Dorothy Boone interview recording, 1993 June 29
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Transcript
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Rhonda Mawhood | Will that be all right? We'll get a good sound quality, excuse me, please. | 0:01 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | You mentioned the purpose of your study and we are sitting here, looking at that portrait that I had done to put in this new location. We are in one of the three rooms that made up the new little home that he brought his bride to in 1917. She was 18, he's 20. Now, I asked you what did that look like because even in Michigan where there were very few Blacks at the time I went, friends would come into my room in the apartment and they would see that, "Oh, you are from an interracial marriage. Must be interesting." But what they were overlooking was a part of the history. Now, Maya, Mrs. Wills' father and my mother were sister's children. However, they were only half sisters. I remember my great-grandmother, her grandmother. When the Civil War came, the master sent one of his slaves or whatever with his son to serve him as he fought the Civil war, the Black servant. The Black one that he sent was my grandmother's husband. | 0:07 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | After my grandmother's husband went off the war, then he took on my grandmother as a, not mistress, concubine, whatever you call them. And her mother was a result of that maiden of the master and the slave woman. And my grandmother was even Whiter than that. But my grandfather also had a little Black blood, but he was certainly not to be mistaken for White. And it caused them problems, I remember, when they were traveling and I was a little girl then many years later. They were going to Massachusetts to visit his aunt. And when they got to the train, the conductor told my mother, "You go that way," and told my father, "You go that way." And on to travel a bus from visiting relatives, I believe in D.C. And the driver had a fit because at that time, she wouldn't move up front. | 1:41 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Those were some of the things. When we traveled, there were times when we stayed in the background and she could go get food and we could eat, because she could buy it at places that didn't sell. They didn't ask her. And those are some of the things that I remember, and that came about because I thought of this. I remember that my mother, father had a little postcard shaped picture. I couldn't find it, but that's not important. And when I was having the house renovated, this wall had been sealed off and cut away. That had been a fireplace here and a fireplace on the other side had been sealed. | 2:58 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | We had a big oil heater to heat. And my brother's son-in-law did the work and he said, "You need an alternate source of heat in case something takes place." So then the idea was to go back and dig it out and put this insert in, which I have no intentions of using unless I have to, because I remember ashes and all that. But on the other side it's completely sealed in the kitchen. But if she saw that, she would love it, so would he. That part of the history represents some old customs that aren't most pleasant, but we had no control over them. | 3:44 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Thank you. | 4:46 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Yeah. Now, because of that portrait, I had that done in Rocky Mount, and I asked my brother if he remembered that picture. He remembered the belongs, he left the house, he had no idea where it was. I had a lady helping me pack up things. We had just gotten to that room, taking things out, had magazines on each side. And we're supposed to be working, I'm paying her. And I look and she's sitting there looking at the photograph book. And I was about to say something to her about, "What are you doing? We've got work to do," when, do you know she had opened it to that very page where my mother had put that photograph. | 4:47 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | I said, "Bless your heart." I changed my fit and I thanked her and then that's when I got it done. And we were lucky, the two of us, we had very good parents and they provided for us as best they could with the limited opportunities they had. They were smart folk, but the opportunities were not there yet. They had it better than a lot of others who were not as fortunate. I'm ready now. I've made the introduction by talking about that portrait that was done locally, Rocky Mount. | 5:29 |
Rhonda Mawhood | That's wonderful. And we've seen over the few weeks that we've been working on this project, many similar examples of family history and of appearance. And that's one of the diversities of African American communities and American communities. What did your parents do for a living? | 6:13 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | They farmed. My mother, I remember she'd go to the fields with her quilts and things and place us in the shade at the end of the row and work and took care of us that way and we were always with them. That rural, small family farm background that kept family, parents and children together. Everybody had chores, was good at that time. And when it's such a background, no matter what the job is missing, we see what's happening to children. We had the extended family where some parents would live with their parents and the grandchildren. I'm ahead of you again, I was supposed to— | 6:36 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | My grandfather's house site was up there where those oaks are. And when my father was getting married, he always had, my grandfather provided him an acre of land that was his to raise anything he wanted to and the money was his. And he would tell us how he'd go out on Saturdays in his spare time and work his little acre when the others were not working and that meant the yield was good. And he remembered once things were short and my grandfather introduced the idea that he might have to reclaim that. He made up in his mind that if his daddy took his crop after he had worked so hard he was going to leave home. | 7:44 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | But of course, he didn't. That was one of the ways he was able to get a little start, save his money and build his little house. And I have remembered his saying how, in there, that's not the original, but it's the second ceiling. You can see it when you get up in the kitchen, but the boards sometimes didn't quite match. And as years passed, he had the carpenters come in and put a second one over it and we retained as much as we could in here. They had those ceiling tiles here and in the two bedrooms. This was added and that over there was added because when we became little sides, we needed separate bedrooms. And so we retained as much as we could, we had to replace this. | 8:38 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | So that was a blessing. He was able to give him this acre of land on which he built his little house and brought his bride. She did not live in the house with the family, and then through the years they worked together and they bought the land adjoining this, which in many instances, was heir property from the Jesse Boone Estate and the children who had inherited it. Now my father brought out his sister's and brother's and my grandfather's portion and that was where he wanted it. He told them, "Sooner or later, the others will want to sell. You be sure you're in a position to buy it." He bought theirs as well as the other adjoining. | 9:44 |
Rhonda Mawhood | How much land did your parents acquire? | 10:42 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Oh, it's a small amount considering. It's a little over 125 acres, which I refer to a small family farm. | 10:45 |
Rhonda Mawhood | You mentioned the Jesse Boone Estate. | 10:56 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Yes. | 10:59 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Who is— | 11:01 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | That was my grandfather's father. And that, as far as I know, reached from those woods there, all the way over the hill and back. And there is some of the cousins who live in a area which was an area owned by our great-aunt, which was my grandfather's sister. And then someone bought a little plot between here and there, I think my father had an opportunity to buy it. There was a little bit of bad feelings between the sister and the brothers involved in that, so he didn't bother. Someone else bought it. And in time, the other members of the family still thought it was not legally done and even after this fella started building his house and he came out of Richmond very upset, they were all friends now, relatives, all friends. And my father said, "Don't you have your deed?" Which he did. And he assured him that it was legal, you could go to Halifax and check. And he felt better, proceeded with his work and that's the way it went. | 11:02 |
Rhonda Mawhood | You gave me a little bit of your family history at the beginning, but I'm sorry, I'm not quite straight. Jesse Boone was an African-American man? | 12:31 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Oh yes. | 12:38 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Okay. How did he acquire the land? | 12:38 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | I don't really know right now. My brother were here, he could probably remember all the details. I think his wife was Aunt Betsy. There was one of these members, I think one was pure Indian, known that there's a lot of Indian blood in there. My father has high cheekbones, which you probably can't tell, but there was Indian blood. And Ms. Wills' sister told me something that I can't remember hearing. I do know that my brother and I both have very close eyes and we've talked about them and even in getting glasses fitted, the ophthalmologists note in getting the right size for my face versus my eyes, "Your eyes are close together." And she told me some years ago that there was an Oriental in the family, which I didn't know about. I don't know, we have some of everything. Let me go check this. Excuse me. | 12:43 |
Rhonda Mawhood | What do you remember about your grandparents? | 14:02 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | I will tell you this in questioning. I've heard that my grandparents, the Boones, were what they call free. And it's strange and I read about it and some things I know from what I've heard. And more on my mother's side were slaves. Now let's go back. My grandfather, who was a son of Jesse Boone, was one of the free ones. He married an ex-slave and that was considered mindistinctarrying below his status. And when I used to read about the free Negroes and the field hands and the artisans or craftsmen in the various levels of society, was always interesting because I know that existed. | 14:04 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | My father's mother and the Boones were very fair, pick up part of that in Ms. Wills. My grandmother, who married Joseph Boone, which was my grandfather, his father, was a Harrison. She belonged to a dark set and a slave, she was a little slave girl. She slept on the foot of the mistress' bed to keep her feet warm. She had some kind of foot disorder and she slept on the foot of the bed to keep the mistress' feet warm. | 15:18 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | When she wasn't on the bed, she slept on a pallet on the floor, the foot of the bed, I believe, somewhere on the floor. And I heard her talk about the time her pallet caught on fire from the fireplace. Those were some of the things, yeah. Well, that's a fact. We worked in the fields and I remember my grandmother singing a song. And I brought it up in an evaluation I did of a play while I was in Michigan. She was singing, "I'm going to Canaan, I'm going to Canaan to get my track of land." You remember that? Slaves were promised this, what, 40 acres or 20 acres? 40 acres and a mule or what have you. And that was a song. Well, this was a play and the name just went away from me, a one act play that we studied in literary criticism. | 16:05 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | I was an English major and we had to analyze all these dramas that we read. And because of the quality of this play, it was used as a one act play which dealt with these slaves searching for that after the war, after emancipation, searching for this homeland that they expected, these acres. And when I wrote mine up, I of course, gave that you're supposed to give the initiation of the problem resolution, what have you. Then I added comments that I could relate to it so well because of my grandmother's experiences as an ex-slave and her singing particular song, Going to Canaan. And of course, that made it, I guess more impressive with professor. He wrote comments on that, that he thought it was just wonderful. | 17:07 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Did your parents ever hire labor? | 18:20 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Oh yes. It was a little more than we could do. And you can't see it now because of the tree, but if you just sit and look straight out there, there was a building, a log house. He got these logs and finished it off. Had a room out there, linoleum on the floor, was a heater and everything. That was where the hired hand stayed. And back in those days, you didn't have to worry about even locking your door. And my mother would leave wherever she went, if it were past mealtime before she came back, she'd leave his food on the table. He could come in the back door and I think three different people stayed there. Two at least, two if not three. And they liked to work for my father because they too, they get paid so much, the regular hand. They get paid so much by the week during the year and all the whatever they need for their crop. | 18:24 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | And at the end of the year it was clear profit and they liked to work for my father because they would give them many a chance they'd never have. Now, we had tobacco, corn, cotton, peanuts. We, my brother and I worked with the tobacco and daddy had to hide cotton pickers to pick the cotton. And my brother would get up early with my father and take off the tobacco for them to work in. All these things have changed now, the way you harvest. And they would tell us, "Be sure you do your homework doing your study hour, now." And when we got home, then we tied that tobacco before we went to bed. And we just couldn't pick cotton, we tried. | 19:34 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | When the tobacco was in and there's cotton out there, I remember this field of cotton and my brother and I were going to pick 100 pounds that day and we had people out there who could pick 300 pounds and 200 is nothing. And we trying to pick 100 pounds. Mine was a little larger, my sheet was a little larger than his and they weighed mine first and I think it was 88 pounds. And I started crying because I was so disappointed. And my brother looked at mine, looked at his and he started crying, too. And my mother reached down and got this cotton stalk, said, "If you don't hush that fuss, I'll give you something to cry about." But we just had not been used to picking cotton. We were going along besides a heavy cotton picker. We was reaching over, getting our cotton, keeping us up with them and we didn't have the cotton. That was some of the experiences that we enjoyed. | 20:31 |
Rhonda Mawhood | About how old were you at that time? | 21:33 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Oh, let's see. I don't know, but I was big enough to be out there. I guess I was 13 when I went into high school. 12, I guess 10, 12, anywhere at an age when it was possible. We started working in the field as little children before my parents expected them. My mother was out there, what we call grassing cotton. Where, after it had been cultivated, it's near time to lay it by there, would be bunches of grass, wire grass, what have you. And so we got ourselves a hose. There was somewhere they had been broken, but they had long left us. We went out and worked with mama because we hate to see her out there by herself just for that work. And back then also, when you had a lot of people working like the hands and the field, not the cotton pickers, they brought their own food. You cooked and provided food for them. | 21:34 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Were they male or female, men or women cotton pickers when your parents hired? | 22:58 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Most of them were the women and children because the men were doing heavier things at that time. And a lot of them would be families where they were—and one particular family I can think of, they had a lot of children and maybe didn't have the resources as far as income from the farm necessary. And they picked cotton, that's the way they bought their school clothes and books. And I remember we were working in a field up on the hill, it was the 4th of July, baseball. At that time there was a baseball diamond up near the school, not that brick school but another school. And different communities had their baseball teams, and Saturdays or holidays would be a special holiday. Big game, might be somebody from Virginia, what have you. And we were up there working when we saw our cousins passing and we were hurt. | 23:06 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | We wanted to be on going. We said, "Mama, they talk about us. They say we work all the time." We wanted to go to the game, too. And my mother said this and I remember, she said, "Lorne and Dolores, I want you to listen. You are working while others are celebrating. But when the fall comes, you are going to have your clothes and you're going to have your books. And those same people there that are talking about you are going to be in somebody's cotton patch, trying to pick cotton to buy theirs." And she made us see the value of it. I'm glad I had that experience, because I think many other things have taken over as priority to having a good time. | 24:18 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | That was it and we talk about now, motivating children. They didn't have the opportunity to go to school, they could go as far as the 8th grade. My grandmother was a midwife and my mother, the oldest child of six children and the grandmother was there. And it was really my grandmother who taught her so many things, because my grandmother delivered thousands and thousands of babies. And almost anywhere around, "Yes, we know Ms. [indistinct 00:25:57], she delivered all my children." Getting back to what did they do, my mother was able to to supplement her income by sewing. She was very gifted in that area. People would bring her a picture and said, "With the material, I want my dress made like this." And she could cut that pattern, make that dress just like it. And there were a number of persons whose wedding dress she'd talk about making. And had I gotten married earlier, she was going to make mine. I didn't get married later, either. | 25:20 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Did your mother sew for White people or for Black people? | 26:40 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | No, no, just the neighbors and friends. If she ever sewed for any White person, I never heard about it and I certainly didn't see anyone, no. | 26:43 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And your grandmother who was the midwife— | 26:53 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | She's the one whose father was the master of the plantation. | 26:56 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Did you know her? | 27:00 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Yes. I knew my paternal grandparents, they lived in the frame house right up there. And as is a custom, down right inside that it's an area, you passed it. Its a wooded area. My brother wants it to grow up and form a canopy and then it be, well, kill the undergrowth. He's got something. And there's a well there, a very good well of water. But nobody uses it and it's supposed to be covered and it's wire around it, so it also would be casing around. But anyway, there was, just a little distance from that well, another room that was a kitchen. And the house where the family lived in was, well, out beyond your car, you walked up there to that. And then I remember when I was a little girl, we were small children. | 27:06 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | My grandmother and grandfather were in that house and my father had someone to come and build a kitchen onto that house. And then we used the other, I remember putting the tobacco in it. There was a big hurricane, a tornado, whatever. Hurricane Hazel, I believe. Well, it wasn't the early hurricanes, we were little. That might not have been Hazel, but I remember seeing this first one. We were in that building, getting tobacco ready. And it must have been a tornado, whatever it was, came across over there where our neighbors up in—now that's grown up. And they had a horse and a baby colt and it hit that horse barn, shelter. It fell, but it didn't hurt the colt, the other horse. And then it missed us and we're looking at it and the rain poured. And it caught other buildings as it went up. | 28:13 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Did your family go to church when you were growing up? | 29:24 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Did they go to church? Yes. And they carried you, too. We went to church and Sunday school, yes. And that little White church that's going down fast, has now about five active members. It was just hanging on until, we have one older member who refuses to see it go. It's a Methodist and we are a little small Methodist group in a Baptist environment. And the way it's organized and set up, it's a few people can't just carry on with the assessment. Yeah, we were Methodist. And my great-grandmother, Uncle Jesse wife, Grandma Betty, I believe was her name. Elizabeth, maybe they call, Yeah. Grandma Elizabeth was the one who founded that Methodist church. And her husband and some other members became dissatisfied and they went up the road a little bit and founded the Baptist church. That's always been known history as far as the church is concerned. | 29:27 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | I was thinking the other day, "Where would I go when we have to close the Methodist church?" I said, "Well, I guess it really wouldn't matter as long as you're Christian, I would like to stay in the community." Not just because you go out just to find a Methodist church. And I am very much in tune with much of their doctrines. But I would rather stay in the community who are now friends of members of that church. And it's strange, my brother by the way, is married. He's divorced from his first wife and was single for a few years, was trying to wait for the baby boy to finish college. And he got almost finished. And my brother, I think his ex-wife had married, but not thinking too well, he married again. But I would like to have said, "Look again. See this?" | 30:40 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | I couldn't see how they were compatible, which they were not. And that wedding didn't last and oh, he was terribly upset. Finally, one day I told him, I said, "Look, yours would not be the first second marriage didn't worked." And then my friend talked to him and it wasn't long before he moved out and went to Raleigh and divorced later on a year of separation. And he has a beautiful wife now and he's happy. He joined the church in Rocky Mount after he came back. He came back after years of Rocky Mount. | 31:55 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | His first wife, they settled and in the separation paper, it always indicated that half of everything was hers and she wanted the home place, and she bought his half. Now, his baby boy had got married last week. The wedding reception was at her house with her husband and we participated. I was so happy to see everything so congenial, because he read some scripture passages and they asked him, when was he going to go into a ministry? Then her father got married, they had their family reunion the same day. So he had to go to reception, she went to the reunion. He went with the family early morning for breakfast and so on. | 32:36 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Something that occurred to me earlier that I didn't ask when we were talking more about your parents was, who were your parents' friends? | 33:40 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Who were their friends? Some of their closest friends were people who had grown up right here. My mother came from—I don't know, have you traveled any above 48? On 48 near the school, on the other side of Eastman School. You did cross 48 when you came out. Well, 48 going north, would come to place called Meet Up. And if you were coming to Rocky Swamp, well, she was in that Eastman School area. And so their friends were people that went back to their parents and what have you. And of course, they met now, the Wills, Virginia's mother and father. See, Virginia's grandfather and my grandfather were brothers, Acaphus and Joseph. And that family farm, that's one we haven't bought because that's so many areas in that. But their farm where you came down and made a left turn, you go down the hill, you come into the area where her grandfather's estate is. And at the back it borders the part of our land now. | 33:51 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | They were good friends and then they were the cousin on his mother's side, the Daniels or Harrisons. And his cousin, nanny, Harrison Daniel and my mother were like sisters. And then all the neighbors, my mother and father I think were well respected. They worked hard to provide for us. And it was just understood, you didn't have to work when your children came to school, they would be motivated. They were already motivated and if they were not motivated and your parents found out, you got motivated soon. Yes. And here, I've started on my family wall in connection with redoing it and I did it around the theme of the family, which is that picture by Joyce Smith. But it looks so much like it could be his children, that's Mom and Daddy here. This was taken just place—I'm not going to count. | 35:19 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | This one on the lower left, that's Mom and Daddy with us. That was taken, he had had a stroke while I was in Michigan, but he was able, with therapy, to get along fine. It was slight. That up over there, that's 19. Yeah, '67, that's their 50th wedding anniversary. I was having my last classes at Michigan and couldn't come. But I paid my share of the money, which, my brother and his wife. And that on the right is his first wife at the bottom and the children. And believe it or not, let's see, the one in his lap, that was taken years ago. Those are his children in there asleep now. Him and Aunt DeeDee, they didn't go to bed early. | 36:32 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | And that was his first wife. That's the oldest girl standing, Wanda. And the one on his right is Phyllis, the boy in his lap is Ronald. Oh, that's Ronald. And the one in her lap is Josie. And the little baby, the one that just got married, he's over 30, that's him with the little insert. They had closed out their family, but something took place, had an accident I guess. And that's my brother and his last wife. That wall there is for the grandchildren, but I haven't had time to put it together. I got some frames, I'll spray them gold and put the grandchildren. I got pictures, I just haven't had time to pick them out. | 37:26 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Well, I should ask you about school, since you were talking about children being motivated and since you were so involved in education yourself. Where did you go to school? | 38:13 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | I went to A&T in Greensboro for my undergrad. I went to North Carolina Center for my masters and to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, for my doctorate, for my major in English Language and Literature. I went to Michigan because I had known about their linguistics program. I had not had any linguistics in my study, so I wanted to understand the term, linguistic approach to the teaching of language and so forth. And then each summer when I'd go, I'd take some literature classes. Then after I had started going, I did all right. I applied and got into the doctoral program, that's how I got out there. I got my doctorate in 1970. I had come back to work and handed in my dissertation, and came back to work in January. | 38:23 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And was it to the Bricks school that you went as a child? | 39:29 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | No, no. I went to Eastman. Bricks was a sort of a tri-county, I believe. It served a lot of the children in the Enfield area and Whitakers and so forth. | 39:32 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Did you start at the Eastman school? | 39:49 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | No, I got my start at the Rosenwald School right here at the White Oak crossing where the Bricks school is. And then they closed that because we don't have enough children in this community now to keep it, this is first year it was closed. We fought to get it, you can draw your school lines. And the wooden frame Rosenwald school was down where part of the camp is facing this White Oak road. I'm getting told. Are you comfortable? | 39:52 |
Rhonda Mawhood | I'm fine, but I have a jacket on. | 40:29 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | That's all right, I'll see how cold. I'll be right back. | 40:30 |
Rhonda Mawhood | You started at the White Oak? | 40:39 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | White Oak Elementary School. And I remember the first day I went to school, my mother walked with me to school and we walked to school. And then by the time we finished there, we had some buses that we could ride to school. | 40:40 |
Rhonda Mawhood | What do you remember about the White Oak school? | 41:00 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Oh, I remember Ms. Susie, the 1st grade teacher. And her niece was a 2nd grade teacher. Well, I'm sorry, her niece was a 3rd, 4th and 5th grade. And then there was a man who was principal in 6th and 7th grade. And you left there and went to the 8th grade at that time at the high school. Now, there was someone that I don't remember too well, who the supervisor was at that time, frankly. The supervisors, Black supervisors ran the Black schools and the superintendent was more directly involved with the other schools. I remember something I wanted to make sure to ask to get it straight. | 41:04 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | I remember when we would be in the fields with our parents, working, and the buses would be passing with the White children. I know we had at different times, we had so many months school and then it went to eight month and then to nine month. I know there was a period when they closed schools for you to work in the fields. That could have been that, because the Black children were the ones who were working in the fields and they went to school in the winter. But when it came time for planting, they dropped out. After harvest, they came to school, so there were always a lot of them behind. There were good plantation owners and there were those who you would not want to work with, whom you'd not like to work with them. And that was a pattern. | 41:56 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Were there any plantation owners who had particular reputations as people you would want to work for, people you would not want to work for? | 43:07 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Yes. I've heard my father say there's a Moss, the Mosses, and I have a lot of respect for one of the grandsons, D.S. His father was Thomas, their father was a big landowner, committed suicide. He lived on 48, had you gone north, you crossed over it. And they treated people right, I always was told. There were people who worked at the big house and you went to the big house or get your rations, things like that, but they treated people right and a lot of Blacks saved their money. People I know who worked originally on those farms, they're living well. They came out, bought their homes, sent their children to college and that sort of thing. A lot of people, they stayed on farms year after year. And when they got old and could not serve anymore, they were put out, nowhere to go hardly. They ended up at different places. | 43:13 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | I was a little girl and I can remember that. And I used to think, I was old enough to begin thinking and seeing those persons who were leaving the South, leaving the area, say Enfield, the John Davis farm down before you get to Enfield, it's some brick houses. Did you notice a cinder block house that had been crushed by a tree? You didn't notice coming out of Enfield. You did come to Enfield? | 44:26 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Yes ma'am. | 44:56 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Okay, well, that joins the Davis farm. They had some rough folk on their farm. And I see many of these folk going north, looking for work. And I would say, "They have no skills here. What will become of them?" Well, we know about the great migration north, but what is not always emphasized that Blacks weren't the only one migrating north. In Michigan, they refer to the Whites from the South as hillbillies, which I'm not so sure that's a good term. | 44:56 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Many of them were just poor Whites who had as hard a time. I remember my father talking about a conversation he had with one of the businessmen in Enfield about how Blacks were treated and so forth. And he said, "Well, Whites are." And he mentioned they had built a swimming pool at Enfield that the Whites could enjoy. And when the poor Whites from somebody's farm, different farms that worked on these farms, started coming in, using the pond, the elites' children no longer used the swimming pool. And these were just all Whites, so it's been a difference. | 45:39 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Do you remember— | 46:33 |
Rhonda Mawhood | —were Whites and elite Whites and conflicts among them. Did you and your family know White people growing up, when you were growing up? | 0:01 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Yes, we knew some. I can remember, for example, the Moores come in and talked to my father. My father liked a little drink now and then. I can remember there was a family that he and his wife ran a store in Ringwood. It's no longer there. I can remember his coming here and they taking a little toddy together. But that was it. I don't think my father was probably invited at their houses, but we were taught to treat everybody in a hospitable manner. When my father died, Mrs. Anderson came and brought out a dish of food to help feed the family. I thought that was interesting. | 0:11 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Is that the wife of the man that [indistinct 00:01:16]— | 1:13 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Yes. But, of course, they grew older then. There was none of that, because my father no longer was even taking any kind of cocktails, as we would say. | 1:16 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | I was trying to think of any others. Yeah, but I remember my father. I went to Enfield, and I'm grown. I was working. I went to Enfield and he asked me to go by Mr. Barnhill's office in Enfield to tell him to please send him out so many and so many bags of fertilizer or lime, whatever. When I went in his office, no one was there. So I wrote him a note and left it on the desk, that my father wanted him. When he saw my father, oh, he had a lot to say about it like it was just unusual that this girl, this woman would leave a note. To me, that was what you did if you couldn't—of course, it was supposed to been praise, but I said he'd expected very little. He got his fertilizer. I got the message to him. | 1:39 |
Rhonda Mawhood | How were the lines of segregation drawn in this area during that period? | 2:43 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | You knew your place. That's the best way to put it. You drank from a Colored fountain, it you wanted water. Those, they disappeared after the things changed in the '60s and '70s. If you went to a theater, if you could go, you sat in the balcony. If you were in Robeson County, of course, there was a door for Blacks, a door for Indians and a door for White, and I finally saw that. Those feelings are still embedded in many, because when schools were integrated, they established their academies. | 2:51 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Now, the Smalls man ran for county commissioner, and I supported him. Of course, I was criticized, but I thought he was the best candidate, not because he was White. He did not win, and he had such an embarrassing loss. Then they had some problems with the county commissioners. He saw me one day. He stopped and spoke. I said, "Oh, by the way, what's wrong with our county commissioners?" I said, "They need you there." He said he learned a lot from the campaign and what have you. | 3:44 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Now, I remember going with my mother to register to vote. I had registered and I was sitting there in Ringwood with the person who was registering her. I just said, "If you in any way try to pull something to keep her from registering, you will hear about it." They were just as nice they could be. I guess they were a little shaky. From a time when I remember they didn't vote, parents didn't vote, Blacks didn't vote, until the books were opened up. | 4:23 |
Rhonda Mawhood | When was that that your mother registered to vote, Dr. Boone? | 5:01 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | I'm not sure when it was, but I know I was—I don't know if I'd been off to college, had finished or what, but I knew that that was her right to vote and that lawsuits were—I'd heard about these how many bubbles in a soap bar and all of that, and having person read from the—whatever. Some of the judges and lawyers said they couldn't interpret it themselves, yet they expect it. Weren't sure they could do it. So that's the way it went. | 5:13 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Did you or anyone you know cross the lines of segregation, break the rules during the civil rights movement? | 5:56 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | I don't remember anything, but my little niece, that girl right there and her sister were in jail because they picketed during those years when they started picketing in the lunch counters and things. They wanted jobs in the stores in Enfield, and they picketed the dime store. Roses was on the corner. Nothing down there but that. I believe Bingo is there. And some other areas—they were taken to jail. Grandpa was so proud of his granddaughters, and he was ready to go. NAACP had organized it. Little. They weren't even 12 years old, I don't guess, about 12. But I know one thing. The next year, they had jobs in those stores. These are smart children. These are not just riff-raff that were probably still smart and could work. | 6:05 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | They're going to come out and visit the four girls after they finish. They're in Chapel Hill now in those cla—or will be, if they have started—those special classes. They usually go in the summer. The two of them were the twins, her daughters. Twin girls are the oldest. They were over at the legislature as pagers. They had a good time. They stayed over at these boys' home with their Uncle Joseph. Joseph is a name, family name, going back to grandpa. And my father's middle name is Joseph, my brothers, his son. Then the third, Joseph III is there. | 7:07 |
Rhonda Mawhood | I'd like to ask you some more about your education. | 7:59 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | All right. | 8:00 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Maybe that relates to your career as a teacher. I don't know. | 8:05 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | All right. I taught English and French. I went to Martin County in 1947, '48, my first year. Then I came to Eastman High School where I had graduated. I worked there 11 years. That's 12 years in public school. By then, I had gotten a master's. One of my teachers told me he thought I would make a good college teacher. They were getting requests for people. That was in—let's see—'59, I believe. I was trying to decide. I went to different places for interviews. I went to Elizabeth City. I went to Concord. Believe it or not, I went to Florida. They had the junior college program there. | 8:08 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | That was one trip that I'll never forget because of very bad experience I had. But we travel a travel bus, because they're too far for me to drive. I went to Florida. I was disappointed in what I found, and I wasn't interested. I paid my way so I didn't owe them anything. But on the bus going down, we traveled all night. We were on our way back, but on our way back you stop. I guess I had eaten so I wasn't hungry. But going back, we were stopping at the various bus stations to eat. We stopped at one place in Georgia, and the Black counter place was closed, but everybody went into the one place, no problem. We got to another place. I was hungry, and I went in. It had a grill, just here it's a nice station, other folk in this little corner place. There was no one in there. I remember I said, "Well, I stopped so many hundred miles back," wherever we were. We all went in the main depot and ate. | 9:13 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | So I walked in, and I may have been the only Black. There were very few people on the bus overnight. I walked in, and a policeman looked right in my face. Didn't say a word. I went waiting, stepped up to the counter, waiting to give my order. This White waiter or whatever she was behind that counter—here's the same policeman just saw me—said—I'll call him Jim. "Jim, look at that." He came up to me. "You get out of here." You can imagine what that did. I believe it was '59. I went back and got in the bus. I was really, really crushed. I was mad, because no one bothered to say anything. | 10:30 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | I don't know how many heard, but I do know this. There was some White passengers when we stopped at station would say, "Could I bring you something?" I had to stay on the bus then. But I remember that. I remember talking to a nun about some of the experiences I'd had. I didn't tell my family that, because I didn't want them hurt. I didn't tell them. I don't know to this day that I've even mentioned it to my brother. But I mentioned it to this Catholic nun, and when I looked, she was boohooing, because she could sense what the hurt was like. You just didn't eat. | 11:32 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | But I told someone. This was after, now, these journeys south and all these changes when they had said you couldn't discriminate. But I said I had gone about jobs. I wasn't out to do any kind of what it is you do. I wasn't out there then to test the laws. I just wanted to go and try a new experience, and I could deal with it, as I eventually did. I think that's about the worst experience I've had as far as direct blow. | 12:19 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Of course, I wasn't interested once I got there and saw the job and what it entailed. But I went to Barber-Scotia. The small private college had been established by the Presbyterians, the Sisters. The members was the women's organization in the church. I liked the people, and I said, "This is a good small school to make the transition." I liked it, and I worked there. | 13:05 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Then I moved to Greensboro after a year or two, maybe two years. i went to Greensboro and I worked at Bennett. At that time, Bennett was thriving. Right now, I understand it's suffering because the small private schools are. But I enjoyed it, and it was there that I got fellowships and was able to go study. By the time I left, my savings were gone, what have you. But it was very worthwhile. | 13:35 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | I stayed there until my father had a second slight stroke. He had one. I was here one summer. Mom was working in her flowers around the front of the house. He was sitting in a chair, because as age got him, he used a cane sometimes. I heard a big noise hit, and I knew my father must have fallen. When I ran out this door, she was coming up the step. He said a chair collapsed. Oh, my head. He had had another stroke. | 14:09 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Then I started, after that, looking for jobs. I went back to work that fall after having investigated an opening in the Weldon school system for supervisor. I went there, applied, and I had to give 30 day notice. So I went on back to Bennett, and I told a close friend of mine. I kept telling her, the years up to that, "My mother's getting forgetful. She has to do most everything. Now my father's getting—I need to be there." After he had the stroke, then I was able to get that job. | 14:46 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | They asked me would I come back and meet the board. Then the superintendent wrote me and said I had it. I told my closest friend and then, as is the law, 30 days prior to my leaving day, I sent in my resignation. When the news got around—because I was really dedicated to what I was doing. The children needed all the experience they could get in writing. "But I can't come to your office during your office hours. I got to work." I said, "Look, you tell me when you can come. I'll be there, after dinner, anywhere," because I ate in the cafeteria, just single person. | 15:26 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | When I left and came back here, I left there the 31st. My brother came. His wife drove her car. He drove a station wagon. I had rented the biggest U-Haul I could get, and I had my car. We loaded those things up and got in here the night of the 31st. I've been here. I had to get a trailer, and my books and things are still boxed up. Many of them that I haven't used boxed up out there. I thought when I renovated the house I'd have space enough for them, but that's another problem still. | 16:12 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Then I was supervisor. I didn't have certification in supervision, but that summer I went—prior to the summer, I'm working in January. Went to work the second day. I knew that I had to get certified. I had a copy of my transcript. I went to North Carolina at Chapel Hill and I went to Duke, went to see the chairman, showed them my credentials. Each one said I just needed a course and supervision for certification. But Duke had the classes set up so I could go on one campus from 8:00 to 9:00, whatever. Then there was about a 30 minute break or so many minutes break. I could drive back to the main campus and take the other class and then come back and work in the afternoon. So I got my certification through Duke. After that, then I was interested in getting more in administration and supervision, and I went to ECU in the evening. School is part of my life, as you see now, retired, going to school. | 16:52 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Learning how to use computers. | 18:19 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Yeah. I'm on a board now, the Tri-County Health Center. I've got to transcribe or get my minutes typed. I'm sitting here at the typewriter and I've got to stop and erase. The first thing I should do—well, I don't know if it's going to be the first, but I'm getting someone to give me the figures on painting my barns and garage. We're slowly cleaning out things so it will look better. The farmer who rents the farm has been tied up. His son's job transferred him out of state. So he's having to do everything. He said, "Ms. Boone, As soon as I get that back end, I get a chance, I'm coming up there and mow." It's usually mowed and looks a little better. I'll get it. I told someone, "I have the rest of my life to do this house the way I want it." | 18:21 |
Rhonda Mawhood | The man you rent to, is he an African American man? | 19:16 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Yes. His father and his mother were friends to my father and mother. They live — well from here, it's two miles at least, straight down. | 19:19 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Why is it that you became an educator, Dr. Boone? | 19:37 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | One thing, I had good teachers. When I was in high school, my last year, my mother became ill and had to have major surgery. My English and French teacher was so nice. Everybody loved her and everyone was sympathetic. I had had problems with my sight. At one point, the doctor wanted me out of school, the ophthalmologist. Said, "Don't send this—" because he didn't want me to read. But my parents, my mother did this, I think, for them. She went to the high school and talked to all my teachers and told them that they didn't want me to keep me home and that I was coming, and they would see to it that I got my lessons. Either my mother, my father, or my brother would read my lessons until they got over whatever the problem was. | 19:40 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Back to my mother, this person, I had a decision to make between nursing and being a teacher. My mother had to go have surgery, and I saw a lady get up after she had had a transfusion. She fought the folk. They were in the ward down from where my mother was. She fought them, and they had a time with her, because she had a reaction. That's the last time I wanted to be a nurse. Then I decided I wanted to be a teacher and I wanted to be English and French teacher, but, of course, I haven't used the French since I reviewed for my examination prior to my degree. The part I reviewed were what they called the false friends. They look like they ought me one thing and they mean another. That's what got me. I had patience. I had all those things that go with trying to help. That's been my life desire to help someone. | 20:38 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Now, my neighbor right below the school has Alzheimer's, and the oldest daughter came to take care of the mother. The father has had cancer. They've determined he has cancer. It was hard time, but he's come back. You can tell he sometimes he doesn't feel well. A lot of times, they were having it rough, but there's a group that provides a person to help her in the morning up to two o'clock. A lot of times, I cook her whole dinner and carry it so she doesn't have to worry about it. She asked me the other day—and a lot of these are not expensive things. We all like black eye peas. We like beans. We like cabbage. Steam those cabbage with green pepper. Sometimes I cook roast or chicken or what have you. I'm just like that. So I call her, especially on the weekend. I said, "Look, don't worry about your dinner now. I'm going to bring it to you." Got my little old basket back there. Carry my things to her. | 21:55 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | I've enjoyed life. I think that as near as I know, I have a respect of Blacks and Whites in the community, children. Now, when I went to the reception, there were a lot of my nephew's aunts on his mother's side that I taught. They were so glad. "When are you going to write that book?" Because I was in education for 45 years. That included, of course, the time I was studying. Still I've had people ask me, "Why you with a doctorate from University of Michigan out here working?" I said, "These children need good people too." After my mother died and she—Father died in '56. He didn't live a year after I moved back. My mother, they had been married 40—let's see. Let's see, he died in '56. 49 years, Sunday before he died. For the first time that I could remember, my mother didn't remember it was—she was just so tied up with Daddy, she didn't remember that this was their anniversary. My brother and his wife, the one at the bottom there, and I decided what we'd do. We'd just got them a big arrangement of flowers. | 23:08 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | The doorbell rang the Sunday morning. They brought them out from the florist. I hung back, make sure she went to the door. She said when she looked at—before I changed the doors, we had a pane up, had glass. I didn't want that now the way people are. She looked out there said, "Oh, somebody had brought Sam some flowers." His name is Samuel Joseph. Brought him some flowers. When she opened the door and I'm right behind her and all three of us said happy anniversary, She said, "Lord, I have forgotten it." She came in with these big arrangement of flowers and she got over the bed. We had all this moved out. This is mine, but hers is out there. All her furniture, we moved. That was a whole bedroom back there till we cut it up. We had all the furniture moved out and the hospital bed and everything that would make him comfortable after we brought him from the hospital the last time. He had a tumor on the liver and it was malignant. | 24:42 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | She went to the bed. "Sam, look what the children brought us." He died the next Sunday. It just tore you up, because she talked to him and she wanted him so much. Said, "Oh, yeah, Luetitia, they are pretty." But anyway, she was so happy. She said, "Lord, I looked at those last flowers and I threw them out. I said, 'This morning is Sunday now. I wish I did have some fresh flowers for Sam's room.'" And here she gets this big arrangement. She always said the Lord provided for her whenever she needed it. All she had to do was just think about it and somehow it would just show up. We had our ups and downs, but we made it. | 25:48 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | I remember the time when Daddy was worried. Christmas was coming. The crop was short. Didn't know how he was going to make it. She told him, said, Now, Sam, don't worry. The Lord will provide." How are we going to make it? Daddy found him some man. I'm trying to think who that man was, but I believe I've got a—they went back in the back and cut and stacked cordwood, and people bought wood to burn for heat. Some of the teachers who rented rooms, had that heated, bought heat and we survived. She said, "I told you so." He had the means right at his fingertip. Anything else? | 26:36 |
Rhonda Mawhood | I'd like to ask you one more question. There is some forms which we could fill out very quickly, but I'd like to ask you, and you may not care to answer. I was wondering why you haven't married? | 27:30 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Because marriage didn't interest me for a long time. I like to have boyfriends or some friend, but I wanted to further my education and I was very choicey. Excuse me. My mother would tell me, "Deloris, you've got to learn to be nice to everyone." Mama met me in the house one day and I was running straight for the back door. She said, "What's wrong with you?" I said, "Old Alvin is coming up the front." She said—I heard her—"Come on in. Have a seat. Deloris be here in a minute." She said, "Deloris, you've got to learn to be nice to people, everybody." I just wasn't interested then, of course. went on to college and I met a nice man, got myself engaged. Going to get married. That was a mistake, because I had gotten sick of him before it was over with. | 27:43 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Then about two years ago, my friends from Rocky Mount called me and said that he was coming to town and would I join them and going to visit them, him and his wife and this person, for dinner. I said yes. We had a very friendly dinner at one of the restaurants there, but I wasn't interested in renewing any kind. He had been married, but I think he divorced. | 28:47 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Then I met someone while I was to work in Greensboro, and we just were very good friends. I went to Michigan and he went to Syracuse. We would just still stay in contact, call or send a card, what have you. I went to a church conference in Fayetteville. He was at Fayetteville State, teaching. This was in the summer. I had some girls from Weldon who were going there. I'd ask her, "You know Dr. Morris?" Said, "Yes, he teaches so and so, and the students like him very much," because he's concerned about his students. | 29:21 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Also, worked long hard hours. They know what it was they lacked, and we tried to help provide it. I came back to work here. After that summer, now, I hadn't heard from him anymore. That's the way our friendship was, nothing to it. The girl said to me—school had just opened—"Ms. Boone, didn't you say you knew Dr. Moore," one of the students from the area. Yes. Said, "I talked to one of my friends at Fayetteville. She told me he had died of a heart attack." I almost fell right there. It was such a shock. The secretary said, "Ms. Boone, who was he?" She could see the shock. | 30:02 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | I knew where he was staying and I called. He hadn't even gotten to the house or anything. He was still renting in a motel. I called the motel and I met them while I was at the church conference, the manager and so forth. I called. Said yes. It was a Saturday. It was after the holiday. I'm trying to think what holiday comes in—Labor Day. What's Labor Day? | 30:49 |
Rhonda Mawhood | September. | 31:19 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Yeah. He had been to see his family in Connecticut, and he didn't get up in the mornings, ordinarily, on the weekend. So the maids wouldn't even bother him. A lot of times I understood that the manager, the owner, whatever, it depended on him to check on the people in the office overnight. But when they found, they decided to say, "Has anybody seen Dr. Moore? Said no. Here it is, it's near midnight. They had to break the door, break the chain on the door, cut it. He had fallen across the bed, hit the bed, and Aspirin were down. He had a massive heart attack. | 31:20 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | The lady told me he had something called walking pneumonia. Have you ever heard that? But it was a massive—his sister told me. She wrote me and asked me to please call her. I had tried to call her, but the phone number was not the same. She said, "Please call me at this number." In the letter she said, "I tried to find—I didn't have your address and name." She knew we were friends and that was all. She wanted to ask me questions. Had I ever heard him say he had a bad heart? Which I hadn't. I know he was sick one time at Syracuse, but I didn't know what it was. Then she was out, down with him because she could tell he wasn't feeling too well when he visited her during the summer. But he's so stubborn you couldn't tell him anything. Now, we were just good friends. If I had ever thought of marrying, he's the kind of person I would have. But there was nothing to indicate it. I just had always had something else to do. | 32:05 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Also, I was very choicey. Yeah, I didn't want to waste my time talking, if we couldn't talk about the same things, interesting. I'm going to read this thing about the dinosaurs. I got the book the other day. At least we could talk about that. | 33:10 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Jurassic Park, huh? | 33:30 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Yeah. Jurassic Park. Is there anything else? | 33:30 |
Rhonda Mawhood | I was just wondering if you remember what year Dr. Moore died, just for the record, approximately? | 33:36 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | No, I can't. | 33:43 |
Rhonda Mawhood | I'd like to ask you to give me some information, biographical information of family history. We'll do it as quickly as possible. | 33:46 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Mm-hm. | 33:53 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Last name is Boone. | 33:58 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Excuse me. Let me—you want to record? | 34:00 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Excuse me. Could I have your middle name, please? | 34:08 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Deloris, D-E-L-O-R-I-S. Dorothy Deloris. That's what my family calls me by, my middle name. | 34:10 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Dorothy. And— | 34:19 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Or D.D. | 34:19 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Your address, please? | 34:19 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Route 2— | 34:23 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Route 2— | 34:26 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Box 172 Enfield. | 34:27 |
Rhonda Mawhood | The zip then? | 34:34 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | 27823. | 34:35 |
Rhonda Mawhood | I have your phone number on the contact sheet, but can I have it again? | 34:39 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | 445-3279. Of course, 919 area code. | 34:48 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Thank you. How would you like your name to appear on the tape and any printed materials associated? | 34:51 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Dorothy D. | 34:57 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Dorothy D. | 34:57 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | If you don't use a whole name, just Dorothy D. Just about everybody by now knows I'm Dorothy. They call, say, "Ms. Boone, are you Dorothy D?" They can't find Deloris, other people immediately around me. | 35:02 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Could I have your date of birth, please, Dr. Boone? | 35:19 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | February 22nd, 1926. | 35:21 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Where were you born, now? In Enfield? | 35:27 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Right here in this house. | 35:29 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Oh. | 35:31 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Halifax County. My father said if he—my mother lost some children younger than the two of us. Said if he had to do it again, his wife would have her children in the hospital. She had premature twins that she lost. Halifax County, place of birth. | 35:32 |
Rhonda Mawhood | No spouse. Your mother's name was Luetitia? | 35:52 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | L-U-E— | 35:57 |
Rhonda Mawhood | L-U-E— | 35:57 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | T-I-T-I-A. | 35:59 |
Rhonda Mawhood | T-I-T-I-A. | 36:00 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | She always retained the E because that was part of the way the person spelled it before her. | 36:02 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Did she have a middle name? | 36:10 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | She used P for Pullen Boone. | 36:11 |
Rhonda Mawhood | P for Pullen Boone. How— | 36:13 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | It could be P-U-L-L-E-N if you're interested in what her maiden name was. All right. | 36:13 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Thank you. Do you remember your mother's date of birth, Dr. Boone? | 36:25 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Yes. September 25th, 1899. | 36:30 |
Rhonda Mawhood | When did your mother die, ma'am? | 36:42 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | December 14th, 1959. | 36:45 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Excuse me. Where was your mother born, please? | 36:55 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Halifax County. | 36:58 |
Rhonda Mawhood | For your mother's occupation, what would you like me to write? | 37:04 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Housewife. Everybody know back then they also worked in with the farm. | 37:09 |
Rhonda Mawhood | I'll write that she also worked on the farm. | 37:15 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Wait a minute. Let me see. Have I gotten my day? She died 1979. I knew I had my years mixed up. | 37:23 |
Rhonda Mawhood | It was— | 37:37 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | He died 1976. Get that right. | 37:42 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Your mother died in '79 and your father in '76? | 37:45 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Right. | 37:45 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Your father's name was Samuel Joseph? | 37:49 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | That's correct. You know what was always interesting to me? He died in December. She died in December. They married in December. He was born. You want to know his date of birth? | 37:51 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Yes, please, ma'am. | 38:22 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | July 27th, 1897. | 38:22 |
Rhonda Mawhood | He was born in Halifax County also? | 38:23 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Halifax County. Right up there where those big oaks are. | 38:25 |
Rhonda Mawhood | For your father's occupation, I'll write farming. | 38:33 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Farming. | 38:34 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Can I have your brother's name, please? | 38:41 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Yes. He had his name switched around. Olrin Joseph, O-L-R-I-N. | 38:44 |
Rhonda Mawhood | O-L? | 38:54 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Mm-hm. | 38:54 |
Rhonda Mawhood | R-I-N Joseph. | 38:58 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Excuse me. I might as well give it the way that he had it. He put the Joseph first, Joseph O. Boone. He used to get mail to Miss Olrin J. Boone. So he took care of that? Yeah, Joseph O. Boone. | 39:01 |
Rhonda Mawhood | When was your brother born? | 39:25 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | September 27th, 1927. | 39:28 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Also born in Enfield. | 39:39 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Halifax County. | 39:39 |
Rhonda Mawhood | You are older than your brother? | 39:46 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Yes. One year, five months and two days, I believe. | 39:48 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And you have no children? | 39:55 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | No. | 40:01 |
Rhonda Mawhood | There's a residential history here. I'm supposed to list the places where you have lived and approximately the dates. Are there very many? | 40:02 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | No. 1959—because you wouldn't include Greensboro for college. But 1959 to '61, I think, I was—or '59—in Concord where I taught at Barber-Scotia. I have to go check my record to make sure I didn't work there two years and make a mistake. All right. I went from there to Greensboro. Let's see, '59, '60, '60, '61. All right. I went to Greensboro where I was—I must have lived there. See, I went there on leave while I was there. Then I went to Ann Arbor, so you can say Ann Arbor, five years. That would be 1963 through—that's not five. '53 through '59. It's probably about five years. Then back here after I came back in 1970. January 1st, '76, I went to work here. | 40:17 |
Rhonda Mawhood | You came back in '70? | 41:50 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | I came back here in '70. Let's say January 1st, '76. | 41:51 |
Rhonda Mawhood | '76, okay. You've been here— | 42:03 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Ever since. | 42:10 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Between '69 and '76? | 42:15 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Between '69, I came back in '70. That was December of '69. Really, it would be January of '70 to '76, I was back in Greensboro. January, 1970 to January, 1976, I was in Greensboro. | 42:18 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Thank you. The first school you went to was the White Oak Elementary? | 42:46 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Mm-hm. If you have any question about anything, call me. If I don't have the answer, I'll check it out in some of my things and call you back. | 42:50 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Thank you. | 43:03 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | For correction, | 43:04 |
Rhonda Mawhood | What year did you start at White Oak?' | 43:06 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Must have been 1930. Wouldn't that be '32? Make me six years old. Something like that. | 43:18 |
Rhonda Mawhood | From there, you went to the Eastman High School. | 43:26 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | High School, yeah. | 43:29 |
Rhonda Mawhood | That's also Enfield? | 43:38 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Yes. | 43:39 |
Rhonda Mawhood | What year did you graduate from high school? | 43:40 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | 1943. Four years from that would've been 1939 I entered. I finished college in 1947. | 43:42 |
Rhonda Mawhood | That was at A&T. | 43:54 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | A&T, B.S degree. | 43:55 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Greensboro. Then you went to North Carolina Central, didn't you? | 43:56 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Yes. I went in there in summers '56, '57, '58. I think it was '59 that I got my master's. | 44:12 |
Rhonda Mawhood | You went also to the University of Michigan? | 44:46 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Yes, I went in the summers. Let me see.. I've got it somewhere already done. I left there. I think '64, '65, '66, '66, '67, '68, '69. That's not right. I think I went there in '64, something like that. | 44:50 |
Rhonda Mawhood | You took a PhD? | 45:28 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Doctor of Education. | 45:29 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Doctor of Education. Thank you. ATD. | 45:33 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Mm-hm. | 45:33 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Michigan State. Then you mentioned going to Duke and to Eastern Carolina University. | 45:36 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Yes. Hard to tell you. Duke, I can tell you. That was in the summer of 1976. My father died, became ill. His health changed while I was there. I would stay in a motel to do my midterms and my papers. | 45:43 |
Rhonda Mawhood | You also went to— | 46:11 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | ECU. That's periodically. It's hard to tell you when I take a class now and a class then. I got interested when they brought a public relations in public school, public school, public— | 46:15 |
Rhonda Mawhood | I've forgotten what town East Carolina University is in. | 0:01 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | East Greenville, North Carolina. | 0:05 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Greenville, thank you. | 0:07 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | I was in supervision at administration. For the study, I got tired, I couldn't go on, and I got right down to getting another degree, but I wasn't interested in trying to kill myself. I had too much. So I guess that clears it. | 0:09 |
Rhonda Mawhood | That's wonderful. Thank you. And you've listed places that you've worked on tape. Could I get from you just the jobs that you think were most important to you? | 0:34 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Well, my first job was in Parmele High School. P-A-R-E-L-E. I think that's the way it was spelled. You may have to check. North right down 64, Parmele High School. Parmele. There's not even a school there. But there was one year. And then I came the next year to Eastman High School where I worked 11 years. Eastman High School, 11 years. | 0:52 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And that was from about 1948, I think, to about 1959. | 1:25 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | And then I went to Concord to Barber-Scotia hyphen Barber, S-C-O-T-I-A, Scotia College. It was either one or two years. I have to check the records to be sure. And then from there I went to Bennett in 1976 until June—that's January 1976 until June 1992, I worked in Welling City Schools as supervisor, assistant superintendent. You don't have to put all that in there. I don't care. | 1:34 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Okay. | 2:26 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Okay. | 2:26 |
Rhonda Mawhood | All right. And so you were at Barber-Scotia College in the '60s and Bennett College '60s and '70s? | 2:37 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Something—Barber-Scotia was in the '50s. | 2:45 |
Rhonda Mawhood | So late '50s, okay. That's fine. | 2:51 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Now, are there any awards or honors or offices that you've held that you'd like me to list for the record? The ones that are most important to you? | 3:02 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Well, I was valedictorian of my high school class. Graduated with honors from college, undergrad. I received the NEA image award sometime in the 19 something. Must've been—I've forgotten when it was. | 3:10 |
Rhonda Mawhood | [indistinct 00:03:46] Excuse me. | 3:46 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | I was going to look for something. | 3:47 |
Rhonda Mawhood | There we go. | 3:48 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | And I have to look at this [indistinct 00:03:52]. I received the Leadership Award for Enhancement of Women 1990. | 3:54 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And who? | 4:04 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | The Association of University Women. | 4:06 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Okay. | 4:10 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | [indistinct 00:04:14]. That was a shock. I was nominated, and my brother came, my family other who lived nearby. And when they called me as winner, it was a shock. | 4:16 |
Rhonda Mawhood | I'm sure you were. I'm sure that you were an easy choice for them to make. | 4:30 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | I don't know. And I think those are among the ones that I prize. | 4:38 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Okay, thank you. | 4:43 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | The Image Award for an Educator, I got that. That was the NAACP award. Various awards included. | 4:45 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And you said that you were a Methodist? | 5:01 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Yes. | 5:04 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And what is the name of your current church, please? | 5:06 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | St. Elizabeth. Elizabeth was the name of my grandmother, one of the founders. AME, that's African Methodist Episcopal. When the Blacks were worshiping in that church, the White church, and they were dragged from their knees and put out of the church, they went out and founded their own church. | 5:10 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Have you ever been a member of another church, Dr. Boone? | 5:40 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | No. | 5:49 |
Rhonda Mawhood | What—excuse me. What organizations would you like me to list you as being a member of? | 5:49 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. I'm a member of the Association of University Women, however that's correct name, even though the chapter in Rocky Mount is closed, I get that mail. | 5:55 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Most of my educational organizations I took a break from because it's expensive. I'm trying to think what else. Well, the State Employees Retirement Group, I forgot. State Employees. Check how that's worded. I get their publication. It's an organization of retired state employees, however it's worded. You can check it out. I used to be in NEA and all those other professional organizations, which I'm not now. | 6:28 |
Rhonda Mawhood | That's the National Education Association? | 7:18 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Association. And then the Association of School Administrators, ASA. Then I was also—what's that organization? A super administration. Their magazine is Leadership, I'm still getting that. I wouldn't be able to tell you that, as many as I got piled up around here. Anyway— | 7:24 |
Rhonda Mawhood | That's fine. | 7:46 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Curriculum—wait a minute. I know. Curriculum and supervision. I can't think of it, but it brings in both. But all of us, curriculum and supervision, but whatever the name is. I'd like to have it right. It's in dictionary, but I don't see it. | 7:54 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | You are going to be at Ms. Wills' tomorrow? | 8:28 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Wednesday. | 8:32 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Why don't I—Wednesday. Why don't I—I'll call and ask her to jot it down so I can get it correct. | 8:33 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay. Are you a member— | 8:39 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | The NAACP. | 8:45 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Okay. How long have you been a member of the NAACP now? | 8:47 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Oh, I don't know. | 8:50 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Long time. | 8:52 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Long time, yeah. That was the only thing we had to fight our battles years ago. | 8:52 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Is there anything else? | 9:00 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | I can't think of anything. | 9:01 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Okay. Thank you. And the last question is, if there are any other activities that we haven't spoken of, any hobbies that you would like me to list or interests, or also any saying, maybe a saying that you like a lot of or a phrase or a quote or a Bible verse— | 9:03 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | I have quite a few. I can't think of them right now. | 9:23 |
Rhonda Mawhood | That's fine. | 9:24 |
Dorothy Deloris Boone | Let me write this down and give it to Ms. Wills for you since my mind is turning [indistinct 00:09:31]. | 9:25 |
Rhonda Mawhood | That would be fine, thank you. | 9:30 |
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