“I find that the Negro is more appreciated in politics in the North and West than in the South. I don’t know whether it will grow better or not.
“I’ll tell you something else. The best of these white people down here don’t feel so friendly toward the North.”
Interviewer: Samuel S. Taylor
Person interviewed: James Graham
408 Maple Street, Little Rock, Arkansas
Age: 75
[“Free Negroes”]
“I was born in South Carolina, Lancaster County, about nine miles from Lancaster town. My father’s name was Tillman Graham and my mother’s name was Eliza.
“I have seen my grandfathers, but I forget their names now. My father was a farmer. My father and mother belonged to this people, that is, to the Tillmans.
“On my father’s side, they called my people free Negroes because they treated them so good. On my mother’s side they had to get their education privately. When the white children would come from school, my mother’s people would get instruction from them. My mother was a maid in the house and it was easy for her to get training that way.”
Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden
Person interviewed: Marthala Grant
2203 E. Barraque, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age: 77
“All I can remember is some men throwin’ us up in the air and ketchin’ us, me and my baby brother. Like to scared me to death. They had on funny clothes. Me and my brother was out in the yard playin’. They just grabbed us up and throwed us up and ketched us.