Interviewee: Jessie WilliamsOH# 188 (2nd Interview)
Interviewer: Ambrose Webster II
Date: March 29, 2001
AW: Okay we’re back with a follow up interview with Mrs. Jessie Williams. Ah, if you would for the record would you please state your full name, place, and date of birth.
JW: Okay, My name is Jessie Franklin Williams ah… I was born January 4, 1944. Place is Greenville, Mississippi.
AW: And your parent’s name and their dates of birth.
JW: My parent are Essie and L.A. Franklin ah… my father was born June 6 ah… 1930 1920 I’m not sure ah… I’m on the date I don’t know the date, but ah… they were born in the 20’s or ah ah…
AW: Where were they from originally?
JW: Okay, originally my mother ah… came from ah… a place call Glen Allen ah… a real, real urban Mississippi in Mississippi and my father ah… actually came from Greenwood, Mississippi.
AW: Uh, you grew up where in Greenville?
JW: Okay and I grew up right in Greenville, Mississippi right on the river.
AW: Right what, describe your community to us if you will.
JW: Okay as a young girl I grew up and ah we would possible call it like the ah… heart ah of the city at that particular time because I was located about four blocks down from Washington Avenue, which was down town at that time when the center of all ah attention. Ah… as ah… I grew up ah… I didn’t know that well ah… I didn’t know that there were poor because their was no such thing as ah… you know we would say poor because um… unless you get some outside feed back and know what you are we wouldn’t be. But I sorter consider us as making way like uh uh… like families because ah… my father ah laid bricks and ah they made ah… good money for that particular time. Ah… there where 10 children in the family and I am the oldest ah of the family.
AW: What are your siblings name and in order?
JW: In order okay ah… there are (not audible) they are ah… Alonzo, Betsy ah David, Walter, Atkins, Ricky, Linda, Craig, ah… the baby name was ah Pat and I am the tenth person and those are my sisters and brothers.
AW: What uh… school did you attend?
JW: Okay, as a elementary person I attended Lucy L. Ware school ah… as a junior and high school student I attended ah… Coleman High School which was the only high school at that time in the city but there were several elementary schools and so according to where you lived you know you attended any schools, but the only school then was Coleman High, so everybody knew every body.
AW: And this was a all black school?
JW: Yes, a well in the doing the period when I was growing up everything was segregated correctly and ah the this was the predominant- the all blacks school and we had another high school called ah Greenville High ah which was the predominantly white school but when I was real small the school was called E.B. Bass because it was on Main Street and that’s where you have now the ah Stans ah Auditorium over there at that school that is where all the activities are.
AW: Hum… what do you remember most about growing up in in ah… in Greenville?
JW: Okay, as a young person, I grew up in uh…we were church oriented ah… I attended ah church and ah quite active in church and I think maybe that is were I got a lot of my training and a lot of my ah ingenuity from the persons who were at our church ah we had a big church at that time you know for black people I should say this it was (Mt. Be) on Christian Street ah I like ah music ah and ah reading so and these were some of the things we did ah doing those days we chop cotton and that is where we made our extra money you know to do to get ya a new outfit for school ah for the ah year so ah and another thing that I did was we chop cotton ah so ah we pick cotton and ah that is how we made our money ah to buy new things for going to school ah some other the things we did were I was a member of the choir you know the ah school choir and ah and the ah one person that was very interest in ah making me in the way I am.