Annie Conley interview recording, 1995 July 25

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Paul Ortiz	Mrs. Conley, can you tell me when you were born, and what community you grew up in?	0:00
Annie Williams Conley	I was born the 4th the 30th in 1929 on Roebuck plantation, and I grew up there. I stayed there until I was around—in the neighborhood— until I was about 14 years old. I went to school, and the first school I went to was at a church. It was St. John Church, and the name of the school's Oakwood School. We had to walk, had to carry our lunch, and I am the oldest of 13 children.	0:06
Paul Ortiz	So, you probably had a lot of responsibilities.	1:19
Annie Williams Conley	Yes I did, and I found Christ at the age of nine. And I also joined at St. John Missionary Baptist Church, where I went to school. That's where I joined the church.	1:21
Paul Ortiz	That's the church that you went to, Mrs. Conley?	1:44
Annie Williams Conley	Yes, mm-hmm (affirmative). That was the first church. We had to go to church on a wagon. We didn't have a car. And my father and my mother, they had, I think it was nine or ten children. He passed, and so she moved down to Itta Bena, stayed in Le Flore County on another plantation with her parents, her mother and father. And we stayed there until I was grown down on, they called it the 16th section. I stayed there until I was grown. And we went to school there. There was a school they called [indistinct 00:02:39] Chapel. We went there a while. Not very long, but we went there a while.	1:45
Paul Ortiz	Mrs. Conley, the Roebuck plantation, that was by or in Itta Bena?	2:48
Annie Williams Conley	No, Sidon. Sidon, Mississippi, mm-hmm (affirmative). It was Sidon, Mississippi. And our doctor, he lived at Sidon. We would've had to get in a boat to go across the river to the doctor if you want to get there soon, because we lived close to the river. So, we would get in that boat and go across the river to the doctor. My dad would go buy groceries, he would get in that boat and go down to Cruger to his parents. His parents lived at Cruger. His parents did, on Barnes Archers plantation.	2:53
Paul Ortiz	Mrs. Conley, what was the Black community like at Roebuck plantation?	3:40
Annie Williams Conley	Well, we did farm works, share crop. It didn't have any money. Didn't rent anything. It didn't have any rental money, so we did share cropping. And my mother and father would have to take the children to the field with them sometimes, picking cotton, watch the children out in the field. And sometimes, they would leave them at the house. Sometimes, they didn't have anybody to see by them. The little ones had to see about the little ones, and sometimes—I know once, my sister got sick, and she was having—She fell like she was having seizures, and I thought she was dying. So, I called my parents and told them that she was dying, and they'd come to see about it. And they had to go across the river. They didn't have a telephone, had to go across the river to get the doctor and bring him back. Had to go cross the river in the boat.	3:50
Annie Williams Conley	I guess he had a car. I don't know. I don't know, but it was so long, but it was very poor. We had to tow our water, cut wood and pick up chips. Had an iron stove to cook on, and we didn't have ice, refrigerators like people have now. On the 4th of July, my daddy would buy ice, and if—He had ice cream, he would make ice cream, have watermelons. He would always raise a good truck patch. He liked to raise foods. He'd run around, but he would see after us. He would get us food and clothes. He would do that. Mm-hmm (affirmative).	4:50
Paul Ortiz	Okay. Mrs. Conley, when you were growing up in that community, did Black families help each other when times were rough?	5:41
Annie Williams Conley	Yes, they would help each other when— If we got through chopping our cotton first, we'd go help them chopped their cotton. If we got through picking, we'd help them pick their cotton. So, that's the way they would do stuff like that. Mm-hmm (affirmative). And they weren't able to can vegetables like we do now. They would gather okra, and put them on a string, and let them dry on a string, and then in winter time, they would go back and get those okra, and cook those okras.	5:54
Annie Williams Conley	And we had dry peas. We would let the peas get dry, because just like I said, we couldn't can stuff like we do now, because we didn't have the things to do it with. And greens—They would try to have greens most of the year round. Well, they were—They were pretty—did them pretty good. So, we'd just go out and get the greens, and eat 'em when we got ready. But potatoes, they would gather those potatoes and make a bed for them. And potatoes, they would keep pretty good. Sweet potatoes, they would keep pretty good. Yes. And they would take the corn to their mill, and have it grind to get meal, but they'd buy the flour. I have taken corn to the mill myself.	6:30
Paul Ortiz	Mrs. Conley, what were your responsibilities on the farm growing up?	7:28
Annie Williams Conley	Well, I had to help pick cotton, had to nurse the children, had to help chop cotton. We didn't have the opportunity to go to school regularly like we should have, because we had to stay at home with the little ones, and had to help gather the crops. And if they didn't do it, the boss man would put our parents off the plantation if they didn't see to the children, help provide. I don't think that was fair.	7:30
Paul Ortiz	Mrs. Conley, what kind of people were these bosses?	8:08
Annie Williams Conley	Well, I didn't ever see him, but I would hear the name. This first boss man's name, I remember, was Mr. Young. That's the first name I remember. My daddy's boss man. And the next one was Mr. John Ashcraft, and they got electric lights. We used to have lamp lights. I think it was in the '30s when we was able to get electricity. I think it was in the '30s, in the late '30s that we were able to get electricity. And just like I said, we didn't know anything about a phone until we was good and grown. Mm-hmm (affirmative). There was a few—a few white peoples had phones, you know, that Black people could go to them and they would call who they wanted to call, but no Black peoples had no phones.	8:14
Paul Ortiz	Oh, okay, so it was hard to communicate.	9:19
Annie Williams Conley	Yes, mm-hmm (affirmative). We always had to write. Get on the wagon, and—That's the most way we had to travel.	9:23
Paul Ortiz	Mrs. Conley, when you were growing up on Roebuck plantation, what were the race relations like between, say, the white landowner and the—	9:33
Annie Williams Conley	It was Mr. So and So. and Ms. So and So. The white—We had to call the whites Mr. and Mrs. Even if their children was about middle teenage, we had to call them Mr. and Mrs. It wasn't no yes, and no, and mm-hmm (affirmative)'s. It's yes, ma'am, and no, sir. That's what we had to do.	9:45
Paul Ortiz	To teenagers?	10:10
Annie Williams Conley	Yes, teenage. Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yes.	10:10
Paul Ortiz	And Mrs. Conley, would they call you Mr. or Mrs—	10:10
Annie Williams Conley	Oh no, no. And they didn't hardly play with us. We was afraid to play with them.	10:23
Paul Ortiz	Mrs. Conley, earlier you were talking about, if the boss didn't like your work, then he could kick the Black families off of the plantation. Would any of the Black farmers ever talk about unfair conditions, or—	10:40
Annie Williams Conley	I didn't hear them. During that time, our parents, they didn't—When they were talking that business, we didn't get to hear too much about what they were saying. They didn't allow us to sit around and listen about the conversation too much, no.	11:05
Paul Ortiz	I see. Mrs. Conley, what was the first—What was your first time you saw the racial injustice or segregation? The first—What was your first experience with it?	11:19
Annie Williams Conley	Just before they start, when they were getting ready to start, they used to have mass meetings, and I used to go to those mass meetings. And white people would be at the church, around the church. I even had the opportunity to see a doctor up in Hopewell Church with a gun on a blue police suit. When he's supposed to have been a doctor caring for peoples, he was up in that church with a gun. I saw him myself. I won't call his name, but I saw him.	11:55
Paul Ortiz	Trying to scare people up in the meeting?	12:29
Annie Williams Conley	Yes, mm-hmm (affirmative). Mm-hmm (affirmative). And people would be going to that church, and a white man would be on the trunk of a car, and a white man would be on the hood of another car, and they would be parked close. And they felt like people would get afraid, and keep on by. Well, some of them would, but a lot of us didn't. I just went through them just like I owned the place, and I didn't—They didn't scare me. And I was made to move. In the early '60s, I was made to move off of plantation, because I wouldn't keep my children out of school, to nurse the little one, to chop that man's cotton, and I was made to move. And that's why I'm in town today. I moved. He asked me for his house, and I gave it to him, with pleasure.	12:29
Paul Ortiz	So, he actually tried to keep your children out of school?	13:23
Annie Williams Conley	Yes. See, he had my little children. Some of them was going to school, and he wanted me to keep them out of school and nurse—I had some, a lot of young children—wanted me to keep the big children out of school to nurse the little children, and wanted me to chop his cotton, but I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't do it. And I was in his house, and he wanted his house, and I gave it to him. Yes. Mm-hmm (affirmative).	13:24
Paul Ortiz	I see. Mrs. Conley, with all the rough working conditions, what kind of... How many months out of the year were you able to go to school to when you were growing up?	13:48
Annie Williams Conley	I went to school I'd say about six good months. About six good months. And we had to walk a long ways, and sometimes it would be cold, and bad, and had to get to the school, and make a fire in the school, and it just, it was sad.	14:00
Paul Ortiz	And Mrs. Conley, would the bosses do the same thing with your parents when they—Would the landowners try to keep the kids in the fields during that time?	14:24
Annie Williams Conley	Yes, because that's why I didn't get to go to school much, because I still had to stay at home to nurse my younger sisters and brother while my parents chopped and picked cotton. I would've had to stay at home. Mm-hmm (affirmative). Sure would.	14:45
Paul Ortiz	Mrs. Conley, did any stories or experiences that your grandparents had, did they—any of those pass down to you?	15:09
Annie Williams Conley	Yes. My great grandfather, one of my great grandfathers, my father's grandfather, was a slave. Mm-hmm (affirmative). I just heard he was a slave, but what they did to him, I don't know. I think he was sold. You know. Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yes. Sure was.	15:21
Paul Ortiz	Had he settled in this area after the end of slavery, or—?	15:53
Annie Williams Conley	All I know, they were out in the hills around Lexington and when I knew my father's people, they were living on Barnes Archer plantation around Cruger. And when I knew my mother's people, they were living on Roebuck plantation. Yes, yes.	15:56
Paul Ortiz	Mrs. Conley, when you were growing up, did any of the elders in the community talk about slavery times?	16:25
Annie Williams Conley	Yes. They talked about it, but just like I said, I didn't get to hear too much of it, because they didn't like children to listen to too much about what was being said. Mm-hmm (affirmative). But I can remember them talking about— In 1939, I remember them saying about a president. I don't know who was the president then, but I think they were pleased at who the president was, because their thing was getting better, because they would get a check they'd call a parity check. Yes.	16:35
Annie Williams Conley	And they would—It was the beginning of March, to go up and get a—What they called—an order to get groceries, and food and stuff, and they would pay for it at the end of the year. Sometimes, those share croppers would come out behind, sometimes they'd come out even, sometime they would clear a little bit, but it wasn't very much. They was overworked and underpaid. It wasn't fair.	17:22
Paul Ortiz	Mrs. Conley, when you were starting to get a little older, say, into your teenage years, what kinds of—Did you have an idea, or perhaps, were you thinking of moving out of this area, or were you thinking of settling down, or—?	17:59
Annie Williams Conley	I never did think of moving. I never have thought of moving, because I always have been very, very close to my mother, and my mother is still living. She is 86, and I'm 66, and I always liked to stay around my mother. I have a good mother. My father wasn't the best of fathers. He would provide for us, but he would run around. He had a lot of other extra womens, and—Mm-hmm (affirmative), yes. And I knew about it, and he had a lot of outside children. I knew about that. But after I got grown, I was hating my father until I got grown, and I realized that he was my father, and, you know. But it was too late to love him after he had passed, but I didn't care anything about him when he passed. I sure didn't.	18:26
Paul Ortiz	Mrs. Conley, what role did the church play on the Roebuck plantation, and was the church on the plantations?	19:25
Annie Williams Conley	Yes, the church was on the plantation. Well, they would go to church. They would go to church, but I've heard about—In the past, that the boss man didn't allow them to stay at church late at night, because they'd have to get up the next morning to go to the fields. He didn't allow them to stay at church later on a Sunday night. I've heard it. I don't know about it, but I heard that happened.	19:36
Paul Ortiz	But by the time you were growing up, Mrs. Conley, that wasn't the case, or—	20:05
Annie Williams Conley	No, it wasn't the case when I started. We stayed at church as long as we wanted to.	20:09
Paul Ortiz	Mrs. Conley, did your church have baptisms?	20:18
Annie Williams Conley	It was just a big old room with benches in it, lamps on the wall. Didn't have any—Outdoors restroom. We didn't have any of those facilities. Yes.	20:26
Paul Ortiz	Okay. Mrs. Conley, where would people go to get baptized?	20:40
Annie Williams Conley	In the river, to the river. That's where I got baptized, in the Yazoo River. Mm-hmm (affirmative).	20:47
Paul Ortiz	Mrs. Conley, now, I've seen pictures of a baptism, but I've never heard it described. Can you tell me what it was like, what it was like to be there, and—?	20:52
Annie Williams Conley	Well, it's a good feeling. You think about the Lord to save your soul, and—It's just a good feeling. And when I was baptized, it looked—When I went under the water, it just looked like I could just see gold under that water. Mm-hmm (affirmative). It feels good. It feels good. Sure do.	21:09
Paul Ortiz	Did a lot of people come to your baptism?	21:38
Annie Williams Conley	Yes, it'd always be a lot of people at a baptism. Always have been a lot of people. Mm-hmm (affirmative).	21:39
Paul Ortiz	Is there music? Do they—	21:48
Annie Williams Conley	Yes, they'd have just regular music, just regular singing, and have no music instruments, but the people would be shouting on that water, and—A lot of time I had to catch them and hold them to keep them from going in the water. When one of my children got baptized, they had to catch me. My second child. He had to catch me to keep me from going in there. Sure did. I felt good, and he was crying. I didn't know he was crying when they turned him around. I could see he was crying, and I wanted to go hug him. Yes. Sure did.	21:50
Paul Ortiz	Mrs. Conley, when did you—Do you remember the point when you became—Or when your parents, or when elders in the communities, what—At what point did they start treating you like an adult?	22:35
Annie Williams Conley	Well, both parents didn't have a chance to do it, because my father died when I was 14, I think, when my father died. And my mother went to her parents, and they helped her to raise us. But—And my grandmother, she was, she was kind of rough, and—She was a good lady, but she just didn't like no stuff. She had to work hard, is what I mean. We had to work hard. She believed in that hard working. We had to get up and get out there in that field, and go to chopping and picking cotton. We had that to do. And we had to tow the water, just like I said. Sometimes, it'd be cold, ice on the ground. We still had the tow the water from a distance. I'd say just about three blocks, we had to tow that water. And pump water was too bad to drink. Mm-hmm (affirmative).	22:56
Paul Ortiz	Mrs. Conley, was there—Do you remember seeing or hearing stories about racial violence against Black people by whites?	24:04
Annie Williams Conley	Oh, yes, yes, yes. I heard a lot of it. I heard a lot of many, many Black people who have got killed by whites. Racial violence, I've heard a lot of that. I remember, it was in the '60s, a young man. He was a nice looking young man, he was driving a truck. I don't know what happened, but I know he got killed. He got mobbed, sure did. Between here and— It'd have been in Greenwood. Mm-hmm (affirmative). Sure did. And I remember another young man, he was a 13 year old boy. They mobbed that boy, they just robbed him. It was just ridiculous. Emmett Till, you might have heard of it. Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yes.	24:17
Paul Ortiz	Yes, ma'am. 1955.	25:05
Annie Williams Conley	I think. Yes, it was something like that. Mm-hmm (affirmative), mm-hmm (affirmative).	25:05
Paul Ortiz	So, you were living—Where were you living when it happened?	25:14
Annie Williams Conley	I was living around Itta Bena, because my daddy died the 24th of December in '43, and then we moved to Itta Bena before he was buried. Moved around, out from Itta Bena.	25:18
Paul Ortiz	Mrs. Conley, what was your first reaction to learning about the death of Emmett Till?	25:36
Annie Williams Conley	It was real sad. It was really sad. To me, it was. It was really sad. I was young, but I discussed about it, talked about it to different ones. And I know two Black men that they said was in the—Helped to killing the man. I know those men. Yes, they helped got him out. I know them. They both are dead now, but I know them. And it hurts me now to think about that now. It hurts me. Mm-hmm (affirmative).	25:46
Paul Ortiz	How did the news first come to you that that had happened?	26:24
Annie Williams Conley	I don't know if it was in the newspaper, or we heard on the radio. We didn't have a TV during that time. I think we heard it on the radio. Heard it on the radio. Mm-hmm (affirmative).	26:27
Paul Ortiz	Mrs. Conley, was that an event that a lot of Black people in Itta Bena talked about?	26:36
Annie Williams Conley	Yes. A lot of Black people talked about it. They prayed about it, prayed for the family. You can step over there. Yes. A lot of times, something like that happens, something happens now, they'll go to a church, and go in and mourn for the different ones.	26:48
Speaker 1	Come in. Come in.	27:16
Annie Williams Conley	Come in. All right, how you, all right.	27:18
Paul Ortiz	So, Mrs. Conley, people—When that— When Emmett Till was murdered, people went to church, and prayed?	27:25
Annie Williams Conley	Mm-hmm (affirmative). For the family, mm-hmm (affirmative). But they was—They was very—They was—They did among the Black, they didn't—The white didn't know too much about what was being done, because they was afraid to let the whites know what they were doing. Yes, they was afraid.	27:30
Paul Ortiz	Oh, so they wouldn't tell the whites that they were praying about it?	27:54
Annie Williams Conley	Uh-uh (negative), uh-uh (negative). No. But a prayer didn't help him none but it would've helped his people to be strong, to help them to go through what had happened.	27:57
Paul Ortiz	Mrs. Conley, when you began raising your own family, did you move out of your parents' house, or were you still—	28:23
Annie Williams Conley	I moved out of my parents house, sure did.	28:33
Paul Ortiz	How old were you when you moved out?	28:42
Annie Williams Conley	I was 18—Yes. I was 18. I got married early—No, I'm sorry. I was 19 when I moved out. 19. Mm-hmm (affirmative).	28:42
Paul Ortiz	You were... Oh, and 19 when you were married?	28:52
Annie Williams Conley	Mm-hmm (affirmative). I married when I was 18, but I moved out just after I—Mm-hmm (affirmative).	28:54
Paul Ortiz	Mrs. Conley, how did you meet your husband?	29:05
Annie Williams Conley	I just met him. He was a farmer. I really shouldn't have met him. I really shouldn't have, because he wasn't about nothing. He drank, gambled, did all this stuff, and I wasn't exposed to none of that stuff, because I went to church. My parents brought me up in church. They didn't send me to church, they took me to church. Come in.	29:06
Paul Ortiz	Hi.	29:29
Speaker 2	Hi, how are you doing?	29:32
Paul Ortiz	Good, how about yourself?	29:32
Speaker 2	All right.	29:35
Annie Williams Conley	You're going to kill me, because I forgot to tell Joe what you said.	29:35
Speaker 2	Oh, [indistinct 00:29:42].	29:38
Annie Williams Conley	I don't have one right now, and we— [indistinct 00:29:48] he's interviewing me.	29:44
Speaker 2	[indistinct 00:29:49] by 5:30.	29:49
Annie Williams Conley	Okay, but what time is it now?	29:54
Speaker 2	Mid-afternoon. Do you want to [indistinct 00:30:02]?	30:00
Paul Ortiz	Yes, ma'am. Would you like to see— I have an extra—	30:01
Speaker 2	[indistinct 00:30:04].	30:04
Paul Ortiz	Yes, ma'am. It was interesting, I just—I didn't know that there was that paper or that article until the last person I went to and—	30:05
Paul Ortiz	Okay, Mrs. Conley, you were—	30:16
Annie Williams Conley	Okay. Now where we at then?	30:16
Paul Ortiz	Okay. You married, and then you moved out of your parents' house—	30:20
Annie Williams Conley	Yes, mm-hmm (affirmative). Yes, and I started raising—Well, I had one child out of wedlock. My first was out of wedlock. I had it before I got married. But after I got married, I moved out my parents' house. And we didn't stay together very long. We stayed together only four months. It was all four months. I got pregnant, and we separated, and I didn't see him anymore. The boy didn't meet his daddy until he was 42 years old, and the daddy didn't see the son. 42 years old. We thought he was dead. We didn't know what had happened, so we—They finally met each other.	30:24
Paul Ortiz	Okay. Mrs. Conley, when you got married, did you move to another plantation with your husband?	31:05
Annie Williams Conley	No, uh-uh (negative). We moved on the same plantation with my parents. Mm-hmm (affirmative). But I would visit up that way, up with his parents a little while. I didn't stay up there very long, just like I said, because we didn't stay together very long. We didn't move up there, we just visited up there a while.	31:16
Paul Ortiz	Oh, okay. So, but for those four months, you were still living on your parents' land?	31:31
Annie Williams Conley	Mm-hmm (affirmative). On the same plantation, they didn't have any land. Mm-hmm (affirmative).	31:39
Paul Ortiz	Okay. But you were living next to them—	31:46
Annie Williams Conley	Mm-hmm (affirmative), close to them, not far from them.	31:47
Paul Ortiz	Okay. Now, would that usually be true, Mrs. Conley? During those days, when a young couple married, would they usually settle down on the same plantation, or would they move?	31:50
Annie Williams Conley	Well, sometimes, they would move, and most times, they would settle down on the same plantation, most times they would. I know I did. Mm-hmm (affirmative), I know I did. And I had a sister get married after I got married, and she moved to the plantation. She moved up there at Schlater with her husband's peoples. That's right, he was living at Schlater. They moved up there. But just like I said, in most times, they were still—He would stay close to his parents, close to her parents, either one. It didn't—They didn't hardly go off too far. Mm-hmm (affirmative).	32:04
Paul Ortiz	Okay. So, Mrs. Conley, after, now, after you separated, now, this is getting on up to about the 1950s. What was life like for you and your family, and which plantation were you living on?	32:45
Annie Williams Conley	I was living on the 16th section, on the [indistinct 00:33:12] plantation. Well, I married again, about a year after, I married another man. I stayed with him eight years, and we separated. And I still didn't do any better. I just stayed with him a little longer. Yes.	33:06
Paul Ortiz	Married life was rough.	33:32
Annie Williams Conley	It sure was with me. Mm-hmm (affirmative). So, I've been single about 40 years, just about it.	33:33
Paul Ortiz	Mrs. Conley, earlier you told me about the experience you had when you, as a mother, refused to force your children to work in the cotton fields. You wanted them to go to school, but a land owner kicked you off. Was that in the early 1960s?	33:45
Annie Williams Conley	Yes, it was in the 1960s. It was '61 or '62, along in there somewhere.	34:05
Paul Ortiz	'61 or '62. And were there other—Did other share croppers make that decision? Were you helped by anybody to make that decision, or supported by any groups?	34:16
Annie Williams Conley	No. I just moved to town and worked for few white peoples, and I had it—It was hard, but I made it. It was hard, but I made it .And one of the white ladies that I worked for, she—I could sew, and she would give me some pants or something that she didn't want, and I'd take them, and cut them up, and make my little boy little suits and things, yes.	34:33
Paul Ortiz	And at that point, Mrs. Conley, were you still going to the same church?	35:01
Annie Williams Conley	Yes.	35:13
Paul Ortiz	St. John?	35:14
Annie Williams Conley	Mm-hmm (affirmative). No, I wasn't going to St. John. I moved my membership to New Jerusalem. It's still at New Jerusalem now. See, after my daddy died, we moved our membership.	35:14
Paul Ortiz	New Jerusalem?	35:29
Annie Williams Conley	Yes.	35:30
Paul Ortiz	A Baptist?	35:31
Annie Williams Conley	Right, Baptist.	35:32
Paul Ortiz	Mrs. Conley, did you—When you were working, now, you were working as a share cropper in the fifties?	35:36
Annie Williams Conley	Yes, mm-hmm (affirmative).	35:46
Paul Ortiz	Did you notice any changes in conditions between the way things were in the '50s and, say, the '30s?	35:48
Annie Williams Conley	Yes, they were different. Yes, they paid you a little more money, and they'd began to wait by the hours. Mm-hmm (affirmative), yes. Yes, they paid you a little more money. Didn't pay too much more, though. Paid a little more for picking, a little more for chopping. Mm-hmm (affirmative).	35:54
Paul Ortiz	Did you still, you still farmed on halves?	36:15
Annie Williams Conley	Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yes.	36:19
Paul Ortiz	Okay. But then, they'd started, later, they started paying you by the hour.	36:23
Annie Williams Conley	Yes, mm-hmm (affirmative).	36:26
Paul Ortiz	Okay.	36:26
Annie Williams Conley	I'll tell you, after my husband—After me and my husband separated, I did not, I didn't try to do no share cropping. I just would work by the day. That's what I did, I worked by the day then after we separated. Sure did.	36:26
Paul Ortiz	Mrs. Conley, when you moved to town, did you—Were you involved at any point in any civil rights activities?	36:49
Annie Williams Conley	Yes, I would go to mass meetings. Yes, I would go to those meetings. Sure did. Yes. And I got a job in '65, I believe, working in the Head Start program, and that's where I worked until I retired. Mm-hmm (affirmative).	37:01
Paul Ortiz	As an educator?	37:21
Annie Williams Conley	Yes.	37:23
Paul Ortiz	Okay. So, that Head Start came out of the movement activities?	37:23
Annie Williams Conley	Yes, mm-hmm (affirmative).	37:34
Paul Ortiz	Mrs. Conley, I know I told you I wouldn't keep you very long. Just a few more questions.	37:53
Annie Williams Conley	Okay.	37:59
Paul Ortiz	When you were—Say, in the 1950s, did you or—Well, now, your children were going to school later. Could you tell me the difference between the educational opportunities your children have compared to the opportunities that you had?	38:05
Annie Williams Conley	Ooh, it's so much more different now. My children, I'm so proud of my children. They all had a chance to go to school. All of them didn't go to college, but I think they all finished high school, I think. I think they all finished high school. But now, it could have—It wasn't my fault. You know how children just get managed, and stray away, and just play hooky from school. That's what happened. And I had one to caught himself, getting going, and got into a little trouble. That's why he didn't finish college, but the younger children— I had one who was sick. My youngest— I mean, my oldest daughter. She was ill. She couldn't finish school, she was ill.	38:31
Annie Williams Conley	But my youngest daughter, she finished high school, went to college. She was the val, that means she was the highest one that graduated that year. And after that, she went to Southern University at Carbondale, Illinois, and she got her masters, so now she's teaching at Grambling. Mm-hmm (affirmative). And after you work so many years, you go back to school, so she's still teaching and still in school at Grambling, she's going back. And she said—And later, yes, she's going to get her doctor's degree. Now, she is very smart. Now, the girl that came through here, she's smart. She finished high school, she finished college, but she's a secretary at LeFlore school. Yes. But most of my children grabbed that opportunity. Mm-hmm (affirmative). And most of them did.	39:19
Paul Ortiz	Mrs. Conley, if you were—If somebody asked you—Say, it was a Black History Week at a local school, you were asked to come and talk to the children about your most important, the experiences that influenced you the most, what would those experiences be? And then, what would you also tell them? What would you say to them?	40:33
Annie Williams Conley	Well, I didn't get very far in school myself, but I would encourage them to go to school, because times now is not like it was back there, and I believe it's going to be worse in the future. You're going to really need to know. You're going to really need to know. And I would encourage them to go to school, because— I always did tell my children, school and church is the best place that you can go. And I don't—I never did allow my children to drink, or smoke. If they smoked, they slipped and did it. See, I don't smoke, I don't dip, I don't drink. I don't do any of that stuff, and I am a Christian. I'm a child of God.	41:06
Annie Williams Conley	And I always taught them about the Bible. I never believed in getting a whole lot of old, funny, comedy books, and teaching them things about that. I believe in taking them to Sunday school like my parents did me, and taking them to church, because they don't go like I did. But it ain't because they don't know to go, because I'm sure teaching them to go. But my youngest daughter, she goes good. She goes real good. Now, she's out there, she has a membership here, and she's living out there. And so, she joined a church out there, too. She has a membership in two places. Mm-hmm (affirmative), yes. Mm-hmm (affirmative). Oh, this is always home for her. She's not married. And never has been. Neither one of my daughters married.	41:59
Paul Ortiz	Mrs. Conley, two more questions. When a share cropper would get in debt and was trying to get out, or, say, couldn't get out, what would they do in this area?	42:57
Annie Williams Conley	Most of the time, they would find somebody else to move with, and borrow money. And a lot of times, they'd be left in the same shape, or worse. Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yes.	43:15
Paul Ortiz	Could a share cropper escape from that somehow, or—	43:24
Annie Williams Conley	Well, I heard tell of escaping, but it is hard to do, because it's a— Long in that time, they didn't hardly have nowhere to—No way to go nowhere. Sometimes, I've known, I've heard tell that people's coming and getting somebody in the night on an old truck, because I had some parents to—My daddy's brother had a brother. They did like Beverly Hillbillies. They loaded up, and went to Los Angeles, California in '36, I believe. Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yes.	43:36
Annie Williams Conley	But they wasn't escaping from nobody, they just went out there. Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yes. See, my daddy— mama father was a—He was minister and he had a little money, and his daddy had a little money. I don't know how he'd come by the money, but—And that made the children get a little small start. But my daddy, he was always a share cropper. I guess he had to spread his money among too many women to— [laughs] Yes. I guess that's what happened to him.	44:18
Paul Ortiz	Mrs. Conley, what—Through all of the struggles that you've had, what have been the things that have inspired you the most to make it through all the hard times, and continue to reach your goals, and—?	45:01
Annie Williams Conley	Well, I would've liked to have gone to school, to learn more than I did. It would've helped me out in so many ways, because there's so many—We had to go—Get our GED, and several things we had to go do. And I could have—Would've had the opportunity to make more money. I could have provided more for my family if I had known more than I'd known. That's one reason why I talk to them, because they're all grown now, but—And anything my children needed in school, I worked for it, and I got it for them. Music instruments, anything, they wanted to be in the band, anything they wanted to be in, I said, "Okay," because I want them to be happy, and I wanted to be happy for them. Mm-hmm (affirmative). And I felt like, if I did what they, got them what they wanted, I felt like that would encourage them to go on and be more than, you know. So I did my best for them, and still do the best I can for my grands. Mm-hmm (affirmative).	45:20

Item Info

Title:

Annie Conley interview recording, 1995 July 25

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4qc06f15

Date:

July 25, 1995

Creator:

Conley, Annie Williams

Contributor:

Ortiz, Paul

Description:

Name: Annie Williams Conley; Date of birth: 1929-04-30; Place of birth: LeFlore Co., MS; Occupation(s): educator; Head Start teacher; farm laborer; Residence: Itta Bena, MS

Identifier:

RL00170-CS-0737
4738ce27-aadc-40f3-beda-dbc8d327de90
behindtheveil
f6057ed1-955d-41b8-9f75-acaa1bf0d14a
ark:/87924/r4qc06f15
f6057ed1-955d-41b8-9f75-acaa1bf0d14a

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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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Language:

English

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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.

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Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC 4.0

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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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Annie Conley interview recording, 1995 July 25

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1. Annie Conley administrative file, 1995

John Hope Franklin Research Center

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John Hope Franklin Research Center

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