Walter Jones
From:
Arkansas
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.
"The biggest thing I can tell you ever happened to us more than I told
you was in 1878 I had yellow fever. Dr. Milton Pruitt come to see me.
The next day his brother come to see me. Dr. Milton died the next day.
I got well. At Grand Junction both black and white died. Some of both
color got well. A lot of people died.
"How am I making a living? I don't make one. Mr. Ashly lets me live in
a house and gives me scrap meat. I bottom chairs or do what I can. I
past heavy work. The Welfare don't help me. I farmed, railroaded
nearly all my life. Public work this last few years."
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Oscar Felix Junell
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Vergil Jones
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