Inez Journet interview recording, 1994 August 07

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Michele Mitchell	It's the seventh?	0:02
Inez Journet	[indistinct 00:00:04].	0:02
Michele Mitchell	It's August 7th, right?	0:05
Michele Mitchell	Yeah, [indistinct 00:00:08].	0:06
Inez Journet	Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.	0:09
Michele Mitchell	Yes, it is.	0:10
Michele Mitchell	It's Sunday, August 7th, 1994?	0:11
Inez Journet	Okay, ready? Inez Journet, I-N-E-Z J-O-U-R-N-E-T.	0:14
Michele Mitchell	And when were you born, ma'am?	0:21
Inez Journet	April 2nd, 1923.	0:23
Michele Mitchell	And you told me that you live in St. Martinville now. Were you born there?	0:25
Inez Journet	Born and reared there.	0:29
Michele Mitchell	What can you tell me about St. Martinville?	0:36
Inez Journet	Well, what can I tell you? It's a typical Creole town and everybody knows everybody, and the—Do you want to know how you treated by the other folk or as a whole? Well, you were treated as what you were, how you lived, how you carried yourself, and your family's lifestyle, what family you came from and that you came from. Like us, you see there were three different classes in the—Or let's say in the Black people, they had three different classes like us, some of our ancestors, as you can see, were White. They were children of slave people and naturally that class of people were considered high class and they were reared right. They had a good family life. They live a clean life, they work hard. They reared their children in religion and school and what not. They were considered the top class of the Black people.	0:38
Inez Journet	Black, they know we Black, but we were treated like next to the White. Okay, then there was a middle class of Black people, real Black people, same way, high class people. Mother and father married. Like I say, reared their children, 21 at a time and sent them to school. Made them work, live right. They were brought up in religion and they were taught to go to school and they were taught to marry and live right and live decent. That's the second. That's the real Black people, but they was clean Black people.	2:04
Inez Journet	And then you had the lower class everywhere you go. Those who ne'er do well, wasn't interested in anything, didn't care about anything, didn't have anything. And all of these first two classes, they all own their home, they work hard and they own and the children own their home and everything. They were taught that. Now the other class, the last, the third class, well, like I said, the ne'er do wells, eat, sleep, live fast, love hard and die young and don't have anything, so that's how it was in St. Martinville. That's how it still is.	2:43
Michele Mitchell	Was it difficult? I mean were different Black people getting along with each other? Was that difficult?	3:29
Inez Journet	For the Black people to get along with—Not at all, because, you see, it was a small town and everybody came up together and we knew the different classes and we all got along and there was no problem at all. You knew who you were and you knew where you stood and you knew how to get along with one another.	3:37
Michele Mitchell	What exactly do you mean when you say you knew who you were and you knew where you stood? What does that mean? Do you mean in terms of White people or just generally, you knew who you were.	4:01
Inez Journet	Generally, for instance, like I told you, we had three different classes and then if you had some good, good ones, no matter what, it was—It's something called—Okay, like us, our grandparents had White in and a White and a light-skinned Black is what you call mulatta. You heard that before, a mulatta? You heard that before?]	4:12
Michele Mitchell	Oh, yes.	4:42
Inez Journet	Well, this is what it's called, you understand? And then now the other people, they were not. See like me, I'd be considered a mulatta but we have dark-skinned people in our family because, like I say, if you were a good clean in that second stage, intermarriage, that's why. And my cousins are dark, but they are close. Now their grandmother and my mother were sisters.	4:43
Michele Mitchell	So the Landry sister's grandmother.	5:27
Inez Journet	The Landry's grandmother and my mother were sisters. Now, their father was very, very light skinned too, their grandfather, but the children married good, high class, dark people who lived well with principles and interest in school and whatever. That's how we have these rainbow colors because they were good people. Like Ms. Landry, she's a good woman, a smart woman, a cleaning woman, she worked hard for her family. She did everything in the world she could for her husband and children. Well that's a high class Black woman, you see? So my cousin married her, you see? So that's why we all Colored.	5:30
Michele Mitchell	Well, I also wonder where you lived in St. Martinville. Did you live in town? Did you live [indistinct 00:06:26]?	6:20
Inez Journet	No, I lived in town. I lived two blocks from the oak.	6:26
Michele Mitchell	Oh, really? You lived right in town.	6:30
Inez Journet	Right in town, about a block from the courthouse.	6:31
Michele Mitchell	What do you remember about your neighborhood when you were growing up? What sort of stores were there? What do you remember about it?	6:41
Inez Journet	About what?	6:47
Michele Mitchell	Your neighborhood, your area, where you grew up?	6:48
Inez Journet	What do I remember about it?	6:51
Michele Mitchell	Yes, ma'am.	6:53
Inez Journet	Like what? Well, I grew up in that neighborhood and everybody in that neighborhood I grew up with because they all own their home. They were good, clean Black people who work and hustle hard and save, and so we came up together. We were like a big family.	6:53
Michele Mitchell	And did you go to school in St. Martinville too?	7:11
Inez Journet	Yes, I went to school and then after that I came over here to New Liberia for high school because at the time, because of my condition, mama wanted me to go to a Catholic school. You see, we Catholic, and they didn't admit Black Catholics to the little rinky dink school they had in St. Martin. It was segregated. So I had to take a bus and come to school at St. Edwards. I finish at St. Edwards.	7:12
Michele Mitchell	St. Edwards is a really—It seems to be a really historic and important school in this area. Did you enjoy it when you went there?	7:44
Inez Journet	Oh, yes, and it's an old school. I finished high school there. We had a little school in St. Martinville up to the eighth grade, and then after that, for the high school we had to come to—And a bunch of other children whose parents were interested, we had to ride a bus every day. I came to school four years here. I finished my high school and then from there to the colleague in Lafayette, Southwestern? Southwestern?	7:51
Michele Mitchell	Mm-hmm.	8:22
Inez Journet	But in St. Martinville, we were not admitted in the [indistinct 00:08:30]. Now, but in my day, because as you know, I was born in '23. I'm seventy one too. But see, I don't represent my age.	8:26
Michele Mitchell	You don't, ma'am.	8:40
Inez Journet	Ooh, that's going to be on tape.	8:41
Michele Mitchell	Not at all. I've been telling people over and over again how shocked I am, what their age is. I stopped guessing people's ages because I'm so bad at it.	8:45
Inez Journet	Yes, uh-huh.	8:56
Michele Mitchell	Do you remember—You were really young, really young when the flood came to New Iberia? When the big flood came?	9:00
Inez Journet	Yeah, that was in 1927. I don't remember that. My mother used to talk about it, but I personally don't remember.	9:08
Michele Mitchell	I didn't think so because you would've been a real little child.	9:16
Inez Journet	Yeah, well I was born in '23. See, I was about four years old. I don't remember.	9:18
Michele Mitchell	Yeah, yeah, so your family didn't have to move or live somewhere else?	9:23
Inez Journet	No, no. We were on higher ground. I don't ever remember my mother saying we had to move. A lot of people had to move out and go towards Lafayette and Opelousas to higher ground but I don't remember my mother saying that.	9:30
Michele Mitchell	So your family was on high ground?	9:43
Inez Journet	Mm-hmm.	9:45
Michele Mitchell	What did your parents do for a living?	9:47
Inez Journet	My father was a carpenter and my mother was a housewife. My father built houses and all kind of things.	9:50
Michele Mitchell	So did he work mostly in St. Martinville?	9:59
Inez Journet	St. Martinville yeah. Mm-hmm.	10:02
Michele Mitchell	What do you remember about your parents?	10:03
Inez Journet	Well, I remember everything about my parents.	10:09
Michele Mitchell	What were they like?	10:14
Inez Journet	Well, my mother was a very smart woman. Like Ms. Landry, very smart, and she sewed. She taught me to sew. She crocheted. She taught me to crochet and do all kinds of things and she was very smart and she loved her family, you know? She really loved, and of course they spoiled me to death because of how I was, you know.	10:17
Michele Mitchell	So you have very good memories of your mother?	10:53
Inez Journet	Oh, yeah. Oh, well, I have good memories. Oh, my mother's been dead nine years now and I still talk about my mother. I never left my mother. She never wanted me to. All the others left and went away and lived in California and everywhere. She never wanted me to leave her. I don't think I wanted to leave her either. I went to school and I came back and I worked there. I worked. I'm a state retiree. I worked for the state of Louisiana for 36 and a half years in the health department.	10:55
Michele Mitchell	Really?	11:30
Inez Journet	Yeah, I'm a retiree.	11:31
Michele Mitchell	Now, what was that like?	11:33
Inez Journet	What was it like?	11:35
Michele Mitchell	Yeah.	11:36
Inez Journet	Well, it was hard because I was the only Black one in there.	11:37
Michele Mitchell	That's what I mean.	11:42
Inez Journet	It was hard, and I always say I deserve my retirement because I had to eat a lot of four letter words to go to 36 and a half years.	11:45
Michele Mitchell	I like the way you put that.	11:56
Inez Journet	You know, that. Now, I started work May 1st, 1950, and we were like the slaves. Kennedy didn't liberate us until 1963.	11:59
Michele Mitchell	Ooh.	12:13
Inez Journet	You remember that when he signed—In Washington, when they had the march and all that was 1963. So I had 13 years of this, and even after that it's something they could not accept. But most of them accepted me because, like I say, of my class and the way we live and my family live. We was high class niggers in other words. Let's put it like that. High class niggers, understand? And they accepted me like that.	12:13
Michele Mitchell	But it still must have been hard because you said you had to eat a lot of four letter words. I mean, were your coworkers—	12:52
Inez Journet	Yeah, and the supervisors, some of them we had. We a old diehard there, we call them diehard. They wanted you for what they could get out of you, but actually deep down inside, they didn't really want you, you see? That's the kind of people I'm talking about. It kind of made it hard for you. And you had to have a lot of stamina to buck up and to stay there, and I stayed. [indistinct 00:13:33] confusing because, well, they knew the women in the office. But the boss, he didn't look at it like that. In 1963, the Colored people back home said when Kennedy signed the bill, you know what I mean? When Kennedy signed the bill in 1963 and the federal government forced all these state institutions to hire at least one Black to integrate.	12:59
Inez Journet	The boss told my supervisor, "Well, Lil, we going to have to do something. We going to have to see about hiring a Black." So she said, "Well, we already have one." He said, "Who?" She said—They all called me Nippy. "Well, Nippy." He didn't see it that way. Show you how they confused themselves. Said, "Well, we already have one," and I had been there for 13 years when you realized I was Black. And I didn't hide my identity, nor did I walk around with a sign in my back. See?	14:09
Michele Mitchell	That must have been difficult to deal with when you're dealing with somebody like that who's clearly racist, but the same time doesn't realize what's going on.	15:00
Inez Journet	What's going on, that's right. That's right. It was. That's what I told you. It took a lot of patience but I stayed for 36 and a half years, and with my accumulated leave, it went up to 38 and a half because I was never absent from work. I was a good hard worker. I guess I was trying to prove myself. I was trying to show the world that even if I was handicapped, I could do it, and I did it and I was a dependable employee and my work was always to a tee. I had some responsibilities in there and keys to the lockers that they would not give one certain White woman in there.	15:10
Michele Mitchell	Really?	15:58
Inez Journet	And my supervisor gave them to me because she would take everything in there, and I had keys and she didn't have. I proved myself. So I guess I had two motives, trying to prove to myself and to the world that I could do it in spite of my handicap.	15:59
Michele Mitchell	Yes. What exact work did you do for them, for the health department? You told me that you worked there, but what did you—	16:24
Inez Journet	A clerk. Oh, yeah, kept the reports and the this and the that and all that. Oh, yeah, the clerk and when the doctor would work, I'd post his findings and whatever. And answered the phone. Had my office, I had my desk like everybody else but I was the only Black one.	16:28
Michele Mitchell	Did you have to hear a lot of—Did you have to hear a lot of things in your life from people who didn't realize you were Black? Did you have to hear a lot of things—	16:57
Inez Journet	From what?	17:06
Michele Mitchell	From White people who were talking, who didn't realize that you were Black? Did you have to hear a lot of things, A lot of racist stuff from people when they're just talking amongst themselves?	17:06
Inez Journet	You're not reaching me.	17:17
Michele Mitchell	You were talking about your boss who didn't realize who you were and was ignorant of that because of people like—	17:20
Inez Journet	Like he knew, but I don't know what.	17:27
Michele Mitchell	Right. But because of some people like that not being able to figure out that people of African descent can be lots of colors, have you had to hear a lot of stuff from White people who don't necessarily realize who you are?	17:28
Inez Journet	Oh, yes. Oh, yes, and then a lot of them, regardless to their color, the White, they were close to me because I was kind to them and all. For instance, if they wanted an appointment or something or I would always go out of my way to help people, and the Black and the White. Oh, the White, now that I'm retired, I meet them all over the street. "Hello, Ms. Nippy. Hey, Ms. Nippy. Hello." All over, all over the street. I have friends of all color, shape and creed. Well, after almost 40 years in the public office—	17:44
Michele Mitchell	You get to know people.	18:26
Inez Journet	—you know people and type of people come, you see, it's something like a welfare office. You see it's the public health.	18:26
Michele Mitchell	Was it easy being a student at Southwestern? What was that like?	18:43
Inez Journet	Well, it was all right. It was all right. You about your business. And Southwestern was the first college in Louisiana that was old that was integrated.	18:46
Michele Mitchell	I didn't know that.	19:02
Inez Journet	Yes, it was	19:02
Michele Mitchell	I had no idea.	19:02
Inez Journet	It was the first one. I can't tell you exactly what year but it was. Before New Orleans, right in Lafayette, oh, yeah.	19:12
Michele Mitchell	Had no idea.	19:25
Inez Journet	Huh?	19:26
Michele Mitchell	I had no idea.	19:26
Inez Journet	Now, I show you how things, oh, my sister live in San Diego. You heard me? She say, "God, Lee, you people here have more leeway than we have. It's more integrated in Louisiana than it is in California. They tell you, New York, California, Chicago, uh-huh. Now my beautician is a White woman. All the girls that I work with go to her and, well, my new supervisor, this old diehard—She died, thank goodness, the one I said was so tough. Well, the new one, she said, "Nip, why don't you go to Joe's?" I said, "Well, I don't know I Joe would take me. You'll have to tell George I'm Black."	19:27
Inez Journet	So she said, "The next time I go I'm going to ask him." She went and, "Joe said, yeah. Come on." And I've been going to her for ten years. Hello, how you doing there dear?	20:18
Anthony Green	[indistinct 00:20:42]. Yes. [indistinct 00:20:42]. She don't remember me though. How you doing?	20:42
Inez Journet	Fine, fine.	20:44
Anthony Green	[indistinct 00:20:45]. I bet you don't remember me.	20:44
Inez Journet	No.	20:45
Anthony Green	I used to deliver you mail every single day of the year, except Sundays.	20:56
Inez Journet	Green?	20:56
Anthony Green	Green, how you doing?	20:56
Inez Journet	Green was your last name.	20:56
Anthony Green	Yeah, how you doing?	20:56
Inez Journet	Yeah, yeah. How you do, dear?	20:56
Anthony Green	A little grayer, a little balder but I'm doing fine.	20:56
Inez Journet	You used to deliver mail to my office.	20:56
Anthony Green	Oh, yeah, that's right. Office and home.	20:57
Inez Journet	And home. I read about you in the paper.	21:00
Anthony Green	Oh, you—[indistinct 00:21:03]. Good, good.	21:02
Inez Journet	Oh, yeah. Yes, yes, good to see you, darling.	21:02
Roger	[indistinct 00:21:07] is the postmaster now.	21:07
Inez Journet	Oh yeah, I know.	21:08
Roger	He's postmaster now.	21:09
Anthony Green	Anthony Green, I'm sorry.	21:11
Roger	Michele.	21:11
Michele Mitchell	Michele Mitchell.	21:11
Anthony Green	Michele Mitchell. No relation to Ned at all?	21:13
Roger	No, no, okay. [indistinct 00:21:19].	21:16
Inez Journet	Oh, yeah. Okay, dear.	21:18
Anthony Green	[indistinct 00:21:21]. I'm sorry.	21:21
Roger	Roger.	21:21
Anthony Green	That's Roger, Roger. That's [indistinct 00:21:24].	21:23
Inez Journet	Hello, Rodney.	21:23
Anthony Green	Roger.	21:23
Inez Journet	Oh, cute little boy.	21:23
Anthony Green	15 years younger than his older brother. He kind of surprised everybody. [indistinct 00:21:30].	21:28
Marilyn Green	Okay, I'm [indistinct 00:21:30].	21:29
Inez Journet	Hello, how are you.	21:29
Anthony Green	This is my wife, Marilyn.	21:38
Inez Journet	How are you?	21:38
Marilyn Green	[indistinct 00:21:39].	21:38
Inez Journet	Good, good.	21:40
Michele Mitchell	Marilyn and Michele. Nice to meet you.	21:41
Marilyn Green	Nice to meet both of you.	21:51
Anthony Green	I used to deliver—I called her Nippy. What is your other name? Ms. Journet.	21:51
Marilyn Green	Yeah.	21:51
Anthony Green	I used to deliver her mail.	21:51
Marilyn Green	We went to visit her one day.	21:51
Anthony Green	[indistinct 00:21:55]. That's been a long time ago. [indistinct 00:21:58] was younger than this.	21:51
Marilyn Green	[indistinct 00:21:59] was young than he.	21:51
Inez Journet	Nice to meet you again.	22:00
Anthony Green	[indistinct 00:22:06].	22:01
Inez Journet	He started off as a little greenhorn, delivering postmaster. Now he's—	22:06
Michele Mitchell	Postmaster. That's awesome.	22:09
Inez Journet	Yeah, isn't it amazing? That's what I tell you. We have a lot more advantages than in the big cities. Yeah, we have a lot more advantages and chance for advancement, you know? That's why I tell you the different class of Black people who's willing to go to school and learn and advance themselves. That's what I meant. That's what I meant. Yeah, my sister said, "You have a White beautician?" I said, "Well, sure. I've had her for 10 years. I still have her."	22:14
Michele Mitchell	When did your sister move to California?	22:47
Inez Journet	Huh?	22:50
Michele Mitchell	When did your sister move to California?	22:50
Inez Journet	Oh, my sister moved to California in 1950.	22:51
Michele Mitchell	And you decided not to go, so that you were—And you decided to stay with your mother.	23:04
Inez Journet	Yeah.	23:08
Michele Mitchell	Did you ever go out there to visit them?	23:10
Inez Journet	Oh, I go every six months. So I can go to Las Vegas and vicinity, that's what I like to do. Oh, yes, I go every six months.	23:11
Michele Mitchell	I thought Mr. Chretien was going to tell me to move. I'm wondering—You're telling me so many different things that I have questions about. I'm wondering what the name of the school that you went to in St. Martinville was.	23:29
Inez Journet	Notre Dame.	23:48
Michele Mitchell	So that was a Catholic school?	23:52
Inez Journet	That was a Catholic primary school.	23:54
Michele Mitchell	Did you enjoy it?	24:03
Inez Journet	Oh, yeah.	24:04
Michele Mitchell	Yeah?	24:06
Inez Journet	Mm-hmm.	24:06
Michele Mitchell	Was there another school that Colored children went to?	24:12
Inez Journet	Public school.	24:15
Michele Mitchell	Public school?	24:16
Inez Journet	Yeah, there was a public school. St. Martin Public School. Yeah, they had a public school.	24:16
Michele Mitchell	But I imagine that Notre Dame probably had better materials.	24:20
Inez Journet	Well, I don't know for sure better material, but it was a Catholic school, all Catholic school. And then you had to pay to go so it was a little higher class people that could afford to pay.	24:26
Michele Mitchell	This is unfair to ask, but do you remember how much you had to pay?	24:42
Inez Journet	I don't. Okay, all these years.	24:44
Michele Mitchell	What other things do you remember most about living here in the 1950s and the 1940s? What things really stick out in your mind?	24:55
Inez Journet	In regards to what?	25:07
Michele Mitchell	In regards to [indistinct 00:25:11].	25:07
Inez Journet	Hello.	25:08
Michele Mitchell	Hi. I think that people have some real preconceptions about what segregation was like and about what race relations were like in the South without having lived here, been here, grew up, anything. Those sort of things. I'm wondering what you remember about it that might be different from what people think it would be like, because I think people have a really stereotyped view of what the south was like.	25:09
Inez Journet	Well, like I said, it was a small town. It's a small town and everybody knew everybody, and we all grew up together. White, Black, we used to all play together.	25:38
Michele Mitchell	The White children, too?	25:48
Inez Journet	Oh, yes, and the neighborhoods were not segregated. You had some White friends and you played with them and came up with them. Some of them are still living that I played with, but they just had that general thing you could play with, they come to your house and play and everything, but they knew you [indistinct 00:26:23].	25:50
Michele Mitchell	So it was nice.	26:23
Inez Journet	Yeah, I never had any problem. We never had any problems, but maybe it was our lifestyle or whatever. Hey, how you doing?	26:24
Speaker 1	That's my bingo friend there. How you doing?	26:33
Inez Journet	Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.	26:33
Speaker 1	[indistinct 00:26:44] fine, fine, fine.	26:43
Michele Mitchell	Michele Mitchell. Nice to meet you.	26:45
Speaker 1	[indistinct 00:26:47].	26:47
Inez Journet	Oh, yeah. Uh-huh.	26:47
Speaker 1	I used to know [indistinct 00:26:54]. Man who used to be with [indistinct 00:27:06]. We used to go to the bingo at [indistinct 00:27:15]. She used to go to the bingo. She was living right down the street from [indistinct 00:27:24, a light-skinned woman.	26:52
Inez Journet	A tall woman?	27:24
Speaker 1	Yeah.	27:25
Inez Journet	That was my mother.	27:25
Speaker 1	That was your mother?	27:26
Inez Journet	Mm-hmm.	27:27
Speaker 1	Yeah, she used to live down the street, right on the corner.	27:27
Inez Journet	On the corner. I still lived there.	27:27
Speaker 1	I remember her well. I used to talk her all the time.	27:27
Inez Journet	Oh, yeah. She loved people. She loved to talk.	27:39
Speaker 1	She was something in—How would you say, the funeral home?	27:55
Inez Journet	Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.	27:56
Speaker 1	We used to talk all the time.	27:56
Inez Journet	Yeah, oh yeah. Okay, nice talking to you.	27:59
Michele Mitchell	Nice to meet you, sir. That just reminded me. I started asking you about what you remember about your parents, and I asked you about your mother but I didn't ask you about your father.	28:00
Inez Journet	Well, my father was more quiet type. Like he tells you about my mother. My mother was everywhere. She belonged to all kind of organizations and everything. She was a society woman. She traveled all over and everything. She was president of all these organizations. She traveled all over, But my father was a more quiet reserved type. He had friends but it wasn't like my mother, wasn't like mother.	28:14
Michele Mitchell	You said your mother was president of organizations. What sort of organizations? Do you remember what sort of organizations she was in?	28:47
Inez Journet	What she was in? Oh, yeah. She was in the Mother's Club. She was in the Knights of St. Peter [indistinct 00:28:59]. She was in the—How you call that? The citizens of the Black community and all that kind of stuff.	28:52
Michele Mitchell	So she was active.	29:12
Inez Journet	Very active, and she was a church worker. She belonged to all those organizations at church. Oh, yeah, my mother was very religious.	29:16
Michele Mitchell	And like I told you earlier, Mrs. Joseph told me about the Bobister family, but I don't want to assume that your parents were born here. Were they born in the area?	29:25
Inez Journet	Were they born in the area?	29:36
Michele Mitchell	Yeah. Were your parents born around here?	29:38
Inez Journet	My parents?	29:41
Michele Mitchell	Yes, ma'am.	29:42
Inez Journet	Yes, in St. Martinville.	29:42
Michele Mitchell	Were there any places in St. Martinville that you felt that you couldn't go when you were coming up?	29:51
Inez Journet	Well—Like what, places of amusement or—	29:56
Michele Mitchell	Places of amusement, restaurants?	30:05
Inez Journet	Oh, yeah. Most of them.	30:07
Michele Mitchell	Yeah?	30:09
Inez Journet	Oh, yeah. All of them. There was a little theater. We couldn't go on the bottom floor. There was a little balcony for us. You could go on the little side thing up in the balcony. We were admitted there, but not the restaurants and all that. No, we were not allowed. Like I told you, we wasn't allowed at many Catholic schools. I had to come to Catholic school here, and it was a old school. I had to come to school here.	30:12
Michele Mitchell	Did that ever make you angry?	30:48
Inez Journet	Yes, it was very inconvenient. I had to get up at 6:00 in the morning and board a bus a block from my house and ride to Liberia and back in the cold and winter and rain. Yes, whereas if we could go right at home, it wouldn't be so hard, yes.	30:51
Michele Mitchell	Yeah, because nine miles is a way to travel as a child, going to school.	31:13
Inez Journet	Mm-hmm, and waking up early in the cold and rain and all that. Yes, we were very inconvenient and very costly. You had to be able to afford it to pay the bus, and pay the school here. They used to have a tuition fee and all. You had uniforms and all that. You had to have money for lunch. It was very costly. So the others who couldn't afford it went to the public school. There was a public school there for Blacks.	31:18
Michele Mitchell	Did other things about it make you angry besides school, just not being able to go to restaurants? I mean, were you really angry about that?	31:59
Inez Journet	No, we were not brought up—Well, maybe because of how we were brought up. We were not brought up to wish for what we didn't have. My mother was a very religious woman, like I say. She had three nieces in the convent. She still had three nieces who were nuns, her brother's children. We were brought up in religion and thank God for what you have and don't wish for what you don't have. Just work hard and someday you can get it. It didn't bother us, not my family anyway. My brother was the first Black registered voter in St. Martinville.	32:07
Michele Mitchell	Really?	32:57
Inez Journet	After the war in 1945, 1946, he was fair, like [indistinct 00:33:10]. Now, my sister was olive, nice black hair. My father was like an Indian. Well, that's how my sister is but my brother and I were like my mother. Very fair and that light hair. My hair is gray now, so anyway, he and a friend of his who was fair like he was, well, they had gone to the service as young men, and he stayed about three and a half or four years in the service. So naturally, when they returned, the people didn't know them so they went to register to vote. At that time Black people didn't vote.	32:58
Inez Journet	And they went to register and they registered and they thought they were White boys, but they were actually Black boys, so this fellow's oldest brother went to get one of his friends, one of his neighbors. She was a very intelligent Black woman, and she had gone to school too, at [indistinct 00:34:24]. "You want to do something for me? You want to come go somewhere with me?" That was the brother to the one who registered with my brother. So he said, "Yeah, Clarence, I'll go with you." He said, "Come. Come to the courthouse. I want you to go register." She was the first Black woman to register in St. Martinville, and then after that it was wide open for everybody.	33:59
Michele Mitchell	That's something.	34:48
Inez Journet	Isn't that something? So he went and brought her and they both registered. The White man they thought was White, was not White. He registered and then they couldn't refuse the Black woman with him.	34:56
Michele Mitchell	Weren't they afraid?	35:08
Inez Journet	Evidently they were not.	35:11
Michele Mitchell	Is her [indistinct 00:35:23] okay?	35:22
Speaker 2	Yes [indistinct 00:35:27].	35:22
Michele Mitchell	Could y'all bring some more tapes? Kate's somebody else who's working with me and she was in New Orleans, and her car has been messing up, so I was really worried about her getting back safely. So I'm sorry for making this break. Did your mother ever find out about what your brother did? Did she get upset?	35:27
Inez Journet	Yes.	35:52
Michele Mitchell	I'm sure she did.	35:52
Inez Journet	She was but it was over. It was over, she couldn't do anything about it.	35:53
Michele Mitchell	When you were growing up, do you remember ever hearing horrible stories about things that had happened between Blacks and Whites? Was that something that you heard about when you were growing up?	36:02
Inez Journet	Oh, yes. A lot of incidents, a lot of incidents. Oh, yeah, what my mother told me.	36:14
Michele Mitchell	Your mother told you?	36:24
Inez Journet	Yeah. You know, different things that mama would talk about. I personally didn't witness all these things, but mama used to talk about it.	36:25
Michele Mitchell	Yeah. Did she ever have a difficult time at all with anything?	36:38
Inez Journet	Oh, no. She didn't. No, she didn't.	36:40
Michele Mitchell	So you felt pretty safe, then, growing up in St. Martinville? You felt like things were more or less okay.	36:47
Inez Journet	Oh, yeah. Mm-hmm. It was okay for us.	36:54
Michele Mitchell	Well, that's good to know. That's good to know. I'd like to ask you a couple of questions because I've been asking you about your parents, and I don't even know their names.	36:56
Inez Journet	Okay. My father was Ignace Journet. I-G-N-A-C-E J-O-U-R-N-E-T, and my mother was Gladys Vavasseur Journet.	37:10
Michele Mitchell	V-A-V-A-S—	37:27
Inez Journet	S-E-U-R.	37:29
Michele Mitchell	And they were both born in St. Martinville?	37:35
Inez Journet	Yeah, both born in St. Martinville.	37:36
Michele Mitchell	I'm going to ask you another unfair question. Do you remember when they were born?	37:39
Inez Journet	Oh, yes. Mama was born December 27th, 1895, and Daddy was July the 31st, 1894. Oh, yeah. I never left my family home. That's how I know everything.	37:42
Michele Mitchell	We'll see. Whenever I have to think about my parents' birthday, it's kind of like, "Now, what year was that? What day was that?" And you told me that your father was a carpenter. Did he work on his own or did—	38:14
Inez Journet	On his own. He'd work on his own and sometime with other fellas, because he could read a blueprint and all, and some of the White men couldn't. There's White construction workers and when they had a tough job, they would hire him.	38:26
Michele Mitchell	That's good business for your father.	38:47
Inez Journet	Yeah, yeah, yeah, because my father was educated too, along those lines.	38:48
Michele Mitchell	Did both of your parents get to have a chance to get a good education? Did both of them?	38:55
Inez Journet	Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.	38:59
Michele Mitchell	And you told me that your mother passed nine years ago.	39:07
Inez Journet	Hm?	39:10
Michele Mitchell	You told me that your mother had passed nine years ago.	39:10
Inez Journet	Nine years ago. May 5th, 1985.	39:12
Michele Mitchell	And your father?	39:19
Inez Journet	Oh, April the 15th, 1959.	39:20
Michele Mitchell	And have you ever married? Have you ever married or had children?	39:29
Inez Journet	No, I was never married.	39:35
Michele Mitchell	Save you a little aggravation.	39:38
Inez Journet	Mm-hmm.	39:40
Michele Mitchell	Saved a little aggravation. And it's April 2nd, 1923. And you also mentioned your sisters who moved to California?	39:40
Inez Journet	Yes.	39:55
Michele Mitchell	What were their names?	39:55
Inez Journet	Hilda.	39:56
Michele Mitchell	Hilda?	39:57
Inez Journet	H-I-L-D-A Journet Derouen.	39:58
Michele Mitchell	D-E-R-O-U-E-N.	39:59
Inez Journet	Mm-mm.	40:08
Michele Mitchell	I'm learning something. Takes a while. Do you remember her birthday? Yeah, July 4th, in 1924.	40:09
Inez Journet	And any other?	40:19
Michele Mitchell	I had a brother, Leo Journet. Hello.	40:20
Speaker 3	Hi.	40:32
Inez Journet	June the 15th. No, June the 25th, 1918.	40:32
Michele Mitchell	So you were right in the middle. You were the second born?	40:40
Inez Journet	No, that was another one. I was the third born. Herman, he died too. Let's see, he was August 8th. Let's see, 1920.	40:45
Michele Mitchell	And all y'all—Don't, tell me. All y'all were born in St. Martinville?	41:07
Inez Journet	Mm-hmm.	41:09
Michele Mitchell	So you are the third born?	41:14
Inez Journet	The third born, the oldest girl.	41:18
Michele Mitchell	Was that a lot of responsibility in the household, being the oldest girl?	41:22
Inez Journet	Well, not really. Mama always took care of everything. Mama was always the head of the household, ahead of Daddy and everything. Now, when the other two, Herman died, but when Leo and Hilda got married and went to service and left and everything, then I stayed there with mama and daddy. And then after Daddy died, then it was mama and I and I more or less assumed more responsibility then.	41:27
Michele Mitchell	But growing up it wasn't—	42:03
Inez Journet	Oh, no, no, no. Mama always—	42:06
Michele Mitchell	Okay. Your mother sounds like a remarkable woman.	42:11
Inez Journet	Yeah. Oh, she was. Oh, she was. Mm-hmm.	42:13
Michele Mitchell	Do you need me to move and stop bothering this kind lady?	42:17
Roger	No, no. [indistinct 00:42:26]. I want to hear what she had to say. I don't want you to get, you know what I mean, searching that family tree up when them nuns didn't want to give us that stuff.	42:25
Inez Journet	Yeah, exactly. Dang.	42:33
Michele Mitchell	Did he open a can of worms?	42:41
Inez Journet	Yeah.	42:42
Roger	Not if I opened the can of worms. If I opened the can of worms, and it shut it down—[indistinct 00:42:51]. The nuns, you know? Yeah, and we've been some [indistinct 00:42:57] Catholic all day, you know what I mean? You didn't know them people was like that.	42:42
Inez Journet	Oh, yeah, that's for sure. That's for sure.	43:02
Michele Mitchell	What did these nuns do?	43:04
Inez Journet	Huh?	43:05
Michele Mitchell	What did these nuns do? What happened?	43:06
Inez Journet	Nothing.	43:07
Michele Mitchell	Nothing? He was talking about some nuns.	43:09
Inez Journet	Yeah? They didn't do anything. It's what they didn't do. They're talking about those crumbs. We have one been in there—Oh, last year she celebrated her 75th year in the con, and—This is going to be on tape.	43:13

Item Info

Title:

Inez Journet interview recording, 1994 August 07

Date:

August 7, 1994

Creator:

Journet, Inez

Contributor:

Mitchell, Michele

Description:

Name: Inez Journet; Date of birth: 1923-04-02; Place of birth: St. Martinville, LA; Occupation(s): clerical; health services; Residence: Morbihan, LA
Informant ID: 548; Interviewed by: Michelle Mitchell.

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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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Provenance:

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

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Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC 4.0

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

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RL00170-CS-1106
07db6ae0-a936-4240-a01b-13e56f6de772
behindtheveil
a123644f-714f-4cbe-9966-c6f6fa20d1f0
ark:/87924/r4kh0s743
a123644f-714f-4cbe-9966-c6f6fa20d1f0

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Inez Journet interview recording, 1994 August 07

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1. Inez Journet administrative file, 1994

John Hope Franklin Research Center

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Inez Journet interview recording, 1994 August 07

Transcript

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John Hope Franklin Research Center

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