And your father's name, sir?	30:14
Joe Thompson, Sr.	My father?	30:16
Michele Mitchell	Yes, sir.	30:17
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Well, my father's name was Riley Thompson.	30:19
Michele Mitchell	He from here, too, Iberia Parish?	30:30
Joe Thompson, Sr.	No, he from New Iberia.	30:30
Michele Mitchell	Okay. Did he work? Where did he work?	30:38
Joe Thompson, Sr.	He was a suite.	30:40
Michele Mitchell	He was a—? I didn't catch that.	30:40
Joe Thompson, Sr.	He was a suite. He didn't work.	30:40
Rosalee Thompson	He wasn't really—	30:42
Michele Mitchell	Okay.	30:55
Rosalee Thompson	His grandparents raised him.	30:56
Michele Mitchell	What were your grandparents' names?	31:06
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Emma Carrar and Alaphonse Carrar.	31:12
Michele Mitchell	And then Mary?	31:12
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Hmm?	31:12
Michele Mitchell	I didn't get your grandmother's name.	31:12
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Emma Carrar, Emma Carrar. Whatever you want to put. You carried Emma.	31:30
Michele Mitchell	Did you have any brothers or sisters?	31:49
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Who? Me?	31:51
Michele Mitchell	Yes, sir.	31:52
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Hoo, yeah. My mama had plenty of children, but I wasn't raised with them.	31:52
Michele Mitchell	Right.	31:59
Joe Thompson, Sr.	They were raised on— See, when I was born, when was about ten, eleven years old when I seen my mama. And they told me that was my mama, and I went to crying. I tell them, "Oh no, you my mama." I told my grandmother, "You my mama." Then after when I growed up, well, then I knew she wasn't my mama because a lot of people would talk about it. When I was a child born in that place. And they kept me. Yeah. I was her first child, and they kept me and raised me. That's why my grandfather gave me a little name. He said I look like a monkey when I get old. So he give my name Monkey. So I told him that was all right. I didn't worry about the name.	32:00
Michele Mitchell	Monkey. Huh?	32:50
Joe Thompson, Sr.	[foreign language 00:32:50]. Yep.	32:50
Michele Mitchell	Now I'm going to have to bother you for the names of your children.	32:50
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Of my children?	32:50
Michele Mitchell	Yes, sir.	32:50
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Rose, give her the names your children that you got on my name.	32:50
Rosalee Thompson	Barbara.	32:58
Michele Mitchell	Is that the oldest?	32:59
Rosalee Thompson	Uh-huh.	32:59
Michele Mitchell	Barbara.	32:59
Rosalee Thompson	Barbara Johnson [indistinct 00:32:59]. What, you want the living ones?	32:59
Michele Mitchell	Whichever you would like to give me, ma'am.	32:59
Rosalee Thompson	Bernie Thompson. He's dead, though.	32:59
Michele Mitchell	Verna?	33:00
Rosalee Thompson	Bernie, B-E-R-I-E. He passed. Bernie Thompson. [indistinct 00:33:57]. Claude Thompson.	33:00
Michele Mitchell	Claude?	33:00
Rosalee Thompson	Uh-huh, Claude. Fergus Thompson. Gary Thompson. Donna [indistinct 00:34:52]. And that's it. I've got two others that are dead, but they died as babies.	33:00
Joe Thompson, Sr.	That what?	33:00
Rosalee Thompson	As babies.	33:00
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Oh, baby. Yeah.	35:22
Michele Mitchell	You told me about St. John. Are there any other organizations you'd like to tell me about?	35:38
Joe Thompson, Sr.	What other organizations?	35:44
Michele Mitchell	That you belong to?	35:46
Rosalee Thompson	You belonged to [indistinct 00:36:00].	35:47
Michele Mitchell	So you're both Baptist?	35:59
Rosalee Thompson	Yeah.	36:01
Michele Mitchell	After being in Louisiana, New Orleans. I was just talking to people who were Catholics.	36:06
Rosalee Thompson	So yeah.	36:09
Michele Mitchell	So it was like—	36:09
Joe Thompson, Sr.	And I belong to the Masons.	36:09
Michele Mitchell	Do you belong to Eastern Star, ma'am.	36:14
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Mm-hmm.	36:18
Rosalee Thompson	I used to belong to a few others. It was getting expensive.	36:21
Michele Mitchell	Yes.	36:35
Rosalee Thompson	I belonged to Olive Branch Lodge number 37.	36:35
Michele Mitchell	Olive Branch?	36:41
Rosalee Thompson	Oliver Branch Lodge number thirty-seven. That's where I belonged. [indistinct 00:36:42]. Look at his obituary big. His obituary takes up the whole row. Livingston.	36:41
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Oh, that's the way Livingston do. They have a big, big career. It ain't going to take him to heaven if he didn't pray.	36:42
Michele Mitchell	And did you go to school in New Iberia at some point?	37:01
Joe Thompson, Sr.	I went in Iberia Parish up there in Bell Place. Had a little place called Bell Place. Yeah. At a Bell school over there.	37:20
Michele Mitchell	So that was in Iberia Parish?	37:28
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Mm-hmm. I didn't go up about the fourth grade because things was tough, and I'm the only one could get a job in the family. So I had to quit school. So I went to work. I didn't want Pete to meet me. Do you know Pete?	37:34
Michele Mitchell	Pete?	38:06
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Hm?	38:08
Michele Mitchell	You mean St. Peter?	38:09
Joe Thompson, Sr.	No.	38:11
Michele Mitchell	No?	38:11
Joe Thompson, Sr.	They call him Pete, after Hungry Pete. I didn't want to go hungry.	38:13
Michele Mitchell	I've never heard that before.	38:16
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Yeah. Well, you tell a fellow if he meet Pete, he in a hell of a fix. Because Pete is a disagreeable fellow. When you get hungry, everything go wrong.	38:22
Michele Mitchell	So I've never heard that before.	38:41
Joe Thompson, Sr.	If you live long enough, you're going know plenty of things.	38:45
Michele Mitchell	This is true. This is true.	38:46
Rosalee Thompson	They say you live and learn.	38:46
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Yeah. Well, I guess if I would've went on to school, I wouldn't know. I might have run for governor then.	38:46
Rosalee Thompson	[indistinct 00:39:08].	39:05
Joe Thompson, Sr.	No, I wanted to be the governor.	39:08
Michele Mitchell	Well, I think I bothered you long enough.	39:15
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Well, you made my day because I've been looking at TV, burning up energy. And it ain't got nothing on there. Long as you don't, all I don't want you to be over the seven forty because I got to look at the Braves, and I don't be bothering with my wife when I look at the Braves. That's my team.	39:16
Michele Mitchell	Oh yes. Well, I'm done bothering you.	39:45
Joe Thompson, Sr.	Yeah. My Braves team.	39:48

Item Info

Title:

Joe Thompson, Sr. interview recording, 1994 July 22

Date:

July 22, 1994

Creator:

Thompson, Joe, Sr.

Contributor:

Mitchell, Michele

Description:

Name: Joe Thompson, Sr.; Date of birth: 1914-09-01; Place of birth: New Iberia, LA; Occupation(s): unknown; Residence: New Iberia, LA
Informant ID: 598; Interviewed by: Michelle Mitchell.

Location:

Format:

Language:

English

Digital Collection:

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

Series:

Related Resources:

See below

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.

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC 4.0

Rights Note:

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.

Identifier:

RL00170-CS-1149
36e7bdfc-4035-4c0f-a997-9df1548cba7b
behindtheveil
68e42ec7-e1a5-4bb9-a7e7-f81083f25141
ark:/87924/r4xg9sm08
68e42ec7-e1a5-4bb9-a7e7-f81083f25141

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4xg9sm08

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Joe Thompson, Sr. interview recording, 1994 July 22

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Item Info

1. Joe Thompson, Sr. administrative file, 1994

John Hope Franklin Research Center

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Joe Thompson, Sr. interview recording, 1994 July 22

Transcript

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John Hope Franklin Research Center

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