Annie Milton interview recording, 1994 June 28

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Paul Ortiz	Mrs. Milton, could you tell me about where you were born at, a little bit about the area that you grew up in?	0:09
Annie Milton	This is Mrs. Annie Pearl Milton. I was born in Birmingham, Alabama. Oh, you need the year? 1920. I went to elementary school here, grammar school here. East Thomas was my first elementary school. I went from first through the eighth grade. I left there, and I went to Lincoln School. I left there, graduated from Lincoln School, and I went into Parker High School. At one time, it was Industrial High, but when I got there the name had changed, and it was named for one, the principal, A. H. Parker. They named this school for Dr. A. H. Parker. I finished there in 1940. I got married in—Yeah, '40. I got married and had two kids, '41, one in '42. They're grown now. They also went to school in the Birmingham school system. Anything else?	0:16
Paul Ortiz	What was life like in Birmingham, in the 1920s?	1:57
Annie Milton	I tell you, when I was growing up, it was rough. Family, people had a hard time. But at that time we didn't have what we got now. We didn't have electricity. We didn't have water in the kitchen like we have now. We had a spigot. I can remember a spigot in the backyard and the family would have to use, all family would have to use the same spigot. We didn't have washing machine like we have now. I went from a rub, tub, tub and rub board, number two tub and number three tub. I had a foot tub. I left from there. God blessed me. They went from there to a ringer type machine. I owned one of them in later years, which was later years, I owned one of those.	2:05
Annie Milton	And God still blessing me. He enabled me to get a automatic washing machine up now. So I had to carry water. We had to get up in the morning and, like these kids lay down now? Oh no, we didn't lay down in the morning. We would get up and help our parents wash the clothes out the first water. Because if we washed two washes, wash out the first wash, we put them in the second wash. But we would get them out the first wash and put them in the second wash, then we would get ready for school. But see we didn't have no gas and electric stove. We had a wooden stove that we had to make a fire in. We laid out a fire at night for the stove. While we out there working with the clothes, Mother was in the house fixing meals for us to eat, to take to school, to carry the lunch where we know we didn't have very much. You got a peanut butter sandwich or a biscuit sandwich with some kind of meat in it. You know what I mean? Whatever our parents could afford.	3:12
Paul Ortiz	How many brothers and sisters did you have?	4:23
Annie Milton	I had, it was two sisters of us and three brothers, five of us in all. All dead, but me. I'm the only one living.	4:27
Paul Ortiz	What did your parents do?	4:36
Annie Milton	Well, my mother was the house-mother.	4:39
Paul Ortiz	Did she ever do domestic work?	4:48
Annie Milton	Who? Me?	4:49
Paul Ortiz	Your mother for other families?	4:50
Annie Milton	I'm going to say, yeah. Not that I would really could remember. Yeah, she did little housework, but it wasn't like people doing a lot of housework not back 5, 6, 7 years ago. I mean that's all they did was housework. But my mother did housework sometime for other peoples, because my dad was making very little, but he took care of his family, you know what I mean? He took it. It was hard. We didn't have everything that maybe our neighbor had, you know what I mean? Maybe they dad had a better job than my dad, you know what I mean? But everybody was just struggling. Everybody was just struggling, you know what I mean? And what I liked about, I wish today were like back there, all families got along. If my parents had something over there that the neighbor next door thought they needed or could use, my parent would call and ask Ms. Sally Ann or Ms. Jane or whoever the neighbor was, let them know that she had something she thought she could use or share.	4:59
Annie Milton	They would share different things even to clothing. They would share, you know they children were older than we was. They children grow out of it, which was very little, then they would hand it down to us, you know what I mean? And we were grateful too, but you cannot now go nowhere and buy children clothes from the Goodwill or things like that, now that they got set up for children now. Because I know at one time I couldn't buy it for my daughter. She just told me she didn't, wasn't going to wear no used clothes. She just told me that. Because I washed behind them right over there on Carton Avenue. And when we give her the clean clothes during the summertime and school is out, she got in her closet because she getting ready for school for the next year.	6:16
Annie Milton	If she discard anything, those would be the first thing she discard. And she just, I guess she said, Well I just will tell my mother I'm not going to wear them. Well see at that time we had gotten able to get better things, you know what I mean? But before then we had a hard time and see they weren't paying you nothing. See, they weren't paying. They weren't paying how—because I can remember myself working for little to nothing, you know what I mean? But it was big money because everything wasn't as high.	7:02
Paul Ortiz	What kind of work were you doing?	7:39
Annie Milton	After I got grown? Well, after I got grown, I did a little housework. Yeah, I did housework over the mountain.	7:44
Paul Ortiz	On the mountain?	7:52
Annie Milton	Over Mountain Brook.	7:53
Paul Ortiz	Oh, okay.	7:55
Annie Milton	Okay.	7:55
Paul Ortiz	Different families?	7:56
Annie Milton	Yeah. Yeah. I worked for the Hudson family over the mountain. I worked for Annie Woodall over the mountain I worked for, the last one I worked for was must've been Mrs. Miller. And I'm sure if they had been still here, I would been still working for them because they were so, they were real nice to me and everything. And we still communicate. I still hear from her right now. I got all the family pictures that I can show that I've gone down to Two way in Dothan, they live in Dothan now.	7:57
Annie Milton	But I've gone down to two of they kids. They got married. I was a special guest that they send me my bus fare. I catched the bus. They'd meet me at the bus station in Dothan. And I was just like one of the family. And I can appreciate that. Because at one time it wasn't like that. You went in that back door and you come out that back door. But it wasn't like that. But see, people had gotten so they kind of getting, kind of trying to get soften up some. But you got to find yourself a religious family. See, I am a religious person. I'm a born-again Christian. See, I know the Lord know me and I know the Lord.	8:41
Paul Ortiz	So the important thing in trying to get a good housework job, for you, was to find a religious family?	9:33
Annie Milton	Yeah. Yeah.	9:39
Paul Ortiz	How would you go about doing that? How would you go about—	9:41
Annie Milton	Well, when, I guess I've always been, I was brought up in the Sunday school in church from a child up. I was brought up in church and of course children don't listen to the parents now. But I can remember my family sitting down talking to us around a fireplace. One of them old time, great fireplaces. See now my fireplace is nice. I had that put in here. It's nice. Okay. But it was an old time fireplace, it was a great. One room had a big old potbelly heat in there. Used coal and wood, and just like I said, when I got old enough to work.	9:48
Annie Milton	But I didn't know too much about the world a mess. I didn't know nothing about that because my parents didn't allow us to visit peoples too tough. You know what I mean? He always wanted us on a good environment. They always wanted us on a good environment. Being around with good people. And I mean they would just let us know that. And I've always went to church, always went to Sunday school, always went to church. We used to have something like BYPU on Sunday afternoon at the church. I had to go back to that.	10:36
Paul Ortiz	Which church were you going to as a child?	11:11
Annie Milton	Oh, New Hope Baptist Church, East Thomas.	11:14
Paul Ortiz	And you—Oh, so you grew up in the Thomas neighborhood?	11:18
Annie Milton	In East Thomas.	11:21
Paul Ortiz	East Thomas.	11:22
Annie Milton	East Thomas neighborhood. I was born and raised up out in East Thomas.	11:25
Paul Ortiz	Okay, I see. Was your father working for the steel company out there or?	11:26
Annie Milton	No, He worked for the railroad.	11:33
Paul Ortiz	He worked for the railroad. Do you remember when you were growing up, do you remember your grandparents? Were they around?	11:35
Annie Milton	No, I don't. I don't. I don't. No, I don't remember my granddad. I don't remember my grandmother.	12:06
Paul Ortiz	You do remember?	12:12
Annie Milton	No. No, I don't remember. I don't remember.	12:12
Paul Ortiz	Were there other elders in East Thomas that you remember that were leaders or people that you looked up to?	12:16
Annie Milton	That I looked up to?	12:26
Paul Ortiz	Yeah. Or that other people in the community looked up to?	12:27
Annie Milton	Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. What is he, he dead now. His last name is Moore. And now, what is—? That's his name. But his wife was named Irma Moore. She died about two years ago. She was a hundred years old. Because of course I went to her funeral. And Mr. Moore, during our lifetime, we didn't have to worry about our parents taking us to church because he would get every Sunday morning and go around in the neighborhood, walking now, and gather us all up and we go to Sunday school just in a group, you know what I mean?	12:32
Annie Milton	And his wife played the piano. Mrs. Moore, she played the piano because it wasn't all one just played the piano. And then at one time it wasn't on no piano, just vocal singing, you know what I mean? But when they got the piano, then she played the piano. She taught me before she died. And Mr. Chris Cone, he was another one that lead in East Thomas that was nice to the neighborhood, at getting them to church and singing to them, you know what I mean? But at that time, parents didn't have to say it that much to us, but for one time.	13:20
Annie Milton	Because if I did anything and one of the ladies in the church would tell my parents, I knew I was going to get a whooping. My best bet was get to her and trying to beg to her not to tell her. Because I knew I going to get a whooping. And he didn't, my parents didn't wait. If I did anything anywhere, like I see these people going to church now with children running all over the church, hollering in church, and acting up, and running up and down the aisle, that wasn't like that. You go to church Sunday School, the parent would tell them after Sunday school is out, you go to the bathroom what was on the outside, cause see I was baptized on the outside pool. I wasn't in no church. But the pool was built right in the back of the church. But it was outside. We come out the basement and went out to the pool, back on the side of my house. They had to cement it.	14:06
Paul Ortiz	Oh, a pool? And that was part of the church?	15:07
Annie Milton	Yeah, that was part of the church. That was the church pool.	15:11
Paul Ortiz	Oh, so you could go swimming and?	15:14
Annie Milton	Well, it wasn't big. It wasn't big enough to just swim. It was a nice size but it wasn't big. Now some of the children could. But they didn't allow that. It was just really built for baptizing.	15:18
Paul Ortiz	Oh, I see.	15:29
Annie Milton	And we would come out through the basement and we have on our long white gown and our white towel around our heads. Tie the white towel around our head, and people be standing around in the pool and they come out and they get ready. Somebody be there to take me out or take the next child out, put something around us and take us through the basement where we had our clothes in the basement. We go in there and dry off and everything, you know what I mean? And then they hug us and shake our hand, talk to whoever would be over us. And then when everybody got through being baptized then we go back up in the church. And then they would fellowship. You know what I mean? In the sanctuary.	15:29
Paul Ortiz	Were you baptized at New Hope Baptist Church?	16:11
Annie Milton	New Hope Baptist Church.	16:14
Paul Ortiz	How old were you when you were baptized?	16:27
Annie Milton	Nine.	16:27
Paul Ortiz	Was there ever occasions in East Thomas, events, or special times that brought people together? Like celebrations?	16:28
Annie Milton	Like picnics, you mean?	16:41
Paul Ortiz	Picnics—	16:43
Annie Milton	Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. We had, because now it's a little bit better now, but we had down is East Thomas playground. But it wasn't as nice then as it is now. As the years progressed up, they was able to do better because they got a swimming pool out there now. And they got things out there for the kids to play on now. Had got a—Last time I was out there they had a tennis thing out there, play tennis. They had shelter for your barbecue, they had barbecue things for you to barbecue out there. Then they had shelter for you to set the tables out there.	16:43
Annie Milton	But last time I was out there and I believe that's been about three years and I went out there because my little cousin used to be the Lifeguard in his pool. But see when I was coming up it was just ground. It wasn't no swimming pool and all that. It was just ground. But we did play ball and all that and the families, and you didn't have to worry about everywhere I went my parents had to go with me. Uh-huh. If Ms. Alberta said she was going to take her children, she'll take me and my brother and take some more families and she's seen after us because we knew when we left home what to expect. We knew wasn't no problem trying to give Ms. Alberta no hard time. Because we knew what we were going to get back if we got a bad report from Ms. Alberta or whoever. And my daddy never whipped me but one time in his life.	17:28
Paul Ortiz	Where would you go? Where would your parents go shopping if they needed goods or things for the home in East Thomas? Would they go to—	18:36
Annie Milton	But see they had little storefront stores, you know, where you can go and buy—And at that time you could buy loose stuff like loose peas, loose sugar, loose rice, they bag, everything now is bagged up. You could go to the store, the little store in the neighborhood on 11 Court before he tore it down. You can go in there, we call this man Zeke. Zeke, I don't know his last name, but he had a little storefront. He had little jars and there was different kind of candy in that jar. He was sitting behind the counter over there resting, and he had the little meat over there, bologna and souse meat and little stuff that he could afford. But we could buy, individual, whatever we want. We didn't had to go—You may not have but $2. If, we had $2. Suppose that package of meat cost $2. You ain't got $2. But you couldn't get that.	18:50
Annie Milton	But it wasn't like that. Everything had to be cut or whatever. But you can get the piece you want and it wasn't no thin pieces. But now you just can't cut it like they cut it on these slashers now. I know about slice cause see what I was before I retired. I have to cook. You go by there and cut you a piece of bologna. Sometimes he'll send you back there. He'll send you back there because them little silver bear candy. I know you've seen them right in that little silver paper. All kind of little penny candy. He'll just send you back there again to cook it. He'll send you back there and get it. Because he knew if you didn't do the right thing he going to tell your parents. You knew what you going to get. And I appreciate that. I appreciate everything, I tell people right now, I appreciate everything my parents did for me in my coming up. I do. I appreciate everything. I wish they had did more, and I don't know no more they could have done. And I know it is.	19:54
Paul Ortiz	Did your parents, when you were a kid, get down to downtown Birmingham much?	21:00
Annie Milton	Well, I'm almost, I'm sure they did. Cause that's the only place that we really had to go and buy a little, our clothing like, you know what I mean? And so they had to get Downtown to get our shoes and little dress and little underclothes and stuff like that. You know what I mean? For us to wear. And then they had stores Downtown that they could go over to. I remember the Sanitary Market way up on Second Avenue up there used to, you could buy stuff like that over the counter. Everything wasn't packed up, you know what I mean? But you had very less money so wasn't much you could buy, but we survived.	21:08
Annie Milton	Then I said these parents now, buying these children, these high priced tennises, all these high priced jeans, these different shirts and all that costing a lot of money. That don't make a child. You give a child love and everything will fall in place. But you have to sit down and talk to that child, let that child know that you unable do this, that. Parents nowadays let the children tell them. We didn't tell our parents nothing. Whatever my parents brought back that for us to wear, for us to eat or we eat it or we didn't. But you wouldn't go in there and fix nothing else.	21:54
Annie Milton	Everybody in the house got, I don't want no sandwich. They go in there and find something else to fix. Oh, I don't want, another one, I don't want that. They go in there and fix something else. Whatever our parents fixed, that's what we had to eat or go without. That's right. Whatever our parents fixed, and more on the average that's way it was. Because it was hard. But just like I said, I thank God for it. I be 74 years old, August.	22:46
Paul Ortiz	Were your parents originally from Birmingham or did they move from another?	23:18
Annie Milton	I really believe my parents moved from, I believe my mother, she, I don't know the name of the town, but she is from down below Montgomery. Now what the name of the place, because I can remember my uncle because he moved from somewhere to Montgomery. Because now he dead now. But just, I guess he been there about five years, six years. But they moved from somewhere to Montgomery and then they moved from Montgomery to Birmingham. And I don't know where my mama married him at. I can't tell you that because I don't know.	23:28
Paul Ortiz	But somewhere around Dallas County or Lowndes County?	24:13
Annie Milton	Yeah, somewhere down through that way.	24:15
Paul Ortiz	What was school like? You went to school in East Thomas? There was an elementary school there?	24:26
Annie Milton	Yeah.	24:31
Paul Ortiz	Do you remember the name of it?	24:31
Annie Milton	My first grade was East Thomas Elementary and I left there. It went to, I'm trying to think did it? It was a small school so I don't think it went—I think it went to the fifth or the sixth grade because it didn't have but two teachers. That was Miss Lilly Geiss and Mrs. Betty Gordon. Miss Geiss was the principal at the little school and taught school. And Ms. Gordon was the other teacher.	24:37
Paul Ortiz	Were they Black?	25:21
Annie Milton	Yeah. Yeah.	25:22
Paul Ortiz	What would they teach at East Thomas? What do you remember about their schooling there?	25:30
Annie Milton	Well, we had basically the same thing. We had little reading. They had writing, we had arithmetic. It wasn't math. It was arithmetic. And we had a play period. Like go out and play period. And I'm trying to remember, did that school have a lunch room or our parents had to make lunch and I believe our parents had to make lunch for us.	25:44
Paul Ortiz	Oh, you had bring lunch there?	26:22
Annie Milton	Yeah, I believe we did. Because it was a small school just like I said, it wasn't but two teachers and one was the principal. Ms. Geiss was the principal and the teacher. Because they didn't go no higher than the fifth grade. And I think it was the fifth grade.	26:23
Paul Ortiz	Do you know where the books came from?	26:37
Annie Milton	No, I don't.	26:37
Paul Ortiz	Did your parents, would your parents have to buy your books or?	26:42
Annie Milton	I really think, I think the books was furnished. I believe so. But sometime it, we weren't up to par with all the books all the time. You know what I mean? Wherein you may have two or three math or arithmetic books and that book maybe had to go pass around maybe more than that. Same with all the rest of the book. Maybe it was more than that. But anyway, it had kind of let be passed around.	26:55
Annie Milton	And then some book we were gave would be enough to go all over the classroom. But sometime it didn't. You know what I mean? But at that time, Ms. Geiss and Mrs. Gordon, both of them dead, they was dedicated peoples. We didn't go to school and go in, start lesson. We go in with a devotion. We had devotion every morning and she wouldn't pray herself all the time. She'd let it go around. Whatever that child would say we accept it, we say amen. The next morning would be, come up to the next little child. She start over there and she just go around. We'll sit in that seat, whatever they say, we accept it cause that's the way they pray. But as they grew up, as they got older, being taught that from your teacher, Ms. Geiss and Ms. Gordon, that after we get through with our a little devotion, then she would explain to us why it was so important to pray.	27:33
Annie Milton	And as I grew up then I understood why it was so important to pray. And after I got grown in my church then I definitely knew how important it is to pray. And I don't cease from praying. I pray every morning or in daytime. If the Spirit hit me to pray, I just pray. I'm not, just like I tell people, I'm not ashamed knowing Him. I'm not ashamed of the Lord. If it had not been for Him, I would've been dead and gone off the scene. I say, I know it's a God that sits up there but he look down here on all of us.	29:00
Annie Milton	He don't only just look at me, he look at everybody. He ain't got no respect to one, to putting no picture on, or painting no pink on. Everybody is in the same eyesight. He treats all us alike. And that's what I'm so glad about. People can't treat everybody alike. But I can truly treat you right, can't I? I mean I could treat you like John over there or Sam over there, but I can see Sam right, I can treat you right, I can treat him right. Can I? It may not be the same treatment but I can treat you right.	29:51
Paul Ortiz	What was it like in Birmingham during the Depression, say in the 1930s? Did it seem to be any different during that period of time than it was say in the '20s or later on?	30:41
Annie Milton	Well, you see I was so young in that time. Only thing I know we just had hard time. We was just making it. You know what I mean? See, well you can tell from when I said I was born, how old I was at the time and a lot of that stuff I don't remember because I guess my parents were doing. I didn't know how they were doing it a lot of time. But I know we never was outdoors. I know we never was without food. We were never without clothing. I knew that.	31:00
Paul Ortiz	Do you know of other families that were outdoors?	31:32
Annie Milton	No, I really don't. I'm just trying to think. And I guess it was, but I just, I can't think of anybody that was just really outdoors out in East Thomas because that's where I was originally from, out of East Thomas. And most, of course a lot of times, most time it be two families in one house and you know what I mean? Sharing different things like that.	31:50
Paul Ortiz	So two families would live together?	32:20
Annie Milton	Oh yeah. Oh yeah.	32:23
Paul Ortiz	If you got sick or got pneumonia or a cold, what would you do in East Thomas?	32:27
Annie Milton	If who got sick? I got sick?	32:39
Paul Ortiz	Yeah.	32:41
Annie Milton	When I was a child?	32:41
Paul Ortiz	When you were a child.	32:41
Annie Milton	Well you see, back in those days people was using home remedy. You heard of that? Using home remedy? Until they really realized that it was little bit greater than what they think your sickness is. Then University, it wasn't University, it was Hillman Hospital. It's the same building on 20th Street that just done add round and they call it UAB now, but it used to be Hillman Hospital. Then they would take us there to get some help. At one time the doctor used to come out to you, if you had a family doctor. The doctor would come out to you but then they'll tell the parents what to do for you. Sometime be something that they already doing or they'll say bring you to the old guard take you to Hillman Hospital and well you didn't have that many doctors no way. But then they would wait on us. But sometimes you had to stay there so long until you think you ain't going to get waited on. But we will because most parents use a lot of home remedy.	32:44
Paul Ortiz	What kinds of home remedies?	34:06
Annie Milton	Oh, they let you walk outdoor and stick a nail in your feet and one of mine was stick a nail in your feet, go on to the doctor with it. But see they would take a piece of fat meat and put on it, piece of white back meat, white meat. People call it streaky-lean now because it got that salt in it and they used to put it on there. And just like if a bee stung you they would take part of a egg and put over it and it draw it.	34:09
Annie Milton	Or they used to go out in the wood and get some kind of, it's a weed, you know, all the multi-medicine come from, they go out and get these weeds and cook them and let us drink it. And during sometime like now, something coming up, they would give us syrup and sulfur used to make it up and a piece and put in a jar and would give you a teaspoon of that to clean your system out. You know what I mean? Lot of time you have a stomach ache, they put a little turpentine on a little sugar, just get you about half a teaspoon sugar and put a drop or two turpentine on it. Of course turpentine now ain't like it was when we was coming up. They'd give it to you and they just swallow it. You know what I mean?	34:52
Paul Ortiz	Were there women in East Thomas who worked as midwives?	36:06
Annie Milton	Well, I really don't know. And I get there could have been but I don't don't know. I weren't one.	36:16
Paul Ortiz	Now, you were going to industrial high school?	36:24
Annie Milton	Yeah.	36:27
Paul Ortiz	In the late thirties, mid to late thirties. What was it like there, going to school during that time?	36:29
Annie Milton	At high school?	36:40
Paul Ortiz	Yeah.	36:40
Annie Milton	Well, I think it had gotten a little better. Just a little better, you know what I mean? And our books had got a little better. We had more teachers. We had more kids in classroom because the school was larger. Because I went to Lincoln School after I left East Thomas school, I went to Lincoln School. And then we was able to change classrooms. Then that's where we had lunch room.	36:45
Paul Ortiz	Do you remember Dr. Parker with, he was at Industrial High School. Is he a—	37:26
Annie Milton	Dr. Park, cause I knew of him. But see I didn't go under Dr. Parker. I went under Johnson, A. H. Johnson.	37:44
Paul Ortiz	And did you, so you graduated 1940?	38:08
Annie Milton	Yeah.	38:12
Paul Ortiz	And how soon after that did you get your first job?	38:16
Annie Milton	I'm trying to—Before my first job, I believe my first job was, I'm trying to think. No, I'm talking to myself and thinking. I believe my first job was Boyd's Beanery, a cafe over there on the Frisco premises. I believe that was my first job.	39:21
Paul Ortiz	How did you get that job?	39:33
Annie Milton	Well, it was a friend of mine was working there and they needed somebody who was working at night. The girl that was working there had quit. And my mom asked me, you know, about it. So I started working to work at night. 10 o'clock at night, 10:30 at night. Got off the next morning.	39:36
Paul Ortiz	Was that downtown?	39:55
Annie Milton	No. In East Thomas. Right in East Thomas, right in East Thomas.	39:56
Paul Ortiz	Were you still living at home at that time or had you moved out?	40:05
Annie Milton	I had moved out. I had moved out. I was living on Renior Ridge?	40:07
Paul Ortiz	Were you living alone or?	40:07
Annie Milton	No, me and my sister were living together. My sister.	40:07
Paul Ortiz	And what was—It must have been quite a change now living with your sister, kind of living on your own. What kind of a change was it?	40:35
Annie Milton	Well see my sister, she was working, she was doing housework and, well she worked in the daytime. I worked at night. So it was kind equal off.	40:46
Paul Ortiz	Did you ever get Downtown much to do shopping or to?	41:02
Annie Milton	Yeah. Because see that's really was the only place you could go to shop was downtown to what they had Downtown. But the only place, you know what I mean? Because all these different outlet shopping centers that they got now, see a lot of that, a lot of those shopping centers branched out of town. All those empty buildings Downtown there, they were stores down there, but they've gone out Patter Stage, Western Hills Mall and all that kind of stuff. There's nothing down there now.	41:09
Paul Ortiz	I see. What would you do in your spare time in the 1940s?	41:44
Annie Milton	In my spare time?	41:56
Paul Ortiz	Yeah.	41:59
Annie Milton	But see I had a child right after I come out of school, Kera, but that was my main concern. But at that time my husband was in service. See I was married, my husband was in service and well I was at home. See, I didn't work during that time. So most time I went visited the sick or I always tried to do something in the church going different things they have with the church. Where people—About the only place we really could go to enjoy we went to church. And I go visit my friend, my neighbor or then I would do thing around the house, you know what I mean? Upkeep my house, keep things clean, keep things organized and everything. Cause see, by him being in service, I was put out up front. So that made me had to do what needed to be done, you know what I mean?	42:03
Paul Ortiz	Did you meet your husband at school?	43:12
Annie Milton	He lived in Ensley. Because I didn't know it until after I met him. But you know how boys are, instead of staying in they environment out there, they would come over in our environment, you know what I mean? And after I met him and he told me that he used to come out over there, he said, because he saw me one day. I don't remember seeing him that particular day, but he said he saw me that day. And say he was telling his buddies his little friends "I like that," didn't know what like was all about, "I like you," and everything. She had big legs, built up nice." But he would tell that to his friend. But finally he met me. We started, well we started the dating and finally we got married and had two children born. A girl and boy. And after he went in service, everything just went sour. Everything just went sour.	43:22
Paul Ortiz	I have to turn the tape over. I'll be back.	44:31

Paul Ortiz	So, you broke up after he went in the service, or—	0:05
Annie Milton	Yeah. Mm-hmm. See, after he went in the service and got out of service, he was going to live in New York. And I didn't want to live in New York. See, I didn't want to live in New York, because see, I wasn't a wild life person. See, I've always been a self-centered person. And I didn't want to live up there. I had another friend of mine, she—Henrietta Boyd, she went there following her husband to somewhere up the country, and she ended up getting all—I don't know what happened to her. But anyway, she ended up coming back to Birmingham, had to get rid of him, divorce him. You know what I mean?	0:12
Annie Milton	So, I just made my mind. I said, "Now, you can go back to work at TCI," because he was working TCI before he went in the service. So when he got out, his job was there. So, he could have stayed here in Birmingham and went back to his job. And we could have made a life here. But after he got up there and he'd had them, I guess had them find all them fast fans, you know what I mean? I know I ain't going up there. I don't want to live up there. I'm not a fast going person. And I didn't want to be misused, because I had never been misused. I didn't want to be misused. And I didn't want my dad to have to worry about that.	0:59
Annie Milton	So, we just ended up just really stopped communicating. We stopped communicating. So, he didn't never come back. But he dead now, because I got married again. See, I got married again. I'm too young to be single that long. I got married again. Mm-hmm. And I had a child from my last husband.	1:43
Paul Ortiz	So, the divorce happened maybe in late '40s, 1946, '47?	2:14
Annie Milton	Yeah. Mm-hmm. Alright. Mm-hmm.	2:20
Paul Ortiz	During that time in the '40s, do you remember what race relations were like in Birmingham?	2:31
Annie Milton	Just like Black and White?	2:43
Paul Ortiz	Yeah.	2:48
Annie Milton	It was bad. It was bad. They used the word practically for everything they wanted to say. Nigger, you know? And then you had to go around to the back door if you were working for them, they looked for you to go around to the back door to come in. You know what I mean? Certain thing they said they'd leave for you to eat, you couldn't eat what they eating, and all that kind of stuff. And they didn't want to sit besides you on the bus. They didn't want to go in the same bathroom where you went. They didn't want to drink at the same fountain that you drank out of. And it was just rough. See, I lived in Montgomery when the boycott started. I lived in Montgomery then.	2:49
Paul Ortiz	Oh, you were living in Montgomery.	3:37
Annie Milton	When the boy—I moved from here to Montgomery. And when that boy bus started in Montgomery, I believe I rode the bus with Rosa Parks. I rode the bus with Rosa Parks. But she didn't know me and I didn't know her, per se. When I really realized that I had rode the bus with her is when all of this come up, like she riding the bus they asked her to get up out the bus. Then it went from that to—	3:39
Paul Ortiz	So, you were doing housework there in Montgomery?	4:09
Annie Milton	Yeah, for a while. I did a little housework there for a while. But I went back to school while I was in Montgomery. I moved in Montgomery I think in 1954 or '55. But I went back. I did a little housework moving back there, because see, me and my sister was living together. I was a cook for a family. But I've always talked about going back to school. I had one uncle living there, he dead now. And I couldn't find it in him, because he was just my role model. He was the deacon of his church, very fine.	4:16
Annie Milton	I'm not saying because he's my uncle, but he was a very fine man. His wife, his name is still living in Montgomery right now. And both of them are there. She's still fine. She's still working in the church, great. And she's in her eighties. And she can raise more money in that church than anybody in that church. She can raise more money—And I mean, she don't give to nobody. She can go in her telephone and she can raise the money. We went down one year, and she had raised more money for women there than anybody in that church had ever raised.	4:54
Paul Ortiz	Which church was that?	5:31
Annie Milton	Maggie Street Baptist Church in Montgomery. Maggie Street Baptist Church.	5:33
Paul Ortiz	So, did you take art in the boycott, in the bus boycott in Montgomery?	5:39
Annie Milton	Yeah, some of it I did, and some of it I didn't. Some of it I couldn't follow it up because see, I was in school, and I couldn't keep up with it. And I was trying to work and trying to go to school, you know what I mean? I couldn't keep up with it, you know what I mean? Because I was trying to further my education.	5:44
Paul Ortiz	Where were you going to school at?	6:00
Annie Milton	St. Jude's.	6:01
Paul Ortiz	St. Judas?	6:02
Annie Milton	St. Jude's Catholic. See, I worked at St. Jude's Hospital, but I was going across the street to Carver High School for nursing. See, I went up to Booker Washington just to help my family, just for nursing aid. And then my instructor, she was telling all of us, she said she was hoping any of us would pursue it farther. As we finish up that nurses aid course, she was told me that we would pursue it farther. Well see, I had two children, I didn't see how I could do it. But like I said, I've always been a praying person, and well I decided I'm going to give it a try. I said, "I'm going to give it a try." I said, "Nobody fail, but somebody try." So, I give it a try.	6:05
Annie Milton	And with my husband, my uncle, my family, all of them, pushed me. And then I had a cousin, my husband's cousin, she was already with the LPN, their family pushed me, too. And she give me all the help she could with her books. Because she knew. She said, "Oh, you can do it. [indistinct 00:07:19] you can do it." Can. So, I went back to school, and I finished, walked across the stage, had to take the state board, got my license.	6:58
Annie Milton	I left there, I become pregnant with Carrie, my baby girl. She was born in 1963. I become pregnant with her. And well, I worked up until a couple of months before she was born at St. Jude's Catholic Hospital. And after she was born, then I went back to work. I stayed out five months, because my husband had a real good job, because he was a trucker. And I stayed five months, and then I went back to work on my same job.	7:34
Paul Ortiz	And where were you working at?	8:17
Annie Milton	St. Jude's Catholic Hospital.	8:19
Paul Ortiz	Were you working as a nurse's aide, or—	8:25
Annie Milton	LPN.	8:32
Paul Ortiz	LPN. And where was St. Jude's Catholic Hospital at?	8:32
Annie Milton	On Fairview Avenue in Montgomery.	8:36
Paul Ortiz	[indistinct 00:08:39].	8:37
Annie Milton	In Montgomery.	8:40
Paul Ortiz	And at the time, which church were you going to?	8:50
Annie Milton	Where?	8:52
Paul Ortiz	When you were working at St. Jude's	8:52
Annie Milton	Oh, Maggie Street Baptist. Maggie Street Baptist.	8:56
Paul Ortiz	Maggie with two g's?	9:00
Annie Milton	Uh-huh. Reverend B.D. Lambert was the pastor.	9:02
Paul Ortiz	Was that a church that was active in civil rights at the time?	9:12
Annie Milton	Mm-mm. That was Beula Baptist—Bethel Baptist.	9:20
Paul Ortiz	Bethel Baptist was active in Montgomery?	9:21
Annie Milton	Yeah.	9:22
Paul Ortiz	In Montgomery?	9:22
Annie Milton	Mm-hmm. Yeah, that was in Montgomery, too.	9:23
Paul Ortiz	What did you think about the Montgomery bus boycott? Must have been —	9:30
Annie Milton	Oh, it was a mess. It was a mess. It should have never been.	9:31
Paul Ortiz	Shouldn't have never been?	9:38
Annie Milton	Yeah. Because where I look at it—yeah, you're White, your mother's White, ain't you? Are you White?	9:40
Paul Ortiz	I'm Hispanic.	9:52
Annie Milton	Hispanic? Okay, well I'm Black. Okay? Now, I'm working, your mother working. And if she happened to have to ride the bus like Rosa Parks did and I did, I didn't see no point in the bus driver to hang the sign up behind the thing like that. And he'd get up off the seat and come back there and move the sign to let Whites sit there. And he would move back so far until on both sides, you come in the bus, that had behind the seat sticking up just like that. He just stopped the bus.	9:53
Annie Milton	He get up and move those signs and put them back. So, in the back it would be just three or four seats back there for the Blacks to sit. And then if you didn't get up while they standing up, he asked you to get up and move. And I guess Rosa Parks had got tired. I guess she had got tired, and that's where it started from. And I don't blame her, I wouldn't have moved either. [indistinct 00:11:08], I wouldn't move either. I wouldn't have moved. I'm human. I'm human like anybody else.	10:38
Paul Ortiz	Did you know other cases where the women refused to move?	11:15
Annie Milton	Where they refused to move? Yeah. After that, yeah, they refused to move. Yeah, they refused to move. Because yeah, like I said, I wouldn't have moved either. I wouldn't have moved. I didn't put my fare in that box? If there's a seat there, I can sit down. No, I wouldn't have moved. I would've just sit right on down there. And I guess it happened to Rosa Parks, because I could have been Rosa Parks. I could have been Rosa Parks. Because I wouldn't have moved.	11:22
Paul Ortiz	Now, in Montgomery, were you riding the bus?	12:01
Annie Milton	Yeah. Yeah. Until they boycott and it wasn't running. But it didn't stop me from working.	12:02
Paul Ortiz	How did you get your work when the bus boycott started?	12:14
Annie Milton	Well, my husband had a car. We had a car.	12:19
Paul Ortiz	Oh, okay.	12:22
Annie Milton	Okay? My husband had a car. And whenever he was in, he would take me to work and pick me up. And then if he was out of town, his cousin, one I told you was a nurse, she would pick me up. Because we was working at the same hospital. She would pick me up and took me get home. And sometimes, I had to walk, just like I had to go to town, I had to walk to town. If I didn't call nobody cab into town, which I didn't live very far from town. I could walk. But I wouldn't have got up, I'd have sit right down. [indistinct 00:12:59] just like anybody else.	12:22
Paul Ortiz	Did you ever have bus drivers in Montgomery or Birmingham treat you rudely?	13:00
Annie Milton	Treat me rudely?	13:08
Paul Ortiz	Yeah.	13:10
Annie Milton	Not me individual. Not me individual. I've seen it on. I've seen it on here in Birmingham since I've been here in Birmingham.	13:11
Paul Ortiz	What would happen?	13:19
Annie Milton	Oh, they'll tell me I should turn that—you know how these people have these radio with the thing called the ear and the little thing? And the bus driver here, he'll look back there, "Cut that music off." And when you get on, and you see who got this on their ear. But I never did. I never did endure it or nothing like that. No way. But to get up out of a seat to give somebody else a seat, that wasn't fair. No, that wasn't fair. I don't care. Oh, by nobody told me. It was not fair. Mm-mm.	13:22
Paul Ortiz	And so what year did you move back to Birmingham?	14:05
Annie Milton	When I left Montgomery—Carrie was born in 1963, we left Montgomery and moved to Manchester, New Hampshire.	14:09
Paul Ortiz	That was around 1963?	14:28
Annie Milton	No, she was born in 1963. Yeah, I believe it was in '64. It was in '64, was '64, '65. '64, because she was a little bit over a year old. And then sometime in '64 I believe, because she as a little bit over a year old. But we moved to Manchester, New Hampshire.	14:30
Paul Ortiz	And how long did you live there?	14:49
Annie Milton	Oh, I stayed there just about a year. And I would've stayed longer, but my sister here got sick, and my aunt that I was talking about that lived in Montgomery? He came to Birmingham. She was in St. Vincent Hospital off [indistinct 00:15:22]. And he called me from there, Manchester, New Hampshire. And with her daughter here had already called me and told me that she's in the hospital. But I said I was working. So I told him, I said, "When I go to work tomorrow," I said, "I'm going to put in." Because I worked at a hospital there. I working at Notre Dame Hospital there. I said, "When I go to work," I said, "I'm going to see can I get two weeks off to come home." So, I went into the office and talked to the supervisor and everything, and I got that approved. And I told him what the situation, you know what I mean?	15:00
Annie Milton	And in the meantime, the day that I would be off, like we have two days off a week, I had met this nurse, she was an RN, she's an Irishman. And the family was real good to me. I confided in them, you know what I mean? They would come out to visit us. So, I would tell her that I was going to have to come home to check on my sister and everything. So, they was real nice to me in the hospital, staff and everything. They told me that when I got back, that I would have my job back.	16:08
Annie Milton	And so, I came down, I stayed here two weeks. And I went back, and I went back with the assumption that I was going to have to move back here, because my sister needed me. And I went to back to the office, and I told them, I said, "I'm going to work two weeks, I'm going to give you two weeks notice." I told him the situation, as in we were so close, one but two girls of us, we don't have a mother. She needed me, and she would do the same thing for me if I needed her. I'd say I'm going to have to send in my resignation like to come home. I have to go back there to see about her.	16:44
Annie Milton	Well, they hated it and all that. And I really don't believe they were really putting on no airs from the thing that they did for me. Because they didn't have to do it. They didn't have nothing to do with give me my paycheck and say, "Be on your merry way back to Alabama." But they was real nice to me. They give me a little send off party, and they taking up me some money. And the [indistinct 00:17:57], this girl I told you that was an RN, her family, she and her daddy and mama came out to my place and helped me to get things packed, because my husband had already—	17:31
Annie Milton	Because after I told him I was going to move back here, he had already moved it back here. He already put in. But see by me being out here, he's up there. Because when I ever talked to him, I talk to him, I told him, I said I'm going to have to come back and move back to Birmingham, because my sister need me. So, he knew what was the score, so he had already did what he needed to do for us releasing his job in order to motor back in to find somewhere for us to stay. So, I gave my resignation. I gave him two weeks, like I was supposed to done. And they was real nice to me. Then, I moved back here. My sister lived. I got here in June, and my sister died the next month.	18:08
Paul Ortiz	'65?	19:03
Annie Milton	Hmm?	19:03
Paul Ortiz	Is that 1965?	19:08
Annie Milton	I believe it was in 1965.	19:11
Paul Ortiz	When you were doing housework, and also your work as LPN, was there ever times you felt you were mistreated?	19:15
Annie Milton	Wait, let me cut this off. Was there ever a time?	19:26
Paul Ortiz	Yeah. Mrs. Milton, if there was ever a time you felt you were mistreated when you were doing housework, or as an LPN because of race or racism.	19:29
Annie Milton	When I'm doing housework?	19:48
Paul Ortiz	Yeah.	19:49
Annie Milton	Mm-hmm. Seemed like to me all of the housework that I've done, at some point or another, certain things that were said. You know how you talk, and a lot of times people think that you not aware of what they're talking about. But I knew I had to work. And I just kept the prayers going. Because I knew God was on my side, and I wasn't going to be there that long. Because I always looked for higher heights. See, I just act like they didn't say it. You know what I mean? I know I was working for one family, I done forgot which one it was. I wouldn't lie on either one of them. This lady, whoever it was, called me and asked me about some, "Annie, did you see?" Whatever money, little money was, I don't know was it $5, $10. I said, "Yeah." I said, "I saw it." I said, "It was right there in that such and such a thing."	19:49
Annie Milton	But see, I was dusting furniture. Just like this under there, it wasn't nothing of mine. That belongs to them. I said, "Right where you put it." I said, "I dust around," and she put it right back there. I guess they was trying to say that I was—And when I would leave, I would tell them, each family I said, "Anything you can't find," I said, "call me." I said, "Call me." I said, "Because if I put my hand on it and put it somewhere, I can tell you where I put it."	21:15
Annie Milton	I can call [indistinct 00:22:08] right now. That means the last family I worked for. I can call him right now, and they can tell you what kind of person I was in his family. His boys, his girls, you know I had to have been well thought about for them to send me money to buy my ticket to come to Dothan. I didn't have to worry about coming back. Because one of them that live here was going to bring me back, because she got a daughter with the South Central Bell, Catherine Miller. The last time I went, I came back with Chris. He's a doctor over here in Norwood Hospital, and his wife is a nurse of the children. And I rode back with them the last time I been gone to a wedding.	22:05
Paul Ortiz	Now, the incident that you describe with the money—	23:03
Annie Milton	Mm-hmm.	23:04
Paul Ortiz	Did you hear about other Black women doing housework who had that same kind of experience?	23:07
Annie Milton	Yeah. Yeah. I heard and talked and riding the bus, sometime you be sitting on the bus line talking about how they say they got this, and I put that there and it wasn't there, and they moved it, they got it, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But see, I know that I'm not that type of person. I don't take nothing from nobody. If you got it and I want it, I ask for it. You don't give it to me, it's still yours. And if you give it to me, I thank you, appreciate it. But see, I knew all the time that I wasn't guilty of what you say. I know I'm not guilty. I don't even come to grips about it. I don't even talk about. I don't even talk about it. And never stop working for you. Wait for until I do better. And if I do better, I don't run. I don't run.	23:15
Annie Milton	I tell you, I never went out nowhere looking for a job. Ain't never went out looking for a job. The last job I had, I worked for the Board of Education, and I stayed there 15, 16 years til I retired. Soon be three years. And my manager, when I retired, she didn't know I was going to retire, and she called me, "She's into you. She's saying you didn't have to do me like that." I said, "Do you like what?" Because I ain't doing nothing but retire. I said, "It was too many out there." I said, "After they send out other folk workers out there, they didn't want to do anything, I couldn't do all that work." I said, "I was old enough to retire, and I retired." Give them the opportunity to come along where I've been. So, I retired. And I don't regret it, not now or then.	24:17
Paul Ortiz	What church were you going to once you came back to Birmingham?	25:21
Annie Milton	When I came from Manchester, New Hampshire, back to Birmingham, my sister was a member of Mount Zion out in East Thomas on 12th Avenue. That's where her membership was. And before she got really too sick, and the thinking was she was going to get better to go back to church, she asked me to join the same church with her. Because see, we always worked in the church together. So, I did. Me and my husband joined Mount Zion Baptist Church.	25:26
Paul Ortiz	Did you happen to know J.W. Archie?	25:57
Annie Milton	Who?	26:06
Paul Ortiz	J.W. Archie?	26:07
Annie Milton	Archie?	26:09
Paul Ortiz	Yeah. He goes to Mount Hebron Church. That's in Thomas.	26:10
Annie Milton	No, I know where Mount Hebron is out in Thomas. See, Thomas and East Thomas are two different little places. See, you get to East Thomas before you get to Thomas. I visited at that Mount Hebron out there in Thomas for Women Day. See, they have big days like Men Day at the church. We had at our church. Because see, I had Women Day at my church, St. James. It's in July. And we have a grand time. We have a grand—Have you ever heard Otis speak?	26:17
Paul Ortiz	Otis speak?	26:49
Annie Milton	Have you ever heard him speak anywhere?	26:51
Paul Ortiz	No.	26:54
Annie Milton	You missed a treat. You are missing a treat. I wish you could hear him. I wish you could hear him pray. Because he was our Men Day speaker last year. He's great. He's dynamite. You know, I was at Sunday School that Sunday, and when I come in, we come in the church, our church, we come up the steps, my Sunday School class is right there. So, I came on in, I come over, I always sit the second seat. And when I sit down, Otis was sitting in front of me. And the Sunday before then, I was at church, but he wasn't at church. But he was at another church. I don't think he ever out of church. He was at another church. He'd be a Sunday School superintendent, or teach Sunday School classes, or he's the Men Day speaker for the morning or Men Day speaker for the evening. But he was out.	26:56
Annie Milton	And I took him back. I said, "I miss you last Sunday." I said, "Where you gone?" He said, "I miss you, too." He said, "Because I want to see you." I said, "Okay." I said, "What you want?" He said, "I'm having somebody coming here, and I don't want them to come out and talk to them." I said, "Okay." [indistinct 00:28:11]. And I said, "Okay." So see, I had been looking forward to for whoever I was supposed to talk to. Because see if I [indistinct 00:28:28] to go to church Sunday, and he said, "Anybody come out and talk to you?" I [indistinct 00:28:29] said, "Yeah." Fine man, Otis [indistinct 00:28:33] is a fine man. And he's so sincere. I went down there to visit the building that evening, and I was with another friend, he was going in. She was in the office, all like that. And when he looked and seen me, you ought to seen him zoom out to greet me in. I really love him to death at our church.	27:57
Paul Ortiz	What street is your church on?	29:00
Annie Milton	12th Avenue.	29:05
Paul Ortiz	12th Avenue.	29:06
Annie Milton	And it is 12th Avenue. Go straight from the Civic Center.	29:07
Paul Ortiz	St. James?	29:10
Annie Milton	St. James Baptist Church.	29:12
Paul Ortiz	I just had a couple more questions.	29:20
Annie Milton	Mm-hmm.	29:22
Paul Ortiz	And you graduated from Industrial High School?	29:25
Annie Milton	Mm-hmm. Parker High.	29:27
Paul Ortiz	From when it was Parker High School?	29:28
Annie Milton	Yes, see, it was Industrial first. And then they changed the name on it. And I graduated out of Parker High School. Because there are my pictures and things up on the wall up there.	29:30
Paul Ortiz	[indistinct 00:29:42].	29:38
Annie Milton	Oh, I can't. I'll get them down when you turn me loose.	29:44
Paul Ortiz	Okay.	29:44
Annie Milton	I'll get them and let you see them.	29:44
Paul Ortiz	Were you able to go a bit further in school than your parents?	29:44
Annie Milton	Oh yeah, oh yeah.	29:51
Paul Ortiz	Do you remember what kind of education your parents had?	29:52
Annie Milton	I think they had less education. I don't know if they ever went into no high school. I really don't think they ever went into no high school.	29:55
Paul Ortiz	Probably grammar school?	30:04
Annie Milton	Yeah, yeah, yeah.	30:05
Paul Ortiz	How about your children? Did they also go to high school?	30:09
Annie Milton	Yeah. Now my baby girl, she finished. Because my oldest daughter didn't finish. My oldest daughter, she didn't finish. And my son didn't finish. But my baby girl, she finished elementary school, she went to private school. And she left after private school, and she went to Seventh Day Adventist school. And that was her last elementary school there. But when she first started going to school, she went to Ephesus Academy right on Second Street. And she left there because it was a small school, because it was a private school, it was a smaller school. Then she left there and went to the Seventh Day Adventist school. She finished there, come out after eighth grade. And then she went to Glen High. And she finished Glen High. And then she went to Alabama State University of Montgomery for two years.	30:13
Paul Ortiz	And is this the house that you raised your children in, or—	31:28
Annie Milton	Uh-uh, no, no, no, no. Uh-uh, uh-uh. See, my two older ones—See, I moved here in 1971, in this house here, 1971. But no, I didn't—Kim was going to school. I raised her up here more so than I did any of them. But she was going to Lutheran school when we moved around here. Because we moved around here in 1971. So, she was going to the Lutheran school at that time.	31:33
Paul Ortiz	In your opinion, what have been the greatest changes that have happened in Birmingham for Black people in the time that you've been here?	32:14
Annie Milton	Mm-hmm. Well, I tell you what, it's been a lot. It's been a lot of changes. All of them haven't been good, and all of them haven been bad. Because you got good and bad. Because at one time, places you could not go, you can go now. And some places you can go now, you still have somebody looking at you out the corner of your eye like you aren't supposed to be there. That's the bad part of it. But still in all, I know God is able to do all things. Because see, we used to couldn't—They didn't want you to sit down beside them. And you go on the bus now, because I ride the bus sometimes, you go on the bus now, they'll move over. Right now.	32:32
Annie Milton	But the ones that don't ride the bus don't know that. But see, I ride the bus, and I observe everything. I had a place right down here on Third Avenue, Spinning Wheel. I left here one Sunday, and I walked down there, because I could. Come in and get me a banana split. And when I walked up there, it was three people in front of me in the line to the window. Well, when she waited on that last person that was in front of me, which was a man, I was supposed to be the next one.	33:29
Annie Milton	When I was supposed to be next, the [indistinct 00:34:10] behind them with these little White little kids come out the alley, because they kind of sitting in the [indistinct 00:34:16] at the alley. They came out that alley, and came back up, and she was going to wait on them before she waited on me. I said, "Not so." I said, "Not so." I said, "I die before you do it." I meant it. I said, "I was here, I was right behind him." I said, "These little children just has come out of this alley, because they are their color." I said, "I'm Black." I said, "But I stand my ground."	34:09
Annie Milton	I said, "Now, I don't want nothing in here." I said, "But I'm going to let you know I'm no fool." I said, "I'm no fool." I said, "I don't want nothing in here." I said, "And you won't be in here long." I sent it to God. I sent it to God, because that wasn't fair. How will you like it if my children come out and get in front of you? I sent it to God. Wasn't long before he went out. It wasn't long before he went out. And I told her, I said, "You won't be here long." I said "Because I'm going to send you to God." I said, "I don't want anything out of here." I said, "No, no, not if I got the all to spend my money." You know what I mean? Just get me out that car. You think it was in front of me? Fine. But if I'm in front of them, it's supposed to been fine, too. Don't you put nothing, put them back.	34:43
Annie Milton	I don't lie. I don't lie to nobody. I don't lie to nobody. I walked out of [indistinct 00:35:49]. I was fixing to buy my baby a pair of shoes. I was looking for some shoes. I knew I was going to buy them there, because my baby wore corrective shoes. And I knew Dr. Saul up there at the Parisian downtown was looking for me that day or the next day. But I was trying to look to see they have another style that I could talk with Dr. Saul about when I went to Parisian. And I stood in there, me and Carrie. And if they didn't want her to wear it, I just told her, I said, "Let's get out of this store." I said, "I don't steal nothing." I said, "I don't steal nothing, because anything I want out of here, I'm able to pay for it." I said, "And I don't want nothing out of here." I said, "I'm going to never come back here." I don't have to go back in them children no more. I sure do. Just treat me right. I'm going to treat you right, you just treat me right.	35:43
Paul Ortiz	Was that time that you just talked about, was that in the '60s, or was that—	36:42
Annie Milton	No, no, no, that was—She was about, Carrie was about five, six years old. She was born 1963. See, she born 1963. She was five, six years old, maybe seven. That's after I come [indistinct 00:37:07] Manchester, New Hampshire. Because when she got sick there, they find out that she needed to wear corrective shoes. And they start on corrective shoes. And when I got ready to leave Manchester, they give me a prescription, and told me where to go. And I got on to Dr. Saul. That was the doctor that fitted baby with corrective shoes.	36:48
Annie Milton	I was just trying to see a different pattern. I was going to ask them one of the sales ladies, I want to look at them children's shoes and so if I can get a view, because I wanted to tell Dr. Saul when I went up to Parisian that "do y'all carry this in the corrective shoe?" Because I had got the time my baby wearing them old folks looking shoes. And I was just trying to get something look a little bit—Because she had got be a little bit bigger girl. It was all right when she was little, but she had got to be a little bit bigger girl. I was just trying to get some shoes a little bit prettier, you know what I mean?	37:26
Annie Milton	And they walked around and acted like I was quarantined or something. Huh? Don't do me like this. Because I ain't going to steal nothing. If it's your pair shoes I want, I ain't got no money to pay for it, hey, I'll go back there and wash your dishes. Let me go in there and pack some clothes, or show them how to do this. I want this pair of shoes, I pay for them that way. They know they ain't going to do that. So, I don't steal nothing from nobody. Ask for anything I want. If you don't give it to me, you can better believe when you leave me there, and think when you come back and going home with me, you ain't got to worry about it. It's going to be right there, baby. That's right. I don't steal nothing.	37:57
Paul Ortiz	When did you start voting?	38:46
Annie Milton	When I was a young woman. When we started voting. When they allowed us to vote.	38:54
Paul Ortiz	Was that in the '60s that you started voting?	39:00
Annie Milton	I don't know what year it was, to tell you the truth. I don't know what year it was.	39:02
Paul Ortiz	Was it before Dr. King came to Birmingham, or—	39:10
Annie Milton	Yeah. Because that was in—I thought—Yeah. Uh-huh.	39:18
Paul Ortiz	So, it was before?	39:25
Annie Milton	You mean when he came to Birmingham for the march or something like that?	39:26
Paul Ortiz	Yeah.	39:29
Annie Milton	Because no, he lived in Montgomery.	39:29
Paul Ortiz	Right.	39:31
Annie Milton	That's where he lived, because I've been to his house.	39:31
Paul Ortiz	Were you voting then?	39:33
Annie Milton	Yeah.	39:35
Paul Ortiz	So, you were voting in the '50s? What kinds of experiences would you have when you—Can you tell me about maybe the first time that you went to register to vote?	39:43
Annie Milton	Oh, [indistinct 00:40:05].	40:04
Paul Ortiz	Was that in Montgomery?	40:04
Annie Milton	Mm-hmm. I don't know. I don't know. I don't even be lying about it. I don't know. Because you know when some things you just you can remember, some thing you can't remember. You know what I mean?	40:06
Paul Ortiz	I just noticed you had some caffeine.	40:32
Annie Milton	Yeah. Yeah. I'm going tonight, this evening. I didn't want to leave home after I knew you was coming. Because see, when I leave home, go up there and say I got friends. See, I'm going right up the street up there. I know, right by [indistinct 00:40:51] Field. But I got a friend who lives right across the street, and I go up there, see, I'll come back [indistinct 00:40:56]. See? But that's when I didn't want to leave home. And I started once to get up early this morning and go out, then I'd look at my program in the morning, until [indistinct 00:41:09] program in the morning. Unless I got to go somewhere, I don't go nowhere til about 12:00. I look at the program, get the news at 12:00, then I go somewhere. Unless I got to go. And see, I didn't have to go nowhere today but up there, and they going to be up there until 6:00. Uh-huh.	40:34
Paul Ortiz	[indistinct 00:41:28].	41:24

Item Info

Title:

Annie Milton interview recording, 1994 June 28

Date:

June 28, 1994

Creator:

Milton, Annie Pearl

Contributor:

Ortiz, Paul

Description:

Name: Annie Mack Milton; Date of birth: 1920-08-14; Place of birth: Birmingham, AL; Occupation(s): domestic; nursing; Residence: Birmingham, AL
Informant ID: 737; Interviewed by: Paul Ortiz.

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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

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Related Resources:

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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

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-0269
bb7dd9e3-e580-4cbc-9fdc-b43c36c8ed73
behindtheveil
879ff64a-703f-48d7-aad6-9974295316b1
ark:/87924/r4rv0r863
879ff64a-703f-48d7-aad6-9974295316b1

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Annie Milton interview recording, 1994 June 28

Transcript

Item Info

1. Annie Milton administrative file, 1994

John Hope Franklin Research Center

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Annie Milton interview recording, 1994 June 28

Transcript

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John Hope Franklin Research Center

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