General Ragin interview recording, 1995 June 16
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| Kisha Turner | Okay. Can we just begin by you stating your name, your full name— | 0:02 |
| General Ragin | Sure. | 0:06 |
| Kisha Turner | —and when you were born? | 0:07 |
| General Ragin | Born 1920, the 15th of November. My name is General Reagan. | 0:09 |
| Kisha Turner | Okay. Were you born here? | 0:16 |
| General Ragin | Uh-huh, in South Carolina. | 0:18 |
| Kisha Turner | In South Carolina, in Clarendon County? | 0:20 |
| General Ragin | Claredon County. | 0:22 |
| Kisha Turner | Okay. Could you just—We could begin by you talking a little about your childhood, your family. | 0:24 |
| General Ragin | Well, it's a long story. I ain't said anything about the children in so long to tell you the truth. It's been a long time. All of my children are grown up now. It's true. | 0:33 |
| Kisha Turner | How about, what kind of work did your parents do? | 0:46 |
| General Ragin | My parents? | 0:47 |
| Kisha Turner | Mm-hmm. | 0:47 |
| General Ragin | Farm work. | 0:47 |
| Kisha Turner | And did you— | 0:47 |
| General Ragin | I leave out of school and went in the Army. I come back to that farm for a while. Then I went into mechanic work. And I did that until I retired from that. | 0:57 |
| Kisha Turner | Okay. What kind of things did you do when you were younger around the farm? | 1:05 |
| General Ragin | Around the farm? | 1:07 |
| Kisha Turner | Mm-hmm. | 1:10 |
| General Ragin | Well, shucked cotton, repacked cotton, plant corn, replant corn, plow it, pick cotton, break corn. | 1:11 |
| Kisha Turner | How many brothers and sisters did you have? | 1:25 |
| General Ragin | Well, I have five. Let me see, I got—Two of my brothers are dead. Anyway, I got one living. I had three brothers and four sisters. | 1:28 |
| Kisha Turner | You went to school when you were younger? | 1:44 |
| General Ragin | Mm-hmm. | 1:48 |
| Kisha Turner | What school did you go to? | 1:48 |
| General Ragin | St. Paul. Yeah, they took me out of school when I was 17. I believe I was 17. Anyhow, they took me out of school and put me in the Army in 1942. And I was in '41 in the Army. It's been so long. I'll tell you the truth [indistinct 00:02:16] | 1:48 |
| Kisha Turner | Can you talk briefly about your experiences in the Army? Where were you stationed? | 2:20 |
| General Ragin | I was stationed at the naval field. I had a good [indistinct 00:02:35] all right, but you know how it is. Some came back and some did not. You know how it is in the Army. It's hard explaining now. It was so long ago. But I tell you, [indistinct 00:02:46] the Army, if you don't get training, basic training so you can get a good experience. That's the one thing that will get you [indistinct 00:03:02] have your rifle happy [indistinct 00:03:04] have basic training and everything like that. [indistinct 00:03:08] it's all right. [indistinct 00:03:13] like it. | 2:24 |
| Kisha Turner | How was your relationship with your officers? | 3:15 |
| General Ragin | Well, it was nice. I ain't have much trouble to tell you the truth. I tell you what I did. When I went in there, I find the boss. I take their words and do like they say do. I didn't try to tell them what to do. I do what they tell me to do, so that's [indistinct 00:03:33] take basic training. If you go in there to train them, that would be different. If you go in there to get trained under them, you going to have to be trained like they train you, I mean, you train them. So I do like they ask me to do in all I done. I ain't have no trouble. So I come out with a good discharge, an honorable discharge. I ain't have no bad rep or nothing. I still got my good, got my little check from them. (laughs) | 3:18 |
| Kisha Turner | Did you return here? | 4:12 |
| General Ragin | Huh? | 4:12 |
| Kisha Turner | Did you return to Summerton when you were discharged? | 4:13 |
| General Ragin | Yeah. Mm-hmm I come back down here. | 4:13 |
| Kisha Turner | Have you always lived in Summerton? | 4:14 |
| General Ragin | Always right here. | 4:20 |
| Kisha Turner | All the way through? | 4:24 |
| General Ragin | Born and raised right here. | 4:24 |
| Kisha Turner | Okay. How about school? How did you get to school? | 4:29 |
| General Ragin | I had to walk. | 4:32 |
| Kisha Turner | Is Saint Paul, is that here? | 4:34 |
| General Ragin | Across the water over there. It's about three miles from here. | 4:36 |
| Kisha Turner | Okay. | 4:40 |
| General Ragin | That's where you go, where this road here take you back into Saint Paul. One time there was a bridge collapsed—bridge you could walk straight across. That bridge collapsed. Now we got to go around and go by Liberty Hill [indistinct 00:04:46] Saint Paul, but one time it went straight across that water right there, a shortcut. It went straight across there. But now, you got to go around. It ain't about three miles from here [indistinct 00:04:46] But I had to went to school. | 4:41 |
| Kisha Turner | How was your school, the instruction? | 4:45 |
| General Ragin | It was nice. | 4:45 |
| Kisha Turner | It was nice? | 4:45 |
| General Ragin | Yeah. | 4:45 |
| Kisha Turner | Okay. You enjoyed it? | 4:45 |
| General Ragin | Yep. I made it to seventh grade and that was it, because you had to do like the teacher said. You know how it is. | 4:45 |
| Kisha Turner | Did your parents own the land that you lived on when you were younger? | 4:45 |
| General Ragin | Yeah. | 4:48 |
| Kisha Turner | Did you inherit that land? | 5:29 |
| General Ragin | [indistinct 00:05:32] piece of it I got right here. They gave all the children two acres. | 5:33 |
| Kisha Turner | Your parents purchased the land. Do you know anything about their purchase of the land? | 5:40 |
| General Ragin | No, I don't know how they had to purchase [indistinct 00:05:48] when I was a baby. I grew up on this place like I say, so they had the land before I was born. When I got old enough, I got married. Then they gave me two acres of land, gave my sister two acres, my brother two acres, my little sisters too, all of the kids, two acres of land. So that's what I [indistinct 00:06:16] I ain't have to buy it. I still got it. I ain't have to buy no land. My mother give me this, so I hope I can share it. I got my daughters back there on some of it. We got a trailer and things back there. | 5:45 |
| Kisha Turner | Could you tell me about some of your early childhood memories? What did you do for fun, recreation? | 6:39 |
| General Ragin | Well, it ain't like it is now. We had house parties. | 6:47 |
| Kisha Turner | Really? | 6:47 |
| General Ragin | Yeah, house parties. You give a party tonight and maybe the next weekend we go to a house party at night, brothers playing guitar and singing, having a house party like that. It ain't like the discos nowadays. Now you go to a party, you go to a school. You have a big time school. The teachers, I mean the professors [indistinct 00:07:16] permission to go to the school and have a party. But most of the time it was house parties. | 6:47 |
| Kisha Turner | House parties. Do you remember the curfew? I was told there was a curfew in Summerton in the city, about 9:00 on the weekends. | 7:30 |
| General Ragin | It might have been in Summerton. I ain't never been around Summerton much. | 7:41 |
| Kisha Turner | Oh really? | 7:44 |
| General Ragin | No. I was a country boy. | 7:44 |
| Kisha Turner | Okay. | 7:44 |
| General Ragin | Because see like, I'll give a party this weekend at my house. Some other friend of mine or something like that you people the road give a party. There's houses all up that road, that place there. You could see houses [indistinct 00:08:03] | 7:44 |
| Kisha Turner | Really? | 8:01 |
| General Ragin | All the way up the road, people living over there in houses where people would giving parties, house parties. | 8:04 |
| Kisha Turner | When did they demolish the homes that used to be out here? | 8:14 |
| General Ragin | When they cut that down, they cut all the houses out there about two years or three years ago now. They tear all those houses down over there. A White man owned that place, and move off, just tear the houses right down. You couldn't get [indistinct 00:08:36] | 8:17 |
| Kisha Turner | Did those people move? | 8:40 |
| General Ragin | Yeah, some of them moved. Some of them went to New York or they moved to Savannah anyway, they moved [indistinct 00:08:48] and they just tear the houses down. A lot of houses they tore down. The White fella there said he couldn't [indistinct 00:08:57] one or two of them start moving, the rest of them started moving so we could [indistinct 00:09:06] | 8:42 |
| Kisha Turner | Do you remember taking trips, just kind of short trips? | 9:09 |
| General Ragin | Well, I take one trip. I been to Wilmington, North Carolina. And I ain't take no short trip in a long time. I don't like them trips. | 9:13 |
| Kisha Turner | No? | 9:21 |
| General Ragin | I'll tell you why. I'll tell you. After they put me in the Army, I had enough of trips. After I come back from there— | 9:21 |
| Kisha Turner | That was a big enough trip, huh? | 9:28 |
| General Ragin | [indistinct 00:09:33] taking me this place, taking me that place [indistinct 00:09:37] bring me back down. I said, "Lord, if I get out of here, I hope I never have to take a trip." Thank God I'm still living. A lot of my friends are gone. Yeah, a lot of them are gone. They passed away. I sit down and sometimes think, I'm still here trying to make a dollar. I'll tell you, you sit down and think about it though, you get worried. You get kind of [indistinct 00:10:07]. | 9:33 |
| Kisha Turner | Yeah. | 10:06 |
| General Ragin | I don't like to think about it. | 10:06 |
| Kisha Turner | Okay. When were you married? | 10:07 |
| General Ragin | I married in 1942. | 10:09 |
| Kisha Turner | You met your wife here? | 10:15 |
| General Ragin | No, '43, '43. I come back home in '42. Yeah, '43 I got married. I was in the Army and I come back and got married. At least I wasn't married before I went, because I met a girl and she was pregnant and I had to marry her. In those days, you had to. They say you had to marry them or else do something. I don't know whether they put you in jail or something. | 10:26 |
| Kisha Turner | Oh really? | 10:43 |
| General Ragin | Now they make you pay child support now. | 10:45 |
| Kisha Turner | Oh. | 10:46 |
| General Ragin | Anyway, I tried to do like the people said. I reckon that's why I lived as long as I did. [indistinct 00:11:01] know more than I did, so I decided to [indistinct 00:11:02] | 10:52 |
| Kisha Turner | How were people who didn't get married in the community, how was that viewed? | 11:02 |
| General Ragin | Well, it's like I say, if a man go with a girl and he messed up, I don't think he right if he don't marry the girl, because she loves you, you love her. If you get pregnant or something, [indistinct 00:11:34] that don't make it so. That's what I said. I said, "I know I've been messing with this girl. And I know me and her [indistinct 00:11:47] her parents." I told them yes sir, yes ma'am, I'm getting married. That's what I did. I went in the Army and come back out and got married. | 11:12 |
| Kisha Turner | Is that when you got your land, when you got married? | 11:57 |
| General Ragin | Yeah, after I was married [indistinct 00:12:00] after I married I built my own house. | 11:59 |
| Kisha Turner | How about church? | 12:00 |
| General Ragin | Well, every now and then I got to church. It ain't like it used to be. One time I went to church, but now church ain't like it used to be. | 12:02 |
| Kisha Turner | What's the difference now? | 12:02 |
| General Ragin | I said Lord I don't go to church now [indistinct 00:12:24] need to go to church. Some people I see go to church, I think they should go there. But anyway [indistinct 00:12:35] | 12:02 |
| Kisha Turner | When you were a child, what church did you attend? | 12:36 |
| General Ragin | Liberty Hill. | 12:38 |
| Kisha Turner | Okay. | 12:40 |
| General Ragin | That's my church. I'm a member of Liberty Hill over there. I'm a member of Liberty Hill [indistinct 00:13:04]. My mother and father, my wife, my brothers and all them over there in that graveyard. So I hope I can live a little longer and make it there with them. I know I'm going to live but I ain't [indistinct 00:13:09]. I want to live as long as I can. | 12:43 |
| Kisha Turner | Did you participate in sports and stuff on the weekends, baseball? | 13:17 |
| General Ragin | Well yeah, I played a lot of baseball. I remember one time coming up, baseball every Saturday evening. We'd have a game. We'd have games [indistinct 00:13:34] and we had a game against [indistinct 00:13:38] church. We'd play a ball game. And go to Saint Paul and have games out there and play like, "You got a team. I got a team." Something like that. We'd go play a team. I play you. You play me. Every Saturday it was a different team. | 13:22 |
| Kisha Turner | Who were some of the, I don't know—I guess, did everyone know each other in your community? Was it a close-knit community? | 13:58 |
| General Ragin | Well, like I said, most all the fellas know me pretty. A lot of them passed now. There's a few young fellas that grew up around here. Ain't much left of those fellas now. [indistinct 00:14:28] just a few old fellas out in the community. | 14:08 |
| Kisha Turner | What did you all do together when you were younger, when there was this— | 14:27 |
| General Ragin | Like I say, we'd go out and have house parties and spend the night, stuff like that, play ball. | 14:30 |
| Kisha Turner | Did you ever work together? | 14:37 |
| General Ragin | Well, most people worked in the field, picked cotton, break corn, stuff like that. After that at night we'd go out to the school house or something like that. You'd have graduating school or a school closed, something like that in them days. Back then I tell you, ain't no automobile, no buses or nothing back then. Ain't much of nothing. Ain't no bicycles. You had to walk. | 14:39 |
| Kisha Turner | Did you go overseas? | 15:22 |
| General Ragin | No, I didn't go overseas. I was praying not to. The Lord answered my prayers. [indistinct 00:15:34] I believe I would've went over there. I'm glad [indistinct 00:15:38] I took all my training and everything, ready to go. The good Lord [indistinct 00:15:48] I ain't go. I got home to my family. I stayed where I was at. So not much running around. I never left right there. [indistinct 00:16:05] going back and forth, going back and forth. I said Lord, too much [indistinct 00:16:10]. Anyway. | 15:23 |
| Kisha Turner | What were some of the organizations that you remember, or in the community in the '40s or when you were here? | 16:15 |
| General Ragin | Well, let's see, 1940, we didn't go much places. We didn't go out too much, because after 9:00, your mom and dad said you shouldn't be out. | 16:32 |
| Kisha Turner | Oh really? | 16:43 |
| General Ragin | Yeah, you had to get home. | 16:43 |
| Kisha Turner | You had to be home. | 16:43 |
| General Ragin | It ain't like it is now. You can stay out all night. | 16:43 |
| Kisha Turner | Okay. | 16:43 |
| General Ragin | But like I said, we'd have them house parties and things like that. 9:00 or 10:00 you ain't get out there and [indistinct 00:17:02] like these folks doing now, go out there killing up people and staying out all night hurting someone. | 16:52 |
| Kisha Turner | Did your sisters have to come in at the same time you had to come in? | 17:10 |
| General Ragin | Oh yeah, they got the curfew too. [indistinct 00:17:17]. I tell you, I got a sister back there. She lives back there. | 17:12 |
| Kisha Turner | Oh really? | 17:22 |
| General Ragin | Mm-hmm, right back in that big house. You can go back and talk to her. | 17:23 |
| Kisha Turner | Oh, okay. [indistinct 00:17:28] | 17:25 |
| General Ragin | Yeah, go up and talk to her if you got time. I mean, she can tell you about some of the old things too. She lives in that brick house back there. | 17:30 |
| Kisha Turner | Is that part of the land— | 17:42 |
| General Ragin | Yeah, she got her land back there. | 17:44 |
| Kisha Turner | She got back there? | 17:49 |
| General Ragin | Mm-hmm. | 17:49 |
| Kisha Turner | Okay. Okay. Do you remember the NAACP around here or anything? | 17:50 |
| General Ragin | Well yeah. I joined that too, but I didn't go back into it. [indistinct 00:18:03] NAACP. Yeah, I joined that but after I come back, everybody scattered so much. [indistinct 00:18:10] didn't go back into it. | 17:54 |
| Kisha Turner | Do you remember the Black businesses in town or in Wilmington even? | 18:16 |
| General Ragin | No. There's a few of them I could tell you. My sister might know. You can go back there and talk to her. She can remember a lot of things. | 18:21 |
| Kisha Turner | Were there areas that you couldn't go into? | 18:43 |
| General Ragin | Oh, well no there ain't never been a place I couldn't go. I don't think I did. | 18:48 |
| Speaker 3 | Hi, y'all made it! | 18:50 |
| Speaker 4 | Hey, what— [INTERRUPTION 00:18:58] | 18:50 |
| Kisha Turner | When you went to Saint Paul, do you remember taking any classes in African American history? | 18:59 |
| General Ragin | No, I [indistinct 00:19:08] I tell you it's so long— | 19:04 |
| Kisha Turner | It's a long time ago. | 19:04 |
| General Ragin | [indistinct 00:19:08] see I got out of school. I mean, they took me out of school when I was in the seventh grade. | 19:04 |
| Kisha Turner | That's right, okay. | 19:04 |
| General Ragin | And they had me [indistinct 00:19:08] | 19:04 |
| Kisha Turner | How many months out of the year did you go to school? | 19:04 |
| General Ragin | Let me see—I went every week. How much days? You got me kind of lost on that to tell you the truth. | 19:04 |
| Kisha Turner | Was Saint Paul a private school or was that a public school? | 19:04 |
| General Ragin | No, it was a public school. It was a big old school. All the children go to Saint Paul school. [indistinct 00:19:17] down that way, that was a big old school. There was other small schools, but that was a big old school. It went until the 12th grade. Anyhow, it was a big school. It's been so long since I been there, but anyway. | 19:07 |
| Kisha Turner | If you got sick when you were little, did you see a doctor? How were you taken care of? | 19:22 |
| General Ragin | Well, they'd call my mother. The teacher would call her to come and get me. I'd go to the office. We had buggies, wagons. We ain't have no cars back then. They'll come and get you in the wagon and send you to the doctor in Summerton. | 20:49 |
| Kisha Turner | Go to the doctor? | 21:00 |
| General Ragin | Mm-hmm. | 21:00 |
| Kisha Turner | Was this a White doctor? | 21:00 |
| General Ragin | Mm-hmm. | 21:05 |
| Kisha Turner | Were your children born in a hospital or with a midwife? | 21:05 |
| General Ragin | Most born in the country. | 21:08 |
| Kisha Turner | Okay. One final question. Where did you buy your clothing and stuff? And the food when you were younger, was that pretty much what you raised on the farm? | 21:20 |
| General Ragin | Yeah, we bought it in Summerton [indistinct 00:21:33] | 21:30 |
| Kisha Turner | Okay. All right. | 21:39 |
| Kisha Turner | Okay, I was just wondering how you got the name General. | 21:39 |
| General Ragin | What happened, my father named me and they named me after my grandmother. That's why I got General. See, my father is named June Lee and my daddy's father is named General Lee. And so he named me after. I was the oldest boy. He named me after my granddad. | 21:41 |
| Kisha Turner | Do you know how your grandfather got that name? Have you heard any stories? | 22:06 |
| General Ragin | No, I sure ain't never asked my dad and mom [indistinct 00:22:12]. I tell you the truth, I never thought about that. I tell you the truth, after I come [indistinct 00:22:19] so glad to get home and I forgot about it, because they asked me how I got that name in Army. I tell them, [indistinct 00:22:26]. Anyway, I never asked [indistinct 00:22:30] | 22:08 |
| Kisha Turner | Okay. All right. Thank you. | 22:30 |
| Kisha Turner | [indistinct 00:22:40] | 22:37 |
| Kisha Turner | Mr. Reagan, could you tell me about how you built your home? | 22:42 |
| General Ragin | Well, like I say, I bought the lumber. And I get friends to help me, like some carpenters to come and help me [indistinct 00:22:58]. I did it like that. I got carpenters to help me. I paid them a little something and they helped me with that. [indistinct 00:23:07] I couldn't hire anybody. I had to get it piece by piece. They'll put the lumber in. They help me build it like that. | 22:46 |
| Kisha Turner | Did that happen after, if people built their homes, other people came to help? | 23:19 |
| General Ragin | Well yeah, around here they'll help you [indistinct 00:23:27] you get your lumber to build it, they'll come and help you. It's hard to get people now to do anything. You can't get no one to do nothing like that. Back in them days, you could just call anybody. A lot of people ain't doing nothing much. They'd come help you build a house. You get the main carpenter. He'll show the boys what to do. [indistinct 00:24:01] it won't take long. You can't get it done now like that. Ain't nobody around to do it. Now they got these, what they call [indistinct 00:24:05]. They want to sell them now [indistinct 00:24:05] building no homes. They want to sell these mobile homes. | 23:23 |
| Kisha Turner | What about your work as a mechanic? Could you tell me a little about that? | 24:14 |
| General Ragin | Well yeah. The mechanic work was nice. It was good. I actually liked it. But all at once I started to get tired. I had high blood and I went to the doctor for it. And he told me that I better quit laying down under the cars. He said that blood would rush to my head and give me a stroke [indistinct 00:24:44]. First time I went to him, I tell about it. | 24:18 |
| General Ragin | He gave me some medicine for it. So I went back and went to work. I was hard headed. I went back to do mechanic work. So I went back doing mechanic work and I was under the car laying down, putting a starter on it. And I thought I put the starter and I ended up [indistinct 00:25:03] the boy working with me. I called him. I told him to bring me a wrench. He bring me the wrench. I get the wrench and still [indistinct 00:25:12]. I call him again. | 24:44 |
| General Ragin | He's like, "General, what's wrong with you?" He said, "Oh yeah, something is wrong." I said, "You got the right wrench?" He said, "hey man, come out from under that car." Now I tried to get from under the car, I couldn't get from undern the car. He had to pull me from under the car. So he get me from underneath the car and he stand me up. Then I shake my head, shake myself off and I kind of feel myself. They take me back to the doctor. | 25:14 |
| General Ragin | They tell me [indistinct 00:25:37]. You know, that blood is something though. You ever get your blood in your head and [indistinct 00:25:48] it be like somebody drunk or something. I don't know if you know what drunk is like, but you ever see a drunk person? You do and say anything. | 25:33 |
| Kisha Turner | Mm-hmm. | 26:01 |
| General Ragin | So I had to kind of [indistinct 00:26:02] do a little work but as far as getting underneath, back looking up. See that's when my blood rushed to my head. Of course the medicine helping me some, but I don't to take no chances with it no more. I might go [indistinct 00:26:12] | 26:01 |
| Kisha Turner | Okay. | 26:11 |
| General Ragin | [indistinct 00:26:12] listen to that anyway. I want to live a little longer. | 26:11 |
| Kisha Turner | Gotcha. All right. Thank you. | 26:12 |
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