Baron Coleman interview recording, 1994 July 25

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Kate Ellis	State your name and just your name. Yeah.	0:00
Baron Coleman	Just tell my name?	0:01
Kate Ellis	Yeah.	0:01
Baron Coleman	Baron Coleman.	0:01
Kate Ellis	Okay. Tell me when you were born, and tell me where you were born.	0:03
Baron Coleman	I was born— I can't keep the day I was born. I know the year.	0:23
Kate Ellis	The year— Well, you're going to be 95?	0:27
Baron Coleman	My birthday coming. I'm going be 95.	0:33
Kate Ellis	Okay. Hand my pen and just start talking. Let me, I should say something for the tape recorder, which is that this is Kate Ellis on July 25th, 1994 with Mr. Baron Coleman.	0:36
Baron Coleman	Coleman, yes.	0:54
Kate Ellis	Okay. And we're in New Iberia.	0:55
Baron Coleman	On 526 Less Ave.	0:57
Kate Ellis	Uh-huh. That's your address in New Iberia.	1:06
Baron Coleman	In Iberia.	1:06
Kate Ellis	Okay. So what was I going to ask you? Well, oh, I know. I was asking you when you were born. Now, you said that you're going to be 95 on December 28th.	1:10
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	1:20
Kate Ellis	Okay. So you were born, I guess in 1901.	1:26
Baron Coleman	I guess.	1:27
Kate Ellis	No, 1900 or 1899. Maybe it was 1899. Anyway, I'll figure it out. But a while ago.	1:33
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	1:38
Kate Ellis	I'm not so great with numbers. I guess that would be— That's fine. I guess that'd be around 1899. So where were you born?	1:40
Baron Coleman	I was born in the place they called Bull Island. That's going back towards Coteau, towards Youngsville back there.	1:50
Kate Ellis	Towards Youngsville. Bull Island.	1:57
Baron Coleman	Bull Island.	2:03
Kate Ellis	Huh.	2:05
Baron Coleman	But at the time, I tell y'all, when y'all was at the lumber yard, in them time, they didn't have no school for Negro. The White folks was rough. But when I got a young man though, I changed my way of living. And I got out in the world. We used to fight, drank a little bit. I never did smoke.	2:08
Kate Ellis	You never smoked?	2:39
Baron Coleman	No. Got nothing good in there. So I stayed there, and I went to church on the 1924, on the second Sunday in May, I got baptized.	2:42
Kate Ellis	1924, on the second Sunday in May.	2:59
Baron Coleman	And that Wednesday, that Wednesday when I got off, I took sick. I did sick all May, all June, all July. In August, I kind of feel little better. So they had only one doctor in New Iberia. They used to call him Dr. Sebastian. So I went Mr. Davi, this was a White man. He took me and he said, "We going." The bridge was caved in on the one end, on the bridge. He couldn't pass his car. He come got me in arms just like a baby, and he brought me to New Iberia.	3:03
Baron Coleman	And you see, my brother and one of my friends, they sat— I was laying down on them when that White man came in, and he put me in his arm just like a baby, and he run upstairs. When he went up there, the doctor examined me, told him to bring me home just as fast as he could. I had the terrible fever, a bad fever.	3:59
Kate Ellis	Yeah.	4:24
Baron Coleman	Well, I stayed there. That doctor used to come. We didn't have hardly no money. From New Iberia from there, way back there where I was staying he was in horse and buggy in them times. He came there most every other day.	4:26
Kate Ellis	The doctor did?	4:41
Baron Coleman	Yes.	4:41
Kate Ellis	The doctor came.	4:41
Baron Coleman	The doctor did. And he wasn't, didn't charge nothing, know we didn't have hardly nothing. He didn't charge nothing. And it went, it went, it went. I started getting a little stronger. We was in a pasture. They had trees, but they used to mow that with mules. They mowed that, and I started walking a little piece, and I'd get tired. I'd lay down. I'd lay on in the shade. I'd walk a little piece. And when I really started walking, I got in the house, and I walked around the wall standing up, standing up, standing up. And I got over it. And I could say thank God. God had been good to me. That's why I praise him all the time. No foolishness.	4:49
Kate Ellis	He made you a strong man, didn't he?	5:47
Baron Coleman	Yes. And I'm in that church for 69 years, going be soon they wasn't this year going to be 70 years I've been belong at the Star Temple.	5:50
Kate Ellis	The Star Temple?	6:05
Baron Coleman	Baptist Church.	6:06
Kate Ellis	Star Temple. Oh, for almost 70 years.	6:08
Baron Coleman	Mm-hmm.	6:13
Kate Ellis	So you belonged to the church at the time that you got sick.	6:22
Baron Coleman	Yup.	6:25
Kate Ellis	You got sick a little bit after the time that you joined?	6:26
Baron Coleman	I got sick. I was feeling bad before. My brother didn't want me to baptize. I told my brother, "I'll baptize. After they baptized me, if I die, I'm satisfied." I didn't want to play with God.	6:31
Kate Ellis	Oh, so you wanted to be— If you thought that you were going to die because you were so sick, you wanted to make sure you were baptized.	6:48
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	6:53
Kate Ellis	But your brother didn't think you should?	6:54
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	6:55
Kate Ellis	Is that what you just said?	6:55
Baron Coleman	No, he didn't want that.	6:55
Kate Ellis	Why?	6:55
Baron Coleman	He figured I was sick. But I told him I had listened good one evening just by the set of the sun. We had a hackberry right by my windows. A voice called me three times, said "Baron? Baron? Baron?" I said, "Yes, Lord?" He said, "Baron, tonight when they going bring you something to eat, you going to eat yourself. You going to live 99 years." And you see I'm close to my 99. That's written on the paper. I got everything there in my house. Now, that this to show you. God, has no more shortening in his word. I know I'm going. I might go over 99, but I know I'm going go to my 100.	7:03
Kate Ellis	Wow.	7:57
Baron Coleman	I just feel it. Because God got me in his hand. No wrongdoing, no foolishness, no play thing, nothing of that kind. Yeah. I can say thank God, I'm still among the living.	7:58
Kate Ellis	Yeah.	8:22
Baron Coleman	I got two daughters, two sons, got grandchildren. I've got grand niece, grand, and grand, and grand, and grand; I've got them. I've got a house full of them picture, all them. There's one man I know kin with us. That's that man that the one they killed. Not sure what they called him. They have his portrait all the time.	8:24
Kate Ellis	They? I'm sorry? They?	8:47
Baron Coleman	Huh?	8:47
Kate Ellis	What did you just say? They?	8:49
Baron Coleman	Mr.— I can't recall his name at the time. He the man say— I don't know if you see his picture. You can just open the door. You going to see a big picture.	8:53
Kate Ellis	Okay.	8:53
Baron Coleman	But they always have something going on for him. He's the man said there's going to come a time let Black children and the little White children be holding hands.	8:54
Kate Ellis	Oh, are you talking about Martin Luther King?	9:33
Baron Coleman	Martin Luther King.	9:34
Kate Ellis	Okay.	9:34
Baron Coleman	That's the only one that ain't no kin with me in my house. Luther King.	9:34
Kate Ellis	So you've thought highly of him.	9:42
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	9:44
Kate Ellis	Yeah. Can I ask you about something you just said a minute ago when you first started out? You said that when you were coming up, the White man didn't let you have an education. Is that right?	9:45
Baron Coleman	No. That ain't what I said then.	9:59
Kate Ellis	Oh.	10:02
Baron Coleman	I said the time when I came up, they didn't have no school for Negro.	10:04
Kate Ellis	Okay. Okay.	10:11
Baron Coleman	No school for Negro.	10:11
Kate Ellis	Yeah.	10:11
Baron Coleman	And you see, they didn't have no gravel road. They didn't have no shelled road. They didn't have nothing. Everything was mud and grass.	10:14
Kate Ellis	Yeah. Everything was mud and grass everywhere or in or the places where Black people lived?	10:27
Baron Coleman	All over. Not just for Blacks.	10:34
Kate Ellis	Yeah.	10:37
Baron Coleman	It was all over for White too.	10:37
Kate Ellis	But White—	10:38
Baron Coleman	Whites used to have the— You'd see that with most like in slavery time. White was trying to put the nigger more slave you see. And that's why all at once— You see when our old people will go and pray. They go and they couldn't pray if they'd be working. Them White people wouldn't let them pray. They'll go in the woods and pray.	10:40
Kate Ellis	They'd go in the woods and pray?	11:08
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	11:08
Kate Ellis	Because White people wouldn't let them pray in church?	11:10
Baron Coleman	They wouldn't go to no church. And White people wouldn't want that. So when they go there, they'll ask God to change the master life of living. Tell them one is one. God don't make no difference with nobody. Everybody's one and one. Because they got just one God and no man, no man on earth, ain't never did seen God. No man ain't going to never see God, you see. God is a spirit. If you go to church, you got to have the spirit. If you ain't got the spirit, it's nothing doing for you. When you going go there, he going know.	11:12
Baron Coleman	You see, when judge come, when judgment's going come God going to meet everybody in there. The sheep on the right-hand side, the billy goats on the left-hand side. The billy goats, that's going to be them criminals. All them sheep— You see a sheep if you get a butcher knife and that sheep see that knife, the water run out of her eye. Got a tough time to live. I'll give you that good advice. Make preparation. Be sure you got God in your heart. If he's not in your heart, you ain't nowhere. You got to put him in your heart.	12:03
Baron Coleman	I worked for this man here, Mr. Davi right there. Nixon. I worked for him. I started working with him 1953. I worked till 1984, and after my wife died, I quit. I said, "Well, I ain't got no more children." I said, "Time that you was out a work. I got enough for me to live." And I not been living.	12:50
Kate Ellis	What did you do? His name was Mr. Davi Nixon?	13:24
Baron Coleman	Mr, yeah.	13:26
Kate Ellis	Is that what you said his name was?	13:27
Baron Coleman	No. His Mr. Maurele Davi, that's a different man.	13:31
Kate Ellis	Oh. Oh.	13:35
Baron Coleman	That's the man we used to stay with, work for.	13:37
Kate Ellis	But the one that was from 1953-84?	13:38
Baron Coleman	That's Nixon. That's the one got all them on Hopkins. You see all them trailer when you going to Hopkins on your right hand side?	13:48
Kate Ellis	Uh-huh.	13:55
Baron Coleman	I worked there. That's the where everywhere you see one of them thing that on the lot that's a house, that's them long, that's in a tank—like—	13:56
Kate Ellis	Like those trailers?	14:13
Baron Coleman	Trailers. Everywhere you see one of them trailers there from Hopkins until to the next street, I poured concrete where every one of them things at.	14:14
Kate Ellis	Oh, is that right? So you— Was that one of your main jobs was pouring concrete?	14:28
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	14:32
Kate Ellis	And so you worked for him for 1953-84.	14:33
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	14:38
Kate Ellis	What did you do before you poured concrete for him?	14:39
Baron Coleman	Oh, we used to crop in the country.	14:55
Kate Ellis	You did?	14:57
Baron Coleman	Yeah. I was a farmer.	14:57
Kate Ellis	Will you tell me about that? Go ahead. What were you going to say?	14:57
Baron Coleman	We used to raise cotton. We used to raise corn. We used to raise beans. We used to raise potato. We even used to plant peanut, hash potato, all of that.	14:57
Kate Ellis	So you were— Was your— Let's see, you were a farmer. Did you have your own land?	15:10
Baron Coleman	No, no. I was working on share.	15:16
Kate Ellis	Okay.	15:16
Baron Coleman	I didn't have no land.	15:16
Kate Ellis	And this was on Bull Island?	15:24
Baron Coleman	No.	15:26
Kate Ellis	Where was that?	15:26
Baron Coleman	That was right there in Petite Anse.	15:26
Kate Ellis	Oh, okay. Okay. So you're a share—	15:26
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	15:26
Kate Ellis	So is that what you grew up doing? What did you come up doing when you were a child? What do you remember about being a child?	15:40
Baron Coleman	Well, something, I remember when I got about around 12 years old. I remember— You see, I lost my mother when I was nine years old.	15:47
Kate Ellis	Oh.	15:57
Baron Coleman	My brother raised me, him and his wife. And when I got at this time, we used to play marble, play ball, go to the store, stay home, go fish.	15:58
Kate Ellis	What town? What town was that in?	16:16
Baron Coleman	Huh?	16:16
Kate Ellis	You would do, you were raised by your brother and his wife in what town? In Petite Anse?	16:19
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	16:23
Kate Ellis	Okay. So that's where you came up? Were you born in Petite Anse?	16:24
Baron Coleman	No, I didn't born there.	16:26
Kate Ellis	Oh, you were born in— Right, you were born on Bull Island.	16:34
Baron Coleman	I born in Bull Island.	16:35
Kate Ellis	Bull Island. But then you went to Petite Anse?	16:35
Baron Coleman	Yeah, we came there after. You see, my brother, the one raised me, he was a swamper, floats log. After my mama died, he took me and one of my sister. So he raised me. I told him, I said, "I ain't going to leave you." I said, "If you take me and my sister, I'm going to stay with you until I'm married." And I never did broke my problem, never did. When you give a person your word, if you can't tell him the truth, tell him you don't know nothing. You got to tell the truth. Don't come with no story.	16:41
Kate Ellis	So he was a swamper?	17:15
Baron Coleman	Yeah. He used to float logs. You see, they used to cut them cypress trees to make lumber, just like they doing now. They did that for a long time.	17:23
Kate Ellis	And what did you do when you were— What did you do for work when you were growing up?	17:32
Baron Coleman	When he quit that, when he came, I went stayed with him. He raised me. I was nine years old. And he started cropping. I helped him pick cotton, beans, all kinds of things. Do what I could, and I'm glad I did so. Like you see now, I don't worry for nothing. Don't ask nobody for nothing. Nobody can't give me nothing. I don't want what you got, and I don't want you trying to get what I have. You see this home here?	17:42
Kate Ellis	Yeah.	18:08
Baron Coleman	That's for my children and them, but I'm the boss of it. You see my wife, that's her home, you see. You understand that? The property, her money bought it, but the lumber, I bought the lumber. And when I—	18:19
Kate Ellis	You built this house?	18:42
Baron Coleman	I bought the lumber. That man built it up. I had this room, and this here was a bedroom, and I had a little kitchen. And after that, in the bathroom, I had two little twin bed. When we moved, they didn't have— They had them outside toilet. They didn't have no sewer them times. Well, my two little boys, them slept in there. When they add on the house, when they run their sewer, them boys got out there and had a bathroom, everything.	18:43
Kate Ellis	This was when you were raising your boys?	19:24
Baron Coleman	Huh?	19:25
Kate Ellis	This was when you were—	19:26
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	19:27
Kate Ellis	When your boys were coming up?	19:27
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	19:31
Kate Ellis	This is the house? That house? How long have you lived in this house?	19:39
Baron Coleman	I've been a part of that house since in '49.	19:39
Kate Ellis	In the house that your boys came up in?	19:40
Baron Coleman	Well, that where they came in on that. When I left the country, they was little children. They couldn't go to school.	19:45
Kate Ellis	Your little children?	19:47
Baron Coleman	Yeah. And after that, they went to school. They finished high school in the country. They went over there. My boy, my two sons got good job. My oldest son working the post office in Washington, DC.	19:57
Kate Ellis	Is that right?	20:08
Baron Coleman	My baby boy, ran the post office in Rochester, New York.	20:08
Kate Ellis	Wow.	20:17
Baron Coleman	You see every day Sunday. You want to see them, they stay dressed all the time.	20:17
Kate Ellis	Wow.	20:21
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	20:23
Kate Ellis	So I'm just trying to get a sense of your life. You were born in Bulls Island?	20:24
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	20:32
Kate Ellis	And you lived there until you were nine.	20:32
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	20:35
Kate Ellis	And your mother passed?	20:36
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	20:37
Kate Ellis	Then you moved to Petite Anse.	20:38
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	20:39
Kate Ellis	Where your brother, older brother lived with his wife.	20:40
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	20:44
Kate Ellis	And he was a swamper. And what did she do? What did his wife do?	20:45
Baron Coleman	Well, when he came out, he married. He wasn't married when he was a swamper.	20:49
Kate Ellis	Oh.	20:51
Baron Coleman	After he came down when he got married, that when he took me and my sister.	20:51
Kate Ellis	To Petite Anse?	21:03
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	21:03
Kate Ellis	And what did he do then?	21:04
Baron Coleman	He cropped.	21:06
Kate Ellis	Oh, I see. And so he cropped, and then you helped him.	21:07
Baron Coleman	Uh-huh, I helped him.	21:09
Kate Ellis	Did his wife also work on the land?	21:11
Baron Coleman	No. His wife would stay and clean up and cook and keep us clean.	21:36
Kate Ellis	She did?	21:36
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	21:36
Kate Ellis	Did she ever take in laundry or anything like that?	21:36
Baron Coleman	In them times, they didn't have that.	21:36
Kate Ellis	She didn't wash other people's clothes?	21:36
Baron Coleman	They had to wash with them tubs, with them rubbing boards, and iron. They had them iron. I got two of them little iron now.	21:36
Kate Ellis	Do you really? Those heavy iron, huh? Yeah.	21:36
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	21:36
Kate Ellis	What do you know about your father before he passed?	21:44
Baron Coleman	Not too much. I was too young. But I know his future though. I remember my father was a halfway Indian.	21:47
Kate Ellis	He was half Indian?	21:58
Baron Coleman	He had hair like no White man hair, good hair. He just put his hand in the water and put on it like that and just lay it on.	22:01
Kate Ellis	I'm not sure I under— What do you mean?	22:10
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	22:11
Kate Ellis	He did what? He?	22:11
Baron Coleman	I said he was a mixed Indian.	22:16
Kate Ellis	Yeah.	22:18
Baron Coleman	And he put his hand in water like that, then put on his hair. Black, Black, Black, Black.	22:20
Kate Ellis	Oh. He was a dark? You're saying he was dark?	22:27
Baron Coleman	He was just like a White man. You could not—	22:28
Kate Ellis	Oh, he was light.	22:31
Baron Coleman	Oh, yeah.	22:33
Kate Ellis	He looked like a White man?	22:34
Baron Coleman	Oh, yeah, like my daughter done took after him. I took after my mother. My mother was a dark lady, but my two sisters, my five sisters that I had, them was bright and good hair.	22:35
Kate Ellis	Good hair?	22:46
Baron Coleman	I got one of my sister in Port Arthur in the old folks home. They call her Amelia. She was married with a Poke, Amelia Poke.	22:50
Kate Ellis	Huh? Oh, yeah. One of them you mean like in the Poke family?	23:00
Baron Coleman	Uh-huh.	23:06
Kate Ellis	So then was there ever a time that you got to go to school?	23:09
Baron Coleman	Huh?	23:14
Kate Ellis	Did you ever get to go to school?	23:14
Baron Coleman	Who me?	23:16
Kate Ellis	Yeah. No?	23:16
Baron Coleman	Never did.	23:17
Kate Ellis	Never. Wow.	23:19
Baron Coleman	But I got good understanding though.	23:20
Kate Ellis	Yeah. It seems like it. I believe you. Yeah, it seems like it.	23:24
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	23:26
Kate Ellis	So—	23:27
Baron Coleman	You know what make it good for me?	23:28
Kate Ellis	What?	23:28
Baron Coleman	I treat everybody right; Black, White, yellow, blue. It don't make no different if I call this lady madam or miss, I call you that too. But I ain't going to call a young person, you know what I mean with that. But I'll respect you, and just like I said, right here, you got some White lady want to pass and stop. I tell them they can't stop here. I say, I ain't White. I said I don't want to get any of that. I said I don't want to get in trouble with nobody.	23:30
Kate Ellis	Yeah. You mentioned that before when I met you the other day at the Council on Aging. You said I could come for a little while.	24:07
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	24:15
Kate Ellis	But I couldn't stay too long because you didn't want to get in trouble with other White people. What would other White people do? They'd say that a Black man shouldn't be sitting with a White woman.	24:16
Baron Coleman	No. Yeah.	24:27
Kate Ellis	Am I right?	24:28
Baron Coleman	I would sit down with them.	24:28
Kate Ellis	You wouldn't?	24:28
Baron Coleman	I see, you got them White people where I come from, where I was raised. Now, you go right there to the drug store, I bet you you go there and I go there, all them White lady in there, they going get out from the back and come shake my hand.	24:28
Kate Ellis	Why are they going to come shake your?	24:55
Baron Coleman	Because they know I respect them. They know I'm not trying class myself with them.	24:59
Kate Ellis	Yeah. What do you class yourself with them?	25:01
Baron Coleman	I treat them— I respect them. I don't have no long conversation with them.	25:05
Kate Ellis	Oh, I see. Because that's what— You're not supposed to do that?	25:11
Baron Coleman	No, Lord. I'm going stay away. I'm in God hand.	25:17
Kate Ellis	Right.	25:21
Baron Coleman	I'm going do the thing what I should do, and don't do the thing I oughtn't to do.	25:25
Kate Ellis	Right.	25:29
Baron Coleman	See that where the different come. Some people don't know what to do and how to do it. So I do better than that. So I don't contact with them.	25:33
Kate Ellis	I see. Because that's what you're not supposed to do. I see. Huh. Well—	25:43
Baron Coleman	Yeah. I see they got a plenty of White woman past there walking the street.	25:43
Kate Ellis	They walk past your house?	25:46
Baron Coleman	I said, "No, don't need to look here. You can't come in this yard."	25:46
Kate Ellis	Yeah. Well, so—	26:05
Baron Coleman	So what?	26:06
Kate Ellis	So—	26:06
Baron Coleman	Come on. Tell it. So what?	26:23
Kate Ellis	You're trying to get me to leave. I won't stay too long. So is that what it was like when you were coming up? Is that that— Because, you know, I have to tell you, I've seen some White people and some Black people spend time together and talk.	26:23
Baron Coleman	Yeah, I know.	26:37
Kate Ellis	And be friends.	26:38
Baron Coleman	Well, all right. If a White man come here, I'd sit down. Me and him, we'll talk. You going to swear we's brothers. But I don't want no White woman to come sit down here with her husband. And me and her husband be talking, she going be getting me to talk. I don't want that.	26:39
Kate Ellis	She's going to be what?	27:18
Baron Coleman	She going— If me and her husband talking, and she going to say something back me. I said, I don't want that.	27:18
Kate Ellis	You don't want her to talk to you because—	27:18
Baron Coleman	I don't want to be bothered. Because I'm short patience. I don't want to kill nobody.	27:18
Kate Ellis	You don't want to kill nobody.	27:18
Baron Coleman	I don't want no. That just like I said, I said you could come a little while but don't stay long.	27:18
Kate Ellis	Don't stay long.	27:18
Baron Coleman	The people going to say, "What that White people?" When they start passing, they going to start passing after while they going to say, "Look where that nigger sitting down with a White lady."	27:18
Kate Ellis	Oh, I see what you're saying. So—	27:56
Baron Coleman	You can keep that in your mind. If you don't ever see me, if you don't ever hear me no more, they said what Baron said. No White, no White.	27:56
Kate Ellis	So you think—	27:56
Baron Coleman	Think what?	27:56
Kate Ellis	Do you think that— Because what you're saying sounds like what used to happen when you were younger that there was no way, there was no way that a Black man could even look at a White woman.	27:56
Baron Coleman	It would get you hanged.	28:09
Kate Ellis	Yeah, you could be— You could be— You could be hung.	28:09
Baron Coleman	And I— Listen them White people, you'd pass by them. They was walking. You was walking. That White man that passed if a nigger would be walking with a Black woman, they wouldn't give them road. Now, if them White man and a White woman was coming, you had to tip your hat. That's what they wanted. But it's all over now though. They ain't no nigger going tip no hat for a White man and a White woman. Uh-uh. No, Lord.	28:15
Kate Ellis	Do you remember any time when you knew of a Black man that was hurt or killed by Whites?	28:52
Baron Coleman	Oh, yeah, out there in the country they did it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But it is a good thing, the man I was working for in the country, he saved our life. We was going towards Youngsville and them White folks all got that we was in the store. So when they got in, they say, "What them niggers doing in there? They're cluttered up the store." He said, "Don't tell them boys nothing. They came here, and they been coming here." He said, "I'm going to go and take them most to the house myself." We was all hauled back. The two White men brought us home. But yeah, the old people then was rough. So all that changed now. Thing don't last always.	29:04
Kate Ellis	Yeah.	29:58
Baron Coleman	Yeah. Well, they ain't going to have no trouble with me because I don't associate with them much.	29:59
Kate Ellis	No.	30:03
Baron Coleman	You go where I go eat, that'll make everybody laugh. Oh, they'd like that. I got all kinds of jokes to tell them.	30:15
Kate Ellis	The White people like the jokes.	30:16
Baron Coleman	Yes.	30:16
Kate Ellis	Make them laugh?	30:16
Baron Coleman	They called me— The woman there what run the place, that's the name she give me, Mr. BC.	30:18
Kate Ellis	Mr. BC?	30:18
Baron Coleman	Yes.	30:18
Kate Ellis	Mr. Baron Coleman? Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead.	30:31
Baron Coleman	Yes. I say, "Yes." I said, "Mr. B, how you doing?" I said, "Fine." I said, "How you doing?" I said, "Ain't God good?" I said, "Look, we all woke up and we here." I said, "If it wouldn't be for God, who do wake us up? Nobody." God wake you up every— You think you wake up yourself? Shoot. If you'll have to wake up on your own self, you'll be sleeping yet. God wakes you up. God give you enough courage. You get on your knees and thank him for that night's rest. Thank you for the clothes you wearing. Thank you for the shoes you wear. Thank you for the bread he giving you for you to eat. Thank you for the water he give you for you to drink, to pass your taste. Ain't that is the truth?	30:37
Baron Coleman	Yeah. You got to believe in Christ. Christ got all power. All you young people say they got power. How many man gave a blind man sight when you couldn't see? God just stooped down on that clay does put that there. That man got up and see. We see now. There no man can do that. They want to say a White man got power, and I said, "There ain't no man got no power." God speak, picked up his bed and walked. God speak, lay down and die. God speak, you get up and put your own clothes. You got something on high in God. Live right. If you don't live right, God ain't going to wait till you die to punish you. He going to make you suffer before you die. He might have to tire you.	30:55
Kate Ellis	So—	32:32
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	32:32
Kate Ellis	Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead.	32:32
Baron Coleman	Yeah. Well, I'm glad you came.	32:40
Kate Ellis	You are?	32:41
Baron Coleman	I enjoy your conversation.	32:45
Kate Ellis	Oh good.	32:48
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	32:48
Kate Ellis	I enjoy your conversation.	32:48
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	32:48
Kate Ellis	Can I ask you a few more questions?	32:48
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	32:50
Kate Ellis	Or do you want me to go?	32:50
Baron Coleman	Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead, ask them.	32:51
Kate Ellis	I want to just keep— Because as I said before, I'm really— Well, about this time that the White landowner, the man that you were working for, and this was in Petite Anse at the time?	32:53
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	33:07
Kate Ellis	And he saved your life so that you— You and your friends had gone to a store?	33:07
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	33:12
Kate Ellis	And some White men gathered together—	33:13
Baron Coleman	They wanted to get us.	33:16
Kate Ellis	And he was there?	33:17
Baron Coleman	He was there.	33:17
Kate Ellis	And he said, "They come there all the time."	33:27
Baron Coleman	That nobody going trouble them. Them fella there, them fella's don't do nothing.	33:28
Kate Ellis	Yeah.	33:29
Baron Coleman	You see, we was raised. We was raised. We wasn't just turned loose. Our parents raised us to respect the old people. Now look, I went— Me and my wife was leaving. I went to my daughter then. Them White people that my daughter and them was working for in Rochester, they said, "When your mama and daddy come," they said, "y'all give her dinner. We going to furnish y'all everything, and we going go there."	33:31
Baron Coleman	All right. When we got there, that's the first thing my daughter and them did. "Daddy they got them people coming. Don't tell them. Yes ma'am, and yes sir." I said, "You can't tell me what to do." I said, "I can tell y'all what to do." When them people came there, I say, "Mr. So-and-So you got acquainted with my daughter?" And my name. He said, "Yeah, Mr. Coleman." I said, "Yes sir, Mr. So-and-So." Did the same thing to that lady. So I told my children and them, "Look," I said, "Y'all wasn't raised like that. Y'all wasn't raised like that."	34:01
Kate Ellis	Raised like—	34:36
Baron Coleman	No. You got to raise a child. Now, they got them people right there.	34:38
Kate Ellis	Across the street?	34:45
Baron Coleman	Right there, and right there. They talk to them children that just like if you talking to this. You know that if they talk younger, you know this ain't going young. Now, when my children and them was small, they couldn't get out and go in the street. Now, before I put that hurricane fence there, them children they'll come from way yonder. When they get way yonder, they'll come across. They pass right there to go there. So I put the hurricane fence there. I had two dogs. I cried for my dog though. That dog, that's a pet dog. He played just like a child.	34:46
Kate Ellis	This dog your dog now?	35:26
Baron Coleman	Uh-huh. And I had a dog you couldn't come and shake hand with me.	35:34
Kate Ellis	With you? Oh, because the dog protected you? What do you mean?	35:34
Baron Coleman	That dog, if you reach your hand after me, he catch you.	35:42
Kate Ellis	I see.	35:44
Baron Coleman	But when I went to my children and them, I stayed there and I said, "My dog." I see my dog yonder and they was peering that they took their fence down. One morning my daughter called, started crying, said, "Your dog hanged himself. He jumped over the fence, and he wasn't long enough, and his leg didn't touch the ground, and he couldn't come back over, and he hanged himself." Boy, I'll cried like a baby.	35:45
Kate Ellis	Oh, yeah.	36:24
Baron Coleman	That dog will— Them children will come here and leave yonder. When them children will get on, that dog will go meet him and play with them.	36:24
Kate Ellis	Your dog now? The dog you have?	36:24
Baron Coleman	Not—	36:24
Kate Ellis	Oh, the dog you had.	36:24
Baron Coleman	Oh, that yellow dog was mean. You couldn't— You wouldn't be able to come down and sit down on that.	36:24
Kate Ellis	The dog that died was mean?	36:24
Baron Coleman	Huh?	36:24
Kate Ellis	You're saying the dog that—	36:24
Baron Coleman	The one that hanged himself.	36:24
Kate Ellis	Oh.	36:26
Baron Coleman	Oh, that was a dog. I'd get in the car. I'd just open the of the door of the car. He'd go there, he'd jump in there. He'd sit right on the side by me. Please don't come try to get in the car. I'll get out. I didn't need to lock the car. He stay in there just like that. And that too, when I go to the store when I was driving, I'll put him in there. He wasn't mean, but he stayed sit down in that car.	36:34
Kate Ellis	So he looked after you?	37:12
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	37:12
Kate Ellis	You were—	37:12
Baron Coleman	Just like a child. My dog, Yellow Dog, was just like a child.	37:12
Kate Ellis	He obeyed you?	37:12
Baron Coleman	Yeah. Yeah.	37:12
Kate Ellis	Wow.	37:12
Baron Coleman	Like this dog here. And I turn him loose. Him, I turn him loose. But that he too big. I want to get me some water to put around my house. I don't want him, if he go under there, he might break my pipe.	37:12
Kate Ellis	He is a big dog. I saw him inside.	37:12
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	37:12
Kate Ellis	So let me ask you more about, you farmed in Petite Anse, and then you said that, and you were with your brother, and then you stayed with him until you got married.	38:13
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	38:16
Kate Ellis	So what happened when you got married?	38:17
Baron Coleman	I worked to my own self.	38:18
Kate Ellis	You worked for your own self?	38:20
Baron Coleman	Yeah. I had a house right— My brother house— We was on the same side.	38:21
Kate Ellis	Oh, so you got a house right next to your brother?	38:29
Baron Coleman	I was working for them White people.	38:31
Kate Ellis	Yeah.	38:35
Baron Coleman	That was them White people house. You see that White house there?	38:35
Kate Ellis	Yeah.	38:39
Baron Coleman	And this house right there, they was far like that apart. But me and my brother—	38:40
Kate Ellis	Oh.	38:45
Baron Coleman	That White man give them their home when got married that Sunday morning, they came home. They put water and they fired it. He killed the hog and we cooked some meat we had.	38:45
Kate Ellis	The White people did that?	38:55
Baron Coleman	No.	38:55
Kate Ellis	No, your brother.	38:55
Baron Coleman	My brother did.	38:55
Kate Ellis	He killed a hog, and you had a feast.	39:02
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	39:03
Kate Ellis	For your wedding?	39:03
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	39:03
Kate Ellis	That sounds like it was a nice day.	39:03
Baron Coleman	Oh, yeah. We had a—	39:03
Kate Ellis	It looks like it just from the way you're smiling.	39:03
Baron Coleman	Yeah. And then they had a little— People used to play violin and guitar. They came and played the dance for us.	39:03
Kate Ellis	Did they?	39:03
Baron Coleman	Oh, we had some fun that night.	39:03
Kate Ellis	Oh.	39:03
Baron Coleman	When we got home, we sat down. Who and who? None of us— I didn't want to go to bed. She didn't want. We sat up there til most day.	39:03
Kate Ellis	She didn't what?	39:03
Baron Coleman	I didn't want to go to bed. She didn't want. We sat down and talk, talk. When she got sleepy, we made up our mind. I took our rest.	39:03
Kate Ellis	Wow.	39:03
Baron Coleman	Look like I see that day now. Yes, yes, yes. So many good days been young and gone. That hard, yeah. If you get to take— You going open that door, you going see me and my wife picture. I took it enlarged.	39:04
Kate Ellis	Oh good. I'll do that after we finished talking if I can do that.	40:12
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	40:15
Kate Ellis	I'd love to see that picture. How did you meet her?	40:15
Baron Coleman	Huh?	40:18
Kate Ellis	How did you meet your wife?	40:19
Baron Coleman	Well, we used to go to church. You see, every Sunday is not like now. Now, they got service in the morning, listen good. You go there for 8:00, by 9:30 they dismissed. But when we used to go in the church at that time, they'd go there around 9:00, then stay there til about after they dismissed, they'd stay there till about around 3:00. Now, they'd stay around there. They wouldn't leave. They'd come back and have church that night, and we'd stay there. And we used to walk. Used to walk with my wife. Hold our hand. When I'd get to a ditch, I'd catch her hand and help her out. You see them old people wouldn't let you like them girls do now. Got them boys look like they want to ride, got their arm around them girl. If you do that, if we put our arm around and we can can't go to the house and see them. They were straight in them times, girls.	40:24
Kate Ellis	You could just hold hands.	41:38
Baron Coleman	Yeah, they'll hold hands, and when I get to a ditch, after she jumped that ditch, I'll turn and saw her, and we was in the front, her dad and mother was coming in the back. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I enjoyed my life, though. I'm not ashamed to say. I enjoy my life. And yeah, after I got all right there by South Edward and New Iberia, they had a baseball park there. Them people from up the country'd come play ball and when they leave, they go play ball in Houston and Galveston. The White man that pay our $3 round trip. We go there and look at the game and come back that night. I had me some fun.	41:39
Kate Ellis	These are ball games, huh?	42:43
Baron Coleman	Yeah, they're ballgames.	42:45
Kate Ellis	And you said the White man paid for this?	42:47
Baron Coleman	Oh, yeah. The man who we was working for.	42:47
Kate Ellis	What was his name, the man you worked for?	42:51
Baron Coleman	Mr. Teo Davi.	42:52
Kate Ellis	Mr. Teo Davi.	42:52
Baron Coleman	Davi. Yeah.	42:52
Kate Ellis	So how long did you work for him?	42:52
Baron Coleman	Oh, I worked for him a long time. I couldn't count the years. I worked a long time.	42:52
Kate Ellis	Since you were young?	42:52
Baron Coleman	I was young.	42:52
Kate Ellis	It's since your brother worked for him?	42:52
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	42:52
Kate Ellis	And then through you getting married?	43:16
Baron Coleman	Well, when I started working with him, I was married when I worked with Teo Davi. When I stayed with his old papa, Maurele Davi, that was different. That was a mean man, that.	43:18
Kate Ellis	His father?	43:33
Baron Coleman	His daddy was a mean man.	43:34
Kate Ellis	What did he do?	43:40
Baron Coleman	Huh?	43:40
Kate Ellis	What did he do? What was— I mean, when you say he was mean, tell me stories.	43:40
Baron Coleman	He'd fight with anybody. He'd fight with White like Black.	43:44
Kate Ellis	Really?	43:47
Baron Coleman	Oh, yeah. That was a man. He didn't promise you nothing, but he was good if he loved you, he was good. He'd give you his last. That's the man brought me to the doctor when I was sick.	43:48
Kate Ellis	He's the man that brought you to the doctor? The older man?	44:03
Baron Coleman	The older man.	44:06
Kate Ellis	Maurele?	44:06
Baron Coleman	Yeah. Yeah.	44:06
Kate Ellis	But he'd fight.	44:12
Baron Coleman	Oh, yeah. Fight Whites like Black. Didn't kill. He stayed with his rifle. He had a rifle.	44:12
Kate Ellis	And it was always by his side?	44:21
Baron Coleman	On horseback he'd stay with his rifle. All that is gone.	44:23
Kate Ellis	Yeah.	44:32
Baron Coleman	All that is gone.	44:33
Kate Ellis	Yeah, it is.	44:34
Baron Coleman	It's not coming back no more.	44:34
Kate Ellis	No.	44:39
Baron Coleman	Where you native to home from?	44:39
Kate Ellis	I'm from Massachusetts.	44:49
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	44:51
Kate Ellis	I'm from way up north.	44:51
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	44:53
Kate Ellis	You know where I live now? I live in New York City now.	44:54
Baron Coleman	Oh, you in New York City?	44:57
Kate Ellis	Yeah. Now, your daughter's in Rochester?	44:58
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	45:02
Kate Ellis	New York. When did she move up there?	45:02
Baron Coleman	Oh, that'd been a long time. Oh, yeah, because my oldest daughter ain't got no children. My baby daughter got a boy and a girl. Been there long time.	45:06
Kate Ellis	Why did your daughter move up north?	45:25
Baron Coleman	Well, they didn't have no— They couldn't get no decent job here. [indistinct 00:45:37]	45:27
Kate Ellis	A newspaper.	45:38
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	45:41
Kate Ellis	Do you know the man who passed by with the newspapers? Do you know the guy in that red truck that passed by?	46:09
Baron Coleman	Yeah, I know him when I seen him.	46:14
Kate Ellis	Huh.	46:15
Baron Coleman	He lives in Cade.	46:15
Kate Ellis	He does?	46:15
Baron Coleman	He lives in Cade.	46:19
Kate Ellis	Oh.	46:23
Baron Coleman	But he deliver paper, paperboy.	46:24
Kate Ellis	Yeah. So your daughters couldn't find jobs down here, so they went up North?	46:30
Baron Coleman	They went. Yeah, they went. They got them some good job.	46:33
Kate Ellis	And that was a long time ago. Do you think it was after—	46:36

Kate Ellis	Your oldest daughter is 64, you said?	0:03
Baron Coleman	Mm-hmm. Born in '56.	0:09
Kate Ellis	Oh, I see. So it would've been after World War II. Now, you said that you started working for Mr. Daveed after you got married?	0:11
Baron Coleman	Mm-hmm.	0:34
Kate Ellis	So where did you work before you got married?	0:34
Baron Coleman	Mr. Durwin.	0:35
Kate Ellis	Mr. Durwin?	0:37
Baron Coleman	In the Bull Island.	0:40
Kate Ellis	On Bull Island?	0:44
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	0:45
Kate Ellis	But I thought that you moved to [indistinct 00:00:48] when you were nine?	0:46
Baron Coleman	When I was nine. Yeah, when I was nine, yeah.	0:49
Kate Ellis	When did you get married? How old were you when you got married?	0:55
Baron Coleman	I was 24.	0:57
Kate Ellis	Uh-huh. So you worked in Petit Anse and when you moved to Petit Anse and lived with your brother, but you worked in Bull Island?	1:03
Baron Coleman	Yeah, I [indistinct 00:01:12] him up.	1:10
Kate Ellis	Wait, wait, wait. I can't understand you. I'll let you eat for a minute.	1:12
Baron Coleman	[indistinct 00:01:34].	1:12
Kate Ellis	What?	1:12
Baron Coleman	Nothing.	1:12
Kate Ellis	Okay. Should I go soon?	1:49
Baron Coleman	Huh?	1:51
Kate Ellis	You have to make that call at 5:00 for your knee, right? Should I go soon? Because it's getting kind of— It's after 4:00.	1:53
Baron Coleman	What?	2:03
Kate Ellis	Shall I go in a little while? Because you have your call to make at 5:00?	2:04
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	2:07
Kate Ellis	Okay.	2:07
Baron Coleman	I ain't putting you out. No.	2:09
Kate Ellis	No, I don't take it like that. I don't take it like that. So did you live in Petit Anse but worked on Bull's Island?	2:12
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	2:24
Kate Ellis	How would you get back and forth?	2:25
Baron Coleman	That was in foot.	2:27
Kate Ellis	Oh, so you could walk?	2:28
Baron Coleman	I'd go with the mule.	2:31
Kate Ellis	Oh.	2:35
Baron Coleman	Go work the crop.	2:35
Kate Ellis	I see. But you didn't stay overnight in Bull's Island. You'd come home—	2:39
Baron Coleman	Every night.	2:41
Kate Ellis	Every night with your mule.	2:42
Baron Coleman	Yeah, I had to go home, shuck corn for the mule, pump water, give him, put hay for him. Our people now don't have to do nothing.	2:43
Kate Ellis	No, they don't do any of that stuff.	3:03
Baron Coleman	Of course in our time, grass like that, if we'd leave that grow like that, you know what we used to do?	3:07
Kate Ellis	What?	3:14
Baron Coleman	Get on our knees with a [indistinct 00:03:14] knife. We didn't have no mowing machine. Shit, them people now who ain't doing nothing.	3:14
Kate Ellis	But then you really worked the land. So when did you move from Petit Anse to New Iberia?	3:33
Baron Coleman	When did I move? I came here in 1950. You got that down already.	3:42
Kate Ellis	I guess I didn't write it down properly. Why did you come here in 1950?	3:51
Baron Coleman	Well, I done got tired of working for nothing. I came here and I got me a job.	4:00
Kate Ellis	Doing cement?	4:10
Baron Coleman	Hmm?	4:11
Kate Ellis	Working with pouring cement?	4:12
Baron Coleman	I work at the City Lumber Company. Hey [indistinct 00:04:25].	4:15
Kate Ellis	That a friend? Well, okay. What I want to do— Well, let me see something. Here's what I'm wondering. And then I ask you about your brothers and sisters and your children. Stuff like that. I'm thinking would it be too much.	4:35
Baron Coleman	Well, now it going to be kind of hard. Them children might come over. They might want to go in the country where we come from. They're supposed to come in for the second— They going to be here in October.	5:03
Kate Ellis	Your grandchildren? Who's—	5:15
Baron Coleman	No, my daughter and them.	5:16
Kate Ellis	They're going to come here?	5:18
Baron Coleman	Yeah, they coming here. You see, they was belongs the same church with their mama. And that was in Freetown. And my church is in Petit Anse. Now, they joined the church with their mama. The first Sunday in October, they going be here. I don't know how long they going to stay.	5:19
Kate Ellis	I guess what I meant is in terms of getting some of this information about— I mean, maybe I can ask you a couple of things now about what your wife's name was.	5:49
Baron Coleman	Before she married?	6:00
Kate Ellis	Yeah. Her full— Yeah, her name.	6:02
Baron Coleman	Her name. I'm going to give it. Her name is Aviar. She was Aviar Simon before she married.	6:06
Kate Ellis	Aviar—	6:11
Baron Coleman	Simon. Got it straight now.	6:14
Kate Ellis	Her first name was Aviar?	6:18
Baron Coleman	Uh-huh.	6:19
Kate Ellis	A-V-I-A-R? Does that sound right?	6:19
Baron Coleman	I don't know, I can't read. I'm just giving you her name.	6:30
Kate Ellis	Okay. Simon. And do you know when she was born?	6:31
Baron Coleman	No, I didn't find that out.	6:35
Kate Ellis	Were you two about the same age?	6:40
Baron Coleman	I had 10 years older than her.	6:46
Kate Ellis	You were 10 years older than she. Okay. Well I'll figure that out. Where was she born?	6:47
Baron Coleman	She born right there in Freetown.	6:54
Kate Ellis	Oh, okay. Do you remember what year she passed?	7:00
Baron Coleman	My wife died in 1984.	7:03
Kate Ellis	I'm sorry, what were you going to— Were you going to say something?	7:09
Baron Coleman	You're fast. My wife died in 1984 on the 13. On the 13. On the 13 day.	7:17
Kate Ellis	13th day, 1984. What did she do while you worked the land? Did she work the land with you?	7:25
Baron Coleman	Mm-mm. No. She didn't. She stay home and clean up. I marry her to work for her. She was my housewife. She come and help me pick cotton sometimes. Bring me some water in the field sometime. Kiss me sometimes. Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah. Well, I done had my fun. I said [indistinct 00:08:17] I just satisfied with a man got $3 million dollar.	7:41
Kate Ellis	What was your mother's name?	8:25
Baron Coleman	My mother's name? They used to call her Cecile.	8:28
Kate Ellis	Cecile. Do you know her name before she got married?	8:36
Baron Coleman	She was a Beale. Cecilia Beale.	8:45
Kate Ellis	Bill? Will you say it one more time?	8:47
Baron Coleman	Beale.	8:49
Kate Ellis	Okay. And you don't know when she was born?	8:49
Baron Coleman	No, I don't.	8:55
Kate Ellis	Do you remember when she— You were nine when she passed?	8:58
Baron Coleman	Yes. Hey, man!	9:00
Kate Ellis	Where was she born?	9:08
Baron Coleman	My wife?	9:10
Kate Ellis	No, your mother.	9:11
Baron Coleman	My mother was born right by them [indistinct 00:09:20]. I know exactly the spot, but they ain't got no— The people, you see all them old people there, after they die, them White folks got all them people. I don't know on who name they put it on. If my mother was a Beale. I go there most every other day with that fella passing pick me up. He got some hog right there where my mama's daddy and them was living. My grandpa. Paeto Beale. Paeto. My grandpa on my mama's side. That was Paeto Beale.	9:13
Kate Ellis	His first name was Paeto?	10:07
Baron Coleman	Mm-hmm.	10:08
Kate Ellis	That's awesome. Have to find out how to spell that.	10:08
Baron Coleman	[indistinct 00:10:19] Mr. Simon.	10:19
Kate Ellis	Is that a friend or yours?	10:21
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	10:22
Kate Ellis	A neighbor?	10:22
Baron Coleman	Mm-hmm.	10:22
Kate Ellis	Well, maybe I should come by another time.	10:32
Baron Coleman	Maybe soon.	10:33
Kate Ellis	Okay. I'll do that.	10:33

Kate Ellis	Just [indistinct 00:00:02] you, do you know today's date?	0:01
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	0:04
Kate Ellis	What's today's date?	0:04
Baron Coleman	Today's the, let me see, the 3rd.	0:06
Kate Ellis	No. You got to fix your watch, it's August 1st.	0:13
Baron Coleman	That's August?	0:15
Kate Ellis	Yeah. We're on August 1st. First. All right, let check the way this sounds. Okay. I had some questions from the last conversation we had.	0:18
Baron Coleman	Yeah. Let me—	0:32
Kate Ellis	You said that you were from Bull Island?	0:32
Baron Coleman	Yeah. Bull Island.	0:32
Kate Ellis	Bull Island?	0:35
Baron Coleman	Bull Island, yeah.	0:36
Kate Ellis	So, near Youngsville.	0:39
Baron Coleman	Oh yeah, I was young.	0:42
Kate Ellis	No, no. It was near the town called Youngsville?	0:44
Baron Coleman	A pretty good distance away from it though.	0:47
Kate Ellis	Oh, okay. The reason I'm asking, I've never heard of Bull Island.	0:51
Baron Coleman	Well, you are not used to here.	0:56
Kate Ellis	I'm not from here.	1:00
Baron Coleman	You see, that Bull Island is going to stay Bull Island. That where they got a salt mine.	1:02
Kate Ellis	Okay, they got—	1:10
Baron Coleman	Jefferson Island.	1:11
Kate Ellis	Oh, okay. I gotcha. Let's see, salt mine, Jefferson Island. Is that near Delcambre?	1:15
Baron Coleman	That's on the way to Delcambre.	1:26
Kate Ellis	It is?	1:28
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	1:28
Kate Ellis	Okay. That's a different place, that's in a different direction than Freetown, right?	1:29
Baron Coleman	Oh yeah.	1:37
Kate Ellis	You're not from Freetown, right?	1:38
Baron Coleman	My wife, that was she—	1:40
Kate Ellis	Your wife is from Freetown?	1:41
Baron Coleman	Free town. But that's close, that ain't too far from here.	1:41
Kate Ellis	Okay. That's what I was just wondering. Because I just, you know what it is? I wrote it down earlier and then I was like, Bull Island? I looked on a map and I hadn't been able to find it. But if it's by Jefferson Island then I see what you're talking about. I just didn't know. So, would you tell me again, before you worked in cement in the 1950s you did sharecropping, right?	1:44
Baron Coleman	Huh?	2:15
Kate Ellis	You did sharecropping?	2:15
Baron Coleman	Yeah. Crop and I work on the railroad. Yes, ma'am. I work all over.	2:17
Kate Ellis	Did you?	2:23
Baron Coleman	Oh yeah.	2:23
Kate Ellis	Okay. So, you sharecropped. Whose land did you share crop on?	2:30
Baron Coleman	On Mr. Darwin, Mr. Donise Darwin.	2:33
Kate Ellis	Okay. And then after that you worked on the railroad?	2:42
Baron Coleman	I worked there and after that I work in crop for my father-in-law, he had property. See, they had property and I didn't have. I married somebody had something.	2:44
Kate Ellis	Oh, I didn't realize that your wife's family had property.	2:57
Baron Coleman	Oh yeah.	3:01
Kate Ellis	How did they get property?	3:05
Baron Coleman	Well, it was that they bought it. They had the money, they bought it.	3:06
Kate Ellis	Oh. But am I right that that was hard to do? That it was hard to buy property?	3:13
Baron Coleman	No, property was cheap. You buy a acre land but for $10. In them time, you see when I bought this square here cost me $55 for just the land, no house.	3:16
Kate Ellis	Really?	3:36
Baron Coleman	It's like you see there's that little piece in the front right there? I bet you I get about $2,000, that's where that front.	3:36
Kate Ellis	Yeah, you're probably—	3:45
Baron Coleman	I got that, that's go way in the back yard.	3:45
Kate Ellis	Really? Now, when did you buy this property? Around when did you buy this property [indistinct 00:03:56]?	3:49
Baron Coleman	I bought that in 1949.	3:53
Kate Ellis	Okay. This is what I want to ask you about, because this is interesting to me. You had said to me, if I remember right, you had told me that you came into New Iberia and started working for the cement company because you were tired of working for nothing.	3:59
Baron Coleman	Yes. Yeah.	4:14
Kate Ellis	And that had been, so that was after, so you were giving up share cropping?	4:15
Baron Coleman	Oh yeah. They wasn't paid nothing to work in the field. Dollar, well, when I started getting a dollar working in the field, that's 1924 after I married. Before that I used to get 50 cents a day, a whole day's work.	4:20
Kate Ellis	That's amazing.	4:37
Baron Coleman	But I made it, you see? Lots of them, and never did work and you look at them they look older than me.	4:38
Kate Ellis	I'm sorry, say it again.	4:47
Baron Coleman	I say I made it. And there is a lot of young people right now they look older than me. They walk in the street with no clothes on, nothing. You see when I was in short pants, I stayed in short pants. When I put these long pants, I ain't going to cut my pants in.	4:48
Kate Ellis	Oh, I see. You seem to have cut their pants off.	5:10
Baron Coleman	That's they, and Black and White, they crazy people. If a man got changed he wouldn't try to walk naked in the front of lady, [indistinct 00:05:25] respect him. That's how come you see I stay there and I don't, you ain't going see me walk the street on Sunday. I dress me on Sunday around nine o'clock to go to church. I don't dress until I get ready to go in the bed. I got clothes I'm going to never wear. Every Sunday I put different clothes. I'm a neat man.	5:13
Kate Ellis	I guess I've talked to a few people who it seems like in the 1940s around that period gave up sharecropping.	6:01
Baron Coleman	Oh yes.	6:09
Kate Ellis	Which must have been a hard thing to do because you didn't have a lot of money to be able to move anywhere. Am I right about that?	6:10
Baron Coleman	Yeah, but I played lucky. The little bit we made, we save it. Is not a plan to do. If you be getting $5 an hour, I'll be getting $2 an hour. When you spend four, I spend one. You see? Now on some job where I work we was getting the same amount. When I get my money I withdrew my money, I put my money in the bank. So, I know one day it'll get so I wouldn't be able to work. I wouldn't have to go there with a basket.	6:18
Kate Ellis	Begging?	6:58
Baron Coleman	Begging. I got mine. I can take you and I can go to Mexico anywhere, I've got money to pay my way to go and come.	7:00
Kate Ellis	Do you? So, you saved your money?	7:12
Baron Coleman	Oh yeah.	7:13
Kate Ellis	And you have that money to live on now?	7:14
Baron Coleman	Yeah. I don't ask nobody for nothing. The only time I ask somebody for something, if they going to the store they want to buy me some milk. I love milk.	7:16
Kate Ellis	Do you?	7:27
Baron Coleman	Because when I was in the country I used to milk cow. That was good milk, now they ain't got no more good milk. Halfway part, you buy the old milk sometime you got it in a jug, if you don't eat it fast it get blue, it gets sour.	7:28
Kate Ellis	Yeah. So, that period of time, but let me ask you this, because you were there at the time. Am I right that there were a number of folks coming in off the field moving into New Iberia around the time that you did that? I mean, were other people doing that too?	7:47
Baron Coleman	No. It wasn't like now, every now and then, I don't know where them people come from. Them people that I don't know no more than you know them either. I don't know.	8:13
Kate Ellis	Your neighbors you don't know now. No, but I'm saying when you moved, when bought this plot of land in 1949 for $55, was that something that other people from the country were doing?	8:22
Baron Coleman	Yeah. You see all this here, all this here, this house, this house, this house, some house that wasn't there. You see, my wife wanted to buy there.	8:39
Kate Ellis	That plot of land across the street?	8:51
Baron Coleman	On that side she wanted to buy, I tell her no, buy on this side of the street. I buy on this side. Like you see back there, you see how dark back there? All them old trees, you can't see. Like you go sit in the back in my house, you can see the way back yonder.	8:53
Kate Ellis	And that's what you want, you wanted to be able to see?	9:12
Baron Coleman	That's what I want. Yeah.	9:12
Kate Ellis	Let's see, when you say that you got tired of working for nothing, I mean was it something you thought about doing for a long time that you'd been dreaming about? Moving into New Iberia?	9:12
Baron Coleman	Yeah. I made up my mind. I made up my mind. I told them, I say, "I'm leaving the country." "Don't leave, Mr. Coleman." I say, "I got children," I say, "I got to make it good for them." I say, "I didn't have the opportunity." I say, "I ain't going to let my children them work in the field, can't go to school." After I moved here they went, they all finished school. I got two son and two daughter. My two son them they work at the post office. Elton James Coleman and Caldwell Coleman.	9:32
Kate Ellis	So, you wanted to make things better for them. They were your kids and you wanted—	10:12
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	10:17
Kate Ellis	Who was it that you were telling when you said, "I'm leaving the country"? And they said, "No, don't go." Who was that?	10:18
Baron Coleman	I was working for Mr. Darwin. I tell them, oh yeah. I say, "I ain't going to work all my days for nothing." You see if I let stayed in the country, my children them all the way I wouldn't have a house, I wouldn't have nowhere to stay. And I couldn't buy nothing at that age. That's the way it go.	10:23
Kate Ellis	So, you saved your money so you could buy land here?	10:46
Baron Coleman	I saved my, yeah.	10:50
Kate Ellis	And how'd you build the house?	10:51
Baron Coleman	Huh?	10:52
Kate Ellis	How did you get the money to build the house?	10:53
Baron Coleman	Well, I had it.	10:54
Kate Ellis	You had saved enough money to buy the land and build the house?	10:56
Baron Coleman	Well, you see, yeah, but the house wasn't that big. I add to it.	10:57
Kate Ellis	Okay.	11:02
Baron Coleman	You see if I want, I ain't got nobody stay with me, I could add on my house. I could put me a trailer in the back, but I don't want nobody in my yard back there.	11:09
Kate Ellis	I know what I was going to ask you, just as far as the kind of work that you did before you came here, did most of your work, was it in sugar cane?	11:34
Baron Coleman	Yeah. Everywhere we used to cut cane with the cane knife. That's the only time we could make a little bit of money in grinding, you see? But you see the, you had to cut them, you had to clean them, clean, clean, take all the [indistinct 00:12:08] off. You had to get in if they have ice, snowing, you had to get in then pick them cane and put them. You'd be all wet with that cold water. Had to make it to save them cane. So I say, well, I say, "My children and them ain't going do that."	11:48
Kate Ellis	When they were young did they help you in the field?	12:28
Baron Coleman	I left before they got ready to go, before they got ready to work in the field.	12:33
Kate Ellis	You left there?	12:39
Baron Coleman	I left that. I ain't going to make my children work and the White man children sitting down waiting for the money. I said, "If y'all want money, get on yourself."	12:40
Kate Ellis	So, they all went to high school and college?	12:54
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	12:57
Kate Ellis	Wow.	12:58
Baron Coleman	They all got good job.	13:00
Kate Ellis	Yeah, it sounds like it. So, can you just tell me what a typical, what kind of day would you have? I mean, what was a typical day like for you when you were working in the fields? I mean, you'd get up before dawn?	13:01
Baron Coleman	We'd get up before it's before dark, before daybreak I had to get up, go in the barn and feed them mule and brush him. Then hitch him up, then go in the field. Like at night when I knock off, I knock off at sun down, I had to shug the mule corn, put here in the store, pump water. I get home about around eight o'clock at night. I said goodbye. When I quit that man I had made me some money, I had saved me some money. He said that, he said, "Baron, you going, but," well, I say, "I worked for my money." I say, "You didn't give it to me." I say, "I work for that." Yeah, [indistinct 00:14:10].	13:17
Kate Ellis	And what did he say?	14:09
Baron Coleman	Couldn't say nothing. But his son was nice to me. His son was just like my brother. He was White, but me and him was just like brother. We was just like that. If I go somewhere, when we used to go play somewhere when we'd go if anybody will try to jump me, they'll have to whip him.	14:10
Kate Ellis	Oh, really?	14:31
Baron Coleman	Yeah. Always played lucky. That's like where I go, you know where that at? At Smile?	14:32
Kate Ellis	What? You lost what?	14:41
Baron Coleman	Where we going, where they feed us at Smile. You never went?	14:44
Kate Ellis	To where?	14:48
Baron Coleman	At Smile.	14:49
Kate Ellis	Smiles?	14:51
Baron Coleman	Yeah. On Walter Street.	14:52
Kate Ellis	No, but I'll write it down. Smiles on Walter Street?	14:53
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	14:57
Kate Ellis	Okay.	14:58
Baron Coleman	They got a school not far from there.	15:00
Kate Ellis	Okay. School nearby. And what about it?	15:03
Baron Coleman	That's where they come pick me up every day to go and eat dinner.	15:06
Kate Ellis	Who picked you up every day to go eat dinner?	15:08
Baron Coleman	They got a van, or we use a a crowd [indistinct 00:15:16].	15:13
Kate Ellis	Oh, you mean now you're saying?	15:16
Baron Coleman	Not right now.	15:17
Kate Ellis	Now they pick you up in the van?	15:18
Baron Coleman	Yeah. I've been in there about going on five years.	15:20
Kate Ellis	What? The Council on Aging?	15:24
Baron Coleman	Huh?	15:26
Kate Ellis	The Council on Aging? Is that what you're talking about?	15:26
Baron Coleman	Well, I don't know. I call it at Smile. That's the name he have.	15:30
Kate Ellis	Okay. But that's on Walton Street?	15:37
Baron Coleman	Yeah, it's on—	15:39
Kate Ellis	What were you saying about that White friend of yours? The son of Mr. Duran.	15:39
Baron Coleman	Mr. Darwin's son?	15:45
Kate Ellis	Darwin's son. Were you just saying that you were friends with him?	15:46
Baron Coleman	Oh, he was friends with me.	15:50
Kate Ellis	And if anybody tried to get you they'd have to whip him too.	15:51
Baron Coleman	They had to whip him. He was a powerful young man.	15:54
Kate Ellis	This is when you were a child?	16:00
Baron Coleman	Huh?	16:02
Kate Ellis	This was when you were a child?	16:02
Baron Coleman	No, I was a young man that before married though.	16:03
Kate Ellis	All right. Now, how long did you work for Mr. Darwin?	16:05
Baron Coleman	I worked there about eight years.	16:10
Kate Ellis	Eight years?	16:12
Baron Coleman	After I quit him, I was married when I quit him. That's when I came.	16:13
Kate Ellis	That's when you came here?	16:22
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	16:22
Kate Ellis	But before him who did you work for?	16:24
Baron Coleman	Oh, I worked for different people, some of them I done forgotten.	16:26
Kate Ellis	But all people that you were sharecropping for?	16:30
Baron Coleman	I did sharecrop after I married, they said good now. When I was single I worked just by the day.	16:35
Kate Ellis	You worked what?	16:38
Baron Coleman	By the day.	16:39
Kate Ellis	When you were single?	16:39
Baron Coleman	Yeah. If I work for, if I'll be working for you I'll work, if you like work for me all this summer, I'll work with you. I wanted to come in grinding time to cut the sugar cane, you will ask me, I'll work for you another year. If another man will pay a little more I'll quit you and I'll go work for the next man.	16:46
Kate Ellis	But then when you got married?	17:07
Baron Coleman	No, I was single.	17:07
Kate Ellis	No, but—	17:10
Baron Coleman	After I got married I put all that down, I went to myself. I cropped with my father-in-law. My father-in-law then had property.	17:11
Kate Ellis	Okay. And so you did that with him for a long time?	17:19
Baron Coleman	Huh?	17:25
Kate Ellis	You did that with your father-in-law for a long—	17:26
Baron Coleman	About by four years after I made up my mind. I saved my money I bought me that lot and I built that house 1949.	17:30
Kate Ellis	Here?	17:36
Baron Coleman	Yeah. 1950. I came right here and I've been here since.	17:41
Kate Ellis	And you brought your kids with you?	17:46
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	17:47
Kate Ellis	And that's when you started working for Mr. Mixon?	17:48
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	17:50
Kate Ellis	Okay. And while you were cropping, your wife was a housewife?	17:51
Baron Coleman	Yeah. My wife was—	17:57
Kate Ellis	Did she ever help you in the fields?	17:59
Baron Coleman	Yeah. In the evening.	18:01
Kate Ellis	She'd work in the field?	18:02
Baron Coleman	Yeah. She'd come pick cotton with me. And after she moved in town I got a job, she got a job. She worked for them rich White folks. I worked, we took our money we put our money right there.	18:05
Kate Ellis	You saved it?	18:24
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	18:25
Kate Ellis	Wow. And you put your kids, you sent your kids to school?	18:26
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	18:30
Kate Ellis	So, they went to school in New Iberia?	18:31
Baron Coleman	Yeah. They finished at Anderson High.	18:33
Kate Ellis	Anderson High?	18:39
Baron Coleman	Mm-hmm.	18:40
Kate Ellis	Anderson High?	18:40
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	18:40
Kate Ellis	What was it called back then?	18:41
Baron Coleman	Huh?	18:42
Kate Ellis	What was the name of the school back then?	18:43
Baron Coleman	Well, that's the only name I know. That's the way they call it now, that's Anderson High.	18:46
Kate Ellis	Or you mean Henderson, is that Henderson High?	18:53
Baron Coleman	Uh-huh.	18:55
Kate Ellis	Henderson or Anderson?	18:55
Baron Coleman	Anderson.	18:58
Kate Ellis	Anderson?	18:58
Baron Coleman	On St. Peter.	19:00
Kate Ellis	Okay. I'll just go by—	19:05
Baron Coleman	St. Peter Street.	19:05
Kate Ellis	Okay. Let me ask you some, okay. What was I going to ask you? What was your wife's name?	19:05
Baron Coleman	My wife Avia. Avia.	19:26
Kate Ellis	Avia. Huh.	19:30
Baron Coleman	Avia. She was Avia Simon. After she married she was Avia Coleman.	19:34
Kate Ellis	Simon, Coleman.	19:40
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	19:43
Kate Ellis	When was she born?	19:47
Baron Coleman	Oh, I no idea.	19:48
Kate Ellis	You don't know?	19:50
Baron Coleman	No, I don't know when she born. Them children might had it.	19:51
Kate Ellis	Do you know when she passed?	19:56
Baron Coleman	Huh?	19:58
Kate Ellis	Do you know when she passed? What year did she die?	19:58
Baron Coleman	She died 1984.	20:01
Kate Ellis	Do you know how old she was when she died?	20:04
Baron Coleman	This ought to be about '84. 84 [indistinct 00:20:06]. I can't give you the date, but my children them got all that written.	20:05
Kate Ellis	Okay.	20:22
Baron Coleman	You see, if she been, I had 10 years older than her.	20:23
Kate Ellis	You were?	20:28
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	20:28
Kate Ellis	Oh, okay.	20:28
Baron Coleman	Up.	20:28
Kate Ellis	Oh, baby's crying. You were 10 years older?	20:33
Baron Coleman	We have more bad children.	20:34
Kate Ellis	Really? Okay. You see them a lot, don't you?	20:43
Baron Coleman	Huh?	20:44
Kate Ellis	I guess you see those kids a lot now. And she's from Freetown?	20:45
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	20:51
Kate Ellis	Is that in Iberia Parish? I think it is.	20:52
Baron Coleman	No, no, not in Iberia Parish.	20:57
Kate Ellis	It's not?	20:57
Baron Coleman	Mm-mm.	21:03
Kate Ellis	Okay. She worked for White folks when she came here?	21:06
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	21:09
Kate Ellis	Okay. What was your mother's name?	21:12
Baron Coleman	They used to call my mother Cecil.	21:14
Kate Ellis	Cecil.	21:15
Baron Coleman	Her family Bill, her name Cecil Bill. She was a Bill.	21:18
Kate Ellis	Bill? Okay. You don't know when she was born? Do you know when she died?	21:25
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	21:39
Kate Ellis	Oh, you were young.	21:39
Baron Coleman	Oh, that my mama?	21:43
Kate Ellis	Yeah.	21:44
Baron Coleman	Oh, I was nine years old when my mama died.	21:46
Kate Ellis	Okay. What year were you born again? You were born in 1901? Did you say that you're 95 years old? Or no—	21:48
Baron Coleman	I was—	21:55
Kate Ellis	Oh, I said that right here.	21:55
Baron Coleman	How you got it?	21:55
Kate Ellis	Oh, I got it. I got it. I'm just writing it here.	22:08
Baron Coleman	What [indistinct 00:22:17]?	22:15
Kate Ellis	And what did your, do you know where your mother was from?	22:21
Baron Coleman	Huh?	22:26
Kate Ellis	Where was your mother from?	22:27
Baron Coleman	Freetown.	22:28
Kate Ellis	Your mother was?	22:30
Baron Coleman	Yes.	22:30
Kate Ellis	Okay. And what did she do in the time that you were young? What did she do?	22:30
Baron Coleman	She clean the house and help my daddy to pick cotton.	22:40
Kate Ellis	Okay.	22:46
Baron Coleman	They all working.	22:46
Kate Ellis	In the fields?	22:46
Baron Coleman	Yeah. All of my children work in the field.	22:54
Kate Ellis	Your children did?	22:55
Baron Coleman	Yeah. All of them work a little bit while they were small. After they started going to school, that was it.	22:57
Kate Ellis	Then you didn't let them work?	23:07
Baron Coleman	And after they finished, because the training said, "Goodbye, daddy."	23:07
Kate Ellis	Really?	23:11
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	23:12
Kate Ellis	They all left after high school or after college?	23:12
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	23:15
Kate Ellis	And they headed north?	23:15
Baron Coleman	Yeah. So, they went there and got him a job.	23:17
Kate Ellis	Yeah. What's your father's full name?	23:21
Baron Coleman	My father's name was Jules, Jules Coleman. Jules Coleman.	23:24
Kate Ellis	June.	23:30
Baron Coleman	We used to call him Jillian. That was a halfway French name.	23:31
Kate Ellis	Yes. Sounds like it.	23:32
Baron Coleman	Julian.	23:32
Kate Ellis	Do you know what year he died?	23:38
Baron Coleman	He died in 1936. I'll never forget that.	23:39
Kate Ellis	Why?	23:45
Baron Coleman	Because that's the year he died. I know that, I had the understanding to know it.	23:46
Kate Ellis	But when your mother died you went to live with your brother?	23:52
Baron Coleman	Yeah. When my mother died I was a baby. You see my mother, she wouldn't leave us walk like that naked. That's a disgrace, them sassy thing.	23:55
Kate Ellis	Those kids there? Okay. Now, where was your father from?	24:11
Baron Coleman	From Bull Bridge.	24:17
Kate Ellis	Bull, oh, okay.	24:18
Baron Coleman	Bull Bridge, Louisiana. That's up that way.	24:18
Kate Ellis	Okay. And he was a sharecropper, a farmer?	24:24
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	24:31
Kate Ellis	Should I say sharecropper?	24:31
Baron Coleman	Well, he worked in the field.	24:33
Kate Ellis	Okay.	24:41
Baron Coleman	That what we work on when we were small.	24:42
Kate Ellis	So, you worked there in the fields when you were small?	24:43
Baron Coleman	Uh-huh.	24:48
Kate Ellis	Okay. You had brothers and sisters?	24:48
Baron Coleman	Oh yeah.	24:50
Kate Ellis	What were their names?	24:50
Baron Coleman	I had two brother. Listen good, I had two brothers, I had Joseph, mama had them, she named Joseph Brusard and Paul Brusard.	24:53
Kate Ellis	Their middle name was Brusard?	25:05
Baron Coleman	My mother had them children before she married my daddy. Don't get it mixed up, I'm telling you how it is.	25:09
Kate Ellis	You are telling me. Joseph Brusard and?	25:16
Baron Coleman	Paul Brusard.	25:21
Kate Ellis	Okay.	25:21
Baron Coleman	My mama had one daughter, we used to call her Polly.	25:27
Kate Ellis	Polly. Polly Brusard?	25:31
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	25:34
Kate Ellis	So, she had three children for another man?	25:35
Baron Coleman	No. Her husband died. After her husband died my pa had lost his first wife, I had some brother and sister I done forgot them on my daddy's side. Now, listen good, after they died that's while it's like that.	25:39
Kate Ellis	So, Joseph Brusard, Paul Brusard, Polly Brusard.	26:00
Baron Coleman	Paul Brusard.	26:03
Kate Ellis	Oh, I thought they used, oh, I'm sorry. I get it. Just two brothers?	26:06
Baron Coleman	There's two brothers.	26:09
Kate Ellis	No Polly?	26:11
Baron Coleman	Yeah. They got their sisters.	26:12
Kate Ellis	Okay. And the sister was Polly?	26:14
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	26:15
Kate Ellis	And who else?	26:16
Baron Coleman	That's all. That's all.	26:17
Kate Ellis	And then anybody else that your parents had or did they just have you?	26:19
Baron Coleman	Well, they had some, I done forget.	26:23
Kate Ellis	You don't remember? Okay.	26:23
Baron Coleman	I done forgot.	26:23
Kate Ellis	But you were younger than Joseph, Paul and Polly.	26:27
Baron Coleman	Oh yeah. They raised me.	26:31
Kate Ellis	They raised you? The kids, the Brusards—	26:40
Baron Coleman	I was like them children.	26:41
Kate Ellis	Where were they all? Do you know where they were born? No?	26:44
Baron Coleman	That was my mama them needed home in Freetown. That's where they must have born at.	26:49
Kate Ellis	So, Freetown? Okay.	26:55
Baron Coleman	You see, I can't tell you where they was born at because they older than me. They could tell me, but I can't tell them.	26:56
Kate Ellis	All right. Do you have grandchildren?	27:02
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	27:04
Kate Ellis	How many do you have?	27:04
Baron Coleman	Oh, I got a bunch of them.	27:04
Kate Ellis	A bunch?	27:04
Baron Coleman	Yeah. My son got two sons, Gregory is one. Gregory and [indistinct 00:27:26]. We got little nickname from him, we called one Stick. Stick.	27:11
Kate Ellis	Stick?	27:36
Baron Coleman	That's like a stick that. That's the little nickname we gave him.	27:36
Kate Ellis	What are your children's names?	27:45
Baron Coleman	Right now?	27:49
Kate Ellis	The name of your kids.	27:51
Baron Coleman	The family name you mean?	27:55
Kate Ellis	What you named them.	27:57
Baron Coleman	I tell you they got one they call Gregory.	28:00
Kate Ellis	No, no. I want to know the name of your kids.	28:02
Baron Coleman	My kids?	28:06
Kate Ellis	Not your grandchildren, your children.	28:07
Baron Coleman	I told you already, I got one daughter they call her Doty. You got that down here already.	28:09
Kate Ellis	I do?	28:16
Baron Coleman	Yeah. Now you got Dorita, that's the baby one.	28:16
Kate Ellis	Dorita?	28:25
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	28:25
Kate Ellis	When did I get this?	28:25
Baron Coleman	Huh?	28:25
Kate Ellis	When did I get this? Okay, Dorothy, Dorita.	28:25
Baron Coleman	And my son, the oldest one is Caldwell. Caldwell Coleman. Now, my baby boy's name is Elton Jan Coleman, like you done got that about four, five times I done told you.	28:27
Kate Ellis	Really?	28:42
Baron Coleman	Yeah. I bet you you come here next week you going to ask me what my son name?	28:45
Kate Ellis	No. I'm never going to ask you again. Believe me, that's the last thing I will ever ask you. Do you remember how old they are?	28:48
Baron Coleman	No, I don't keep up with their age.	29:01
Kate Ellis	Okay.	29:02
Baron Coleman	I don't want to tell the age, I'm going to let them say it.	29:05
Kate Ellis	That's fine. Were they all born in, where were they all born?	29:09
Baron Coleman	They born in Louisiana, right in Louisiana. All you got to put, Louisiana.	29:14
Kate Ellis	All right, gotcha. So, you have—	29:20
Baron Coleman	None of my children didn't born here in New Iberia, they're all born in the country. Don't mash your book now, you got that?	29:30
Kate Ellis	I haven't quite finished my book yet.	29:36
Baron Coleman	[indistinct 00:29:45].	29:38
Kate Ellis	Just writing something. You worked for Mixon Cement?	29:44
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	30:10
Kate Ellis	From 1950?	30:14
Baron Coleman	I worked there in 1984.	30:15
Kate Ellis	Am I right that it was 1950? Or was it 1953?	30:22
Baron Coleman	I started working there. I started working there 1953.	30:25
Kate Ellis	Okay. To 1984. As far as doing field labor, from cutting the cane to picking cotton, everything that you did, am I right to say that you did that from the 1920s to the 1940s or 50?	31:03
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	31:25
Kate Ellis	Does that sound right to you?	31:25
Baron Coleman	Yeah. When I quit the country, when I quit farming that was 1955. And I've been working on public job after that.	31:26
Kate Ellis	Okay. But you started— Okay.	31:37
Baron Coleman	Where you from? Where you native from?	31:43
Kate Ellis	Native?	31:45
Baron Coleman	Where you was born at?	31:47
Kate Ellis	I was born in London, England. I was born in London. Why?	31:48
Baron Coleman	Whenever you go to London you write me a letter. Look at my number there. You see?	31:57
Kate Ellis	Okay. 526.	32:03
Baron Coleman	[indistinct 00:32:09]. Yeah. You write my letter and you send me something from England, how you call that place. Just want to see that.	32:09
Kate Ellis	All right, all right. How about when I go back to New York City	32:24
Baron Coleman	Anywhere.	32:26
Kate Ellis	That's where I'm living.	32:27
Baron Coleman	Well, when you go to New York City.	32:28
Kate Ellis	You want a postcard from New York City?	32:30
Baron Coleman	Yeah, but send me something. Put me something in the invite.	32:31
Kate Ellis	You want something in it?	32:35
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	32:36
Kate Ellis	What do you want me to send in it?	32:39
Baron Coleman	Anna Davis, you can't send no gum.	32:41
Kate Ellis	What?	32:44
Baron Coleman	Look, that's the little lady. Aida. That's my lady friend.	32:47
Kate Ellis	Is that right? She looks nice.	32:55
Baron Coleman	She's taking care of her old lady up there.	32:56
Kate Ellis	Okay. And you are Baptist?	33:04
Baron Coleman	Huh?	33:05
Kate Ellis	Baptist?	33:05
Baron Coleman	I'm Baptist.	33:05
Kate Ellis	Star Pilgrim? What's—	33:11
Baron Coleman	Star Temple.	33:13
Kate Ellis	Star Temple.	33:14
Baron Coleman	That's our street. Straight out you head to Hopkins Street, when you cross the, I didn't brought, we didn't know we went to Mixon and I didn't went to the church, to Iberia.	33:15
Kate Ellis	The Star Temple? You go every Sunday?	33:26
Baron Coleman	Every Sunday, they come and get me.	33:30
Kate Ellis	And you get all dressed up? You've always belonged to Star Temple?	33:32
Baron Coleman	Yeah. That where I met Christ. I joined that church 1924. Pick—	33:38
Kate Ellis	So, how did you get into New Iberia in that time?	33:47
Baron Coleman	Huh?	33:50
Kate Ellis	In the 1920s, how did you get into New Iberia?	33:50
Baron Coleman	I didn't came here in the 1920s.	33:54
Kate Ellis	I know, but you joined Star Temple Baptist Church in 1924.	33:56
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	34:00
Kate Ellis	Was the church in New Iberia at the time?	34:01
Baron Coleman	I don't go to no church in New Iberia, I go in the country. My church is in the country.	34:05
Kate Ellis	I thought that you just said when you, we were talking a minute ago and you said that, you and I had gone by Mixon last week and you said it's a shame that we didn't go by—	34:12
Baron Coleman	The church where I belongs.	34:25
Kate Ellis	And where is the church that you belong to?	34:26
Baron Coleman	Star Temple.	34:26
Kate Ellis	In New Iberia?	34:28
Baron Coleman	No.	34:29
Kate Ellis	Okay. It's in the country?	34:29
Baron Coleman	That's in the country.	34:30
Kate Ellis	Where in the country?	34:30
Baron Coleman	You take Hopkins Street, you just take that street you go straight, you turn, after you cross the four lane you get continue going, just like if you going in Delcambre. On the left hand side the church there, and right in the back of the church the graveyard there. You can't miss it. You go tomorrow then, when you come back to town you call me tell me you went there.	34:33
Kate Ellis	Okay. All right. I might even go out there this afternoon, I'll see. Do you belong to any organizations	35:00
Baron Coleman	In society?	35:09
Kate Ellis	Yeah.	35:11
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	35:11
Kate Ellis	What's it called?	35:12
Baron Coleman	Society.	35:13
Kate Ellis	It's called Society?	35:14
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	35:16
Kate Ellis	What is it?	35:16
Baron Coleman	That's if I die they bury me.	35:17
Kate Ellis	Oh, It's like a benevolent society?	35:21
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	35:24
Kate Ellis	What's the name of the society?	35:25
Baron Coleman	Well, the [indistinct 00:35:29] got the undertaker. You see I belongs with him, they at Fletcher. I belongs with him. If I die, he furnish everything.	35:27
Kate Ellis	Fletcher?	35:42
Baron Coleman	My casket, bring me, dress me. But I done bought my clothes for when I die. I got a dark suit.	35:43
Kate Ellis	You do?	35:55
Baron Coleman	You see, ait it? And my casket is a black casket, bury me there.	35:55
Kate Ellis	Oh, okay. So, what's the name? It's Fletcher?	36:05
Baron Coleman	Yeah. You got the undertaker right on [indistinct 00:36:12].	36:08
Kate Ellis	Oh, Mr. Fletcher is the undertaker?	36:12
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	36:13
Kate Ellis	So, you belong to a benevolent society and the Council on Aging?	36:13
Baron Coleman	No.	36:19
Kate Ellis	Well, that's the place where I met you. I met you at the Council on Aging.	36:21
Baron Coleman	Who that?	36:25
Kate Ellis	That place that you go to, remember where we met? Do you remember where you and I met?	36:27
Baron Coleman	Where that was? On Walter Street?	36:33
Kate Ellis	Yes. That place. That's where I first met you.	36:37
Baron Coleman	Yeah. That's what I was telling you all about.	36:40
Kate Ellis	But before, okay.	36:42
Baron Coleman	Where that little Colored lady?	36:42
Kate Ellis	I don't know, what little Colored lady?	36:52
Baron Coleman	There y'all was three, huh?	36:54
Kate Ellis	Oh yeah, Michelle?	36:55
Baron Coleman	I don't know how they call her.	36:55
Kate Ellis	That's her name is Michelle.	36:59
Baron Coleman	Where she was from?	37:01
Kate Ellis	New Mexico. Yeah.	37:03
Baron Coleman	Well, wonder if they done left? Wonder if they done left out of town?	37:06
Kate Ellis	If who left out of town?	37:11
Baron Coleman	Huh?	37:12
Kate Ellis	If who left out of town?	37:13
Baron Coleman	That little lady.	37:14
Kate Ellis	My friend Michelle?	37:17
Baron Coleman	Uh-huh.	37:18
Kate Ellis	Who I came with?	37:18
Baron Coleman	Uh-huh.	37:19
Kate Ellis	She hasn't left town.	37:21
Baron Coleman	She's still in New Iberia?	37:22
Kate Ellis	Yeah. What? You want to meet her?	37:26
Baron Coleman	No, that don't say I want to meet her, I thought I never did seen her. I seen you twice, I believe you done came here twice or three times.	37:32
Kate Ellis	Three times.	37:38
Baron Coleman	Three times. Michelle, she was friendly.	37:39
Kate Ellis	She is friendly.	37:42
Baron Coleman	That little fell too. All of y'all was nice.	37:44
Kate Ellis	Well, maybe I'll bring Michelle by to say hi. Do you have any hobbies?	37:48
Baron Coleman	What?	37:54
Kate Ellis	Do you have any hobbies?	37:55
Baron Coleman	Hobby?	37:56
Kate Ellis	You know what a hobby is?	37:57
Baron Coleman	Uh-uh.	37:58
Kate Ellis	It's what you do for fun.	38:00
Baron Coleman	What I do for fun? Well, I have fun, sit on. I got some tape, religion tape. I got a VCR, put that on. If I did know you was coming I would put it to wind and play for you to see.	38:03
Kate Ellis	What is it? It's a tape of what? It's a religious tape that you'd show me?	38:23
Baron Coleman	Yeah. And I show you my pastor when he got married, him and his wife that big wedding you seem to dislike? Natural.	38:27
Kate Ellis	Really?	38:35
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	38:39
Kate Ellis	Happy together?	38:40
Baron Coleman	Yeah.	38:41
Kate Ellis	You were happy with your wife, huh?	38:43
Baron Coleman	Oh yeah. I had me a good wife. Yeah. As I come I wouldn't pick up any, I wouldn't pick up anything. No, I would be neat, clean. Don't want to knock around old woman half naked. All short clothes, I look like that lady stand up on the [indistinct 00:39:16].	38:44
Kate Ellis	So, women should wear more clothing?	39:18
Baron Coleman	Yeah. You better put a long dress.	39:21
Kate Ellis	Really?	39:24
Baron Coleman	Way in my time when I was coming up, you know what them girl will wear the dress?	39:24
Kate Ellis	What?	39:29
Baron Coleman	Way to the shoes. Couldn't see them knees.	39:30
Kate Ellis	You shouldn't see the knees?	39:35
Baron Coleman	Uh-uh.	39:36
Kate Ellis	Really?	39:37
Baron Coleman	That's too high. A person sit down, if you sit down, you got short pants if you sit down on a chair like that—	39:38
Kate Ellis	Oh, dear. Yeah. Well, I'll have to be careful about what I wear.	39:46
Baron Coleman	A person ought to live a decent life.	39:52
Kate Ellis	Yeah. Do you have any favorite saying? Do you have a favorite thing to say?	39:53
Baron Coleman	Like what?	40:08
Kate Ellis	I don't know. Something from the Bible that you think?	40:08
Baron Coleman	Well, I don't know how to read you see. I sit down with Christian people, I see on what I tell them and what they tell me, I know what they're talking about.	40:14
Kate Ellis	Yeah. All right. Well, I think I'm going to turn the tape off now.	40:30
Baron Coleman	Yeah. Well, you had that all the world that was—	40:31

Item Info

Title:

Baron Coleman interview recording, 1994 July 25

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r48g8ss45

Date:

July 25, 1994

Creator:

Coleman, Baron

Contributor:

Ellis, Kate

Description:

Name: Baron Coleman; Date of birth: 1900-12-28; Place of birth: Jefferson Island, LA; Occupation(s): agriculture; mason; Residence: New Iberia, LA
Informant ID: 616; Interviewed by: Kate Ellis.

Identifier:

RL00170-CS-1077
RL00170-CS-1078
af145d08-329f-49f0-aee8-6df08cef7b1c
behindtheveil
d087f060-a340-44f2-b4a4-9e47fb01395a
ark:/87924/r48g8ss45
d087f060-a340-44f2-b4a4-9e47fb01395a

Digital Collection:

Behind the Veil

Source Collection:

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

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Language:

English

Occupation:

Provenance:

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

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC 4.0

Rights Note:

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

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Baron Coleman interview recording, 1994 July 25

Transcript

Item Info

1. Baron Coleman administrative file, 1994

John Hope Franklin Research Center

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John Hope Franklin Research Center

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