Elnora Hayslette interview recording, 1995 August 05

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Mary Hebert	Your full name and when and where you were born?	0:03
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	My name is Elnora Hayslette. I was born in Northwest Virginia, which at that time was Norfolk County, and it is now Chesapeake, Virginia.	0:06
Mary Hebert	And so you were born in what's now Chesapeake?	0:21
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes.	0:24
Mary Hebert	What area of Chesapeake? It's so large now.	0:25
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	I know. It's the Southern part, the part that's very close to Moyock, North Carolina.	0:27
Mary Hebert	And what were your parents' names?	0:36
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	My parents' names were Norman and Maggie Elliott.	0:37
Mary Hebert	What did they do for living?	0:44
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	My father was a farmer, and my mother, just a housewife.	0:46
Mary Hebert	Did your father own his own land?	0:51
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes he did.	0:53
Mary Hebert	Did he have people working for him?	0:55
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	No, he didn't. He tended it all himself. My father and my brother.	0:57
Mary Hebert	Were you required to work on the farm at all?	1:07
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	I was not because I was the youngest of six children.	1:09
Mary Hebert	Did you live near relatives?	1:17
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes. My father had a sister and that sister had eight children and they were our playmates for the most part.	1:19
Mary Hebert	Did they live on land adjoining yours?	1:31
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Not at all. Not at all. They lived on their own land, but it really didn't adjoin. We had walk from house to house or ride in horse and cart.	1:35
Mary Hebert	Did your father have a car?	1:47
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Not at all.	1:49
Mary Hebert	So he would get his produce to market with the horse and cart?	1:51
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Exactly.	1:55
Mary Hebert	And was the farm, did he cultivate the land with the mule and plow?	1:57
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes he did.	2:02
Mary Hebert	Did he ever get the farm equipment?	2:03
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes, he had the farm equipment. He had the basic plows, reapers, the crew kind.	2:06
Mary Hebert	But not the mechanized.	2:21
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Oh no, Not at all.	2:23
Mary Hebert	I've heard a lot about rural families helping one another out. When you'd slaughter a hog, the whole community would join in. Did that happen where you lived?	2:28
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	It did. That was sort of a gathering time. When my dad would get a cousin. It's brutal, but he'd get him to stab the hog and the neighbors would come around and they would help to clean, and as a result they would share the meat. And dad would, from his garden and from his crop, he always shared with the neighbors, they'd come with 15 cents for greens and my dad would just let them have it. He never, ever charged for his produce, and we were always blessed with plenty of food.	2:37
Mary Hebert	And he produced most of it?	3:24
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Oh yes, he did.	3:26
Mary Hebert	Go on.	3:28
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Cattle and goats hogs he had raised and people would just ride by and see them and they would stop by and he'd sell them. And that's how we got our money to live on.	3:29
Mary Hebert	Were they White families, White people were stopping by and buying the livestock?	3:48
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	That is correct. Always and dad never charged the price they should have been charged, but always under the price. But as I said, we were always blessed to have more and more.	3:57
Mary Hebert	And he would help out those who had less.	4:11
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes, he did.	4:12
Mary Hebert	Or your parents would help out those who had less?	4:13
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Definitely, definitely.	4:16
Mary Hebert	What kinds of crops would he grow? You mentioned greens. Did he grow corn and potatoes?	4:18
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Right. Corn, potatoes, cotton, soybeans were the basic crops.	4:23
Mary Hebert	And your brothers were the ones who helped?	4:30
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	The one brother.	4:32
Mary Hebert	One brother.	4:33
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes.	4:33
Mary Hebert	And the other children didn't work the farm?	4:35
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Not that much. No, they didn't.	4:37
Mary Hebert	Did your mother gather with women from within the community, quilting bees, those kinds of things?	4:45
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	No. No. The biggest social outlet for mom would be walking for about three miles up the road to large meeting. She was a tent, and that's where the women would gather to discuss whatever. I don't know what they discussed because mother would never take me. You see? I'd have to stay home with the older brothers and sisters.	4:52
Mary Hebert	Were The Tents a secret society?	5:20
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes, it was.	5:22
Mary Hebert	Did you ever wind up joining The Tents?	5:24
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	No, I didn't. My oldest sister did.	5:26
Mary Hebert	Did your mother tell you how The Tents were formed and those kinds of things?	5:30
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	No, she never discussed any of it.	5:34
Mary Hebert	Was she involved in the church?	5:38
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Very much so. All of the programs that we had on Easter, Mother's Day, Christmas, it was her job. Everybody looked to her to get the children together to recite the poems and sing the songs and do the pageants and the dramatizations. She always did that.	5:40
Mary Hebert	And what church was that?	6:07
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Bethel Baptist, which still exists.	6:08
Mary Hebert	Was she in the choir and those kinds—	6:15
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	No, she wasn't.	6:17
Mary Hebert	But she organized the church program?	6:19
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes, she did.	6:20
Mary Hebert	What school did you attend? What elementary school did you attend?	6:24
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	I attended a one room school, which was just across the field from where we lived. And strangely enough, I can't even remember the name of it. It was just a one room school had grades one through seven.	6:27
Mary Hebert	In one room?	6:49
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes, one teacher. And that teacher always boarded at our house. And my father only had a seventh grade education, but he was educated in New York and he knew a tremendous amount of knowledge. He read incessantly. And strangely enough he was able to help those teachers who came to teach us. They would run into difficulty and he could solve the problems for them. Math problems, geography problems, he was excellent in that. And he helped them in that way.	6:50
Mary Hebert	Did you get any extra tutoring from the teachers? Because they lived in your house would they tutor you?	7:34
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	No, they didn't. We seemed to be pretty much by my father. Our father always taught us, and we were pretty much on the ball as far as education was concerned. And often I would help the teachers to work with the lower grades.	7:39
Mary Hebert	Did your father stress education and the importance of education?	8:02
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Very much so. He did. We went to school.	8:07
Mary Hebert	What did the school look like?	8:14
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	It was a one room frame building with a pot belted stole. And we sat on benches. And I can't remember how the desks were. I think there were some individual seats, but there were benches as well. And they were arranged so many on one side of the building and so many on the other side.	8:17
Mary Hebert	Do you know if the parents were responsible for the upkeep of the school for maintaining and repairing it?	8:52
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	If anything were done in the way of repairs my father did it. See, because he was right there, as I said, across the field. And he saw to it that it was maintained. He did.	9:01
Mary Hebert	Who got to go to school? Did all the children in the surrounding area get to go to school or did the poor children, the children of sharecroppers have to stay out? Do you know or remember?	9:16
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	They all went, at least to a point. And I think on their own they dropped out.	9:28
Mary Hebert	What were the books like? Were they used books? [indistinct 00:09:42] books?	9:39
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes, they were. Yes, they were. Yeah. I don't ever remember a new book. They were just handed down from year to year. And there was a Black supervisor. And occasionally, I think once a month, she would come by and she would talk to the group as a means of inspiration. She would tell them to continue to go to school and learn as much as we could. And lots of it was repetition. Each month she came, you knew she was going to say the same things, but we were attentive and everything.	9:42
Mary Hebert	Were there any behavioral problems in a one room school with grades one to seven?	10:23
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Not that much. It was more kids as they do now, laughing at other kids more, that kind of thing. Not often fights? No, not at school. Maybe after school you'd have a few skirmishes so to speak.	10:28
Mary Hebert	But not during the school hours?	10:45
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	No.	10:45
Mary Hebert	The teachers wouldn't have discipline problems?	10:48
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	No.	10:50
Mary Hebert	Was there a recess? Could you go out and play?	10:53
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Oh yes, we looked forward to that. And we'd play the stock games of Sally, go around the sunshine, and that kind of thing.	10:55
Mary Hebert	Did you ever see the White elementary school while you were coming up? Did you notice the differences between the schools at that point?	11:08
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Really didn't. But in high school, the elementary school in the neighborhood for the Whites set back off the road. So you really didn't know what was going on there. But as I grew older and we went to high school, we had passed the White high school, and here again, you really didn't know what was going on you. We just knew that was the White high school and we damned not go there. Sometimes there would be a throwing of rocks on the bus, that kind of thing.	11:14
Mary Hebert	So the White children would throw rocks at—	11:53
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	The Blacks.	11:57
Mary Hebert	Children who were walking to school.	11:58
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Who would be on the bus.	12:00
Mary Hebert	Oh, on the bus. Oh, okay.	12:01
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Right.	12:01
Mary Hebert	So you did have a school bus to take you to school?	12:03
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Eventually we did. But in my older sister's time, they had to walk through the woods. Boy, they caught the workers that worked at the lumber mill. They rode in the car with them to a point, then they had to walk through the woods across down a railroad track. It's sad really when you think about it, and they can tell you about it. I didn't experience that because I was the youngest one. And by the time it got to my time to go to high school, my father had been down and talked with the officials to get a bus to come through to take us to school. But in my older sister's time, it was very difficult. And then after they walked through the woods, through railroad track or down the railroad track, they would come to someone's home early in the morning, and that person would have to get up and let them in and let them sit around her fire and wait for that school bus to come from a certain area to take them on to school.	12:05
Mary Hebert	So they had to walk miles and miles and miles to get the school bus?	13:28
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Oh yes, they did. Yes, they did. Even I did. Even when the bus did come, they would only let it come to a certain point. And I know I had to walk at least, I'd said, three to four miles, sometimes by myself. I had a cousin who used to walk, but not many kids went to high school, but all of us did.	13:30
Mary Hebert	The kids that didn't go have to work, is that how it was?	14:02
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yeah, they worked. They worked.	14:05
Mary Hebert	How far away was the high school? It seems like it was a great distance from where you were.	14:07
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	It was. The high school is what is now Carver. It's called Carver Intermediate School. And that's on Campostella Road in the—I'd say more in the South Norfolk section of Chesapeake. And that was—Oh, yes it is. That's a long way.	14:12
Mary Hebert	Did you have any teachers in high school that influenced you and made you want to go on to college, or was college something that your parents expected you to do?	14:47
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes, college was expected of, certainly not the older sisters. Because, the older sisters, as they came of age, they left home. My older sister went to Washington DC. We had relatives, I had my mother's brother, our uncle was in Washington. And she went there and she worked and in working she sent back to us clothing and sometimes money to help us out. And that was true of the next sister and the next one. But the three of us who were left, dad expected us to go further. My brother went into service, and that's how I was able to go to college. My sister, let's see, the fourth sister worked at the Ammunition depot in wherever, Norfolk, and eventually she got married. Dad wanted her to go to school, but she preferred to get married. She married. And I stayed with her in order to go to Norfolk State for two years.	14:57
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	It was only a two-year college at the time. And after those two years, I went to Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland. Here again, staying with a cousin. Some kind of way. I didn't know how I was going on for the other two years. And you wouldn't believe, in those two years a cousin emerged that mother hadn't heard from. It was my dad's cousin, but she and mother had been friends growing up. And she emerged out of that time. Just happened that she wrote mother. And that's how in correspondence, mother told her that I wanted to finish my two years. And strangely enough, Norfolk State sent its students to Virginia State. This is the year Virginia State said, "We can't take in more. We're not taking in more." So here I am with two years of college and no way to get the other two. So this cousin emerged and in correspondence, mother asked her if I could stay with her to finish those two years. And that's how I got my two years.	16:20
Mary Hebert	More.	17:40
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yeah.	17:41
Mary Hebert	It's amazing how things happen in our lives.	17:41
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	It is. It is. So that's how I got my other two years.	17:45
Mary Hebert	And you became a school teacher?	17:50
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes, I did. Majoring in English. And to get back to your question. Was there a teacher in high school who inspired me? There really was one that was a Mrs. Ruffin, and she's still living too. And every time I see her, I always give her a hug because she was my inspiration. She was an English teacher and somehow I just said I wanted to teach English and I was successful.	17:51
Mary Hebert	Did you learn about Black writers, African-American writers while you were in high school? Like Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance Poets?	18:26
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Not from school. But as I told you before, my dad was an avid reader, and every magazine, every book he could get his hands on was in our house. And through serendipity I'd say I came across those writers. That's true.	18:34
Mary Hebert	So you were familiar with it?	18:56
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	I was. I really was.	18:57
Mary Hebert	You mentioned earlier that your father talked to some people to get the school bus. Did you know anything about that incident? I mean, did he go to the school board and talk to them about getting the bus?	19:00
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	I don't know how he did it. I really don't think he made a formal trip to the school board. I think he, in some kind of way, contacted—I think the superintendent at the time was a Mr. Hurst and I don't remember his first name or anything. I just remember Mr. Hurst. And that's the only thing I know that he did.	19:13
Mary Hebert	But he was influential?	19:39
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	He was. He certainly was.	19:40
Mary Hebert	Your father considered a leader in your community, among African American families?	19:43
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	He was looked up to. People thought that he was smart. But he wasn't an outgoing person. He wasn't outgoing, but knowledgeable, very knowledgeable, but not one who'd say, I'm going to start this. Well actually, his hands were tied, so to speak. Remember now this is back there in the forties. And I really think he was a bit afraid of what the White people might do to him. Because I remember specifically when I started working, I said, dad, I'm going to fix the house up. I'm going to put siding on it and I'm going to fix it up and make it comfortable for you and mom, because I was single. I wasn't married. And he said, "No." Said, "Don't do that." And I always wondered why he was reluctant for me to do this. And I really think that he thought the White people might not like it if he did too much to his house.	19:49
Mary Hebert	And his house looked better than some of theirs?	20:52
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Oh, it did.	20:55
Mary Hebert	If he fixed it up, it would look so much better?	20:56
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes. And I really think that's the only reason I could see that he didn't want it done.	21:00
Mary Hebert	So he never joined the NAACP and those organizations?	21:07
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	No, no, no, but he voted.	21:11
Mary Hebert	Oh, he did?	21:14
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes, he did. I was talking with my sister this morning. I said, "I know he was the only one in that area who voted. He always voted. He really did.	21:16
Mary Hebert	Did your mother vote too, or it was just your father?	21:27
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	I don't think she did. I really don't think she did. Now she was very influential. When it came to the discipline she was a stern disciplinarian. Dad, he wasn't so much on discipline. All he had to do was to look at us or give us a spank and that's all. And we thought that was rude for dad to do it. But mom was the disciplinarian. She came from the old school. She was brought up by her grandparents, and she was old-fashioned and she had quite a job on her hand. She had five girls to worry about. She did an excellent job. She did.	21:30
Mary Hebert	Was she strict about dating and those things?	22:09
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Oh, definitely she was. Never let those older sisters go out a alone? Some of the younger ones had to go with them, and they would report what happened. Yep. She didn't have to worry about that with me. See, by the time I went to school and everything, I wasn't exactly under her roof. You see? But that discipline was there however.	22:11
Mary Hebert	She was strict.	22:38
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Oh, yes.	22:38
Mary Hebert	Did she try to control who you played with?	22:40
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Oh definitely, yes. We only played with our first cousins. Now the others, we didn't shun them or anything like that. We got along with them, but mother would say, "Now they're not fit for you to associate with." We could talk with them and things like that.	22:43
Mary Hebert	But they were never allowed over, and you weren't allowed to go to their—	23:04
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	No, no.	23:07
Mary Hebert	While you were in high school, what kinds of things would you do for fun? Were there any movies nearby? Or sounds like you lived in a pretty rural area.	23:10
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	It was. And we didn't get a chance to go to the movie. Not in high school. Church was the only "social" event. If you want quotation marks social. That's the only time we got to talk and visit with a group of other people. Sunday school and church.	23:19
Mary Hebert	Did they have revivals or camp meetings?	23:41
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes, we did. We had a revival.	23:43
Mary Hebert	Would people have picnics and bring food for revivals?	23:47
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes. And also on Children's Day, that was a time when people brought food and you made the homemade lemonade. Boy, it doesn't taste like it did then. But yeah, they were the events that we had.	23:51
Mary Hebert	Children's Day, was it in honor of the children? Were the children put on programs?	24:10
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	I guess we had a program. The only thing I can remember about those Children's Day affairs were the eating, the eating activity. But I don't remember that we had poems or recitations. I don't remember that part. I just remember the food. Oh, boy.	24:16
Mary Hebert	Did you ever know your grandparents on either side? Did you have much contact with them at all?	24:42
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	I really didn't. They had died at my time.	24:47
Mary Hebert	Well, you were the youngest of them?	24:51
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	I was. The older sisters remember them.	24:52
Mary Hebert	Did your parents ever tell you what it was like or what life was like for them when they were growing up?	24:57
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	My dad always talked about, his fondest memories to me, were the times when he was allowed to sit in on concerts in New York, practice concerts. He said he would run over—I don't think he was supposed to, but he would steal off and go to those practice rehearsals of established concerts. And he thought that was the grandest thing. He was very fond of classical music, and that's how I learned it. He knew music and he'd take a hymn book and he'd teach us notes from old hymn books. He was very fond of classical music especially.	25:07
Mary Hebert	Was that something that was in your home with the radios?	25:58
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes. We did get a radio, eventually. And we had a few records and we'd play them over and over until we knew every word of them. And mother, you never heard her talk too much about her early childhood except that she was brought up by her grandparents, who too were very strict. Now, her education in included college, not college in the sense that you know it today. I think from high school she went to school in Virginia State, which was college, but she never taught or anything like that. But she was very, very knowledgeable. She really was.	26:00
Mary Hebert	How did your father get back to the south after being in New York all those years? Did he ever tell you how he got back here or came back here?	26:58
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	I don't know. See, some of his folk were in New York. That's how he was there. But his father and his grandfather and all were here anyway. So now how he came back and when he came back, I don't know, but I think he was a grown man when he came back.	27:02
Mary Hebert	But he did spend a good part of his time being-	27:24
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	He did. He really did.	27:26
Mary Hebert	What was your house like growing up? Was it a large house, the house you grew up in?	27:31
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Our original house was burned, and I remember that I was about four years old, because I wasn't in school and I remember it burning down. Now after that house was burned, we lived in a house that belonged to White people, but we didn't live in that house long. And that was a big two-story house. I remember that one. Didn't live in it long, I don't know, maybe five, six years. Then after that, my father fixed up this old house that really did belong in the family. He fixed that up and we lived in that one until I was grown.	27:37
Mary Hebert	Did it have like a wood stove—	28:22
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes.	28:25
Mary Hebert	No electricity?	28:26
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Eventually, yes, but at first, no. Lamp lights. The oil lamps? Yeah.	28:29
Mary Hebert	And what about running water? Did you have running water?	28:36
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	No, we had a pump.	28:37
Mary Hebert	Did they ever get it?	28:37
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Did we ever get it? Not in my time. Not in my time. We always had pump water, and you know what that was like on the wash day, I'd have to pump the water. And all of us had our chores. Mine was to pump the water, pick up the chips to make the fire, scrub the floors and all of that. Mother trained us well. She didn't do a great deal, but she had delegated that work to us.	28:41
Mary Hebert	Did she have a garden? Her own garden?	29:15
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes. She always had a garden. [indistinct 00:29:23] I just wanted to give a little light. No.	29:16
Mary Hebert	So she had a garden. Was it a vegetable kitchen garden?	29:25
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes. Excellent garden. Excellent garden. But she didn't let us weed it or anything. She did that herself. It's strange how even in cooking, she always did the cooking. We could look, but she never would let us really, really get in there and do the cooking. She did that. And we learned-	29:28
Mary Hebert	By watching?	29:57
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes. Not by doing, but by watching.	29:58
Mary Hebert	Did she have flowers also? Did she have a flower garden?	30:02
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes. She always had flowers.	30:05
Mary Hebert	A lot of people I've talked to, their lawns didn't have grass on them. Did y'all have grass in your lawn or was it all dirt?	30:08
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	A bit? Yeah, we had a bit of grass, but not a lawn in the real sense of a lawn? No.	30:14
Mary Hebert	Would you have to sweep the grass?	30:23
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes.	30:24
Mary Hebert	Sweep the lawn. One of the—	30:24
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes. Yes. It's strange. Oh, and she did a great deal of canning and preserving. That's that was our livelihood for the winter. She canned pork. She canned every vegetable known. She preserved watermelon rinds, pears, apples. She made jellies.	30:26
Mary Hebert	And that's how your family got through the winter?	30:54
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	That's exactly right. A lady would come up from Norfolk and she'd spend a month during the corn season and they would can and preserve together, and half of it went to the lady and half to us.	30:55
Mary Hebert	Did your father have a smokehouse on the [indistinct 00:31:17]?	31:13
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes, he did. Yes. He had smoked his meat, his pork, his hams and the sides and all of that. And that's what carried us through.	31:16
Mary Hebert	Were the winters bad? I mean, were they cold and snow and things like that?	31:33
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Not all that much, no. Not to the extent that you couldn't get around.	31:39
Mary Hebert	I want to go back to you being in high school again. Did you belong to any clubs and organizations while you were in high school?	31:44
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	None that I can remember. Now, I know we had what they called a glee club, a singing group, but I don't recall belonging to that.	31:55
Mary Hebert	Were you allowed to go to the proms and the dances? Did your mother allow you to go to those things?	32:06
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Once I did go and the little fella, of course, he couldn't come out there to get me, but I was supposed to have met him there. But I was always a very shy person, and my sisters and my brother always joked me. If there were anybody that I thought I might like, they joked me so much, so I was always shy. So the little fella was to the prom. But I mean, I think we might have danced once. And that was about the extent—	32:13
Mary Hebert	You had to meet him there. You couldn't—	32:47
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Oh, definitely. That's true. And I was staying with my sister, the one that married and was here.	32:47
Mary Hebert	So you moved in with your sister. You lived with your sister for a little while?	32:56
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes, I did. For two years.	32:59
Mary Hebert	While you were in high school, was that when you were at-	33:01
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	That was college. To go to Norfolk State.	33:02
Mary Hebert	When you were a child and a teenager, how did you get your clothing? Would your mother purchase that for you?	33:12
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	No, she made them.	33:19
Mary Hebert	She made it?	33:19
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes. She could take a piece of newspaper. I've seen her do it. And get our size, cut it out on newspaper and get the material and she would sew those things. To us, it was beautiful, and she'd starch those dresses and things and we looked pretty nice, at least clean. We were clean. We may have worn that dress two or three times that week, but it was clean. Oh yes, she was definitely clean.	33:20
Mary Hebert	What about shoes? Would she order those from Sears and Montgomery Ward catalog?	33:54
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes, especially on holidays, and I think that's the only time I remember her coming into town. Somebody would bring her into town and she would buy shoes for us. Now, other times, as you said, she would order them from Montgomery Ward, I remember very well. Then at other times, a lady, the same lady who would come down to help her can had 13 children, and you wouldn't believe that she'd have shoes and clothing to give to mom? She did. She'd give us shoes and whether they fitted or not, we had to wear them. My husband wonders today why I buy so many shoes. He doesn't understand. I really like shoes. So that's how we got our shoes.	33:58
Mary Hebert	Would they ever go into town, your parents for supplies, like groceries, things like that? Or did they make most of it on the farm?	34:56
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Most of it was on the farm, but certain things like sugar or things like that, dad would go to the neighborhood store and get those.	35:07
Mary Hebert	Did you ever go to that store?	35:20
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	I did. Well, I was a teenager, about 13 or 14, my oldest sister sent me a pair of skates and I'd skated to the store. And what mom would do with her hinge, she'd get the eggs and I would take the eggs to the store in exchange for money. And from that money I would buy whatever supplies she wanted.	35:23
Mary Hebert	I've talked to people who have, while they were in the stores being waited on, a White customer would come in and they had to wait.	35:50
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Oh, definitely.	35:57
Mary Hebert	Did that happen to you?	35:58
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes, it did. Yes.	35:59
Mary Hebert	And we knew no better, so we just waited. It wasn't that you'd say, "Well, you were waiting on me first." "No, you waited." It was just the way things were.	36:02
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	That's exactly right.	36:13
Mary Hebert	After you came to Norfolk and went on to Baltimore, did you ever face not being able to try on clothes in department stores or shoes in department stores?	36:16
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Well, I remember in Norfolk, it didn't happen to me because at the time I wasn't wearing hats. But my sister told me that in Rices Department Store, Blacks could not try on hats unless they'd have to put a piece of cloth on the hair before they could try a hat on. I suppose they felt that our hair was greasy, and would get the hat—And maybe so. But that's what happened.	36:27
Mary Hebert	But you never had the experience of not being able to try on clothes?	36:59
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Not that I can remember. I really can't remember that. I guess I didn't have the occasion because I wore my sister's cloths. The one in Norfolk, she and I wore the same things. When I went to Baltimore, every weekend I went to Washington. That's where I had two sisters and they would lend me clothes. They were so proud that I was in college. My sister let me wear her mink coat. I wore that anytime. She said, "Take the coat." And I would wear it. And the guys at school thought I was well-dressed. But they were my sister's clothes.	37:03
Mary Hebert	What did she do for a living to be able to afford the mink coat or what did her husband do for a living?	37:45
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Her husband was a sign painter in DC, and she worked at the Navy Yard in Washington.	37:50
Mary Hebert	So they both had good jobs.	38:02
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	They did. And my other sister worked at Walter Reed, and her husband, I don't know what Dewey did. I can't remember what he did, but she worked at Walter Reed. I think he worked at Walter Reed too. Both of them. He did. He was in the Navy too.	38:03
Mary Hebert	How were you treated at Morgan State after coming from Norfolk State and Virginia? I mean, did they treat you like differently than the students from Baltimore?	38:33
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Not at all. Not at all. I seemed to have got on well with everybody there. One thing, there were some kids from Norfolk, and we tended to get around together, and then I met other people from Baltimore and the area they seemed to have taken on—We all seemed to have gotten on well. And then there was a lady on campus who was in charge of the Zeta Sorority. And by my associating with those kids in Baltimore, I joined the Zeta Sorority. And that helped me a lot to learn more people and to get into social events and whatnot.	38:44
Mary Hebert	Were you asked to join the sorority?	39:33
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes, I was.	39:34
Mary Hebert	Did you join any other organizations or social clubs?	39:38
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Let's see. What else? I can't remember any. At Norfolk State I sang in the chorus there, but I don't think I sang in Baltimore. I don't think so. That was 1949. That was a long time ago.	39:42
Mary Hebert	With the Zetas, what would y'all do? Would you have parties on weekends?	40:08
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes, we would.	40:12
Mary Hebert	What sororities do now?	40:13
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Right. We'd have our affairs. And the lady herself, I don't know what she called herself. She was a Zeta, and her husband taught on campus. But anyway, she'd have affairs for us at her home.	40:14
Mary Hebert	Would you dress up?	40:36
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yeah, in our blue and white. Yeah. And when somebody else was coming into the sorority, that was a big affair. We had to initiate those people, and all of that was done at her house.	40:38
Mary Hebert	I need to turn this tape.	40:53

Mary Hebert	—they have a football team. Were the Zetas involved in going to the games together?	0:00
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	No, but it did have a football game, team rather. Morgan was known for its outstanding football team. Coach Eddie Hurt, he didn't lose games. So that was a big event.	0:08
Mary Hebert	Would you go to those games?	0:26
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yeah, sometimes I would attend, but we wouldn't attend as a group.	0:29
Mary Hebert	And not dressed?	0:33
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	No.	0:34
Mary Hebert	I see that now at football games.	0:35
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	I know.	0:37
Mary Hebert	All the sororities go together.	0:38
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yeah. Yeah.	0:39
Mary Hebert	You mentioned that you traveled a lot to Washington while you were in Baltimore. Was transportation still segregated at that point, between Baltimore and Washington?	0:41
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	I suppose it was.	0:54
Mary Hebert	Is someone at your door?	0:56
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes.	1:01
Mary Hebert	Talking about the segregated transportation?	1:01
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes. I can't remember anything distinctly, unless it was that I just knew I was to sit in the back, and I made no bones about it. I just can't remember anything specific.	1:05
Mary Hebert	While you were in Norfolk, and in the Chesapeake area, would you ever go to the beach, out to CV Beach?	1:21
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes. Yes. That was a yearly thing with our church. We'd get a big truck, I guess, in the community, and we'd all sit in the bottom of it with our blankets and quilts, and we'd go to the beach. And boy, that was a big event. Mother would fry the chicken, and the deviled eggs, and that kind of thing. And it would be fun.	1:27
Mary Hebert	How would you dress for the beach? Would you wear a dress or casual clothes?	2:01
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	I can't remember. I can't remember. I just imagine we wore slacks. Yes.	2:07
Mary Hebert	How did World War II impact this area?	2:17
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Well, that brings in my sister who married. Remember, my father wanted her to go to college, but with the war, that's when she went to work. And she started making really good money at that time. And that's when she got married. She didn't want to give up that money for going to school.	2:22
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	However, later she did. After she married, she went back to school, Norfolk State and became an art teacher. But it provided work for many of the Blacks who had not been afforded that opportunity before that. And I remember our having the ration books. My sister, in cleaning up, came across mine. And she gave it to me and I let my grandchild have it, because she was doing some history. And I sent it to her and I said, "Hold on to that," because it was pretty interesting.	2:45
Mary Hebert	How did that work? You got so many rations for food?	3:29
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	That's right, sugar. If I wanted to buy five pounds of sugar, I'd have to tear up so many coupons for that. Or meat, everything was rationed at the time.	3:32
Mary Hebert	Were there air raid drills here? Were you in Norfolk at that time?	3:45
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Mm-hmm.	3:49
Mary Hebert	Air raid drills at night?	3:49
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes. Yes. We'd have them, even at school it seems. And we'd have to get under the seats and that kind of thing.	3:51
Mary Hebert	Would your parents talk about the war and what was going on in your home?	4:01
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Occasionally. See Daddy read a lot. So he knew what was going on. And we'd all be sitting around, and he'd be discussing. Mother didn't contribute too much, because I guess busy with housework and trying to raise us, she couldn't keep up with it. But she'd listen and she'd ask questions and whatnot. And we didn't say much, because see, during those times you didn't interrupt grown people talking. You didn't even ask questions. Mother thought you were being a bit sassy if you asked, if you questioned anything.	4:06
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	And it would be disgusted and we would listen. But for me, I don't know how the other siblings felt about it, but it was frightening to me. I'd be afraid. And we had the radio that kept us.	4:45
Mary Hebert	Just listen to it.	5:00
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yeah, yeah.	5:01
Mary Hebert	Did your father ever talk about Franklin Roosevelt? Did he admire Roosevelt?	5:04
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	He did. But strangely enough, and maybe not so strangely either, my father, and I tell my sisters this, and they find it hard to believe, my father was Republican. He and my uncle, my uncle would come down from Washington and they would spend a whole day just discussing politics. And they were together as far as, both of them were Republican. At least they had Republican ideas. Now how my dad voted, I don't know.	5:09
Mary Hebert	He never talked to you about that?	5:42
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	No, no, but he was definitely—He always said, "I could never be a Democrat." I remember those words. And it seems sort of strange now, when most Blacks are Democrats.	5:42
Mary Hebert	I think that ship came with Franklin Roosevelt though.	6:00
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	It did. It did.	6:02
Mary Hebert	And I just wondered if he admired Roosevelt or what Roosevelt did? Or did he remain Republican in his ideas?	6:05
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	I think he did. I think he did.	6:10
Mary Hebert	He remained Republican? Okay.	6:12
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes, he did. And I remember the WPA workers, I remember they would come by, and my mom would explain that they were the WPA workers. And I didn't understand anything about who they were, or what they were, but we knew they were the WPA workers. And seems like we knew somebody who was one.	6:19
Mary Hebert	Would they dress alike? How did you tell them apart from other people?	6:44
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	It was the fact that they would come by and they would be working on the highways. They'd be in these groups and they'd be repairing the road and that kind of thing.	6:48
Mary Hebert	Were they Black workers?	7:03
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes, the ones we saw were.	7:05
Mary Hebert	Was there any clan activity in the area that you grew up in?	7:11
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Not to our knowledge, not in our section. But as I've gotten grown, my sister was telling me—My sister lives in the Hickory. One of my sisters lives in the Hickory area of Chesapeake. And she said that some of the people who were native of that area, some of the Blacks, said that right on the corner of, let's see now, Sun, no, not Sun Pine, St. Bride's Road, and I can't remember the other street now. That was a normal occurrence. Those clans would come together and they would have their meetings right there. And that sort of surprised me, because up there where we were, no doubt, there were clan members. But we were not aware of it.	7:15
Mary Hebert	So no meetings?	8:09
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	No.	8:10
Mary Hebert	No burnings?	8:11
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	No	8:11
Mary Hebert	No lynchings?	8:11
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	No.	8:11
Mary Hebert	Were there any controversies in your community concerning civil rights and the Civil Rights Movement? Those kinds of—	8:15
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Uh-uh. Our community was sort of sparse. There were not many families. And there were a few Whites interspersed with the Blacks. But we lived closer to the Whites than the other section of Blacks. They were more or less lumped together. Some kind of way, we were down this end, in the midst of White people.	8:22
Mary Hebert	Did you ever interact with them? Play with the children, or—	8:50
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Now my sisters and all would work for them, doing farm work. And you'd have the occasion to talk with them, but no.	8:56
Mary Hebert	No playing together?	9:10
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	No, no.	9:14
Mary Hebert	Did you ever have chores while you were growing up in high school or while you were in college?	9:14
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	We would do, in that area, we would do strawberry picking and string snap beans. We would do that sometimes. Occasionally my sisters would go, and I would go, and mother would always admonish us with, "There's not to be any fussing, no arguing in that you go on and do your work." And people always commended mother on, "Your children certainly do work well." But she had admonished us before we got there. Of course, we never did, we didn't do arguing and that kind of thing, because my mother and father didn't. And I never was used to that bickering and that kind of thing. So we didn't.	9:17
Mary Hebert	Would she have found out if you would have bickered and argued?	10:04
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Oh, brother, it was a sore behinds.	10:06
Mary Hebert	But she found out if you would miss, if the children—	10:10
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Oh yes. Oh yes. The others, people were always watching.	10:12
Mary Hebert	Do you remember how much money you earned with the strawberry picking? And—	10:21
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	I certainly don't. I don't know whether it was 25 cents a quart for strawberries. I'm not sure about that. I can't remember.	10:23
Mary Hebert	But it wasn't very much money?	10:31
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Oh no, no.	10:34
Mary Hebert	Was sending you to college a financial hardship for your family?	10:35
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	I'm sure it was a sacrifice, I'll put it that way. But as I told you, my brother was in service, and he sent his allotment to my parents. And from that, they were able to pay my tuition. And that's all dad felt you had to do was pay tuition. He didn't worry about the clothing, or what you wore, or anything like that. But thank goodness the other sisters were able. We happened to be the same size and we exchanged clothes. So that's how I made it.	10:39
Mary Hebert	As a Zeta, would y'all go to restaurants, soda fountains together? Did you hang out with Zetas?	11:18
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Really didn't.	11:24
Mary Hebert	It was just for the social franchise?	11:25
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	That's all. That's all.	11:27
Mary Hebert	When you were growing up in this area, was there a Black doctor that would care for African-American families? Or did you have—	11:34
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes, there was. There were two. There were Dr. Quarles and Dr. A.B. Green. Dr. A.B. Green's father was a doctor. And when I was in college and I had to go back to Morgan, I always had to have a physical checkup. And I'd go to him and he always say, "Oh no, I don't charge you anything. You are trying to go to school." And I thought that was so nice of him. So I never had to pay for my checkups.	11:43
Mary Hebert	Did you ever feel like, this is something we ask everyone that we interview, did you ever feel like you were treated as a second class citizen during the Jim Crow era?	12:22
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Maybe I just wasn't sensitive.	12:33
Mary Hebert	Do you think the Civil Rights Movement changed that sensitivity toward it?	12:37
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes. I'm sure it made us more aware of that. I guess it's sort of hard to describe. When you've been brought up in this kind of thing, you sort of have a shell, you know, just get the feeling as though this is the way it is.	12:43
Mary Hebert	And you live your life—	13:07
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Accordingly.	13:07
Mary Hebert	According to it.	13:07
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes. Yes.	13:07
Mary Hebert	Did the system of segregation intrude into your everyday life though? Was it something that you were constantly aware of?	13:14
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes. Strange as it may seem, as I've grown older, I've become more sensitive than I was when I was really, really more in the midst of it. Now my son, my oldest son, was right at the beginning of integration. And let's see now, we decided that we would send him to an integrated school, to Oscar Smith.	13:22
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	He went. He was supposed to have gone with two other people, two other Blacks. And for one reason or another, the superintendent sort of discouraged the parents from sending them. But he couldn't say anything about my son because he was very bright. He couldn't say, "Well, his grades, because his grades are not so good. We wouldn't advise it." He didn't say that. So he went to Oscar Smith.	13:57
Mary Hebert	This was in the '60s?	14:27
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes, it was. And—	14:28
Mary Hebert	How was he treated there?	14:31
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	That's a good question. I only know of one instance in which he said that a boy told him, "Why don't you go to your own school?" And he told him, "This is my school." And said he never had any other problems with that fella.	14:32
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Now, one day when, maybe—He's 41 or 2. One day when we have plenty of time, I would just like to talk to him, because he never revealed to us the problems that he had, if he had any. I don't know how the teachers treated him, but we certainly went to the PTAs, and we talked with the teachers about, nobody had anything negative to say about it.	14:54
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Well, he was a bright student, there's no question about it. So that side was fine. I wasn't worried about that. But we never heard him say that he was mistreated by any of the teachers or any of the students. In fact, I think he was pretty well liked there. Because he was a guy who minded his own business, but he was also a guy that people would generate to because he was just that kind of person.	15:27
Mary Hebert	So was he one of the only Black students?	15:57
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	He was the only.	15:59
Mary Hebert	The only Black student in—	15:59
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	The first and only, he really was. So from there he went to Great Bridge High. And I suppose having had the experience of going to an integrated school, he had no problems. They begged him to be on the basketball team because he was tall and what not. But he never joined. No, he didn't. He was the intellectual type. He just, everybody can't play basketball because you are Black. He was just the intellectual type.	16:01
Mary Hebert	Did you consult with him before sending him to the integrated school? Did you ask him?	16:37
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes, I did. I did. We talked with him. He said, "I'll go." I don't think it's anything he would've volunteered to do, but I think he was more or less doing what we sort of wanted him to do.	16:39
Mary Hebert	Were you active in the Civil Rights Movement? I mean, is that one of the things that led you to want to send your son to—	16:54
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	That was one, besides the personal thing of getting the most that he could get, which I felt at the time, which I feel differently now, but at the time I felt he'd get more exposure. He'd be introduced to a good curriculum. But now that I look at it, I don't know. I don't know. I have reservations now, because I know how we worked in a Black situation and I know how we worked in an integrated situation. And I wonder now.	17:01
Mary Hebert	You were teaching within the segregated school system?	17:45
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes, I was.	17:49
Mary Hebert	At this point.	17:49
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes, I was.	17:50
Mary Hebert	Did you think the conditions that the White schools were better, lab equipment, books, that kind of thing? [indistinct 00:17:58]	17:51
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	That's exactly right. That was one of my reasons for wanting him to go to an integrated school.	17:57
Mary Hebert	How did you feel about the schools integrating? Did you ever fear that you would lose your job? That some of the Black schools would be closed because of integration?	18:04
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	I didn't feel that. And none in this area were closed. But they were reduced from high schools to junior high schools. But I had no fear, because I felt I was prepared. I guess I didn't have sense enough to fear. And actually, to my knowledge, none of us lost our jobs. Some of us were transferred to schools we would rather not have been transferred to.	18:12
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	But I was in a workshop that summer, and I worked with some teachers from Great Bridge. And well, I've always been a person, I can get along with anybody. And for the most part, I'll put it. And after I finished my workshop, I got a letter asking that I be transferred to Great Bridge. Now I had worked one year. From Carver High School, I was sent one year to Crestwood High School. And at Crestwood, I thought that's where I would be. But before Crestwood was reduced to a junior high, I was sent to Great Bridge High School. And there I worked 18 years.	18:44
Mary Hebert	So you were at Great Bridge for 18 years?	19:35
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Mm-hmm. Teaching English, just as I was at Carver.	19:39
Mary Hebert	How did the conditions between Carver and say, Great Bridge, compare? Were the library facilities better at Great Bridge than at Carver?	19:46
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes, they were. Yes, they were.	19:55
Mary Hebert	Textbook quality was greater?	19:57
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	And far more books. Far more activities. Because if we had to do a term paper, well, at Carver you were just restricted to what was there in the library and that alone. But with Great Bridge, you could work there in the library, but also you had access to the central library, which wasn't far from it, you see?	20:00
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	So facilities were much better. But I feel that I lost a grasp on the Black students. Not that they had to be different. Not that I'm going to work with the Black—Not that at all. They sort of became enmeshed with everybody else. And I couldn't, things that I knew that they were lacking, and they needed, I couldn't just give it to them anymore.	20:33
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	While in a Black situation, I could. And it would go over because I had the support of the parents. "Yes, you'd better get it. I want them to go to college." You'd have that kind of thing. But in an integrated situation, I didn't have that. And parents too lost the zeal that they had for their children. But here you are dealing with different times too.	21:08
Mary Hebert	That's about all my questions. That's about all my questions. Is there anything that you want to add to this that I haven't asked you about that you feel we should talk about?	21:48
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	I'm sure after you are gone, I can think of 50 things. Oh, I didn't say—I think that covers pretty much my feelings, and my attitudes, and whatnot.	22:01
Mary Hebert	Just a couple of quick ones. Did you ever belong to the NAACP? Did you join?	22:15
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes, I did. When at Carver, that was a requirement. I mean, if you worked, you knew you would be a member of the NAACP. But after then, there was no emphasis put on it. And like anything else, if it isn't emphasized, you just put it aside with so many other things. So yes, I did.	22:19
Mary Hebert	Was the principle at Carver an important part of the community? Was he local—	22:41
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Very much so.	22:45
Mary Hebert	Or he or she, I don't know.	22:45
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	It was a man.	22:47
Mary Hebert	He was looked up to by the people in the community?	22:48
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes, he was. And we worked with the community too. Every teacher had to visit the home of every student he taught, which was—	22:51
Mary Hebert	I didn't know that. You had to visit every student's home?	23:04
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes, we did. And sometimes it would be at night when we'd go. But you did have to do that.	23:05
Mary Hebert	Was there stress on, you want these kids to get the best education they can so that they can go on to college?	23:13
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Exactly. Exactly. And many of them did. Doctors came out of it, lawyers came out of it. You've got a little bit of everything. Some are doing well.	23:19
Mary Hebert	As a teacher, were you considered a role model within the community? Were you expected to dress nicely and to—	23:32
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	I suppose. I suppose. I suppose a teacher was considered a role model. Certainly in the early days of my teaching, yes. But later on the role diminished, because like everything else, morals began to decay. And the teacher wasn't looked up to as a role model, as she was earlier.	23:45
Mary Hebert	When you first became a teacher?	24:17
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	That's true. That's true.	24:17
Mary Hebert	I'm just going to look through this list of questions quickly to make sure that—	24:23
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Okay,	24:26
Mary Hebert	—we covered everything. Did you learn about Black history while you were in high school and college?	24:28
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Not in high school, but in college. More in college than in high school.	24:36
Mary Hebert	Did you learn some of it from your father? You said he was such an avid reader.	24:41
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes. Yes.	24:42
Mary Hebert	Did you learn about George Washington Carver, and Dubois, and those people from your father?	24:42
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes. And Booker T Washington, those like that. And Langston Hughes, ones like that. And Mary Bethune. We knew about those.	24:44
Mary Hebert	Would he ever talk about Marcus Garvey?	25:05
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes. Yes, yes, and taking Blacks back to Africa. And he was supposed to have had a ship. And things like that seemed to frighten me. And mother would be involved in talking about that, and I'd be afraid about getting on this ship.	25:08
Mary Hebert	Did they support Garvey? Did they agree with that kind of separatism?	25:30
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	I never knew what their stand was, but they would be discussing it. I don't—I'd rather think that they weren't in favor of that. Yeah, I don't think so.	25:36
Mary Hebert	But it was frightening to you as a child?	25:49
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Yes, it was. I guess I was afraid of everything, but it was, sort of frightening.	25:59
Mary Hebert	I asked if your mother belonged to clubs. Did your father belong to any organizations?	26:00
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	He was a Mason and he was very active. People today tell me that they remember my father going to the meetings and talking.	26:04
Mary Hebert	Okay. Well that's about it. Unless there's something else that's come to your mind?	26:17
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	Move that pillow out of your—	26:27
Mary Hebert	So far, unless something else has come to your mind.	26:29
Elnora Elliott Hayslette	I don't think so.	26:33
Mary Hebert	Okay, well, I'll stop this now.	26:34

Item Info

Title:

Elnora Hayslette interview recording, 1995 August 05

Date:

August 5, 1995

Creator:

Hayslette, Elnora Elliott

Contributor:

Hebert, Mary

Description:

Name: Elnora Elliott Hayslette; Date of birth: 1928-01-06; Place of birth: Chesapeake, VA; Occupation(s): school teacher; educator;; Residence: Chesapeake,VA
Informant ID: 1001; Interviewed by: Mary Hebert.

Occupation:

Location:

Format:

Language:

English

Digital Collection:

Behind the Veil

Source Collection:

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

Series:

Related Resources:

See below

Provenance:

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

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC 4.0

Rights Note:

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

Identifier:

RL00170-CS-1312
766308f5-e643-4fce-bd9c-a6ad9e78d680
behindtheveil
bae7879a-4538-4b10-9fab-6b04cbbf83fa
ark:/87924/r4v126v51
bae7879a-4538-4b10-9fab-6b04cbbf83fa

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4v126v51

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Elnora Hayslette interview recording, 1995 August 05

Transcript

Item Info

1. Elnora Hayslette administrative file, 1995

John Hope Franklin Research Center

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Elnora Hayslette interview recording, 1995 August 05

Transcript

Item Info

Related Items

John Hope Franklin Research Center

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