203 10 5481 https://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/files/original/d81dfaa2dd0df0ac15187d3fb0c05bea.mp4 8fb638ad818a1ceba2836ccc133c0cbc Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mobile Tricentennial Video Oral History Project Interview Clips Subject The topic of the resource Mobile, African American History Description An account of the resource Oral history interviews of elders in Mobile's African American communities. These items are clippings, and the full interviews are available for viewing at the Local History &amp; Genealogy division of the Mobile Public Library. A full listing of available interviews may be viewed <a href="http://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/items/show/2732">here</a>. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource National African American Archives & Museum, Museum of Mobile Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Mobile Tricentennial Video Oral History Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Mobile Public Library, Local History & Genealogy Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1999-2002 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kern Jackson Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp4 Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral history interviews Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Mobile-VOHP-Clips Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Kern Jackson Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Paulette Davis Horton Location The location of the interview 1454 Ohio Street Mobile, AL 36604 Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound Jackson: The uh, when you started doing the work on the Avenue, what caused that to come about? Horton: Believe it or not, I don’t know where that came from. I was at uh a patient’s house. You know I’m a nurse. And I was at a patient’s house named Evelyn Cox. It was December 16, 1998. And I was at her just doing my work and something Davis Avenue wasn’t on my mind, it wasn’t in my thoughts or anything. And something just said write a history of Davis Avenue. I mean just out of the blue. And I said, you know I don’t where that thought, it just came, you know. And I said, “That is interesting.” Because I remember back back in ’72, I did ask the question, “Why they call this str..” because I was going to Bishop State, I said “Why they call this street Davis Avenue?” And someone said it was because it was black man named Dave Patton. I said “Was does that got to do with Davis?” I said, “His name is not Davis.” “Yeah, but they call it because he built the area.” I said, “Davis, his name is Dave.” And they said, “We don’t that.” So, I went and looked it up. I went out I wanted to find this Dave Patton. So, I went out in the cemetery and looked him up in the census and everything. No where is his name Davis or anything like that. So when I found out it wasn’t. That’s when I found it wasn’t Davis at all. You know, it was Dave Patton and Jefferson Davis, name of the street. But, I learned a lot about this man. I talked to people that knew Dave Patton and he leveled that area off. That was a hilly area years ago. And he his mules leveled it off, you know, kinda leveled it you know. And they thought, you know, the street was named after him. In fact, it was Davis Avenue even before he was born. Jackson: And what did you think about the irony that it actually was Jefferson Davis Avenue? Horton: Oh, I didn’t uh. Considering that it was after the Civil War it didn’t come in as a surprise to me. You know, cause I saw it in 1867 Davis Avenue. And that’s when I knew it wasn’t Dave Patton. I ruled that out. But it didn’t, uh, I don’t think it was as ironic you know back then because you know if you look back then uh considering what it was back then. Just a little straight street with uh, you know and who lived there years ago. Ah, that was not unusual because their were white people living there years years years ago. Jackson: I’m a tell you something just about the impact of that book. Um, there there are people, older people in their ‘70s ‘80s, who’ll go “You know, I I hadn’t thought about Live Oak Street and I read that book,’ and their just get real big, ‘And you know, it made think about when the Davis Avenue was paved up to that point. Horton: Uh, huh. Jackson: And they then just go on and on and their eyes roll back and get this look like the book took them somewhere they hadn’t been in awhile. You know, it’s really, it’s it’s really interesting because I believe people of Mobile, black folks in Mobile like to tell the story. It could be very guarded though. Horton: Yeah. Uh, huh. Jackson: Was that your experience when you were collecting these? Horton: What you mean guarded? Jackson: Guarded. They don’t necessarily wanna just open up. Horton: It it depends on who their talking to. Um, alots of times if they feel comfortable with you. I I didn’t I did not have, you know, that problem because sometimes when I’m interviewing ‘em and if it’s something that they wanna say. They’ll say, “Uh, now cut the tape recorder off.” You know, they’ll say, “Now, now cause I don’t want I don’t nobody to know ‘bout this.” Because there’re a lot of things that. And I’ll tell you this, because you know this, cause the person that, you know cause usually if the person that’s told you that’s dead. You know, I guess it wouldn’t really matter now. But, the thing that I found that was interesting um, like I have a friend that’s… Well she she died maybe 2 years ago. She’s a white lady and she’ll she’ll tell you ‘bout anything, she’ll tell you her feelings about anything or anything like that. And I compared her experiences with some of the older black women. And I said um, now this is what this is what and older person told me happened. Uh, they said that it was a lot of uh back then in order to make ends meet white people white men in Mobile would have a black women. And the way they and I said well how was that so. And they told me this cause I I wasn’t aware of this and she said they said if it wasn’t see the white man had a better job and they furnished this black women with a nice home and gave her money and he told her I don’t want you to work. I want you, now this is the white man telling the black woman, “I don’t want you to work, I want you for me.” And I asked a white lady, I said, “Where you aware that this was?” They said, “Sure.” I say well what did your husband tell you, “They told us to be a lady and don’t worry about his personal…’ Jackson: Business. Horton: …’business.” And I said, “Well, how did they get away with it?” He said, “What they would do was they would go to the battle house and check in.” And so if someone asked about his whereabouts, they would say, “Oh, he’s at.” “Well, I can prove I was at the battle house.” But that’s not really where he was, he was on the other side of town at night. And they and they put the white man put his children through college. They made sure they made that was that was number one priority that if he had a child by a black woman, he always put his child through college. That’s what they, that’s what they told me. And they said, um, there was a saying back then, that the um, how did how did she put it, well, they was laughing about it, I mean they, this is what they told me. Uh, they said that the uh, as for as the black women, uh, you know the white woman liked the black man because uh, they said that the white man makes love like a chicken, like a rooster. I said, “What you mean by he make love like a rooster?” They say he’s… You ever seen a rooster? You’re not familiar with chickens? Jackson: No, I was raised in a city where they didn’t have no chickens. [They laugh] Horton: Well… this this lady she was a old old. She said that the white woman says that the white man make love like a rooster. He’s quick. And a black man goes on and on. That’s what they…[she laughs] Jackson: Now this woman told you this. Horton: Yeah. Uh, huh. Yeah. An older I mean they told her this and they was just passing on you know what they knew. Jackson: Because there I know that one of the things I’m interested in talking to you about is Mardi Gras. And I know that uh, Mobile was very similar to other towns on a cost with French history or Spanish or French history. And there were um, houses for the you know, the Bondevontes999 of the white family, the rich white family in particular. You know those houses down there next to the museum on Claiborne street where that it’s a it’s a place where the um, one of the Mystic societies has a home. It’s across the street from the Holiday Inn but on the back side of the museum sort of on Claiborne and on Church street is the lawyer’s office. But um, they say that that house used to be the house where all of the young white men kept their black concubines when they were before were married before they were had established uh, their, um identity of the business world, so… Horton: Oh, is that the red light district? Was that… Jackson: No, I don’t I don’t think so off of Claiborne, right there. Horton: I’m familiar with that house, I wouldn’t doubt it but… Jackson: This was a particular family. And they didn’t want the young men living in the house with everybody else because they were too wild. Horton: Oh, I didn’t… I’m not familiar. Jackson: And they were allowed to be too wild. But that’s kind of the the story. I don’t know whether it’s true or not. That’s just kind of the story. And it but it kind of matches up with what your saying. Because Mobile is really obsessive about whiteness, blackness, who’s white in your family, who’s black or did your people migrate from Hale County or were they Creoles in Mobile from Mount Vernon and all this mess and I think you alluded to it a little bit when you were talking about Cross Town versus Down the Bay, if I’m not mistaken. What do you think about, well that was a lot but, what do you think about all that? Uh, the… Horton: How people feel about, um… Jackson: Yeah, how people in the black community particularly so strictly identify neighborhood and even skin tone. Horton: Yes, now I did notice that uh, just like my husband is a darker complexion than me and like he would say that he noticed that when we’re public like we’re in a restaurant that if it’s a white waitress the eye contact with me is not same. They are more focused on me than him. He said he noticed that too. That people are um, I don’t know it’s just something about, um. I don’t I I I don’t understand it but I do have a friend one of my very dear friends lives in Texas. She was saying that if I was a lil’ darker my husband wouldn’t chose me for a wife. She said it’s her belief that a dark skinned man will not is not really interested in a darker skinned woman. That’s now that’s just her opinion. And I said, well, and I asked my husband about it um, he said, um that’s not true, that’s not who I fell in love with. But say but yeah but look who you chose. You know, they look at, they look at that. But, I I just never have really paid attention to it. Because in my family my mother was a very light-skinned lady and my father is a dark-skinned man. And some of the children, I had one sister that was much darker than everyone else and she used to have a problem with that. You know, she used, ‘cause people say, “Oh, you the black sheep of the family.” She used to get very angry about that. Jackson: I bet. But there seems that are a lot of, when we talk about black Mobile there seems to be a lot of ‘isms’ around those types of issues. And that are even still kinda prominent today. Um, and I wonder in your in the capacity of collecting your information for ‘The Avenue’ in particular, even the school book, maybe uh, did that, did that issue come up? Horton: Um, about… Jackson: Doing what black… Doing what black folks and um, color cast of these types of feelings or is it just an undiscussed thing of my… Horton: Oh, no. They’ll discuss it. Yeah, it’s discussed all the time. Um, I don’t recall when I was writing. Um, when I was interviewing for ‘Avenue’ um, maybe just on one occasion people were saying, you know Dave Patton, they were saying that um he had a white secretary. They look at that like “Ooh, that’s a big thing.” But I asked Mr. Besteda was Mr… you know Mr. Besteda knew Dave Patton personally and… Jackson: This is Samuel Besteda. Horton: Uh huh, yes. I interviewed him um, you know, you know when he was living. These people were living when I interviewed, you know when I… Well they had to be living. But um, and I said, “Was Dave Patton’s secretary a white lady?” He said, “No, she was..” You know how some people can be so light, you’ll think they’re white. But she lived off Davis Avenue. I forgot, he told me her name and I got it on tape somewhere. But she was maybe a Creole or something like that. But I did not, they were they were really telling me about themselves and um… Like Mr. Besteda’s family worked for white people, too. And I asked him, “How did they feel, how did, did you ever go in…” Just like you asked me the question did I ever go to work with him. Mr. Besteda was born in 1902. And I was asking him did he go to work in one of those white homes with his mother. And he said uh, on one occasion. The Mossellander family, that’s a very prominent family here back then on Springhill Avenue and I said, “Was it alright for you being a little black boy to go in that house?” And he said what he did was he went to the back through the back door and his grandmother would say, uh, no his mother would say, “Now, Sam, you, you sit there you know at the kitchen table and just have a sit but don’t go through anything. But I do recall a gentleman in the “Melody Masters.” That’s a black group. You know you you you saw an Avenue book, “The Melody Masters”? Jackson: Yeah. Horton: And I asked them ‘cause I was interested in knowing when they went to these affairs um, because they are around black people and white people, too. When y’all went to, ‘cause these people were born in 19.. Mr. Lucious was born in 1904. Okay I remember okay. And this was in the ‘30s. I say did y’all, what was understood? They said, “When you perform, it’s understood you are not to dance with their women, you are not to...” They may offer you food or something like that. You are not to mingle, you can mingle in a certain you know in a certain way but you are not to dance with their women of nothing like that. So, but they they really didn’t talk about black and white ‘cause they their skin tones in these groups were varied. So, I don’t I don’t know um, I didn’t run into anybody that talked about, you know “We couldn’t socialize with them ‘cause their light-skinned and so… “ But they tell me that the slaves, some of the older people, that the grandparents told ‘em that the slaves used to get in fusses about. Jackson: What do you mean? Horton: They uh, like one lady said, that the slaves um, there were some slaves living off Davis Avenue years ago and they would have a argument about uh, who’s master got the finest carriage. You know, just little silly little things like that. But I don’t recall uh us, you know, in my interviewing them talking about um, you know, who was Creole. Oh, oh, oh, I know on one occasion one lady said that if you’re a… they didn’t wanna socialize, “I’m a postman,” I’m a schoolteacher,” somehting like that. They wouldn’t socialize with someone who wasn’t of that caliber. They did talk about how people did treat people who were not… Jackson: In the same class. Horton: Yeah, that happened quite… They did mention that. That um, you know, “I’m a postman.” Like one lady said, she told her lil’ girl, “Don’t worry baby, ah, he, he, he’s a he’s a postman and and he don’t wanna he don’t wanna have nothing to do with you. You know, now, now that he’s a postman, he don’t wanna have anything to do with you. Jackson: And uh, ah, it’s seems to be a theme. We keep coming back to this thing about class. And very often like when we think about Civil Rights and everything we factor out inside the community difficulties and differences. And my grandmother calls it mess. Horton: Yes, that’s what it is. It’s mess. I think it’s misunderstanding. But when you when you really get to talking to people ‘cause I was surprised too when I started doing “Avenue”. I was really surprised at um, you know, when I called Dr. Goode. I had no idea what type of person he was, I had no idea. In fact, I didn’t know any of these people. And I just picked up the phone and I thought he would be, and see that’s just my misunderstanding, I thought that he would be uppity or you know, something like that… Jackson: Not accessible to you. Horton: Yes, but I was really surprised. You know, he said, “Come on in.” You know and he got had this rough, “Come on, Suga. Come on in.” I said, “Okay.” And I said, I said, “Can I ask you anything?” “Yeah, shoot.” We sitting at the table, you know, he moved the dishes and you know. I thought he would be more, just uppity. I just thought people would be uppity. But I guess it’s a matter of knowing people and just understanding them. And nobody I interviewed, they were nothing like I thought. I interviewed of the you know black-white Creole and you know, they were nothing like I thought. I just thought that they was gonna be sadity and uppity and nothing like that. And they let me ask ‘em anything I wanted to ask. Um, you know, just like they was telling me when they got married. Uh, I was able to ask them, “Well tell me ‘bout your wedding night.” You know. Jackson: Right, right, right. Horton: You know, I could just ask them anything. And they would you know answer the question. They just wasn’t how I thought. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data VHS Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 16 min 24 sec Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Paulette Davis Horton Interview Clip Subject The topic of the resource Oral History Description An account of the resource Part of the VOHP interview of Paulette Davis Horton, discussing her book, Avenue, the People, the Places, the Memories, and discussing her experiences interviewing Mobilians for the book Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Paulette Davis Horton National African American Archives & Museum Museum of Mobile Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Mobile Tricentennial Video Oral History Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available National African American Archives & Museum, Museum of Mobile Mobile Public Library, Local History & Genealogy Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1999 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp4 Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral history interview Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context VOHP-PauletteDavisHorton-Avenue Avenue book Davis Avenue mardi gras Melody Masters Mobile Paulette Davis Horton race relations racial identity https://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/files/original/5c5bb85106860caa0e1a9e741889ed84.mp4 7f2bc742601869f31aeb87b0c5ad44d1 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mobile Tricentennial Video Oral History Project Interview Clips Subject The topic of the resource Mobile, African American History Description An account of the resource Oral history interviews of elders in Mobile's African American communities. These items are clippings, and the full interviews are available for viewing at the Local History &amp; Genealogy division of the Mobile Public Library. A full listing of available interviews may be viewed <a href="http://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/items/show/2732">here</a>. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource National African American Archives & Museum, Museum of Mobile Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Mobile Tricentennial Video Oral History Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Mobile Public Library, Local History & Genealogy Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1999-2002 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kern Jackson Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp4 Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral history interviews Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Mobile-VOHP-Clips Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Kern Jackson Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Eoline Pope Scott Odile Pope Owen Location The location of the interview 263 Marine Street Mobile, AL 36604 Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound Jackson: Because now-days we don’t have…the Excelsior Band leads the parade, it doesn’t come at the end of the parade, it leads the parade. Scott: Well it used to be at the end of the parade when my Daddy was a member, and when he had his band. That was my Daddy band. Did you ever know the beginning of the Excelsior Band? Jackson: No ma’am. Why don’t you tell me about that. Scott: Would you like to hear about it? Jackson: Please. Scott: The day my Daddy was born, his Daddy was so happy over the fact that he had a son, he called on his friends and they started playing. And that was the beginning; that was in 1883. And when my Daddy was 19 years old, my grandfather turned the band over to him. And they played all the big balls at the Battle House, the Courthaulds, you name it, they were the band. Jackson: When you were coming up, who were some of the other members of the band, if you could em out? Scott: Oh, let’s see, Mr. Hayes, I can't think of his first name. Mr. George Washington, he had a George Washington, and Ernest Pompenette. His Daddy had a band, and he left his Daddy’s band to play in the…he had the Pompenette Band…and he left his Daddy’s band to play in my Daddy’s band. And lets see now. I can't think of all those names. Jackson: What instruments basically were, was the band made up of. Scott: Brass instruments, you know, all brass instruments. Jackson: So you had your trombone, trumpet… Scott: Trombone, trumpet, sax, quite a few. Jackson: Did you have a drummer? Scott: Oh yes. Yes, the bass, you know bas horns: the tubas. Jackson: The picture that I always see of the Excelsior Band, of the few that exist always have, I always remember seeing the bass drum with the, you know, the name of the group. But tell me some more about these parades. Now he would be out front, he would be in the back right before the maskers. Scott: Now listen. The floats, after the floats were passed, then the Excelsior Band would come up. They brought up the end of the parade practically, and all these maskers were behind. That’s just some people who attended the parade in mask. It’s not the people who were belonged to the society, or anything like that. That was just people that used to mask. They don’t do that now. Jackson: What did, did they pay your father and his band for participating? Scott: Oh, of course. Sure. They’d all get the money. They didn’t get the money then that they get now, but they were paid. Sure. Jackson: It's important for folks to know that this was part of a profession, not just strictly for fun, although I'm sure they had a lot of fun. Tell me about the route. Where would you stand when you watched a parade. Scott: At Government and Washington Avenue. Jackson: Why there? Scott: I don’t know. It was because we had been going there all the time, I guess. Jackson: Are there any like foods you associate with Carnival time? Scott: Beg your pardon? Jackson: Are there any foods? Scott: Food? Jackson: Yeah that you associate with Carnival. Like I know I associate… Scott: Gumbo and ham, soup. Jackson: What kind of gumbo? Scott: You eat gumbo? Jackson: Yes. Scott: Huh? Jackson: Yes. What kind? Scott: Well, they would get filet gumbo or okra gumbo. My favorite was okra gumbo. Jackson: Why? Scott: It's just because I like it better. Jackson: What's in it? Scott: Well, they would seafood. They have crab, shrimp, not oysters in okra gumbo. Jackson: Okay. Scott: And you could add a little beef if you want to. Whenever I make some gumbo, I’ma call you up and tell you to come get some. Jackson: Bless your heart. When y'all were coming up, what were some of the favorite things you liked to eat that your mom made? Scott: That my mom made? Jackson: Uh huh. Scott: My momma was a good cook. She cooked gumbo, I liked the gumbo. She made good salads, and I don’t know, she used to make floating island for dessert, lemon pie… Jackson: What's floating…? Scott: See you don’t know about floating island. Jackson: What's floating island? Scott: Floating island was like a custard. And it had like a whipped cream like a beaten up eggs on top of it, and that was the island. But it was delicious. She’s make apple pies, roast. Oh we ate. WE loved each other so much, we didn’t even know we were poor. Jackson: How bout that. Speaking of loving each other so much, what were some things that our parents really, really valued? When you think back on the things they taught you, what did your parents really value? Scott: What they didn’t like, you mean? Jackson: Well what did they really stress, or find to be important? Or that they made sure that you understood. Scott: To always carry ourselves as ladies, and especially in public. Don’t do anything that we, that they would be ashamed of. I tell you one thing I did. I smoked, and I hid from my Daddy for years and years. I guess I was about 18, and he still didn’t approve of me smoking. And I loved to smoke. I don’t now. Jackson: What did you used to smoke? What brand? Scott: Oh I can't remember now. I guess it was Chesterfield’s or Camels or something like that. I tried to smoke the cool cigarettes, but I didn’t like em. I stopped smoking in 1980. Oh heck, you not a priest. Jackson: Some people wish I would. [laughter] Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data VHS Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 7 min 6 sec Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Pope Sisters Interview Clip Subject The topic of the resource Oral History Description An account of the resource Eoline Pope Scott and Odile Pope Owen talk about their father in the Excelsior Band and family memories Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Eoline Pope Scott Odile Pope Owen National African American Archives & Museum Museum of Mobile Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Mobile Tricentennial Video Oral History Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available National African American Archives & Museum, Museum of Mobile Mobile Public Library, Local History & Genealogy Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp4 Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral history interview Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context VOHP-PopeSisters-ExcelsiorBand Battle House cigarettes Eoline Pope Scott Excelsior Band food mardi gras Mardi Gras Parades music band Odile Pope Owen Pope Sisters smoking https://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/files/original/e083b364e83e59610edb4eebf063cc2b.mp4 bc88cf195384bf351dfea5defc6a718d https://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/files/original/94e337faf69606ebe5be76de7c6c6a6c.mp4 e58cb69ad1b5e4d91eb3d11ad6aab889 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mobile Tricentennial Video Oral History Project Interview Clips Subject The topic of the resource Mobile, African American History Description An account of the resource Oral history interviews of elders in Mobile's African American communities. These items are clippings, and the full interviews are available for viewing at the Local History &amp; Genealogy division of the Mobile Public Library. A full listing of available interviews may be viewed <a href="http://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/items/show/2732">here</a>. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource National African American Archives & Museum, Museum of Mobile Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Mobile Tricentennial Video Oral History Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Mobile Public Library, Local History & Genealogy Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1999-2002 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kern Jackson Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp4 Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral history interviews Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Mobile-VOHP-Clips Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Kern Jackson Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Martha West Davis Location The location of the interview 564 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue Mobile, AL 36603 Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound Jackson: Now tell me about your grandfather. Davis: Okay. Jackson: Or his story. Davis: You mean Cudjo? Okay Cudjo was a very active man. He didn’t believe in passivity. He was always doing something, and he was very, very friendly. He had several friends that were white people. One in particular was Alex Zoghby’s on Dauphin Street. Another great friend of his was Charles Ethler. He was the first Baptist evangelist in the states of the United States, in California. So Charles9999 would come to him sometimes on a visit and spend a whole day just visiting Cudjo. And he was a very good friend of my great-grandfather. And I regret that I was too small to hear what he was saying, but he would talk to my grandad and wed look up at him, you know up—they were tall people—and try to understand what they were talking about. And he also said that Cudjo was a wonderful man, and he just enjoyed spending money to travel from California just to see him and talk with him, and read the Bible to him. In other words, my grandfather could not read, but whenever his friends whom he trusted would come, he’d always ask them to at least say the passage. And he would listen and he would explain what they said. He had good memory, and I think that he did quite well not being able to read. And he would always relate certain passages that he said. Jackson: What did your grandaddy do for a living? Davis: My grandaddy farmed for a living. He farmed the entire area from the Bay Bridge entrance there on the highway back to Yorktown Baptist Church was a vast area. Very large plot of land. Jackson: If you can go back in your memory and remember your granddaddy and grandmama’s house, tell me about it. Davis: Okay. First we moved from in the middle of the street there, there’s the cutoff. And then our house my grandmother’s house was a very large house—about eight rooms. We had long shutters, now they are called Venetian blinds but we had wooden shutters that would pull down, and you could see all through the streets there. And when we moved from that house our grandfather built his house in the back of our house. This was seventy-five years we lived there. It was made out of the old-fashioned pinewood. He also added a porch there, and it made his house look like a big place. They had a fence around it with lots of shrubbery. Course he farmed; you could see he was a farmer cause he filled the entire area with vegetables, with food to feed people because there was no need of him trying to preserve the food. It was too vast. I believe in my estimation he fed about five thousand people during his lifetime. At least five thousand or more cause he gave away what he raised, the food products. Jackson: What did your grandfather tell you about his journey to America? Davis: Well, as a little girl, about three and a half years old, I can recall he said it was a long ride, and they had limited, food was very limited. They had very little water, and it was a very crowded condition. I also remember him saying that if they saw a ship coming toward the schooner he was riding was sailing on, they were told to tuck their heads down in a position that would not tell people someone was on board the schooner. So they were always trained to hide. It was an illegal trip. In fact he said they forced. He said one night they were, I suppose, going to bed in the villages, and there were two kings that were arguing, or rather they almost went into a state of mutiny. They were fighting because of one reason, because Cudjo’s king, Dahomey had a good production. He had more food that would feed the people in the village than King Taika, so Taika got angry and they had this gentleman, a tall gentleman, I won’t call the name to help to capture the village as much as they could: a fairly large number of people. So they got on this ship not knowing where their sisters and brothers were. So in our case, in my family, my grandaddy left his mother and father in the village, and he had no control because they were forced to get on the ship Clotilde and sail to America. There was no chance of saying, “I don’t want to go. Where am I going?” But they only could say, “ I’m going to a new land, a New World.” So he came to America after seventy days of voyage, the duration of seventy days. Jackson: How old were you when your grandfather passed? Davis: I was in the, it might have been the middle school. After grade four I think, or something like that because I recall having seen him before he passed away after going to school every day. One morning I carried him some, what it’s called, cream of wheat, but grandpa called it gruel because that was the name he could say, I says gruel. He said it’s 9999, it made out of corn, your fine corn. And the fact that I was walking very fast one morning, I turned the bowl of gruel or cream of wheat over on my right wrist, and I bear the scar now where the hot cereal turned over. And I came back to my grandmother’s house, and I told her what I had done. She said don’t cry, it’s going to be okay you know what grandmother’s always say. But I wanted the chance of being a little maid, you know I want to care for grandaddy cause I always loved him so much, but that was one of my little hurts I had to endure. And I see the scar everyday on my arm, but it’s a scar I appreciate because I had a chance to be a little nurse for my grandpa. Jackson: Now I understand, I’m not the first person to come along and interview member of your family. Could you tell me something about that? Davis: No, you really are not the first one in the nineties, but I believe that before now there were people who called in and asked the Press Register here downtown in Mobile how to go out there and get some interviews. I don’t know who they were, but I was always told that one lady named Zora Neale Hurston came in a long time ago and interviewed my grandpa. Another lady also came; I forget her name right now. But I understand there were two people who wrote books on grandpa, and that the books were sold. Some books are still saved or reserved in the library here on reference shelves—that you can’t take out. So my family has one book, our private book. It has the same story, the same style that the first book that he was ever interviewed, has the same format. Course they are trying to change that, but I prefer having the old, old draft because it tells the real true story. Lot of people are making stories, I mean fiction, that’s okay with me it’s fine, but the genuine thing is what we need to preserve: that the truth, more or less the truth. And that’s what I really can appreciate, the little story of Kazula. Jackson: When I came in this morning, and we met this morning, you told me about something I had never heard about and that was a cooling board. What is a cooling board? Davis: Yes, I thought perhaps you had heard of it. Anyway, the cooling board system is when grandpa, Kazula, would take a family member out to a place it’s called Pennsylvania, Alabama. It’s going north, northeast. This is a friend he knew in Mobile, Alabama here. Her name was Aunt Sally, and she was a very good friend of grandpa’s, Kazula. So one Sunday we went, we had a Burgender, another car was a Plymouth. WE had two cars, two-car garage, and so grandpa dressed with a high hat on and a black silk suit to see Aunt Sally. But she was outside on the porch on what is called a cooling board or wood, a piece of wide wood, she was dressed as if she was dead, had expired. So everybody was along, because her son thought she had, thought his mother had passed along. She really was in a comatic state so Aunt Sally really wasn’t dead; she was in a coma. Jackson: When you do your work here as a docent, explaining and interpreting Africatown, what are some of the things you like to highlight about Africatown? Davis: I like mostly to think of the thing that my grandfather had as a person who did not have any enmity against his travel, which he could not avoid, and how he would relate to blacks and whites. There was no color line. He said many times that he loved everybody: race creed or color was a not a matter. He was happy to be in America and to have a family. And so I think he was a man who did not hold anything against his travel. He was just happy to be alive, to have survived. I am happy to know myself that he had no broken parts of his body. He had normal arms and normal eyes; he never wore eyeglasses. He never had a tooth pulled. He had no diseases. He only had a long duration of lifetime, longevity because when he expired he was a healthy man. He walked upright. He was very free. He was not afraid to talk to people. So I believe he was one of the most normal men I’ve ever seen, to have had such trials, such hard deprivation to come to a new land called America. Jackson: Do you know where your grandfather is buried? Davis: Yes, I certainly do. I know the spot and I always have a vision of just how I looked at that hole there, and saw him being lowered down, never to see him again. It is one of my most misunderstood moments in my lifetime, to have him to be covered. I remember him very well. Jackson: How was it a misunderstood moment? Davis: Well, I really did not want him to pass because I did not know enough about him as to… have him to… but he held my hand many times he talked to us. But I didn’t have enough long time with him as I’d hoped to have. He lived more about a hundred and twenty. But he passed that age where he had to leave us. It was almost, it was a very good moments of lamentation. Everybody was just saying why, why; such a good man loved people, fed people. Even, in fact I understand that my grandmother said one time that he loaned the money what he had to people, and he was never paid back. And this was a true fact, and I wondered why people sometimes took advantage of him. He had lots of artifacts there. In fact he had a beautiful gold walking cane, not a curved one, but a beautiful round cylinder-type. It was taken out, confiscated. He had lots of jewelry that Zora Neale Hurston gave him that was taken out. Lots of things were taken. People would come there, not knowing to us, in the morning-time, kinda early. We watched them very carefully, but sometimes you just can’t watch everybody who comes from different sides. In the back part of your house you can’t see. But we kept watch on grandpa, I mean as much as we could. We really loved him very dearly. But we noticed that a lot of his personal things were taken. I remember having tried on a fur shoe. My feet was very tiny. One shoe would make two 99999 on each side of it. I had a very small foot. He said you can’t wear those; they’re too large; they’re made directly in Africa. Beautiful fur shoes: I tried those on. Jackson: Where’s he buried? What’s the name of the place? Davis: It’s the Plateau Cemetery. Plateau Cemetery originally. The first site. There are two sites now. The cemetery now is combined into the old part and the new part which enters on the Chin road. It goes east and west; it’s on the very edge. Cont. Jackson: What are some of the most significant things that have happened in the history of Africatown, USA and Plateau? Davis: Well I think, to me, I would say my granfather’s eulogistic services where my mother lost her temper, because when he expired, she wanted him to be in this facility where he dedicated and was hired gave his life for the people in his church. Few days, what he did, but then the time he expired that Friday evening, July 28, 1935, he was sort of a misunderstanding about where to put him until the funeral on Monday morning. So my grand, my mother Angela told the mortician, that’s Johnson-Allen that she wanted my granfather to be viewed in the church for three days and three night because she thought there were people coming from abroad, which they did, to view his body. So it was time for the new pastor to come in for his conference, and election. And there was a disagreement about that, so my grandmother told Dr. Allen, Dr. Johnson-Allen, that is she didn’t, if they didn’t put him in there, and she desired, because he deserved the honor, that she would carry my grandpa on her shoulders, and I knew that was, could happen. So they agreed to her that they’d put her in there to rest three days and nights. But that was a matter of honoring someone who had given their life to the whole community. I thought she was not out of order to have said she wished her grandfather, I mean, yes, granddaddy to be laid there. I mean put to rest, and it’s three days. It wouldn’t have hurt anything or any meeting or any sort of conference that was going to be held for election of the pastor, pastorship. So that was maybe sort of….What I didn’t understand was why he couldn’t stay there. I mean in the lying there, because that was his lifestyle, the church. He was a custodian there along with my mother, she traced behind him as a little girl and she was playing with brooms and mops the floor with the creative mops they had. She would clean the spittoons, she was would wash the lanterns lights, and they worked hard with that building, that placed where he downed the pine trees. But they didn’t want him there, they wanted him to be shipped in, I mean pulled in there and pulled out. She said, no, don’t disturb his body. Once he is still, he will be still till we have his services. So she won. My mother was very, very up and up. She didn’t take any low-back when she was right. She said she knew she was right about having him lay in rest there, because he was an honorable man. So my mother won. Jackson: Miss Woods, Miss Lorna Woods once told me about the services that she heard later her family stories about how the descendents of the Clotilde would hold prayer meetings during the week, not just on Sunday. Davis: Yes. Jackson: Tell me about that please. Davis: Well it was a sort of tradition that everybody there that everybody was so centered around pleasing, I guess you might say doing things that was right, and having good morals, and success, as you know Plateau came a long ways from a log cabin church to a brick building now. This is the third church. My grandfather helped to build…they hewed down the trees in order to make a place for worship, so they, we had those early prayer meetings and prayer times, where we’s be praying and asking god for help because there was no other source that we could, that they could seek other than from praying and asking god to provide better jobs for black people because most of the jobs there was maids or even lower than maids you know. People had to do, I mean sawmill. Women had to use those, hot things at the Ben Archer plant. They worked women and men there. Not just men, the women worked there too, they had to make shingles and things for the houses and did heavy work there. But it was just the way of life they had to do. Jackson: Tell me more about some sawmills and those women. Davis: Okay. Jackson: If you could, in your mind’s eye go back and describe what it was like for them, and what kind of work was that, in addition to all their other responsibilities? Davis: Yes, for me, as far as I can understand, being a small, like a teenager, I remember a lady named like Mrs. Alice Goodtress, of one the ladies who worked there. Others too. They had to actually stand for hours before eating, taking a break. It wasn’t a cool place to work; it was hot. The building was not very comfortable. They had to work. This building, I believe had a large production that it put out, I’m sure it did because it was the only plant that was available. Jackson: What did they wear? Davis: They wore the regular cotton dresses. It was no slacks so they had to wear dresses, and I imagine the flat shoes and they, perhaps they had to have the windows open, where those big wide windows would get air, and those big fans, because the building was so hot. Jackson: And their hair? Davis: They had just regular; they didn’t tie up their hair. They had just hair just ordinary pressed or whatever style they wanted braided or what have you. But the condition was very, very hot. It was not very comfortable. It was the only plant that supplied money, as far as economics were concerned there. It was called the Ben Archer Plant. It stayed open for years and years and years. And the men had the heavy metal, ironwork to do. They were welding, but it was not the most convenient type of welding. It was severe. It was heavy. Jackson: Were they paid fairly for their work? Davis: I would say it was not the max; just for survival, just for survival. Lots of folks had little outside jobs they had. They sold vegetables and some had what you call maids outside. Like on Saturday they worked certain jobs like that. It was a time, was time people really had to work hard to survive. Course the cost of things were not as high as they are now. Course not. But what you had to work for, I mean you really had to work hard to get it. Jackson: now these folks, what, you were talking about church… Davis: Yes. Jackson: What other things brought them joy? Davis: Well we had what’s called picnics, Annual Picnics, that was in the Creole town, Mount Louis Island. It was an island that was discovered after people learned to get the joy of swimming and of perhaps a half-sail or saith of ocean or water surface of level land. This land I suppose, a person saw having recreation could benefit this land, down there. You could sell drinks, and the pop and the ice cream, and what have you, and candies and what you call popcorns, and make a little vendor’s service out like in New York City. So they opened this for a business for a family enterprise. So when they did this, everbody learned about Mount Louis Island. They would go down in buses. Every church then got the idea of having a picnic at Mount Louis Island. And they would make appointments, dates to have a church come on certain dates, and they had big trucks loads of people. Some had cars. And it was a fun-type thing. One of the thing that I regret when I was a little girl about ten, we were down there, a young man name Peter Mills was drowning. We usually count the children on the picnic bus or cars, but we were told not to go where this flag was because it was high water. And so I don’t know what happened to this young man, he was bout twelve like we were. He went beyond this signal sign, and time to call names and come back to the church. We had been standing count out. We could not find him. His mother and daddy were very dedicated church people. The Hunters. His mother’s name Mrs. Goldie Hunter. And she lost her son Peter. He was only twelve, and he was never found again. We searched and searched and they left him there in the water. But the tides were very high. They were coming in I suppose, and he couldn’t swim, so he went past this signal, and he was drowned. Jackson: What did the adults do at Mount Louis island? Davis: On Mondays? Well most of the churches had what you call missionary meetings on Mondays. Jackson: No, no, no. I mean what did the grown folks do when you went to the picnics? What kind of activities did they do? Davis: Oh yes. They would watch the kids, number one. They had their own baskets, what do you call it, their own booths where they had the food there. It’s a booth, like a table with food on it. And they had the ice cream packed with ice. The children had their own family ice cream, their own creative ice cream. They had punch and stuff, and they made sandwiches and some barbecue. They barbecued meat. They barbecue the whole day. And they had this place called the little music hall department there. They had, they were allowed to play the box deal. I think it was called the Rock-ola box there. They put a quarter in there and it would play certain songs. You know okay with the church superintendent, and the girls had fun there and the boys had fun. We’d go in bathing and come out bathing and everyone would watch them. There was a division there of course because they were church people. But it was fun. That was one of the main things they had for a yearly recreation there. Go to Mount Louis Island; they were Creole people who banded to the other end and founded this enterprise and swimming area for 9999 and what have you to come there. The result of recreation fun. Jackson: That’s interesting. I always wanted to know: What exactly is a Creole? Davis: Well, from what I can understand, it is a type of people who must have the same blood type in order to, when they want to produce children, they have to have the same blood type. In other words they can’t mix. The colors varies from very dark hair, yellow skin, some have blond hair mixed with sandy appearance. But it’s not black; it’s not white. It’s the mixture of just the Creole children that came from the beginning of the Creole wherever it started. It could have started in New Orleans or Pensacola. But mostly it’s French. It comes from the French services. And they migrated here, and they then began to produce siblings. And it grew and grew to families. Jackson: Were there any social clubs or any, uh, Federated Women’s Club or anything like that in Plateau? Davis: It started later. Dr. Benjamin F. Baker after his expiration, they built this Benjamin F. Baker Federated Club. Ladies who want to go into groups and have weddings there, banquets. It’s on Catherine Street, there, it’s existing now, but it was after Dr. Baker expired. But it’s functional now. You can have wedding there, receptions there. It’s open now for the public; it’s still open. Jackson: You talk about your grandfather frequently. Could you please say a few words about the importance of history? Davis: I think that it should be reserved forever. I don’t think it should ever be frozen because of how they came here and why they came here. Jackson: They who? Davis: The descendents. I mean the native from Benin, Africa and west Ghana: Cudjo, Paulette Allen, Charlie Zuma, J.B, Shade, and Ecola Dennison, and Clara Turner which is called Yabashi, and Zuma Levinson which was a Topbar. All the other of the nine were Takars. And those folks should not be frozen. They should be studied. There were people, and they have done great things here. Had it not been for the African-Americans here, I suppose all this food would not have been produced, because the land was not productive. It was a just a wilderness when they came here. They worked very hard. Jackson: Was it their own land? Davis: No, this land was given by the Maehers. Jackson: it was given to them? Davis: Yes, Cudjo… Jackson: They owned it? Davis: No, this was given to them by the Maehers. Jackson: How did they work that out? Davis: It was, I suppose, because you know I wasn’t born at the time, bear in mind. But I suppose like any other transaction that was done in that time, that type of transaction, drafting policies and documents, they had more than they could handle. I suppose and I say it from my heart, land, you can’t, you can’t walk over the Earth I mean in one day. So it was just, am I right? lots of land that was just there, barren land so they had nowhere to stay. So it was given to my grandad, Kazula, so he shared the land and gave as much as he could. And he gave the land to be productive. He cleared the land, and he worked very hard with nails that were on the wood in the log truck, log cabin church, a place to worship in and a conference house down in the stand by my brother, Melvin whose 9999. But they had a conference house, like a little shack outside from the original wooden church where they would assemble. Whenever someone didn’t agree with what Cudjo said, they’d all get together and agree. It seemed like Cudjo was their spokesman. He was not the chief or anything, but he was so agreeable, so understanding that we gotta survive, and we must work together. Jackson: did you know any of the other people beside your grandfather who came off the Clotilda? Davis: Only the Dennisons. I didn’t know Equlla’s great-grandmother, but I knew the family after the next generation under her. We used to visit them on Sundays. But I didn’t know anybody else, because they were, they were deceased. Jackson: Are there any other stories about the Clotilde Africans that you are aware of now? Davis: Repeat that. Jackson: Are there any other stories about the Clotilde Africans that you are aware of, other than your grandfather? Davis: No, the only thing that I was not too pleased about is that people are drafting or drawing or sketching, whatever you want to call it—I’m an artist also, I’m a true artist—they are sketching the ship Clotilde. But it’s not the Clotilde, it’s what’s left, the remnants of the Clotilde. The real Clotilde has been wrecked. How can you draw a wrecked picture of what’s not there anymore? So I would say it is like it looks. You can’t make a ship when it’s burned up. So I disagree with someone saying, ‘You should have a replica or you should have a scenario.’ But you can’t because the ship was destroyed because it was illegal. So what are you going to do, do some thing that’s false? So I don’t agree with having any replica of the ship. I mean, what’s left, leave it there and lodge it. Because the real ship will never be anymore. It’s gone forever. Jackson: Were there any sayings by any of your grandparents that you remember? Davis: Yes, my granfather Kazula had one thing he stressed most dearly, as we could understand it. He said he was disappointed someone would take something, and more so if he would recognize it was gone. He would always say this as a daily word and like his prayer, he said, “if you” and he used the word “L-I-E”, lie. He said, “if you tell a lie, you will steal.” He was bitterly against, he forbade us to say, “I didn’t do it,” if we did it. We pull a twig down from the cherry tree, he said it you did it, you tell me you did it. He did not want you to tell a false. He was a very hard man on truthfulness, and he didn’t like for you to do things that’s not right. He said whatever you want, you ask for it. That’s why most of his artifacts were stolen because people got away with things such as his gold walking cane, his fur shoes, his jewelries, and lots of things. They came in pairs or groups into him, but they really took a lot of things from his house. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data VHS Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 11 min 53 sec ; 16 min 24 sec Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Martha West Davis Interview Clips Subject The topic of the resource Oral History Description An account of the resource Martha West Davis talks about her grandfather, Cudjo Lewis, the Clotilde, Cudjo's funeral, Mon Louis Island, the Plateau Community, etc. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Martha West Davis National African American Archives & Museum Museum of Mobile Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Mobile Tricentennial Video Oral History Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available National African American Archives & Museum, Museum of Mobile Mobile Public Library, Local History & Genealogy Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1999 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp4 Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral history interview Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context VOHP-MarthaWestDavis-CudjoLewis Clotilda ship (last slave ship to the U.S.) Clotilde creole Cudjoe 'Kazoola' Lewis farm life Martha West Davis Mon Louis Island Plateau Cemetery https://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/files/original/26a21ecd2849dd9a90785b7345602d2d.mp4 8d41f979b58c76654527cc06aa029146 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mobile Tricentennial Video Oral History Project Interview Clips Subject The topic of the resource Mobile, African American History Description An account of the resource Oral history interviews of elders in Mobile's African American communities. These items are clippings, and the full interviews are available for viewing at the Local History &amp; Genealogy division of the Mobile Public Library. A full listing of available interviews may be viewed <a href="http://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/items/show/2732">here</a>. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource National African American Archives & Museum, Museum of Mobile Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Mobile Tricentennial Video Oral History Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Mobile Public Library, Local History & Genealogy Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1999-2002 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kern Jackson Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp4 Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral history interviews Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Mobile-VOHP-Clips Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Kern Jackson Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Olney Lucious Location The location of the interview 855 Allison Street Mobile, AL 36617 Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound Jackson: What was your first gig or your first job here in Mobile playing? Lucious: My first night job, first job, like playing music? Jackson: Yes, sir. Lucious: Oh, first job playing music was with, they all dead now, it was a five-piece combo. We all were practically learning. We, we knew something bout all right but we, we didn’t know that much but we knew just enough to get by that we made some bad cards or bad tunes or something like that. We probably knew it, would correct it if we knew, if we didn’t, we just got down with it. [Laughter] Jackson: What was the name of that combo? Lucious: The song? Jackson: No, the, the group that you played with what was the name of it? Lucious: Oh, now the first group, the first group I ever played with was a was kind of a nonexperienced, didn’t have all that experience we just got together and make noise. We got paid for it. It was Walter Thompson’s, you wouldn’t anything about, Walter Thompson And His Matadors I believe it was. But anyway, the boy’s name is Walter Thompson. Yeah, he’s dead and gone and everybody else along with me that I know of isn’t still living. Wasn’t but five of us what you call a combo when it was small like that, 5 or 6 of you. But that been a long time ago you see when I first started playing music ‘round when I first come out of school. See when I first come out of school, I was around 20 years old or something like that, 19, 20, 21 or something like that. I didn’t know too much but I knew enough to get by like, like Nuckie, his name was Walter Thompson but we called him “Nuckie”. He knew more than any of us. He was kinda the leader of the band. He was a little smarter than the rest of us. But I quit him after I, I was started to, I started to going up. I started moving up just like that. See every time somebody was, was learning me playing bout the way I doing on that banjo. They said, “well, if you, if you, if you wanna make a change we got a place for you. We got a chair for you in our band.” Jackson: What were some of the bands you played for? Lucious: This boy was one, Walter Thompson and His Matadors, that was one. Wilson Red Hot, I don’t know if you ever heard of him or not, that was two and the most, the band with the, was the most anchored band I ever played in was Melody Masters. Now you talking bout a band. Every band would come through here wouldn’t wanna come back here anymore when they heard us. And then, and then sometimes they don’t wanna come through and get what they call a double rush with us. Jackson: A double rush. Lucious: Yeah. Jackson: What’s a double rush? Lucious: A double rush? A double rush is when two bands are playing together the same night in the same place. See and what the really called they self doing is kind of, vying and vying with each. One, one trying to out play the other and all that old kind of stuff, you know. See especially if you got a good reputation. Now it takes some bands with a pretty good reputation to call themselves double rush. Some bands gon double rush and ain’t got know reputation behind ‘em and somebody find out, “well, who gon come here, I don’t know nothing about them guys. I don’t know about ‘em. You ain’t gon have no, you’n gon hardly have nobody at your affairs. But if it somebody come to you like Days of Old. Somebody say when uh, Duke Ellington man, they double rushing with old uh, what's this other guy name used to dancing and hollering [he hums a Cab Calloway tune]. Jackson: Oh uh…. Lucious: You know what I'm talking about [ he hums a Cab Calloway tune]. Jackson: Mitty the Moocher. Ah, Cab Calloway. Lucious: Yeah, Cab Calloway. Now when somebody, when you say, you double rushing between Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington, you can’t hardly get in the place. See. Jackson: Uh, huh. Lucious: But it seldom happened but it did happen. Jackson: In Mobile too? Lucious: No, that didn’t happen in Mobile but they came through here on singles. Cab Calloway would come through Mobile on his own. Duke Ellington would come through here to Mobile on his own. Eddie Hayward, I worked with Eddie Hayward while he was here. Now, the Ms. What-you-call-it can tell you all you wanna know about me and Eddie Hayward. Jackson: Who’s that? Lucious: Ms, Ms. Hortence, what’s her name? Pauline… Jackson: Oh, Ms. Paul…. Horton. Lucious: Paulette Horton, yeah. ‘Cause she got the whole history of it too, you see. When he, when he came through here, I was strutting my stuff then. Jackson: No kidding. Lucious: Yeah, I was strutting my stuff. I knew music and I would write and all read it. I got stuff around here that I wrote, transposing and everything for the band what the band could play in the key that we could play better in. See if a piece was written in a piece, if a piece was written in a certain note, in a certain key and the band can’t, can’t can’t do so much with it. In that key I’ll say, “Five flats.” And everybody know that five flat, that’s five flats in “D” for signature is a “D”. That’s for an ackward key to play in too. Jackson: Tell me where did, where did the Melody Masters play? What kind of venues, what kind of places, what kind of halls did y’all play in in Mobile? Lucious: Oh they, man they played in some of everywhere you, you would give an affair. Jackson: Tell me some of ‘em. Lucious: Played Fort Whiting. You ever heard of Fort Whiting now? Jackson: Yes, sir. Lucious: All right, they played at the Columbus, Columbia, Columbus Hall I guess that’s Catholic building on Government Street. And we just played, lined up all the time up here at Gomez Auditorium. And ah… Jackson: The Elks, you ever played at the Elks? Lucious: Elks, yeah, Elks down on State Street. And ah… Jackson: ILA? Lucious: Who? Jackson: The ILA Hall? Lucious: Yeah, ILA too. Yeah on Davis Avenue all those places and not, not and not only we went to, went to New Orleans played down there, a club down there, it was a Colored club at that time, I forgot the name of it. It’s a rich club, man, one that make a lot of money. It’s on Iberville where, you ever heard of Iberville, that’s where… That clubhouse, one of the beautiful clubhouse, now that was years ago. I don’t know whether it’s still in business or not. All those large places cause I, there’s a picture of our band over there. Jackson: Yeah, I saw that picture. Lucious: Oh, you did. Jackson: Who were some of the members, can you name some of ‘em? Lucious: Yeah, I remember all of em. Now I can put some only one person in there is living besides me. Jackson: Who’s that? Lucious: Ms. Olivia Rivers. Jackson: Piano player? Lucious: Yeah, she, she Ms. Olivia Rivers, she’s downtown, she’s on Ann and Basil, the only two-story house in that block in the area right in there. And that’s her home. Her husband died and left her that home. Nice place. Two-story place. Her name is Rivers and she can play some organ and she can play some piano and that was a group that didn’t bother nobody that came in here or out of here. Jackson: No kidding. Lucious: When they comes here, just telling you, I’m telling you the truth. I’m not bragging because I played with ‘em but I played with em for years and I, and they had top notch musicians and I’m not saying because I happen to be a member. I was glad to be a member that, a group like that that carried that kind of a reputation. Jackson: Who were some of the other people in the band? Lucious: Fred Jackson was one, he was a school teacher over here at Owens. Jackson: Uh, huh. A. F. Owens school. Lucious: A. F. Owens, yeah. He would, he could write that stuff. We could, we had folks of us could write that stuff. I wasn’t the only one that said could write that stuff. Fred Jackson and Millers Holmes. I don’t know whether you remember, Millers Holmes he was a old timer around Mobile here too. And I hear you say something about Lang being related to you. Seem like to me one of them Langs used to be, used to be a postman, I know him well. But anyway, I’m trying to, Olivia, she was the only lady and it was 13 of us. Twelve men and that one lady. And it was 13 of us. And we had 3 changes of uniforms. Jackson: Tell me about ‘em. Lucious: Well, we had, we had tuxes you know, because we played for balls. We played a lot of balls. Jackson: Who, who were some of the balls you played? Lucious: Oh, we played just about all of the, the Comrades, the some of ‘em I can’t call the name right off hand, I… Jackson: Utopians? Lucious: Who? Jackson: Utopians Ball? The Utopians Ball? That sound familiar? Lucious: I didn’t quite hear you. Jackson: Utopians. Lucious: Oh, yeah, Utopians yeah. Utopians and that was one of the main ones, Alec Herman’s bunch. Sure. I just it slipped it remembrance now ‘cause it been so long so long ago. Alec Herman and we played for his group and then we played for oh a bunch of ‘em now. Alfred Davis, let me see, what is Alfred Davis’ group. Oh, but I can’t call the names. Jackson: That’s all right. Lucious: See. What’s this boy that just died here, buried him here, The Comrades. We used to play with them, their ball. Ah, now what’s his name. Jackson: Richardson? Lucious: Richardson, yeah. Oscar Richardson. We used to play for their balls. And Alec Herman and Dr. Russell, Dr. Russell was Utopian. See, he was, he the member or the Utopian. That was easy… Jackson: Did you know any of the people in the brass bands? Lucious: Brass band? Jackson: Yeah, you ever heard of brass band like the Eureka Brass Band or the Excelsior Brass Band? Lucious: Yeah, yeah, I knew all of them fellows when they… I’m a turn some heat on. Where were we? Jackson: We’re talking about the Eureka Brass Band and the Excelsior Brass Band. Lucious: Oh, yeah the Excelsior Brass Band. Yeah, now Eureka, they played out before the Excelsior. The Excelsior lasted a long time. They life lasted them a long time. Well, they played for about every all the Mardi Gras parades even if it was White parades and all. Jackson: But the Eureka played out? Lucious: Yeah, yeah, Eureka didn’t… They had a good band while they were going but something, I don’t know what happened. Maybe they all died out or something or other. Jackson: Who did Mr. Besteda play with? Lucious: Besteda? Jackson: The trombonist. Lucious: That was my cousin. Jackson: That was your cousin. Lucious: Yeah, he played with the Melody Masters. We all played together. He’s right up there on the picture. Jackson: No kidding. Lucious: He and I both right up there. And he was and believe me and I’m not saying because he was cousin. But he could play ‘cause he got his training at Tuskegee too. Jackson: So a lot of y’all got your training at Tuskegee. Lucious: Yeah, a lot of us did. Jackson: Isn’t that a blessing. Lucious: Sure did. Especially musicians, you know. Jackson: Yes. Lucious: See so Mr. Besteda got his training right up there at Tuskegee and he died right out here at this nursing home out here on Halls Mill Road. Jackson: How about the E. B. Coleman Band? Lucious: E. B. I know E. B. Coleman. E. B. Coleman got a good band too. He’s always had a good band, he got a big band. He usually carry a big band around 12 to 14 pieces and all like that see. And he’s got good musicians in his band. Now some instances, his fellows I didn’t teach ‘em but I have taught some of their offsprings. Like this boy, a lot of ‘em fellows. My memory, my memory is just short now, you know when you get old your memory get short and you can’t remember things like you used to. What’s that boy name, his mother and father died here not long ago. He played trumpet with E. B. I taught his, his, his 2 boys and one of ‘em turned sour on the family by taking stuff, taking that dope and stuff. Jackson: Right. Lucious: I don’t know if you would remember that case or not. Jackson: Uh, uh. Lucious: But that’s what happened. So E. B. has got, he has a good thing Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data VHS Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 13 min 11 sec Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Olney Lucious Interview Clip Subject The topic of the resource Oral History Description An account of the resource Olney Lucious talks about his experiences as a musician in Mobile Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Olney Lucious National African American Archives & Museum Museum of Mobile Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Mobile Tricentennial Video Oral History Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available National African American Archives & Museum, Museum of Mobile Mobile Public Library, Local History & Genealogy Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp4 Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral history interview Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context VOHP-OlneyLucious-MusicBands A.F. Owens Cab Calloway Duke Ellington E.B. Coleman Excelsior Band Gomez Auditorium ILA Hall mardi gras Mardi Gras ball Melody Masters Mobile music band Olivia Rivers Walter Thompson Walter Thompson and his Matadors https://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/files/original/3bcb44a5cc3aad61759263301bc31121.mp4 8b9fff1981993bcc19a5aeebce7af48b Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mobile Tricentennial Video Oral History Project Interview Clips Subject The topic of the resource Mobile, African American History Description An account of the resource Oral history interviews of elders in Mobile's African American communities. These items are clippings, and the full interviews are available for viewing at the Local History &amp; Genealogy division of the Mobile Public Library. A full listing of available interviews may be viewed <a href="http://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/items/show/2732">here</a>. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource National African American Archives & Museum, Museum of Mobile Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Mobile Tricentennial Video Oral History Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Mobile Public Library, Local History & Genealogy Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1999-2002 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kern Jackson Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp4 Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral history interviews Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Mobile-VOHP-Clips Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Kern Jackson Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Mabel Dennison Location The location of the interview 811 St. Emanuel Street Mobile, AL 36603 Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound Jackson: Tell me this, what year was it that your grandmother came over on the Clotilda, and did your grandfather have anything to do with that? Dennison: My grandmother was brought over on the Clotilda in 1859. Now the story goes, my grandfather, people word things differently and they give a different significance of whatever… Jackson: His name was? Dennison: His name was James Dennison. My grandfather was named James Dennison. Now he was a Native American, born in Charleston, South Carolina. And he was sent over there on the ship, somebody was asking me, somebody made reference to him as a flagman or something else or whatever. But see there are things I would like to find out, things I would like to know how he actually got on the ship in the first place, how he came to be put aboard the ship. As someone told me that he had submitted himself to, and that I don’t know, see when people are not alive, you can only go by the things that some one has passed down from what they have said to somebody else, and especially to family members, because so many people have some many different opinions how something happened or how something came about, and when you can hear it from somebody, we sometimes say “from the horse’s mouth,” you know, that’s the best. And that’s one of the reasons I’m part of the oral history you see. People are trying to get their oral histories down. Jackson: But there was a unique relationship between your grandmother and your grandfather as a result of this Clotilde experience. And their experience with the Clotilde. Dennison: Well, I don’t know where they first met. Where they first saw each other, what happened or whatever. My grandmother did tell my older sisters and brothers that they tried to marry, she and my grandfather. Jackson: They who? Dennison: I don’t know if it was the Meahers or whomever. Cause the Meahers were in charge of things, see: captain of the ship and the Meahers. Jackson: So was James Dennison, was he enslaved? Dennison: Uh, I hate to be talking about this so much cause it’s in the book, but my grandfather had a card which states that he was born a slave in Charleston, South Carolina. Jackson: In Charleston. Dennison: In Charleston, South Carolina was where he was born, and he was sent over on the ship. But he nor the crew knew what they were going for. It’s this Wright company had the, they had people in charge of being supplied to ships for seagoing purposes. Now they didn’t know either where they were going. And that’s why they were trying mutiny on the ship when the found out what was happening, cause they knew, evidently they knew that slavery had been outlawed already, and they probably didn’t want to have any part of it. But, I’m assuming that, you know, by putting things together. The reason mutiny was attempted. But you know how it came about. There was a bet it could be done and that sort of situation. And the crew was, I don’t know if my father—my grandfather—ever received any reward, any restitution, or anything of that nature. I believe on the ship-forced labor or whatever, I don’t know. There are many things I don’t understand. I would like to travel to see if I could find some things to see if I could get things a little more complete. Jackson: Sure. Dennison: Because when you’re telling stories, historical stories, and most people not around to ask questions about how things happened or what they did and how it was done. They’re not around to answer your questions, so you just got to take what you’ve got, what you can get hold of to relate to. I’m trying to get pictures of my grandmother and my grandfather for sure, for certain. And I don’t know when that’ll happen. Now I’ve also seen a printed, a sheet out of the newspaper. I first saw this out in Chickasabogue Park, a little church house that was out there. They had renovated this little church house, and there were artifacts and different things, paraphernalia, put in this little church house as a museum. And after I started visiting things gradually started to disappear, cause some things I saw I wasn’t interested then. I had certain things I was trying to find, trying to relate. But later on as you see some things and as other subjects come up, or rather other things come to mind you begin to want to go farther, but it’s too late. There’s just some things it’s too late to come by and get hold of. But I would like to travel and find somebody who knows more about the situation who had some more pieces that I can put into the puzzle where I can know more about it. And having to do so many things I hadn’t been able to travel, and actually no way of getting around somewhere to show me this or that and whatever. It appears that many things have been hidden over the years over a while or something. It’s been difficult… Jackson: By whom? Dennison: Um, by um the people who knew about the circumstances, whomever they may be, whether it was the families or the slave masters’ families or whomever. That’s what I’d like to find out for sure before I make any comments as to who did what. Uh my, uh grandfather was intended to be put together to be married, seemingly in Mount Vernon—when they were enslaved in Mount Vernon; they were up there for a while. Now when those people were brought in on the ship, they weren’t all placed at the same place, they weren’t all put at the same place. Some of them Plateau, some of them carried to Selma. Jackson: Hale County… Dennison: Hale County. And see that’s why. Those things were done for the purpose of not being able to get together and everything. I believe that we have been fortunate to be in the same vicinity and get as much history as we can. If only some of the people, more of the other descendents would cooperate and tell what they know about their ancestors, you see. For me to take what you have and someone else to take what you have and that kind of thing, but it’s just, well you know, men have work. Although some may be the same situation. But there some differences in every circumstance, and that’s why I’d like to see other people give some information or99999 about their ancestors. My grandfather’s book was titled “Biography” – “Biographical Memoir of James Dennison.” My grandmother is “A Memoir of Lottie Dennison.” The way my people would pronounce it they would say Lottie all the time. Now on some of her documents, on some of her, Lottie Dennison’s paperwork her name is spelled “L-O-T-T-I-E” and sometimes its spelled “L-O-T-T-A.” So I don’t know if it’s the way she pronounced it or what. I understand that many of those people changed their names because they didn’t want people to actually know who they were or where they were from or what. I don’t know much about that either, I just happened to hear that and read a little bit about that. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data VHS Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 9 min 52 sec Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mabel Dennison Interview Clip Subject The topic of the resource Oral History Description An account of the resource Mabel Dennison talks about her book, including her grandparents, the Clotilde, and Africatown Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Mabel Dennison National African American Archives & Museum, Museum of Mobile Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Mobile Tricentennial Video Oral History Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available National African American Archives & Museum, Museum of Mobile Mobile Public Library, Local History & Genealogy Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1999 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp4 Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral history interview Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context VOHP-MabelDennison-Book Africatown Clotilda Clotilda ship (last slave ship to the U.S.) Clotilde Mabel Dennison https://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/files/original/8afd9a13955e1760be23cc3788ee2287.pdf 279b30975f999e3023081d95495ba904 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Clotilda Collection Subject The topic of the resource Clippings file Description An account of the resource Digital reproduction of the Clotilda archival collection, also including items from the Clotilda and Africatown vertical files. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Mobile Public Library, Local History & Genealogy Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource This file may be freely used for educational uses as long as it is not altered in any way. No commercial reproduction or distribution of this file is permitted without written permission from this institution. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource scanned images Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource text, still image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context files-clotilda Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Last Survivor of Slave Ship Deeply Grateful to God, Man By Emma Roche His last dramatic words to me were, “When they tell you Kazoola is dead, say ‘No! Kazoola is not dead – he has gone to heaven to rest.’” Since January he had been ill. Late in that month we took Roark Bradford, author of “All Gawd’s Chillun,” to call on Kazoola, known as Cujo Lewis, last survivor of the last slave ship, Clotilde, and I saw then that death had marked for his own my pathetic old friend. Gone was his merry spirit and keen wit, so characteristic of him but memory, sight and hearing were still intact, and he told Mr. Braford the harrowing story of the African manhunt which resulted in his capture and his bondage in America. Years ago when I made drawings of the survivors of the last slave ship, he asked that I call him “Kazoola,” the name given him by his father and mother in Africa, because is was the name he loved. He lived and died in the house he built for himself 75 years ago – a year after he was brought to Alabama – and in all that time he spent only two nights away from its roof. Here Celie, his African wife, who was afraid at first that Americans would eat her, had lived and died; here his sons had been born, grew up, and died, too. Here during their lifetime the Africans gathered on Sunday afternoons to talk of their African home and to speak their native language. It is substantially built – two rooms opening on a gallery which extends across the front length, with two smaller rooms at the rear. There are no glass windows – only wooden shutters. After he was too weak to be about, when I called to see him the doors and windows would be closed tight. Opening a door, I’d call, “Kazoola,” and out of the gloom a low moan and a “Thank God” would answer me. A feeble one-eyed, old negro ministered to him and a daughter-in-law brought him food. He was made comfortable to the end, and his one sadness was that there was no one left in all the world who could speak to him in his native language. On my last visit I found him sitting in an old rocking chair by the window, the wooden shutter thrown back. He was sitting very straight – his breath short. He looked younger – more like himself of a quarter of a century ago. His eyes seemed very large and full of dreams. I touched his hands and they were as cold as death, though the afternoon was warm. “How is it, Kazoola, that I find you sitting up?” “I will tell you. I remembered that, in Africa, when one was sick and the sun was ready to go down, the sick one was lifted up and held out so.”He held out his arms, as if a limp, sick body might lie across them. “He was held out until the sun went down; then he was put back in bed so.” He made another movement as if laying the sick one back upon a bed, his gesture one of care and gentleness. “I was lying on my bed, and I looked up and knew the sun was about to go down, so I got up to sit by my window, where I can look out.” The window opened to the east, but his eyes were fixed on the reflected glow of the sunset sky. I shall always remember Kazoola as I saw him then, surrounded by the gloom of the room, a shaft of reflected sunset across his face and hands – a veritable Rembrandt painting come to life. He sang for me in his native language the Tarkar death chant as sung in his African home, a stirring chant built upon minor cadences. He then told me that, after he and the other Africans adopted the Christian religion, Poleete, Charlee and he transposed the words of the chant to fit their new belief. “This is how we put it in the American language, and I want you to remember it when I am gone.” He sang these American words to the tune of his African chant: “Jesus Christ, Song of God, Please, Jesus, save my soul. I want to go to heaven When I die, Jesus Christ, Son of God.” Kazoola could neither read nor write, but he was witty, intelligent and had a remarkable memory. His dialect, which many could not understand, was not of the negroid type we know in the south. He was quite eloquent at times, and his words were often fraught with an indescribable pathos. He liked to speak in parables, and most of his talk was allegorical, but toward the end he dropped this manner of speech and spoke more directly, but always picturesquely. He knew his Scripture, could repeat many lines, and tell correctly the verse and chapter from which they were taken. He and his African companions were in Alabama for 10 years before they embraced Christianity. They then built a substantial church on the green next to Kazoola’s home, and he always ranf the bell for services. After he had sung to me his African death chant, he asked that I get pencil and paper and write down the date and place of his conversion. It was Stone Street church in Mobile, in 1869. Benjamin Bush was the pastor. Bush asked Kazoola, “Where do you want to go when you die?” Kazoola replied, pointing to the sky, “I want to go yonder.” Bush then told him of God and the Bible – and Kazoola asked that I record that, ever since hearing the story, he has been ready and willing to die for Jesus. Though no religionist, I have been profoundly touched by Kazoola’s devoted faith. When he has been a recipient of small favors, I have seen him look up to the sky, stretch out his hands and fervently say, “Lord, God, I thank Thee! Jesus, I thank Thee!” When much time elapsed between my visits, when he saw me again, tears of gratitude would flow down his cheeks, and he would look up to the God he believed lived just above him in the sky and say, “Lord! God! I thank Thee that I see her once again.” About a year ago I called – the interval had been long since I had seen him. “How are you, Kazoola?” I asked “I will tell you,” he replied, and resorted to a parable. “Suppose you own a little cat and a little dog. In the morning you get up and feed the little cat and give it water but you forget all about the little dog – how is it that you expect that little dog to live?” He had much wisdom and only a few years ago he refused an opulent offer to appear in a vaudeville show in New York city. In sight of his home on a gentle hillside under tall pines lie his wife and all his African companions. “All I have lies in American soil,” he would say, pointing to the graves beneath the pines. On July 29 Kazoola, the last of that pitiful, gallant band of Africans, was laid on the hillside, too, and perhaps his last words to me are true, “Kazoola is not dead – he has gone to heaven to rest.” Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Last Survivor of Slave Ship Deeply Grateful to God, Man Subject The topic of the resource Kazoola Description An account of the resource Mobile Press article about the passing of Kazoola, also known as Cujo Lewis Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Emma Roche Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Mobile Press Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Mobile Press Mobile Public Library, Local History & Genealogy Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource August 18, 1935 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource newspaper article Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Last-Survivor-of-Slave-Ship-August-1935 Africatown Clotilda Clotilde Cudjoe 'Kazoola' Lewis Kazzola https://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/files/original/b9ec43f08dfa33cb2ffdff6f129c571b.jpg 2bde008fd8fc647fa6d3449b967ce8aa Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Clinton King Slide Collection Subject The topic of the resource Mobile Description An account of the resource Photos taken by Clinton King, a past president of the Mobile Genealogical Society, of Mobile in the 1960s and 1970s, including hurricane damage, homes, Bellingrath Gardens, Spanish Plaza, and Mardi Gras. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Clinton King Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Mobile Creole Cultural & Historical Preservation Society Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Mobile Public Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960-1970 Type The nature or genre of the resource Photo Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Clinton-King-Slide-Collection Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource jpeg Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Original slides belong to Mobile Creole Cultural & Historical Preservation Society. Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include illustrations, paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data color slide Physical Dimensions The actual physical size of the original image 35mm Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource CK Mardi Gras 1961 - 01 Subject The topic of the resource Mardi Gras Description An account of the resource Photo of Mardi Gras float of white horse, band in back Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Clinton King Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Mobile Creole Cultural & Historical Preservation Society Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Mobile Public Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1961 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource jpeg Type The nature or genre of the resource Photo Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CK-MardiGras-1961-01 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Mobile Creole Cultural & Historical Preservation Society Clinton King mardi gras Mardi Gras Parades Mobile https://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/files/original/e461ad7de0db78db08a8f76806048b0b.jpg 12d6ba0b67cb1967ae47688cad8d5f5b Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Clinton King Slide Collection Subject The topic of the resource Mobile Description An account of the resource Photos taken by Clinton King, a past president of the Mobile Genealogical Society, of Mobile in the 1960s and 1970s, including hurricane damage, homes, Bellingrath Gardens, Spanish Plaza, and Mardi Gras. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Clinton King Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Mobile Creole Cultural & Historical Preservation Society Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Mobile Public Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960-1970 Type The nature or genre of the resource Photo Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Clinton-King-Slide-Collection Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource jpeg Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Original slides belong to Mobile Creole Cultural & Historical Preservation Society. Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include illustrations, paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data color slide Physical Dimensions The actual physical size of the original image 35mm Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource CK Mardi Gras 1967 - 01 Subject The topic of the resource Mardi Gras Description An account of the resource Photo of children's float in Mardi Gras parade Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Clinton King Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Mobile Creole Cultural & Historical Preservation Society Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Mobile Public Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1967 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource jpeg Type The nature or genre of the resource Photo Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CK-MardiGras-1967-01 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Mobile Creole Cultural & Historical Preservation Society Clinton King mardi gras Mardi Gras Parades Mobile https://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/files/original/8b7319617f79441473cf12b79c6738ff.jpg a959ad1cf424d599832ccd9e2693ffc1 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Clinton King Slide Collection Subject The topic of the resource Mobile Description An account of the resource Photos taken by Clinton King, a past president of the Mobile Genealogical Society, of Mobile in the 1960s and 1970s, including hurricane damage, homes, Bellingrath Gardens, Spanish Plaza, and Mardi Gras. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Clinton King Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Mobile Creole Cultural & Historical Preservation Society Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Mobile Public Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960-1970 Type The nature or genre of the resource Photo Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Clinton-King-Slide-Collection Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource jpeg Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Original slides belong to Mobile Creole Cultural & Historical Preservation Society. Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include illustrations, paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data color slide Physical Dimensions The actual physical size of the original image 35mm Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource CK Mardi Gras 1961 - 02 Subject The topic of the resource Mardi Gras Description An account of the resource Photo of Mardi Gras float Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Clinton King Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Mobile Creole Cultural & Historical Preservation Society Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Mobile Public Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1961 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource jpeg Type The nature or genre of the resource Photo Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CK-MardiGras-1961-02 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Mobile Creole Cultural & Historical Preservation Society Clinton King mardi gras Mardi Gras Parades Mobile https://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/files/original/1e2f2e05be79605b282c2f55a04b31f5.jpg 30581ad3466c56c229d9bcc876c8f35f Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Clinton King Slide Collection Subject The topic of the resource Mobile Description An account of the resource Photos taken by Clinton King, a past president of the Mobile Genealogical Society, of Mobile in the 1960s and 1970s, including hurricane damage, homes, Bellingrath Gardens, Spanish Plaza, and Mardi Gras. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Clinton King Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Mobile Creole Cultural & Historical Preservation Society Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Mobile Public Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960-1970 Type The nature or genre of the resource Photo Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Clinton-King-Slide-Collection Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource jpeg Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Original slides belong to Mobile Creole Cultural & Historical Preservation Society. Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include illustrations, paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data color slide Physical Dimensions The actual physical size of the original image 35mm Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource CK Mardi Gras 1961 - 03 Subject The topic of the resource Mardi Gras Description An account of the resource Photo of band in Mardi Gras parade Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Clinton King Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Mobile Creole Cultural & Historical Preservation Society Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Mobile Public Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1961 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource jpeg Type The nature or genre of the resource Photo Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CK-MardiGras-1961-03 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Mobile Creole Cultural & Historical Preservation Society band Clinton King mardi gras Mardi Gras Parades Mobile