the Ku Kluxes. My papa used to dodge the Ku Kluxes. He
lay out in the bushes from them. It was bad times. Some folks would
advise the black folks to do one way and then the Ku Kluxes come and
make it hot for them. One thing the Ku Kluxes didn't want much big
gatherings among the black folks. They break up big gatherings. Some
white folks tell them to do one thing and then some others tell them
to do some other way. That is the way it was. The Ku Kluxes was hot
headed. Papa wasn't a bad man but he was afraid they did do so much.
He was on the lookout and dodged them all the time.

"I haven't voted for a long time. I couldn't keep my taxes up.

"I don't own a home. I pay $4 rent for it. It is a cold house--not so
good. I have farmed all my life. I still farm. Times got so that
nobody would run you (credit you) and I come here to get jobs between
farming. I still farm. They hire mostly by the day--day labor. Them
two things and my dis'bility is making it mighty hard for me to live.
I work at any jobs I can get.

"I signed up for the Old Age Pension. They said I couldn't work, I was
too old. I wanted to work on the government work. I never got nothing.
I don't get no kind of help. I thought I didn't know how to get into
the Old Age Pension reason I didn't get it. It would help keep in wood
this wet weather when work is scarce."

Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: Walter Jones,
Brinkley, Arkansas
Age: 72

"My father run away scared of the Yankees. He got excited and left. My
mother didn't want him to leave her. She was crying when he left. My
father belong to the Wilsons. Mother was sold on the block in
Richmond, Virginia when she was twelve years old and never seen her
mother again. Mother belong to Charles Hunt. Her name was Lucy Hunt.
She married three times. Charles Hunt went to market to buy slaves. We
lived in Hardeman County, Tennessee when I was born but he sent us to
Mississippi. She worked in the field then but before then she was a
house girl. No, she was black. We are all African.

"I got eight children. When my wife died they finished scattering out.
I come here from Grand Junction, Mississippi. I eat breakfast on
Christmas day 1883 at Forrest City and spent the day at Hazen. I come
with friends. We paid our own ways. We come on the train and boat and
walked some.

"No, I don't take stock in voting. I never did. I have voted so long
ago I forgot it all.