Artelia Bryant interview recording, 1994 November 08

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Greta Ai-Yu Niu	To start out with, would you mind saying your name and the date that you were born?	0:03
Artelia Melba Bryant	Oh, all right. My name is Artelia Melba Bryant, M-E-L-B-A, Melba Bryant. And I was born on March the 8th, 1921.	0:10
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	1921?	0:21
Artelia Melba Bryant	'21, correct.	0:22
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Where were you born?	0:22
Artelia Melba Bryant	I was born in Phoebus, Virginia.	0:24
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Could you spell that?	0:33
Artelia Melba Bryant	P-H-O-E-B-U-S, Virginia. Which is now incorporated into Hampton, Virginia. But I always say Phoebus because that's really the township that I was born in.	0:36
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Was it a small town?	0:54
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yes, yes.	0:56
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	How many people?	0:57
Artelia Melba Bryant	Oh, I doubt if it was more than 5,000. It was small, yes. But by being incorporated with Hampton, Virginia, it's now much larger place with the larger area and population.	1:00
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	And was it incorporated into Hampton when you were there?	1:28
Artelia Melba Bryant	No, no, that was done in the early '50s.	1:32
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	When did you leave there?	1:35
Artelia Melba Bryant	I left that area in 1939, and I went to Hampton University, Hampton Institute at that time from '37 to '38, '39. And then I came to North Carolina, to Durham and attended what was then, North Carolina College. I believe it was College for Negroes at that time. And I finished there in 1942.	1:37
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Would you mind telling me what you were studying at the Hampton Institute?	2:21
Artelia Melba Bryant	Physical Education and Chemistry.	2:26
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Were those unusual things to be studying at the time?	2:38
Artelia Melba Bryant	Not necessarily, no.	2:38
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	For women?	2:40
Artelia Melba Bryant	No, I don't think so, because physical education played a much greater role in the school systems then, than it does now in the school system.	2:43
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	What were you hoping to do with physical education and chemistry?	3:00
Artelia Melba Bryant	I beg your pardon?	3:00
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	What were you planning to do with those thing?	3:15
Artelia Melba Bryant	Well, I was going to teach, but I found out that I was in the wrong field and when I came to Durham, I changed my major to business. I finished North Carolina, it's now North Carolina Central University, but I finished in commerce and a Bachelor's, BS in commerce, which I did much better in.	3:16
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Did you enjoy it more?	3:56
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yes, yes. I had better skills in that area.	4:05
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Could you say a little more about what you mean by better skills?	4:10
Artelia Melba Bryant	Well there, I just could do better in that field. That felt like I did in better than I did in physical education. That encompassed typing and the bookkeeping and shorthand. I wasn't so good in shorthand, but I did an excellent job in typing.	4:14
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Were you working while you were at North Carolina College?	4:57
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yes, I had a job on campus to help, it was programs in National Youth Administration, and that was a government finance program for college students. At that time, the national president of the person who was hired by the government to administrate that program was Mary McLeod Bethune, you've heard of her?	5:01
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Yes.	5:35
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yes, she founded Bethune-Cookman College in Florida.	5:37
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Bethune?	5:48
Artelia Melba Bryant	Cookman College. But she was appointed by Franklin D. Roosevelt to handle that program.	5:49
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Did you actually ever work with Mary McLeod?	6:06
Artelia Melba Bryant	No, no. That particular program was in many schools to help Black students. And of course, she was a Black woman.	6:09
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	This program for national administration, what were you doing?	6:19
Artelia Melba Bryant	Whatever was assigned to me. Maybe I had to straighten up a room where I put linen in a closet and things like that. Some students may have had jobs in the administrative office, filing and things like that. There were many types of jobs, some worked in the cafeteria.	6:31
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	And did you feel like working in that program was using your skills that you were learning in business?	7:03
Artelia Melba Bryant	Well, not necessarily, no. It was more or less, I don't think they coordinated those two, your skills and what you were doing. But it was just a program to help you with your financing in college. You didn't actually get the money, but you got credit for it. I wish I could remember more about it, but it was the Dean of Women at North Carolina Central, administered the program there. And I'm sure they had the same status of a person in other schools.	7:12
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Was this your first job that you had?	7:57
Artelia Melba Bryant	No, no. I worked when I was in high school in Phoebus.	8:08
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	What were you doing? Would you mind talking about that?	8:15
Artelia Melba Bryant	No, I don't mind. Oh, let's see. I had several jobs off and on. One, I worked in a restaurant in Hampton, Virginia, and I could get on the trolley car. I think the fare was a nickel and where I lived and where the job was, it was all on a trolley route. I didn't have to go off of the main street to get to the job. That was one job. I had taken orders, given it to the head cook or the person in charge. And I would also set the tables, clean the table. And at one time, this lady decided, she tried me on. They made homemade rolls, and she had me trying to set up the rolls, but for some reason, my hands didn't do well and the dough would stick to my hands, but it was quite an experience.	8:17
Artelia Melba Bryant	That's one job that I had. Another one, I worked for a family in Hampton. It was the husband and wife and one or two children. I did cleaning, ironing. They had a mangle type iron in the home.	9:49
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	A what?	10:12
Artelia Melba Bryant	Mangle, I think it's M-A-N-G-L-E. It was a machine that you could lift and put the top, the heated part on the garment, and then lift it up in time for it to be ironed and not let it stay there long and burn anything. And did a babysitting. Well, I didn't do any cooking or anything because I didn't know how, really.	10:13
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	How old were you at the time, do you remember?	10:56
Artelia Melba Bryant	I believe I was about 15 years old.	10:59
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Would you like to get that?	11:02
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yes.	11:02
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	I'll just stop it for a moment.	11:02
Artelia Melba Bryant	Okay. Now, let's see. I was talking—	11:03
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	You were about 15 when you were working for this family. Was it a White family?	11:14
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yes, White.	11:18
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	And at the same time you were working at the restaurant?	11:22
Artelia Melba Bryant	No, no, these were different times. I imagine I may have worked at the restaurant after I worked with this family. Then I had another job, it was short-lived down in Phoebus I tried to iron for some folks, but that didn't last too long, a week or two. And then I had another one right in Phoebus in that area. They had two beaches and one was Buckrow Beach for Whites and Bay Shore Beach was for Blacks. And I had a job at Buckrow Beach, that would be during the summer, but I don't think I kept that long because the person who hired me had this big house.	11:25
Artelia Melba Bryant	And on weekends they had a lot of people coming in to stay, but it was like people sleeping in the hall and all of that sort of thing. And I guess I kept that one about a week or two. That was not anything that I really wanted to do. I don't remember whether that job came, I think it came before the restaurant and working with this family. And as I remember, the job at the restaurant was possibly the last job that I had in that area.	12:28
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	The restaurant in Hampton?	13:22
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yes.	13:23
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	And was that mostly patronized by Blacks?	13:24
Artelia Melba Bryant	Oh, yes, it was a Black owned business. Well, at that time, that was a part of my life that I know was segregated. I guess my parents divorced when I was about 16, maybe 15. Before that time, my father was a welder, a blacksmith. You know what a blacksmith is? Okay, a welder. And he also had a garage, and he had a little gas station, we sold Esso gasoline. And at that time, there were certain things that made an impact on me, but I used to pump gas. At that time, the gasoline was up at the top of a globe, and then you would push it until the number of gallons came down and you'd stop. And on many occasions during the summer, if a White person would drive up and if one of us came out to wait on them, they'd pulled off.	13:28
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Really?	14:54
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yeah.	14:54
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	That's weird.	14:54
Artelia Melba Bryant	They didn't buy any gas from us, so most of our business was, I would say Black. I remember the president of North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company at that time was CC Spaulding Sr. And I remember that he came by our place and bought some gasoline.	14:57
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	How did you know it was him?	15:25
Artelia Melba Bryant	Well, I think my father was there at the time and he knew him, and he told me who he was.	15:31
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	How did your father know who Mr. Spaulding was?	15:38
Artelia Melba Bryant	Well, my father was quite grown, so Mr. Spaulding was a very well known figure. Even today, there are some people that think he's still president of North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company. His image was there and his impact on Blacks was so, so great. That was, I guess, to us in the East Coast, he was to Blacks like maybe FDR was to Whites, he was just that well known. And then my family bought us a set of books on Black history and Mr. Spaulding's picture was in there, too.	15:41
Artelia Melba Bryant	Very often, I would go through that book just to remember names and all. For instance, Mary McLeod Bethune was in that book. So there was a little background there that we had as children that, if we paid any attention, we would know some names and pictures, recognize people by pictures. One interesting thing I would like to say that during that time, my parents and other Blacks paid taxes in Phoebus, but we were not provided an education. In elementary school, there was no provisions for education for Black children living in Phoebus.	16:42
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Where did you go to school then?	17:36
Artelia Melba Bryant	Hampton Institute, which is now Hampton University, provided elementary education for us. It was called Whittier School. And they also provided a high school education, too. And the children, the Black students from Hampton, Virginia would come to Whittier school and get their high school education. Now, Hampton, Virginia provided elementary school education.	17:38
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Was that public for any child, or do parents—	18:16
Artelia Melba Bryant	It had to be. No, no, there was no payment. It had to be because they were providing education for Black students. And even though we didn't have any champions then, and so my parents paid taxes and with other Blacks, but no elementary school education was provided.	18:20
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Did you enjoy going all the way over to Hampton? Was it a long trip?	18:46
Artelia Melba Bryant	Well, it wasn't a long trip, I could walk to school. The school was right on the edge of Hampton's campus. The site is there now, but it was a huge wooden building and you had to go outdoors to the lavatory and go down.	18:51
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	What kind of laboratory?	19:15
Artelia Melba Bryant	For the restrooms.	19:17
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Oh, sorry.	19:19
Artelia Melba Bryant	That kind of a lavatory.	19:19
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	I was thinking of when you were there in college.	19:24
Artelia Melba Bryant	Oh, no, this is when I was a little girl, six years old, seven and all. That's all right, that's okay. Yeah, but we had to go out, I'll say toilet. We had to go outside to get to the toilet. And a few years after, by the time I reached age 12, maybe 11 or 12, Hampton Institute, which is now Hampton University, built a nice brick building. It was really, I guess one of the latest things in the school for Blacks all over the country, because they built this building. One side was for the elementary students and the other side was for the high school students. That was back in the early '30s. We had a nice gymnasium, we had locker rooms, showers. That was sort of unheard of at a Black school.	19:27
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Do you know Hampton got the money to build—	20:56
Artelia Melba Bryant	Oh, Hampton, like many Black schools, had some benefactors from the North, Whites from the North. North Carolina Central even had benefactors at one time from the North. Chidley Hall is named after a White person. What other building down there?	21:00
Artelia Melba Bryant	But anyhow, we'll get back to Phoebus and Hampton. They built, it was the George P. Phenix High School and it was named after one of Hampton's former presidents. We had a nice chemistry lab there and biology room, had a music room and music played. That was required of us, to take music.	21:29
Artelia Melba Bryant	And even in the elementary school, we had a music appreciation. And as little children, we had to listen to the Damrosch D-A-M-R-O-S-C-H, I believe is the way pronounced, Damrosch program. I think the man's name was Walter Damrosch. He was a musician, but there were records out that we would listen to music by the Damrosch program. Part of it was, well, it was music appreciation and we would listen to the sounds of various instruments, string, wind, and what is it? Strings, wind and brass.	22:05
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Do you know if this music was mostly classicals?	23:11
Artelia Melba Bryant	Mostly, yeah. I mean, we just didn't—	23:14
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	It wasn't contemporary?	23:21
Artelia Melba Bryant	Well, not so much. It was possibly both, I'm forgetting about that. Some contemporary and most of it was classical music.	23:23
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	I see. I actually have a couple questions for when you were talking earlier about in Hampton.	23:38
Artelia Melba Bryant	All right.	23:43
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	If you were working for your father with the gas station-	23:45
Artelia Melba Bryant	No, I wasn't really working for, but whatever family member was available, we were taught to pump gas. I had two brothers and they would work, do that. And my mother sometimes did the same thing, so we weren't on his payroll, no.	23:49
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	When you decided to start working for the family in Hampton, why did you want the job?	24:11
Artelia Melba Bryant	Well, about that time, I guess my parents had divorced, so I was more or less—My mother had to go to work. She did domestic work. At one time she sewed, she did some sewing for a dry cleaning place and alterations, because she could sew. She made slip covers at home for people. And then she was a housekeeper for a Catholic priest down at Fort Monroe, Virginia. Fort Monroe is south of Phoebus, but it's right on the Hampton Road's water. You've heard of Fort Monroe now? Oh, okay. Well, that would be one of the forts that played a predominant part in World War I. That's one of the forts there and you can go there now and see where the guns were and whatnot. It's very much like it was many years ago when I was a child.	24:20
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	I see. So they kept it?	25:43
Artelia Melba Bryant	Oh, yeah. And they use it, too, more or less as a arsenal and that type of thing.	25:46
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	After your parents divorced, your mother began working, you began working as well?	25:52
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yeah, I did some work during—I was still in school and I would work during the summer.	25:52
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	How did you get your first job?	25:52
Artelia Melba Bryant	I really don't know. I don't remember checking the paper for classified ads, I really don't. I don't know whether it was somebody said so-and-so needs, by word of mouth, that type of thing.	25:52
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	And after your parents divorced, who did you live with?	25:53
Artelia Melba Bryant	I lived with my mother.	26:47
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Still in Phoebus?	26:50
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yes, still in Phoebus.	26:51
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	And your brothers?	26:52
Artelia Melba Bryant	My brothers, one was in college and one was in Florida.	26:57
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	So you were the only child living with your mother?	27:05
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yes.	27:07
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	The youngest then?	27:09
Artelia Melba Bryant	That's correct.	27:09
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Did you see your father much?	27:12
Artelia Melba Bryant	Oh, yes, I saw him. Yeah, I did.	27:19
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	When you had family gatherings with your mother's side of the family, were they also in Phoebus?	27:30
Artelia Melba Bryant	No, no, my mother's home was in Wilson, North Carolina. And then her brothers were scattered, all Alabama and New Jersey, Richmond, Virginia, California, like that. But there were no gatherings as such, like a family reunion. The gatherings were mostly at Christmas time and funerals, and that was about it.	27:36
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	What about your father's family? Were they in the area?	28:18
Artelia Melba Bryant	Not in the Phoebus area, no. They were some, I guess at least 100 miles west of Phoebus. They were in an area called Emporia, Virginia.	28:22
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Let me just check my notes.	28:51
Artelia Melba Bryant	All right.	28:52
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	I wonder if we could sort of jump to the work that you did after you went to North Carolina College?	29:00
Artelia Melba Bryant	Okay. I finished there in 1942.	29:07
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	What did you start doing?	29:11
Artelia Melba Bryant	Well, in June of that same year, I think I went home, went to Virginia for about a week, and I had gotten a job at the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company.	29:15
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	What was your position?	29:27
Artelia Melba Bryant	Well, at that time it was like I just was a clerical type position. And I retired from North Carolina Mutual in August, 1983.	29:29
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Oh my goodness.	29:46
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yes, right. Oh my goodness is right.	29:47
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	When you first got your job, when you were still at North Carolina College, how did you feel about working for this very prestigious company?	29:55
Artelia Melba Bryant	Well, I had several different—Well, it wasn't a whole lot, but I had considered a government job which I could have gotten then. There was a newspaper in Norfolk, the Journal & Guide, Norfolk Journal & Guide Newspaper that gave me an offer. I applied for a job with some school. I don't know whether it was St. Paul College in Lawrenceville, Virginia. I applied, was interviewed for a job with them, but I didn't get it. And then while I was—And I'm just remembering something, I had another job at Central after the NYA job. I got a job with my skills. I worked for the head of the Home Economics department at Central, which meant that I was typing and doing things like that.	30:07
Artelia Melba Bryant	Ms. Diane Dent was the person that was heading up the department and she tried to get me to stay at Central, but I had been through what she wanted me to do, so I needed to get out. That's when I accepted the job at North Carolina Mutual. And the personnel director at North Carolina Mutual, WD Hill, interviewed me while I was a student, a senior at Central. And I agreed to go work with North Carolina Mutual. By the way, the WD Hill Recreation Center in Durham is named after WD Hill. He was a personnel director at North Carolina Mutual.	31:43
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Yeah, all right.	32:43
Artelia Melba Bryant	That began my career with North Carolina Mutual. And I had numerous positions there, but I retired as a mortgage loan assistant at North Carolina Mutual in August the 12th, 1983. I sort of took early retirement.	32:43
Artelia Melba Bryant	I had, years ago, I had tried to, when IBM and the Research Triangle was developing, I had applied for a job out there, but I knew from what was going on that they wanted—I was in my 40s then, maybe 50. But I just felt like I wanted to change and this was a good opportunity. Because back in the '40s and '50s, if you didn't teach school or get into a profession as a doctor, minister, nursing, I forgot about that, there weren't too many opportunities in the business field.	33:15
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	I see. Do you mean for women, for Black women?	34:06
Artelia Melba Bryant	Well, Black women and men, really.	34:12
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Did you try with IBM or with other companies?	34:21
Artelia Melba Bryant	No, after I didn't get a job out there, I got a letter. I don't know what I did with it, but it was like I was overqualified and they were right. But they didn't give me a chance to say, "Well, I'm willing to start." But anyhow, I think over qualification was not the main problem, except I think the real thing was that they felt like if they started me at a certain income level, then they wouldn't be able to keep up with it in terms of promotions and whatnot. But I was willing to start with whatever they were going to give. I was just having a change.	34:24
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	And what were you doing at NC Mutual at that time when you were—	35:28
Artelia Melba Bryant	I was still in various positions, nothing of major standing. And one reason is that in 1942, I started working. Okay, in '45, August 26th, 1945, I married. And I married a young man whom I had met at Hampton, but I hadn't seen him for years, not a whole lot of years. But anyhow, he came to North Carolina Mutual in '43, I believe. But anyhow, we married in '45. And that was a sort of a rule there that is an unwritten rule, that by advancing the husband, the wife wouldn't be advanced.	35:33
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Oh, I see.	36:45
Artelia Melba Bryant	And so many times I had said to my husband, I said, "I need to go out and get another job," because then they look at, and this is an unwritten thing, but I knew it was going on, that, "Oh, they are making enough money." And so I just stayed.	36:46
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	How did you feel about this unwritten rule?	37:13
Artelia Melba Bryant	Well, I thought it was unfair. But then, there were things going on then that don't go on now, they're a little different in terms of advancement and whatnot.	37:16
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Could you be a little more specific? I'm not sure I know what you mean.	37:33
Artelia Melba Bryant	Well (laughs). Women now are given better chances in the company. That old boy syndrome or whatnot is not as prevalent.	37:39
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	The old boys' network.	37:58
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yeah, network, that's right. It's not as prevalent now as it was then. And one thing, they almost have to rely on a woman now, because the men are going to higher things and more of them are going into business for themselves, so it's just a sign of the times.	37:59
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	When did you start working outside of North Carolina Mutual?	38:36
Artelia Melba Bryant	No, no, I stayed there for 41 years.	38:40
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	And that was your primary job?	38:43
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yes.	38:46
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Did you start travel?	38:48
Artelia Melba Bryant	Oh, well, I did, but I was still working. And it wasn't a travel agency. I noticed in your letter, travel agency, but—	38:50
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	That was from Mrs. Parker.	39:04
Artelia Melba Bryant	Okay, yeah. I really did. I joined with two other ladies and we formed a travel group, but it was motor coach tours, so we didn't need an agency office. We planned and escorted groups on tours, and one lady dropped out and then the other one, I continued to work with the other lady. And then she died in 1980 something. But anyhow, our main trip was a theater trip to New York every Thanksgiving. And we could fill up a bus and go. We made all of the arrangements with the hotel, with the Thanksgiving dinner and with the theaters to get tickets.	39:06
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Wow. And when did you start working with these two other ladies, do you remember?	40:21
Artelia Melba Bryant	I should remember because at the time that we started, we had to get a license from the Interstate Commerce Commission, ICC. So when we applied for the license, we had some opposition to us getting the license. Now, we didn't own any buses. We just had a nice mailing list and got our friends and their friends. If they wanted to go, they could send in a deposit and all. But we got opposition from the Greyhound Bus Company and the Carolina Trailway. And of course, we won over them, but we did it by mail. ICC, that's Interstate Commerce Commission, sent us, I guess it was a brief of why the Carolina Trailway objected to our getting the license. And they had their report in that they weren't doing so much in the business and they thought that we would be a threat to them. But I would practice law then.	40:26
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Oh, you were?	42:02
Artelia Melba Bryant	No, I wasn't, but I did in that case. And so we just had to say, "Well, we don't own buses. Why are you objecting? We could use your buses." And then Greyhound objected too, but their attorney called us to find out what was going on. I'm sure they did a lot of research and said, "Well hey, what threat could they be? But we will call." And this is what I told them, "We don't own buses, we don't intend to buy any buses, but we could use your bus." In fact, we had used Greyhound before we applied for the license. In other words, we had one trip through Greyhound, we went to Asheville and we had a bus load.	42:04
Artelia Melba Bryant	We had to pay Greyhound so much money and then we got a little bit, but we were saying if we could plan the trip and handle our own funds, then our percentage of profit would be what Greyhound was going to get, over and above using that bus. That's why we applied for the license. But anyhow, we had a lot of controversy in writing about this license. And finally, ICC determined from what we were saying, that we couldn't be a threat to them. And so they gave us a ICC number and all and we were in business.	43:12
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Wow, that's great.	44:01
Artelia Melba Bryant	Now they don't even require a license.	44:04
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Well, do you have an idea of the decade that you started this business?	44:08
Artelia Melba Bryant	It was in 1970, about 1977.	44:15
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	That's pretty exact.	44:20
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yeah.	44:23
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	So this was while you were working for NC Mutual?	44:27
Artelia Melba Bryant	Oh, yes. I was still employed then, but this was a sideline.	44:30
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	I want to ask you, when you were working for NC Mutual, did you have other friends from Hampton besides Mr. Bryant who were also working at NC Mutual?	44:38
Artelia Melba Bryant	Oh, yeah.	44:50
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	And did you see them regularly?	44:55
Artelia Melba Bryant	I worked there, so we saw each other about every day. Maybe there was one or two that was in my age bracket and a lot of them are dead now. But I saw a picture not long ago of the Mutualites that worked at the Mutual, at that.	44:57
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Mutualites?	45:25
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yeah, Mutualites. I just say that. That's my (laughs)—I call them that phrase. Mutualites.	45:27
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	And did you keep in touch with other Hampton Institute friends when you were in Durham?	45:29
Artelia Melba Bryant	Not too much, no. Not too much. I guess when you get a little older, you do a little more, make more contact, try to keep them up, but not a whole lot, no.	45:48
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Then when you began working at NC Mutual, were you maintaining contact with your friends in NC Carolina?	46:12
Artelia Melba Bryant	No, no. Not NC Carolina, North Carolina Mutual.	46:28
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Sorry, NC College.	46:32
Artelia Melba Bryant	College, yeah. Okay, I did.	46:34
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Were there other friends who were also working at NC Mutual from NC College?	46:39
Artelia Melba Bryant	Very few.	46:44
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Very few?	46:46
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yes.	46:46

Greta Ai-Yu Niu	I'm just checking my notes again.	0:00
Artelia Melba Bryant	All right. Before you start—Have you started?	0:05
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Oh, yes, I have.	0:11
Artelia Melba Bryant	Oh, okay.	0:11
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Is that okay?	0:11
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yeah, that's all right. Yes.	0:12
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	—go ahead [indistinct 00:00:13].	0:12
Artelia Melba Bryant	I just wondering if what I'm telling you is along the lines of what you want to use.	0:13
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Oh, absolutely.	0:19
Artelia Melba Bryant	Oh, okay.	0:19
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	It's very interesting.	0:19
Artelia Melba Bryant	Okay. All right.	0:19
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	I actually want to ask you about, I guess, life in Durham, when you were working for North Carolina Mutual. Did you move into this neighborhood?	0:29
Artelia Melba Bryant	No. I wasn't—	0:32
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	[indistinct 00:00:40].	0:32
Artelia Melba Bryant	When I first came, I stayed with a family for about three years until I married. They—	0:41
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Was it a family that you knew, or?	1:02
Artelia Melba Bryant	No, Mr. Hill, the personnel director, found me the place.	1:02
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	I see.	1:02
Artelia Melba Bryant	This was a retired school teacher and her daughter. They were also members of White Rock Baptist Church. That's how I got connected with White Rock. They lived right off of Fayetteville Street. That's one of the main streets.	1:03
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	In Hayti?	1:27
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yeah. Uh-huh.	1:27
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	What did you do for fun (Bryant laughs) while you were working at North Carolina Mutual?	1:27
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Did you have fun in Durham?	1:27
Artelia Melba Bryant	Well, I'm trying to think of what do you mean by fun?	1:27
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Oh, well, in your free time.	1:27
Artelia Melba Bryant	In my free time. Okay. Okay. Before I married, I did some volunteer work. I guess I'm about the only one that remembers this group. There are two people living now, I think. But at one time, Durham did not have any recreation for young Blacks. There was a committee appointed I.R. Holmes, Irwin Holmes, the I.R. Holmes Center named after him. But he worked for the city of Durham and in recreation. His task was to have a group of people come together and provide recreation for Blacks in Durham. I happened to have volunteered. I really don't know how I became secretary of that group. But anyhow, what we did was plan dances and activities for young Blacks.	2:13
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	And where was your place for dances?	3:31
Artelia Melba Bryant	At the civic center. The old civic center.	3:35
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	And what kind of activities [indistinct 00:03:45]?	3:36
Artelia Melba Bryant	Well, mainly dances because about that time, the—mainly dances.	3:45
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Okay. Would you mind talking about these dances, did people pay a small fee to get in [indistinct 00:04:10]?	3:49
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yes. They paid small fees. I don't believe there were bands. Mainly, what do you call, the jukebox?	4:11
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Mm-hmm.	4:23
Artelia Melba Bryant	Uh-huh. But it did give them something to do on weekends. This activity was provided for Blacks, not only in this section, but in Walltown, wherever.	4:25
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Walltown?	4:44
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yeah. Walltown is a section near Northgate.	4:46
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	[indistinct 00:04:51].	4:50
Artelia Melba Bryant	Mm-hmm.	4:51
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Do you know why it's called Walltown?	4:51
Artelia Melba Bryant	No, I don't. Because they had a mayor out there, mayor of Walltown, and they have a Walltown recreation center now. But before they had Walltown Recreation Center, before there was a W.D. Hill, this committee provided some entertainment for the young people.	4:56
Artelia Melba Bryant	Then shortly after, the city began to take over, and that was when they built the W.D. Hill Recreation Center. From that particular center, others have been developed, and the city provides the recreation now.	5:25
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Were these dances pretty regimented how—?	5:47
Artelia Melba Bryant	I don't remember, but I could safely say they had had a dance at least once a month.	5:59
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Oh. [indistinct 00:06:08].	6:07
Artelia Melba Bryant	Uh-huh. Yeah. Mm-hmm.	6:08
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Were they well-attended?	6:22
Artelia Melba Bryant	I think so. I cannot—They were well-behaved, the participants. But of course, back in the—I wish I could remember the time of it, but I believe it was in maybe the middle '40s because some things I can remember because I was or was not married. (laughs)	6:25
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	[indistinct 00:06:57].	6:55
Artelia Melba Bryant	I don't believe that I was married then at that time.	6:59
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Who would go to these dances? Did you know them, or—?	7:04
Artelia Melba Bryant	Oh, not really. No. No. Because I was supposed to have been grown then, and they were teenagers, see. So, I really didn't know them.	7:11
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Was it considered by the childrens' parents a good thing for them to go?	7:43
Artelia Melba Bryant	I think so. Yeah. Because they were chaperoned and there was security there. Mm-hmm. I don't remember any adverse activities or incidents during those dances.	8:08
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	[indistinct 00:08:09].	8:08
Artelia Melba Bryant	Mm-hmm. Go ahead.	8:08
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Any controversy around the dances you recall?	8:08
Artelia Melba Bryant	No, that's what I was saying. I don't remember anything that—I don't recall. I believe there had to have been some things that happened, controversies as we call them or what's happening today. They would've stopped having them. But I think the whole program was to get the city to focus on the fact that this is something that we need to do and have these various recreation centers. So, after the first recreation center was built and the city took over the activities, that committee was disbanded. There was no further use for it because these centers had been organized. I know Walltown was one, and W.D. Hill was another.	8:09
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Mm-hmm. [indistinct 00:09:19].	9:08
Artelia Melba Bryant	That was one thing. That was one thing. At that time, the war was going on, World War II. There was the USO. They would have dances some weekends and whatnot.	9:21
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	[indistinct 00:09:46].	9:45
Artelia Melba Bryant	And I would go. There was a Camp Butner here, and dances were provided. They would have them out at the camp.	9:45
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	[indistinct 00:10:07].	10:03
Artelia Melba Bryant	Some buses would take young ladies out to Camp Butner for dance. They had chaperones. We, when the dance was over, get on back. I went to football games, little more than I do now.	10:10
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	[indistinct 00:10:31].	10:29
Artelia Melba Bryant	Well, mainly there was North Carolina Central's games. We did a little traveling. My mother was still living then, so I went to Hampton, Virginia quite often.	10:34
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	When you went to Camp Butner, were the buses for young Black ladies?	10:48
Artelia Melba Bryant	Mm-hmm. Yes.	10:48
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Were they going to see Black soldiers?	10:48
Artelia Melba Bryant	Uh-huh. Yes. Mm-hmm.	10:48
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	And was there the same for the White soldiers?	10:48
Artelia Melba Bryant	No, no, no, no, no. No. At least I didn't know of any, I'll put it that way.	10:48
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	No official dances.	10:48
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yeah.	10:48
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	So you were [indistinct 00:11:37] dances, visiting your mother, [indistinct 00:11:42], and you were working at North Carolina Mutual.	10:48
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yes. Uh-huh.	10:48
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	And you were working for North Carolina Mutual about 41 years?	10:48
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yes.	10:48
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Rght?	10:48
Artelia Melba Bryant	Mm-hmm.	10:48
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	What kind of things do you remember most about North Carolina Mutual when you first started to work there before the Civil Rights Movement?	10:48
Artelia Melba Bryant	I'm trying to—Repeat that question. Maybe I can—	10:48
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	In the '40s and '50s, and maybe '60s, what you remember most about working at North Carolina Mutual? I'm only asking because before the Civil Rights Movement—	10:48
Artelia Melba Bryant	Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I'm trying to—I can't remember anything that would be related to your question.	10:48
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Oh, okay. Well, [indistinct 00:12:56].	10:48
Artelia Melba Bryant	Well, now, I can't remember any—Oh, okay. I developed some close friendships with my being a young lady from out of town. There was a couple that we became close friends. Both of them are dead now. But they would invite me over to their home. That friendship had made an impression on me. They'd invite me over for dinner, and—	13:02
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Did they also work at North Carolina Mutual?	13:39
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yes. Uh-huh. Both of them did. In fact, I worked under the wife, and she was a very impressionable person, a lot of skills. I say she knew how to handle people. I remember when I got ready to get married, she made me a lingerie set.	13:44
Artelia Melba Bryant	There was one thing I haven't said, and that goes back to when I was in the seventh grade. We had a violin at home that my younger brother, who's older than I am, tried to play. At our high school, we had music appreciation. But on every Saturday morning, we had a string instrument class. We paid 25 cents to go. That's how I started with the violin. I still have the violin. I don't play it now. But I played in the high school orchestra, and then I brought the violin to Central when I came. Occasionally, I would play a solo or something. That seemed to have been a attraction for other students because I don't remember them saying anything about having an orchestra at Central. But I found out a few years ago, that there was one many years ago.	14:22
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	But not when you were there?	15:52
Artelia Melba Bryant	No. Uh-huh. When I came to White Rock, they had a Sunday school orchestra, and I played the violin in that group for two, three years. I fell by the wayside when I got married. But I don't know how you going to use that.	15:56
Artelia Melba Bryant	But anyhow, what brought that to mind is that this couple that invited me, the wife had played the violin. So, we had that in common. That sort of brought that incident to mind.	16:14
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Did you know other Black ladies who played the violin?	16:36
Artelia Melba Bryant	When I first came to Durham, no. But after I started playing around, I played on programs and I was even asked to play something at a wedding and things like that. But I found out there were a lot of folks that played the violin. My husband has two aunts, and they played. There's a young lady, well, now, she's not young, she's about my age, told me a few years ago, said she stopped playing the violin because of the way I played. But it wasn't that good. I say, "You shouldn't have stopped." So, there were a lot of people that played the violin, but you hear about them. But I've never heard them playing. It's getting to the point now that nobody's heard me play either. (laughs)	16:42
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	What were some of your favorite things to play?	17:55
Artelia Melba Bryant	On the violin? More or less, I guess semi-classical stuff, Air for the AG String, and Humoresque. Oh, boy. Minuet in G, things like that. Nothing difficult.	17:55
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Oh, well. Those are difficult.	18:16
Artelia Melba Bryant	But I just like to play. Mm-hmm.	18:20
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	You said that when you were in seventh grade, you started playing violin?	18:23
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yes. Uh-huh.	18:23
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	You took lessons?	18:23
Artelia Melba Bryant	Well, I did take private lessons after we had these Saturday classes. I took private lessons. I think they were a dollar each. And then the—	18:31
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	That's different from the 25 cents [indistinct 00:18:46]	18:44
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yes. Yes. Because I was in a class with others. But the private lessons were a dollar. I kept that up until we couldn't afford them anymore.	18:46
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Your parents were paying for them, or were you?	19:00
Artelia Melba Bryant	Mm-hmm. No, my parents were paying because I was too young to work then.	19:03
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Oh, great. Seventh grade. I see.	19:30
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yeah.	19:31
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	And speaking of your parents, how did you find it when your parents divorced?	19:31
Artelia Melba Bryant	I was about 15 or 16 years old. So, it was not difficult. At least I didn't think. It wasn't a traumatic type of a situation. It didn't bother me. I guess the reason why is that I was old enough to see things that weren't right, and so I was able to handle them. Mm-hmm.	19:33
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Was this something that happened occasionally in Phoebus, that people would get divorced or fairly uncommon at the time? I mean, it happens now a lot.	20:15
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yes. I don't think it was that common. My parents were well known. My father was a businessman. My mother was a homemaker and went to church and all that sort of thing. But it wasn't common, I don't think. It was just something that had to be done. Mm-hmm.	20:27
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Do you think that your father's business sense and his owning a business affected your own—?	21:03
Artelia Melba Bryant	I think so. I believe so. But yet I have another background with my mother's people that I had two uncles in Wilson. In fact, my grandfather started a business.	21:10
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Your mother's father?	21:30
Artelia Melba Bryant	Father, yes.	21:30
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Okay. What was it?	21:31
Artelia Melba Bryant	He was a mortician, a funeral home.	21:36
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Mm-hmm. Not in Wilson?	21:40
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yes, in Wilson.	21:42
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Yes, okay.	21:43
Artelia Melba Bryant	He started with repairing bicycles, then he went into the mortician business. He had two sons to follow in his footsteps. So, I think it came from possibly both sides. I had an uncle in Opelika, Alabama that he was a medical doctor, but before he went into that, he owned a drugstore, and he was a pharmacist, too. He sold ice cream and things like that. So, I think that all of that, I could say, was attributed to my entrepreneur spirit.	21:44
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Do you remember when your grandfather started being a mortician?	22:39
Artelia Melba Bryant	Let's see. My cousins in New York wrote a book titled Spoon Bread and Strawberry Wine. And—	22:47
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Let me write that down. Okay.	22:57
Artelia Melba Bryant	I'm getting ready to get the book.	23:03
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Oh, okay. Could you show it to me at the end, maybe?	23:04
Artelia Melba Bryant	Fine. Mm-hmm.	23:06
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Okay. Spoon Bread and Strawberry—	23:06
Artelia Melba Bryant	Wine.	23:08
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	—Wine.	23:12
Artelia Melba Bryant	I'm trying to think. I believe the business was started in 1875, but we'll recheck that date. It's still in operation, but it's owned partially by someone else.	23:15
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	What is it called?	23:52
Artelia Melba Bryant	Darden, D-A-R-D-E-N. Darden Memorial Funeral Home.	23:53
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Is that your grandfather's last name?	24:04
Artelia Melba Bryant	His name, Darden. Yes. In fact, some years ago, before integration, there was a high school named after him. C.H. Darden High School. But with—	24:05
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	In Wilson?	24:18
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yes. But with integration, a lot of the schools that were named after Blacks and all, the names were merged, the school may have been changed to a middle school, a elementary school, like that.	24:19
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	I've heard that happening a lot. Why do you think it happened?	24:44
Artelia Melba Bryant	Now, don't ask me that, Greta. You know why. (laughs)	24:49
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	[indistinct 00:24:53].	24:52
Artelia Melba Bryant	(laughs) You know why, don't you?	24:56
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Well, I think that—	25:00
Artelia Melba Bryant	Tell me, what do you think? (laughs)	25:00
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Because they just wanted to erase it.	25:00
Artelia Melba Bryant	Oh, yes.	25:03
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Just pretend it didn't happen.	25:06
Artelia Melba Bryant	Oh, yeah.	25:07
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	That there weren't these prominent—	25:07
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yeah. You hit it on the head. Right. Because a lot of Black principals became non-existent, so to speak because if we're going to merge and if we going to take over, then a White man would be at the helm. You follow him. A lot of positions were eradicated. It's the same thing with school names. We had a tremendous amount of Booker T. Washington high schools and George Washington Carver high schools. But some of them remained, and some didn't. Now they want to change the name of Hillside.	25:08
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	What is the story of Hillside? I don't know.	26:05
Artelia Melba Bryant	Well, it's been a Black high school for years, and I really don't even know how the name came about. But they want to change that because of merging school systems and things like that. So, I don't know how that's going to end up (laughs).	26:07
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	During the time of desegregation, you were in Durham? Did you have children who were in school?	26:37
Artelia Melba Bryant	We were in Durham.	26:45
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	At the time—	26:45
Artelia Melba Bryant	No.	26:45
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	—were they older?	26:45
Artelia Melba Bryant	We adopted two children, a boy and a girl. First the boy. We adopted him in, let's see, 1962. Yes, because that was the year my mother died. So, I have to relate that 1962. He was 21 months when we adopted.	26:51
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	He was a baby.	27:17
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yeah. I was working. I guess—We had someone to come into the home and take care of him until he reached nursery school age. I guess he was almost four, I think, when he went to nursery school, which was in this area, neighborhood. Then few years later, we adopted a little girl. She was 18 months then.	27:22
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	And did you have someone take care of her?	28:07
Artelia Melba Bryant	Oh, yes. Uh-huh.	28:09
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	[indistinct 00:28:11].	28:10
Artelia Melba Bryant	There was another lady. No, no. No. Another lady took care of her until she could get into nursery school then. So, it wasn't too long. Once they potty-trained, then you can move forward.	28:11
Artelia Melba Bryant	Well, that's my son.	28:34
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Oh.	28:35
Artelia Melba Bryant	That picture with his family.	28:37
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Oh, boy.	28:38
Artelia Melba Bryant	My daughter has a big picture. I put it in her bedroom, but that's her little girl right there.	28:39
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Oh.	28:46
Artelia Melba Bryant	They were here this weekend.	28:46
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Aw. She's very sweet [indistinct 00:28:53]	28:48
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yeah.	28:53
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	This is very interesting. How did you come to adopt these two children? Was it through an agency?	28:54
Artelia Melba Bryant	Oh, yes. Uh-huh. The Durham social services area. Mm-hmm.	28:59
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	So, it was local. And were the children also from this area?	29:09
Artelia Melba Bryant	No, no. No. Both of them were in Montgomery County, North Carolina. Mm-hmm.	29:15
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Would you like saying a little bit about how it was for you when you first were adopting them? Did you go out to Montgomery County to pick them up or did someone bring them here?	29:28
Artelia Melba Bryant	No, no, no. Well, they interview you in social services, and they interview you several months in advance just to see if you've changed your mind or your concept of what you were looking for. We went through that several months. Plus, we were told of children in different areas in North Carolina because we went to—No. The lady called me and told me she had a boy and a girl in Nashville, North Carolina.	29:43
Artelia Melba Bryant	We had applied for a boy and a girl initially.	30:26
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	You mean at the same time?	30:32
Artelia Melba Bryant	At the same time, so that we wouldn't have to go through two sessions, see, since we knew we wanted two children. She showed us a picture. But they were too fair, light hair, straight hair. We told her that we didn't think they matched, and they didn't. And we wouldn't want to have to make excuses for a child that you're going to adopt.	30:32
Artelia Melba Bryant	So, we went to Kinston to look at a child, a little boy. He had a asthma condition. We decided that would not be good because my husband was a Boy Scout leader, and so going out camping and bad weather and all, that probably wouldn't work. We went to some place and saw a little girl, but she didn't take to us. I felt like that was important, if we could get along just first seeing each other, then maybe we could make it afterwards.	31:03
Artelia Melba Bryant	Then the next time she called and said it was a little boy in Montgomery County. So, we went to see him and we took him shopping, just walking up and down the street and whatnot because the place is small, and she wanted to know if we wanted to bring him home for the weekend. So we said, "Well, yeah, we'll see how he does." So, he got on in the car with us and we came on to Durham. My husband went out to the store and bought him pajamas and things that we saw that he needed. He seemed to kind of like us a little bit, so we didn't take him back. He just stayed with us.	31:53
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Uh-huh. Wow.	32:40
Artelia Melba Bryant	And then—	32:43
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	When was that about [indistinct 00:32:47]?	32:46
Artelia Melba Bryant	Oh, 1962.	32:46
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	1962. Okay.	32:47
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yeah. Uh-huh. Then in '63, we took his suitcase back because he had a little suitcase with a few things in it. We took them back and we saw the same lady that he was in the foster home. We saw her and she had this little girl with her. She said, "You better take this one." And I said, "No way." I said, "See you later." Few months later, the caseworker called and said she had a little girl in Montgomery County. We said, "Well, we'll go and check her out." It turned out it was the same little girl that I had waved at, "No, no, no." And there again, she came for a weekend visit and she stayed.	32:49
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	She was home.	33:45
Artelia Melba Bryant	Uh-huh.	33:45
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Oh, wow. Was this foster home only Black children?	33:45
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yeah. Uh-huh.	33:51
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Were the case workers and social services also Black ladies? Was it White ladies?	33:53
Artelia Melba Bryant	Well, let's see. I believe—I don't remember, but I'm almost safe in saying that the case worker in Durham was White. I believe in Montgomery County she possibly was White, but I just don't remember. I don't know whether foster homes now, if the Black people will keep White children. I don't know. I mean, there's nothing wrong with it, but I just don't know. And I just hadn't really thought about it.	33:59
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Did you know other people who also adopted children?	34:41
Artelia Melba Bryant	Very few. Uh-huh. There were very few.	34:48
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Had you considered adopting children before 1962?	35:08
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yeah.	35:13
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	You had—	35:13
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yes.	35:14
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Oh, you had for a while?	35:15
Artelia Melba Bryant	Uh-huh. Yes. I had been pregnant, what, three times? You don't have to put that. But anyhow, I couldn't keep them. Spontaneous abortions. That's what they call them. And so I told my husband, I said, "Well, we better go on and adopt," but he kept saying—Well, he didn't make up his mind. Then I had an operation in '61, I believe, and it was like, well, this is it. Then he said, "Well, we'll go on and adopt," because I wasn't going to be able to have children. That was where it started.	35:15
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	When you were losing all the children, were you in the hospital? Did you go to see a doctor?	36:08
Artelia Melba Bryant	I went to the hospital. Oh, yeah. I had prenatal care on each occasion.	36:22
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	What were your experiences at the hospitals like?	36:34
Artelia Melba Bryant	Well, the first time I went, the period for the—something to happened was long, like overnight now. The next time—times after that, it happened at home. So, that was it. Mm-hmm.	36:34
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Which hospital did you go to? In Durham?	37:04
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yes. Uh-huh.	37:16
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	County—?	37:16
Artelia Melba Bryant	County. Yes. General. It was another—No, no, no, no, no. I'm sorry. They had Lincoln Hospital. Where the Lincoln Community Health Center is now, there was a hospital, and they've torn that down. But that's where I went the first time. I'm trying to think. I didn't go to the hospital the last time because it like happened in the bathroom. Of course, I had to call the doctor about it, but I didn't go to the hospital.	37:17
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Was most of your care, not only prenatal care, but just healthcare taken care of at Lincoln Hospital?	38:03
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yes. Uh-huh.	38:11
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Did you have Black doctors or White doctors or both?	38:13
Artelia Melba Bryant	Black. Uh-huh. Maybe a White one was called in as a consultant, but mainly Black.	38:15
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	And were the nurses also Black in Lincoln?	38:26
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yes. Uh-huh. Yeah. See, they had a nursing school there at one time. They don't have it now. I think it was ended in 1971 when they stopped the nursing school. The reason why I know the year is because I saw a picture of it. They had a reunion here in Durham, and the year 1971 was when they pointed out that that was the end of the nursing school program.	38:28
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Well, speaking of reunions, did you ever have reunions at Hampton?	39:05
Artelia Melba Bryant	No, I didn't. I didn't finish Hampton. My reunions would be at North Carolina Central. Couple of years ago, I attended my 50th class reunion.	39:11
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Wow.	39:24
Artelia Melba Bryant	And that was real nice. That was real, real nice. Matter of fact, I went to the reunion banquet a couple days ago. They had the homecoming at Central last Saturday night, and I went to the reunion banquet.	39:25
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Did you get a sense when you were at NC College that Durham was really divided? That there were the Black neighborhoods, the Black hospitals; and then there were White hospitals, the White neighborhood. Was there much mixing going on?	39:56
Artelia Melba Bryant	As far as I know, no mixing. There was definite there, as far as I can remember, separatism. By it being separate and not, I would say champion—It was just separate. That was it until the Civil Rights Movement and all, and then you begin to look at things differently, to find out how unfair it's been through the years and other, whereas my husband says that had baseball been integrated, we would never have heard of Babe Ruth. And that's a good point. (laughs)	40:31
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Yeah. Can I check my notes again?	41:24
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yes.	41:24
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Oh. Did you remember people organizing around voting before the Civil Rights Movement?	41:24
Artelia Melba Bryant	Mm-mm. No. Certainly, I don't remember.	41:24
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	And what about Anne Davis or Hampton when you were there?	41:24
Artelia Melba Bryant	No. I don't remember any political happenings in that area. In fact, I'm trying to remember whether my parents went to vote at all. I don't remember.	42:28
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Do you remember the first time you voted?	42:52
Artelia Melba Bryant	It was here in Durham. Yeah. Now, don't ask me the year. (laughs)	42:57
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Okay. [indistinct 00:43:06].	43:02
Artelia Melba Bryant	My husband may be able to tell about that because he was one of the first Black registrars in Durham.	43:06
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	I see.	43:18
Artelia Melba Bryant	I know we were married when he set up a precinct at Hillside High School, and they paid him 5 cent a name for every person that he was able to get registered. So, we was sending people to the polls then. But he was one of the first Black registrars, and he's still a registrar. That's where he is today. He's sort of the granddaddy of registrars in Durham, White or Black, because he's been hanging in there all these years. I would say to that, we were married then, so maybe it was 1946, in that time, that era that—	43:23
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Did you stay in close contact with your brothers, the one who went to Florida and the one—	44:21
Artelia Melba Bryant	Oh, yeah. Yeah.	44:27
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	In Wilson?	44:28
Artelia Melba Bryant	Uh-huh.	44:28
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Is that right? One of your brothers went back to Wilson?	44:30
Artelia Melba Bryant	No, no.	44:31
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	No.	44:31
Artelia Melba Bryant	My oldest brothers was in Boston and—	44:33
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Oh, Boston.	44:36
Artelia Melba Bryant	Right. But he lives in Darrow now. My other brother, he went to Florida, and then my mother, by the time my father and mother divorced, she sent for him. She wanted him to come home. So, he came home. She sent him the money to come home, and he worked at the shipyard in Newport News for a while. Then I had a uncle in New Jersey who was an enterprising jet, and he wanted him to come up there and help him develop some business. And he's still in New Jersey. Mm-hmm.	44:38
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Did you ever participate in Black sororities?	45:36
Artelia Melba Bryant	Oh, yeah. Uh-huh.	45:41
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Which one?	45:41
Artelia Melba Bryant	Alpha Kappa Alpha. (laughs)	45:41
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	So that's at—Oh, yeah.	45:42
Artelia Melba Bryant	Central.	45:49
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Yes. I [indistinct 00:45:50].	45:49
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yeah. 1942 was when I—spring of '42.	45:50
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Was it very large at the time?	45:57
Artelia Melba Bryant	Well, not very large. No. But I don't know why I didn't think to get some pictures out. But I don't even—	46:18
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Well, I'd love to see any [indistinct 00:46:25].	46:21
Artelia Melba Bryant	Okay. If I can find them.	46:21
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Oh, okay. Okay.	46:21
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yeah.	46:21
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Not very—oh.	46:21

Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Oh, my. What's the name of the club?	0:01
Artelia Melba Bryant	And it's the Daughters of Dorcas club.	0:04
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Could you spell that?	0:05
Artelia Melba Bryant	Daughters.	0:07
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Right. Dorcas?	0:08
Artelia Melba Bryant	Dorcas, D-O-R-C-A-S. That club was all organized in September 1917. It's still meeting.	0:09
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	How often do you meet?	0:23
Artelia Melba Bryant	Once a month. When I joined, they were meeting twice a month. I don't remember the year, but I was working then and I said, "Now that's a bit much." (laughs)	0:25
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	When did you join?	0:34
Artelia Melba Bryant	I wish I could tell that.	0:41
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	What do you do at the Daughters of Dorcas club meetings?	0:47
Artelia Melba Bryant	When they first started out, it was a group of ladies back in 1917 that used a needle. They would sew, make things for needy families. They would take a little money and help somebody out. Now last year, we had what we called Be Prepared personal kit for people who went to the Genesis here in Durham where people who need help, they'll stay for a little while. Do you know about the Genesis House?	0:51
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	It's a part of Lincoln?	1:43
Artelia Melba Bryant	No, no. It's down in the downtown area near the library.	1:47
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Oh, no I don't know about it.	1:53
Artelia Melba Bryant	Okay. We took washcloths and put little toilet articles in them. You'd check your house and find out what you had brought home from a hotel? So, there was lotion, shampoo, and we had soap, toothbrushes, things like that that a person would need if they came to a home and had children and whatnot. We had to put these articles in the washcloth, tied it up nice and neat, and took them to the Genesis House. That's the type of thing we do now. Then we had speakers to come in and talk to us about healthcare, kind of insurance we'd need, because just about everybody in there is at least 65 or more. Our oldest member's still living. She's one of the persons that got me in the club. She's 98 years old. She's bedridden. She had her 98th birthday last Monday, the 31st of October.	1:53
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	That's excellent. What is her name, if you don't mind?	3:16
Artelia Melba Bryant	Gazella, G-A-Z-E-L-L-A P. Lipscomb. L-I-P-S-C-O-M-B.	3:20
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	How did you join this club through Mrs. Lipscomb?	3:34
Artelia Melba Bryant	Mrs. Lipscomb and her sister, her sister is deceased, but they also worked at North Carolina Mutual. They were my husband's aunts. It's like they kept urging me to join. I said, "If I don't join them—I can't fight it any longer. Just go on and join." And that's what I did. I'm a past president of that group just as of last year. President Emeritus.	3:40
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Oh, so until recently?	4:16
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yes, mm-hmm.	4:17
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Do you remember, were you in the Daughters of Dorcas club in the 50s or the 40s?	4:17
Artelia Melba Bryant	I know I wasn't in in the 40s.	4:30
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Okay.	4:32
Artelia Melba Bryant	Let's say I joined in the 60s, to be safe.	4:38
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Sure.	4:42
Artelia Melba Bryant	I don't remember the exact year, but we'll say somewhere in the 60s.	4:42
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Do you remember possibly who was president at the time?	4:47
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yes. That should give me an idea, shouldn't it? Okay.	4:54
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Maybe.	5:01
Artelia Melba Bryant	Maybe, mm-hmm. Mrs. Lyda Merrick was president when I joined. Yes.	5:03
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	All right. You had meetings. How were the meetings run? Was it one person? Or—	5:10
Artelia Melba Bryant	We had presidents and regular officers, yeah. The president led the meetings, and they had some very good programs, sometimes travel logs, and interesting things. Informative type things. They did some good too.	5:25
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	It sounds like it, yeah.	5:49
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yeah, mm-hmm.	5:50
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	How were new members brought into—	5:55
Artelia Melba Bryant	Invited.	5:55
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Invited.	5:57
Artelia Melba Bryant	They were invited. A few years ago, I looked around and I said, "Well, I'm the youngest thing in here. And after a while, everybody else will be gone and I'll be by myself." So, I urged them to start inviting people to join to perpetuate the club, and they've done a good job of doing that. Yeah, they've done an excellent job.	5:59
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Who was the last member who was brought in? About what time.	6:25
Artelia Melba Bryant	Last year.	6:32
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Oh. Sorry. It's quite—	6:33
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yes, mm-hmm.	6:34
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	—still going on.	6:35
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yeah. We've taken in at least five members since last December.	6:37
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	How large is the club now?	6:57
Artelia Melba Bryant	We have about 20 or 25 active members, paying memberships. We have some who are not able to come to the meetings all the time, and we keep them on the roll too and try to remember them Thanksgiving, a basket of fruit, flowers, and remember them at Christmas. A piece of change just to say thank you.	7:00
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	In the 60s when you joined, do you remember how many members there were?	7:27
Artelia Melba Bryant	No, I would imagine it's about the same as it is now. We'd had a number of, wealths of people, to pass. We've also brought in members, so it's just about the same.	7:41
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	You noted that there are about 20, 25 active paying members. There are dues?	8:05
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yes, we pay dues.	8:05
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Do you remember how much they were when you joined?	8:05
Artelia Melba Bryant	I don't. I really don't. I'm trying to think. Maybe about between $8.00 and $10.00 per year. And now, they have just raised it—Well not just raised it. A few years ago we made it $15.00 a year. They would have extra efforts to increase the treasury, such as a grapefruit party. You'd count the number of seeds in your grapefruit, and then you'd pay a nickel or a penny for each seed. That type of thing.	8:30
Artelia Melba Bryant	A few years ago, by my having motor coach trips, I suggested that we have a fall foliage trip to the mountains. We did that. We weren't successful this year. I think it was because of the place that they chose. I was trying to find something different. We planned a trip to Chattanooga, Tennessee, but nobody really wanted to go. That was a means of getting extra money in our treasury. We'd been to Natural Bridge, Virginia a couple of times, and they enjoyed that because on the way back we would stop at fruit stands and they would get vinegar and molasses, and fresh apples, and cabbages mountain-grown. Whatever. I remember one year we didn't get enough people, and I wasn't going to be to be outdone. We had enough for a van, and we took about six people.	9:17
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	So this is recently?	10:28
Artelia Melba Bryant	In the last—About four years ago, mm-hmm. Yeah.	10:33
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	In the 60s when you started with Daughters of Dorcas, do you remember how people decided who to invite?	10:40
Artelia Melba Bryant	No, they're just a friend, someone that you thought would be an asset to the club. That person may not have been a friend, but as such, but you had good relationships with this person and you thought they would make a nice personality to have and try to find people that could take minutes, and make reports, financial reports, and be chair lady of a committee, a function. These were the things that you would look at. No one has ever been turned down.	10:51
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Oh.	11:38
Artelia Melba Bryant	No, it's not like a sorority.	11:39
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	I see.	11:40
Artelia Melba Bryant	You don't vote on them. I think the first meeting I went to in this club, and the ladies were all sitting around. When I was introduced, it was—I'd never been in a group that would give you such a radiation of a wall of feeling and friendliness. It was, "Hey, these are some wonderful people."	11:42
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Wow. Where was that first meeting for you held? Do you remember? Was it at someone's—	12:15
Artelia Melba Bryant	They met at different homes for a long time, and it was in a home. I dare say it probably was one of my husband's aunt's home. Yeah.	12:22
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Did the ladies the club—Did many of them work at NC Mutual? What kind of work did they do?	12:34
Artelia Melba Bryant	Most of them were either teachers or housewives, and then my husband's aunts worked at the Mutual. Some did social work, but a lot of them were just housewives. Dr. Shepard's mother was a member of that club. We've had some very prestigious people in the club. One lady taught English at North Carolina Central.	12:51
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Who's that?	13:28
Artelia Melba Bryant	Ms. Julia Harris. Then Dean Ruth Rush, she was the Dean of Women at Center. She was a member of the club. Annie Day Shepard was Dr. Shepard's mother, was a member of the club. His wife was a member of the club. Then Ms. Lyda Merrick was a member. She was the wife of Ed Merrick. Her father was Dr. AM Moore. Let me get this straight. He was one of the founders of North Carolina Mutual. Mrs. Lyda Merrick. She's also the founder and editor of a Negro Braille magazine. She started out writing Braille for the Reader's Digest in Braille. She had written with a gent whose name is John Washington. He's still living. Mrs. Merrick is deceased. That magazine is still going on.	13:28
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	The Daughters of Dorcas is really very important to the club.	14:53
Artelia Melba Bryant	Mm-hmm.	14:57
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	[indistinct 00:15:01].	14:57
Artelia Melba Bryant	We had our 75th anniversary when I was president of the club. I'll show it to you at the end.	15:01
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Okay.	15:10
Artelia Melba Bryant	The book that we published.	15:11
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Since we started to talk about this club [indistinct 00:15:21] Alpha Kappa Alpha, would you-	15:18
Artelia Melba Bryant	[indistinct 00:15:26]?	15:23
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Oh, I didn't know that. You talked about how—You said nobody was rejected.	15:28
Artelia Melba Bryant	That's true.	15:31
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	So I was thinking, in Alpha Kappa Alpha, did you have to apply at that time? [indistinct 00:15:39].	15:31
Artelia Melba Bryant	What that process is, if someone was interested they would have three people to write letters or whatnot supporting this individual.	15:38
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	People who were already members?	15:59
Artelia Melba Bryant	Yes. Yeah, mm-hmm. Yeah.	16:21
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	After the letters, is that—	16:22
Artelia Melba Bryant	I don't know what I need to tell you all.	16:22
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	You don't need to tell me things that are private too.	16:26
Artelia Melba Bryant	After the letters, generally the names would be presented or whatever—The word is not credentials, but they—I don't want to say credentials, but sort of like a resume of this person would be read to the body. Then at another meeting they would vote. That's generally about what happened.	16:26
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	What happened during the time between someone saying "I'd like to join the Alpha Kappa Alphas," and then final vote, did they have to do something during that time? Or do they just sort of wait?	17:00
Artelia Melba Bryant	Now I think there's a processing committee. Processing is not the word, but a committee that would meet with these people and sort of give them an orientation of what the sorority's about, that type of thing. They may want to change their minute.	17:24
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Oh, okay.	17:48
Artelia Melba Bryant	I don't think so.	17:48
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	When you applied and were accepted, how many other women were doing the same thing as you? Do you remember?	17:48
Artelia Melba Bryant	No, I don't, because see, I was in undergraduate school. I had never heard of sororities because they didn't have them in Virginia. That was all the excitement on the campus. There was a group of Deltas I never heard of, and the AKAs I never heard of. Several people approached me and I said, "Yeah, I'd be interested." So, they had what they called the Ivy Leaf club that was you joined that first.	18:05
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	What was that?	18:43
Artelia Melba Bryant	Ivy Leaf club.	18:45
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	What was the-	18:49
Artelia Melba Bryant	The Ivy is the growing vine. That's one of the symbols of Alpha Kappa Alpha. Whenever there was a ceremony or something, they would use ivy as a decoration, get fresh ivy and decorate the table. That's I guess, call it a flower, for sorority women. That's how I got started being in the Ivy Leaf club.	18:49
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Did everyone whose in Ivy Leaf club become part of AKA?	19:23
Artelia Melba Bryant	I can't answer that. I really don't know.	19:34
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Okay. So, it was very exciting for you—	19:36
Artelia Melba Bryant	Oh, yeah. Yeah, it was.	19:42
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Can you tell me a little bit about what was exciting about it for you?	19:42
Artelia Melba Bryant	I don't know, everybody on the campus was excited. It was like a Rush Week. This was all so new to me. I'd never really heard of sororities until—Then I began to learn more and the name, and prestige of being invited to join and all. That just was it.	19:50
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Did you feel like you had experiences with other groups of women either at Hampton Institute or in the high school that was similar? You're shaking your head no.	20:21
Artelia Melba Bryant	No.	20:33
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Nothing like that?	20:33
Artelia Melba Bryant	I was in the Girls Reserve in high school, but that's nothing like—That more or less related to the YWCA Girls Reserve. That wasn't. It just wasn't. It was just different.	20:35
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Well, I want to ask you if you have any final remarks, things that you think about before the civil rights movement that you find that you still think about them, or that it was really, really important to you at that time?	21:01
Artelia Melba Bryant	There were some things. When I first—I don't remember whether I was married or not, but anyhow, I believe I was. There was—I belonged at one time to a group called The Housewives League, and it was an auxiliary of the Durham Business and Professional Chain. Before integration and changes and all, our motto was to buy where you can work. We had a strong program going on that the Housewives would band together and urge people to buy from Blacks. In other words, if you can't be employed there, then you need to buy where you can work. We had parades during what we called Trade Week.	21:32
Artelia Melba Bryant	The Durham Business and Professional Chain is still in operation, but the focus is different now. Integration, I don't think helped Blacks as much as we thought it would. Of course, we can go to hotels wherever you can afford. We don't know where if there hadn't been integration, would we have had all Black hotels and motels. We just don't know. I remember very well the president of Morehouse College came to Durham to speak. His name was Benjamin Mays. He's a well known Black figure too. He spoke at North Carolina Mutual doing one of their Founders Day programs. His topic was "Don't integrate ourselves out of existence."	22:51
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	This was-	24:21
Artelia Melba Bryant	Back in the 19—I guess early 50s, as I recall. Don't integrate—I think about that so often now because I see some things happening that we sort of integrated ourselves out of existence. Now, the other side of the coin is that we are beginning to get into the history books and people are aware of the contributions that Blacks have made to the building of this country. There are some pluses and minuses, but we had many more Black businesses. I think the spirit is beginning to come back and we're having businesses in different areas than we had back before integration.	24:27
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	I guess my last question to you would be, what is your in your mind the strongest and most lasting impression you have of living during Jim Crow times?	26:01
Artelia Melba Bryant	Oh, boy. Repeat that question again?	26:08
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	What's the strongest impression you have from your time living in the Jim Crow era? Or what are the strongest—It's hard to pick.	26:11
Artelia Melba Bryant	Well, it is. I think about the moral side of it. How could a group of people sort of step on our necks and say, "You are nothing," really? "We don't recognize you," except when it's time to come to pay taxes, or things like that. To think back, if it had not been for Hampton Institute, what would we have done for education? How far would we have had to go? I was talking to a friend of mine, telling her about your interview today. She's coming over here shortly.	26:45
Artelia Melba Bryant	We sort of adopted each other as sisters because I didn't have a sister. She has two sisters. She said, "Yeah, and I didn't get an education," in the county that she lived in in North Carolina. She had to go to another county. All of that, when you think about it, you wonder how could a person justify mistreating another person because of the color of their skin? That has—I think having to sit on the back of the bus, or the trolley car, or whatever, you wonder how could people do that? If you went to a store to buy a hat, you had to wear a little cap on before you could try that hat on. Those are the things I guess wrapped into one, all of those incidents sort of—It just left an impression. I'm not bitter about it. I'm just glad that things have changed during my lifetime.	27:38
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Thank you so much.	29:05
Artelia Melba Bryant	Oh, my pleasure. I hope I helped.	29:05
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	It's been very interesting. When you riding the trolley to Hampton, did you have to ride in the back?	29:22
Artelia Melba Bryant	Mm-hmm, yeah. Seating was that way. Mm-hmm. You'd go to the back if the trolley—The front and the back of the trolley was the same, so if you go into Newport News and all, and on here at the front and then you'd go to the back. Same thing coming back. You'd go to the back of the car. Bus, well we didn't have buses then. I've ridden a bus from Hampton to Wilson, but I had to go by Richmond, and then get on a bus. But it was the same thing. Mm-hmm. You can't be overwhelmed.	29:27
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Not in the sense of not having heard it before.	30:20
Artelia Melba Bryant	Oh yeah, okay. Okay. Okay.	30:20
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	I have some paperwork that I'd like to ask you to [indistinct 00:30:32]. I'm happy to help you. Just your name, your maiden name, your parents' names and such.	30:30
Artelia Melba Bryant	Okay. Mm-hmm.	30:43
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Your children's names.	30:43
Artelia Melba Bryant	The tape is off or on?	30:55
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Oh, it's okay, we can leave it on. Would you like me to turn it off?	30:59
Artelia Melba Bryant	If we don't need it.	31:00
Greta Ai-Yu Niu	Sure.	31:02

Item Info

Title:

Artelia Bryant interview recording, 1994 November 08

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https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r40867m21

Date:

November 8, 1994

Creator:

Bryant, Artelia Melba

Contributor:

Ai-Yu Niu, Greta

Description:

Name: Artelia Melba Bryant; Date of birth: 1921-03-08; Place of birth: Phoebus, VA; Occupation(s): real estate; mortgage loan assistant; Residence: Durham, NC
Informant ID: 779; Interviewed by: Greta Ai-Yu Niu.

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Interview number: 307
f65b6c91-4513-45d6-bafb-6ce40d451dd2
behindtheveil
btvnc03003
ark:/87924/r40867m21
755fffba-cfca-4576-b732-4b2e1d5c73a7

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Behind the Veil

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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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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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Artelia Bryant interview recording, 1994 November 08

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1. Artelia Bryant administrative file, 1994

John Hope Franklin Research Center

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