Interviews with African Americans in Utah, Annie Adams

Transcript (54 pages) of an interview by Lorraine Ferra with Annie Adams on April 28, 1983. From Interviews with African Americans in Utah

Mrs. Adams recalls her early life, the success of her children, the operation of her beauty parlor, and her activity in the Baptist church.

Vt0p -. 2-5 y~/ , b -7 ~c ~/2 ~- 13-2/ 11.· c;Jr ._)2 1- 2 2 C-/!__/c/ , .2 3 --2 ~ lf~. 29-31 Y? 33 -'--P~- 3../; >-/ 7-LJ &­~ 3~ YtP. ~3 7--3 s/ ~-pP· Yl-~9 Annie Adams, 4-28-83, p. 1 Lo ].,'et me start by asking you your full name. A My name is Annie Adams. Lo And what was your maiden name, Annie? A Miller Lo What' s that? A Miller. M-i-1-1-~-r. Miller Lo And your father's name? A Steven T. Miller. Lo And your mothers? A Lilly. Lo Lilly? A Lilly Miller. Lo And what was her maiden name? A Hughes. Lo And where were they born? A Now, they were born in Mississippi. Lo Uh huh. Do you remember their birth dates? A Lo No. My mother was was born-- , I need a scratch pad ~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oh, that's alright. Oh, thank you. A A--my mother was 35 years old when she died in 19 and 23. Lo How old were you? A When, when she died? Lo Uh huh. A Eighteen years old. Lo Oh, so you were born in a .•. A No, I was •.. a .•. 19 years old; Lo Nineteen. A. Uh huh Lo So you were born in 1902? A 1903. Lo 1903. A Uh huh. Lo Okay, and that was in Mississippi. A Yeah. Lo And so they were both born in. Mississippi? A Yes, they both were born in Mississippi. Annie Ad.ams, 4-28-83, p. 2 Lo Um ••• then how long did your father and the rest of the family stay there? A Well, he stayed there until he died. He died in nineteen hundred and fifteen. Lo Oh, I see. So, alright, now how many brothers and sisters. did you have? A How many brothers and sisters did I have? Lo Uh huh. A I had six, a six. Well, a no, he had two families, so, there were fourteen of us in all. Lo Oh, so your father was married before? A Mm hum. Lo I see, so fourteen children? A Mm hum. Lo What kind of work did your father do? A He was a farmer. Lo Uh huh. Did he have his own farm? A Yeah he had his own farm. He had a, he farmed 150 acres of land with sharecroppers. Lo I see. Do you remember any of that, can you describe that for me? So you grew up on a farm. A Yeah, I grew up on a farm. Lo · Uh huh. A Uh huh. Well, in the spring of the year, like coming now, they would begin11to / ·,j the soful to get it ready for planting, and they would start planting in March. And so they would plant the corn in March, and then th3y'd put out the potato plants, you know, so they would rave potato strips to set out, a~ wren the weatrer got warm. And they called it bedding the potatoes; they'd put it on a bed, and tren, I don't know whether they'd watered them or not--1 don't remember. But anyhow, they would come up and then they would pull these planks over this potato that was in the ground and call trem pototo slips. Uh huh. And then trey would have the rows, that was already prepared, and so they would set 'em out. Transplant em. Mm hum. And that's the way they were grown. They would come up in 'em then, and then they'd grow. They planted the corn, and J, they would come and thin the corn out, along in April, I reckon, and, a~ so then they would rave to cultivate the corn, and the\') p/Ck, ~· cotton. So, a~ their chief products was cotton and corn. Peas, beans, and potatoes, vegetables like ~ .t1 "· that, you know, ~ r-o_ i's c c- _ all kinds of different vegetables, and so. But they raised the vegetables in a place what they called the garden. They didn't raise the vegetables out in farms like they did the cotton and the corn and the peas and the beans. Lo In the big fields? A And in the big fields. Lo Now, you ·said he sharecropped? . A My, my daddy. He had sharecroppers. Annie Ad.ams, 4-28-83, p. 3 A They worked some of this 150 acres of land that he had rented from a landlord. See, he would rent this land, and pay the landlord the rent, and then after he paid the rent, all the rest of the proceed ,that come from what. the sharecroppers had, he would pay, J, he would get half of what the sharecroppers made. Lo I see. A Uh huh. If they made two bales of cotton, he got one and they got one. Lo I see. A Mm hum. If they made two loads of corn, he got one and they got one. That's what they call sharecropping. Uh huh. And so, a~ my daddy had 'bout six, six mules, they'd call 'em heads of mules, six mules. And he had cows, and hogs, and chickens, and ducks and geese and stuff like that. Lo So he acquired quite a bit. A Yeah. So ••• Lo Was he born into slavery? A No. Lo He wasn't, Were his parents? A I don't know. Lo · You don't know ••• A But he wasn't born into slavery because he wasn't as old as my grandmother, and my l,v~ grandmother "asn' t born in to slavery. Lo I see. A Uh huh, but my great-grandmother on my mother's side was born into slavery. But I was too little to lmow ·what she was telling. She used to tell it, but I don't recall what she told about -a- slavery time. Lo So you don't remember any of it? A No, I don't know, uh, huh, I just remember she'd said that a~ her parents were sold from one slave master to another, but how their actions was I don't remember. Lo Uh huh. Now did you work on the farm? A Um hum. Lo What kind of things did you do? A I hoed, chopped the cotton, and picked cotton. Picked peas. And picked beans, stuff like that. Lo What was your day like? Like how old were you when you started working? A Oh, I was twelve years old when I first worked the field. But I didn't like it and so a~ the year I was twelve years old I d~dn't do very much because my grandmother had told me that I could go to the house when I got tired. Well, I got tired very soon. Because I didn't like the work out there, and so we had to bring water from a distance Annie Adams, 4-28-83, p. 4 and, a~ we would have to get water in the evening, you know, for water during the . night and until the next morning, so ,1 II " ' ( '< 7'"' ( .l. f; I told heIJ it's time for me to go in and gatheF the night water,and so she said well you go head· on and~;~~ the night water. So ~o<r t.Af I went on and gab~~r the night water. Next morning, she would always get up early in ~Q .\ hr1 the morning, but before day, and gataeY tbs vegetables for the noon-day meal which was 12 o'clock. We ate three meals a day, breakfast, dinner and supper. And, a~ so she would get up early in the morning and milk her cows and take care of her churning, and ,v,; //r~ ,P,,.,..~ ~ I I fli !'.r c i t< I( r,:. ?,.~(_,, get everything ready by the time it got late enough for gt) , I •'i-1(':j , ~-d-her tcififlelds t.,.,);,:;,/su li c>ir te-: do the work in the fields-. And she loved ~ field work, I didn't like it. She did. And she would work out there until about 10 o'clock in the day, then she'd go home to the house to cook the 12 o'clock meal. And go in and hdlv-(. cook dinner, and when 12 'o'clock come, we'd go to the house and~ our dinner. And those who liked to sleep, they'd lie down and go to sleep and rest until 1 o'clock. Then they'd get up and go back to the field, and then they would work until late, or ,-4 k r. ,,_ early evening, late afternoon, they- they had to go and take care of the stock, you know, like get tin the hogs and chickens and everything fed, for the night. Get up the cows and .milk the cows and all this kind of thing. It was quite a chore, but those ' who did it, most of 'em, they really liked it. A~ because, you see, ..r t-',>_ f.J ;<V!(.,( - +r it<,{ probablJ..iMarch until July, they always~ to get their field work mature by July. On tNrr h,~ 1 the 4th of July, that's wh9n they'd have iffie ~picnics and everything, you know, uh huh. TNtf i" a td c,t u ..P..t.l , i't ,) c__. ..J the:y He?e eele"era Lin• the 4th of July, as freedom day, and, of course, apparently / trat wasn't freedom day for Negroes, but, a~ that's what we did. They, celebrated. ~ (tt.+ And, a:, then they would: have from then until about the last of August, to g.itl;.i.~ up w,~,1 ({<-. the wood and stuff for the wee:tf'lar. They'd go to the woods and cut the wood and, in cords and bring it to the house and pile it up there so they'd have their woods for the winter. And, a~ then when the cotton would open so they could pick cotton along about the last of August, they'd start pickin' the cotton. And they'd get through pickin' the cotton, as a rule, by the last of November. And see then th9y would have December, January and February to do nothing. But they have their own hogs and they kill the hogs and grind it to sausage and dried up the, stirred up the lard, their fat what they called the lard, and, a~ they bought their food in lots. They didn't buy it in gibbles like people did in town. They go to the city and buy, a~ my grandmother, it twasn't but the three of us, she'd buy a half a barrel of flour, and I forgot how many pounds that consisted of, but, a barrel was about this tall, see. And, she'd buy a whole half a barrel. Well, tha.t would last us all winter, but her son would buy a barrel about this high, and that would last them all winter. And they would buy rice by the 25 and 50 pounds, and cheese by the whole case and 1- 'f. t f Annie Adams, 4-28-83, p. 5 they'd buy, they'd buy some lard too. They called it lard--they didn't call it shortening in those days . And they'd buy 50 pounds of lard and 100 pounds of sugar -\--t1. i< t + (), . and they would shell up the corn and~ it +:flFou~h the grist mill and have the meal ground up and all this, and so they would have these peas that, that they had gathered o....lo...._ t" . I ~ their farms, and they would thrash 'em out and a!', they would put a sheet down on the ground, and then they would pull their peas, you know up like this so that tre S' t) wind could blow the trash out. And they'd fan I e M • F~-._.. ~ t . B-H-t, that was the local farmers. I don't know how the big people did it. But that's the local farmers. But they'd have all that for the winter, see, and they'd have their own meat. They have a little house they called the smokehouse, and so they would put hct~~) they would put this meat down and .s-c~R l ; -t After they kill the hogs, they didn't kill 'em til the weather got cold, and when the weather got cold, they would put the hogs up in the fattenin' pen. The pen would be very small so the hog couldn't exercise a whole lot to wake up the fat. They wanted 'em to get fat enough to kill, and so they'd put 'em on tte floor and put a trough in there and they'd feed 'em, a!, all this good food, corn and was t e from the table and all that kind of stuff. wou l& And so, when theyAget, when the weather would get cold, then they would kill them. Pack 'em down in salt and let the salt stay on about three weeks til trey'd take 'em up and wash tre salt away and then they would hang 'em up in the smokehouse and, a~ they would put hickory chips, a~ there and smoke it. This meat kind of turn brown then it would keep until you used it upa Um hum. But later years then they got where they had this liquid smoke- -things was progressin' just like they are now. Things, old things went away and new things come on us, so they got to the place they used this liquid smoke. Lo What was it called again? A They called it liquid. It was a liquid just like ah.) just like syrup, you know. Lo Yeah. A Um hum. And they would take a mop and saturate this mea t real good with this liquid ,smoke and then they didn't have to use these chips and things , and was I glad, because see we children had to keep seein' tha t this smoke was steady burnin' and s mokin')so o r er,, , , ; ) r , -· it could smoke this meat. Uh huh, because if spoil • A I ' :' ( fo r ' I·., r!' . . - J, . . .., ' . -/, f' ( / .. ( I~-( M et /(c_ ' ,/ that they would ba:ke, you could s,1-, c -t,t:_ ; l: way down the street there and you could it didn't . seo,11 ,+~ •:_,., 1 ·~ ,1 'I , e-0ffte it would A J do it. and rv-, :, ('._ the sausage hardly wait til you got home were it was to eat it. Lo Ann, it sounds like you wanted to do something else with your life. A Well, I did. I didn't wanna stay in the country. Lo What did you want to do? A I wanted · to go to town and I always wanted a good education where I would learn how Annie Adams, 4-28-83, p. 6 to do some thin' else, and so aP' 1l went away to Jackson, Mississippi, to school and a r· J : ' ~· ( . ~ ' ~ ... hu i T~11.". ,, ·i' ,, (o /.(11, 1 :·· '-. I de haveppportunity to a~ I was reared by my grand-mother, and she didn't have a husband, and so ·she live.fwith her son, and I didn't like his way of doin • 1 so I married ,: ,, · But I told my husband, and he kept a warning me 'bout let's get married, that I didn't want to get married .because n ,, 'I I wanted · to go school. I say, I don't want to work in the fields, and he say> well I if you marry me you won't have to work in the fields. on to school,') ~nd, a~ we went on and got married. .. ' And so, he says>I'll send you But he didn't •• Lo How old were you then? A Seven teen. Lo You were seventeen. A Uh huh, but he didn't send me on to school. So eventually I did meat work for awhile. And, a~ I didn't lTh.e doin' meat work for nobody1 so I'd taken a course in beauty culture and I ••• Lo Was this in Jackson? A No, in a~Greenwood, Mississippi. Greenwood is 90 miles north of Jackson. Lo And this was after you got married? A Yeah, this is after I got married. Lo Now up to tra t time how much schooling did you have? A Well, I had ninth grade education. Lo And were you ~oing all the time? \ A No. You couldn't go to school all the time. We had at, well, you could go to school Lo A all the time, it's true enough, but your school time was only five months in the rural. Uh huh. , I don't know where this school came in at) I but there come a system was called Rosenwall School. And, a!', now they didn't have many Rosenwall Schools in the rural. What kind of a school was there? ~t- ""\'<\-C.. n :Phe:re was a ~ month school~ -out you see, when I was small, we had to go to go to school in our church buildings and we had to study with our books on our laps. We didn't have desks, and nothi..ng like that. We had a heater and when it was cold in the morning, we'd get there and~, trust that he'd done ~~~--~~~~~~ brought some wood, and the boys would get there and make the fires and we children stand all around the heater and be warming the heater instead of the heater warmin' 1, r\ • , us, you know. And me, I had to walk 2f miles to school, with aApail,with my lunch al I -t J.., r. A in it, and I na:~ k , .,d f r fl-i " ' "1 • ,t.nd so we would have one teacher to teach all these children, and that one teacher did the very best she could. But, a~ she would use a higher advanced children to help her with the lower grade children, you know, and a~ they didn't go no higher than sixth grade, because she just couldn't handle it Annie Adams, 4-?8-83, p. 7 any higher than that, you know? And so, a~ when w Rosenwall School came, then they give us school buildins' and they had two or three rooms and then they would have about two teachers, to the room. But, Jf at that time, and before that time too, the southern white man didn't care if you didn~t know how to do nothin' but sign your name, so you could sign your life away to them and you not know what -, 2 ~ 'v,./1)'(' ~ cl'Y) your signin ', see. But tfie:eo lfae ti-me ,fffl,ft, now> my daddy was a very smart man. Al> .,/ he say that when he was a boy, his daddy died when he was small, and, a~ his mother married again, and they were farmers. And so he said trat they had a speller that they called the Black Webster Speller. And he would put his new Black Webster Speller in his pocket and go to field and work he said when he would plow, that he would work real hard so that he would soon be th'ed, you know, and he'd have to stop and let the ;mut~st. And while the mule rest he would study his new Black Webster Speller. And then there was some professor not so far from them, and he would go at night to this professor for him to hear him recite his lessons. And that's how he got started with his education. I don't know how he finished it;but AY\d. he used to tell u~ that. !r my grandmother had told me about how ~' -I h J-/. t. 6/ -./· I '-/Ml -,..o _';JC> she got ft> l u,1. 1 l,o w.d t 1 c, "f J.., lt1t-t_-., i+. They had a hard ::eu,c:n: ;,~~"· Uh huh. And I; la. el< -/b IA:~ } t 'VJ I /,(11..a ~ always had a A ,~r- :,:( ~ -\,, f o q t1' • J <:, Lo Now when you went to school, did you have a black teacher or a white A I had a black teacher, yeah, uh huh. Lo I see. A Yeah, but you know, aL>at that time, they was so non-interested in black folks which I like to say Negroes, a havin' a education until you could pay the superintendant of education a certain amount of money and you could become a teacher. They didn't give you a test to see if you eligible of teachin'. They just say you could just pay and then they give you a certificate to go out and teach. Um hum. And there hl'V'i- : I A Lo was so many teachers that needed to have been taught, you know, .and ee- that was one reason why Negroes wasn't any better prepared than they were 1 because the teachers was inprepared themselves. Um hum. So ••• So they wanted to keep yo~ Bound Uneducated A Yeah, uneducatedJso you could be a slave, even though you wasn't called slaves. But that's all you was. You was just a slave. You see you go out there and work and, for the~, and .al) theyfurnishyou, well, long time ago they would furnish you cm (..,......,~ , ... -f +·ho ,i:~ so much money per month to be a Then after that there ll'ft~ e. "a~ i, ~ p £.?_wy. J.~ u , beautiful places, I mean pretty, a~ they would have what 'they called a commissary. And they'd fill that commissary with groceries and then 'i Annie Adams, 4-38-83, p. 8 .J. '1:> JJ...11 they'd like you to come in spring now, we would go and buy a lot of spring clothes '~J ~ I and put in. the~~ 1 ~~·f!~J.l~~:l .:l ,( ~ft a variety of clothes, you know. ~d a>; then you would just like ;YOH had-a- family and .r.)J. ~,'4'- .;) h ).t c.·' ,(11', / ,1 "· • / and all, you go there ) ( and you buy your groceries, you get so much groceries, And then, a~ you could buy whatever clothes you wanted, help yourself. And so, a~ ·f h(? ·l ~ ., that was I , J) v rJ«... g e./J~t/ .,~,:h>trl"JC:., ~,,.,,) ;;,l; ;l·?•,:·,j tr'teffl. days;l\know ~. uh huh. But yet you didn't get r r ' l no money and when the fall of the year come, then that's when they call settlin' I, l ~" rtb-time. ftl-e white man sell the cotton and, a1Awith you for whatever he wanted to pay you. You got so much and so much for it and that brought so much and so much and you owe me so much and so much and you didn't make enough. I didn't get enough out of your cotton for you to pay your debt. And so, therefore, a~ you still owe t./·X~ .. me so much and so much. That's they keep you there for another year',ftsee. Uh huh. Lo You said something about the 4th of July. You celebrated but you felt that for the Negro it wasn't for freedom. A No, it was freedom they was celebratin' but it wasn't freedom. They wasn't free Lo A Lo A Lo A to do just whatever they wanted to. They had to ride in the back of the busses. And get off the sidewalk and let the white mailf' by. And, if we went into, a~ well, you went into the doctor's office they had a little room over here for you and a little room over here for the white man. You went into the _c.,,L/.~__ _, ___ there was a side for the white folks and tl:'Ere was a side for the black folks, you see, and a~ so they were just discriminated. l,,, This is when you wer.e very young. No this is since I been up, big. Yeah, I was going to say it seems like they wouldn't have even had that like when you were twelve years old on the farm ••• t·~d / Oh no, they didn't have tfte l<i.~, c:I ,~(' ..rJ·wf{ then. Oh no. Um Umm. A~ so they just to,ok l) \'. advantage of the black person. Now that was in the ~outh. Uh huh. So now you want to know something about out here, ~n I moved out here, we moved in this area, well, a~ And you were how old when you moved out here? Twenty-seven years old. And, a~ so, a~ as I told you, I don't know whether it was recorded on the tape or not, but I moved out here, a~ this was in.the county. This wasn't called South Salt Lake City. It was South Salt Lake, but not South Salt Lake City. It was in the county. We didn't have any street lights, we didn't have any sidewalks, we didn't have no city. water, we had wells like I have a well ho.i\, in my backyard right now. We~ wells. Some of trnse folks had outdoor toilets. Whic~_we didn't have. We didn't even have a cesspool, but some of them had outdoor h J'"" ~~.k ...1,.~ toilet cesspools, you know, and, a, so I was used to city life. And so J: mi.eil8: · Annie Ad.ams, 4-28-83, p. 9 ......,_. lights and city water and telephones and all that kind of stuff you know. It was war tine and so you couldn't get a telphone out here. An.d, a~ well, after wren we first moved, we moved out here on a Saturda;y- and that Sunday, you know children are fine children1 so some white children come along and they found my children and they asked them to come and go play with them. And so they did and r,,<\~ they~ friends. And they were, they were Mormons alright, but trey were very friendly Mormon children. And so they pickin up, my children and them got to be friends, and, · a~ I didn't get to know no body much out here so it was very lonely for me, out here, because my husband would go to work and, a~ the black church was downtown. Lo Which one was that? Did you go to the church downtown? A Uh huh. I went to church down town • Lo Which one was that? A Calvary Baptist. And so, a~ but my children they went to the Mormon primary with the Mormon children and we registered our children in school--we moved here in August and we registered them in school 'bout the last of August. And, cf, so Lo A the te~cher somehow was very glad to l'E.ve black children because they l'E.dn't ever had the experience of teaching black children, so my husband and me we talked with the superintendant of education and told him what we expected for our children, and N we told him our children 1Jhouldn't give them any problems, but if they did, see us. And we would take care of the problem. So he assigned us out to a school right down the street there, Madison School. And we take the children and en.{o?~~i~~~~~-r,1:\ , in school. And so we told the teachers we didn't bring the children tre ref\to teach them, we brought them there for them to teach the children. And if they l'E.d any problems in teaching the children, to let us know, because it wasn't so much that we were bringing for association, but we were bringing them there to learn. So did you feel that they were curious about Negro children? 1 • Well, some of 'em was, but a\ a1 we had raised our children very intelligently, and so they didn't have very much of a problem with them, uh huh, and our little girl, she was always a friendly little girl, and it didn't make no difference to her who you was, what color you was. Whatever she liked to said to you, she'd just go head on and say it. People was just people with her. Both my boys were a little bit different than that. But we didn't have any real problem{ and so, my little . t i boy came home one day for lunch and he told me, he says, Mom, I'm gonna kill a ll boy wl'En I go back to school. He was 'bout eight ,, , 1 n years o,, ld. And I ,,s aid nC?, yo,,u t i I said no,you not. He says, yes ,1 going to kill nobody. He says, II don't use that word. And he said well , I am. And ' I fl I am--I'm gonna kill a bJy. I say no, you're not ~ 1 I say$, maybe you gonna fight with the boy. He says no,I've fought with him til ,c 'l .. I'm tired. He says, an~ I don't fight with him -anymore. I says, well,what you Annie Adams, 4-28-83, p. 10 " I f fightin' with him about, What's the trouble? And he says, well 1he calls me L,,i ttle Black Sambo and he calls me all t:t:"ese Snow Whites and all this kind of things, he fl ,, .tr"' ~ ' l says, and I'm not none of that, he says,~ I'·m tired of fightin' with him. He says, f, " ,, I'm gonna kill him when I go back over there. And I said>no you 'd.on't do that. I don't want you be have killin' in your mind. I says, a~· 1'you know what you do. He ., \) ,c says what? I saYj when he call you a~ say, little Black Sambo and Snow White and all • ,, fl p o 1:; r-~ that kind of S" J. v.f{- , I sayJ you tell him go head on ovcF to a, white trash) I'm , t \ I / not foolin' with you. I said)that will hurt him just as bad as Snow White hurts you. And so he went on and said the little boy came runnin' in there "Hey,lib!Q.a Sambo; o'I I; fl 4. , " 'I . , 1 fr . . , 1 ' hey, Samba", and he say1 "go head on~ poor white trash"!& > I t'!r'\ )'\w-r- p ., { ,'; ...... (l you. So he said, "where you get that from, wrere you get that from"? And so somebody s~r~ l l aeseE?eei had reported it to the principal that this boy was, a'l being, a'; noisy n n ·-... to my boy. And so the principal sent for him to come in, and so he went on in,, A.na. J L /} ...nt 1cl , 1 • tl ~ f I •. / I ·"; I ' C. / 1 ....,.-, I hear ,, that you're havmg trouble. 11, 1..: .c o t1 f J·,,.,.. . ;.; ,, ,,·1v , · .r, .. ,·t. ,.(. 7r r.. ) t, Lf\~ .· He say that>I heard that I) • , , you and this one boy don't get along so good. He sa~ well 11 N, I I'm not doin' nothin • to him, "said, 1 but he's callin' me Black Sambo and Snow White and all that and he says I've taken it off of him as long as I'm gain' takin' it. l} 0 II ti I'm tired of it. And so, a~ I told my mama I was gonna kill 'em. And he said1 my mama told me no, don't kill him, jus t call him poor white trash, and that would d hurt him . just as bad as Snow White hurt me. And so he said, the principal said to fl him, well, you just come on to school and I just like you alright, and I'll assure i i you you won't have that trouble no more. S, o that done away with that, and we had no more trouble. And,~ then they got up a play. I forgot what the play was, but anyhow this play, J.; contained you bein' black, and a1 they wanted my daughter ( .::, ,.., e__ H v,.O > to play this part. And so,, she~,, home and told me about it. I said>~ you I says t if they got the play, they knowed ,,th ey didn't // you when they chose the play. I says1 and don't play that part have nobody black ;-.-A-t~ r .c.; ;..L._J-- ----~~~~~~ ft r' they must have chose with you in mind. I says, so you tell 'em I said ~no~. You don't play that part. ~ I said because you not over there ·as a black student, you is over there as a student. And so, a~ they done away with that play--they didn't have it. ~ r9( e - i.{' •·' And so that was about the biggest problem that we had, a, as~~, you know, but, a\ as far as what the Mormons have done to us , the Mormons haven 't done nothin' to us. We've got good Mormon friends here, JJ last year when I was sick, a~ my Mormon friend didn't come to s ee me. I got on the phone and called and asked her, I says, a~ I want to know what happened to our friendship. I say I been sick and you haven't called to see how I was feelin'. And ne :_U,t~~:· ha.ve yo~ come. I said so I just wanted to know, was this pretended friendship or was· it real?-· And they say, "Oh it's real, it's real. We love you." I say well that ain't Annie Adams, 4-2.8-83, p. 11 the way you treated me, but when you love 'em when they sick. I said so I just wanted to know so I could know what to bt-, f h ~ k 1~ ~ So in about 20 minutes they were here, and they have been showing friendliness. They were friendly .alright. They had done quite a few nice things, but I didn't understand why trey that they hadn't called. I don't expect everybody to come and see me, but, a~ if I know you sick and you were my friend or even if you a neighbor, I call to see, are you sick? If I don't see you outside, or whatever. Are you sick? Is there anything I can do for you? It don't make me any different whether you white, black or brown, and as a lady friend told me, or polka-dot. It doesn't make any difference. You are human. And God loves us all, because he made us all. And that's the way I look at life, See I don't figure you any better than me, and 0 (M ('),(1--IC'- ;:}l,.._,J C, ,,.., llt'.t+•-1.r· t, //t ,· I don't figure I'm any better than you. Now be different, but he said out of one blood created ye all nations, and I don't think He made a mis take because He made us. And that's the way I look at it. If we' re gonna be God's children, we are all God's children and He separated this blood and p lacr <-L ;f just like he wanted it to be. Like I asked one man, I was trying to get a place to put my beauty shop, and I couldn't rent a place downtown to put a beauty shop. J: t\J.. It would be just fine until ~ got there andJ\found out I was a Negro. Then some-body had just rented it or Scrw,.R. Jt\ .. r, 111 c,J.Kv'--' , some sort of lie, to keep from rentin' , ., it to me. So I asked one man, I says, a? you're supposing that you don't like me, '1 d.dn 't ,, huh? And.. he/s[y ,,a nything I said,well now tell me just how you know you don't like me? I said1 maY.be I could ., correct that thing if you coul..d tell me just how you ,• know you don't like me. Isa~ I don't know I don't like you, I said, so far I like ,1 , , you b,,e cause I,, don't know anything about you that make me dislike you. I say, until now. I say, so if I'm not good enough, you've got your property for rent and if I'm not good enough to rent it to, and you don't know nothin' about me and you don't ,, If •• rent it to me because I'm a Negro, I said, tren I dislike you for that. And he sit I/ z, I ,( 11 tf there. But I told him1 I sa~ you know one thing ~ He says what! I say you better \ \ 1f 1 t1 ,! \ I than your Maker. And he says . in what way. I say in every way. I E,B.) Hi 8Zf8yY I I I ; 't" fJ pf?r./ /,'\,. ,t rl' ~ I said_, the scriptures saith that God have no iP8S},8Q:tr.b~ persow. I saY., so . ~~ f'~ -c. ~ .f~ ,... ,, " that makes you better than Him because .y, ou are a ~aspect.bl€ person(. Isa~ so I want to pray God's blessing upon .you. And he turned red but it didn't make me~d difference because I know I was tellin' him what thus saith the Lord, you know. 11 ' ' •• So I told him, I told M~n.. .p , r s-.i: 1 J.--1; well) I say you people are makin' me mean. I ~ ~ says) and I never knew how to be mean, I said, but you have your property or what- ,l ,, ever to rent, and,I saY; I d,,o n't want,, to associate with you. I just want to rent your_place for my business. I say~ then you don't whether I'll pay you your rent Annie Adams, 4-28-83, p. 12 ,1 ,, or I won't pay you, I sa~and you don't know whether you like me or you don't ,• d 11 r f like me. I sa~ cause you have no dealin' with me. I saY; you couldn't tell " ,I I ~ ,, whether you would like me or you tJ. o 'Y\ t l.'ike me, Well, it's just been ••• II i_r' 1/ I said,now we didn't just ren1,7- I saY5Jit's not just rentedi,. I say you got to . • \ /1 .~~ttf. '1 • • \l give me ~+Jn ... ~. f.,r .i: A,t fr·\ ... ~J 4 , I say it's not Just rented. So I never could rent a place t,,h erefore. TRe {~ that I . was rentin this house from at that time, she says, al. if you could find a place t,,h at you could buy, you could move it on my lot and I won't charge you the rent.fa my husband found the little hotme we got )~ ',.' h.. e r C(V\-'' f> - ~ 1-J I out there in the back and got a 1fte¥el!' L • h 1p + o move it and put it out there, Lo So you started your beauty parlor business here on this lot? A Uh huh. So that's where I first operated my shop. Lo And you owned the lot, Uh huh. She owned it. A Uh huh. She owned it, Lo Oh, I see, A I didn't own it. But that same lady she willed me this place when she passed away. Uh huh., because I was good to her. Uh huh, Lo Was she Mormon, A Huh? Lo Was she a Mormon lady? A No she wasn't a Mormon lady, Uh Uh. She wasn't a Mormon lady. M but, a~ it was, it was just a mystery how it happened. A~ my husband was told that they didn't, that the white folks out here didn't want us in this neighborhood. So one morning he said he was goin' to work, and they lived in that house right over there, And her / ( husband was out in the yard and he say he stopped and asked him. He say,I heard ? ,, , , that you people out here 'didn't want me and my family out here, He says~ are you one of the people that don't want us out here? I just want to see if somebody that , 1 ,, said they don't want me and my family out here,1 and he mld him, . he says no, I haven't said I didn't want you out here. I don't have no objection to you bein' out here. He says that damned old Dutchman up the street what you rentin' from, \) I he's the b~gest enemy you got out here. Uh huh. And so, ai) one evening in November of that year, that was 194 3, a~ I had taken my children and went to my ~ v e ., ~ I () , brothers on ti-1QQ:M south and second eas~ _ and,it was a'} about :fl ~-~ -1 ,:~c-' :.J k . J• {• y(-,,-. J. '9 and I was standin' on State Street and aeeo~ South wai tin' for the bus and this man came along in his car and he said, I don't know why that light was so long changin' I I that evenin', but it was, so he say, you come on and get in my car and ~ 'I tt I ~ I'll take you home. And I sa~ no you won't take me home. He says oh yes I will. rf 1l " ,1 " ,, ,, I said· no you won't. He say, yes I will. I saY, you don't know me. And he say no Annie Adams, 4-28-83, p. 13 If ,, I don't know you, he saict.,yes , I do know you1 too. I said, no, you don't know me. He , , ,1 ,, said) yes, I do know you. And I knew it wasn't nothing,, but the spirit says get in the car. Tm man don't want you and all those children. I thought he was being fresh, ,, wiJA ''r you know. Said1 ,, he don't want you BIMl all those children, ~o I said ,t, o the children, come on and let's get in this man's car. He said he'd take us home. So I got in the man's car and that time the light change and the bus come all at the same time and he brought us on to his house over there and I was ,, livin' on down the atreet then. But he :8'l~ed to~~ on the way home and he sai~my wife has been sick for fifteen years. He says, and, J, I would like to get somebody to come in and help \l ' I I I ' ' her with the housework. He said, I work for a smelter. He said1 and I'm gettin' old and, ~ I, , don't feel like workin' on the weekend when I'm off, doin' tre housework, he said. But she have heart trouble, and, therefore, she can't use her arms very much and I would just like to get somebody to come in and run tm vacuum and on ., I washdays empty the water. They didn ''t have automatic machines then. And, a~ so If 11 ,, I said yeah. Finally I said to him, I said, well I haven't worked for anybody but II myself for thirteen years. I ,, said, aJ, but if I could on Saturdays, I wouldn't mind helping mr since she's t'' ,, 11 Saturdays. I say-, do,n, 't you see I got a baby? And he be of any help to her, a~ 11 1/ sick. And he saYi why on ,, ::r~ee... sa~ yes,Ayou got a baby. What about the baby? I ,, say well, I have to work with my child,,r en. Th,e, se other two is home so they could take care w~+- of the baby while I work. · I says, a\ you know a lot of people don't ~ babies in their homes. I say I don't want nobody y she would do that. And so by that }I 1/ S'".bt>J e-:., ,:J,1 my baby. He sayJ I don't think .r v ,, time we was to his house. I sa-y, well you tell her tra t I help her sometimes. i -Nfx/ 11r1,r,J;:/: ;1 ,;: ;, r • ~).rl " And he said alright~ So in about two weeks he came } I/ ~ I •l , , one Monday morning and he say,~ Mrs. Adams, he says, a, my wife would like you ,. ,, to come down and help her with her washing today. And I say, well tell her I be down after I get my little boy off to school. So I got my little boy off to school and then I come on down. I had to come back to get my little girl off at Ii II twelve. We washed. So I say, I have to go and get my little girl off to school. f ( d , , ,, , , ,J She said nh 11 huh. I says, and I may not ~ ba~, I says, because I got my 1aby. And she sa~ b~ing the baby over with you. 's/?_j. come on back then and helped her empty th,,e water and get the water for her and we got everyt,,h ing squa" red away. And she say it certainly has been a pleas-u·~r e having you today. She say even ( ( though I haven't unde,,r stood half you said. I say, no, and I haven't understood half you said either. Cause she was talkin' like a westerner and I was talkin like a southerner. And so we didn't understand each other's speech. And she .. , sa"Yi ~ would like to get you to come every other Monday and help me wash and come . ., ,,, every· Saturday and mlp me clean. And she says, aJ, the wage that they are Ia.Ying ,, I ' Annie Adams, 4-28-83, p. 14 , ( i I is .50¢ an hour, and she say but I'll pay you $LOO an hour. I said okay. So I come along and I helped her and the t.vJ..-lJ 1• J- was s P fJ v,:,.. d then and so her husband Ct,,,"'~; f'. ,;.,..,., sick and she put him in the hospital and she told meJ she 1/ I d . says, I won't think I'll be able to pay you now. She sai~, my husband is sick and ,1 1/ he's the only means by which we have to live off ,, ,, •' So of his income • She said, so I '11 have to ask you not to come. I says, okay • .., we had moved his bedroom into the living room because she said that back room was cold. So that was a snowy winter~ And I wanted to come to see how they were doin' but, a~ c..? :.i .• ···\ beside the house was still ice and snow and I didn't want to open the door with him in tre f:ront,so I didn't come. One Saturday I passed on and she saw me and she ran to ,I •I ,1 ,I the door,, and she called me and she saY; Miss Adams, Miss Adams! And I saY, yes. She say) ooh, I been trying to get you and been trying to get you and that little ,1 d •• 0(.,{t..Y\""' "-,ir\.. wouldn't get you to the telephone. I say well, I'm sorry. I say Pf \I ¥ , I . •/ no, they sure didn't try. And she says I wanted to talk with you. And I said; well •\ .. I would have been back to see how you were doin, I said, but, you know, I didn't 11 11 ;I ; / want you to open the door on your husband. I saY; how is he?A,nd she says, well he's ll '( ,, J/ ,, gone. I s.aid) he passed away? And she saYj yeah, come on in and talk with me. So I went on in and she and I sat down and we talked and talked and she says, I said J ; ... 11 ,c ,, have you had the funeral? And she say, no, we ha vin ' it Tuesday. I said well, I' 11 ':t be back Monday to help you get ready for the funeralJ and so I did. I went back that Monday to help her get ready for the funeral. Then we, a4 just act like friends and I come down to see how she was doin'. And I would talk to her about the Bible and tell her what the Lord would do for her if she only trusted him, and everything. It So one mornin' I came down and she said to me, she ·said, you know, I've read the Bible more since I've been acquainted with you than I read since my mother been It ,f 11 gome. She says and you told me to ask the Lord to show me what to do. She said '( and between half awake and half asleep last night the Lord told me to ask Mrs. v / ~__K__ ~_ _~ C~t.J~er~-/' tha t was the woman li·v l·l l • i·n th·i s h oUEe, to let me rent that little lt house. That was a large house of hers. I said oh, you know you don't want to l/ ,, t , ,, live in that little old garage house. She say yes1 I do. I saYj oh no, you can't ,,, . I( I/ leave your moderate home and live in that little shack. And she saY. yesJI can. ' ,# 1M H.... 'rt\ t ,._, She said1 because I don't want to move out of this neighborhood. And~~ time• this Mrs. ~) Cue. r / came over and she was telling Mrs. Kerr what the spirit had said to her between half asleep and half awake, and I said to Mrs. Kerr, I said, I( ti , ! I j well, if you had two houses,. you could rent me one. I said, because I cani.live in , ! "',..,,,_i;(. that little, house up there with only two rooms and I'd have my children, bill!t I said, (I , ,, ' l ! p } 've got to find somewhere to move. And she said well I don't have t=e' .O c.t "1- d"l'l.~ +. . one. And, J., so I left trem talkin' and I went on home. The next day here come ,.,,.,...~· --- Annie Adams, 4-28-83, p. 15 ) / / H . Lo c.ff i:e- 'i< . a, r Mrs. Kerr and she said 1 " Mrs.'Harra~!.:lsked me to come down and ask you to come down /t ,, ~ ·7 ,, " to her house. And I said, what she want? She said well,- after you left me yesterday she and I talked an,d, she said she loved you so much that, aJ, she just don't want to move away from you. ~ ' She says,so we agreed that she'd buy my house and I'd buy her house. And you move the garage house and in my house and I'll move in her house .an d she will ,,m ove in then we '11 aH.L be right here together. And I said, well, I ti ,, ,, don't know about that. And I said,my husband have to say something about that. ~ y I said1 you tell her I '11 be down there after while. So I got my husband, he was sick, and I got him squared away, then I came down there and she told me all of this stuff and I said, 1 ,hey, you don't want to move in that little house~'And she r( , ' said>yes I do. So, anyway, cJ, when my husband got able, he came down and she told him all of this and he tried to get her to decide to .:r-h:\'i,J UY\. " '~ 119 her house. No 0 she just didn't want that house. She just didn't want it by no means. But she didn't want to move out of this neighborhood,either. And she didn't want to leave ,, -' me for one thing. And she says, ~ believe i± or not, but Annie's the best person ,, I ever been around in all -Lrie days of my life. She said, she'd never been around •( .. nobody _as nice as she is. She says that I just don't want to get away from her. She said" 1 so if you all would rent that house, I. will rent it to you for $20 a month . and I'll live over there in that little house. Well, we didn't have gas out here at that time so I ----- we moved just like she said, all of us moved the same day. It was a mess cause it was cold and slushy and everything a mess, but anyway I would have my children to get in her coal and kindlin' and stuff for her and she had salt water over tlBre and I have my children to bring her salt water over to her ho use • Okay, when doctor. She wanted to go she'd need to go to the doctor, I would take her to the shopping, I'd take rer shopping. And I did whatever I could for her. So finally one day .~ I she said to me, she said,~ I won't be able II 11 t• 1 r to go to town anymore, ) I guess. I said why? She says because I have sick spells. d She said I'm afraid that I '11, :fall out in the street downtown and we'd get run l! ,, }!_coy- ,t 11 over by a car. I said.,Mrs. :£-arra:iT, I says, a, if you not ashamed to go to town with me, I say if you let me know the day before that you want to go to town tre \! next day, I says, (tape ended) {' 1 j, 0 l--v\.•'"l Okay, aJ., I was just listening to i:art of the ending from last week. You were talking about the woman who became so close to you who moved into that little, you said it was like a little shed, the garage house? A Uh huh. Lo Yeah. A Now where did we stop off on her? Lo You were stopped, I think, at the point where you got to moving day itself. You \ l Annie Adams, 4-28-83, p. 16 said it was snowy and slushy ,out and everybody moved at the same time. l A Um hum. You sure remember good. Lo Well, you're a good storyteller. A Is your tape goin' now'l Lo I hope so. Yeah. A Oh. Is this what you do everyday? Lo Interview people? A Uh huh. Lo Often, yeah. I do a number of things. A Oh. Um hum. Lo I left on some people but I've got to come back to you because you're a good storyteller. A I don ' t know a oo u t that. Al. well, this woman, as I said, we 'd done all th is movin' on this one snowy day, and, aA, I don't want to repeat myself because your tape is too precious to waste up, you know • . A. but anyway, I don't know wrat I said before then, a~ but that was 19 •.. let see I hmoved here.· in 1943, and that was 1944, in January. And so then we lived here together, J, my husband and I was rentin' this house from her and a'\ she rented it to us for $20 a month. She was just that anxious to have me close by,because she found out that I was tre assistance that she needed. Lo It sounded more than that though. It sounded like she had developed a relationship with you. A Well1 yeah, a close relationship. I called her my big sister, uh huh. So, a~ I think I already said that she became depend6nt on me for help, you know, because she had heart trouble and she got to the place she was scared to go downtown, I think I said that already. And, then, I told her about I would take her downtown. If she wasn't ashamed to go downtown with me. If she would let me know the day before so I could make preparations for takin' her downto.wn. I still had a baby. And so she said, a\ no, it's not like that. She said you're not ashamed to take me downtown. And I told her I'm not ashamed to take her nowhere, and so that's how she would get to and from the town. I would take her to town. I would take her to the doctor,And wherever she wanted to g_o, I would take her. And, J, so that spring she went away to her son's house back in Minneapolis, Minnesota. And then she, she stayed, I think, about a month. But she gave me the key to her house and she told me whatever was in there that I wanted just for me to get it. Of course, th~e wasn't anything that I needed, so I didn't go in and get nothing. I'd go in there and see how things was bein' takin' care ofJ but I didn't need nothin' in her house so I didn't take anything out of her house. And she came back Annie Adams, 4-28-83, p. 17 and, J, I guess she had a pretty pleasant visit with rar son. And, J, so as the summer went on, ~ I would visit with her all during the week and then on Sundays we went to church. She didn't go to church. And after we would have dinner, I 'd take the children, my three children, and ..w e would go out and vi.si t with her. And ,, so this one Sunday, I went out and I said., how you feelin' todaiAnd she sai oh so-so. And, a~ I sat in the chair and my little lx>y, Charles, which was a baby, he sat on the couch with her, and he laid over and put his head in her lap, and she ....f. >'~--ff_.1£_ h _•_ ~_ _ , and we continued to talk and everyday, I don't know why, but everyday, she would tell me something conceniing her life and something concerning sht.- ho.J.. her welfare. And, well, she guessed, she'd never told me how much moneyAin tre bank, but she told me where her money was and her lx>nds, and everything• --60, in a way of speakin', I think she just told me about her business, you know. And 1! knew who her doctor was and all. So this day, that Sunday, while we were sittin' there talkin' tran she asked me, she said would you, are you gonna move? No, she ,, ,, " ,, ,. said1are you gonna buy a house? And I said1 ,, ,, ., no, I wasn't just tryin' to buy a house. I said,they wouldn't sell us one. I said1 that's the reason it was so long comin' out here, bec,a, use they, , wouldn't sell my husband a decent house. And so we just "didn't come. I said1 but I got tired of stayin' alone, just me and the children, and I told him if he couldn • t find no house out there, we had a five room house back there where we were and so if he couldn't find one out there, he could come .. \!~: back hojlle to us. And eventually he found this two-room duplex r•g b+ ~d ' Cl\""\ I '1f) £~#- Jj1;1,1t-<A1 ~ -H.t.. .h~c.~~,.,_ iilRQ iii ~ onAthe back, so it wasn't completed. It was under construction, \.... • • I I but he rented th.ab Ae'hi8e. And we lived up there. So I told her, ~r said, no, I said that we 're not tryin • to buy a house. These folks wouldn't sell us a house. '' , /J ~ I ·- J · ...,.,.._.._ ':--JO~ ~ O ~ . ,, ,, •• I ..Sa i«...1 ohi!".!(t..;,, 'JOY... a.Rs. i;+\Brcbe hlH ii.111AB. And she said no, she ,, '' ., said) I hope you never move out of. my house. I said1 I couldn't promise you tra t because.,,y,,' .o~'-~,I7.# +,-,. J-4ir( .(;M. children are growin' up a. nd we have to have a place /-,t- +Is . to stay. She said well, would you have a house here if somebody was to give you 1 ·' ,, " one. ,,I said~well sure I'd have a house her,e, if some,,b ody was to give me one, I said, but I've only been here a few months. I said_,nobody know me well enough ' ,, ,, to want to give me a house. I said)I was born and reared in Mississippi and •' ,, nobody loved: .me welll enougg there to give me a house. I say now I wouldn't expect ,, ,, ti anybody here to give me a house. And she said) well I want to show you. So she got up and went in to OOir bedroom and she came back with her will and so she had ti wrote her will up for me to have the house and the will read: my last will and testament I want to leave to Annie Adams ;ey ~~~ at 115 East Wayne Ave. all of my real property for her unfailing goodness to me." And, so, you can imagine, I 'm sure you can imagine that goos,e bumps # J ~ no, no, no, no Mrs. Harrah. Now I said,you got a son, Oc.t.+ brokef\3.11 over, , me and I sa,, id-you know. And I says) ·now Annie Adams, 4-28-83, p. 18 . Ii L '-fO"'t..-h~ I think your property and ~~t-11 y=<-~ ssl!ee should go to your son. And she saysJ t' ., ,, ,, . ,.,. you k,n, ow what I 0ve don~for my son, she said7 after my husband μi.ssed away• ~he ~ ,, said, you know I gave him money to finish pa.yin' for. his h:>me. She saiq but did I ,, ' ., my son come to see if I were after my husband passed away? I said~ ,, ,. ,, l ti ,, no 1 he didn't come. She secy-s, ai well who did see alx> u t me? I said1 that's a \ I If • question. And she said, when my arms woul,d, hurt me ,,s o bad in tre wee hours of the,, night and,, I'd get up and turn a light on, she said,I'd hear a knock on the door. . She said1 who was that knockin' on the door to see what could they do to relieve " ,, me of my misery? I said well that somebody was just concerned about how you felt I and,, what they cou.,d, do for you. Not takin' into terms of you doin' anything for me. An.,d she says1 "w ell, I feel like if anybody should have what I have, it should be you. She says I've never found a person as nice as you are in the rest of my • ,, If '. ,1 II life. She saY, I can't get you givin' to save my life, she saic\ what I set aside •\ II to give you, you give me somethin' for it. She says,so you're always doin' for me," she. . said, ff I ,,j ust never met a i:erson like you..,' ' I said,, , '~ell, that's .. just my nature. I saye, no put on or Ilr'etend for no body. ·. , I says. I like people. I says ,f w ,, tr wt/WI~ then, I have what you don't have, Mrs. Harrah. I says, I'm a young~us~, +h~"j•'-<- .. I ~,J.A. .,_ " ,, I have my f\lfM~ .- """'"i ?ee,e.y you don't have yours. I saidJ yo=mau have more money 1\ tl .,(rH,~/. a . J-.i>u-,, v~ b'Yt qt,t.~,,'~A~ } 11 • '' then I '11 ever have, I said, but ~ "'n 1 1 .t"t&m _ I saiq, so that's • , "+- , , the reason why I treat you, I would do anything I could for you, and J said; I will. ~ 11 u '~ A _r1,.,,. •ow,"l-... And, a, so she said, well, I'm gonna leave this place to you, she says, -ii,,.,f-a;~ .!ill leave my bonds and what money I have to my son after all my indebtedness and ,t ,, •' A funeral arrangements· is taken care of. And I say, wel~ ,irnd so she and this woman had me live in this house, Mrs. Martha Kerr, at that time she was, and they made this swap deaJ...~d so, Mrs. Kerr, she, she was a little bit on the deceitful side, as you know, And, a; so we went on through the summer of 19 and 44, and through tre winter up until January 19 and 4.5. And so we had went to the rationin' board and put in our application for gasJ because there wasn ~ny gas out here. And so this Monday morning, I always wash on Monday morning# )his Monday morning I went out and asked her, I said I come for your cloth3s. I w,,a shed for her. And so she f,·r,; • I said} ho~ are feelin' this h ,, ,, And, a:, I said, oh, you feel alright. And she give me.r, er clothes ,,a nd I aske,d, her morning? She said, Oh so, so. ., ,, Sort of lazy. I said1 well1 one good thing about. , it, you don't ,, ' said, I feel so, so. have anything to do, so it don' t make any difference if you' re lazy. And so she , I ,, gave me her clothes and I said to her, I said, are we goin' to town today? And she I/ said1well 1if we get our letters from th3 rationin' board, we'll go down and see " ,, about gettin' our gas put in. And I said~ well I'm gonna hurry up and get the wash and so we can go early after the mail come and get back before it gets so ~ f ,I cold. And she said alright. So the mail usually would come around ten or ten-thirty. Annie Ad.ams, 4-28-83, p. 19 But that momin' when the mail came, I had my letter from the rationin' board, ,L/cJ , ,? r·. S ,I and so I grabbed my little boy by ,,h is hand and I said,c'mon let's run out trere and show Miss Harrah what we have. So I went ·on out there and I knocked on the door and she didn't say anything. And I knocked again and pushed the door open ,, and went inJ ~11 ~ Ill.··"- ~A11.+1•- ln ah, and she was lyin' on tre couch. And I say, ,, well 1my goodness--are you sleepin' so soon? And she didn't say anything. I say " Mrs. H.a rrah.. , don't you hear me talkin' to you?'' And she still didn't say anything. ' .. ,, .. And I says, speak up, Mrs. Harrah, don't you hear me? I said, look what I got. And she turned her head, I didn't know that she had had a stroke. I didn't know that ,,s he was sick,, . And so when she turned her head,she rolled off the couch. I said, oh my Lord! The lady had rolled off the couch. And. I stood there and I didn't know what to do. I was in shock I guess. So eventually I took the pillows off the couch and I raised her up and put these pillows un,d, er her head. And then I ran in and called my husband and I told him, I said, you come in and help me get Mrs. Harrah to bed. I said she's fallen off the couch and I can't get her ,, " to bed by myself. He said, well1 you ask some of the neighbors to come and help " " ~· ,, you. He said1 it's so far and I have to come on the bus. He says, · . a~. thaLthat.'-s too long for her to lie on the floor until I can get there. So you ask somebody. Well, trese people were strange, very strange, towards colored people, or Negoes, as I should say it, because I don't think they had had any communication with Negroes. And I went over to tha,,t house across tre street and I knocked on tra t lady's door. I told her, I say, I come to ask you if you come and help me put II II Mrs. Harrah on the b~d, I saidJ she has fG.llen ,, on the floor and I'm not able to pick her up and put her on the bed by myself. And so she came on and we put her into bed. And she put cold packs to her face. I called the doctor, I knew her ,, doctor. So that doctor was out of town, but this Doctor .Je.fte.rso,-., was coverin' l.--·/ him. So he asked me and I tDld him what I wanted and he said I'll be right out .r..._J~ I I trere. And so he came, but in the meantime, he c,a, me and he told me he~, you get her to the hospital just as quick as you can. He said you have to call an ,( ,, ft ambulance. I said, call an ambulance!l An.d h.. e saia,yes, she's not able to sit " up, she's had a stroke. D,,i dn't you know it? I said,no, I didn't know she'd had a stroke. And he said1 well she has. You take her to St. Mark Hospital and ' 1 If II l I '11 reach you there. And I said, okay. So, a'\ I ran in there to get myself ready to call an ambulance. When I got back, she had gotten up and was on the ,, I I toilet settin' on the stool. And I saidJ how in the world did you get here? She I( ,. didn't say anything. I say, j,,u st how did you get in here? She still didn't answer me back. And she said, look in the dresser drawer in my black purse and ,, ,, you '1-1 see the will. She said, you get it and you don't give it to anybody but a Annie Adams, 4-28-83, p. 20 .' ., ,, lawyer, because it ha~'t been notariz:d· And I want you to have it, she said, so don't give it to anybody but a lawyer. So I got the will and I'd taken her purse and when the ambulance came, I took her into the hospital and I stayed with her about three hours or more, but, and then I went to see her everyday after. An....d.. ~..I,. . let her son know that she was sick and he came. I made preparation for them~ ~,I /1 <>K-1 ~ for them to get their baths at her house, because I didn't feel 1 ~e they might want to bathe in my bathtub. So she did. And I supplied her kitchen with food at her house so they could cook at her house. And they did. And so she was in there eight days, in the hospital, and I went to the hospital the next day after I put her in there and one lady, she was in a ward, u ~ " ~ and one lady said to me, are you Annie? And I said yes, I'm Annie. She says) I( Cfr .._,,., •. ,hj 1• " well I am'-'> glad you have come. She said, this lady has called you all night ,, ti ,, ,, .. ,, long. " And I sai~ she has? She had a sister. And I said she has? .A, nd she says, yeah. So I walked to her and I stroked her hair for her and I said,did you call ll ,, " me? And she 'hi:Jp/cu ,R._ her head. I sai(\ did you want me to rub your head? And she 'hed.Rd So I rubbed her head. And I went to see her everyday. I had some bad times with the nurses about her .1 ht,.+- ,.,,.,. ':j ',v"1J", J" ,_,_._ /,,, .,,._ I;-<_ j~ ilSQ she passed away. i Lo What kind of bad times did you have with the nurses? A Well, the nurses wouldn't feed her and she couldn't feed herself, see. And when I'd get there, those people in the ward would tell me she hadn't had anything to eat all day long. And so I didn't go until evenin' because I was waiting for my husband and children· to come so they could keep 4he baby, and I'd get there, it was after feeding time, see, and they'd be done lock the kitchen up and the other people would say she hadn't had anything to eat all day. And I said to the nurse, I'd say, rlw hy if somebody hadn't fed this woman? - I saic\y~ ou know she can't feed . ~ rnrself. And the nurse would say; well> I just came on duty. The other nurses .-. WMJrnt and the kitchen is locked.'~nd so one evening her step-daughter rad gone to get some ice-cream. And, a, so the night nurse, she strollin' down the ~ ~ hall yell in ·'-Yisi tin' hours are over, Vis i tin' hours are over. And so, a~ she came in the room where Miss Harrah was and I was feedin' her the ice-cream,because she wouldn't eat it for her daughter-in-law. And when she wo,,u ldn't eat it for her daughte,r, -in-law, her daughter-in-law s~id to me, she said maybe she'll eat . "' .. it for you. And so I 04k', • .€ ~ , I saidJ do you want me to feed you your ice-cream? And she nod .her·. head, so I was feedin' her her ice-cream. And this nurse come in ,, I'' •• and she say, Visi tin' hour i~ over. I sai') what difference does it make? For this ,, I/ woman hadn't had anything to eat all day~ And she saysJ well) we have a rule ·and t i \ Annie Ad.ams, 4-28-83, p. 21 11 If regulation about the hour. I says_,your reportin' me for not goin' when v,, isitin' hours are over and I repor t to th,. e hospit,,a l that you.'te not fee.d. in. her.,. , I said I cause she's not here on cha:ti:ty. I says, her oill W·ill be pg,id J I says. so she should ' ,, . ,, have care, so she can't do for herself. I said so now you I tj 6 cA..,, put me . ,, ou~.u I sai<\ if you think you're woman enough to put me out of this hospital, you If just try". Ahd I showed har. So she went and let me alone. Um hum. Well the next trouble we had, her son had gotten here again, and a,~, they went to see her, he and her, his wife., and so when he said to me, he said, are you go in' with us to 1 • ~ see moJher tonight? And I said,yes, so we went. And when we got . there, the linen was lying on the bed· tha:t had been put there earlier that morning and he said If ,, you know Miss Ad.ams, tln t iliinen was lying there when we was here at 2 o'clock. ,, " .. " ., And I said,yeah? And he saia._yeah. I said,well.it won't be lyin' here when we ,, " If ,, leave. And he said, why! And I said, because I'm gonna see that it's put on the bed. - And so the nurse g,i, vin' the water and I said to her, I said,"d id you clnnge ,( .. .. Miss Harrah's bed today? She said, not yet. I said, not yet and the day is gone? 1( ,, And she said, well1 I have 28 beds to see about, and I just haven't got to her. I said \ell, ~ cl\ visitin' hours is over, it's true enough,'1 I sai(\ 11 but let's change . ,, ,, ,, ,, . her bed. And she says, a\ I'll cmnge it. I said1 ,, but you let me ,h, elp you., , She says,I'm a registered nurse and I know well how to change the bed. I sai~ I don't ,1 I tf It doubt that, not at all1 I said1but you got so, , many bed,,s to change, I said,that you may run out of time again before you get time. I said, but if you just clnnge her b '' s~,·i. K"'YI "w ,, ~ 1 1. J I L 1 ed then it will be changed. I -~ you <3:efi 'it;- 1 r,?w1 "'"=' ~1 ,..., 1t 1r<, .> ;J 4\ ~ """~ 1< ' . And so she came in and we changed the bed and she looked up at me and she saidl ( . ¥ ,, you didn't believe that I was going to change the bed~ I said,did I have any reason to believe that you were going to change it? It hadn't been changed all ,, , . ,, A. .J.- d.ay long. I s,,a ict_,now ,I, could not have slept.._ night knowin' that she was .lyin' in a wet bed. I said,so now the bed is nice and dry and I can do home and go to " ,, ,, ,,"J: sleep, I said1 soAthank you for lettin' us change the bed. And so she passed on eight my shop, my neighbor, that days January and, aA, when I got right out here from /neig£~5s~~~e1tifice there, and he said to me, he said /I ,t ~ Miss Adams, Mrs. Harrah passed away, didn't she? I said yes she did. He saidJdid •f •f • I you know that she had willed you her property? I said,yeah1 ., I knew it. He saysJ we1; if you need anybody to testify for you, you call me and I'll be glad to do I( I ., ,, .. ,, it, he said, because I know what you did for her. I said., okay. I said> but you know Mr. ~ ~ 1Q. I didn't do anything for her expectin' her to give me any- ,• If . . I thing. Not one thing1 I said, because, the good Master said go into my vineyard ) I\ II is right, I'll pay for him. I said, that's what I'm livin' +J-at-property ~tha t would be you and work and whatsoever ti I/ for. He said1well don't you thd.ri.k if she left you her ,., .... _,,.~.., ""'"'··'"-·~ .... ~ .... @J f<.d. ,.+ 1,y-'""'~ A iJ~-;,..J +;.r,"'-j J. ~ -/r,,._. ~ -,J..,i -'1 '1 Ir7.r, '~,,._t .. . Annie Adams, 4-28-83, p. 22 goin' into his vineyard and workin' and this is the pay that you gettin'? " I q ~ saia.,well1she said that's what she wanted me to have, I said, so if the court give •• it to me it's alright, if i±. :-donlttt.give it to ·me, it'll still be alright. He said) •you just call me if you need somebody to testify for you.» So we went on and her ) son, he got ready to make tre funeral arrangements and everythin' and he asked me ( to come and go with him. He got ready to pick out the casket and he asked me to come help him pick out the casket and everything. He was very nice. And so we got her buried and all and,, then he asked me, a\ could he have some of the things ..... +hf,.~ out of the house, I said1as far as I'm concerned you can have anytbingJ\You want. So he went in and I don't know what he got,because I didn't know what all was in the house. So he had five boxes and shipped them to Minneapolis and, a~ one day I got a letter from him, I was going to see the administrator and he talked so nasty to me on about it, you know. And he told me about, a\ how would I feel if somebody ha.d taken everything from me that Lmy mother died and left, and all t,,h is kind of stuff; but yet when the lawyer talked to him about the will, he said>I don't want the will waivered1because mother told me when she was back trere last . year t ·hat, , she was going to leave this property to Ann, and I don't want the will waivered. But his wife was from Kentucky, see, and those were southerners. And they talked him in to protesting the will, and so the administrator was ~ell in' me about how fortunate I was, how lucky I was, and all this kind of thing, and his ti ti II ,. name was Priestly.., So I s,,a id to him, I said,Mr, P,, riestly, ,I, say, I don't consider th9.t I was lucky. I said1 I don't believe in luck. He said1you don't believe in '' ,, . •• ,, •J luck7 I said,no, I don't believe in luck. He said,well1 ,, what you believe in? I said,I believe in ble9-S...ings. I said so Mrs. Harrah wanted me to have it, the " I( .. I (~ ) pro~rty, I says, so, a': 3 . but this letter that her son has wrote to me, I ,, " said I don't like it, Not at all. I said1 because I did not know that she was . I\ I/ going to will me her property until she told me.., I sai,,d )and I've never give her no indication at all that I thought she should, I said, because I didn't think she •• ,, should, knowing she had a son, I said 1 but Mr. Priestly do you want to hear the \I ,, ,, story·: between me and Mrs, Harrah? And he said, yes, So then I told him all that I/ I've told you and more, And so when I got through telling him, he saidJI should just ha,,v e him to bring ev.e, ry one o,, f those five boxes back here to Salt Lake City. I said,no•,don't do that. I said,let him keep 1'1em. Whatever you do 1 just let him ~ H ~ .~.em. He says1 well, he better not bother no thin' else in tha. t house/ He said1 If because they will still have to go onto probabtion. And he said the pro~rty, tf it will go on probation, and you stay right there where you are and if I don't ever tell you to pay any r~n\, don't you pay anymore rent. You just stay there • ,, . fl ft't I .,W\O J ~ bt~,it >.,wt- He sa·idJ because I)ltt-4', ~(~I,~ y 7 2" nice to nobod~ That they didn't know.'' ti Annie Adams, 4-28-83, p. 23 q ~ d •' He saidJ you didn't know her did you? I said1 not very well before she got sick., I . ff I ,1 ,1 . •• said1 but, a? she was a human being, I said1 she didn't have nobody to care for her. I said1~nd I just cared for her." And he said,tel~we gonna see that justice be done. ,t If ,t I to you. I sai~alrighf, So when we went to court, a~ the first time we went to court1they put the property on probation.,, Next time that, a~ we went to court, a~ my lawyer called me and told me, he. said1 Miss Adam,s, , we're ,,g oin', , to court tomorrow at 9:00 o'clock. But you don't have ,t,o come down. I says,okay. So in about an hour's time, he called me and he ,, ti tomorrow, for court1 He said1we said,Miss Adams you be sure you come by now, ti 11 II ., .. ,, got a lawsuit on our hands. I sai~a lawsuit? And he says, yes • He said1 ., Ray ~.,: ., ., ., ,, ,, •t .,, is suing you. I said,he is? He said,yeah. ., Yes, ~ said1but the good~ about it is he's using my partner for his lawyer. And so I r ,. he says you come, you be sure you be there and, a, so this Mr. l-t &'l,..,10 ">? I' .~. ( {) what 1/ had told me that he would testify me, he asked me for some of her receipts,so he'd have her handwriting and I had given him some of her receipts and he studied them. fir Sof.Friestly had called him and told him that he wanted me to have the property. He'd be thare that m9ming, So, a; when we went to court, Ray was there and - /?~ '.s, wife was trere and I was there and my husband was there, and, a, so this Mr. d-./~" r, r: r .: 1.., ~ was there. And, a; I didn't do any talkin' at all, but when they called my witness, 0 1 , they asked him that he solemnly would swear that what he said would be trn truth and he laid his hand in the Bible and solemnly sweared that what he would tell would tf be the truth. So they had him to do the testifying. And he told 'em, he said)I ,, t( know so well that Miss Adams was friendly to Mrs. Harrah1 he said1 because I've been in her house when Miss Adams brought her laundry in and I've been in her house when she brought meals to her. And I've seen her takin' her downtown to the doctor and she has told me about her takin' her to her shopping and she's told me about her ,, ,, . takin' her to the picture show and all of these things. He says1 and I solemnly II swear that this is her handwriting. And that was it. So then they put her, the stuff up for auction and, a~ we bought nothing for awhile. So they called me and asked me they said we gonna put the house for auction. Do you want to bid on it? And I said I will. So they asked me how much would I bid and I said $250, And so a~ I rrade my bid and then when they went, when the auctioned off, he,, overbidded me, Ray did, he overbidded me. So they called. , me and t,,h ey told me sai,d, well, R,, ay overbidded you. Do you want to bid again? I sai<; no, in,, deed not,,. I said., because what I bidded was more than the, the property was worth, I says_. so no, I says because ,, as far as I'm concerned he could have it. So he had bidded $375Jso he had to pay $375 for the trash that was in the house 1because he had taken all the best things excepting the furniture and it was old-fashioned furniture and I don't, and it was airight for that house, but it wasn't nothing for you to be wanting to take it Annie Adams, 4-28-83, p, 24 somewhere. And so then they'd taken the money that t~y'd got for the household and they paid the lawyer and all the expense out of that money. So I didn't have f'iJ)hf- a A,v~ to pay one dime. And they give me the deeds clear, fla.:t cut, .~i¥8ly-. Lo And that wast~ only trouble you had to go through with the son? A Uh huh. That was all the trouble I had to go through with her son. They, a~ he ~~ didn't even s:i;eak to me. Um hum. I felt bad about that, _..st I didn't feel like I deserved to be treated like that, you know. Lo Seems a lot it happens within families. A Um hum. Lo When one child gets something from the other child. A Um hum. And so you see he was just the only child she had. And I told Mr. Priestly, I said Mr. Priestly, I could cause him a lot of trouble if I wanted to, I said because her bonds was her husband's bonds. I said Mrs. Harrah hadn't worked in fif'teen years. I said and those was her husband's bonds. I said and her husband was his step-father. I said her husb3.nd had children of his own. I says and so if he was to, if the jury knew this and went to court, I said don't you think they would be eligible to sign on the bonds of something. He said indeed so. I said but they don't know that and I'm not telling them. I said but if I was like him, I imagine I would 1:;ell them. I said but I'm not· gonna tell 'em. Which I didn't tell 'em. Um hum. Lo It seems to be a real unusual relationship between a Negro woman and a white woman at that time, A Um hum, Lo In the forties. A Oh it was. 16 It was. A Uh huh. Yeah, J\ I just didn't understand the people out there, akin the forties. Because they would look at the Negro as if where you come from? And then they would ask you what brought you here? Um hum. Lo Which is an interesting ~uestion. It makes me think, what did you, why did you come here knowing that a~ there weren't a lot of Negro people here. Did you know that? A Well, ch yes. I had heard that there wasn't a lot of Negro people here. But, a~ ~ even though me bein' born and raised in the south, I didn't do a lot of associating with nobody. I had friends, alright, but just to have a whole gob of people, Negoes, around me all the time, I didn't. Because they did so many things that I didn't like. Uh huh. And so, to keep from being involved with a whole lot of common stuff, I didn't allow myself to come in contact with 'em. So I run the Annie Ad.ams, 4-28-83, p. 2~ Lo A Lo A Lo A Lo A beauty shop alright. But that class of people just didn't come to my beauty shop. Uh huh. What kind of, a~ customers did you have coming, coming to you ••• Well, I had Christian people. And that was here? Down "tre re , too • Oh, you, in Mississippi? ,, In Mississippi, uh huh. Yeah. And naturally trey say I was strange. You just •• so strange, I #1t't" would come to .your shopJbut your so strange. Well, if I was strange, ll was just my way, you know. ,, •• l,, How W wtr( you ~ hce" •c • ~ Because I didn't believe in talking about this woman. when this one leave you start talkin' about that one. Your shop before people and You know to the others, you know, and all that kind of stuff. And talking about the kind of stuff that happened over the weekend and all that, ft II~ _ftf"YV'I </ot{ , going with this man . 7 t I and that man and the other stuff. Well,I didn't appreciate that kind of stuffJ because I was happily married. I didn't need no outside man. And I didn't need to know about them with that man and all that kind of stuff. And so when I didn't joiti in with their conversations, I knew how to bear around it, you know, without hurtin' their feelins', well, they wouldn't, if they came that time, they wouldn't come back again, Lo You were too strange. A Yeah, so that made me st~ge, alright. When I came here, I built my business by asking the women, I says, a~ I'm opening up a beauty shop at such and such a place and if you don't have a beautician, I'd appreciate very muGh if you'd try me out and see if you like my work. Lo How did you go about, how .did you do that; solicit business for the beauty shop7 A Just like I'm tellin' you now. Lo Well, you said you went out. Where did you go? A Well, just like if I was downtown and I'd meet somebody. put ad in the IE.per. Uh huh. Lo Did you pass out a handbill? Uh huh. And. a~ I'd , , A Uh huh, I. No,I didn't :p3.ss out handbills. I had business cards made and I'd give my business cards out. That's how I built my business. Uh huh. So one day, J, a\ new wo~n came to my shop. I didn't know this woman, and she says she knew me. But she had an appointment with me. And I had a customer there when she came. And she had this little brown bag, just about this tall you know, and about this wide. Annie Adams, 4-i8-8J, p. 26 And so I noticed that she set that little bag down beside her on the floor. And she set there til I finished the woman I was doing. And when that lady left, she ., ,, ,, ,. It i> ., said to me, I have something for you. I saict,·something for me? And she saic\ yea. If I I I said oh, how nice. And, a\ so when she reached down and got her little bag and come out, it was a can of beer. She had two cans, one for her and one for me. And ,, ,, .L. ,, ,, she said>I brought you a can of cold beer. I says1 I'm sorry to refuse you, I said, f f I' . ( ( • t 1/ ti I> I but I don't drink. She said1 you don't~ I sar, no, I don't drink beer. She sa~ well 1 •• ~a,·J.., I'm sorry I brought it. I didn't know, I thought maybe you did. IAno,that's ll ,I · \ I II • alright. I said,you haven't hurt my feelin's. Not at all. I said1 but I Just don't I) 1/ ,t II drink beer. She said1 well» do you mind me drinkin' ,, mine? I, , said, no, you can hel..p yourselfJbecause you drinkin' it will not hurt me. I says1 so you can drink it • .,JO>'II\~ And she didn't come back anymore. See. Uh huh. So I had anotherAcame one morning and sh"e was so drunk she couldn't hardly set up ,i, n the chair. ,, And. . so I tol,d, her, I say, a\ are you sober enough to understand me? And she sa~ yes. I said, well1 I don't mean to hurt your feelin 's or · anything like that,' ' I said1''tmt I will appreciate very muc h that you be sober when you ma k e .your next appom. tment an d come.' ' I sa.id , I appreciate '1.""_"'- ' business, I said but not under the influence of liqu6.r.. . I said1 U » n because I just don't fool with people under the influence of liquor. I saidJI'll do yo,u, r hai~, I,,I '11 finish you hair this, , mornin',,, I said because you di..d n't know, , this. I said, but I just don't do tmt. I said, I just can't stand it. I said, oh, ,1 I/ ti •I it makes me sick1 I said,and I don't tolerate it. I said1 now,that's with you how frotv\ H much yo,, u drink any other time than when you come and get your hair done ilf' me. ' .. '( I said1but I just dorr't tolerate it. And she said, well, a~ I, I, I, I, I .+ov ..-, t..ttJ,. h 11 imagine I just got to drinkin' andd,~ x~,.,,.,n.A· I said,I don't need any explan-r · . · U If tion. I just need you to understand what I'm sayin'. I said1,, so you be cautious not to do that anymore. So she didn't come back anymore. And you know, people will talk. They will go out and tell what you say. And if that somebody is of a good nature, they might come in. And so that kept me from havin' all these floaters and these bad folks comin', because they knew-{wouldn' t J o,,,,, "- , They found out that I didn't believe in that kind of stuff and I wouldn't tolerate it in my shop and I put a sign up because I could hear the woman saying things that they shouldn't have said in the presence ~R!11ren had children comin' in my shop. And I said vu let's do not talk in this shop. Let's do not gossip about the other person in this ~hop. Um hum. Because I was makin' my livin' off the public and ~.s ,+ t.AP. so if I let you ~ in here and talk about Jane and she just step out, well_, when I get your money it didn't buy no more than Jane's And so I was gonna recognize Jane as long as she treated me with respect and whatever she had done to you, that was between you and her and it wouttu 'I: be settled in my shop and Annie Adams, 4-28-83, p. 27 Lo A Lo A Lo wouldn't be discussed in my shop.., I had one woman, ar, she, , came to ,.m e .'r egularly and,~ she said to me, she said1 you know what Miss Adams? I said.,no. She said, If •• ,, 1.'' ,, ., I gets a pleasure out of comin' to your shop. · I sa.y, you do. She say1 yeah. She ,, l ,, ,, saY, because, a, nobody takes a conversation on somebody else, ,, She says,and when I go home from this shop, my husband asks me what'.s the news? And she said, I said " ,t ,, ii to him, why? She said1 ,, I just took that as long,, as I could/ She s,, aid then finally I asked him,why do you ask me what's the news? She said he said, well,when I go to the barbershop, that's where I get the news. And I thought maybe when you go ( .. " to the beautyshop tha 's where you get the news. And she said she told himJ you don't gossip in that shop.'' f • That's the strange shop. Yeah, that's the strange shop • . You don't gossip in that shop. Did it take a~le for you to get your business going? No, not very long. Not very long. Did you have a lot of white customers? A I had quite a few. Uh huh. Yeah. Bec.ause now when I first came, I didn't really know ho~ to do white people's hair. But I went and take a brushup courses and I attended the conventions and all this kind of thing. And I learned how to do their hair. And so I had quit,,e a few white customers. And I had one white lady She said, my hair, my curls held in my hair longer when you ., ., l doin' it than ,i, t everr ha,d, from anybody else. I saidlwell, you know,~, people are different. You know, if I curl your hair, I want it to stay curly as long as it can stay curly~ So I will do my best. But a lot of people, they'll do it lightly and all this kind of stuff that you heard about. But I found out and I always thought i h-the better job you do, the more customers you have. Um hum. Because, you, you can't afford to be comin' in here every day or two to get your •) hair done. Well, now if I can do it where it will last two or three days longer than fTld.,;;,.~'¥ , why don't I do it like that~ Uh huh. Because if I do good work, I'm gonna have customers comin' in all the time. Yeah. Lo What were your prices? Did you have th.3 same prices as, for example, a white woman? A No. A~ the prices, they vary. And · I've done, cl) I charged accordin' to what I was doin' to the hair. A lot of tines people just come in and wanted a shampoo. Well, I just charge for the shampoo. And if they want the shampoo and set, I charge $J.OO or four dollars and a half, for shampoo and set. And a lot of times they would come in and want their hair just shampooed and set on their own ro·llers and they go home and then ili~!Y could comb it out themselves. So you get all kinds of people when you workin' with other public people. Many ideas and everything~ 1i' I Annie Adams, 4-28-83, p. 28 Like one time I had a black woman, that was in the south. She came in my shop. I . ~ And naturally, we straighten the kinks out of the Negro's hair. And, a, she had me shampoo and hair and straighten the kinks out. And then she said to me, " Annie, ,, " loan me your cu:tlin' irons. I said1did you know I bought my curlin' irons to make '' ff ., ., my livin' with? And she said, oh, you can loan me your irons. I saidJ I will. I will " ' f\ ,, loan them tp you. I said, but what you gonna do with them? I want to curler my hair. I said are you sure? Yeah. I says do you know how to use them? Yeah, I ff ., ,, know how to use 'em. I said, okay. I handed them to her. She said ... can I use your 1.lf 1, II 1 ' stove. I had an electric stove. And I saidJ yeah. So she took the irons in there and got 'em hot. She got her hair and she rolled her hair first one way and then another. She rolled it over this way. She rolled it back that way. I sat there, , and watched. She~.Jt~)l~/; ... ~:~r this way, she rolled it back that way. J..rM ~<.., yo,,._ jon..-f"-)u1.,-.,.u:.<-l-1clii.cl·/,...,~-jtil~t;r,1tN,t1,. So when she went to pull it off, she couldn't get it off. She couldn't get that hair off of those irons for nothin'! For love or money! And she tunied and she twists and she yanked and I just sat there. ~ L And so finally she said,why don't you tell me how to get, a1 my hair off tl"Ese . f ,, . ,, n ,, irons. I said1 you told me you knew how to do it. I said,so I'm not interfering1 "' because you know how to do it. And she said1 I can't get my hair off of these irons.'' I said:~~m it• s a good thing you didn't have them too hot.'' And I just sat , II ttere. And looked at her. r So finally she said, Annie1 would you please get my t) hair off these irons? Well, by me seeirt' . how she'd done it, gettin' it on there, then I knew how to do it to it for to get it off. So I got her: hair off the I{ , t tt 'I d irons. She said,how did you do it. I said.that's my business how I did it., I 1(. ,t rt said,but it was y,o, ur bus:in,e, ss how you put it on ttere. But I said,it's my business how I got it off. I said, but dorl't you know that when I, , take I·, , take those irons" , I don,,' t take my hands and wrap t.,h e hair .,,a round the iron, Isa~ I use this hand. I say, I use the iron like tha tJ I says1 '' ,, and I curl i..t til I ,,c url every bit of that hair on the irons, I said1 ,, then I pull the iron off. I said,and there the curl I said, "b ut you used to those irons that got the spring in the iren1 ,, 'I is. Um,, hum. is in my wrist. I said1 and unless some body teach you how to \) I said> but my spr:ing ,, ,, C/.) use your wrist ~ a spring, I saict,you will never learn how to use those irons. she never asked me that again • CI a(..(.e ~ ., ) Lo Your business must have been a first, you must have been the first ••• A No, I wasn't the first. No I wasn't the first, uh huh. It was anotrnr woman here had a ~hop. Before I came. Uh huh. And when I came, she was gone to California to take a refreshers course. And so finally her husband, and she a~ it was another lady that had . come here from Texas, and she was a beautician·. So .r' Annie Adams, 4-28-83, p. 29 she hired her to work with her husland. Her husband was supposed to have been in trainin' under her. And he knew a little about doin' hair. So this woman ( tape ended) Lo Say that again for me. A The Bible says that the child is trained in his mother's womb. Well, by the way the child is trained inside his moth.:lr's womb is by how activities, how she does, how she thinks and all of this is trainin' the child while the child is bein' fonned. And so what, ~ is really breeded into the child stays trere. Uh huh. All it needs after the child is born is cul ti va ting. Because the seed has been ~ do~~ sown already. Uh huh. If your parents aeere;A ·~ take pride eno:~gh in their children, c&;c.lp_.{{,;.,~., /,'r-1,., ,, d..t_ -lra.1-~~~ , tb helpm.ld: 1e t:iiseif)lJ.Ne, family get togethers and th.ilgs like that, well, a~ some parents thinks that I work, I feed my children, I put clothes on them and, a~ I give them some spendin' money. But you know, that still isn't hittin' the main spot1because they .need to be ~hown love and affection. Uh huh. So you can give them all trese things, but they feels after while, they feels like you just doin' this to get rid of them, get them on out so you can do what you want to.- do. But when you have them around you and you show to them that you love trem, and you stop and you take time to answer their questions, because they got a million of 'em. Some of 'em you cannot answer. But you need to stay your child1so that you be more able to cope with him, you get to know the child and the child get to know you. But there, these parents I think don't know their children. A~ some years ago, cl\ a girl came:· .in my shop and she was askin' me different questions 'about a.d,d·Ho c>,i;JL She was about 13 years old. And she tf " ,/ said, I says,~ you should've asked you mother that. I said, because maybe she isn't ready for you .to know it. ,1 I says, " a),.. so, I don't think I should tell you. h II I think you should ask your motrer. She said1 I don't know how to get into my motrer to ask her that." Well you see, if a mother had been close to her, she wouldn't be afraid to ask her anythmg. And she wouldn't be afraid to talk to her about anything. But when you say, go ahead on, I'll taJ.k to you later, and all that kind of stuff, well, a~ that thought leaves that child for the present time and and they don't never get around to it. And, well, when she think of it again, maybe it's too late or some other thing like that. So I just think, a lot of i:arents do not take up enough time to talk with their children, to find out how they.'re thinkin', to fine out their associates, how they'cenverse together, a~d all this kind of thing. So I think that this what helps to lead 'em astray. Uh huh. Because it's.,just like the- .old sayin' is about one bad apple can ruin the whole barrel full. But, a~ one bad apple, Ji a whole barrell of good apples won't turn that one bad apple good, see. Uh huh. ·,, I• Annie Ad.ams, 4-28-83, p. JO Lo Yeah. A. So, a~ if one child is with a gang of bad children and they continue to do ~·.. it and do .i,t, well this child gonna take off after them. If the parents doesn't find ~,-r,1.o out that this child is with these ~, and then tell 'em, ~s.i t down and talk to him and tell him about, you shouldn't, a, you know better your flesh and blood isn't ~ny better than theirs. But your character can be better. And if you associate with them, whether you do the bad thing or not, a~ when they are caught in this act and you are with., them, then you is accused of the very same thing . I'used to tell mine, I said1 now1naturally you don't know these children when you first started makin' friends with 'em, but as you associate with them, you find out what they do, you find out what they like, and you know whetrer that• s good \ ~ or that's bad, I says and you c{fi'V' ~ tell 'em, I can't associate with you because ,, 1( tf H you a bad boy. I saY,you don't tell 'em that. I said,, you tell 'em, well, J, guys I got to go right around h3re and I'll see you later. I said, well later can never be, but you discontinue your friendship with this person. I said because, a, a, their law will take you qoing just what they are doing. There are many people who have went to prison. I had a friend, she had a son, and he was with a gang ttat killed a young man. And he didn't have no part of it. He went on home and went to bed. These what had tbe parts in it, they were bad, and so he knew he didn't have nothin' to do with it so he went on home and went to bed. Somehow later tbe law found out that he was with them and they went and got him and carried him and he spent ten years in the prison. Lo Was that here in Utah? A No, that was in Mississippi. Lo Oh, uh huh. A:.'.:. For some thin' he did not do. But if he had not of been with them see, tta t wouldn't have happened to him. Lo How did you manage with doing this, raising the children in this area, against great odds? There were very few Negro people; especially the time when you first moved here? A Well, a~ I didn't worry about the Negroe people. I just worry about, I didn't worry, but I just thought in terms of good people. People who were tryin' to raise their children. And, of course, a~ most of the people around in rnre was Mormon people. Well, they do teach decency. Uh huh. And so, a~ my children, a, they, they played with all those children, they went to Primary with th3m, and they were just friends, they just associated. They found us. we were livin' right Annie Adams, 4-28-83, p. 31 up there in that little house. And we moved there on a Saturday night. And these children were runnin' around in the neighborhood and trey found my children on Sunday afternoon. And so they begin to make friends with them, that very same Sunday af,ternoon. And from that they chose friends among these white children. Um hum. And so, a,,\ we didn't teach, a~ well, after they began to grow up, I told 'em, I said, there, , will be discrimination between you and these white children. And my littl,,e boy said, mama, you just prejudiced. They will never discriminate . ,, .. ,, " against us. I said1don't you fool yourself, I said.because they will. I said '(they wouldn't, but their :rarents gonna teach trem that you are a minority group and they are the superior group. And trey gonna teach trem that they are better •• than you and they shouldn't associate with you and all this kind of thing. I say..l nso I'm just tryin' to get you ready so you won't be hurt. .. Lo Did they experience that later on? A Uh huh. Later on. And so I re.akon he was about the ninth grade. And he went up to a football game that night. And the game was over and he and his friends went to a cafe to eat. And so, a, the -waitress, I guess, asked the white boys, is he your friend? Yes. Is he with you? Yes. Well we don't serve him in here. So they said well if you don't serve him, you don't serve us. And they got up and left. Lo It was rere in Salt Lake? A That was here in Salt Lake, al) South Salt Lake. And so they went on somewhere else and they did serve 'em all together. And so the next morning he said to me f( • . t) tf. tf j .. JJ.. II well, mama, it happened at last. I said1 what happened at last, He ~> you said ,, I.._ ,, ., they would discriminate against me, ~ says, and it happened last night. So then ll I he went on to tell :rre. I -said yes, I told you, but I said I was tryin' to get., you where you wouldn't be hurt when this happened because I knew it would happen. Uh huh. I said.,'but don't you feel that you're not as good as they are,'' I say, If you are as good ., ,, just as good as the president's son. I say1 your skin and blood it's just , I because the good Lord say out of one blood created He all nations. I saysJ '( then he done the puttin' the pigment into the skin to make the variety of colors. would be a very ugly world if everybody was white. If everybody ,f . I said, the world ,t ,, ., was black. If everybody was yellow. I said,but this is God's flower yard .• ,~. I t( said,and he got all tl'Ese different kinds of ~ople and when they get together then as their friends, you be their friends. •• . tf ,, nobody) I said1 because you just as good it makes a beautiful bouquet.~ I say;~nd Y.OU just think about that you one of the o)t+cl 1 , ,, flowers that's in this bouquet. A-»cl q~i.1---e,.t r:0 4,.,,_,a t-H!'i..t ~ . .,_ • ' I say>you . v {t n study, you study to be whatever you want to be, I says,and those who accept you I said~" 'b ut d.,o n't put yourself off oh as they are. So it went on like that. Annie Ad.ams, 4-28-83, p. 32 Well, when he was a~ eleventh grade in high school, a~ they got to gattin' candidates for a~ ~esident of the &ass: And so they ran him. And I mean you talk about bein' politicians, they was some politicians. Lo ,::; The high school kids? A Yeah. The high school children. They was gettin' their votes and they was get tin' this and that and the other, and they was a votin' for Henry and so Henry won. Their candidate ••• Lo Your son? A A, my son. He won. And, a ••• Lo A Lo A Lo A Lo A What school was that? That was Granite. ., ,._,or' Granite? J ~ I\ Granite High. Um hum. And so one night, I ~emember what sort of function we had down trere, but, a~ my husl::and and I went. And one lady said to me, she says, ,, " ) ,, ' ti a~ well,~, I know you'te happy. I says, why you know that? Well 1your son won the t> ,, presidency of the class. I said1 he had just as much right to win it as anybody II II else. · I said so he ~didn't" make me extremely happy. I saidJit was just a norma{ thing/ I said: 1 if he's one of tre students of the class,''r said. She said 1 "but that smws that he had, a~ a~ mor~.::prestige than anyone else that was runnin'. ·~ II J.. ,, 'f • t ,1 He had more prestige. I said1 well1 maybe he did1 I said1 but he had just as much ~ II . right to have more prestige than, as anybody else rad. I saidJso I jus., t think,, he won the elec t i•o n and ~u1.1-. a t I s i• -t . tf She sa•i d, / I o h 1 You're not so excited? Isa~ no, I'm not so excited."· Um hum. The attitude was probably that you should, because you are Negro •.. Yeah, uh huh ••• just be grateful for ••• I should be so grateful because he was black, you know, and these white folks voted for him and put him up there and all this kind of thing. Uh huh. Alright then, a~ later on, a, there was, a~ what were they, a, ••. the governor, I guess, of the state. Anyhow, my son, Henry, a~ they ran him again for delegate to the Democrat convention here, you know? Lo Was he_ in college, or ••• A A, yes, it was his first year of college there. And so, a~ he won that, the ~legate to this mass meeting, you know. And, a~ so we went to a mass meeting, ft If I/ 1 I and o,,n e of them said, I sure hope Henry wins. I said, well I hope soJ.t, oo. She said1 because I've been gain' from door to door gettin' votes for him. She said, fl II If 11 and I've worked hard for him and I wants him to win. I said 1 well I hope he wins, I saitl, /t·b ut, a", not because hesblack. ', Annie Adams, 4-28-83, p. 33 Lo She was white? A Uh huh. I said not because he's black, that I want him to win. I say I want him to win if he's eligible to win. Uh huh. And ·she looked at me so strange, you know, and she said well, I'm certainly workin' for him. So he won that, a, delegation. And so he went to that. And, a, I don't know but, a, I'm not sure, I just taught 'em that people is people. The race or the color or the creed didn't have nothin' to do with it. People are just people, and you treat people as you would like for them to treat you. And if they seem like they don't want to have anything to do with you, then you don't put yourself off on them. I said you just go head on because somebody else down there is waiting for your friendship. I said you don't put yourself off on nobody. Um hum. Lo Annie, what year, years were those when he was elected class president and delegate? A Well, he, was, that was about Nineteen, a, let's see, that was abo~ 1958, Lo Hmmm ••• A Uh huh. That was about 1958. Lo You were talking about them going to primary classes with the, with the A With the Mormon ••• Lo · children. I wanted to ask you about your involvement with your church. A what church did you attend when you first lived here? A I attend theBaptist church just as I do now. 10 And it's the same one? A Uh huh, Lo Was it in a different location",at the time? A Yeah. It was at a, 5, a, it was on the corner of 3rd South and 7th East, a~ at that time. Lo A, did you have, since, in what year was that? That's when it was starting in the '40's, right. You lived here in '43? A Oh yeah, well, wren I joined up there it was 19 and 44. Lo Okay. A, you must rave rad a lot of different pastors, since then. A Yeah, uh huh. Quite a few. But we got the nice, well, we got, I don't know how you would say it. This is a very young pastor we have now. But he is very qualified)too. And he pastors people, he doesn't just pastor his congregation. What I rrean wherever help is needed, if he can give any help to the people, he does it. Uh huh. And he looks out for the benefit of people. So in that way I think that's why he's loved by the people. He seem to be loved by people. Um hum. Lo He seems to be a. very dynamic man. A Oh, he is. Uh huh. So, a~ now we had, we gave him a celebration for his ninth Annie Adams, 4-28-83, p. 34 anniversary this past week. Lo Wedding anniverysary or church .•• A No, no, church anniversary. Lo Church, uh huh. A For the years that he's been to the church. So he's been there nine years. And he has made great strides, there, since he's been there. We've got a large, the largest membership we've every had.. And he's taken in more members than any other minister has taken in since he's been here. Uh huh. And a~ he has done more pc,,o,tor-wt'...t. .c.~•""' things for the co.mmuni ty and the county than any otl'ler ~/lhad. Um hum. And he, I think he have a potentiality to want to do greater things. Uh huh. A~ and to try to help enlighten our race of people. Um hum. Wo want to do things, a~ some of our people have a tenc:r.lncy to want to do, but they don't want to study so ttey can know how to do it. Uh huh. But you know, Paul said/i5u~fiow yourself jforcJv:t.A'. A workman under God that needeth not to be a.shamed, Uh huh. So iyou didn't study how to do this, you couldn't do it as well as you are doin' it. Uh huh. If I didn't study how t6 be tte president of my missionary society, the socie.ty would be a failure, because no organization is greater than its .leader. Lo Um hum. A~ so you're the president of the missionary society? A Yeah. Lo How long have you been ••• A Well , at this time I • ve been president _·. three years • Lo Uh huh. Goulq.-.. you give me a little background on the church? How long was the church in existence by the time you moved here? A Well I don't know. A, I've forgotten, and J, but now, I think this is aoo ut its 84th year. Lo Is that right? A Uh huh. I think this is about its 84th year. Now, a, the church was, a~ given 1-, to the Negro Baptist people by their Northern Baptist Convention when it was up ' there on 30th South and 7th East. Now I don't know where they were before then, but they wasn't always there. They were somewhere else, Uh huh. And so, a~ then the building was gettin • old and deteriorated and ~ow #-1:1pJ~~-A>J.;; I. didn •t knowJit was a little spot until after the church was sold and torn down and it wasn't big enough for nothin'. That was the smallest spot, a~ it was very deceivin' to me--I don't know aoout nobody else. But it was such a small spot. But, anyhow, a~ then when, a~ we . bought the place where the church is now, well, then the Northern Baptist Convention, I think, I'm not sure, by that tirre had come to be American Baptist. And they sold that spot of land. Lo Okay, were they white or Negro? Annie Ad.ams, 4-28-83, p. 35 A Huh? Lo Was that a white or negro Baptist_~ •• A That was white. Uh huh. And so, a~ they sold it. But they give the Calvary $500 of the money that they got out of the church. And so, a~ now we have gone back to the American Baptist. So we belongs to two conventions now. We belong to the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. of America, and then we belong to the American Baptist Convention. Lo Have you ever · had, a, white members of the church? A We got white members there now. We had a white woman to join last night. Lo Is that right? A Um hum. Lo How many do you have? A Well, we don't have many; but we 've,got:some. Uh huh. Lo A How do, do they, the Negro congregation feel about •••• t,,,M__ Well, you know, you got some folks prejudiced every ff&Jf• And so Negroes can be just prejudiced as white folks. Now we got one young woman belong there and she sings .in the choir. It's not that I know, but I heard that, a~ some of the choir members didn't want her .in the choir. Well, she was a member of the church. And when she joined the church, we gave her all rights and privileges of any other member in the church. So why wouldn't we want her in tre choir? Um hum. So she sings in the choir. Um hum. That's the only part that I know she takes an active part in, but she does sing in the choir. But she have a little boy, ai:;i.d~ 9a~ she and her little bby come to Sunday School and a lot of times she comes to Prayer Meeting. Now,last night when this white woman came, my missionary society was ,meeting in a room, and so she came to that room and she said, a~ where is a~ Pastor France? And so we showed her where they were havin' prayer meetin' and bible study. And so she went on in there. ~ell, when we got through with our meetin', some of us· went in there 1too. You know. There she was, and, a~ when he was through with tre bibl~ study, he opened the d.oo r!. of the church and extended the priviledge of membership and she come up and joined. Uh huh. And so, a? he said he lived right across the street from the church. We makes anybody that want to join our church, welcome to join. And supposedly they are free to do whatever they can do in the church. Um hum. Lo What is your relationship betwen your Baptist church and some of the other churches in the Salt Lake area, including the LDS church? A Well, a~ now· we haven't had too much, a~ association with the LDS people. But with the Presbyterian and the First Baptist, a~ and the Methodist church, a~ we have a~ a uni-t called the ••• Church Women United. That means any race and denomination for 1: '' Annie Adams, 4-28-83, p. 36 women. Uh huh. And they met at our church the 20th of March, and we hosted trem and there was 81 women tre re, And they said that that was the biggest gathering of women that they had had for a long, long time. And they said that they really enjoyed bein' at our church. Lo That included a lot of different ••• religions? A Uh huh. Different religions. Uh huh. It's no divisions in the religions. You don't discuss religions. It's just a united women workin' together for the upbuilding of God's kingdom. Lo Um hum. Do they meet on a monthly basis? A Yeah. They do, and, a~ of course I don't do too much a ttendin', but, a4 now they, they meet9 , and then, it's a\ nationwide. A~ they go have their big Lo A Lo A I conventions and things in different places. And on the 6th of next month 1we have to meet out in Kearns . I don't what they callin' this--a community day or what, but, anyway, a\ I think this program will be sponsored mostly by black women. Uh huh. Because this was a black woman that called me, and asked me for somebody, , ' • t a representative from my church. Uh huh. And she said, I need six black women, and, a~ she asked me for two. And I told her, I said, I don't think you should have two from my church. I said there are more black churches than mine, so I give her the t J name, a~ I told her, I said, a\ I give you the name of one woman from our church, 1!/ ,t ~, and then I'll ask her whetrer she 1 serve, I ' I) said1 then I ,g, ive you a woman from New Pilgram, a, church. And she na,,m ed one woman and I said,no, I don't recommend her, but I recommend another woman, so, a\, I called thi~ woman and told her that I had given this chairpeFson her name and told her what this was all about. So she said, •• 1\ I I a\ a\ I don't know anything about it. And I've heard of it before, she said, but, l ,, ,, a1 I'm willin' to do the best I can., And I sai~. well,you talk to her, a, she wanted some body to talk on, al' l ~NH~a :~n"H' ',~' Helen' j3i~.h ? ) , who was one great author . L/ Q~l I of -w literature for the Wome1'1. 's Auxillia. {y. And, a, tren we have nJ®"f ffCC/0),{~b. q."1! 4"'11 ,,. •• 1 ,,_ ~,.,., ) who started a ~egro college vp. fa,,_ j , hat was in North Carolina, South M<ifl.oei,..1,s Carolina, down~trere somewhere. An so she want somebody to talk · on her.,. so I . Co~( r). told her my lady would talk on Nanny Helen Burr and this otrer lady~ talk on Mary ~~i~ {f]e- ,) f.1 :,0·.:·",~~s • So when I told this lady about it, she hadn't even heard her. I say well she will give you some literature on it and then you can go to the library and find some literature. So when she got, one lady from my church, she just had to. have two from my churcb,, so she got one that's gonna sing a solo, and I don't know what the other /a. d,.~J are doin'. Do Mormon women :rarticipate in this organization? Hmmm? Do you know if Mormon women :rarticipate in this organization? I don't think so. I don't think they have no Mormon women, a, participate •. Annie Adams, 4-28-83, p. 37 p)a, because I feel that they, a~ you know they kind of think there nobody goin' to heaven but them. Uh huh. Lo So they don't need it. A ~nd I don't think they usually affiliate with,~ the other religions too much. But now, in,.,.this area here, I got these Mormon friends and so if we get to talkin' about the Lord saith Jesus Christ, ~ell that's what we talk about. We don't talk about faith. Uh huh. We talk about the Lord, Jesus Christ, and the Lord God Almighty_. Uh huh._ .But we don't talk about faith. And that's the way I am about the Jehovah Witne,s, s. I have a daughter-in-law who's a Jehovah Witness. And I told rer, I says, now,we don't discuss faith, because you believe in your faith ., and I believe in mine. And it's not left to us to criticize each other's faith. If I said1 because if. we get to maven, God didn't say he had no two or three ff ff . t i I/ heavens, I says1 we all gonna be at the same 'heaven. I sai~ but these are branches I - / I •' ,1 that -=- .J...e~ <I'<> 1u4 ~ -rt;, • I said, one group sees one kd-~ and one see ,, ,1 er ,,\L anotrnrJ I saidJ but the Bible say you are saved "" through faith by grace., ,e ~ai.?~ ~tt_v< "- • I . /f t_ -f3e.JJ• I sayJ so if that's wrat you believe, and you' got faith in it, that's what you ,, ,, (' a,... .,~ ~>t+:"'11 , , be saved by. I said, but, ~,soW1R.h1.,.J'p ,,..;ho~ -f)t1.i'J-R ~..:, .{ ~ do not believe in it. Uh huh. And I think that would be what would keep me from bein' a Mormon. They have some good traits, some good ones, but there is things that I just don't believe in what trey <:lo. Um hum. But it's not left for me to get out and go a tellin' to folk that ain't right, that's not right, that's not right. You can't get to heaven doin • that. Well, ah you're not saved by your good works. No how. Uh hum. Your good works is the upbuildin' of Christ's kingdom here on earth, but you saved by faith in the Lord Savior, Jesus Christ. Because he said you can't enter into God's kindgom unless you tell me a thing about Jesus Christ. So if you don't believe in trn resurrection of trn Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, well, you're not saved no how. Regardless of what religion you are. Lo Annie, what are some of the things you remember, ah in the development of your Baptist church here? Now do you remember any ministers in particular over the p:3,st years, a\ that stand out in your mind above others? A Well, we had a Reverant William A. Lucas. He was, a\ ah well-prepared minister. Very well. He, aJ; come from a theological school and bishop college, Texas. Lo And wren did he come rere, A He came here in 19--a~ I came here in 1943, and he was here when I got here, so I don't know what year he came here. But he was here in 1943, I know that. Uh huh. And so he told me, the church was, a~ almost dead when we moved he re • Trn y had had a discrepancy of some kind and tte members had drifted away to other churches and all that. And so, a, Annie Ad.ams, 4-28-83, p. 38 Lo Was it an argument among the members that ••• A I guess the preacher) i:sMl. T +h,"" k I don't know. But anyhow, I know they wasn't attendin'. And so, a, me and my husbarrd, we. went up there and joined. And, aJ, the people would come to church, what few would come, and they'd sit on ~~ the first three pews in the rear of the church. Well, IAused to sittin' up to the front. So I'd take my children and I'd sit on the third pew from the front of the ,,c hurch, you know. And so, a~ he visit me, and I was talkin' to him and . ,, ,, I said1why do the people sit in the rear of the church, And he says, well, I ,Sider- H don ' t know, ~ Adams , he just said they 1 ike to sit back thre • I said, well , 41.. v<r'Y fl-~;,,,'J a~ isn't itJhardAfor you to get your message across all those empty rews to those people sittin' in tm rear of the church? I said," som,e, body could b<--d.1~l./0J1~ \' his grave by the time you get back there! And he say, well, yes, and he says, If anoth er th•l llg, i• f I could hav e trt-~.~ , same cong,r, ega t i•o n every S un d ay, \\ h e sa•i d , H ~h, maybe we could make some progress. He said, but I have a different congregation every Sunday. •' Uh huh. And then when I become friends with some of the people, I say, a~ they go to church in the mornin', well this one lady who was, a, very close to me in friendship, I'd say you goin' to church tonight? Oh no, I went this mornin' and I'm not goin • tonight. :::;:,-> Al.ext time. I say you goin' to church tomorrow? Oh no, I went last Sunday, and I'm not going. I'd say • ~ A~ f'?>/'~I/J ?,· wJa/snt-f+"'rl~,/10,.:,.,rht w,(I( . JI'd say1 I thought you go to church all the time. No. No. No my husband is real important, and he be goin' out and I have to be there to see him off and get his meals and all this kind of th:ing. And I said well1 ,, I see. So I told the Pastor Lucas, I says, a~ why don't you use some psychology on those 11 tf • I ,, people? He sai~ like what? I said,you know,we like to think we gonna get some- , ,, ,, 1 I ,, thin .. give to us. He say, yeah. I say, well> why don't you call them by tm ir alphabets in their name. The first name or the last. The first alphabet in their last ,n, ame. A,,n d ask them if "a" come and take this front seat; "b" take the next . ,, seat. I say1 in that way, a~ you would get 'em up to t,,h e front. And so he tried that and sure enough he did, ,, uh huh. ,, And then I saidJ then when you get 'em up there, thank 'em for coming) I said,and ask them, tell 'em that you'd like very much to get them to make a practice of coming and takin' these pews each Sunday ,, ''a.II .-,'a-At '' because it's strenghthenin' to you and your sermon. And he said1 .\:la htth. So, a~ it done pretty good for 'em, for those who ,, came. But back there in 1147, they just wasn't supporting and "8 told me, he said, well, when I first ~-t. t\.tr<...-. they el_ said they weren't go 3.Ptt!; to 11,R >'f' ,;., q Cl' with~ program. He says and I felt that I didn't know one in the book. He said I found out it wasn't. I said yeah? He say yeah. He says I tried everything on tmse people and it just doesn't wo-rk. So he ·got t:ired of bein' bothered with 'em cause they wouldn't cooperate with him and he write his resignation up and bring it out there at business rreetin' ' l I ~ ~ ~ r ! I l I Annie Adams, 4-28~83, p. 39 Lo A Lo A Lo A time and have his secretary to read his resignation. I move that we don't accept the pastor's resignation. Um hum. Then:c.trey .,vo.teLiL ~~ * down, 1ie went right on back home this day. I saY.J I don't know what they' re tryin' If r I 11 /J to do to you, I sa-y, I just don't know what they tryin' to do to you, I said, but, » ,, a\ you got your own mind. And so finilly~·my,. husband ask ,him, are you , gonna just •• IJ """q ,, stay here and let themselves kill you? He sai~ they kil:!J\you spirit,u, ally. So finally his wife told me, she and I were very good friends, she sa~ I have told William that we should leave this church regardless of them votin' down his resignation. He should just stick to it that this is my resignation and this I\ II 11 '' I is it! She saidJso I'm gonna leave here! Um hum. She says, a", and I'm not comin' back until he resigns from this church." So she, thf were from Texas, and she went on back to Texas, and so he came out here one day and told me, he says If !';sfu L ,\ .PltJls Adams, he says, a:J it seem like everybody cries on your shoulder, He says, ,, JI ,, so I come out to cry on it,tooJsome,today. I saY, it's pretty burrowed, You can ,t L cry on it. So then he began to tell me about, a,~, his wife said she wasn't coming back unless he resigned f,,r om the ,,c hurch. I saidJdon't you think she gets tired of seein,,.' you be,, in' abused/ I saysJif she didn't care for you then she wouldn't mind you, I said> but those people come out there and vote your resignation down and then go home and sit down and won't come back and work in the church and help to support you and trey don't want you to get a job, They don't want no preacher who's doin' manual labor and all this kind of thing, but yet they don't support ,, ,, f) you. I says, so I don't blame rer, I says ••. Was that one of the big problems that they wouldn't support him f:inancially? Um hum. Contributing to the church? They wouldn't support him financially ••• But they wanted it to continue. But they wanted him to stay there. Uh huh. But they didn't want him to have a job. Mm hmm, And so, a,k the American, no, a,~,~Ai..t' {orthern Baptist Convention paid part of his salary, So finally he had 'em out there one night, I didn't go that k . . night, andj)absolutely resigned. And then when he called her up and told her he resigned,,, she came home, And sh,e, come on out here to see me and she told me, she say1 I come to get my husband. And so trey moved away from here. ·Tren we had another minister by th3 name of, a~ I forgot what his first name was ••• his last name was Holloway. Anyhow, he just happened up one ~~ mornin' • We had gone , to Sunday School 1v,·$ #' 1 .Mo)k and my family at that time, and so he came and he said the spirit sent him there. He says, "a ~ didn't nobody ask me to come, He say the spirit sent me here.·• And so they asked him to preach that Sunday, v Annie Adams, 4-28-83, p. 40 Lo A _A nd he preached. And from back the Negro/called him for _......8_a."--"9" -...,.. J.n.-.........,,=-------­And he f:g~~~(well for two years. He said the Lord told him to stay trere two years. But when he entered into the third year, then he began to have problems. So he said if you'd obey the spirit, you wouldn't have the problem. But, a~ .. ~ Were the problems with the congregation? Uh huh. Well the problem, tre main problem was 1 we had a rember to die. And, a~ he attended her funeral. And so he got up there and he preached a nice, you know, service, and eventually he just was, a, talkin' on, awfully long and everything, and he just lambasted on the people of their church. We were the worst folks he had ever seen in his life. He had been all the way from Cha tanooga, Tennessee, to Florida and from Florida to Seattle, wash:ington, and here and we were the ,, wors,t, niggers he'd ever seen. He ain't never seen Ifa bunch of niggers like h~~•~ And, a~ you come out here to see what I'm gonna say about this dead woman. I don't know nothing' about this dead woman, and I. .. I. .. I'm not gain' say no thin'. They I) done already said enough about her. Didn't need to say no more. And so I was riding with he and his wife to the cemei:8.ry trat day and she and me went on and got into the car and I told her, I saicJ,#you just was to go home and get to packin' ~ If ,, II I/ • up your things. And she said, whyt I said1 did you hear what your husband said? " I I ll ,, It • ' And she saY,yeah. I say, well,what's wrong with him? She say, I don't know. I saidJ ~ ~ well, honey) I know these people are not goin' to keep him after this. So trey had a meetin' that night and after that meetin' the deac,, ons told him they wanted to see him. And they talked to him and too y told him, sayJ we would like to ask you for your resignation;0 He didn't ,w, ant to give it. ''w,,h at did ,,I do?" I told him,too, when he came to the car. I said, Reverant Holloway, I said a~ you lost your church t f I( ,t ,f e• ,, I, today. He say, why? I said, do you, the church was full of white people, you know, ~.,..-J.sa·id ''d 1 o you think the negro is going to keep you and you get up there before all them white people and call em'niggers? ., Lo So there were white people ••• ,, , I ,, A Yeah. I said,you called us niggers. I said1 you didn't say negroes. You said Lo A ,, ,, 6,/1/'o ,, niggers, I say, and you know niggers is,1 uncouth person. Anybody can be a nigger. I s~ict.~.a nd that's what you called us names.- You said rl 1 ,, ,, we was tre worst niggers you,',v e seen. And he say, but I don't see al,FQsBOR why Ua t you should get rid of ,( ,, me. I sai~ well,you will find out. And so sure enough, trey got rid of him. Um hum. Sure did. And so nobody really knew why he was speaking that way or .•• No, not nobody know why he was speaking like that. Uh hum. Nobody. 1 ! ,, h He said, a, Sunday, about half of you be here. You come out he~ today to see what I,, 'm gonna say about this dead woman. I don't know nothing about this dead woman. And so, I Annie Adams, 4-28-83, p, 41 k h-;{..> q~~1 .J;fu,,j a nice fi. ., ,h~f J because if you don't know nothin' about a.p,~rv, rr r · your preacher just preaches a sermon to the livin', you know. And he'd preached a nice funeral service. But that's what he did. And so...,they, we got rid of him.I .() I) 1 / -iao hfClffl-·J{h-l was in the bunch. /Yr M•·1cI ~ :; μ,.$lyf l'>l't Jm c>Ju~±-h±Tn.. I s aid_, ;)W.l didn't have any more respect for us than to call us niggers right there among all those white people, c.ause that's what they like to call us anyhow, is niggers, And so if your leader call you a nigger, what do you expect for us to call you, So we got rid of him. Then we got another one. And he, he wasn't no good at all. Now that's wren I left the church, I left under him. And, a~ cause he insinuated that I didn't have no .c1>-·v,J.:<:.., And I was superintendant of the Sunday School. And so what happened a oo ut me and him, a~ we had teacher preparation meetings, you know, like on Wednesday night or Thursday ni,,g ht, and so we hadn't had it for a few weeks, and one Sunday he got up and saidJI want all of you to •l come out here Thursday night for teachers meeting. And so when Thursday night come, I didn't even go. The next Sunday ,,I mwsa. s there ·:o,::on:. .: 1r_ : time, but a little •t ,, boy looked in the downstairs and he said,I!!dlft; Adams, he said, you know, Reverant l) ,, Chis~olm :ilene,!.:. opened up the Sunday School. I say, has: .'- . opened up the Sunday ,, 1/ ,, School!~ He says, yes maiam, and he done told the classes to take their places, ~ ~ ,, ~ He saidJI wonder why he o,,p ened up so early? I said,I don't know. And so when I got in, he said to me, the classes have taken their class places, and you can H ,, •' help 'em to reassemble, Sister Adams. I said1 okay. So it come time for 'em to reassemble, I rang the bell and they reassembled and wren we got through havin' their class reports. and everything, then I said to them I says we will now listen to eJ~·~)1 S pastor'.sremarks. So he got up and he didn't talk about the lesson, There ain't no high points on the lesson. So he asked he saY.,'how come you ain't here Thursday night, how come you ain't here-Thursday ;nighltrt how come you we:r-en't Thursday night! 11 Then he got around to me. ''sister Superintendant 'l ., ,, how come you weren't here Thursday night, I said, because I didn't want to be ,l ,, 1 '' ,, here Thursday night. Well, I, I told you to be here. I said,that's what I known, " ,, ,l ,, You told me to be here. I said.Reverant Chisholm, I said, a\ I am the Superintendant -- ,, ,, Jo 'I~ of this Sunday School, elected by the church, I say,then I don'tAanything about the workings of this Sunday School without talkin' it over with you first. '' ,, Because you are the head of the church. I say~ and I think if you felt we should set a time to tr., y to rev,, ise the teacher's meeting, you should h3.ve talked with JJE aoout it first. I said,and ·t~n _whatever you and me agreed on, then you'd make the announcement. H I said,I Ib ut you didn't say one word to me about itJ " I said~" you just got up and announced it on your own accord. " Then he went to talkin' about AwA thi~ . little book say that and that little book say the other, AAnybody with any I Annie Adams, 4-28-83, p. 42 understanding at all would know that this little book say that and if you read and understand what you read in that little book say the other. Well, I was ~Ob ):_ 0 \.V1 ..S cn-,, ~J lookin' for a sonei because,1they got the hard backs on it. And I was going to hit I.AP.- him right~ et,e side of the head with that book, but tl-Bre wasn't one on the table. And I looked for tre book 1t' third time and there wasn't one on the table. And someth:ing (new tape) ti ., said, don' t. ( tape ended) A~ to some ,, of the children after we dismissed. I says, a~ I won't be back next " •• h'\s. Sunday. ,A,n d they,, said, oh, ~s Adams, don't leav,, e us, don't leave us, don't leave us. I say1 ., I can't stand Reverant Chisholm. ,. He was smellin' like a liquor barrell. I said1 I can't stand ReverantCChisholm. I says and the Deacons, there were two Deacons settin' there, and then neith3r one of 'em defend me at all. I " I I ,, said1 trey just sit there and let him lambast in on me 1 I said., and I just cannot ., ,, ,, c_.,,._ ~ rf"" serve under such a thing as that. I said1 so I won't be 1:ack. So, I~ home and I wrote my resignation as superintend.ant of the Sunday School. And, a? my sister II said when they read my resignation that next teach,, er night, he said, now>when did all of this happen? When did all of this happen? You see, he was so d,, runk, he didn't know what he had said. And so, a~ she said1 she told himJ 11 II Said, wellJ you said everything she said.iyou sa,i, d, I heard you .,s ay. He saylwell, I, I, I don't remember sayin' that." She said1 oh,you said it. And so I quit the church and eventually trey got rid of him. And so finally I went on over to New Pilgram and started the Sunday School over there and got that workin' • Uh huh. So my husband had done already quit and went over there. And so when I joined over there trey . ~~~ didn't have no Sunday School, and they asked me would I~ the superintendant. I told them1 yes1 I could. So I worked and got their Sunday School goin' very good over there. "'B~i finally that church got the better of me. And my husband, he didn't quit the church, but he just didn't go for a ~ ~(.l:.t} -~i---~ And so I talk with him and prevail to him to come on back to the church. He did. So the minister ,, ,, ... kc,,." ) ,,, asked him, he saidJ would ~ o«.- ,Jl-, .. 1 hk( , i ~ extra offering~ would youJ Bless this offering and dismiss the congregation!' I go to the door and shake hands with the ,t L people. And so, a, he did that. And, a~ the next mornin' the preacher called him and told him, said1 well, says, '~hey got down my throat about asking you to, a~ bless the o,, ffering, ask God's blessing on the offering and dismiss the congregation yesterday. So he asked him who was it and he wouldn't tell him. But1anyhow, on and on. So that bothered me so very much and one Sunday when I got to Sunday school, a~ to begin~... to open up and everything, to dismiss the classes in to their class .d ~ ft ,, ,, places, I asked him, I sai 1 may I talk with you? And he saict,yes. And so I went II 1,. ,/ 11 on into his office, and I said1 may I have a seat. And he saicliyes. Always, always, s?'l.rkt. -. ,, ,, ~. Adams, yes! So I sat down. I said, Reverant Marshall you know what I came in Annie Adams, 4-28-83, p. 43 /1 here to talk with you about, is about my husband. I saidJI wouldn't only just woul.A talk about wha"t I want to talk ,a, bout my husband. I,Awant to t,,a lk to yo,,u about this about anybody. And he said, a, what's this Sister Adams? I says, a~ you said that somebody jumped down your throat because you asked Ed to offer prayer, ask the Lord to bless the offering, and dismiss the congregation." ., I said,if he isn't " 1. ., fit to do that, why don't they bring a charge against him. And he say, I don't ,, // know, but they should've done that. And I sayJwell)maybe they don't know they supposed to bring tm charge against him.• I said,·~o why don't you tell trem. If he's a member of this church and he isn't fit, only , and he isn't fit to pray in the church and dismiss the congregation, then they should call him and If 1 question about whatever it is, , he's do,,i n' that's wrong.~ I saY,so, a1 when they bring the charge against him, I said1 then the church should hold the, sit on a ,, ,, . I committee to wait on him. I say and if he don't give satisfaction to the committee, I said)"t' hen they supp,o, sed to c,o, me back and bring that report that he didn't give satisfaction to them,, . I sai,d, ,then you are supposed to add another number to the committee,plus you. I said1 then you talk to him. And if he don't give satisfaction, ,, ,, you call to the church. I says1 and if he don't give satisfaction to the church, then It ,, h you withdraw the right hand of fellowship from him. And he says, a, I, I can't do ,, " that. I ,, can't do tha,t, . Isa~ isn't that right? Isn't that t.h. e right ,,p rocedure to take. And he said,yes, that's the right procedure to take. I sa~d,then you are ,, " the leader and you can't do what's right? He said, I can't do that. I can't do ., ,, i ,, that Sister Adams. I can't do that. I said, tell me why you can't do i.t. I said J ., ., you supposed to tel~ us when we're right and to tell us wren we're wrong. I said, " . ., ,, so maybe they did.n 't know trey were wrong, I says,and you supposed to have told ,, I' tf 2 t I I/ ttEm. I say;and you say you can't do it. I says1and if you can't do that, yo