I was a grown woman. They didn't want him elected I recken the reason they didn't want to hear it. Nobody liked em teaching but the last I heard of them he was a lawyer in Memphis. If folks learned to read a little that was all they cared about."
Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden
Person interviewed: John Luckett
Highway No. 65, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age: 83
"I was born in Mississippi up above Vicksburg. I 'member the old Civil War but I was just a little boy.
"Oh, I've seen the Yankees in Vicksburg where the battle was.
"I was 'bout ten when freedom come—nothin' but a boy.
"Clara Luckett was my mother. When the War was in Fort Pillow, I was a small boy. I don't know 'bout nothin' else—that's all I know about it.
"I been workin' at these mills ever since surrender. I been firin' for 'em.
"I voted the Republican ticket. I voted for General Grant and Garfield. I was a young man then. I voted for McKinley too. I never did hold no office, I was workin' all the time. I knowed Teddy Roosevelt—I voted for him.