William Zepherin interview recording, 1994 August 02

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Felix Armfield	Today is August the second, 1994. I'm Felix Armfield, the interviewer, and I'm about to interview Mr. William Zepherin at the Azalea Villa Nursing Home in New Iberia, Louisiana. Mr. Zepherin, would you state your full name for the record, please?	0:05
William Zepherin	William Zepherin.	0:23
Felix Armfield	Mr. Zepherin, how long have you lived here in New Iberia?	0:26
William Zepherin	All my life I lived in Loreauville.	0:29
Felix Armfield	In the Loreauville area?	0:30
William Zepherin	Right. L-O-R-E-A-U-V-I-L-L-E.	0:30
Felix Armfield	Okay.	0:30
William Zepherin	That's home for me.	0:41
Felix Armfield	When were born there in Loreauville?	0:43
William Zepherin	I was born February the eighth, 1932.	0:43
Felix Armfield	February the eighth, 1932, you were born there in Loreauville.	0:49
William Zepherin	That's right.	0:49
Felix Armfield	Were your parents from Loreauville?	0:49
William Zepherin	Yeah.	0:55
Felix Armfield	They were born and raised there, in the Loreauville area?	0:56
William Zepherin	No, they wasn't born. My mama was from West Virginia and my father was from Loreauville.	0:58
Felix Armfield	Okay. But your mother was out of West Virginia?	1:04
William Zepherin	Yeah.	1:06
Felix Armfield	When you were a youngster, what do you recall your parents did? What did they do for a living?	1:07
William Zepherin	They farmed.	1:11
Felix Armfield	They farmed? What kind of farming did they do, Mr. Zepherin.	1:12
William Zepherin	They had sugar cane and corn.	1:21
Felix Armfield	Sugar cane and corn?	1:22
William Zepherin	Mm-hmm.	1:22
Felix Armfield	Now that sugar caning process, did you, in fact, do sugar caning?	1:22
William Zepherin	Mm-hmm.	1:22
Felix Armfield	What was that process like? How did you grow sugar cane, how did you crop sugar cane, and how did you harvest it?	1:23
William Zepherin	You had to get up all day in the morning. You raised that with mules, at that time.	1:43
Felix Armfield	Okay.	1:43
William Zepherin	Had to buy a mule. We had to work them all day until it's night and bring them home and feed them, take their harness off and feed them. Then just first thing in the morning, next day around five o'clock, go back and hitch them up again.	1:43
Felix Armfield	Okay.	2:02
William Zepherin	And you're going back to work again til it's dark. Dusk, dawn. You would come home about twelve, you know what I mean? Get your meals. You got to go back.	2:05
Felix Armfield	Okay, okay.	2:14
William Zepherin	That was at home. That was at home. Now when people would hire you, they were worse than that.	2:15
Felix Armfield	Now when they would hire you, how were the conditions worse?	2:24
William Zepherin	One guy I worked for, he had four mules. He had two for the morning and two for the afternoon.	2:30
Felix Armfield	So he wouldn't work the mules to death?	2:38
William Zepherin	No, he wouldn't.	2:38
Felix Armfield	But you went the morning and afternoon.	2:38
William Zepherin	Right.	2:38
Felix Armfield	Isn't that interesting?	2:38
William Zepherin	Yeah.	2:38
Felix Armfield	Now—	2:38
William Zepherin	And you see, you had so many acres to do.	2:38
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm. How were the mules important to the process?	2:38
William Zepherin	Oh, man.	2:38
Felix Armfield	What did they do?	2:38
William Zepherin	I had to raise two mules. The last two were in the afternoon. One was put on kind of put on twisted, you know?	3:00
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm.	3:04
William Zepherin	He was like crock necked.	3:04
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.	3:05
William Zepherin	And the other one walked so fast, God dang to hell, man, you had to run to keep up with that plow.	3:08
Felix Armfield	Really?	3:13
William Zepherin	Oh, yeah.	3:15
Felix Armfield	So they was swift mules?	3:16
William Zepherin	Oh, definitely.	3:16
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm.	3:16
William Zepherin	I don't know if he had them trained or what, but I guarantee you, after you made a day's of work with them mules there, you made a day's work.	3:18
Felix Armfield	And you had to walk behind them with the plow?	3:23
William Zepherin	Oh, yeah. You had to hold that plow and walk behind them.	3:23
Felix Armfield	Now what were you plowing?	3:23
William Zepherin	I was plowing that sugar cane.	3:23
Felix Armfield	You were plowing the sugar cane?	3:23
William Zepherin	Yeah.	3:23
Felix Armfield	And you plowed it with a mule, walking behind those mules?	3:23
William Zepherin	With two mules, yeah.	3:37
Felix Armfield	Really? And you had to walk behind them all day?	3:39
William Zepherin	Oh, yeah. Definitely.	3:41
Felix Armfield	Isn't that something?	3:45
William Zepherin	Mm-hmm.	3:46
Felix Armfield	And you would do that from sun up to sun down?	3:47
William Zepherin	Sometimes on Sunday, Saturday and Sunday, too.	3:53
Felix Armfield	Was this when you were there at home or when you were hired out?	3:55
William Zepherin	When they hired out.	4:02
Felix Armfield	Now, were you hired out in the Loreauville area?	4:02
William Zepherin	Yeah.	4:02
Felix Armfield	Or pretty much work most of the time right there in the Loreauville area?	4:05
William Zepherin	I used to work for Zenon Bouille.	4:08
Felix Armfield	Zenot Booty?	4:08
William Zepherin	Yeah.	4:08
Felix Armfield	Okay. Now when you said that your parents worked in sugar cane, what exactly did they do?	4:21
William Zepherin	They growed all kind of crops, like peanuts. It wasn't much, a couple of rows, but there was enough for the family all year, you know?	4:29
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm.	4:42
William Zepherin	Then we've always had our own hogs and everything, our pigs. We had meat for the whole year.	4:50
Felix Armfield	Okay. I see.	4:52
William Zepherin	Our cattle and stuff like that, you know?	4:54
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm. So did y'all own your own home?	4:59
William Zepherin	Oh, yeah. Definitely.	5:02
Felix Armfield	Owned your own house?	5:02
William Zepherin	Oh, yeah.	5:02
Felix Armfield	So therefore, you weren't sharecroppers?	5:04
William Zepherin	Oh, no. No, no.	5:05
Felix Armfield	You were working—	5:07
William Zepherin	No, no. My grandfather was the only Black that kept his name.	5:16
Felix Armfield	In Loreauville?	5:16
William Zepherin	In Loreauville.	5:16
Felix Armfield	Now when you say he was the only Black that—	5:16
William Zepherin	Only Black.	5:16
Felix Armfield	Were there other Blacks who had land and lost it?	5:16
William Zepherin	Oh, yeah. Loreauville wasn't for the Black. Loreauville wasn't for Black men.	5:16
Felix Armfield	Okay, okay.	5:16
William Zepherin	They lost their land by buying the mule and this here and that there. They needed it because they got to have it to make that crop, you see?	5:26
Felix Armfield	Yeah, yeah	5:38
William Zepherin	Then when go to pay, they've always got to pay more for that mule than what they anticipated, you see?	5:40
Felix Armfield	Oh, I see.	5:44
William Zepherin	See, let's say you bought this mule today. You might sell it to you for seventy dollars. When you go to pay, you owe a hundred and fifty dollars. You understand?	5:50
Felix Armfield	Okay, okay, okay.	5:59
William Zepherin	But you couldn't kick back at the time. You ain't had nobody to fight for you.	6:02
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm.	6:06
William Zepherin	You couldn't fight for yourself because he did it from back of that desk, it's not so bad. You see? Get you out of his office say you didn't want to pay him, you see? That's used to play that in Loreauville.	6:07
Felix Armfield	And do a lot of Black people lose out like that, Mr. Zepherin?	6:25
William Zepherin	Mm-hmm. Oh, yeah. For 1927—	6:27
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm.	6:28
William Zepherin	—they had some guys staying way in the back, he was low, you know? The Vitor family.	6:36
Speaker 1	Felix, excuse me. You have a phone call.	6:37
Felix Armfield	Okay. Hold on. [INTERRUPTION 00:06:53]	6:53
Felix Armfield	Okay, Mr. Zepherin, you were saying? Now, what were you talking about? You were talking about in 1927 and something.	6:53
William Zepherin	About losing their land.	6:56
Felix Armfield	Yeah. They lost the land oftentimes because of the high rent cost of renting the mules?	7:01
William Zepherin	No, they bought the mules, you see?	7:07
Felix Armfield	They bought the mules?	7:08
William Zepherin	But that man they bought them with always would come up with a different price than what he told them when they bought it.	7:11
Felix Armfield	Okay.	7:17
William Zepherin	You see, a guy would leave Loreauville, a man named Jack Brooks, a White guy I know in New Iberia, was the seller of the mules, you see?	7:19
Felix Armfield	Okay.	7:30
William Zepherin	And you—	7:30
Felix Armfield	So it was like a big mule farm in New Iberia?	7:30
William Zepherin	Yeah. He sold the mules. Any time you need a mule you had to go to Jack Brooks.	7:37
Felix Armfield	Okay.	7:43
William Zepherin	In 1927, that lower land, the Vitor was staying on it. They had their own property, too.	7:44
Felix Armfield	The Vit?	7:51
William Zepherin	The Vitor.	7:57
Felix Armfield	Vitor?	7:57
William Zepherin	Yeah. Vitor, it's whatever.	7:57
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm.	7:57
William Zepherin	And they had to go to camp for high water.	8:03
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm.	8:04
William Zepherin	And that water got up so high, so high. Well, you see, just before they left, they had bought a mule. When they came back the mule was gone. I don't know if some of them people went pick it up or what or it just died. You know?	8:07
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm.	8:25
William Zepherin	But the mule wasn't in no position to die, you know?	8:25
Felix Armfield	Yeah.	8:28
William Zepherin	They were fat and everything else. The high water didn't last that long, you know?	8:28
Felix Armfield	Yeah, yeah.	8:34
William Zepherin	Not for a animal to die. Because I seen myself take a calf from water, way back to the woods back there and slowly to the bayou. On the bayou side was high. I mean, it was high, and it didn't die.	8:35
Felix Armfield	Yeah, yeah.	8:54
William Zepherin	It was our best milk cow, man. Oh, yeah. But you did lost twenty-seven acres of land behind that mule. Twenty-seven acres.	8:55
Felix Armfield	That's a quite a bit of acres to be losing.	9:15
William Zepherin	Yeah. That's what they made the agreement on. They made the agreement on—	9:15
Felix Armfield	And these were Black families that lost?	9:25
William Zepherin	Yeah, yeah.	9:25
Felix Armfield	There in Loreauville.	9:25
William Zepherin	Yeah.	9:25
Felix Armfield	Really? How much schooling did you receive, Mr. Zepherin?	9:29
William Zepherin	I went to through eleventh grade.	9:31
Felix Armfield	You went through the eleventh grade?	9:34
William Zepherin	Yeah.	9:35
Felix Armfield	And that was there, in Loreauville?	9:40
William Zepherin	Mm-hmm. Uh-huh.	9:43
Felix Armfield	And was the name of—Where?	9:43
William Zepherin	Loreauville didn't taught no further than fifth, no.	9:48
Felix Armfield	Loreauville only taught fifth for Black children?	9:50
William Zepherin	Yeah.	9:51
Felix Armfield	And where did you go then?	9:52
William Zepherin	New Iberia.	9:55
Felix Armfield	You came in to New Iberia?	9:55
William Zepherin	Yes. Iberia Parish Training School.	9:57
Felix Armfield	Okay. How did you get in to New Iberia?	9:58
William Zepherin	On the bus.	10:00
Felix Armfield	So a bus was carrying you?	10:02
William Zepherin	Yeah, Peg.	10:03
Felix Armfield	You had to pay?	10:05
William Zepherin	No, Peg was picking us up, a guy name Peg.	10:06
Felix Armfield	Peg? Okay.	10:06
William Zepherin	Mm-hmm.	10:06
Felix Armfield	And was this a state school bus he was using or he was providing the transportation?	10:15
William Zepherin	No. He had a bus personally, you know.	10:21
Felix Armfield	Oh, okay. An this was something I've heard that might've been typical to the Black community?	10:23
William Zepherin	Oh, yeah. Definitely.	10:28
Felix Armfield	That they would provide their own school—	10:29
William Zepherin	I was of the first ones they went.	10:31
Felix Armfield	You were one of the first ones—	10:32
William Zepherin	You see, that bus came about maybe five days.	10:34
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm.	10:38
William Zepherin	And I was on it, back on it.	10:40
Felix Armfield	Really?	10:42
William Zepherin	Before the Black people started it and the children go on the bus.	10:43
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm. To come into New Iberia at the same time. And you completed the 11th grade?	10:44
William Zepherin	Yeah.	10:44
Felix Armfield	And what religion was the family, Mr. Zepherin?	10:44
William Zepherin	Baptist.	10:56
Felix Armfield	You were Baptist people. Were your mother and father active in the church?	10:57
William Zepherin	Oh, yes. Oh, definitely.	11:01
Felix Armfield	Really?	11:02
William Zepherin	Oh, yeah. They used to make us go to church back forty sometime, wash our feet, grease them. And we would go sit up in the front, too.	11:03
Felix Armfield	With no shoes on?	11:11
William Zepherin	No shoes. No shoes at all. We couldn't afford it, just couldn't afford no shoes.	11:12
Felix Armfield	So you'd make certain—	11:19
William Zepherin	Man, I was eighteen years old before I wore my first pair of shoes of my own.	11:19
Felix Armfield	You were eighteen years old before you owned your own pair of shoes?	11:26
William Zepherin	Right. See, when I'd go work and get paid, I used to come put the money on the bed and let my mama give me fifty cents to go to the store. You see?	11:36
Felix Armfield	I see.	11:41
William Zepherin	And you'd go to the store on a Saturday. All them White people would stack up—they had in that store, George Andrews store, it had a porch.	11:57
Felix Armfield	George Andrews?	12:09
William Zepherin	Right. And all them White people and them White lady would come there. And you'd be walking down to the street going onto the shore. And if they their policeman over there, named Leo.	12:10
Felix Armfield	Leo?	12:23
William Zepherin	Yeah. He'd come there with that Billy, pushing you on the side, "Get out of the way, nigger. Get out of the way, nigger."	12:27
Felix Armfield	So they'd make certain that you got out of the way so these White people could down the sidewalk?	12:31
William Zepherin	Yeah, so White people could.	12:34
Felix Armfield	So what happened if you didn't move?	12:35
William Zepherin	Didn't move? He'd break your head.	12:43
Felix Armfield	Really?	12:43
William Zepherin	Oh, yeah.	12:43
Felix Armfield	So they just—	12:43
William Zepherin	I know some people he'd bust right in the head. He'd slap a girl in—where you get your mail at—post office.	12:43
Felix Armfield	At the post office the police slapped the Black girl. Why did he slap the Black girl?	12:59
William Zepherin	She was getting her mail, you know?	13:04
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm.	13:07
William Zepherin	Oh, they didn't have to have no reason to do what they wanted to do to you. They'd do whatever they wanted, without no reason.	13:08
William Zepherin	Mm-mm.	13:15
Felix Armfield	So he really didn't have any reason—	13:28
William Zepherin	No.	13:30
Felix Armfield	—for particularly slapping the Black woman in the post office, just felt like slapping her?	13:31
William Zepherin	But you know something? My character caught if it would've been my sister, I believe I would've killed him.	13:35
Felix Armfield	That day in the post office?	13:42
William Zepherin	Oh, yeah. I would've killed him.	13:43
Felix Armfield	What happened that day in the post office, Mr. Zepherin?	13:44
William Zepherin	Oh, let me see. She had Marshall, Harry, [indistinct 00:13:48]. She had four brothers, they didn't do . Now then the guy, after I stopped—	13:47
Felix Armfield	Did you know the woman that was slapped?	14:01
William Zepherin	Oh, yeah. Agnes Anthony.	14:02
Felix Armfield	Agnes who?	14:03
William Zepherin	Anthony.	14:03
Felix Armfield	Anthony? Okay.	14:09
William Zepherin	A-N-T-H-O-N-Y. And let me tell you this. After I got out of the farm, I went and worked for a guy, he had a '47 pickup. We were like brothers, man. We weren't, but we were like brothers.	14:09
Felix Armfield	What kind of work were you doing?	14:37
William Zepherin	I was doing plumbing work.	14:39
Felix Armfield	Plumbing?	14:39
William Zepherin	I was plumbing for Standard Oil. You see, we used to run to Baton Rouge and do some plumbing and we'd come back home. And sometime, I used to drive that eighteen-wheeler, deliver gas. I used to take that eighteen-wheeler out of Baton Rouge and bring it to Loreauville and service station, you see, with gas. It was the first time I got a paid job.	14:41
Felix Armfield	And when did you start doing that job? About what time was it?	15:14
William Zepherin	Oh, it must've been when around '43, '44.	15:14
Felix Armfield	Did you serve in World War II?	15:14
William Zepherin	No.	15:16
Felix Armfield	You didn't go to the war?	15:16
William Zepherin	No.	15:16
Felix Armfield	What happened? You didn't get drafted into the war?	15:18
William Zepherin	Well now, you see, I was still working with Zenon at the time the war started.	15:20
Felix Armfield	For—	15:28
William Zepherin	For that guy had a mule, I tell you that though.	15:28
Felix Armfield	Okay, okay.	15:28
William Zepherin	He was pretty close to about family. He always give us a break.	15:37
Felix Armfield	So he, for the most part, saw to it that you didn't have to go to the war?	15:42
William Zepherin	Yeah, they call that defer.	15:43
Felix Armfield	Okay. So what did—	15:43
William Zepherin	I didn't even know I got that. After I registered, he deferred me before anything happened, questionnaire or anything. He told me that, too. He said, "I ain't going to let you go to war, man." He said, "People are dying up there." You see, that's what war for, See how you can kill or how many can be killed. I went to the Korean War.	15:52
Felix Armfield	So it sounds like there were many White land owners who could have Black workers on their farms deferred from the draft?	16:24
William Zepherin	Yeah, but they didn't though. They had a sheriff here in New Iberia. You see, Loreauville was in Iberia Parish. His name was Ozenne?	16:40
Felix Armfield	Ozenne?	16:47
William Zepherin	Yeah. You see, the deputy, they had some from Loreauville, Olivier, and all over. They had some men working for them. They say, "No, I want this nigger here, I don't want him to go to the war." Well, the sheriff would go to the local board and tell them that, he wouldn't go. Now, if he didn't like you—And they used to draft from eighteen to forty-five. My next door neighbor was forty-seven when they took him in service.	16:54
Felix Armfield	Forty-seven years old and they sent him to the war?	17:36
William Zepherin	Oh, yeah. He was forty-seven.	17:41
Felix Armfield	Why would they do that?	17:42
William Zepherin	Because they didn't like him. If he had something to tell you, he'd tell. He didn't give a damn whether you were White, Black, gray or grizzled. (Armfield laughs) But that's the way he was, you know?	17:46
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm. And they didn't like him because he spoke his mind?	17:53
William Zepherin	Uh-huh. And he walked with a gun in his pocket all the time. I remember one day, he and I was coming from Loreauville walking here, and the sheriff himself, he stopped boss. He said, "Come here, nigger, I want to talk to you." He said, "I heard you say you pack a gun?" Mayeux said, "You damn right I pack one." And that's the way he spoke to him, yeah. He said, "Now if you keep messing with me," he said, "I'm going to use it on you." He said, "If you don't believe I would," he got out of his car now. Well, he would slap the piss out of him.	17:57
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm.	18:37
William Zepherin	And Mayeux was a big man. I mean he slapped him, backhand slapped him. He knocked him down.	18:42
Felix Armfield	He slapped the White man?	18:45
William Zepherin	Oh, yeah, he slapped him.	18:45
Felix Armfield	What happened to him?	18:45
William Zepherin	Nothing, not a thing. Now he told him, he said, "Now go get your deputy." He said, "The more y'all come, the more they're going to bury." He said, "You believe I'm joking," he said, "you go get them." That deputy from Loreauville came meet Mayeux that night. He said, "Mayeux, I heard that you and my boys had something." Mayeux said, "Get back in your car and get out my yard." And he did that, too, yeah, man. He ain't even start. He heard it, too, though. Oh, yeah.	18:48
Felix Armfield	So it sounds like neighbor friend of yours was quite a known man in—	19:23
William Zepherin	Oh, yeah. He was known, he was known. And, too—	19:30
Felix Armfield	But it's interesting that none of them tried to kill him.	19:31
William Zepherin	Oh, no. You see, they wasn't killing in them days. I remember they'd fight, cut each other up, some—	19:34
Felix Armfield	Now when was this.	19:39
William Zepherin	Stab each—	19:39
Felix Armfield	In the '40s?	19:39
William Zepherin	Yeah, it was around the '40s.	19:42
Felix Armfield	Okay. Just before the war.	19:43
William Zepherin	Yeah.	19:43
Felix Armfield	I see.	19:43
William Zepherin	But he told Mayeux, he said, "I'll see that you leave here." Three weeks after, Mayeux was drafted.	19:51
Felix Armfield	Did he return from the war?	19:56
William Zepherin	Yeah. Oh, yeah.	19:57
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So they have a way of keeping you away from the draft—	19:59
William Zepherin	Yeah.	20:10
Felix Armfield	—if they wanted you—	20:10
William Zepherin	If they wanted.	20:12
Felix Armfield	—to continue working for them—	20:14
William Zepherin	Yeah.	20:14
Felix Armfield	—and they liked you, so to speak.	20:14
William Zepherin	Yeah.	20:14
Felix Armfield	And if they didn't particularly like you or they weren't too fond of you, they had a way of seeing to it—	20:14
William Zepherin	You were the first one to go.	20:18
Felix Armfield	—that they got rid of—	20:20
William Zepherin	Oh, yeah.	20:21
Felix Armfield	They probably saw to it they put you on the front lines.	20:21
William Zepherin	Oh, yeah, definitely. Now, I know three guys that went and didn't come back.	20:23
Felix Armfield	Really?	20:29
William Zepherin	Three weeks after they got there, they send their parents a letter that they had got missing in action. Mm-hmm. Yeah.	20:30
Felix Armfield	So the family received letters of three men you knew, Black men from the military—	20:43
William Zepherin	Yeah, and one—	21:00
Felix Armfield	—that were missing in action.	21:01
William Zepherin	One family, they got a lieutenant or captain and master sergeant. Well, I didn't know that at the time what their rank was, but after I went in the service, I start—you know?	21:02
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm.	21:16
William Zepherin	They came and then two weeks after—Now you see, some Black people couldn't read, they'd call somebody like me to read the letter if their kids could get a letter, you know?	21:23
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm.	21:33
William Zepherin	And things like that. I read a lot of them people letters. You know?	21:33
Felix Armfield	Yeah.	21:39
William Zepherin	This old lady, she used to stay by us. Now you know that I told you they drafted? He was living with him and his momma together.	21:42
Felix Armfield	And I thought the situation was—	21:51
William Zepherin	That old lady was about seventy years old. She had to live by herself.	21:54
Felix Armfield	I thought that was the—	21:57
William Zepherin	We used to go sleep—	21:58
Felix Armfield	—case where they didn't draft you if you were an only child living with your parents.	21:58
William Zepherin	Well, no, that was the case.	22:04
Felix Armfield	But in his case—	22:04
William Zepherin	But not here, in Louisiana.	22:04
Felix Armfield	Oh.	22:04
William Zepherin	They did what they wanted in Louisiana. They had to draft both.	22:09
Felix Armfield	And when you say, "They did what they wanted," you mean White folks here?	22:13
William Zepherin	Oh, yeah. They did what they wanted, man.	22:16
Felix Armfield	Really?	22:17
William Zepherin	Mm-hmm. Hell, yeah.	22:17
Felix Armfield	And so what happened to his mother at the time, when he was drafted?	22:25
William Zepherin	Well, you see, we took turn to go sleep over there.	22:34
Felix Armfield	To make certain that someone was with her?	22:34
William Zepherin	Yeah, with her. She had two granddaughters and my brother and I, we used to go over there.	22:34
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm. To make certain that someone was with her.	22:48
William Zepherin	Mm-hmm. And her son called, I mean, he wrote and asked, "Momma, how you been doing?" She said, "Fine." She said, "Them children staying with me and I'm doing all right."	22:48
Felix Armfield	All right.	22:56
William Zepherin	Yeah.	22:57
Felix Armfield	So the community certainly took care of his mother.	22:59
William Zepherin	Yeah. And she used killed hogs, but big hogs, oh, standing that high man, weighing four and five hundred pounds.	23:02
Felix Armfield	Whoa, that's a big hog.	23:10
William Zepherin	My mom always sent us over with a whole shoulder of meat to bring to that old lady. Oh, yeah.	23:15
Felix Armfield	To make certain she was well taken care of?	23:22
William Zepherin	Yeah. She'd cook till her son came back. She wouldn't miss a meal to cook it. Oh, she'd cook all three meals a day.	23:26
Felix Armfield	Yeah, yeah. You said that you served in the Korean War.	23:38
William Zepherin	Mm-hmm.	23:45
Felix Armfield	When did you go? Were drafted into the Korean War?	23:45
William Zepherin	Yeah, but sort of like drafted.	23:48
Felix Armfield	Okay. And what year did you go in?	23:54
William Zepherin	I went in 1952.	23:59
Felix Armfield	1952, you went to the Korean War?	23:59
William Zepherin	Yeah.	23:59
Felix Armfield	What branch of the military did you go into?	24:00
William Zepherin	I went in the infantry.	24:01
Felix Armfield	Okay. Was that Army?	24:03
William Zepherin	Yeah.	24:04
Felix Armfield	Okay. You went into the Army.	24:04
William Zepherin	Yeah.	24:04
Felix Armfield	Now was the Army still segregated—	24:22
William Zepherin	Oh, yeah.	24:27
Felix Armfield	—during the Korean War?	24:27
William Zepherin	Mm-hmm. That's when they desegregated.	24:28
Felix Armfield	So Black and White soldiers were living together in the barracks?	24:32
William Zepherin	Uh-huh.	24:35
Felix Armfield	Didn't live together?	24:35
William Zepherin	No, not when I first went in, no.	24:35
Felix Armfield	Okay. Did it happen before the Korean War is over?	24:36
William Zepherin	Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.	24:43
Felix Armfield	What was the situation like?	24:43
William Zepherin	Oh, it was all right. Some of the Whites from Georgia, they started kicking and you know what I mean, you can tell. But after the Negroes started busted their mouths, you know—	24:46
Felix Armfield	Okay, so there was some—	24:56
William Zepherin	Well, you see, I was sent to Germany.	25:02
Felix Armfield	Okay, so you were stationed in Germany?	25:04
William Zepherin	In Munich, Germany. They got a White boy and a White girl was sitting a table. They had a Black soldier one day, he was going out with one of the White girl.	25:07
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm.	25:17
William Zepherin	He said, "Hey, look, come here." I was in the military police at the time. "Ain't going to come here." I'll be damned, that woman get up from there and break her neck. He walked up to the table and just kicked him right here, right here. Right under his chin. He almost broke his neck.	25:23
Felix Armfield	Now this is a White boy kicking a Black guy or what?	25:39
William Zepherin	No, no. A Black guy kicked a White boy.	25:41
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm.	25:43
William Zepherin	And let me—Excuse me.	25:43
Felix Armfield	What were they fighting about?	25:45
William Zepherin	Well, that girl. The White boy didn't wanted that girl to get up. Uh-huh. Man, they were lambs, man, when we got through with them.	25:48
Felix Armfield	So you helped calm them down?	26:00
William Zepherin	Oh, yeah. I was pulling duty one night with a guy from Waco, Texas named Tasbee. He was mean to his shoe, that's how mean he was. Now he used to drive the Jeep. I'd be sitting on the side of him with my .45.	26:04
William Zepherin	One night—They've got a street named [indistinct 00:26:28] Swanson, it was from the camp here. They've got a White boy and a White girl was making love on the ground, man. Tasbee got up there, he like I could kill him. He stopped the Jeep right next to them, right like you and I. Guy said, "Watch, you Black son of a bitch, you're about to run over me." He said, "I'm sorry I didn't run over you, you no good bast—" He made that White boy get in the backseat of the Jeep and he beat him, I mean, on the head. Every time he'd hit him, he'd fall. Fall on his face, too.	26:24
Felix Armfield	This was a White guy beating up a Black guy?	27:06
William Zepherin	No, no, a Black guy.	27:08
Felix Armfield	Then why is the Black guy beating up the White guy?	27:09
William Zepherin	Because he was love to that White girl on the street, on the ground.	27:14
Felix Armfield	Oh, so a Black soldier was beating him up because he was making—	27:16
William Zepherin	Yeah. Because, see, we used to take care of the city and the post, you see?	27:20
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm.	27:23
William Zepherin	Comrade used to tell us, he said, "If you see something wrong—" You see, it was a black market deal there. Comrade used to have a pillowcase full of cigarettes. You see, we made some money there, too. We'd take that cigarette from Comrade, you see, and we'd go to the next block and sell it to somebody and I'd go back and tell Tasbee. I'd say, "Oh, they've got a Comrade got some long mustache" because—	27:30
Felix Armfield	Now these were comrades?	28:00
William Zepherin	Yeah.	28:02
Felix Armfield	Now who were the comrades?	28:03
William Zepherin	Germans.	28:04
Felix Armfield	Okay.	28:05
William Zepherin	Yeah, the Germans. That's how we used to call them, Comrade.	28:06
Felix Armfield	Now why did you call the Germans comrades?	28:09
William Zepherin	That's how they called us, "Comrade."	28:17
Felix Armfield	Oh, so you called them—	28:20
William Zepherin	"[German language 00:28:22], comrade!" They how they tell you how to [indistinct 00:28:32].	28:22
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, I see.	28:31
William Zepherin	One time they thought I was a German, I speak somewhat German.	28:32
Felix Armfield	So you, in fact, were speaking German when you were over there?	28:38
William Zepherin	See, I'd pick up that quick, you know?	28:40
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.	28:42
William Zepherin	It's a guy, been over there five years, he couldn't say nothing in German.	28:44
Felix Armfield	Now how long did you stay in the Korean War?	28:48
William Zepherin	I stayed nine years.	28:53
Felix Armfield	So you stayed in service from 1952 until '61?	28:55
William Zepherin	Mm-hmm.	28:58
Felix Armfield	Okay. In 1961, you get out of the military.	29:01
William Zepherin	Yeah, I got a hardship discharge.	29:08
Felix Armfield	Okay.	29:11
William Zepherin	You see, they amputated my mother's leg.	29:11
Felix Armfield	Okay, so you received an honorable discharge?	29:15
William Zepherin	Yeah. Oh, yeah, definitely. Oh, yeah.	29:16
Felix Armfield	Okay. And they amputated your mother's leg in 1961?	29:17
William Zepherin	'61. I made it just in time, too.	29:20
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm.	29:24
William Zepherin	In Lafayette, they operated on her. Boy, she was glad, yeah, when I came. She said, "You out of service?" And I said, "Yeah. I come to stay with you."	29:25
Felix Armfield	And you went to back to Loreauville to stay with your mother?	29:39
William Zepherin	Mm-hmm.	29:41
Felix Armfield	Okay. In 1961?	29:41
William Zepherin	I've been there ever since.	29:41
Felix Armfield	Okay. Did you ever marry there?	29:46
William Zepherin	Uh-huh.	29:48
Felix Armfield	Never got married, stayed there with your mother after you came out of the military.	29:48
William Zepherin	Yeah.	29:52
Felix Armfield	Did you ever have children?	29:53
William Zepherin	I got a son and a daughter.	29:55
Felix Armfield	Okay.	29:57
William Zepherin	Well, I lived with a woman, you know?	29:59
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm.	30:02
William Zepherin	But we never was married.	30:03
Felix Armfield	What was Loreauville like in 1961 when you returned? Was segregation still there?	30:07
William Zepherin	No, it had started moving on.	30:13
Felix Armfield	And when you say moving on, what do you mean? What kinds of things were happening?	30:16
William Zepherin	Well, you see, if a White man hit you, you could break a neck in '61.	30:19
Felix Armfield	Why in 1961?	30:29
William Zepherin	Why in 1961?	30:29
Felix Armfield	Yeah, why do you think he could have done that in 1961 but in 1952, when you went to the Korean War, you couldn't?	30:30
William Zepherin	Oh, no, you couldn't. Matter of fact, you couldn't walk on the street in 1952.	30:38
Felix Armfield	Well, what had happened between 1952 and 1961?	30:45
William Zepherin	I don't know. I don't know, I wasn't there.	30:51
Felix Armfield	What kind of work did you find when you came back in 1961?	30:51
William Zepherin	I drove a eighteen-wheeler.	30:56
Felix Armfield	So you drove long-distance trucks?	30:58
William Zepherin	Yes.	31:00
Felix Armfield	Okay. What was that like, as a Black man?	31:02
William Zepherin	Oh, hey.	31:04
Felix Armfield	What kind of things did you encounter?	31:06
William Zepherin	You encountered, like when you stopped to a truck stop, they'd park them trucks any kind of way. And the man would come outside and—Now you see, some of them White women was driving trucks at that time.	31:10
Felix Armfield	Who was driving trucks?	31:24
William Zepherin	White women.	31:28
Felix Armfield	Okay.	31:28
William Zepherin	They had a few Black, but they would have mostly White driving them 18-wheelers. They had a lady named Fast Black—	31:31
Felix Armfield	Who?	31:39
William Zepherin	—that was her handle on the CB.	31:43
Felix Armfield	And what was it?	31:43
William Zepherin	Fast Black.	31:43
Felix Armfield	Flashback?	31:45
William Zepherin	Yeah. And mine was Bull's Road.	31:47
Felix Armfield	Was what?	31:51
William Zepherin	Bull's Road.	31:52
Felix Armfield	Bull?	31:52
William Zepherin	Yeah, I was driving a Peterbilt truck, you know?	31:52
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm. And it was Bull Flow?	31:52
William Zepherin	Yeah, Bull's Road. I got on the horn one night down there. "Everybody, calling the radio check. Does anybody hear me?" She said, "Yeah." She said, "What's your handle?" I said, "Bull's Road." She said, "Bull's Road, you're coming in wall to all and treetop tall." Boy, she could— (coughs) Excuse me.	32:00
William Zepherin	I had a load of meat in my truck and so she asked me, she said, "Where is the destination?" I said, "Dallas," which I was going to Dallas, Texas, you know?	32:29
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm.	32:40
William Zepherin	She said, "I'm on my way there now." She was driving a—what'd they call that? A freight, like one of the them fast truck at the time. And she said, "I'll meet there." Or, she said, "You'll meet me there." About ten miles ahead, it was a truck stop. I thought it was a White woman. A Black woman with hair about that long. So we got on. I had about six-hundred dollars in my pocket. I thought I'd buy her something, whatever she wanted. She asked, "If I didn't have that truck," She said, "I'd leave the son of a bitch here and ride with you." (Armfield laughs) "No, you can't do that."	32:41
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm.	33:33
William Zepherin	Then we was outside, we was talking. We got a White girl came. "Where you going to work to?" I said, "Dallas, Texas." She said, "I'm going to Houston." "Can I ride?" I said, "You can if you want," this White girl.	33:35
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm.	33:51
William Zepherin	She said, "How much you going to charge for it?" She said, "Oh, I can ride with you a while." You know?	33:54
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm.	33:54
William Zepherin	I had done been to Germany, you know?	34:06
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.	34:08
William Zepherin	So I brought her. She wanted to go to that beach, around the beach. A lot of people were staying around the beach, out by the beach.	34:12
Felix Armfield	Okay.	34:24
William Zepherin	I went there with that 18-wheeler. Man, you ought to see the people come outside. The whole neighborhood came outside.	34:25
Felix Armfield	What happened? What happened?	34:26
William Zepherin	She started telling her parents that I was good enough to give her a ride. They were looking at me kind of funny, but I—	34:37
Felix Armfield	Okay.	34:40
William Zepherin	I always packed my gun with me, you know?	34:41
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.	34:43
William Zepherin	And they'd start talking, "I'm going to drop one of them." Oh, yeah, I always kept that in mind. But they didn't react. They was surprised to see a White girl riding with me in that big truck, big, big truck. I had Super, you know?	34:44
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm.	35:04
William Zepherin	When I went back, they gave me a freight line. That's a fast truck, man.	35:06
Felix Armfield	Okay.	35:11
William Zepherin	Them of a guns going to do eighty, ninety miles an hour. I mean—	35:11
Felix Armfield	What company were you driving for?	35:18
William Zepherin	Lafayette—Lafayette Milling Company.	35:23
Felix Armfield	Melon?	35:29
William Zepherin	Milling. Yeah.	35:32
Felix Armfield	Miller?	35:32
William Zepherin	Yeah. Yeah, now when they'd get some new trucks, man, I'd always be the one to break them in.	35:33
Felix Armfield	And how long did you work for Lafayette Mill?	35:45
William Zepherin	Oh, about three years, I'd say.	35:49
Felix Armfield	Okay. So you worked for them from about 1961 up until about 1964, '65?	35:55
William Zepherin	Yeah.	35:57
Felix Armfield	Okay. What did you do after that period?	35:59
William Zepherin	I started doing cement work.	35:59
Felix Armfield	Cement work?	35:59
William Zepherin	Oh, yeah.	35:59
Felix Armfield	Did you find lots of work into Lafayette doing cement?	35:59
William Zepherin	Oh, Lord. Oh, man, it used to make five-hundred dollars a day.	36:10
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm.	36:14
William Zepherin	It's a guy paradise over there.	36:14
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm.	36:14
William Zepherin	He and I used to work together sometime.	36:17
Felix Armfield	Okay.	36:21
William Zepherin	Sometime, we'd make up to twelve-hundred dollars a day.	36:21
Felix Armfield	Y'all poured a lot of cement.	36:25
William Zepherin	Oh, yeah. You see, like a building like this?	36:25
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm.	36:37
William Zepherin	This part, I'd pour that by myself, man.	36:37
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm.	36:37
William Zepherin	When Alvin had a job he couldn't handle by himself, he'd go work with him. And my brother was doing that, too.	36:40
Felix Armfield	I see.	36:49
William Zepherin	You see, I got that job through my brother, you know?	36:51
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm.	36:54
William Zepherin	Went work with him and then later on I started working for myself. You see?	36:54
Felix Armfield	Okay. Okay.	37:06
Felix Armfield	When did integration in full swing to Loreauville?	37:06
William Zepherin	Back in the '20s.	37:12
Felix Armfield	Integration came in '20s?	37:12
William Zepherin	No, integration. It must've came there around '62, '63.	37:14
Felix Armfield	Okay. Okay. You saw things getting ready to change?	37:19
William Zepherin	Yeah. Not getting ready, it got ready.	37:24
Felix Armfield	It was ready to change, yeah.	37:27
William Zepherin	You see, I don't know, I don't remember if it's '62, but you remember when Johnson took over presidency?	37:29
Felix Armfield	Yes, sir.	37:38
William Zepherin	He said that we were going to—you know what I mean. And everybody was listening to the radio and this one said, "You heard what happened last night?"	37:40
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm.	37:47
William Zepherin	And they got that White saloon in Loreauville, "Those damn Negro could to the front." A little Black boy went toward the front, enjoyed that saloon and nothing happened, neither. But we were all watching. We'd give him a little name for [indistinct 00:38:06] bayou though. But he tried anything, him. You see, then they had a breezeway with a freezer, you know, and a White girl was standing in that door, making all the—[indistinct 00:38:21] came there and he pushed on her side, he dropped her on that concrete. They had about 30 White boys there. They didn't do him nothing. Uh-huh.	37:49
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm.	38:29
William Zepherin	Oh, yeah, and he barely knew me. After he ran home and told his daddy what he had did, he said, "Come on, boy, let's go over there before they come get you." He said, "Let's go."	38:34
Felix Armfield	Yeah.	38:47
William Zepherin	Man, later on, he said, "I don't want him here no more." I'll be God damned, he said, "Take that sign down." He said, "That license and give it to him if you don't want me here no more."	38:48
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm.	38:56
William Zepherin	And that was it, you didn't hear nothing no more before segregation. I mean, no—	39:00
Felix Armfield	Well, what I'm going to get ready and do, Mr. Zepherin, is do some paperwork with you. We're going to leave the tape recorder on. I'm going to ask you some questions about your family and your family history. And as other stories come to your mind, feel free to talk about them. Okay?	39:11
William Zepherin	All right.	39:28
Felix Armfield	Now, your first name, your full name, is William—	39:29
William Zepherin	Yeah, William.	39:34
Felix Armfield	No, your last name is Zepherin, Z-E-P-H-	39:34
William Zepherin	—E-R-I-N.	39:39
Felix Armfield	—E-R-I-N. And your first name is William?	39:40
William Zepherin	Mm-hmm.	39:45
Felix Armfield	Do you have a middle name, Mr. Zepherin?	39:46
William Zepherin	No, I don't.	39:47
Felix Armfield	Okay. The address you use is here, right?	39:52
William Zepherin	No. P.O. Box 83, Loreauville.	39:54
Felix Armfield	P.O. Box 9766?	39:54
William Zepherin	No, no, that's not this. I don't give that no more.	39:54
Felix Armfield	This is the address here.	39:54
William Zepherin	Well, now it's old number.	39:54
Felix Armfield	So you want me to use the address here?	39:54
William Zepherin	No. I want you to use my address.	39:56
Felix Armfield	Okay and that address is P.O. Box—	39:58
William Zepherin	382.	40:03
Felix Armfield	382, and that's Loreauville?	40:03
William Zepherin	Loreauville.	40:19
Felix Armfield	And that's in Iberia Parish?	40:32
William Zepherin	Right.	40:34
Felix Armfield	And what's the zip code out there?	40:38
William Zepherin	70552.	40:38
Felix Armfield	And what's your date of birth, Mr. Zepherin?	40:45
William Zepherin	February eight, 1932.	40:54
Felix Armfield	February eighth, 1932. You were born right in the Depression.	40:56
William Zepherin	Yeah.	40:57
Felix Armfield	Do you have any memories of how it was like living—	40:58
William Zepherin	No, no I don't.	41:01
Felix Armfield	—during those years?	41:02
William Zepherin	I just know what they told me, you know.	41:03
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm. Now you were born where?	41:06
William Zepherin	In Loreauville.	41:09
Felix Armfield	In Loreauville.	41:09
William Zepherin	You see, at that time, they had them midwives.	41:13
Felix Armfield	And that's Iberia Parish, Louisiana.	41:16
William Zepherin	I was born in that house, that old man house, you know?	41:22
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm.	41:27
William Zepherin	Yeah, they had a old [indistinct 00:41:31].	41:29
Felix Armfield	Who had a what, now?	41:30
William Zepherin	A midwife.	41:35
Felix Armfield	Midwife, okay.	41:36
William Zepherin	Mm-hmm.	41:39
Felix Armfield	Now your principal occupation most of your life was cement work?	41:39
William Zepherin	No, no, farm.	41:43
Felix Armfield	Farm?	41:43
William Zepherin	Mm-hmm.	41:43
Felix Armfield	And you did work in cement for a while.	41:44
William Zepherin	Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, definitely. Until I retired.	41:45
Felix Armfield	Mm-hmm.	42:49
Felix Armfield	Now for the official records, as this is stuff is going to he housed at Duke University in the archives there, and for all the official records that your name will appear on, you want to appear as William Zepherin, right?	42:49
William Zepherin	Right.	43:04
Felix Armfield	Z-E-P-H-E-R-I-N.	43:04
Felix Armfield	And your marital status is you've been single all your life?	43:04
William Zepherin	All my life, yeah.	43:19
Felix Armfield	Okay.	43:23
Felix Armfield	What was your mother's first name?	43:23
William Zepherin	Bertha Zepherin.	43:27
Felix Armfield	Bertha. Did your mother have a middle name?	43:27
William Zepherin	No, not that I remember.	43:31
Felix Armfield	Okay.	43:37
Felix Armfield	What was your mother's maiden name?	43:37
William Zepherin	Bertha Marsh, M-A-R-S-H.	43:39
Felix Armfield	M-A-R-S-H, Marsh. Okay. Do you know your mother's birth date.	43:47
William Zepherin	No, I don't.	43:48
Felix Armfield	Do you remember when your mother died?	43:49
William Zepherin	Yeah, she died in '73.	43:51
Felix Armfield	Do you know what month it was?	43:53
William Zepherin	February.	43:54
Felix Armfield	February of 1973.	43:54
William Zepherin	The twenty-third of February.	43:54
Felix Armfield	The twenty-third.	44:03
Felix Armfield	Okay. Do you know where your mother was born? Where?	44:03
William Zepherin	In some part of West Virginia.	44:06
Felix Armfield	West Virginia.	44:22
Felix Armfield	What did your mother do for a living? She was a housewife and farmer?	44:22
William Zepherin	Housewife. Mm-hmm.	44:23
Felix Armfield	What was your father's first name?	44:33
William Zepherin	Junius Zepherin.	44:33
Felix Armfield	Who?	44:33
William Zepherin	Junius.	44:33
Felix Armfield	Junius?	44:33
William Zepherin	Right.	44:38
Felix Armfield	Did your father have a middle name?	44:41
William Zepherin	No.	44:46
Felix Armfield	Okay. Do you know your father's birth date?	44:46
William Zepherin	No, I didn't know that.	44:50
Felix Armfield	Do you remember when your father died?	44:50
William Zepherin	He died June sixth, 1952.	44:50
Felix Armfield	Same time you left you left for the war, huh?	44:55
William Zepherin	Mm-hmm.	44:57
Felix Armfield	Did he die before you left for the war or after you?	44:57
William Zepherin	After.	44:59
Felix Armfield	Did you make it back for his funeral?	45:01
William Zepherin	Yeah, I had emergency leave.	45:02
Felix Armfield	Okay.	45:02
William Zepherin	He died in my arms.	45:02
Felix Armfield	Oh, really?	45:08
William Zepherin	Mm-hmm.	45:08
Felix Armfield	Was your father ill?	45:09
William Zepherin	Yeah, he stayed in hospital about three or four months. He wasn't eating.	45:16
Felix Armfield	Where was your father born, Mr. Zepherin?	45:16
William Zepherin	He was born in Loreauville.	45:34
Felix Armfield	In Loreauville.	45:34
Felix Armfield	How did your parents meet?	45:34
William Zepherin	I don't know.	45:35
Felix Armfield	With your mother having been from West Virginia and your father was in Louisiana.	45:38
William Zepherin	I don't know, I believe she came here.	45:44
Felix Armfield	And your father was a farmer, right?	45:45
William Zepherin	Mm-hmm.	45:46
Felix Armfield	Your mother came here?	45:46
William Zepherin	Yeah.	45:47
Felix Armfield	Okay.	45:48
William Zepherin	She has a relative or something, that's how they met.	45:51
Felix Armfield	I see.	45:53
Felix Armfield	Now did you have brothers and sisters?	45:53
William Zepherin	Oh, yeah.	45:53
Felix Armfield	How many brothers and sisters did you have?	45:53
William Zepherin	I had nine altogether.	45:53
Felix Armfield	Okay, can you remember all of their names—	46:03
William Zepherin	Oh, yeah.	46:06
Felix Armfield	—from the oldest to the youngest?	46:07
William Zepherin	Yeah. Evelyn Jack.	46:08
Felix Armfield	Evelyn?	46:11
William Zepherin	Mm-hmm.	46:14
Felix Armfield	Okay and who was after Evelyn?	46:14
William Zepherin	Francis—No, Mag. Magnolia.	46:16
Felix Armfield	Magnolia.	46:19
Felix Armfield	Okay.	46:24
William Zepherin	Then Frances.	46:26
Felix Armfield	Frances?	46:27
William Zepherin	Yeah.	46:28
Felix Armfield	Is that a woman or a man?	46:28
William Zepherin	Woman.	46:30
Felix Armfield	Okay.	46:35
Felix Armfield	Okay. Who was after Frances?	46:35
William Zepherin	Florina.	46:36
Felix Armfield	Florina?	46:36
William Zepherin	Right, Flo. Florina.	46:36
Felix Armfield	Florina.	46:42
Felix Armfield	Okay, who was after Florina?	46:42
William Zepherin	Oh, Betty.	46:50
Felix Armfield	Betty. That was my mother's name.	46:51

Felix Armfield	We're trying to wrap up [indistinct 00:00:02]	0:01
Speaker 1	If it gets too cold in here for you Felix.	0:03
Felix Armfield	I'm fine.	0:06
Speaker 1	You're fine? You're okay?	0:07
Felix Armfield	Are you okay, Mr. Zepherin?	0:07
William Zepherin	Oh, yeah.	0:07
Felix Armfield	Okay.	0:07
Speaker 1	There's some poundcake and some banananut bread.	0:07
Felix Armfield	Believe me, I had my share this morning.	0:07
Speaker 1	Okay.	0:07
Felix Armfield	All right. Thank you.	0:07
Speaker 1	You're welcome.	0:17
Felix Armfield	Okay. And who was after for your sister Betty?	0:18
William Zepherin	Junius.	0:19
Felix Armfield	Junius. And who was next?	0:19
William Zepherin	No, no. I made a mistake.	0:29
Felix Armfield	Okay.	0:31
William Zepherin	It wasn't Junius.	0:31
Felix Armfield	Who was after Betty?	0:32
William Zepherin	Well, they were James. J-A-M-E-S.	0:37
Felix Armfield	And all your sisters were the oldest, right?	1:33
William Zepherin	Right.	1:33
Felix Armfield	Evelyn, Magnolia, Frances, Florina, Betty, James, and then who?	1:33
William Zepherin	Junius.	1:33
Felix Armfield	Junius. And who was next?	1:33
William Zepherin	Tony and William.	1:33
Felix Armfield	Who?	1:33
William Zepherin	Tony.	1:33
Felix Armfield	Tony?	1:33
William Zepherin	Yeah. Antoine.	1:33
Felix Armfield	Antoine. Okay.	1:33
William Zepherin	And I'm the last one.	1:33
Felix Armfield	And you were the last one. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. And everybody went in the last name of Zepherin, right?	1:33
William Zepherin	Yeah.	1:33
Felix Armfield	You were the youngest child.	1:33
William Zepherin	Mm-hmm.	1:33
Felix Armfield	No wonder you never got married to stay home with your mother.	1:33
William Zepherin	Yeah.	1:33
Felix Armfield	Do you remember any of your brothers and sister's birthdays?	1:33
William Zepherin	James is the only one. That was January the thirty-first. That's why I remembered it.	1:34
Felix Armfield	Of what year? Do you remember?	1:38
William Zepherin	No.	1:39
Felix Armfield	When he was born.	1:39
William Zepherin	Oh.	1:42
Felix Armfield	How much older than you was here?	1:43
William Zepherin	Oh, he was quite some.	1:45
Felix Armfield	Okay. Now all your—	1:45
William Zepherin	He died last year.	1:45
Felix Armfield	Okay. What month last year?	1:52
William Zepherin	Mm.	1:56
Felix Armfield	Can't remember the month.	1:58
William Zepherin	No, I was talking about, I don't lose track of.	1:59
Felix Armfield	But you do know that he died last year?	2:03
William Zepherin	Yeah.	2:05
Felix Armfield	In 1993. Okay. Okay. Now all your brothers and sisters, is everyone else living?	2:21
William Zepherin	No. Evelyn died.	2:24
Felix Armfield	Do you remember when your sister Evelyn died?	2:26
William Zepherin	No. I wasn't there when she died. I was in San Diego.	2:33
Felix Armfield	Okay. So you don't remember the birthdates or any of that?	2:33
William Zepherin	No.	2:35
Felix Armfield	So you don't remember Magnolia's birthday?	2:35
William Zepherin	No.	2:38
Felix Armfield	Okay. Now, are any of your brothers and sisters living?	2:39
William Zepherin	Yeah.	2:42
Felix Armfield	Who's living?	2:43
William Zepherin	Most of them. Evelyn and Flo died.	2:44
Felix Armfield	Evelyn and Florina are dead. Do you remember Florina's death date?	2:49
William Zepherin	No, I don't.	2:59
Felix Armfield	Do you know her birthdate?	2:59
William Zepherin	No, I don't know that either.	3:00
Felix Armfield	Okay. But you said you don't remember any of your brothers and sisters' birth, right?	3:03
William Zepherin	Huh?	3:09
Felix Armfield	You don't know any of your brothers and sisters' birthdays?	3:15
William Zepherin	No.	3:15
Felix Armfield	So Magnolia's alive.	3:15
William Zepherin	Mm.	3:17
Felix Armfield	Frances—	3:17
William Zepherin	She's the oldest one.	3:19
Felix Armfield	Okay. She's the oldest one living?	3:21
William Zepherin	Yeah.	3:22
Felix Armfield	Frances is alive.	3:23
William Zepherin	Yes.	3:24
Felix Armfield	And Betty is alive?	3:25
William Zepherin	Yeah.	3:26
Felix Armfield	And Junius and Antoine?	3:26
William Zepherin	Yeah, they're.	3:30
Felix Armfield	—is alive.	3:30
William Zepherin	Mm-hmm.	3:30
Felix Armfield	But Evelyn and James—	3:32
William Zepherin	And Flo.	3:36
Felix Armfield	And Flo. Evelyn Florina and James are dead?	3:37
William Zepherin	Yeah.	3:40
Felix Armfield	Okay. Was everyone born in Loreauville?	3:40
William Zepherin	Yeah.	3:43
Felix Armfield	And you were the ninth child?	3:56
William Zepherin	Right.	3:57
Felix Armfield	Did you have children, Mr—	4:04
William Zepherin	No, I had two.	4:06
Felix Armfield	You have two? What's your oldest child's name?	4:07
William Zepherin	Willy.	4:10
Felix Armfield	What's his last name?	4:13
William Zepherin	Willie Zepherin. Willie Williams Zepherin.	4:21
Felix Armfield	Willie Williams Zepherin. Do you know his birthdate?	4:21
William Zepherin	No.	4:21
Felix Armfield	Okay. And where was he born?	4:21
William Zepherin	In Loreauville.	4:21
Felix Armfield	In Loreauville. Now what's your second child's name?	4:41
William Zepherin	Mary Denise Zacharie.	4:41
Felix Armfield	Married Denise, who?	4:43
William Zepherin	Zacharie. I know you find that funny. That's a child I adopted.	4:51
Felix Armfield	Huh?	4:56
William Zepherin	Is,	4:56
Felix Armfield	Do you know Mary's birthdate?	4:57
William Zepherin	No, I sure don't.	4:59
Felix Armfield	Okay. And where was she born?	5:01
William Zepherin	She was born in [indistinct 00:05:04] Yeah, you see, her sister, when she had her, she came home from the hospital the next day. And she starts swelling up.	5:02
Felix Armfield	Now are both your children living?	5:19
William Zepherin	Yeah.	5:19
Felix Armfield	Okay. Do you have grandchildren?	5:24
William Zepherin	Oh yes. Oh yeah.	5:27
Felix Armfield	How many grandchildren do you have?	5:28
William Zepherin	Don't ask me their name now.	5:29
Felix Armfield	No, you don't have to give me their names. Just how many do you have?	5:31
William Zepherin	Recently, I got five.	5:34
Felix Armfield	Five grandchildren? Okay. But you don't know those grandchildren's names, huh?	5:35
William Zepherin	No. The daughter had one about two weeks ago.	5:40
Felix Armfield	Oh, really? You pretty much lived in Loreauville all your life?	5:45
William Zepherin	Mm-hmm.	5:52
Felix Armfield	Didn't you? Except for the time that you were in the military?	5:53
William Zepherin	Oh yeah. Yeah, them women give them children some funny kind of names. I got.	6:11
Felix Armfield	Now where did you complete the eleventh grade? At New Iberia High?	6:16
William Zepherin	Right. Iberia Parish High.	6:19
Felix Armfield	Iberia Parish High. What dates were you there?	6:21
William Zepherin	Dates?	6:35
Felix Armfield	You started at Iberia Parish High when?	6:38
William Zepherin	Hmm, I believe 1946.	6:41
Felix Armfield	You went up until 1946?	6:41
William Zepherin	Yeah. Yeah.	6:51
Felix Armfield	So, okay, we'll say 1946, completed eleventh grade. Is that good enough?	6:51
William Zepherin	Yeah. That's great.	7:09
Felix Armfield	Okay. Now, what was your last job that you had?	7:10
William Zepherin	Cement. Cement worker.	7:11
Felix Armfield	And who were you working for? Who was the employer? Who employed you?	7:18
William Zepherin	Perry Burke.	7:25
Felix Armfield	Perry Burke. And where was that?	7:27
William Zepherin	New Iberia.	7:32
Felix Armfield	How long did you work for him?	7:38
William Zepherin	Oh, you see, he used to sell concrete.	7:42
Felix Armfield	Okay.	7:45
William Zepherin	And somebody come in, wanted some cement, cement the yard or something, but they ain't had nobody, he called me for—	7:49
Felix Armfield	How many years did you do that? When did you get started?	7:56
William Zepherin	Oh, I did that for about 20 years.	8:03
Felix Armfield	You got started after you got done with driving the truck.	8:04
William Zepherin	Right.	8:05
Felix Armfield	So therefore about 1965?	8:05
William Zepherin	Oh, yeah.	8:07
Felix Armfield	Until you retired, right?	8:08
William Zepherin	Oh, yeah.	8:09
Felix Armfield	And when did you retire?	8:10
William Zepherin	I retired last year.	8:10
Felix Armfield	So 1993. What did you do before that? You drove trucks, right?	8:13
William Zepherin	Yeah.	8:20
Felix Armfield	Truck driver. And you worked for Lafayette Miller, right?	8:21
William Zepherin	Right. I was driving trucks.	8:29
Felix Armfield	And that was in Lafayette?	8:37
William Zepherin	Yeah.	8:38
Felix Armfield	How long did you do that? From about 1961 up until 1965?	8:44
William Zepherin	About.	8:49
Felix Armfield	Four years, right?	8:50
William Zepherin	Right.	8:51
Felix Armfield	Okay. Have you ever received any awards or honors that you'd like to mention?	8:57
William Zepherin	Not really.	8:59
Felix Armfield	Okay. What did you say, Mr. Zepherin? Not really? Now what's your religious denomination? Baptist?	8:59
William Zepherin	Baptist. Speaking of religion.	9:10
Felix Armfield	What church? Do you have a church affiliation? What church do you belong to?	9:15
William Zepherin	St. John's.	9:18
Felix Armfield	St—	9:18
William Zepherin	John's.	9:18
Felix Armfield	Jones. Okay. Are you active in any civic or community organizations or affiliations?	9:21
William Zepherin	Not really. Not since I got sick, no.	9:34
Felix Armfield	Okay. Have you had any past ones? Were you involved with any—	9:37
William Zepherin	Yeah, I was involved in church duties.	9:53
Felix Armfield	Okay.	9:53
William Zepherin	For Number Two church. That's the name of it. One I belonged to, Number Two.	9:53
Felix Armfield	Okay. Now what's your hobby, Mr. William? What do you like doing? Just for leisure.	10:00
William Zepherin	Well, to tell you the truth. That sickness got me with nothing.	10:04
Felix Armfield	You served in the military, in the Army, from 195—	10:11
William Zepherin	Two.	10:18
Felix Armfield	—two to 1961, right?	10:19
William Zepherin	Right.	10:20
Felix Armfield	Okay. So do you have any other hobbies or interests or anything like that?	10:26
William Zepherin	Not really.	10:29
Felix Armfield	All right.	10:32
William Zepherin	Play with my grandchildren.	10:33
Felix Armfield	That's one we want to mention here.	10:35
William Zepherin	Them children spar so quick.	10:36
Felix Armfield	Okay. What I need from you now is just to sign this release form.	10:36
William Zepherin	Yeah.	10:36
Felix Armfield	And the release form is just says that you give us the rights to have the tape that we recorded with you, to store it in the archives at Duke University. Okay?	11:05
William Zepherin	All right.	11:16
Felix Armfield	No one can say that Mr. Zepherin is not in history. You just made history, Mr. Zepherin. Okay, I'm going to fill this side out for you and you can sign it. Okay?	11:17
William Zepherin	All right.	11:38
Felix Armfield	Let me get your signature.	12:13
William Zepherin	Okay.	12:15
Felix Armfield	Right here on this line and that will wrap.	12:16
William Zepherin	Can you understand that?	12:34
Felix Armfield	Oh yeah. Looks like William to me.	12:34
William Zepherin	That's the best I can do.	12:34
Felix Armfield	Oh, that looks good, Mr. Zepherin. As long as we got your signature. Mr. Zepherin, do you have a nickname or does everybody call you William?	12:54
William Zepherin	Yum.	12:59
Felix Armfield	They call you what?	13:00
William Zepherin	Yum.	13:02
Felix Armfield	Yum? Y-U-M.	13:02
William Zepherin	Y-U-M.	13:02
Felix Armfield	And that was your nickname?	13:02
William Zepherin	No, it wasn't my nickname. People just start calling—My daddy start calling me that. Everybody followed suit, you see?	13:07
Felix Armfield	Yum. Okay, now I got that down.	13:14
William Zepherin	That's what I'm better known as Yum around the area.	13:18
Felix Armfield	That's why—	13:22
William Zepherin	Instead of—	13:22
Felix Armfield	That's going to show up on the official records for you.	13:23
William Zepherin	Yeah.	13:25
Felix Armfield	Okay? So people in this area, they might not know who William Zepherin is, but if they see Yum—	13:26
William Zepherin	Oh yeah.	13:32
Felix Armfield	—they'll know.	13:33
William Zepherin	Everybody.	13:33
Felix Armfield	Okay. Yeah. And that pretty much concludes the interview.	13:36
William Zepherin	Is that going be in a book or something?	13:42
Felix Armfield	It may just may make it into a book. I'm sure some parts of it will get into the book. Especially when you talked about your career and war experiences.	13:42
William Zepherin	Yeah, I might read about myself myself.	13:53
Felix Armfield	You just might. So is there anything else you'd like to say in closing?	14:01
William Zepherin	No, that's just about covered it. Covered me.	14:07
Felix Armfield	Okay. All right then. I thank you for your time, Mr. Zepherin.	14:11
William Zepherin	No problem.	14:17
Felix Armfield	Thank you very much.	14:19
William Zepherin	I got a lot of that leisure time. Yeah.	14:20

Item Info

Title:

William Zepherin interview recording, 1994 August 02

Date:

August 2, 1994

Creator:

Zepherin, William

Contributor:

Armfield, Felix

Description:

Name: William Zepherin; Date of birth: 1932-02-08; Place of birth: Loreauville, LA; Occupation(s): agriculture; mason; Residence: Loreauville, LA
Informant ID: 654; Interviewed by: Felix Armfield.

Occupation:

Location:

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Language:

English

Digital Collection:

Behind the Veil

Source Collection:

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

Series:

Related Resources:

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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.

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC 4.0

Rights Note:

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

Identifier:

RL00170-CS-1157
a7c50e8e-7c36-4bc3-a7f5-2acf3f4a10d1
behindtheveil
fad7651c-8e85-4e74-81ed-c36f7ecddabc
ark:/87924/r4rr21w47
fad7651c-8e85-4e74-81ed-c36f7ecddabc

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https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4rr21w47

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William Zepherin interview recording, 1994 August 02

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1. William Zepherin administrative file, 1994

John Hope Franklin Research Center

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William Zepherin interview recording, 1994 August 02

Transcript

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John Hope Franklin Research Center

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