Ferdinand Pearson interview recording, 1995 June 14

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Blair Murphy	If you could just state your full name and year you were born and where you were born.	0:02
Ferdinand Pearson	I think—Oh.	0:07
Blair Murphy	So, if you could state your name, the year you were born, and where you were born.	0:13
Ferdinand Pearson	My name is Ferdinand Pearson. I was born in Clarendon County August 22nd, 1923. I lived in Clarendon most my life until I went away, I think this was in 1940. I went to Baltimore, Maryland. I lived there for about three years and went into the army and stayed in the army about three and a half years. I came back to Clarendon County, South Carolina and from there I made it home again and I was here ever since in and out. Briefly in and out of the state, but I was back in the state and worked at Columbia, South Carolina in the civil service for 20 years. And during those years I was still commuting from Clarendon County because I was a farmer, still is, but I retired from farming and the civil service now.	0:19
Blair Murphy	Could you tell me what Clarendon County was like when you were a child?	1:33
Ferdinand Pearson	Oh, yes. When I was a child, see I was born in 1923 as I stated, and as I grew up to be old enough to go to school, we went to a little school, the name of Sandbed School and it was just that, it was real sandy soil. It wasn't hardly fit for growing any crops. So they built a little school on that ground and it was across a creek from all the other buildings. It wasn't nobody living over in that area, it was just the school. And the only means we had of getting to the school was walking from all around the community, walking and sometimes in the rain or in the snow, whatever the case might be. And most of it at the cross, the little creek, and a foot log or whatever, my college is in areas to get across the stream of water.	1:38
Ferdinand Pearson	And then riding to the school, most times had to go out into the wooded area, the boys, and gather wood to make a fire for the rest of the students, particularly the girls because it was just an old chimney at the school, old Clarendon chimney, and the teacher would send the boys out to gather wood, especially when the parent did not carry wood there that evening before or something of that kind. And we'd make a fire in the old chimney, and so everyone can perhaps heat their hands and they're going to heat their whole body. And there was two teachers at the school, one teacher in one side of the building and the other in the other opposite side.	3:01
Blair Murphy	So it had two rooms?	3:54
Ferdinand Pearson	It wasn't really two rooms, it was just one large room, and that was the condition then in that school. So after that, my father moved from where we were at that time, and in the area of community, we went to school. After that it was called the Bob Johnson School. It was a little better but not any whole lot, but at least we had what they called a pot-belly stove, wood stove heater, in the floor and two rooms. And in that case there was a teacher, one in the room on the south side of the building and a teacher in the room on the north side, and so they had two different grades.	3:56
Ferdinand Pearson	So the teacher on the north side had a wood stove and the teacher in the other room had a wood stove, but we still had to go out even there and get wood. On a few occasions, some of the boys would bring a little candle along and have to start the fire with a single—And then of course we'd make a fire in each heater before class, if not, then the teacher would send the boys out. And my father had a large wooded area, it was right up to my father's property line, and he would allow them to go out into the woods and get wood. But the man that was on the opposite side of the school, he didn't allow them to go in on his property, so then my dad had enough wood in there on his property, that we didn't have no problem finding wood. The main thing was going out then in cold days to get the wood.	5:00
Blair Murphy	So your father owned his land?	6:17
Ferdinand Pearson	Yes. So we went living under those circumstances. It were only about three months of school that we had anyway. And on some occasion when these three months, or three and a half months end, then it allowed the parents to go on a few weeks longer if they paid for—Pool their money and pay for this, to pay the teachers, and that happened. On some years, they would go on longer than the three months, but then they, in the month of April and March maybe, that a lot of the parents being in the farming area, they kept the children home for a day when they needed them on the farm, or maybe asked the teacher to excuse them at lunchtime, recess time, to go home to help the parent on the farm. This had created a problem quite a bit too. But again, we had to walk. There wasn't no transportation provided.	6:19
Ferdinand Pearson	And the month of the year of 1943 I think it was, that my dad and I were considering trying to do something about the condition of the children walking back and forth, because when my sister, and brother, and myself, we had finished this Bob Johnson school, to attend a higher grade, we had to go to Mount Zion or [indistinct 00:08:27] Rosenwald School. This was about eight miles away one way. Bob Johnson was close to us, as I said, it was near my father's property. And so then after going to Mount Zion to get higher grades, we had to walk it.	7:44
Blair Murphy	Yeah.	8:53
Ferdinand Pearson	And of course on days when maybe it was setting there raining, or snow, or something like that, incoming weather, my dad had an old pickup truck and he would send my older brother maybe to meet us, or pick us up from school, and if he could take along a few more kids then he would do it. That was a little better, but you can imagine riding on the back of a pickup truck in the wintertime when it's raining, and it was freezing, you was still—	8:54
Blair Murphy	It's cold.	9:25
Ferdinand Pearson	Cold. But then this was the kid that made it a little better than a lot of the other children because they had to walk it all the way. Some of those was from four to five and six miles away from school too, and they had to walk through bad roads, and this was the condition. Now the heating there was a little bit better, but not a whole lot, because the parents and a lot of kids that time, no one cared we went to the school, and other times they were using maybe coal or charcoal. So that was a little better in the school. The building was better too because it was made out of cinder block, and had about three or four classrooms, and three or four teachers.	9:26
Blair Murphy	So was the Rosenwald School run by the state?	10:17
Ferdinand Pearson	Yes.	10:20
Blair Murphy	Okay.	10:20
Ferdinand Pearson	Well, all these were financed by the state as far as paying the teachers was concerned, other than this time I said they'll extend the period of the—	10:24
Blair Murphy	The school year?	10:37
Ferdinand Pearson	The school year, with a few extra weeks, and the parent had to do something about that. So in the meantime, my dad and some of the other parents in the area of the community started talking about, "Something needed to be done to help the students, the children, get to school, to and from." Because the Whites had a bus, and they would pass in the bus, and the Black children are walking, so it showed that something wrong with the society. So then they went to the county trustees and asked them about doing something about this, and they was refused and turned down. And so they decided to have a meeting again, and my dad, Levi Pearson, had a talk with his brother Hammett, and they talked about this. And so they agreed that something needed to be done, and my father decided he was going to try to do something about it with his brother's support and family support.	10:38
Ferdinand Pearson	He talked with one of the men in the area, which was Reverend DeLaine, and he was a teacher at the Bob Johnson school, and he talked with my father occasionally, and as often as they could reasonably meet each other, or talk with each other. So then they decided to have a room. At that point in time, my dad decided to buy an old school bus of their own, and this was a school bus that the county had already salvaged, and so the parents of the Black children in the area bought this old school bus, had it fixed up as best they could, and decide then that they would pay or hire their own driver. And so they did this and then occasionally they would meet and pool the money, whatever they could, and have a secretary to keep a record, and they would buy their own gas and pay a driver.	12:15
Ferdinand Pearson	Okay, at this point in time, some of the children had moved from Mount Zion, because they were ready to go to high school then, and so Summerton was the closest high school. So this put it them about 10 or 12 miles away for the children to walk. And of course, they'd walk it, some walked the same day. Because at that time I had to drop out of school to help my dad on the farm, because that was the only source of income. And so I dropped out to help support the younger children. And so they stayed in school, the younger ones, my brother James, and Daisy, and Eloise, and Karnice. So they had to walk it to Summerton for a period of time, and then my dad would still meet them, take them on his pickup until they got this bus taken out. So then they tried the bus for a while and checked with the county superintendent and the trustees about if there's even—To finance some gas to help run an old bus, and they refused that.	13:39
Blair Murphy	Was it controversial, your father doing all this stuff?	15:09
Ferdinand Pearson	Well, quite a bit, yes. And so after that for a while, then they decided that they were going to ask NAACP to look into the case, said they were refused everything they asked for by the county. It was even stated by one of the trustees that they don't have money to run the White bus much for Black children bus. And of course there is that they wasn't taking that kind of tax because the Black people wasn't paying tax, which was false. So then the NAACP came in, and of course it began having meetings then. And then of course, my dad decided he was going to sue the county for bus transportation, and so that's what he done. And of course that's when really, I might say, that the controversy really started then, because this thing went into the news, that Levi Pearson was suing the county, Clarendon County, for bus transportation for Black children.	15:14
Ferdinand Pearson	And of course at that point in time, some of the Blacks was even afraid to be seen with him, because they denied him credit, and where he was getting help from the larger farmers, the White farmers' machines are together, his crop, or gin, his cotton, whatever. He was being denied these things. Even his credit, because people at that time, Black people, had to depend on getting credit to run the farm like fertilizers, and seed, certain time of the year, in the spring of the year, and fuel, and whatever to run the farm, and then they would pay for it at harvesting time. So ordinarily, and before he had a good credit, but in account of this, it made a lot of difference then. So therefore the Whites, I mean the Blacks, some folks were afraid to be seen talking with him on the street, or in public places.	16:47
Blair Murphy	Why do you think your father, it was so important to him, that he would risk his economic wellbeing and his farm to make sure that things were equal for y'all?	17:58
Ferdinand Pearson	Well, he was concerned about not only himself and his family, but he was concerned about people in general. He would go out of his way to help other Blacks in the community obtain some property of their own. He done it on several occasions that I can recall. Some four or five families, that he helped them purchase the land. Well, he found land for sale in a house or something, he would pass it on to some of the other neighbors. He was just a person that was concerned about people and not only his family, and this kind of spilled over into the suit, and he wanted to help other families that children that were walking under this condition. And so he decides, "I'm going to go for it, regardless." And not thinking of yourself, and maybe you'll be hurt physically, or financially, "But I'm going to go for it."	18:10
Ferdinand Pearson	And now frankly, I just think God was in the arrangement, because he was just courageous. He had the audacity to say, "I'm going to put myself on the line." Because some folk would tell him that, "You don't know what you're doing." Say, "You going suing the county, you'll never see a day when Black children will be riding school buses like Whites and win a case against Clarendon County." But he went for it. And then the family, he had family support. We have always believed in being independent, and that God created all of us equal, White, Black, or Brown, whatever the case. And so this is what is instilled in us, and of course that was his belief. And so he went for it and he had support from, as I said, the NAACP, and Reverend DeLaine, and his brother Hammett. And he had a few other folks in the area that stood up and said, "We'll be with you."	19:19
Ferdinand Pearson	But like I said, he had problems with his credit, and of course some people they didn't want to be seen with him. Probably afraid they were going to also be one of those troublemakers, so to speak, but he stood there. And so the case went to the point, just before the case was to be heard in court, they found something of use, some kind of strategy. They found that he was suing one school district, and pay a tax in another. So this has offset the case, but we was in the NAACP supporting the case. So the NAACP lawyer said, "Well, tell you what we'll do then, we'll go for not only one man out on the lam by himself, we'll get petitioners and go for equal schools and facilities, instead of this bus transportation. We won't limit it to bus transportation. We'll sue them out for equal school and facilities."	20:33
Ferdinand Pearson	So then at that time, this was in the early 50s, I think, they began building new schools all across the county. And I don't know just how the other parts of the state work, but I know in Clarendon County, I'm speaking of Clarendon County now, they built new schools. One out at Jordan, one by Spring Hill, and of course one up there by Pikesville and several other places. If you see these flat tops there, whether you noticed them or not, but that's where they built those schools.	21:46
Blair Murphy	Right.	22:30
Ferdinand Pearson	It was Governor Byrnes. He was the governor there, the head office. The super—	22:33
Kisha Turner	James, you mean?	22:38
Ferdinand Pearson	Yeah. And so NAACP still held the ground and Harry Briggs, after getting this petition up, they had about 30 or something petitioners, or more. And of course after screening them, and the people petitioned and whatever, they ended up cutting them down to about 20.	22:39
Blair Murphy	Why would they screen people on the list?	23:13
Ferdinand Pearson	Well, their economical condition. Some folks that maybe didn't have their own property, or didn't have living in their own house, if they were vulnerable to—	23:15
Blair Murphy	The economic pressure?	23:27
Ferdinand Pearson	Economical reprisal. Thurgood Marshall decided to eliminate those and, "Let's go for people that have their own property, or maybe are self-employed," and that sort of thing. So anyway, those that stayed on said, like my father said, "I'm going to hang in there and see this thing through, regardless to what being the consequence." And this is what happened. We had quite a few that went away. All right, okay. When this happened, they put it in the name of the suing, Briggs v. Elliot, the superintendent. And why was it Briggs? Because I understand that it was in alphabetical order. So B was above all the names. So then by name, Briggs v. Elliot, that would equal school and facilities.	23:29
Ferdinand Pearson	And finally, that case was heard and it was turned down. So then they went on to Topeka, Kansas for integration. But it was a lot of economical reprisal to the many old men because Briggs was a mechanic. Of course I shouldn't be speaking for Briggs, about anything that—So, but he lost his job and he went away, and we had some other petitioners that went away for seeking—Trying to get kinfolk employed.	24:46
Blair Murphy	Because there wasn't anything left for them?	25:38
Ferdinand Pearson	Right, right. They wasn't able to attend a job here. But my father, Levi, he stuck it out. He's a farmer, and old job even, though he said he was deprived of credit, a loan, and whatever, but he stuck it out. And he was helped by the family and well wishes in a way of maybe a lending or furnishing some seed and whatever, to help him carry on. And so after the case had passed, integration had passed, and it got buses and the story then, Black children were riding on buses together, and going to better schools. And so it was kind of a jeweled up thing, you know?	25:39
Blair Murphy	Yeah.	26:29
Ferdinand Pearson	So it showed them that through the help of God, the kids were successful. But it actually started from one little fella, when my father said, "I'm going to see that. I'm going to put myself on the line to see that Black children don't have to walk through the mud, the rain, and sleep in the snow to get to and from school." And so this was the beginning.	26:29
Blair Murphy	So what church did your family attend?	27:07
Ferdinand Pearson	Mt. Zion A.M.E.	27:11
Blair Murphy	And was the church helpful during all the case, and trying to get the case together?	27:13
Ferdinand Pearson	Yes, but most of the meetings were held in churches and talking to the members. Getting them an understanding of what was being done, and what the plans are, and those were mostly only the meeting place for Black in those days. And even still to the day, many people congregate there and meet. And so most of the meetings were being held in the church. In fact, NAACP now have monthly meetings, and the monthly meetings will usually be on a Sunday afternoon, and the meeting will be in churches.	27:21
Blair Murphy	Yeah.	28:14
Ferdinand Pearson	So that's it, unless you have some questions?	28:17
Kisha Turner	Yeah. Can I ask you?	28:21
Ferdinand Pearson	Sure.	28:22
Kisha Turner	I wanted to go back to when you said you went to Baltimore, if you could talk about when you went to Baltimore and why, and kind of compare your experiences here, just kind of your attitude, or your impressions, of Baltimore compared to where you—	28:24
Ferdinand Pearson	Yeah. Well, my reason—I'll say I had various reasons, but one foremost is that I would become a young man then, and I didn't really want to limit myself to just as a farmer, and so I went away. And after I was already out of school, I went away to seek a better way of life. My dad then, this was before the case, and after going away, I was working for a while and I was drafted into the army. This is World War II I'm talking about now.	28:41
Ferdinand Pearson	Yeah, and I went overseas and served in World War II, both Germany and Japan after Germany surrendered. Accepting I was young, being young. The younger soldiers, they did not have a family sent to Japan to help until they dropped the bombs, the atomic bombs in Japan, but we was out there, we were docked out there waiting to invade Japan. Was just a city in ship side, and we were looking to get orders at any time to go in and invade in the mainland, but after they used the atomic bomb, and we got the news that the Japanese surrendered.	29:37
Ferdinand Pearson	So we went on into Japan, and Korea, and whatever, as what they call military police, occupational troops, but that was my reason of going. The purpose of going to Baltimore is I was just seeking a better way of life. And of course I was pretty successful, I went there and started working as a longshoreman helping to send emanation, and food, and whatever to the troops over in Europe and Japan loading ships, until I was called in myself into the army.	30:22
Ferdinand Pearson	But during this time, the whole time I was in, I would send my dad a small check knowing the condition they were in even before the case, just farmers with betting on the farm alone, and there wasn't a lot of money. Profit was being made on the farm, family farming there. So I know in his condition, I had a fix up that he'd get a small check because there wasn't no money, must be paid in the army then. But he would get this check every month and he was glad to see this because it really helped them, and he told me so after I came home.	31:01
Ferdinand Pearson	So then when I came home from World War II in '46, this is when his bus case had begun because he was in the yard talking with Reverend Delaine when I walked up still a uniform up in the yard. It just was coincident they were there, and they were talking about the same thing, just basically about doing something about children walking back and forth to school. As I said, I had already quit then out of school and helping on the farm until I went away.	31:40
Kisha Turner	So how old were you when you moved to Baltimore?	32:28
Ferdinand Pearson	I was about 18.	32:29
Kisha Turner	Did you know someone in Baltimore, or did you just choose Baltimore?	32:35
Ferdinand Pearson	Yeah, I knew some folks in Baltimore, yes, as relatives and people I know in the community was up there. They would commute, just would come back and forth. Occasionally, we'd talk with some of them, that were already there. And I had some friends up there too, so I went to Baltimore. Like I said, I know how to work and did my work.	32:37
Kisha Turner	Right.	33:05
Ferdinand Pearson	So at that time it wasn't hard to find a job because the war was going on too, and so they were looking for people to work. See, I wasn't getting in the thick of it, I started working ship work, helping and working on the new ship, getting them prepared to go out and see what we used to call rig there, the booms, and things like that. Just that type of thing. And then the other times we'd be loading foods, when the ships come in, and getting them ready to go back again. And so there was a lot of work going on up there. Then I said, "Well, if I'm going to be away from home, I'm going to get into something that I can make some money out of, instead of just getting a little soft job in a drug store or something of that kind." And so this was done until I was drafted in the army.	33:06
Blair Murphy	So did you enjoy living in Baltimore?	34:01
Ferdinand Pearson	Yes, to me it was all right, especially some areas wasn't so—Collaborated building, and so I tried to get out of the slum because they had all of that then, but it was nice. You had to choose your places to go and refrain, yeah.	34:04
Kisha Turner	What part of town did you live in?	34:30
Ferdinand Pearson	In Baltimore?	34:31
Kisha Turner	Baltimore.	34:31
Ferdinand Pearson	Up in West Baltimore. And then of course I went down there in South Baltimore because we had some people. You'll find most of the people from Carolina down in South Baltimore, and so I'd go down there with them, but most of my time I started working until I was drafted. I was hating to go into the army, but it was one of those things I couldn't avoid then, I was drafted.	34:36
Kisha Turner	Did you have a choice between the army and the Navy?	35:05
Ferdinand Pearson	Well, maybe if I had challenged that I would've. But like I said, I was drafted. In those days you would just get a notice saying to report, and sent you the place and sent you the time. Yeah, so that's the way it was.	35:08
Kisha Turner	How was your relationship with—Were your officers White?	35:23
Ferdinand Pearson	Oh, yes.	35:27
Kisha Turner	How was the relationship with the White officers?	35:27
Ferdinand Pearson	Not too good.	35:31
Kisha Turner	Yeah?	35:31
Ferdinand Pearson	And then too, we were segregated. We didn't soldier with White soldiers. You didn't live in the same area with Whites, and maybe the only time you see a White is you go on pass, and that is to say weekend off of the base. You might see them around town or something like that, or maybe, if you're on furlough going home or something like that, you might see them, if you go by the army bay. But anyway, we segregated, but the only White we'd have with the White officers, especially the commission officer, we had what they call non-commissioned officers, which is up to the highest grade of sergeants.	35:35
Ferdinand Pearson	But when it comes to anything, the lieutenants, captain, colonel thing, were White. But there was an all Black outfit called the 92nd Division, and they had Black commission officers, but other than that they were White. And it was fairly good, but it's just segregation just has an effect on you. You just can't feel like you are an equal citizen when you see you're being segregated, and don't allow it even to go in places where the Whites go.	36:22
Blair Murphy	So did the segregation carry over to when you went overseas?	37:10
Ferdinand Pearson	Oh, no. And that was something, good question. When I went to Europe, landed in Liverpool, England, and the White, I mean Blacks, could go in any place over there and be served, and they would serve Blacks with pride. The only thing that was segregated is that the American places and the facilities for when you are going to town at nights, overnight pass and things like that, weekend pass, you had to go to segregated places. One for White, one for Black, somewhere across town. But other than that, for the civilians over there, they were just served Black with pride. Even little children would walk up to you and they want to appreciate you.	37:13
Ferdinand Pearson	On a few occasions I had a little White boy came to me, rubbed my skin, looked on his finger and he said he was told that that would rub off on you. He said, but he found out it wasn't true. They seemed to sit down with Blacks with pride. They were told—I guess it was propaganda that Blacks had tails, and they found that that wasn't true either. But all in all, the further the places I was over there, the segregation didn't exist like it was in America, and I was in England, France, Belgium and Germany over there. And then of course after I went over the Pacific, I was in Korea, and Okinawa, and I found in those places its a different culture and everything, but it wasn't as segregated as America was.	38:16
Blair Murphy	So did it make you feel different when you returned in '46?	39:21
Ferdinand Pearson	Well, it made me feel like something was wrong with our society because those things didn't exist in other places. And like I said, you were more of somebody there I felt. So anyway, where you could walk in any place and be served, and of course you were in the same drinking facilities, and the same restrooms, and everything. Came back here and found that America was still segregated in those things, in those facilities.	39:26
Ferdinand Pearson	And then after coming back home, here came, and come, and find segregation that exists is just as the same as it was before I went away, and I'm over there putting my life on the line to help save, or contradict, well, segregate me back home and tired of me of running into some of the government places like Farmers Home Administration, or whatever place we go in, you could be. You can walk in there ahead of a White man, and if he walk in, he got the attention of the employees there, and they'll serve him first, and while you're sitting there with him, instead of saying, "Next." Serving the one next in line. And so those things was—	39:59
Blair Murphy	Disturbing.	40:57
Ferdinand Pearson	Very disgusting. So I was glad to see them change, see a change, but I didn't want my young sons and daughter to grow up and see those kinds of conditions exists. So it was a change. And so I think all that, the sacrifices that they, my dad and the rest of them made, wasn't in vain. Made things better. So that's about it.	40:57
Kisha Turner	Oh, well—Okay.	41:40
Ferdinand Pearson	What they call a general farmer, he planted just about anything to grow in this part of the country, and so he wasn't one of the largest farmers out, but he was, back in those days you might say, a pretty large farmer. Say something like about 175 acres, and be able to plant, like I said, most things that would grow, so it kept us busy pretty well year round because you're talking about, say, wheat and oats, tobacco with the wheat and oats. You plant those things in the winter month, and then the other things you plant in the spring, like tobacco, and cotton, and corn, and vegetables of various kinds.	41:42
Ferdinand Pearson	And of course with the tobacco it took heat to kill the tobacco, and at that time they didn't have what they might call gas burners and that sort of thing, they'd do it by wood. So then we spent a lot of time after we finished cultivating the crops, before harvesting time, between that time, we had to gather woods for curing the tobacco, which is started in July, somewhere along there. So we had a pretty well year-round thing because they gathered the corn by hand. They didn't have the machines like we have now. We had to gather tobacco by hand. Everything was done by hand and cultivating, but done by mules.	42:43
Ferdinand Pearson	And I told my father about a tractor, I think he was one of the first Black in the area that owned a tractor, and so that was quite a help to them, but we still had a lot to do. So I done helped him, my brother and my cousin, Jesse and his brother, we all were there with them during the time up until I said I went in service. And when I came back, and after this case started, I was planning to go back into Baltimore to live, that was on the foremost of my mind when I got out of service. But I came and said, "Just to visit," after being away for two and a half, three years, and now going back to Baltimore. But my dad took me into the room one day and he asked me not to go back. He said, "If you've been blessed to live through what you went through," could say around about two and a half, three years in the war zone, that, "You should stay home and just take it easy, say, for a while."	43:42
Ferdinand Pearson	So seeing the condition he was in, it was right in the farming time. This was in April, planting time, so I promised him I'd stay, but I didn't sit around because I couldn't afford to look out there in the fields and see him and the rest of the family laboring out there. So I would go and take his hoe, or drag his plow, or whatever the case, and give him a break. And then of course, when night come I'd go, a young man going out, but I wouldn't sit in the house or just go riding and see them in the field. So he's appreciative. He appreciated it very much, but I find myself then, I'd be out there all day because I wanted to help him. And he was a good old man. Yes, he is.	45:04
Ferdinand Pearson	I'm bragging about my father, but he was above the average, yeah. He set an example for us, kind of role model, and I looked up to him and appreciated the way he was and everything. So I helped him until he passed because instead of going back to Baltimore, I decided to stay, and I met her there, and so we ended up getting married, and I bought the place here. Matter of fact, he is the one that—He had the place picked out for when I came home, and one in the back over area, back over there from my cousin, he was also in the army, Jesse. And my dad didn't even know I was going to stay there, but he had it picked out. So we had 150 acres, and so I bought—	45:59

Ferdinand Pearson	Yeah, so we lived about half a mile going down south of here. So, that's where we grew up at.	0:05
Blair Murphy	Is that land still in your family?	0:16
Ferdinand Pearson	The what?	0:17
Blair Murphy	Does your family still own that land?	0:19
Ferdinand Pearson	Yes.	0:21
Blair Murphy	The— okay.	0:21
Ferdinand Pearson	Yes. My stepmother in-law, they still over there.	0:22
Blair Murphy	Did—	0:26
Ferdinand Pearson	So, I wasn't in this house at that time. It was a house right down the road there just a little way around about 500 yards from here. But I built since that, so we're still here.	0:31
Blair Murphy	Did your father purchase that land, the land?	0:51
Ferdinand Pearson	Yes. When we were going to the Sand Bay School I told you about, he was living on another man place, other White man place, that time. But he always looking for an opportunity to get something of his own. And so when he heard about the place where they're living now, he left home one Sunday morning, walking. He walked from there to Manning about, I guess, 15 miles and talked with a man about purchasing the place over there where they living now, what he had. And so the man promised him that he'd meet him there that Monday morning and look it over and he would interview him to see if he had any means of paying, making his payments. So, he did.	0:54
Ferdinand Pearson	And so the man told him that he had go ahead and let him have it, but did he have anything through the farmer? So he told him he had a horse and that was just the beginning because he needed about three or four horses for the amount of land. So, early that Monday morning he went and came back with the horse. He didn't have a horse, what he told him, but he wanted this land so enough he bought him a horse back. And by the time the man showed up, he had a horse.	1:55
Ferdinand Pearson	And so it was some White folk living in the house but they were just renting and they were about to move and the house would be available and the land. You know?	2:34
Blair Murphy	Mm-hmm.	2:47
Ferdinand Pearson	So it was just a coincidence that he'd hit at the man just in time to retire the place, and so he signed up for it. And this what made it so important for us to stick with him work and try to make the crop to pay for it.	2:48
Blair Murphy	How many brothers and sisters did you have?	3:07
Ferdinand Pearson	I had three— four sisters and one brother. And then of course my uncle went away after my mother and my uncle wife died before I was about five years old. And when my mother died, that's when we were going to Sand Bay School, I was about five, six years old when she died. And so my uncle wife died about three weeks after my mother.	3:12
Ferdinand Pearson	So, then my dad took my uncle children in. My uncle went to the city to help my dad finance household operation, take care household operation. So, he would send so much back for his children. So, my dad kept his children, which was one girl and two boys. So, then they were included in the family then, you might say. So, they stayed there until they grew up.	3:53
Blair Murphy	So, your dad raised all y'all, huh?	4:30
Ferdinand Pearson	Yeah. And my dad and my brother, you'd never seen two people get along as well as they did. People in the community would always say they got along better than any two brothers they ever seen. Because their father died when they were small, I was told, would you be my grandfather, and so it was just two of them. So they stuck with their mother, which was my grandmother, until they got married.	4:36
Ferdinand Pearson	So, Hammett, he went in his own house and their grandmother was staying with my daddy, and she died in the place where they are now, my mother-in-law, I mean my step mother-in-law. My daddy, he's deceased now, of course. But my grandmother, she died. I know it was her because she helped raise us until my daddy married again and my stepmother helped my grandmother raise us up.	5:08
Ferdinand Pearson	But when my uncle came back from the city, my dad just cut the place in half like, "This is your part and here is my part," I think about 75 acres each. But there, so from that, they surely did have good relationship.	5:43
Blair Murphy	So, where did your uncle move when he was living with you?	6:06
Ferdinand Pearson	Well, he just was on the same plantation before it was cut, but then they just made one part Hammett and the other part Levi.	6:11
Blair Murphy	Okay.	6:22
Ferdinand Pearson	Yeah. But it was the same general area, plantation.	6:22
Blair Murphy	And what city did he live in when he left?	6:29
Ferdinand Pearson	Huh?	6:30
Blair Murphy	What city did he live in when he left?	6:30
Ferdinand Pearson	Oh, Newport News, Virginia. And then he went from there to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.And he was working ship work, too, shipyard. Yeah. So, he had just came home before the suit started, really.	6:32
Blair Murphy	Was your grandmother from the area?	6:52
Ferdinand Pearson	Yes, Clarendon County.	6:54
Blair Murphy	So, was your father's farm self-sufficient? Did you have to buy food from other sources?	7:01
Ferdinand Pearson	No, that's about basically self-sufficient. We bought a little something and sometimes certain things ran out before they make the next crop. But basically, because at one point, I'd say, for years he even plant no rice but he finally quit with that so he had to buy rice there, too. And of course, he raised his own sugar cane but he had still buy some extra sugar and thing— That he raised his own hogs. But times when that run, he'd buy bacon or ham. But in most cases, he was raising pretty well all those things.	7:09
Blair Murphy	When your family did buy things, would they buy from people in Summerton?	7:58
Ferdinand Pearson	Well, before— Now, I mean after the [indistinct 00:08:09], we were shopping mostly in Manning anyway. So, Blacks had boycott over there. But then mostly people in Summerton area, we wasn't, say, so much involved in that. But as a rule, if you know of a place being boycotted, it's just something natural. You might just say, well, if you have any sympathy for those that're boycotting, you probably kind of go elsewhere, other places yourself. It's kind of the way the boycott work. But we were doing most of our shopping in Manning at that time.	8:05
Blair Murphy	And would you buy from Black businesses in Manning or were there White businesses?	8:55
Ferdinand Pearson	Well, in Manning we'd buy from any business. Not very many Black businesses in Manning or most of things, product, main thing Black have over there maybe, say, eating facility, restaurants, and not many of those. A few little fountain business, but not— The real clothes and that sort of thing, you'd go mostly to White buildings, White merchants. But we didn't have no longer problem with that.	9:00
Blair Murphy	What about the Black businesses here, in Summerton?	9:38
Ferdinand Pearson	Black business?	9:55
Blair Murphy	Mm-hmm.	9:56
Ferdinand Pearson	Well, there's not a lot of Black business in Summerton for your general merchandise thing. They actually got, you could say, little stores, but you don't have any business like supermarkets or clothing stores, things like that. You don't have any of those. I don't think of nothing too much in Summerton but barbershop and restaurants. People support them but beyond that, you don't have no hardware, nothing like that. You know?	9:56
Blair Murphy	Mm-hmm. That's why the credit was so important and it was a way of controlling things—	10:34
Ferdinand Pearson	Yes. Yes, right.	10:46
Blair Murphy	— that you had to get credit.	10:47
Ferdinand Pearson	That's right. Right. Exactly.	10:47
Blair Murphy	This is just kind of like a general question, just your own kind of opinion on change or how things have changed or how Summerton looks different or Clarendon County, from when you were younger?	10:56
Ferdinand Pearson	Well, I don't see any whole lot of changes in Summerton as far as the economical growth is concerned. Before the [indistinct 00:11:24] and before Highway 95 was built to bypass Summerton, seemed like Summerton was more in a, say, booming situation. But after that, seemed like Summerton had really went down quite a bit.	11:11
Ferdinand Pearson	You don't see the people around shopping like it used to. And there was a lot of cotton was being made in the area then and the cotton was being picked by hand and a lot of family farming. And so people were doing seeming like more shopping locally. And so on weekends, you'd see people line the street or that is to say they'd [indistinct 00:12:19] the street, sidewalk crowded, filled with people shopping and of course talking. And Summerton was more lively, it seemed like then.	11:52
Ferdinand Pearson	But Summerton did not cooperate with the integration decision, school-wise, and that brought about the boycott and people were going elsewhere to shop. And people just don't go to town like they used to on Saturdays, things like they used to then. So, Summerton don't seem to have made any progress as far as economic—	12:30
Blair Murphy	Change?	13:10
Ferdinand Pearson	Change, yeah. Of course they do have a new school now. That's step forward to— And as far as I know, that's about the biggest change. Yeah.	13:11
Blair Murphy	I guess—	13:37

Item Info

Title:

Ferdinand Pearson interview recording, 1995 June 14

Date:

June 14, 1995

Creator:

Pearson, Ferdinand

Contributor:

Description:

Name: Ferdinand Pearson; Date of birth: 1923-08-22; Place of birth: Clarendon Co., SC; Occupation(s): agriculture; longshoreman; civil service; Residence: Manning, SC
Informant ID: 1225; Interviewed by: Blair Murphy and Keisha Turner.

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Language:

English

Digital Collection:

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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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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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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RL00170-CS-1495
ac93606a-306f-4a64-ad13-7cd2d3c374fb
behindtheveil
fdd59cc9-5599-4c3a-a1f1-9363a9796a19
ark:/87924/r43j3n96f
fdd59cc9-5599-4c3a-a1f1-9363a9796a19

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Ferdinand Pearson interview recording, 1995 June 14

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1. Ferdinand Pearson administrative file, 1995

John Hope Franklin Research Center

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Ferdinand Pearson interview recording, 1995 June 14

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