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Allie Brown interview recording, 1994 June 21

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Tywanna Whorley	All right.	0:00
Tywanna Whorley	What is your name?	0:13
Allie Peterson Brown	Allie Peterson Brown.	0:15
Tywanna Whorley	When were you born? (Allie Peterson Brown laughing)	0:18
Tywanna Whorley	It's just for that's record, that's all.	0:18
Allie Peterson Brown	When was I born?	0:18
Tywanna Whorley	Yes ma'am.	0:31
Allie Peterson Brown	December 15th, '18.	0:32
Tywanna Whorley	1918?	0:33
Allie Peterson Brown	Mm-hmm (affirmative).	0:33
Tywanna Whorley	Okay.	0:34
Tywanna Whorley	How long have you lived in Brunwick?	0:44
Allie Peterson Brown	I was born in Fairfield, Alabama.	0:46
Tywanna Whorley	In Fairfield?	0:48
Allie Peterson Brown	Mm-hmm (Affirmative).	0:48
Tywanna Whorley	Okay. Do you remember anything about your grandparents?	0:48
Allie Peterson Brown	Not too much about—just a grandfather.	0:55
Tywanna Whorley	And what was his name?	0:59
Allie Peterson Brown	His name was Dennis Peterson. When he died he was 107 years old.	0:59
Tywanna Whorley	107?	1:04
Allie Peterson Brown	Mm-hmm (Affirmative).	1:05
Tywanna Whorley	What do you remember about him?	1:08
Allie Peterson Brown	Coming down to our house talking. And he was a fun fella, really a lot of fun.	1:10
Tywanna Whorley	Where did you live here in Fairfield?	1:22
Allie Peterson Brown	On 55th Street, Fairfield.	1:25
Tywanna Whorley	Can you tell me a little bit about the neighborhood growing up and?	1:27
Allie Peterson Brown	Well, the neighborhood was—everybody knew each other on the street, or rather in Fairfield at that time. And the parents, all the parents were cooperative about their children. One wouldn't let another parent see them doing anything because then there would be a whipping. They could whip us too.	1:31
Tywanna Whorley	Oh really?	2:00
Allie Peterson Brown	Sure. And then when we'd get home, they would tell our parents. They would whip us again.	2:01
Tywanna Whorley	So it was a close neighborhood, in terms—	2:11
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes, at that time, very close.	2:13
Tywanna Whorley	Can you tell me—I guess, describe the house that you lived in, growing up there.	2:17
Allie Peterson Brown	The house that I lived in?	2:23
Tywanna Whorley	Yes, ma'am.	2:23
Allie Peterson Brown	Well, at that time we were, I guess middle class, but we didn't know it. We didn't know we were poor. And it was—I don't know, not too much of a house maybe. And then too, we were very happy. All of us were. And at that time, Fairfield was very hilly, no streets paved, very—didn't have any streets paved then at all. And maybe a ditch on each side of the—I'd say road anyway. And it was—but we were happy. We were very happy.	2:25
Tywanna Whorley	You have any sisters or brothers?	3:12
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes, it was six of us.	3:14
Tywanna Whorley	Where were you in the six?	3:18
Allie Peterson Brown	I'm the youngest of the six.	3:19
Tywanna Whorley	Oh. Can you tell me about your parents?	3:26
Allie Peterson Brown	My parents, my father worked in the steel mill for a long time. And after he left the steel mill, he worked as a janitor or custodian, whatever you call it, here at Miles for years during Dr. Bell's time. And my mother was just a housewife, very quiet.	3:28
Tywanna Whorley	What are their names?	3:50
Allie Peterson Brown	Peterson. Harvey Peterson.	3:53
Tywanna Whorley	Your mom?	3:57
Allie Peterson Brown	Etta.	3:58
Tywanna Whorley	Ella?	3:58
Allie Peterson Brown	Etta.	3:58
Tywanna Whorley	Etta?	3:58
Allie Peterson Brown	Etta Peterson.	4:02
Tywanna Whorley	Did your father ever talk about working in the steel mill at the time?	4:04
Allie Peterson Brown	Not too much because it's just hard to work, and he didn't talk too much about.	4:09
Tywanna Whorley	What school did you attend?	4:18
Allie Peterson Brown	Miles.	4:18
Tywanna Whorley	When you were younger?	4:22
Allie Peterson Brown	Pardon?	4:23
Tywanna Whorley	When you were younger?	4:23
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes.	4:24
Tywanna Whorley	You attended Miles when you—	4:25
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes, Miles.	4:27
Tywanna Whorley	What was Miles at the time?	4:29
Allie Peterson Brown	Believe it or not—and I was small. And do you know, knew just about all the students on campus and had much more than we have now. And could tell you all the students on campus by names.	4:34
Tywanna Whorley	Do you remember some of them?	4:52
Allie Peterson Brown	Not right now. I don't remember any right now.	4:53
Tywanna Whorley	So did you attend any elementary schools here in Fairfield?	4:58
Allie Peterson Brown	They had the elementary school here on the campus of Miles.	5:01
Tywanna Whorley	Oh. That's interesting because I didn't know that, at Miles College. Where was the school, the elementary school?	5:14
Allie Peterson Brown	Where was it?	5:15
Tywanna Whorley	Yes, ma'am.	5:15
Allie Peterson Brown	The Williams Hall, that was a girl's dorm at that time, and we would have classes there.	5:18
Tywanna Whorley	Is that like on the front with administration?	5:25
Allie Peterson Brown	Where the law school.	5:37
Tywanna Whorley	The law school?	5:37
Allie Peterson Brown	Mm-hmm (Affirmative).	5:37
Tywanna Whorley	What was taught there, different from say the college at the time?	5:38
Allie Peterson Brown	I didn't understand the question.	5:41
Tywanna Whorley	Oh. In terms of what did you learn in elementary school back then?	5:44
Allie Peterson Brown	Oh, about the same thing they're learning, maybe more subjects maybe, but about the same thing they're learning now. Like I said, may have been more subjects. You know what they have now and everything.	5:48
Tywanna Whorley	Okay. When you finished elementary school here, did you stay on?	6:06
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes.	6:09
Tywanna Whorley	Here?	6:10
Allie Peterson Brown	Mm-hmm (Affirmative).	6:11
Tywanna Whorley	How far did you go?	6:11
Allie Peterson Brown	College.	6:11
Tywanna Whorley	So when you graduated from—I guess they had a high school here on Miles College?	6:15
Allie Peterson Brown	At my 12th grade, they had the county school. That's when they cut out the elementary and high school, part of Miles. And they had a county school, Jefferson County School, on campus. That was my last year in high school. And it was—I think it's Erskine Hall now. A building over there, that's where we went.	6:20
Tywanna Whorley	So when you graduated—	6:44
Allie Peterson Brown	From high school.	6:46
Tywanna Whorley	From high school, you attended Miles?	6:46
Allie Peterson Brown	Miles.	6:46
Tywanna Whorley	Why Miles? You didn't want to go anywhere else?	6:46
Allie Peterson Brown	Well, didn't want go anywhere else. Really didn't.	6:46
Tywanna Whorley	So what year is that, that you attended?	6:46
Allie Peterson Brown	In the '30s.	6:46
Tywanna Whorley	I guess the question I asked is what subjects did you take?	6:46
Allie Peterson Brown	Sorry. High school in the '30s. It was '40 and the '50s, because I started teaching and then I come back to summer school.	6:46
Tywanna Whorley	Oh. So you graduated from high school, then you attended Miles?	6:47
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes.	6:47
Tywanna Whorley	What subject did you take when you were here?	6:47
Allie Peterson Brown	Well, I remember psychology. I can't think about, but I remember psychology, and literature, and biology. And I can't think of any others now, but the others.	6:47
Tywanna Whorley	Where did you get your degree in?	6:47
Allie Peterson Brown	I finished in Miles.	6:47
Tywanna Whorley	What did you get—	6:47
Allie Peterson Brown	Elementary.	6:47
Tywanna Whorley	Elementary?	6:47
Allie Peterson Brown	Education.	6:47
Tywanna Whorley	So when you graduated, you said you became a teacher. Was that here in the area?	6:47
Allie Peterson Brown	No, that was—I taught in Barbour County.	6:47
Tywanna Whorley	Libel County?	6:47
Allie Peterson Brown	Barbour. Barbour County, below Montgomery. Eufaula, Alabama.	6:47
Tywanna Whorley	Oh. Why? Why down there?	6:50
Allie Peterson Brown	I just wanted to leave home and go off teaching away from home. Of course I did some subbing here in Birmingham, in the Birmingham School system.	8:29
Tywanna Whorley	But only Black schools?	8:40
Allie Peterson Brown	Yeah, they were at that time.	8:41
Tywanna Whorley	Do you remember what schools they were? Subbing?	8:42
Allie Peterson Brown	That I subbed?	8:42
Tywanna Whorley	Yes, ma'am.	8:42
Allie Peterson Brown	Oh, Lincoln. I did, believe it or not, all my subbing mostly at Lincoln. Can't think the other one. Mr. Logello was principal of that school. I subbed—	8:49
Tywanna Whorley	Parker?	8:59
Allie Peterson Brown	No, no. That's in Parker. I don't remember the school that he was principal at that time, but I subbed there. And Mr. Lankford Warren, and that was in Bessemer Pipe shop. I don't remember school, but I did some subbing there under him.	9:01
Tywanna Whorley	Okay. Where was Lincoln located?	9:24
Allie Peterson Brown	In Smithfield.	9:26
Tywanna Whorley	In Smithfield?	9:28
Allie Peterson Brown	In Smithfield.	9:31
Tywanna Whorley	So when you decided, did you decide before you had graduated from Miles that you were going to move away and teach somewhere else?	9:34
Allie Peterson Brown	Mm-hmm (Affirmative). I always wanted to go away from Birmingham.	9:44
Tywanna Whorley	So how did you plan for that move?	9:48
Allie Peterson Brown	I don't know. I just had it. It was just made up in my mind to work away from home for a while. And then I didn't stay here. I went to Detroit.	9:50
Tywanna Whorley	When you had moved to—I guess the Eufaula area, did you have relatives there?	10:04
Allie Peterson Brown	No. No.	10:09
Tywanna Whorley	No?	10:09
Allie Peterson Brown	See, I would commute. Go weekends, come home. Some weekends, not every weekend, I would come home.	10:11
Tywanna Whorley	So you didn't actually live in—	10:22
Allie Peterson Brown	No, no, no, no. Just while I was working. I would come back home summers and weekends. I would come home.	10:24
Tywanna Whorley	So where did you stay? Was it an apartment?	10:35
Allie Peterson Brown	There?	10:38
Tywanna Whorley	Yes ma'am.	10:38
Allie Peterson Brown	No, in different people's homes.	10:39
Tywanna Whorley	Did you know them or?	10:44
Allie Peterson Brown	Uh-Uh (Negative). Met them after I got there.	10:46
Tywanna Whorley	Really?	10:47
Allie Peterson Brown	Mm-hmm (Affirmative).	10:48
Tywanna Whorley	You weren't scared?	10:49
Allie Peterson Brown	No, not at that time, at least. It wasn't as bad as it is now. I'd be afraid now unless somebody knew them.	10:54
Tywanna Whorley	So how long did you teach in that area?	11:04
Allie Peterson Brown	I was in new Eufaula, I guess about two years. And that's when I came back home and I was doing some substitute work.	11:08
Tywanna Whorley	So you taught elementary school?	11:18
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes.	11:21
Tywanna Whorley	So you came back here, and how long did you stay in Birmingham?	11:25
Allie Peterson Brown	I think I was here maybe about two years. I just subbed during that time, and then I moved to Detroit.	11:30
Tywanna Whorley	When you came back to Birmingham, did you live at home? When you came back to Birmingham from Detroit, did you—	11:36
Allie Peterson Brown	I left to Detroit going to Denver, Colorado. (knock at door) [INTERRUPTION]	11:42
Tywanna Whorley	When you came back from Eufaula you came back to Birmingham first.	11:49
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes.	11:51
Tywanna Whorley	Did you stay at home with your parents?	11:52
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes.	11:54
Tywanna Whorley	Do you remember the I guess estimate about the years when you moved from Detroit and came back home? Was that in the '50s?	11:56
Allie Peterson Brown	Late '40s.	11:58
Tywanna Whorley	Late forties?	11:58
Allie Peterson Brown	Mm-hmm (Affirmative). Maybe in the early '50s.	12:08
Tywanna Whorley	Okay. So you came back home and then you decided to go to Detroit. Why Detroit?	12:09
Allie Peterson Brown	I married and went to Detroit.	12:15
Tywanna Whorley	Oh, what was his name?	12:21
Allie Peterson Brown	My name?	12:22
Tywanna Whorley	Yeah, your husband's name?	12:23
Allie Peterson Brown	Bill. Peter Bill.	12:25
Tywanna Whorley	When did you meet him?	12:28
Allie Peterson Brown	He grew up here in Fairfield.	12:28
Tywanna Whorley	Did you know each other before?	12:34
Allie Peterson Brown	At Miles.	12:37
Tywanna Whorley	Oh, okay. What year did you get married?	12:41
Allie Peterson Brown	About '59 maybe.	12:46
Tywanna Whorley	'59?	12:47
Allie Peterson Brown	Mm-hmm (Affirmative).	12:47
Tywanna Whorley	And you both decided that Detroit was the place?	12:49
Allie Peterson Brown	He was already in Detroit.	12:53
Tywanna Whorley	You decided to go with him?	12:56
Allie Peterson Brown	Mm-hmm (Affirmative).	12:57
Tywanna Whorley	Okay.	12:57
Allie Peterson Brown	I'm putting the cart before the horse. I had been married previous to that, and I have a child by that marriage. Before Bill.	13:01
Tywanna Whorley	Was that in '40, the early '40s?	13:09
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes.	13:09
Tywanna Whorley	Was this before you graduated from Miles or was it?	13:16
Allie Peterson Brown	After.	13:16
Tywanna Whorley	After Miles?	13:16
Allie Peterson Brown	Mm-hmm (Affirmative). I'm sorry.	13:16
Tywanna Whorley	Oh, that's okay. That's okay, as long as you remembered. Can you tell me about, I guess living in Detroit and knowing the conditions that you came from here in Birmingham in terms of segregation going on, do you remember?	13:29
Allie Peterson Brown	Well it was a little, I'd say better in Detroit. It was better, but it was still—you knew, as they say, your place. You still knew that. But things were different. You're still Black, or as they say Negro, everywhere you go, until now really. But it was different. And during the time when they had to march here in Birmingham, I was in Detroit. It really started before I left here, sitting in downtown Birmingham.	13:42
Tywanna Whorley	Was that the '50s and '60s?	14:19
Allie Peterson Brown	It was in the '50s.	14:19
Tywanna Whorley	Can you tell me about that?	14:24
Allie Peterson Brown	I wasn't involved in it. But I remember coming from school, Lincoln School. One day we decided we'd go by downtown and we stopped in Newberry.	14:27
Tywanna Whorley	Where is that?	14:38
Allie Peterson Brown	Downtown. That's where they had a little cafe, you'd eat there, and that's where they had us sit in down there. And we didn't know it until we got downtown and we noticed the people looking at us funny. I know we were standing around, didn't notice they had been down there sitting in, and somebody outside I think, told us what had happened that day. But we went in that. And several things happened like marching. I wasn't here during that time, I was in Detroit, but I saw every bit of it on TV in Detroit.	14:40
Tywanna Whorley	When you were in Detroit, did you live in a predominantly Black area?	15:19
Allie Peterson Brown	No, it was really integrated.	15:23
Tywanna Whorley	So how different was that living here, there [indistinct 00:15:26]?	15:26
Allie Peterson Brown	Well, the only thing about it, White and Blacks lived in here. Wasn't that many, maybe Whites, living in that area. But there were. But believe it or not, when I was in Eufaula we had a White neighbor where I lived. We had a White neighbor lived across the street, two or three White neighbors then.	15:30
Tywanna Whorley	In any places that you lived, was there tension?	15:57
Allie Peterson Brown	Pardon?	16:00
Tywanna Whorley	Was there tension between Whites and Blacks, in terms of—	16:00
Allie Peterson Brown	No. Really wasn't.	16:04
Tywanna Whorley	What about living here in Fairfield? I know you lived in a predominantly Black area.	16:09
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes.	16:14
Tywanna Whorley	Did you and your friends ever talk about the differences between you and Whites? I guess the question I'm asking is when did you become aware that there was a difference between, or people say there was a difference between Blacks and Whites?	16:20
Allie Peterson Brown	Well by living, born here, we knew it was because the White had their area, and it was pretty and green and trees and all, and we passed through. But it wasn't any tension or anything, as I remember growing up here. And your White fountains and your Black fountains, and we called it the White water and Black water and the restrooms the same.	16:36
Tywanna Whorley	Did your parents have a car when you were growing up?	17:11
Allie Peterson Brown	My brother. They had cars.	17:14
Tywanna Whorley	But that was your transportation in terms of coming from say your parents had to come from Fairfield, I guess to go downtown all the way to Fourth Avenue.	17:20
Allie Peterson Brown	Well now we walked, did a lot of walking. Did a lot of walking, plus downtown Fairfield, there was a bus running from downtown Fairfield or maybe it would go on to Besma maybe, to Birmingham, downtown Birmingham. And they'd walk down and catch. I think it was the number five bus going downtown Birmingham. And if you go to Besma, maybe they'd walk over to Vinesville and catch, I believe it was the number four bus or trolley car going to Besma.	17:29
Tywanna Whorley	How long was the trip?	18:05
Allie Peterson Brown	I don't know. It wasn't too long. I don't know. I really don't know how long, but it wasn't too long.	18:11
Tywanna Whorley	Okay. Do you remember riding the bus or the trolley, that it was separated, in terms of color?	18:16
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes. Black sat up front and I mean, I'm sorry. Whites sat up front and the Blacks were in the back. We knew that. We knew where to go, whether we wanted to or not.	18:28
Tywanna Whorley	Did you have to pay first and then get on in the back, or were able to pay and just get on the bus?	18:42
Allie Peterson Brown	One bus, the would, if I remember correctly there was a conductor. He would take the fare up and then there started being a certain place, maybe on the back of the bus. If you get on at the back of the bus, you would pay as you get on. The conductor would be there for the one while, I think if I'm not mistaken now, they would go take your fare, and I forgot.	18:47
Tywanna Whorley	How much was it to ride?	19:12
Allie Peterson Brown	It wasn't much. Whatever it was, it wasn't too much. I don't know whether it was seven cents. I don't remember really. But it wasn't too much to ride the bus in those days.	19:22
Tywanna Whorley	Do you remember, going to Fourth Avenue, can you describe what was going on, like a typical day going to Fourth Avenue?	19:34
Allie Peterson Brown	That's where the Blacks would hang out, on Fourth Avenue. And didn't go too much on both avenue though.	19:45
Tywanna Whorley	Why?	19:52
Allie Peterson Brown	We were afraid. Our parents didn't want us to, but we'd go, but not too much. But they had an eating place on Fourth Avenue. We used to go and eat sometimes. And that's where the movies were, on Fourth Avenue, if we'd go to the movies sometime.	19:53
Tywanna Whorley	Do you remember the name of the movie theater?	20:16
Allie Peterson Brown	I really don't. I don't remember.	20:18
Tywanna Whorley	So when your parents said not to frequent Fourth Avenue that much, did you go with your brother and sisters down to Fourth Avenue?	20:24
Allie Peterson Brown	Oh, some friends maybe. Sometimes we'd slip off.	20:34
Tywanna Whorley	I'm sure you probably went in the daytime or?	20:42
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes.	20:46
Tywanna Whorley	And was home by night?	20:46
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes. (laughs). Very much so.	20:47
Tywanna Whorley	And you said that your family, I guess you consider at the time to be middle class, compared to say your friends who lived in the same area as you, could you tell that there was a difference between your family and another family in terms of what you had and didn't have?	20:49
Allie Peterson Brown	All those was around here were about in the same category maybe, most of us anyway. And because most of the parents worked in the steel mill, and they would lay off quite a bit. And maybe one or two worked some other place and they were a little better off.	21:19
Tywanna Whorley	Can you describe your house that you lived in? Was it a three bedroom, two bedrooms?	21:39
Allie Peterson Brown	We had three bedrooms. It was an old house and it had three bedrooms. And we didn't have a dining room at that time. And it was just an old house.	21:46
Tywanna Whorley	I guess your brothers in one room and?	22:01
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes. And the girls and one.	22:05
Tywanna Whorley	So how was that being the baby of six kids?	22:08
Allie Peterson Brown	Good. I kind of had my way. I remember sometime wanting to go out to a party or something and my brother would say go, I could go. And sometimes he would carry me and leave me at those places and tell me, you better not do this. And I'd stay there and he'd tell me about what time he'd be back. He'd come back and get me. And the boyfriend, I'd ask my mother if we could go out, go to a party or somewhere, or movie somewhere at night with the boy and she would say, "ask your daddy". Ask my daddy. He'd say, "ask your mother". Sometimes I wouldn't go because I had to ask. (laughs)	22:12
Tywanna Whorley	Just asking each other.	23:00
Allie Peterson Brown	And I can understand why now though.	23:05
Tywanna Whorley	So when did you get married the first time?	23:11
Allie Peterson Brown	When did I get married the first time? It was in '35 maybe. I believe. I don't know. Somewhere along there. No, it wasn't. It was about '39. '39 or '40 I guess. And I have a son by that marriage.	23:18
Tywanna Whorley	Okay.	23:40
Allie Peterson Brown	And his father's dead.	23:43
Tywanna Whorley	Do you remember when the two women here, Autherine Lucy and—?	23:48
Allie Peterson Brown	I wasn't here during that time.	23:54
Tywanna Whorley	When they tried to integrate Tuscaloosa? Did you know them when you were growing up?	23:56
Allie Peterson Brown	I knew some of their relatives, Autherine's relative, because they lived here in Fairfield, but they had gone to Chicago at that time. But I wasn't here during that time.	24:02
Tywanna Whorley	Were you in Detroit?	24:14
Allie Peterson Brown	I was in Detroit.	24:16
Tywanna Whorley	What did you think when you heard that they were trying—	24:17
Allie Peterson Brown	I was so happy. I was really happy for them. And I saw every bit of it on TV. I wouldn't leave TV.	24:19
Tywanna Whorley	Did you think that they were going to be successful?	24:29
Allie Peterson Brown	They would be successful?	24:36
Tywanna Whorley	Mm-hmm (Affirmative).	24:37
Allie Peterson Brown	I figured they would.	24:38
Tywanna Whorley	When you attended Miles, did you pay for it yourself or did your parents help you?	24:43
Allie Peterson Brown	My parents.	24:48
Tywanna Whorley	Your parents?	24:49
Allie Peterson Brown	Mm-hmm (Affirmative).	24:50
Tywanna Whorley	Do you know, I'm sure you may have forgotten, how much it cost at that time?	24:53
Allie Peterson Brown	It wasn't anything much and it was a whole lot during that time, but I don't remember. I don't remember how much it was, but it was a whole lot during that time. But nothing like it is now.	24:54
Tywanna Whorley	Can you describe? I don't know if you remember your first day that you came to Miles as a college student, but—	25:11
Allie Peterson Brown	One thing, I had been on campus all the time and I knew the students that was here then. Even though they were older, I still knew them by being on campus all the time.	25:23
Tywanna Whorley	Now you consider yourself here a college student. How different was that coming here, your home not being that far away, but yet you are independent of your family going to school? You're living in a dorm?	25:42
Allie Peterson Brown	No, I didn't live in the dorm.	25:54
Tywanna Whorley	You didn't?	25:54
Allie Peterson Brown	I lived about two blocks down.	25:59
Tywanna Whorley	Oh, so you just walked?	26:01
Allie Peterson Brown	Yeah, live about two blocks down from here.	26:02
Tywanna Whorley	Didn't you tell me that all your siblings were here?	26:10
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes, all of us were here.	26:15
Tywanna Whorley	Do you remember what degrees they got here?	26:18
Allie Peterson Brown	My brother, no. My sister at that time, I think an older sister, they had a teacher's training then and she finished teacher's training. And my brother went to A&M, and my oldest brother finished. Yeah, he had got his degree here.	26:22
Tywanna Whorley	What was his degree? In teaching too?	26:47
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes.	26:53
Tywanna Whorley	You said one of your brothers played football?	26:57
Allie Peterson Brown	Yeah, he played football at Miles and I'd fight if the older fellas would tease me about fighting. I didn't want anybody to tackle him and they would tease me about that. That was my favorite brother. He's the one used to carry me to parties, but much older than I was.	26:59
Tywanna Whorley	Did Miles have a winning football team?	27:23
Allie Peterson Brown	Sure. A good team then. Really. My brother was good. He was the quarterback. He's very good.	27:25
Tywanna Whorley	So attending Miles, did you—I don't know why I asked this, but attending Miles, did you feel like you were isolated I guess from the rest of the world while you were going there?	27:36
Allie Peterson Brown	No. We were very proud.	27:50
Tywanna Whorley	Did you talk about the issues that were going on in the community? I guess the conditions that people in Fairfield were living under or did you have a community of Black students to talk about things, issues that bothered you?	27:54
Allie Peterson Brown	You mean in school?	28:02
Tywanna Whorley	Yes, ma'am.	28:02
Allie Peterson Brown	I don't remember that. Maybe we would talk about it between ourselves, little things, but really, it wasn't a big thing. But we knew it was wrong, but it wasn't a big thing.	28:03
Tywanna Whorley	Do you remember, I guess you was at home in the depression?	28:28
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes. That's when the plants would go down and lay off and they'd cut off and then they'd stay off a while and then they would call them back to work. We knew about the depression, but still we were happy. We were very happy, but we knew about that.	28:35
Tywanna Whorley	Did your father ever get laid off?	28:56
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes, quite a bit. And he left the steel plant then and went to another little plant and worked a while. And after that he came here to Miles, worked as a janitor then.	28:57
Tywanna Whorley	So when he did get laid off, how did the family support itself?	29:14
Allie Peterson Brown	Just the little savings that he we had, and had gardens, plants. And I remember my father and Mr. Moore, I think, had a little garden. They call it way away from home. And they'd go and work the garden and we'd get our vegetables that way. And we'd have hogs, chickens.	29:20
Tywanna Whorley	You had hogs and chickens? In the backyard or?	29:47
Allie Peterson Brown	Away from the house. Chickens at home, now.	29:52
Tywanna Whorley	When it came time to cook the chicken, who did that? Your mom?	29:58
Allie Peterson Brown	Mom or my older sister.	30:05
Tywanna Whorley	Did you ever help?	30:09
Allie Peterson Brown	Yeah, a little.	30:11
Tywanna Whorley	Can you describe how they do the chickens, in terms of—	30:17
Allie Peterson Brown	I remember then they'd ring the chicken's neck off. I never would have been able to do that. They'd kill the chicken and they'd ring the neck off. And then get the feathers off. And I think they call it singeing chicken, getting the little fine little feathers off. Boil it off a lot, those off. And then they'd cut it up and cook.	30:20
Allie Peterson Brown	And we had apple trees, peach trees or plum maybe. And big trees. I remember we had a big, big tree in the back. I liked them just getting them off the tree, eating. That's the way I eat my figs, not after they'd been preserved anything. It was fun. Even though we were poor, it was really fun.	30:58
Tywanna Whorley	Did your mom can?	31:24
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes, she canned anything she could get her hands on. Yeah, it was fun. Really.	31:26
Tywanna Whorley	I guess during the '30s you said that you lived off your savings. Who kind of managed the money?	31:43
Allie Peterson Brown	My dad and my mother, really. Now my brothers were older but they had little odd jobs paying nothing much, but it was a whole lot in that time. But my mom and dad managed their little money.	31:51
Tywanna Whorley	So when it was time for dinner, did everybody sit down together?	32:09
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes, if you were there. We'd sit and eat and pray and we'd have—I didn't know because I was the youngest. They would have maybe one sister would wash dishes or what have you, clean up this week, and next week, the next one. It was fun.	32:12
Tywanna Whorley	I guess another question I have is, in terms of your friends, did you ever go there for dinner, to your friend's house?	32:44
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes, we would go and they would come by, whatever. And they would come over to my house and we'd play. And when they'd go home, we'd walk them home and then they would walk me back home. We just had a lot of fun going back and forth. Sometime we had to be in before dark. And we had to do all that before it got dark. We back and forth, back and forth. Had a lot fun.	32:51
Tywanna Whorley	In terms of buying or being consumers during that time, did you—I guess in terms of passing down clothes, did you get the clothes that your sister used to wear or?	33:27
Allie Peterson Brown	No, they were much older than I was. My mother sewed.	33:40
Tywanna Whorley	Oh, okay.	33:46
Allie Peterson Brown	She sewed and she'd make me little ruffle dresses. And during that time, I think it was an aunt of mine, had a, I think you call it a fluting machine, little ruffles. And she gave it to my mother and the ruffle part, it fluted, like the crimps in the hair now. But the little flutes would be small and it would flute the ruffles. My mother did most of the sewing for us.	33:47
Tywanna Whorley	So she didn't have to go out and buy clothes all the time?	34:18
Allie Peterson Brown	Not all the time.	34:20
Tywanna Whorley	You said that your parents had a garden. What type of vegetables did you grow?	34:23
Allie Peterson Brown	All type vegetables, tomatoes, peas, collards, turnips, corn, peanuts.	34:27
Tywanna Whorley	Peanuts?	34:34
Allie Peterson Brown	Mm-hmm (Affirmative). Had some of all. Anything you plant in a garden. My mother didn't work it, but my father would do that well.	34:36
Tywanna Whorley	Did the kids help out in terms of going out to the garden and bringing in specific things or—	34:50
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes, sometimes. When they wait to do.	34:59
Tywanna Whorley	What were your chores when you were little?	35:00
Allie Peterson Brown	Not that much. I didn't have to do anything much, believe it or not, but I would help. I would help and I'd try and cook cakes. I would cook cakes with her help and I was pretty good.	35:07
Tywanna Whorley	When you moved to Detroit, I guess you said you were in a house then?	35:18
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes.	35:27
Tywanna Whorley	Was that also like a three bedroom or two bedroom?	35:29
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes.	35:34
Tywanna Whorley	When you went there, what was your occupation? Were you teaching?	35:37
Allie Peterson Brown	No, I didn't teach while I was in Detroit. I worked, but I worked in the factory, believe it or not. I was in the factory when George Wallace was shot. I was working in the factory then, when he was shot.	35:41
Tywanna Whorley	Did you ever go back to teaching?	35:59
Allie Peterson Brown	Yeah, when I went to Denver.	35:59
Tywanna Whorley	When did you go to Denver?	35:59
Allie Peterson Brown	When did I go? I left Detroit going to Denver in '72.	36:07
Tywanna Whorley	Decisions to be made in a family, did your mom and dad make them together?	36:14
Allie Peterson Brown	Together.	36:17
Tywanna Whorley	Can you remember a decision that they had to make about you, that they had to talk about or whatever?	36:17
Allie Peterson Brown	The only thing I can remember is when I'd want to go out. That's the big one.	36:30
Tywanna Whorley	Who would you say you were most close to? Your mom or your dad?	36:33
Allie Peterson Brown	I don't know. I know I loved the both of them. I don't know. I was just about as close to one as the other. Even though everybody said I resembled my dad quite a bit, but I don't know, just about as close to one as the other.	36:42
Tywanna Whorley	Okay. What type of family outings would you do together, the whole family?	36:48
Allie Peterson Brown	Then we didn't have nowhere to go hardly. But anyway, just the family, we'd have little outings maybe going, oh—over this way, it was woods, back over there on campus, and sometime maybe we would go out over there and have a picnic or something.	37:10
Tywanna Whorley	What church did you attend?	37:36
Allie Peterson Brown	Miles Chapel, on the corner.	37:37
Tywanna Whorley	Okay. Is it a Baptist church?	37:41
Allie Peterson Brown	Methodist.	37:41
Tywanna Whorley	Methodist.	37:44
Allie Peterson Brown	Semi.	37:46
Tywanna Whorley	Semi?	37:47
Allie Peterson Brown	Mm-hmm (Affirmative). It's a sister church to Miles College.	37:47
Tywanna Whorley	Your entire family would go?	37:51
Allie Peterson Brown	Yeah.	37:51
Tywanna Whorley	When did your father, I don't know if you remember, when did he start working at Miles?	37:51
Allie Peterson Brown	Start? I don't remember when he started working, but he passed in '63. I think he was working here then, but even though I wasn't here then, but he was here. It was in '63. I think he died in '63.	38:02
Tywanna Whorley	It probably was in the '50s.	38:14
Allie Peterson Brown	Maybe. Forties, maybe.	38:23
Tywanna Whorley	Did he ever talk about what went on here after you had left with the students?	38:27
Allie Peterson Brown	No, I don't remember him talking about it. I really don't.	38:35
Tywanna Whorley	When did you come back to Birmingham?	38:42
Allie Peterson Brown	I came back to Birmingham in '81.	38:44
Tywanna Whorley	Had a whole lot changed?	38:49
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes, it had. When I left they weren't going to different restaurants. I mean White and Black. Movies, riding the bus. If you was going to ride the bus, that was the one. Yeah, it changed quite a bit.	38:51
Tywanna Whorley	Do you think for the better or?	39:14
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes, for the better.	39:16
Tywanna Whorley	Do you see there needs to be more changes in Birmingham?	39:18
Allie Peterson Brown	Well, yeah.	39:22
Tywanna Whorley	Like what?	39:23
Allie Peterson Brown	I can't name no specific thing, but just need to be changes, even though it's much better than it was. Much, much better.	39:27
Tywanna Whorley	Where do you live now? Here in Birmingham?	39:35
Allie Peterson Brown	Where do I live now? Clyde William Terrace. That's a senior's apartment. It's connected with Miles part.	39:37
Tywanna Whorley	Oh. Have you ever gone back over to the old area where you used to live?	39:51
Allie Peterson Brown	I go all the time because it's about two blocks down. The home house is still down here.	39:51
Tywanna Whorley	Oh.	39:54
Allie Peterson Brown	It's a different house than when we grew up, but the home house is here. I go down there all the time. All around here, really.	39:54
Tywanna Whorley	So some of your buddies are still over there?	40:04
Allie Peterson Brown	No.	40:04
Tywanna Whorley	No?	40:04
Allie Peterson Brown	Uh-uh (Negative). They're either married and away from here or some have passed on. But all around, we used to walk the hills. So all around here. There's some friends still here and we see each other, go out to eat.	40:10
Tywanna Whorley	Y'all talk about old times?	40:31
Allie Peterson Brown	Old times, yes we do.	40:32
Tywanna Whorley	Anything in particular that you used to talk about, just growing up?	40:38
Allie Peterson Brown	Just the times we had, and the hard times we had, and we didn't know it really. We knew maybe we didn't have certain things, but like I said, we were still happy with what we had. We didn't know any difference, really. And talk about things like that, and the boyfriends maybe, just things like that. We talk about church growing up because I grew up in church out there. And we talk about when we were small in the church, growing up.	40:45
Tywanna Whorley	So even though you were, I guess surrounded by Black people all the time, it didn't matter that—	41:15
Allie Peterson Brown	That's all we knew.	41:25
Tywanna Whorley	All right. I guess another question I wanted to ask you is, do you see anything in terms of Miles College that's different from when you went back in the '40s?	41:26
Allie Peterson Brown	Anything different in Miles?	41:44
Tywanna Whorley	Mm-hmm (Affirmative). In terms of teachers or things like that? Do you see what's going on now, but back then in terms of the teachers and—	41:44
Allie Peterson Brown	One thing I'll tell you, more buildings on campus. At that time, years ago, that was Williams Hall, where the law school is. And it's a building over here that was here then and had a boys' dorm. They tore it down. And more buildings, and the campus is simply—Campus was beautiful then we thought, but now it's beautiful. And at that time we had a lot of dogwood trees on campus. Some now, but not like that.	42:04
Tywanna Whorley	Trees.	42:41
Allie Peterson Brown	And it isn't as many trees on campus as it was then. And naturally there's more faculty members than then. And believe way back, do you know we had some White teachers here? Sure did. Surely did. And they lived in the dorm. Can't think of their names now, but we did.	42:48
Tywanna Whorley	So how did the students respond to it?	43:15
Allie Peterson Brown	Very good. I don't know. I don't remember there being any incidental ever. Surely did.	43:20
Tywanna Whorley	Were they a mixture of men and women, or just women?	43:26
Allie Peterson Brown	I can remember. I don't remember the men or man. Now but I remember women.	43:29
Tywanna Whorley	They stayed in the girls dorm?	43:37
Allie Peterson Brown	They stayed in the girls dorm.	43:38
Tywanna Whorley	Did they interact with them?	43:38
Allie Peterson Brown	Mm-hmm (Affirmative). They did, and that was a long time ago, believe it or not. I can't remember the names, but sure they did.	43:42
Tywanna Whorley	Did y'all ever talk about having White professors?	43:48
Allie Peterson Brown	I don't know. I don't remember talking about it, but I really don't remember.	43:57
Tywanna Whorley	It seems like this campus is sort of isolated from the area. Was it back then, the same way?	44:05
Allie Peterson Brown	I believe. Now, if I remember correctly, it may be a little better now than it was then.	44:16
Tywanna Whorley	Did you leave campus at all to travel?	44:25
Allie Peterson Brown	Well see, I didn't live on campus.	44:29
Tywanna Whorley	No, I'm just saying maybe your friends or everything. Because it seems like this campus is on a hill and in order to travel down you had to have I guess a car or something. But was there—	44:31
Allie Peterson Brown	We did a lot of walking.	44:44
Tywanna Whorley	Walking.	44:45
Allie Peterson Brown	Did a lot of walking. There was some cars, now.	44:47
Tywanna Whorley	What about the store across the street? The Turner?	44:51
Allie Peterson Brown	The Turners? No, that came later. I think that came while I was away, because all of us grew up together. Turner, his dad was a doctor. Dr. Turner.	44:53
Tywanna Whorley	So you and Turner went to school together?	45:08
Allie Peterson Brown	Yeah, all of us was here together. And now his wife, she went to Fairfield High. And she didn't go to Miles at all, but her husband did. And his brothers and his sister finished out here, I think. I'm sure they did. I know they did.	45:08
Tywanna Whorley	So was there a small town or—I'm thinking that if you needed something to get, people needed to get from and they couldn't get it on campus, where was the nearest place to try?	45:26
Allie Peterson Brown	Downtown Fairfield.	45:41
Tywanna Whorley	Oh, okay.	45:43
Allie Peterson Brown	Downtown Fairfield.	45:45
Tywanna Whorley	Yeah, I passed that when I came in. So people just walked? It didn't take that long to get there?	45:48
Allie Peterson Brown	It wouldn't take long to walk down there. Did a lot of walking then and didn't mine. Now we hardly can walk a block.	45:56
Tywanna Whorley	Downtown Fairfax, was it businesses White owned? Were there any Black businesses?	46:12
Allie Peterson Brown	White.	46:16
Tywanna Whorley	So, it—	46:18
Allie Peterson Brown	I don't remember a Black being down there. They were White businesses.	46:19
Tywanna Whorley	So say if you wanted to go get a shake or something like that, they would have separate seating for y'all?	46:25
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes.	46:32
Tywanna Whorley	It didn't bother you at all? It just—	46:34
Allie Peterson Brown	Well, that's all we knew during that time, even though we knew it was wrong. But that's all we knew.	46:36
Tywanna Whorley	Okay. So I guess the last question I'm going to ask you is that, what else do you think is needed in Birmingham, in terms of race relations? Do you see anything else that needs to be done in Birmingham?	46:40
Allie Peterson Brown	I'm sure a lot need to be done, but I'm thinking.	47:01

Allie Peterson Brown	I taught in Barbour County.	0:02
Tywanna Whorley	Bible County?	0:05
Allie Peterson Brown	Barbour.	0:06
Tywanna Whorley	Barbour?	0:06
Allie Peterson Brown	Barbour County.	0:07
Tywanna Whorley	How do you—	0:09
Allie Peterson Brown	Below Montgomery. Eufaula, Alabama.	0:10
Tywanna Whorley	Oh. Why down there?	0:13
Allie Peterson Brown	I just wanted to leave home and go off teaching away from home. Of course, I did some subbing here in Birmingham in Birmingham school system.	0:15
Tywanna Whorley	A predominantly Black school?	0:24
Allie Peterson Brown	Yeah. They were at that time.	0:27
Tywanna Whorley	Do you remember what schools they were, that you subbed?	0:28
Allie Peterson Brown	That I subbed?	0:28
Tywanna Whorley	Yes, ma'am.	0:28
Allie Peterson Brown	Oh, Lincoln. I did, believe it or not, all my subbing mostly at Lincoln. I can't think of the other one. Mr. Low, J.L. Low was principal at that school.	0:37
Tywanna Whorley	Parker High?	0:45
Allie Peterson Brown	No, no, it wasn't Parker.	0:47
Tywanna Whorley	Okay.	0:50
Allie Peterson Brown	I don't remember the school that he was principal at that time, but I subbed there. And Mr. Langford Warren, and that was in Bessemer Pipe Shop. I don't remember a school, but I did some subbing there under him.	0:52
Tywanna Whorley	Where was Lincoln located?	1:09
Allie Peterson Brown	In Smithfield.	1:13
Tywanna Whorley	Smithfield? Okay. When you decided, did you decide before you had graduated from Miles that you were going to move away and teach somewhere else?	1:17
Allie Peterson Brown	Mm-hmm. I always wanted to go away.	1:26
Tywanna Whorley	How did you plan for that, that move?	1:31
Allie Peterson Brown	I don't know. It was just made up in my mind to work away from home a while. Then I didn't stay here, I went to Detroit.	1:37
Tywanna Whorley	When you had moved to, I guess, the Eufaula area, did you have relatives there?	1:48
Allie Peterson Brown	No, no.	1:53
Tywanna Whorley	No?	1:54
Allie Peterson Brown	See, I would commute and go, weekends come home.	1:55
Tywanna Whorley	Oh.	2:00
Allie Peterson Brown	Some weekend, not every weekend, I would come home.	2:00
Tywanna Whorley	Oh. So, you didn't actually live in—	2:04
Allie Peterson Brown	No, no, no. Just while I was working. I would come back home summers, and weekends I would come home.	2:08
Tywanna Whorley	So, where did you stay? Were you in an apartment?	2:19
Allie Peterson Brown	There?	2:22
Tywanna Whorley	Yes, ma'am.	2:22
Allie Peterson Brown	No.	2:22
Tywanna Whorley	How?	2:22
Allie Peterson Brown	In different people home.	2:24
Tywanna Whorley	Did you know them?	2:28
Allie Peterson Brown	Mm-mm. Met them after I got there.	2:29
Tywanna Whorley	Really? You weren't scared?	2:31
Allie Peterson Brown	No, not at that time. At least it wasn't as bad as it is now. I'd be afraid now unless somebody knew them.	2:40
Tywanna Whorley	How long did you teach in that area?	2:48
Allie Peterson Brown	I was in Eufaula I guess about two years. That's when I came back home and I was doing some substitute work.	2:52
Tywanna Whorley	When you were in Eufaula, you taught elementary school?	2:59
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes.	3:04
Tywanna Whorley	So, you came back here and how long did you stay in Birmingham for?	3:08
Allie Peterson Brown	I think I was here maybe about two years. I just subbed during that time, and then I moved to Detroit.	3:11
Tywanna Whorley	When you came back to Birmingham, did you live at home? When you came back to Birmingham from before, did you live at home?	3:19
Allie Peterson Brown	I left Detroit, going to Denver, Colorado.	3:25
Tywanna Whorley	When you came back from Eufaula, you came back to Birmingham first?	3:31
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes.	3:34
Tywanna Whorley	Did you stay at home with your parents?	3:35
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes.	3:35
Tywanna Whorley	Do you remember the estimate about the years when you moved from Eufaula and came back home? Was that in the fifties?	3:40
Allie Peterson Brown	The late forties.	3:42
Tywanna Whorley	Late forties?	3:42
Allie Peterson Brown	Maybe in the early fifties.	3:42
Tywanna Whorley	Okay. So, you came back home and then you decided to go to Detroit. Why Detroit?	3:42
Allie Peterson Brown	I married and went to Detroit.	3:42
Tywanna Whorley	Oh. What was his name?	3:48
Allie Peterson Brown	My name?	3:48
Tywanna Whorley	No, your husband's name?	3:48
Allie Peterson Brown	Bill. Peter Bill.	3:48
Tywanna Whorley	Where did you meet him?	3:48
Allie Peterson Brown	He grew up here in Fairfield.	3:48
Tywanna Whorley	Oh. Did you know each other before you came back?	3:48
Allie Peterson Brown	Mm-hmm. At my—	3:48
Tywanna Whorley	Oh, okay. What year did you get married?	4:09
Allie Peterson Brown	About '59 maybe.	4:27
Tywanna Whorley	'59?	4:28
Allie Peterson Brown	Mm-hmm.	4:29
Tywanna Whorley	And you both decided that Detroit was the place to live?	4:30
Allie Peterson Brown	He was already in Detroit.	4:35
Tywanna Whorley	Oh, and you decided to go live with him?	4:35
Allie Peterson Brown	Mm-hmm.	4:35
Tywanna Whorley	Oh, okay.	4:35
Allie Peterson Brown	I'm putting the cart before the horse. I had been married previous to that and I have a child by that marriage, before to Bill.	4:42
Tywanna Whorley	Was that in the forties? The early forties?	4:50
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes.	4:50
Tywanna Whorley	Was it before you graduated from Miles or was it after?	4:57
Allie Peterson Brown	After.	4:59
Tywanna Whorley	After Miles?	4:59
Allie Peterson Brown	Mm-hmm. I'm sorry.	5:01
Tywanna Whorley	Oh, that's okay. That's okay. As long as [indistinct 00:05:07]. Can you tell me about, I guess, living in Detroit and knowing the conditions that you came from here in Birmingham, in terms of the segregation going on? Do you remember?	5:04
Allie Peterson Brown	Well, it was a little, I'd say, better in Detroit. It was better. But there was still, you knew, as they say, your place. You still knew that. But things were different. You still Black, or as they say, Negro everywhere you go up until now, really. But it was different. During the time when they had to march here in Birmingham, I was in Detroit. I didn't really start to live before I left here, sitting in downtown Birmingham.	5:22
Tywanna Whorley	Right. '50s or '60s?	5:59
Allie Peterson Brown	It was in the '50s.	5:59
Tywanna Whorley	Can you tell me about that?	6:04
Allie Peterson Brown	I wasn't involved in it, but I remember coming from school, Lincoln School, one day. We decided we'd go by downtown and we stopped in Newberry.	6:07
Tywanna Whorley	Where is that?	6:17
Allie Peterson Brown	Downtown.	6:17
Tywanna Whorley	Where is Newberry?	6:21
Allie Peterson Brown	That's where they had a little cafe, you'd eat there, and that's where they had a sit-in down there. We didn't know it until we got downtown and we noticed the people looking at us funny. I know we were standing around, didn't know that they had been down there sitting in. Somebody outside, I think, told us what had happened that day. But we went in that. Several things happened, like marching. I wasn't here during that time. I was in Detroit, but I saw every bit of it on TV in Detroit.	6:22
Tywanna Whorley	When you were in Detroit, did you live in the predominant Black area in Detroit?	6:57
Allie Peterson Brown	No, it was really integrated.	7:02
Tywanna Whorley	Oh. How different was that living here in Fairfield?	7:04
Allie Peterson Brown	Well, the only thing about it, White and Blacks lived in here. Not that many maybe Whites living in that area, but there were. But believe it or not, when I was in year four, we had a White neighbor where I lived. We had a White neighbor lived across the street. Two or three White neighbors then.	7:09
Tywanna Whorley	Was there any places that you lived where there was tension?	7:34
Allie Peterson Brown	Pardon?	7:38
Tywanna Whorley	Was there tension between Whites and Blacks because of [indistinct 00:07:42]?	7:38
Allie Peterson Brown	No. No, really wasn't.	7:42
Tywanna Whorley	What about living here in Fairfield? I know you lived in a predominantly Black area.	7:47
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes.	7:48
Tywanna Whorley	Did you and the kin, I guess you and your friends, ever talk about, I guess, the differences between you and Whites? I guess the question I'm asking is when did you become aware that there was a difference between, or people said there were, a difference between Blacks and Whites?	7:58
Allie Peterson Brown	Well, by living, born here, we knew it was because the White had their area. It was pretty and green and trees and all. We passed through, but it wasn't any tension or anything, as I remember, growing up here. White fountains, Black fountains, and we called it the White water and Black water. And the restrooms the same.	8:13
Tywanna Whorley	Did your parents have a car when you were going there?	8:48
Allie Peterson Brown	My brother, they had cars.	8:49
Tywanna Whorley	So, that was the transportation in terms of coming from, like say, your parents had to come from Fairfield, I guess, to go downtown or over to Fourth Avenue.	8:49
Allie Peterson Brown	Well, now we walked. Did a lot of walking. Did a lot of walking. Plus, downtown Fairfield, there was a bus running from downtown Fairfield. Or maybe it would go on to Bessemer maybe, to Birmingham, downtown Birmingham. They'd walk down and catch it. I think it was the number five bus going downtown Birmingham. If they'd go to Bessemer, maybe they'd walk over to Vinesville and catch, I believe it was a number four bus or trolley car going to Bessemer.	9:06
Tywanna Whorley	How long was the trip?	9:42
Allie Peterson Brown	I don't know. It wasn't too long. I don't know, I really don't. Don't know how long. But it wasn't too long.	9:47
Tywanna Whorley	Oh, okay. Do you remember riding the bus or the trolley, that it was separated in terms of color?	9:52
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes. Blacks sat up front and—I mean, I'm sorry. Whites sat up front and the Blacks were in the back, waiting in back. We knew where to go, whether we wanted to or not.	10:04
Tywanna Whorley	Did you have to pay first and then you'd get on in the back, or was you able to pay and just get on the bus?	10:18
Allie Peterson Brown	One way I think they would, if I remember correct, there was a conductor. He would take the fair up and then they started being a certain place maybe on the back of the bus. If you get on at the back of the bus, you would pay as you get on. The conductor would be there. Because for a while, I think, if I'm not mistaken now, they would go up, take your fare and then sit down.	10:25
Tywanna Whorley	Oh. How much was it to ride? Do you know?	10:47
Allie Peterson Brown	No. It wasn't much. Whatever it was, it wasn't too much. I don't know what it was. Seven cents? I don't remember really. But it wasn't too much to ride the bus in those days.	10:56
Tywanna Whorley	Do you remember going to Fourth Avenue? Can you describe what was going on? Like a typical day, going to Fourth Avenue?	11:08
Allie Peterson Brown	That's where the Blacks would hang out, on Fourth Avenue. And didn't go too much on Fourth Avenue, though.	11:19
Tywanna Whorley	Why?	11:26
Allie Peterson Brown	We were afraid. Our parents didn't want us to. But we'd go, but not too much. They had an eating place on Fourth Avenue. We used to go and eat sometimes, I think. And they were bad. That's where the movies were, on Fourth Avenue, if we'd go to the movies sometimes.	11:27
Tywanna Whorley	Do you know the name of the movie theater?	11:51
Allie Peterson Brown	I really don't. I don't remember.	11:56
Tywanna Whorley	When your parents said not to frequent Fourth Avenue, then would you you go with your brothers and sisters down to Fourth Avenue?	11:59
Allie Peterson Brown	Or some friends maybe. Sometimes we'd slip off.	12:07
Tywanna Whorley	I'm sure you probably went in the daytime?	12:15
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes.	12:16
Tywanna Whorley	Daytime?	12:17
Allie Peterson Brown	Mm-hmm.	12:17
Tywanna Whorley	And was home by night?	12:18
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes. Very much so.	12:20
Tywanna Whorley	You said that your family, I guess you considered at the time being middle class compared to, say, your friends who lived in same area as you. Could you tell that there was a difference between your family and another family in terms of what you had in your home?	12:26
Allie Peterson Brown	All of us around here were about in the same category maybe. Most of us anyway. Because most of the parents worked in the steel mill and they would lay off quite a bit. Maybe one or two were at some other place and they were a little better off.	12:51
Tywanna Whorley	Oh, okay. Can you describe your house that you lived in? Was it a three bedroom, two bedroom?	13:08
Allie Peterson Brown	We had three bedrooms. It was an old house and it had three bedrooms. We didn't have a dining room at that time. It was just an old house.	13:18
Tywanna Whorley	Oh, okay. Well, I guess your brother's in one room and the [indistinct 00:13:35] in one room.	13:25
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes, the girls in one.	13:34
Tywanna Whorley	How is that being the baby of six kids?	13:41
Allie Peterson Brown	Good. I kind of had my way.	13:46
Tywanna Whorley	Yeah?	13:49
Allie Peterson Brown	See, I remember sometime wanting to go out to a party or something. If my brother would say go, I could go. And sometimes he would carry me and leave me at those places and tell me, "You better not do this." I'd stay there and he'd tell me about what time he'd be back. He'd come back and get me. And the boyfriend, I'd ask my mother if we could go out, go to a party or somewhere, movie somewhere at night with the boy. She would say, "Ask your daddy." Ask my daddy, he said, "Ask your mother." Sometimes I wouldn't go because I had to ask.	13:49
Tywanna Whorley	Did you ask each of them?	14:35
Allie Peterson Brown	Mm-hmm. And I can understand why now, though.	14:35
Tywanna Whorley	When did you get married the first time?	14:42
Allie Peterson Brown	When did I get married the first time?	14:46
Tywanna Whorley	Yeah.	14:49
Allie Peterson Brown	It was in '35 maybe.	14:49
Tywanna Whorley	Really?	14:49
Allie Peterson Brown	I believe. I don't know. Somewhere along there. No, I think it was about '39. '39 or '40, I guess. And I had a son by that May.	14:56
Tywanna Whorley	Okay.	15:12
Allie Peterson Brown	And his father's dead.	15:12
Tywanna Whorley	Do you remember when the two women here, Arthurine and Lucy?	15:17
Allie Peterson Brown	I wasn't here during that time.	15:23
Tywanna Whorley	When they tried to integrate? [indistinct 00:15:28]. All right. Did you know them when you were growing up?	15:25
Allie Peterson Brown	I knew some of their relative, Arthurine's relative, because they lived here in Fairfield. But they had gone to Chicago at that time. But I wasn't here during that time.	15:32
Tywanna Whorley	What were you living, Detroit?	15:42
Allie Peterson Brown	I was in Detroit.	15:44
Tywanna Whorley	What did you think when you heard that they were trying to?	15:44
Allie Peterson Brown	I was so happy. I was really happy for them, and I saw every bit of it on TV. I wouldn't leave TV.	15:49
Tywanna Whorley	Did you think that they going to be successful?	16:02
Allie Peterson Brown	They would be successful? I figured they would.	16:05
Tywanna Whorley	When you attended Miles, did you even pay for it yourself or did your parents help you?	16:11
Allie Peterson Brown	My parents.	16:16
Tywanna Whorley	Your parents?	16:16
Allie Peterson Brown	Mm-hmm.	16:16
Tywanna Whorley	Do you know how much it cost at that time?	16:21
Allie Peterson Brown	It wasn't anything much. It was a whole lot during that time, but I don't remember. I don't remember how much it was, but it was a whole lot during that time. But nothing like it is now.	16:25
Tywanna Whorley	Can you describe, I don't know if you remember your first day that you came to the house as a college student, but I guess—	16:39
Allie Peterson Brown	Well, I had been on campus all the time and I knew the students that was here then, even though they were older. I still knew them by being on campus all the time.	16:48
Tywanna Whorley	What about the, I guess, now you could say you were a college student then. How different was that when you were coming here, your home not being that far away yet. You are, say, independent of your family. Going to school, you're living in a dorm.	16:49
Allie Peterson Brown	No, I didn't live in a dorm.	17:23
Tywanna Whorley	You didn't?	17:24
Allie Peterson Brown	I lived about two blocks down.	17:25
Tywanna Whorley	Oh, so you just walked?	17:27
Allie Peterson Brown	Yeah. I lived about two blocks down from here.	17:28
Tywanna Whorley	Can you tell me that all your siblings were here [indistinct 00:17:42]?	17:31
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes. All of us were here.	17:41
Tywanna Whorley	Do you remember what degrees they got here?	17:41
Allie Peterson Brown	My brother, now my sister at that time, I think an older sister, they had a teacher's training then. She finished teacher's training and my brother went to A&M. My oldest brother finished. Yeah, he had got his degree here.	17:47
Tywanna Whorley	What was his degree? In teaching, too?	18:12
Allie Peterson Brown	I forgot.	18:12
Tywanna Whorley	That's okay.	18:17
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes.	18:19
Tywanna Whorley	Okay. You said only one of your brothers played football?	18:21
Allie Peterson Brown	Yeah, he played football at Miles. And I'd fight if they—The older fellas would tease me about fighting. I didn't want anybody to tackle him and they would tease me about that. That was my favorite brother. He's the one that used to carry me to parties. They're much older than I was.	18:25
Tywanna Whorley	Did Miles have a winning football team?	18:48
Allie Peterson Brown	Sure. A good team then. Really. I thought it was good. He was a quarterback. He's very good.	18:51
Tywanna Whorley	So, attending Miles, did you—I didn't want to ask you this, but I guess attending Miles, did you feel like you were isolated from the rest of the world when you were going there?	19:01
Allie Peterson Brown	No. We were very proud.	19:14
Tywanna Whorley	Did you talk about the issues that were going on in the community? The conditions that people in Fairfield were living in? Did you have a community of Black students to talk about things, issues, that bothered you?	19:17
Allie Peterson Brown	You mean in school?	19:33
Tywanna Whorley	Yes, ma'am.	19:34
Allie Peterson Brown	No, I don't remember that. Maybe we would talk about it between ourselves, little things, but it wasn't a big thing. We knew it was wrong but it wasn't a big thing.	19:35
Tywanna Whorley	Do you remember, I guess you were living at home then, but the Depression?	19:51
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes. That's when the plants would go down and lay off, and they'd cut off and then they'd stay off a while. Then they would call them back to work. Yeah, we knew about the Depression. But still, we were happy. We were very happy. But we knew about that.	19:57
Tywanna Whorley	Did your father get laid off?	20:19
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes, quite a bit. He left the steel plant then and went to another little plant and worked a while. After that, he came here to Miles to work as a janitor then.	20:21
Tywanna Whorley	When he did get laid off, how did the family support itself?	20:37
Allie Peterson Brown	Just the little savings that he had, and had garden plant. I remember my father and Mr. Moore, I think, had a little garden, they call it, way away from home. They'd go and work the garden and we'd get our vegetables that way. And we'd have hogs, chickens.	20:42
Tywanna Whorley	You had hogs and chickens? Like in the backyard?	21:00
Allie Peterson Brown	Oh, away from the home. Chickens at home now.	21:00
Tywanna Whorley	When it came time to cook the chicken, who did that? Mom?	21:20
Allie Peterson Brown	Mom. Or my older sister.	21:26
Tywanna Whorley	Did you ever help?	21:31
Allie Peterson Brown	Yeah, a little.	21:33
Tywanna Whorley	Can you describe how they do the chicken in terms of—	21:38
Allie Peterson Brown	I remember then they'd wring the chicken neck off. I never would have been able to do that. They'd kill the chicken and they wring the neck off, and then get the feathers off. I think they call it singeing the chicken, getting the little fine, little feathers off. Bring it off [indistinct 00:22:09]. Then they'd cut it up and cook. And we had apple trees, peach trees, a plum maybe, and big trees. I remember we had a big, big, big tree in the back. I liked them just getting them off the tree and eating. That's the way I eat my figs. Not after they've been preserved anything. It was fun. Even though we were poor, it was really fun.	21:43
Tywanna Whorley	Did your mom can?	22:43
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes. She canned. Anything she could get her hands on. Yeah, it was fun. It really was.	22:46
Tywanna Whorley	I guess during [indistinct 00:23:04], you said that you'd live off your savings. Who managed the money at home?	23:03
Allie Peterson Brown	My dad and my mother, really. Now, my brothers were older, but they had little odd jobs paying nothing much. But there was a whole lot in that time. But my mom and dad managed the little money.	23:14
Tywanna Whorley	So when it was time for dinner, did everybody sit together?	23:28
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes. If you were there. We'd sit and eat and pray. I didn't know because I was the youngest, they would have maybe one sister would wash dishes or what have you, clean up this week, and next week, the next one. That was fun.	23:31
Tywanna Whorley	What, I guess another question I had is, in terms of your friends, did you ever go over there for dinner? To somebody's house?	23:55
Allie Peterson Brown	Mm-hmm. Yes, we would go and they would come by, whatever. They would come, they'd go over to my house and we'd play. When they'd go home, we'd walk them home. Then they would walk me back home. We just had a lot of fun going back and forth sometimes. We had to be in before dark and we had to do all that before it got dark. We'd back and forth, back and forth. That was a lot of fun.	24:09
Tywanna Whorley	In terms of buying or being consumers during that time, did you, I guess in terms of passing down clothes, did you get the clothes that your sisters used to wear?	24:45
Allie Peterson Brown	No, they were much older than I was. My mother sewed.	24:57
Tywanna Whorley	Oh, okay.	24:57
Allie Peterson Brown	She sewed and she'd make me little ruffle dresses. During that time, I think it was a aunt of mine had a, I think you call it a fluting machine, little ruffles. She gave it to my mother, and the ruffle part, it fluted. You know, like the crimps in the hair now? But the little flutes would be small and it would flute the ruffles. My mother did most of the sewing for us.	25:04
Tywanna Whorley	So, she had to go out and buy clothes all the time?	25:35
Allie Peterson Brown	Not all the time.	25:37
Tywanna Whorley	Okay. You said that your parents had a garden. What type of vegetables did you grow?	25:40
Allie Peterson Brown	All types of vegetables. Tomatoes, peas, collards, turnips, corn, peanuts.	25:45
Tywanna Whorley	Peanuts?	25:51
Allie Peterson Brown	Uh-huh. Had some of all, anything you could plant in a garden. My mother didn't work it, but my father would do that one well.	25:57
Tywanna Whorley	Did the kids help out in terms of grounding the garden and bring it in, specific things that Mom wants?	26:04
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes, some. Sometimes when they're late.	26:04
Tywanna Whorley	What were your chores when you were little?	26:05
Allie Peterson Brown	Nothing much. I didn't have to do anything much, believe it or not. But I would help. I would help. And I'd try and cook cakes. I would cook cakes with her help, and I was pretty good.	26:20
Tywanna Whorley	When you moved to Detroit, you said you were in a house then?	26:34
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes.	26:42
Tywanna Whorley	Was that also a three bedroom or two bedroom?	26:44
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes.	26:49
Tywanna Whorley	When you worked there, what was your occupation? Were you teaching?	26:52
Allie Peterson Brown	No, I didn't teach while I was in Detroit. I worked but I worked in the factory, believe it or not. I was in the factory when George Wallace was shot. I was working in the factory then when he was shot.	26:56
Tywanna Whorley	Did you ever go back to teaching?	27:21
Allie Peterson Brown	Yeah, when I went to Denver.	27:21
Tywanna Whorley	In Denver?	27:21
Allie Peterson Brown	Mm-hmm.	27:21
Tywanna Whorley	When did you go to Denver?	27:21
Allie Peterson Brown	When did I go?	27:22
Tywanna Whorley	Mm-hmm.	27:22
Allie Peterson Brown	I left Detroit going to Denver in '70.	27:22
Tywanna Whorley	Decisions to be made in the family, did your mom and dad make them together?	27:29
Allie Peterson Brown	Together.	27:32
Tywanna Whorley	Together. Can you remember a decision that they had to make about you? Can you talk about it?	27:32
Allie Peterson Brown	The only thing I can remember is when I'd want to go out. That's the big one.	27:44
Tywanna Whorley	Who would you say you were most close to, your mom or your dad? Your mom?	27:55
Allie Peterson Brown	I don't know. I know I loved the both of them. I don't know. I was just about as close to one as the other, even though everybody said I resembled my dad quite a bit. But I don't know. Just about as close to one as the other.	27:55
Tywanna Whorley	Okay. What type of family outings did you do with the whole family as activities?	28:12
Allie Peterson Brown	No, then we didn't have nowhere to go hardly. But anyway, just the family, we'd have little outings maybe going, oh, over this way it was woods, back over there on campus. Sometimes a neighbor would go out over there and have a picnic or something.	28:22
Tywanna Whorley	What church did you attend?	28:46
Allie Peterson Brown	Miles Chapel on the corner.	28:50
Tywanna Whorley	Is it a Baptist Church?	28:54
Allie Peterson Brown	Methodist.	29:01
Tywanna Whorley	Methodist? [indistinct 00:29:02]?	29:01
Allie Peterson Brown	CME.	29:01
Tywanna Whorley	CME?	29:01
Allie Peterson Brown	Mm-hmm.	29:01
Tywanna Whorley	Oh.	29:01
Allie Peterson Brown	It's a sister church to Miles College.	29:02
Tywanna Whorley	And you had family there?	29:06
Allie Peterson Brown	Yeah.	29:06
Tywanna Whorley	When did your father, I don't know if you remember, when did he start working there?	29:09
Allie Peterson Brown	Start?	29:14
Tywanna Whorley	Mm-hmm.	29:14
Allie Peterson Brown	I don't remember when he started working, but he passed in '63, I think. He was working here then. Even though I wasn't here then, but he was here within '63. I think he died in '63.	29:16
Tywanna Whorley	[indistinct 00:29:33]?	29:26
Allie Peterson Brown	Maybe. Forties, maybe.	29:35
Tywanna Whorley	Forties?	29:36
Allie Peterson Brown	Mm-hmm.	29:37
Tywanna Whorley	Did he ever talk about what's going on here after you had left, with the student?	29:38
Allie Peterson Brown	No. I don't remember him talking about it. I really don't.	29:46
Tywanna Whorley	When did he come back to Birmingham?	29:48
Allie Peterson Brown	I came back to Birmingham in '81.	29:55
Tywanna Whorley	Had a whole lot changed?	30:00
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes, it had. When I left, they were going to different restaurants, White and Black movies, riding the bus. If he's going to ride the bus, there wasn't one there. It changed quite a bit.	30:02
Tywanna Whorley	Do you think for the better?	30:25
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes, for the better.	30:26
Tywanna Whorley	Do you see there needs to be more changes in Birmingham?	30:29
Allie Peterson Brown	Well, yeah.	30:33
Tywanna Whorley	Like what?	30:34
Allie Peterson Brown	I can't name no specific thing, but just need to be changes. Even though it's much better than it was. Much, much better.	30:37
Tywanna Whorley	Where do you live now here in Birmingham?	30:45
Allie Peterson Brown	Where do I live now?	30:46
Tywanna Whorley	Yeah.	30:48
Allie Peterson Brown	Cly William Terrace. That's a seniors' apartment. It's connected with Miles Park.	30:48
Tywanna Whorley	Oh. Okay. Have you ever gone back over to the old area where you used to live?	30:53
Allie Peterson Brown	I go there all the time because it's about two blocks down. The home house is still down here. It's a different house than when we grew up, but the home house is here. I go down there all the time. All around here, really.	31:01
Tywanna Whorley	So, some of your buddies are still over there?	31:14
Allie Peterson Brown	No.	31:14
Tywanna Whorley	No?	31:14
Allie Peterson Brown	They're either married and away from here or some have passed on. But all around, I used to walk the hills. So, all around here. There's some friends still here and we see each other. Go out, eat.	31:18
Tywanna Whorley	Y'all talk about old times?	31:40
Allie Peterson Brown	Old times, yes. We do.	31:42
Tywanna Whorley	Anything in particular that you used to talk about, about growing up? Just growing up?	31:47
Allie Peterson Brown	Just the times we had and hard times we had, and we didn't know it. We knew maybe we didn't have certain things, but like I said, we were still happy with what we had. We didn't know any different, really. And talk about things like that, and the boyfriends maybe. Just things like that. We talk about church and growing up, because I grew up in church out there. We talk about when we were small in the church growing up.	31:55
Tywanna Whorley	So, even though you were learning about Black people all the time, it didn't matter that—	32:24
Allie Peterson Brown	That's all we knew.	32:34
Tywanna Whorley	Oh, okay. I guess another question I wanted to ask you is, do you see anything in terms of Miles College that's different for you? You went here in the [indistinct 00:32:54]?	32:35
Allie Peterson Brown	Anything different in Miles?	32:55
Tywanna Whorley	Mm-hmm. In terms of like, I don't know, teachers or things like that? Do you see differences in, I guess, do you see what's going on now, but back then in terms of the teachers?	32:56
Allie Peterson Brown	One thing I'll tell you, more buildings on campus. At that time, years ago, that was Williams Hall. Well, Lord, no, school years. And it's a building over here that was here then, and had a boys' dorm. They tore it down. And more buildings. The campus was beautiful then we thought, but now it's beautiful. At that time, we had a lot of dogwood trees on campus. Some now, but not like that.	33:12
Tywanna Whorley	The trees.	33:48
Allie Peterson Brown	Now, it isn't as many trees on campus as it was then. Naturally, there's more faculty members than then. And believe, way back, do you know we had some White teachers here then? Sure did. Surely did, and they lived in the dorm. I can't think of their names now, but we did.	33:55
Tywanna Whorley	So, how did the school [indistinct 00:34:23]?	34:21
Allie Peterson Brown	Very good. I don't remember of any incidents really. Surely didn't.	34:23
Tywanna Whorley	So, they would make sure men and women or just women?	34:31
Allie Peterson Brown	I can remember. I don't remember the men, a man. Now, but I remember women.	34:35
Tywanna Whorley	Did you stay in the girls' dorm?	34:40
Allie Peterson Brown	Mm-hmm. They stayed in the girls' dorm.	34:43
Tywanna Whorley	Did they interact with them?	34:48
Allie Peterson Brown	They did, and that was a long time ago, believe it or not. I can't remember the names, but surely did.	34:49
Tywanna Whorley	Did y'all ever talk about having White professors there during that time?	34:54
Allie Peterson Brown	I don't know. I don't remember talking about it. I really don't remember.	35:02
Tywanna Whorley	It seems like this campus is sort of isolated from the area. Was it back then the same way?	35:10
Allie Peterson Brown	I believe, now if I remember correctly, it may be a little better now than it was then.	35:22
Tywanna Whorley	Did you leave campus at all to travel?	35:29
Allie Peterson Brown	Well, see, I didn't live on campus.	35:33
Tywanna Whorley	No, I'm just saying if maybe your friends and everything. Because it seems like this campus is on a hill, so in order to travel down, you had to have a car or something. But was there—	35:36
Allie Peterson Brown	We did a lot of walking.	35:48
Tywanna Whorley	A lot of walking.	35:49
Allie Peterson Brown	There were a lot of walking. There was some cars now.	35:51
Tywanna Whorley	What about the store across the street, the Turners? Was that—	35:53
Allie Peterson Brown	The Turners. No, that came later. I think they came while I was away because all of us grew up together. Turner, his dad was a doctor, Dr. Turner.	35:54
Tywanna Whorley	So, you and Turner went to school together?	36:09
Allie Peterson Brown	Yeah, all of us was here together. Now, his wife, she went to Fairfield High. She didn't go to Miles at all, but her husband did and his brothers and his sister. Finished out here, I'm thinking. I'm sure he did. I know they did.	36:11
Tywanna Whorley	Was there a small town or—I'm thinking that if you needed something to get, people needed to get and they couldn't get it on campus, where was the nearest place to travel?	36:30
Allie Peterson Brown	Downtown Fairfield.	36:44
Tywanna Whorley	Oh, okay.	36:46
Allie Peterson Brown	Downtown Fairfield.	36:48
Tywanna Whorley	Yeah, I passed that when I came in. So, the people who's walking, it didn't take that long to get there?	36:50
Allie Peterson Brown	It wouldn't take long. Walked down. Did a lot of walking then and didn't mind it. Now, we hardly can walk a block.	36:56
Tywanna Whorley	Was it, downtown Fairfield, was it businesses White owned? Were there any Black businesses?	37:11
Allie Peterson Brown	No, White. I don't remember a Black being down.They were White businesses.	37:18
Tywanna Whorley	So, say you wanted to go get a shaker or something like that, they would have separate seatings for y'all in the store?	37:27
Allie Peterson Brown	Yes.	37:29
Tywanna Whorley	It didn't bother you at all?	37:36
Allie Peterson Brown	Well, that's all we knew during that time. Even though we knew it was wrong, but that's all we knew.	37:39
Tywanna Whorley	Okay. So, I guess last question I'm going to ask you is that what else do you think is needed in Birmingham, in terms of race relations? Do you see anything else that needs to be done for the Birmingham area?	37:49
Allie Peterson Brown	I'm sure a lot needs to be done, but I'm thinking.	38:02

Item Info

Title:

Allie Brown interview recording, 1994 June 21

Date:

June 21, 1994

Creator:

Brown, Allie Peterson

Contributor:

Whorley, Tywanna

Description:

Name: Allie Peterson Brown; Date of birth: 1918-12-15; Place of birth: Fairfield, AL; Occupation(s): educator; dorm mother; Residence: Fairfield, AL
Informant ID: 742; Interviewed by: Tywanna Whorley.

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English

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

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Allie Brown interview recording, 1994 June 21

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1. Allie Brown administrative file, 1994

John Hope Franklin Research Center

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Allie Brown interview recording, 1994 June 21

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