Cedric Jones interview recording, 1993 June 08
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Rhonda Mawhood | —testing, testing, just to see if the tape recorder is working. All right. Well— | 0:01 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | We'll go from there. | 0:13 |
Rhonda Mawhood | —that's picking up. Okay. So, the first thing I'd like to ask you, Mr. Jones, is how long you've lived in Charlotte. | 0:14 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | I have been here 44 years. I came to Charlotte in September of 1948. Yes, '48. I was 31 years old, September the 16th, 1948, and I've been here 44 years. I'm 75 now this past September 16th. Now, I was born in Clayton, North Carolina, Johnston County. By the time I was four, or before I was four, we moved across the line over into Wake County, which is Route 1, Garner, North Carolina. The home place, we still have now, my sisters and brothers, it's been handed down. | 0:18 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | My great grandmother, my mother's mother's mother, was 18 years old when slaves were freed. She and her husband, I reckon they married after then, she seemed to have come from the Turner community, Turner family, I suppose. I reckon his landlords may have been Turners. But she married Ela Jones. Eli was his name. Everybody called him Ela, but it was Eli. Eli Jones. That set of Jones' is of no relationship to my daddy. It's another set. He's from over toward the Shotwell way, Wendell, still in Wake County. And my mother was raised in Wake, and born in Wake. My daddy was raised in Wake, and born in Wake, over across Neuse River. The river divided the communities, and it was 10 or 12 miles from there. | 1:22 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Our plantation, a little farm and whatnot, is about 11 or 12 miles from Raleigh, about five from Garner, and about six from Clayton, and you see it's in the country. Joining the Johnston County line, by the way, [indistinct 00:02:42] in Wake County, going from Raleigh on White Oak Road is Route 1. And it changed to Route 3 now, but—and the house is numbered. 99, 97, or something like that [indistinct 00:03:01]. | 2:25 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Now, after I moved over there, shortly thereafter, I—well, I went to church first. I don't remember the first day I went to Good Samaritan Baptist Church, which is still in existence. That church was built on that plantation. My grandfather evidently sold some land off to some of his relatives. We used to say Aunt Cindy. I reckon her name may have been Lucinda. But she bought a little place, and her husband, and moved in there. And I am pretty confident that they bought an acre from them for the church, the old timers, and a half acre for the lodge. | 2:59 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Now, our rose and plantation to this day goes up to what the lodge owned, and that was adjacent to the church. Those times it appeared that most time you had a lodge in the church in many communities where Black churches were located. And of course, we park now on the lodge property, and of course the church property is still there. And that place that she bought summer was still by the—I understand that I believe Whites own that now. You know how we move, and everybody gets renting, and that kind of thing. Now for me, frankly, I don't know what sharecropping is except I've seen it. I've never been a tenant farmer. | 3:51 |
Rhonda Mawhood | So, your family owned all of their land? | 4:40 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Yes. You see, my daddy grew up maybe as a tenant farmer with his people, but my mother was born into the property. | 4:43 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And where did her family get their property, do you know? | 4:55 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | They bought the present place where we are now from the slave owners, when they freed the slaves, and so some of the mothers—my great-grandmother was 18 years old. She is buried out there in the family cemetery. I believe, I know I've heard them say, that there may be some Whites buried there too. From [indistinct 00:05:24] down to Durham it wouldn't be too bad to just, you and so many friends, run out there. I go to Raleigh quite often, and just see what it was like, and I can show you a breadth of it, and just coming right on across that Black's owned. Right across the street was owned, and you go on across the creek and the road is not all that pronounced but the area is. And then no going that way too great. Now, my first school experience was at Pleasant Hill Elementary School out from Garner, North Carolina. | 4:57 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | I did grades one through six there, for the most part. I did go to a little place called White Oak, which was a one teacher school for about two months in '24. Fall of '24. I started school, at Pleasant Hill Fall of 1923. And then, of course, after Christmas I went back where I was at Pleasant Hill. I finished grade one through six. The first grade at that place, and I did well, and some of the other one, a girl in the class, and the lady said she was going to promote us to the 2nd grade. I had been over to the other place at the [indistinct 00:07:00] And of course when I went back, the person said, "He's supposed to be in 1st grade like the rest of them." And so, they changed teachers and that teacher took me over to the teacher that previously taught me, and I could read 2nd grade very well, and therefore they put me in 2nd grade. | 6:06 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Did your parents start you off [indistinct 00:07:21] | 7:18 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Yes, my father took me to school. I remember the first day I went to school. Did I answer your question adequately or did you want to say something more I didn't— | 7:20 |
Rhonda Mawhood | I'm wondering also if your parents taught you things at home before you started school? | 7:32 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Yes. I could read before I went to school. | 7:36 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Really? | 7:37 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | The book was Baby Ray. I knew all about Baby Ray, and my mother started teaching, father was proud of it. And I was born the second child, but I grew up as the oldest child because the one preceding me died in May 1917. And I was born that following September 1917. So, for practical purpose I grew up as the oldest child, meaning the oldest child. That was a boy, I was a boy. And then three girls followed me, two boys followed them, and another baby was born who died, and then a girl followed that. That other baby was a girl too. In other words, mother and father, my mother and father, had nine children that were born but seven of us lived to be grown. And I am the oldest, and grew up as the oldest one followed by—girl next to me is dead, then the next two girls are living. | 7:38 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Then the boy is dead, and then the next son is living in Raleigh now. And then the little girl came and passed. And then the baby girl, born in 1933, is deceased. So, out of the seven that grew up, we got two boys living and two girls. And they also dead. | 9:07 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Did you have special responsibilities as the oldest, and the oldest boy? | 9:40 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Yes. I took care of the rest of them for the most part. I was responsible, considered to be responsible, and did very well in school, and in the family life, and church. My sister and I used to say speeches, and she was about five or six and I was about seven. And so, we got along fine with the other people singing quartets and saying speeches, and that kind of thing. So, from all indication I know I went to church before I went to school, then I went to school and did those seven grades. Six grades. I never studied 7th grade a day in my life. It was a three teacher school when I came back there in Fall of '24. It had been a two teacher school. And I was in 5th and 6th grade, and the lady taught 7th grade also in that. We had to take the test in order to pass the —to go to high school. | 9:46 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | The first test was taken in the Garner district. I passed that one. Was still 6th grade. I went on to Berry O'Kelly, then a private school but later became taken over by the state of North Carolina. | 11:02 |
Rhonda Mawhood | What was the name of that school? | 11:17 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Berry, B-E-R-R-Y. Capital O, and then capital K-E-L-L-Y. | 11:19 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Berry O'Kelly. I see. | 11:28 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | He was a Black man but he was kind of brown-skinned. I saw him sitting on the porch in Spring of 1931 when I took the test. They said, "There is Berry O'Kelly's home and there he sits." And that school later became a state school. It is off 70 Highway and Method. That little area they call Method now is where that particular school was. Open up the door for that—yeah. Continuing, I went to Berry O'Kelly. There were three 6th graders went, and five —yeah, five 7th graders. I was the only 6th grader to pass that 7th grade test. Lucky. Four of those others in the 7th grade, three of them passed. A sister and a brother, and another girl. | 11:29 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | And we rounded out the four out of the eight, five from the 7th grade and three from the 6th. We really went to see what the test was like. | 12:49 |
Rhonda Mawhood | What was the test like? | 13:01 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | I reckon today you'd say a standardized—it wasn't standardized. It was one the county used to give Blacks, I don't know whether the Whites had the same test or not. Schools were segregated. My first year of school in 1923, Blacks and Whites were walking to school in both Wake County and also Johnston County. Johnston County came and picked up everybody at the same time. Consolidation, they did not ride together. The people on the other side of this church I mentioned, out home where Johnson County was and still is, went to Clayton School on a 28 Model Ford School bus in '29, '30, and '30, '31. And after I had finished the 7th grade, I joined them Wednesday, October the 7th, 1931 for the 8th grade. There I went to Clayton Colored High School. | 13:04 |
Rhonda Mawhood | So, there was a school bus for the Black children as well. | 14:24 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Yeah. Oh yeah. They consolidated— | 14:27 |
Rhonda Mawhood | But so, there were two school buses? One for White, one for Black? | 14:29 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Yes. In Johnston County. The Wake County people picked up their school people the Fall of 1924, the Whites, and took them to the Garner High school, newly built. I'm pretty sure it was. And the Blacks, in those lower grades, kept on walking with no Whites in Wake County on that end were walking. Segregation. H.B Marrow was the superintendent of Johnson County schools. He taught consolidation at Teacher's College, Columbia University. Sometime about 1940 to '49 I took off and went up there in June '47, and I'm not so sure whether either it was at '47, '48 year that I was there a full year to get my Master's. | 14:33 |
Rhonda Mawhood | I see. | 15:39 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | See, I finished Shaw University in June 1941. | 15:41 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Can I take you back? | 15:52 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Yes. | 15:52 |
Rhonda Mawhood | I want to come back to Shaw and your higher education. But I'd like to ask you a little bit about being a child at this time. Do you remember any of your friends from school? Did you have special friends? | 15:55 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Oh yes. They were primarily Blacks. Some are living, some have died. Oscar Milton Johnson was a good friend of mine, and we bumped together again after his people that moved, and we were in Camp Gordon, which is now Fort Gordon, together. And we stayed down there, and went back home and got married. Married to a cousin of mine. He died about a year ago. And Victor Hughes Jones, my name is Cedric Hughes Jones, called Cedric and Cedric, doesn't make any difference because there's no K, to me. | 16:09 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | And so, he was Victor Hughes and I was Cedric Hughes, and we were no kin. He died a good while ago, eight, nine years. Ruby Sanders, who went to the 6th grade with me, got married in 1931. She was about two years older than I was. And then there's another girl, it was Beatrice. She was really Beatrice Barber, her aunts and her husband took over Beatrice Barber Max you'd call her. She passed away one, two — | 16:55 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | We rounded off the three, I believe, who went to take that test from that 6th grade. And then the Burt boy, who passed, is a preacher. He's sick now, has Alzheimer's disease. His sister, Catherine Burt, passed quite a few years ago, 10 maybe or more. I remember she got married, and she was about 18. You were very lucky then as a Black to come out at about the right age. Remember this is finishing 7th grade. Burt was about a little better than two years older than I am. He's probably about 78 now. He's still living, as I just referred to him having Alzheimer's disease. | 17:39 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Then Fred, little Baldwin fellow is dead, and his sister, Eldora Banks, is living. And her husband William Banks, who was a school mate of mine earlier in that second grade when I was put over there, we studied the same time. But I got to skip that 7th and that put me ahead. And he died of Alzheimer's disease some time ago. They had an older brother, the Burts did, who was 16 years old when I was six. He passed the test and all, and went on to Berry O'Kelly School. His sister, Mozel, next to him did the same thing. And Kathleen was next to her that I referred to taking the 7th grade test and passed. Then Jordan [indistinct 00:19:31] Burt was the preacher, who has Alzheimer's disease, was of the same family. And he passed the test. The Burts were leading educators, seemingly. They had good minds, and the families had done the best they could for their children. | 18:38 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | And later on they ran into some difficulty in the early '30s. See, Burt and I were classmates and we finished school together the same day. But that time they had left that farm and had gone to Clayton. I used to hear the oldest boy plow, and tell my mama liked to hear him plow. Douglas Burke, and who finished Berry O'Kelly, went to A&T, and I don't think quite finished A&T, but he was a football player and really got hurt. Never really got right, but considered one of the educated persons. When they moved to Clayton, he was still single. In fact, he died a single man, but he was active in the PTA even for his brother that was there when I was. And then the younger children who were there, because the whole family had moved there at that time. And— | 19:52 |
Rhonda Mawhood | What kinds of things did you do for fun together when you were there? | 20:56 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Well, at school we had all of those things about sometime in class, sitting in the well, and do that sometime, rainy days. But outside Willie, Willie was rain, the girls marching around, and the girl, one girl in the rain, and that kind of thing. And sometime the fellows were playing baseball, and even the younger ones got the chance to play. Had various sides, and everybody come to school you see, and to play baseball during recess. I think that helped to keep down some of the tension that people have now in the school, because when you went back in school after having been out there running, and ripping, and some running off, other running either with a little switch or just running plane, I think it took some of that energy when you were glad to sit down and listen to what the teacher had to say. | 21:05 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | And most of us didn't go to sleep either. And we hadn't eaten that much. We carried lunch, and sometime walking back home if the tractor—if we came the road, around the road running through the back, take a lump of dirt and some of the older boys kick it, a rock or something, keep on kicking it, see how many could they go maybe a certain distance. Doing things like those. And sometimes they may throw balls, and they run catch it, and all that kind of thing. Sometimes they may play with dirt, throwing at each other, and all those kinds of things. Particularly the afternoon coming back, see the old tractor come along and ditch up the road, and it was red clay and that kind of thing. We didn't throw rocks at each other. | 22:09 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | And basically it didn't have the serious types of fights you have now with guns. They didn't know talking about taking the gun to school. And sometimes the fellows would, older boys would come, and stay ahead for a day, and play baseball with recess was over. Instead of going back to school, they had permission to go on home and catch the mule and plow in the spring, and sometime in the fall they would pick cotton quite a bit going enroll in school mostly. And then stay out and pick cotton. | 23:04 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Did you go to school all year, or did you help your family on the farm too? | 23:40 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | I helped them some too. I was quite small when I entered the 8th grade. In '31 I had just turned 14, but I had stayed home some to help plant corn, and that kind of thing, being oldest child and my mother and father working. But I never missed school—I missed school more picking cotton than I had the farming. But when I went home after I got big enough to plow, well I would take the plow basically and do whatever my daddy was doing with it. If he wasn't doing a very tedious job like planting cotton, because you had to be pretty good holding it on the ridge. But I learned to do that by the time I was about 15 or later. So, I did quite a bit of farm work and stayed picking cotton to get money and buy clothes with. | 23:45 |
Rhonda Mawhood | What kind of clothes did you buy, Mr. Jones? | 24:54 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Well, those the pants that come to your knees. I remember the first long pants I saw was at a Pleasant Hill Commencement. Two fellows, one was about my age and then his brothers, Justin and Ola, I think both—all three of us was in the same grade. They came out there to the school closing with those long trousers on. First our fellows around there had them. George McLean was the oldest boy, and Fred Dee was other one. They, too, had had some persons to be in school ahead of them. | 24:59 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Emmett McLean, Amelia, McLean, Iris McLean, and Iris was—and George were my classmates. Fred Dee may have been a year behind. And then on down after Fred Dee, one they called Curtis, one they called Heart. And well, Ola May was one of them. I remember almost all the names now. So, we did those kinds of things and those activities at the old elementary school. Then high school played outside basketball, and sometime maybe I was—they said., "Okay, you throw up the ball, you kind of act as the referee." | 25:35 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | And I didn't play basketball all that much, all that well. But we had a basketball court at Pleasant Hill. In the latter years when basketball was becoming very popular and fashionable. Now, as I said, so far as the school's concerned, they closed [indistinct 00:26:48] Spring and picked up those children in '40, in '24, '25. Took them to Garner to school. Oh, they didn't live far. They lived between the bridge and me, and I would go to the Bridges in '23 to go walk with them. My mama sent me up there, and I'd go up there with those older children that you heard mentioned, Douglas Burt and all a while ago. Even Jordan was older than I was, but there was some in that family about my age, and one or two were younger. And then I've told you something about the high school activity. They did have a basketball team, had one football, or played football one year. | 26:21 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | I think they made a touchdown. But it was in its emphasis stages. And by the way, I was the 3rd graduating place, May the 17th, 1935. 19 years from that date, the Supreme Court decision was announced. And I was invited back to give the commencement address in 1955 to the graduating class of Clayton High School, still segregated then. I was teaching at Second Ward High School here. You may hear of the old Second Ward High School. Oh, Vermill—yeah, Vermill Diamond was a senior that year that I came. But she was ahead of her time, because years ago I understand that a lady named Lenore Grill was good friend of the family. She was teaching down there, and she would come back here. Mr. Kenneth Diamond girl and [indistinct 00:28:40] school and Vermill got a head start. And when she was about 15 she was in the grade with people maybe two years older. | 27:30 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | And I heard Kenneth say, he was her dad and a coworker of mine that graduated short, that he told some friends he was quite an athlete. Referee, games, and sports, and all that kind of thing. Football and basketball, that he had. His oldest child was 15 and his son was 13. And Kenneth [indistinct 00:29:14]. In fact, Kenneth taught my son that close over there named Lincoln Heights. It's not there, but I mean it's—and that's my son up there, that wife and his wife. That's our youngest child. He has my name, Cedric Hughes Jones Jr. And he is a candidate about like you, he has a Bachelor's degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. So does his wife. His wife is from Atlanta, Georgia. And he has a Master's degree from Wharton Business School in Philadelphia. | 28:49 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | His wife has hers from Boston, and he's got a Master's on May the 17th, 1992 from Boston University. He has taken courses in the ministry all along, and he's been talking about studying or getting a doctorate, whether he's really been admitted. No. But he hasn't finished his work. He's preached over the church, the First Baptist Church West where you were the other day. He preached at it 3rd Sunday in February this year. For the annual Youth Day. He was invited back. He grew up in Sunday school. All my children went over to Lincoln Heights [indistinct 00:30:54] over there. | 29:56 |
Rhonda Mawhood | So, your son followed your example. You told me that you went to Shaw. Did you do your Bachelors Degree at Shaw University? | 30:54 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Well, he did his at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. | 30:57 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And he went into higher education [indistinct 00:31:06] | 30:57 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | He went into higher education, and also he was called to the ministry in '84. First Sunday in October '84, he was ordained. Well, he was given license in Cincinnati. He was out there doing work in the engineering field, and he's still doing that. I've heard him preach two sermons up there. William J. Shaw, one of the most powerful Black preachers, or preacher really anywhere, what color, in Philadelphia. I've heard him preach two sermons at that church. One at 7:45, another at 11:00 because we, my wife and I, stayed up there. And I says, "You preaching two sermons this day, I'm going to hear them." And that was at his graduation. And also my wife went to Duke because the baby was coming down there, and we hadn't seen the child. And his wife's sister was graduating there. | 31:06 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | And by agreement, my daughter, oldest daughter and I, went to his graduation. And then his wife caught a plane and his baby and came down to Durham. Matter of fact, that child finished Duke. His wife's sister. Oh, they're smart. Four girl, three girls. My oldest daughter is in computer analysis something. She's had quite a few promotions. Then the next daughter, my daughter Mona Claire Jones Roberts, her husband is Roberts from Malcolm Roberts. From Williams. And I have another daughter, Cedrilo Carol Jones Taylor, who's a Harvard M.D. And her husband is also a Harvard M.D. Her husband is also from Virginia. Not [indistinct 00:33:34] with that funny name across that island, up there near Maryland area. | 32:19 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | And of course she's in [indistinct 00:33:46] administration. Then my youngest daughter's right across over there. The boy is the youngest child, the girl is older than he is. He's just the youngest son. Now, if we can get back maybe to me, I just told you about the children. My wife is a [indistinct 00:34:07]. She's a graduate of Hampton University, and of course has a Master's from Woman's college in Greensboro. She's done work in Boston too, but before we were married, and marriage interrupted her education. So, she was over here the University of Greensboro. And I told her to go on over there in March, this Sunday morning. I won't say she was the first Black to finish, but it was in the early days. You see, I used to work at State College when I was at Shaw University. | 33:43 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Some what I worked out there maybe during the summer on the yards, and working with the plumber, and working on the yards, and helping, loading, and unload, and push wheelbarrows, and dig trenches too for dairy. They didn't have the things like they have out here now, and that kind of thing. And we could eat a meal there for 50 cents. And the boys, only boys were out there then, only women used to be at the university in Greensboro. It was a woman's college. Woman's college. Now, the Black schools then it was Method school. But you see, I'm talking about she went to university what was used to be woman's college. And it's University of North Carolina now in Greensboro. And I think they even may have men there that now. | 34:39 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Yes, I believe so. | 35:32 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | I think they have a few men there. See, I know when all these schools were one sex, some of them. When I say some of them, not all of them. Shaw University has always been co-education. It is the Baptist school basically for Blacks. And Johnson C. Smith was a school in North Carolina for Presbyterian. They no longer teach theology over there. And then Davidson College, the Methodist school, A.M.E.Z. A.M.E. Zion you call it. And then Saint Augustine's College, that's the name, Saint Augustine was Saint Augustine, Florida. In Raleigh, it's the Episcopalian School for Blacks and see, Raleighs have six colleges. They got even now, whatnot. And I know back to '23 [indistinct 00:36:28] And course, that's when I started the school. | 35:33 |
Rhonda Mawhood | So, did you go straight to Shaw University from high school, Mr. Jones? | 36:33 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | That's a good question. No. I wish I could have gone. When I finished in 1935, I missed school one year and a half. One and a half year. I went a half a year. And then I missed another half year and went back a half year. In other words, I did my freshman work the two last semesters in a year. And that man let me take Government 201, which was sophomore course, the second time. And that gave me the privilege to pass and be a sophomore, you see. See, I didn't go up to Shaw until February. Well, let's say January. January 1937. That was the second semester, late January. Then I went back up there, January 1938, which was the second semester. | 36:37 |
Rhonda Mawhood | So, why was there that delay, Mr. Jones? | 37:40 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Finance. In spite of the fact we had a farm, and it didn't take so much money but the Depression caught many people. There were persons around Shaw much older than I was. And in the same grade, or some of them in Theology and all of that. I had said along with this Burt boy I mentioned, who was a preacher, he started preaching in the service. World War II. I was in World War II three years, 11 months, and three days. | 37:43 |
Rhonda Mawhood | I would like to talk to you about that, if you want to. | 38:15 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Yeah. And so, I went to Shaw and came out 1941. Graduated from Teachers College in Columbia, 1948 in— | 38:19 |
Rhonda Mawhood | At Columbia University. | 38:32 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Columbia. Teachers College, Columbia University of New York City in 1948. In the June class, early June, because those days they had intercessions there. And see, I went up there in '47 and I stayed all that time. Every time the door opened I was on G.I. Bill. And I came home right during one of the breaks there, and went back. And I worked some running elevators, and things like those around in New York at Teachers College. And sure I didn't work on the campus. I never lived on the campus, but I worked in the city boarding houses. And practically everybody at Shaw at that time was either on NYA, National Youth Administration jobs, or in the city working for S&W, a cafeteria didn't [indistinct 00:39:32] | 38:33 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | I didn't ever work there, but I have a good friend over here that worked there. And my pastor worked at, I believe was the Parker House, his name James [indistinct 00:39:42] the II. He's from Lumberton. His education was interrupted too. In fact, he and I was in the same public speaking class at Shaw, along with John White, who's dead now, his spouse's in Nashville, and along with A.D. Logan's dad. And A.D. Logan's down in Raleigh. But his daddy died, and he was pastor church in Reidsville. And most of the public speaking classes at Shaw's was composed of English majors, which I happened to be from Shaw, and preachers. That was a college class. And of course, the ministers, they can get credit for it. | 39:32 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | And there were quite a few us. I've had a good lucrative year with colleges, and Saint Augustine's College collaborated with Shaw in teaching the Methodists. They had classes out there on Saturday. And in the midst of the work I was doing on Saturday, the lady allowed me, as a Shaw student, to go out and take my class and then come back. She was just that kind at the boarding house. And her father, was, well, Miss Godwin's husband was a congressman from I think down in the Huntington County area originally. But he had passed, and her daughter, Ruby, was on at the boarding house. 110 East Lane Street. Now you go to Raleigh, you see government offices all along there. I used to work right then, and go up there in the morning, fire up the fridge, and go right on back. I've always worked. | 40:26 |
Rhonda Mawhood | So, when was it that you entered the service, Mr. Jones? Was it in 1941 when you— | 41:36 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Saturday, February the 21st, 1942. | 41:42 |
Rhonda Mawhood | 1942, okay. | 41:44 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | I was an insurance agent for Winston Mutual Life Insurance Company, what is called Golden State here now. It's changed its name. Golden State took it over. We had Winston Mutual in Winston-Salem. Headquarters. Whereas North Carolina Mutuals in Durham, the headquarters in North Carolina is still here, and Mechanics Involvement Bank. that has always been very close to that bank. And of course, the insurance was here before the bank came. The bank has come since I've been here in North Carolina. Mechanics Involvement Bank. They've always been somewhat allied. C.C. Sprawling used to come to Shaw. He's more financial himself, and helping to start an insurance company. Now James D. Shepherd, she who is the president of North Carolina Central at Durham, grew up in what is now West Raleigh out there in Overland. | 41:49 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | He used to come to Shaw [indistinct 00:43:00]. He was [indistinct 00:43:00] so he didn't care about soldiers coming on his campus. I went there one Sunday when I was at Camp Butner. Spent 19 months over there. | 42:58 |
Rhonda Mawhood | What's Camp Butner? | 43:12 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Camp Butner, it's now called Fort Butner, and went over there and told him who I was. I was finished Shaw in such and such a time, and that kind of thing. And I just want to come by there. As a matter of fact, I went to—North Carolina College has been called everything. North Carolina Central State, and College for the Negroes. Like every time the legislative, they change of name. Not quite there, that's an exaggeration. [indistinct 00:43:47] what I reckon. Coming to know it was a lie, but he spoke in '46. I was in the school there that first six weeks. I didn't use my GI after I had gotten back. See, I was discharged January 23rd, 1946, which gave me three years, 11 months, and three days I served. | 43:13 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Good conduct ribbon they gave first and later medal. I've never violated any of the rules and regulation, or been chewed out by any sergeant, or high official in the Army. No principal, no superintendent, and no pastor. I don't say I'm all that saint and holy. I don't claim to be. But I have always tried to stay out of trouble. I drive a little fast sometimes, on the road, but I never really been the cause of any major wrecks, or something like that. We've had a little accident, most of them—well, I don't know that I've ever been at fault. That's kind of one of those things. | 44:22 |
Rhonda Mawhood | So, can you tell me anything about being in the Army, what it was like? | 45:25 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Yes, I sure can. Well, I was inducted to Fort Bragg. Two buses left Raleigh that Saturday morning, of Blacks. Alfred Flag, who was a 1941 graduate of mine from Raleigh, and I think we went on the same bus. But anyway, it was two. And I went down there, and from there I went to Fort Gordon in about four days. So, we were at Gordon maybe that next Thursday morning or Friday, somewhere along then. It was building up. Coal was pretty popular for heating the barracks. Camp is a, what they call, a tentative place for soldiers, whereas a fort is established. The soldiers in World War I who, in 1917 when I was born, some of those were around, they called it Camp Bragg. | 45:28 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | But it'd become a fort before World War II, because like I said, Camp Butner, Camp Gordon, they have become forts since World War II, you see. And I may still refer to them as that. But a fort is a permanent place for training, whatever it does. And that's the distinct between the camp and a fort. So, what the Army— | 46:34 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | The most part or for some of the time at Camp Gordon and Sherward Cold and did things like those quarter mass outfit for those four months. I came to Butner in June of that same year, stayed there 19 months, got basic training, drilling the camp ward and which training, further training the Camp Butner and was transferred to Fort Benn when had what they call HTU special training unit. I had finished college before I went in the Army and was hearing insurance. I worked done off the state college. The Army said come on to service and insurance route. Come on, get your license. So I just went on into the service. I was drafted 19 months at, but for the most part I went stocking warehouses. | 0:01 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | I was a technician, fourth grade T and the fourth and with three stripes and a T and went, you are kind specialist in your skills that's, and I made the PFC down at Gordon before I left and then removed after that. Staying down there about from February to June, technician fourth grade. That's what I remained is throughout the service and I was happy to remain that and not go overseas. | 1:14 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Now, I did various duties at Butner and I had a group sometimes picked up trash, off yard laundering, warehouses and things. And when I was not working, helping to stock the warehouse, helping used to help distribute goods from warehouses and see to it that it was counted right. There was a civilian in charge who was a White man who had been in World War I and I Believe he was a sergeant there sometimes. We referred to him as Sergeant and of course I think he liked to identify too was the soldiers and they had prisoners of war that had come before I left there at Butner and the Italians and that kind of thing. But I went to Fort Benning, I was there between seven and eight months. From January to August. | 1:54 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | I taught school a half a day and taught and was private peak reading, writing arithmetic, get the boys through 4th grade level exam. You taught them, they went somewhere, took the test and they supposed to pass ordinarily even from the lower level about 16 weeks, a fast accelerated pro you supposed to teach and get them. Some of them didn't pass and various and you see them young fellas skipping like lamb, getting ready to get out of Army because they hadn't passed their test. They stopped their foolishness after a while and said okay, pass and not pass. And the man power got scared, got regiment everybody up to about 64 or five years old just for the man battle. And people drafted up to about 44 and 45 and he kept those fellows. Now then after I left there when the Indian town got military reservation, Pennsylvania up down from August to December. | 2:55 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Some of those same types of students, it may not been the same one but up there loading chips, dry dock, okay to put me in company F and a fellow named Green 'Sergeant Green from Charleston'. He and I got chosen by Captain Jatnak who's in charge of one of those outfit. He liked our records and all of that. He was a straight line sergeant. I was technician fourth grade now from company F, they could, you were already trained. They just come over here, send me so many men out there because we got a group one overseas and we need five or six or 10 men or extra. Fill out somebody who is sick and we supposed in a court. I was somewhat glad to get out of there. Went over there and helped train recruits. Stayed there, left there and went to Charleston, South Carolina. | 4:06 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Stayed there about two full months after Christmas, we went down there early January and loaded what I call a capside ship. It was a real ship but it'd been set aside over there and we would load dummy cargo in it and take it out. That's what we did in town gap. But in town gap we had dummy ships so to speak, make the [indistinct 00:05:34] ship. But this was a real ship and you load that and then take it out. Take it out and practice in it. | 5:09 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | All right in 1945 March, we left there going to pulling vocation at Los Angeles, California. That [indistinct 00:06:00] vocation is down at Wilmington, 20 miles south of Los Angeles. What is up the road? Farther than I know all about that Watts situation and what it looked like in World War 2. When you talking about the disturbance there, you probably too young to remember, but you've heard about it. | 5:41 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Yeah, I've heard about it, yes. Do you remember that? do you remember the disturbances? | 6:19 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | I remember them. I wasn't in the Army then. See everybody, I'd been discharged but I knew where Watts was and oh this, right. So anyway, suburb of Los Angeles and that train ran from Los Angeles down to San Pedro. Pedro was just below Wilmington and that's where it turned around the Pacific Ocean down there. It comes up this park anyway and now ends it kept [indistinct 00:06:56] in Wilmington. | 6:21 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | We loaded the real McCarney ammunition, said don't drop this. Be careful how you handle that food, you name it. If that warehouse had, and they brought it down there, a crew work day and a crew work at night, maybe some several companies. But you had so many in a squad or platoon or whatnot and you were scheduled to work, like scheduled to work, today is Tuesday and Tuesday the day or you may be scheduled again to work even Wednesday night or something all right now. | 6:58 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Maybe you wouldn't have all that day and time off basically if they had nothing for you to do a certain period of time. All right, let's go to Pacific, nine mile March, walk from the camp in Wilmington up to around that way to the Pacific Ocean, all right. I had my feet in the Pacific and never swam across and down in Fort Bend and lieutenant and I went, I think it was one Sunday morning, came over there to pick me up. We went out and did a highly explosive thing down on the Atlantic Ocean. And I never crossed that one. Seen both across the country about six times. Told not all the way from ocean to ocean, but between my traveling from and the Army moving me and about six times told. | 7:41 |
Rhonda Mawhood | The White officers in the army, how did they treat you? | 8:45 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | White officers? | 8:50 |
Rhonda Mawhood | The White officers, yes. | 8:51 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Fine. I got along fine. You would get along nice in the Army as long as you did your job and then go what they call AWOL. That means "absent without leave", that's what that AWOL mean. A-W-O-L and get up, make reveille didn't have to be reported for being lazy. If you sick you go to the infirmary and be treated, the doctor didn't put you in the hospital or anything or he recommended you going back and go on duty. | 8:54 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Of course he could say stay out maybe in Camp Confine and something like that. But I was chief. Camp Butner may have been a little bit more liberal in general than Bragg. Bragg was built during World War I earlier, but during World War II when I left Durham it was an insurance agency, they had maybe started getting the right way but they hadn't started building. But that place was built just like that and we went back then they stack all stock, all those warehouses and that kind of thing. | 9:25 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | when I speak of loading ship I've been transferred to transportation core and that means you loaded those ships and that kind of thing. And that's what I did. I never, in the battle overseas, I went through all the infiltration, all that crawling under barb wire, that kind of thing. And running that certain course go through and maybe cross a branch, maybe four or five loops like this where I almost wired this room and then go down, all that pretty rugged physical situation. Been on the rifle range and somebody behind you, keep that gun pointed down for you. So if it goes off for any reason, somebody give you the bullets, what they call a you directing. And then when you were not shooting, you directed somebody else and it took two or three people. | 10:09 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | You see trees cut down by those high powered rifles like the fire in the woods, the range, the city Camp Butner was in person, county, Camp Butner was in Durham. Grandville person, I don't believe it was in Henderson. Right over there. Not from Durham. Where you, not too far. You here until for—yeah, that's right. Cremo had a gate, Oxford had a gate. See a lot of us in Grandville County. And then Durham had a gate and then wasn't too far from Henderson. And then I understand way up there. It was a prison. Yeah, it was said to be about three counties. Cause Durham County not too large. | 11:12 |
Rhonda Mawhood | So when you were discharged from the Army, you went north to Columbia? | 12:06 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Well I took, not immediately, I didn't, as I said, discharge January 46 in Columbia in 47 I did a year and a ahead. Taught school one year right at the end of, well I had planned to go, I went down there and taught a half year. The lady was here and married. So I took over handling the library, small school bridge one through 12. Emmanuel Wilson was the principal and his wife Bertha is still living in Raleigh, retired. He's graduated Shaw. And of course she later graduated from job, but she was the equivalent of graduating from Charles. She had a good certificate but just went through and finished later. | 12:12 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | I taught school in Franklin County half a year. My daddy died while I was in summer school in Durham. I refer to having been in school at Shepard, he brought the message for the summer graduates and then of course I decided I wouldn't leave Mom. I'd just gone back and teach another year down at Paris. Most of the faculty from down there came, my dad was buried like that fourth Sunday in August in 1946. You see I took over that February '46, I think I went down there Monday, February the 18th and finished four months calendar school months because it rained, snow ended up. Then I went back and taught the full nine months and then I went to Columbia in June '47. | 13:03 |
Rhonda Mawhood | What kinds of differences did you notice when you went to New York having lived in North Carolina? | 14:09 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Interesting question. Well, the pace was faster and teachers college had more contact with White students, White teachers. And see even in North Carolina Central and they White teachers, they didn't have a law school then they got a law school after I'd gotten here. I took Administration and Accounting and Element Typing and there for just six weeks and Papa died. And then of course I didn't take the second six weeks I hadn't planned to. And then I used my GI first up there. Now getting back to your question, we go down to see plays. See I was in English classes even though later on I changed a major, I majored in it secondary high school principalship. And I'm a trained administrator. But my teaching field was English and I took enough English to certify. And even beyond, I got several points beyond the masters and I never worked on a doctorate. | 14:16 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | But I mean I had many hours, extra hours in education, extra hours in English if I want to take drama and speech. I did. I fortify myself in that. Take another course in education. I took junior high school administration even after married and that course wasn't starting until later on. So in the meantime I was married April, Saturday, April the 19th, 1952. We've been married 41 years. Clera H, Clera Hawkins Jones, C-L-E-R-A, that's my wife's name. And she was a music teacher here. And of course we met and married here. We moved right where we are now on her birthday in 1957. | 15:44 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Where did you meet your wife? | 16:37 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Here. I had taught, when I talked down at Paris, she was born right across from where the school was and lived in that general vicinity and up there. And her father died when she was quite a child. She remembering badly. But I taught some of the persons down there that she knew as a child, even though she didn't graduate from Paris High School, she went over to Hawkins, lady down there named Miss Ellen Austin, wanted a little better school in Perry was a forties. So she took them over to Hawkins High School in Warrenton and that's when my wife finished high school. And then from there, I think she took her year, couldn't get half that first year at Virginia Union, maybe Union. Then she took three years down in Hampton and graduated and she was fresh out of school when she came here in '48. And I met her that spring of '49. | 16:40 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Because a friend of mine whom I met at teachers colleges, Columbia was teaching here. He had met this lady who was his friend. She had been married, she was a music teacher and my wife didn't come here young, she stayed there. So we were having a tournament over here at West, the old Second Ward high school. It did the work for West Charlotte Second Ward, the county schools, lot them channel their basketball games into that gymnasium. | 17:46 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Then so he said, let's go out of here. I said, we'll go out. His friend couldn't go with stay with the boys. And so he said, okay, we'll go Jones on out here to my girlfriend's house. Paula is a young girl out there and she's, she's stacked and I'd heard a name talking to him. He had meetings together in the old Second Ward High school on Saturdays. But I never met her. So she came in after teaching the Bedford School of Music and met her and we went to the [indistinct 00:19:04] basketball tournament that night to Old Second Ward high school, gym nine then. And that's what started our, that was in '49 maybe around March, somewhere around about that time. She'd been here almost a year. And then that was in the spring of '49 and we married in April '52. Okay. Yeah. '52 read 40, 41 years this past April the 19th. I've been a deacon of First Baptist Church 40 years. The 31st of May past. So First Baptist church. So | 18:25 |
Rhonda Mawhood | You became a deacon in 1953? | 19:45 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | 1953. Yeah, fifth son in May. And my wife was with the first child. She hadn't been born. The women sat behind the men at that time I had all men, deacon that we had three women, deacon and so 40 years I was a deacon before any of my children was born. My oldest daughter was born June 15th, 1953. | 19:48 |
Rhonda Mawhood | What kinds of organizations have you been involved in, whether through your church or other organizations? | 20:12 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Several. Let me see. When I came here, Howard Molin, I tied up in the fullback club. My park had a quarterback club. They were men who were interested in developing gymnasium or sports minded or for students. They didn't have to be active in sports. I've never really been active but I've always been able to hope for the best for children. So I joined the fullback club that met at the Excelsior Club here on—Jimmy McKee. Had in fact Jimmy McKee's wife is one of the natives, was here and here in Charlotte and her sister Cecilia Jackson Wilson is still living there. Not a good way for me to go up there and turn right. And then many—Jimmy's wife Jimmy ran sisters lives across over here for church. They go to church right over there that mama was living and I came in their father. | 20:19 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | So I had that kind of experience with working with Howard Molin, Clint Blake who was the principal at West Charlotte and oh a lot of those fellows there. Saso, whose wife was one of the teachers and how they had men from all walks of life. You didn't have to be professional and all that because anybody who would come and help sell tickets and work toward getting the stadium in high school. The board of education was not furnishing stadiums or schools, White or Black at that time. In '48 to do them was better that now than that. And so they had a mines park. All those schools were built after I got here. I can tell you first White school, the first Black all kind as to which one they were as far as a matter of fact it was city unit then in our county they merged in the county after I left here in '59 they go to be principal of Hendersonville. | 21:29 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | I went up there after Monday after Thanksgiving in '59 and I was principal in Hendersonville for approximately three years. See I went up there after Thanksgiving long enough to see about seven, eight months work. Because principal worked 10 months then and I could have gone, we could have gone earlier. We just built this house. We had contract. My wife didn't want to go so I finally turned him in. The man they going on Pilgrim who was one of the top Black fellas there. He was an undertaker. James Pilgrim was his name, had gone on his vacation and he got back with him, said Pilgrim said all our man is not coming. Well then they got an older man, they had wanted a younger man then he didn't plan out right? They came back for Johnson Smith Homecoming and came over here. Some of those teachers who were there and some of them met me, the mayor and all that. | 22:38 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | And Ville, oh yes, principal, she Hendersonville, right? I was there for about three years. Then I went down to Troyon, T-R-O-Y-O-N, North Carolina. These are amount places for about three, four years as principal. I've never been principal in Charlotte, Mecklenburg. And of course I participated in various community activities, went to church and all that. When I usually go to church, I'd go to Sunday school and church and those two places, I think I went to a prep for all the churches in those areas. Hendersonville and two main Black Baptist churches. because I went to some other than Baptist, went to most established churches down in China did the same thing. You asked me about a participation and I told you about fullback club. I've done many more things organized a Fred l Brewer chapter here, | 23:42 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Which chapter I'm sorry? | 24:39 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | [indistinct 00:24:41] Brewer Jr, Shaw University alumni chapter is tied in with the national alumni chapter. You see, that's the local chapter. Fred Lorenza, Brewer Jr that he was at Shaw when I was there. He was the editor of the paper and [indistinct 00:25:05] Diamond knows him very well and knew him. He was older, he was behind me in education. But he was one that went in that squadron that was educated to Tuskegee and was shot down. You heard no doubt about that. He was one that lost his life there. His mother never got over there. I met her after I'd come here and went to see her and she finally died. Then I knew his father. His father married again. Matter of fact, I think his father's second wife's still somewhere over there on Ban Drive near there. Maybe I knew he married again. And then he had a sister named Gladys. | 24:40 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | And Gladys was down in 5th year, Georgia. She was sending money back for Fred Brewer chapter. And she was quite a pleasant person and that kind of thing. She got married I believe after I'd come. She was with her mother when I came. And it was just a very fine family. That may have been some more of them, I don't recall. And [indistinct 00:26:10] would know much better than I and maybe they would not. And then I've done community work and taught Sunday school, been president of the Congress state Congress State Baptist Congress of Christian education of the Jim Baptist State Convention Incorporated here in North Carolina, headquarters in Ireland. | 25:46 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | I was the first president of the merge group. See that Congress meaning Sunday School and Baptist Training Union. The Baptist Training Union was what they called the old BTU Baptist Training Union. And then Sunday School combined. And I took over that in 1987 and served until '91. I am the immediate base president, the young lady who is in there now. Elizabeth Young is from Southport, North Carolina. | 26:39 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Did you ever join the NAACP when it was organized in different places where you joined? | 27:15 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | I joined NAACP here. Here. Oh yes. I've been active in the NAACP. I don't go as diligently as I maybe should, but yes, I joined NAACP. I have never stood in the field cause I thought it was advocating what the Constitution says. I know when it was written, it wasn't written, it was full participation of Blacks. But then we had those amended items, 13, 14, 15th amendment and also the 19th spoke to women. Suffrage here was doing what he said. And NAACP, a lot of people may know has come to the defense of some Whites. It was superintendent was unfairly treated in the judgment of the people somewhere in North Carolina case and National Education Association. Yeah, I don't know what I do without being a member of that. | 27:22 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | I don't belong to any fraternities, but I don't have any hate for them. It's just a matter of I never participated. But I do support the activities. For instance, I support the firemen and the police with contributions and several other contributions that are noteworthy here. The United Appeal and most things that are good and certainly the churches. And I'm not limited necessarily to Baptist churches, but that's where my membership has always been. But I've attended almost all denominations and groups at one time another. Those are just, oh, I've been like classroom teachers in the organization here I was assistant for classroom teachers and assistant to the parent bar, which was in the macary division of the Teachers Association. And I'm in the Retired Teachers Association. I'm a life member. NEA paid up. My wife is too. Clera is a life member, paid up life member, a National Education Association. | 28:34 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | And we support most of the community based efforts. And I've been, I run for, oh yeah, I ran for county commissioner. | 30:02 |
Rhonda Mawhood | When was that sir? | 30:16 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | 1940. No, no it wasn't '40, wasn't that there? No, 1986. And I got defeated in the primary and I showed pretty good showing and '48 the elected every two years. And that one I was in the last selection because you could have the top three would win, but you could have three Democrats and three Republican. A White lady, last name can't think of it right now. But she and I were the candidates for the Democratic Party. I felt, I feel strongly, I think we would've even done better if we'd had a White male and a White woman. | 30:23 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | And I've been running because we had three and I've had at large, and run district and I said, I don't see what it is at large run for be elected by everybody. Everybody. I got votes in every precinct. Got some small, but every precinct in the county, Mecklenburg, that means city and county, county commissioner, everybody. And it was at large position, not a district. See they were had districts then. But when I came here they didn't have districts and then they didn't have districts for city council. They ran at large. I've been active in practically all of the elections here. When | 31:13 |
Rhonda Mawhood | When did you first vote Mr. Johnson? | 32:02 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Good question. Let me see. I registered in Raleigh, I believe it was a governor chair. I was at Shaw University, but I lived at 741 Federal Street and back of the auditorium there by the firehouse. You could register to vote and it must have been approximately 1940 or there about, could have been '40, '41. And I signed up, I was also, and I voted in the Army. We could vote in the Army if you get your state and you wanted to vote and you were rich. And so I voted in the Army. I also registered October 16th, 1940. Peace time, conscription they call it. I was at Shaw University and I was a senior going graduate that in '41 in May all person between 21 and 36, a lot of the teachers, younger men were involved in that. And that was the first peace time conscription in the history of the United States. I understand of that mass. Massive thing. | 32:08 |
Rhonda Mawhood | There's one thing that I'd like to know if you remember, which is Joe Lewis's fight? | 33:47 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Joe Lewis and Max Mayor. Oh yeah. Joe Lewis was quite a character and I had many questions asked in New York City, are you can to Joe Lewis and really, oh yes, yes. When he was in his heyday and I was up there going to school at Teachers college, Columbia University. Yeah, I met Blacks and White, they asked me, say, "you can to Joe Lewis?". Yeah. They thought I favored the brown mother. That's what it was called. So I remember having walked mile or more to hear his fight was Max Smelling and all of those others in the late 30s between high school and college. I had a cousin that had bought a TV, radio. Radio fights. They were announced. Yeah, we'd walk a mile fellas and had some girls down there. In fact they were little but akin to me. But all of them go down there to hear Mark Johnson. | 33:53 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | He was a sports man and his wife Lily Johnson and Billy Johnson was first cousin of my grandmother. Out of those 22 children, you heard me in front of Eli Jones. Her father was John Jones and his children were younger than my mother, mother, grandfather that Eli Jones, I understand he was the oldest one of about 22 of them born. And I understand there were two girls out of that, those number of men, some of them went to Florida and never did come back after the freedom and all that kind of stuff. And so yeah, you speak about Joe Lewis and Max Band, Max Smelling and whatever the name were, we kept up with him so far as the going young out there in 1936, '37 and all that. And Jackie Robinson saw him play baseball First Black. Oh yeah. He was in this heyday in like '40, '48. And I was in New York going to college. | 35:11 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Oh yeah, you went to see her. Yeah, well they'd have what they call ladies day, ladies could get in free. And me and P and I went to some of those. See I sing on those days. And when I came here in '52, I went back up there one summers I indicated earlier to take a course in high school administration. My wife, I took her meantime, I bought a Dodge, 1950 Dodge, taught my wife how to drive. That was at Meadowbrooke and took it down there and left it with her mother's in Newport News. The family migrated from North Carolina to Newport News during World War II. And so I went up to study, I want to take that higher course in junior high school administration. See I had element, I had secondary and by the way I became Vice President of the North Carolina Club with Teachers College, Columbia University. | 36:27 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | And I associated with them when it wasn't, a lot of people would stay away. You see you couldn't have segregated organizations up there. And I took advantage of them. I'd go to the annual luncheons. They would have maybe one evening and get a girlfriend lady to go with me and she would be Black. I had no qualm. But I thought that there was some people, like from here, I met by that time and I, oh I participated with them even before I came to Charlotte. Always when they said they met out under the tree, the teachers called North Carolina sign up there, South Carolina there maybe Mississippi. The state's represent and they call those the state clubs and Rose Mess, Dr. Messick, you may hear his name flowering around down at Duke because he was president of Eastern Carolina and his daughter Rose was one of the acting members. | 37:35 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | And she, yeah, Rose Messick. And they said we want to make you officer want you to be vice president. They said coincidentally, I got married and I wrote on my letter that I wasn't coming back immediately, but take my name off, maybe get another one. But I had functioned with them so much that they made me a vice president, the North Carolina Club, the teachers scholar, alumni, university of North and the North Carolina chapter. My name was on and off. | 38:53 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | So I had to get back in touch with them to let them know that I wasn't coming back immediately. I felt that responsibility just like you're supposed to let you place where you work, know when you got back from the Army whether you were coming. So I got back with my insurance company that I had been in Durham and told them I was going into teaching rather than insurance. So they were supposed to hire you back where you were, you know, come back in the same state and all because you took your job and you were drafted in service. All those things, I'd taken advantage of. I have try to do some things right. | 39:23 |
Rhonda Mawhood | It sounds like you've managed to, is there anything that I haven't asked you about that you'd like to speak about? | 39:55 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Well you have really asked me some of the key things and I told you about my birth and childhood and then I saw as well as farm and ran the edge, the edge is a device that trims up lumber takes the bark off it have to go through the circle song like you cut gloves and so it's a 2 4, 1 4 1 6, a human beagle piece and run it through there and cut the bark off and put down there lumber and make timber because it go to a plane and meal and all that kind of stuff. And let me see, I went on up from there to having worked farms and where construction worked with, who built this development down here on the yard and Deacon Hole, some foundation, some of those buildings up there. I washed down brick for Joe Howard. He's a Black fellow who used to hire me Christmas. | 40:08 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | I just want to go over there and work and he would be very kind and let me work. And I worked there in the summer, worked urban in the summer or I worked at the United States Post Office. part-time. I've always been part-time. And I worked during the summer months, they would let you work about 85 days, not more. Wouldn't let you make 90 cause you ain't tired to leave. I understand. Then I've done it for Christmas holidays as I taught school and the last time, four, five consecutive Christmases when I could get off in those many summers and never had the job outright but I could. I've been the person that basically could always go back where I'd once been. And I've had compliments from those things and saw and farm and construction and of course boarding houses. And I have taught in summer school and my paper, I used to teach journalism, had won a national recognition at Second Ward High School. | 41:11 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | It was a national piano, I believe year, national Scholastic Journalism, Congress son had another name. But anyway, honorable mentioned and all of that kind of thing and recognition. And Mr. Greg said, yes, means so much for at the time like this and that time some things were not going well. | 42:24 |
Rhonda Mawhood | More like in The 50s? | 42:57 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | It was, I went from Second Ward, from 1948 to 1959. Now there was, Mr. Grisley was there for nine years and he left about like 56 or seven, Spencer Dolan King. So this was somewhere right after we had gotten married in the mid 50s, at least somewhere about that time. because, see 48', 49', 49', 50', 50', 51' was 1 52', 52', 53', 54', 55'. It's 56', 56', 57', just 8 59' in other words, somewhere about that time I, about 55' I it believe was, we won this recognition. And let me see what else. It would be almost impossible to tell you everything I've done. But those are some of the outstanding things I've always, I told you about working at the boarding houses in school. | 43:03 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | I have not been one just to pick a job if it had some merit in it. Is this all it's on, Mary? And I tried to do the best I could wherever I was, and make a good showing hopefully so I could come back and do that. And certainly, before we even take this off, I want to say thank you to you and appreciate you having taken the time out of your business schedule to come. | 44:16 |
Rhonda Mawhood | This is my schedule, is to speak to people like yourself. I'm glad you enjoy it. | 44:55 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Interview me and to sit here and so later and lead and scholarly. And I certainly want wish you all goodluck. | 45:01 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Thanks very much Mr. Johnson. | 45:10 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Maybe we could stay in touch through something. Me and my wife met her— | 45:13 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Sitting in the project, we'd like to stay in touch with all the people who have been not enough to speak with us. | 45:19 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | And just like I said, it may be a time which you could have. Sometimes we get together somewhere, we won't even come back to Charlotte and try some of the sports around here. Some of the things, it's a lot serious run, get together sometime we have an affair to the church and I don't know, I wish I could and looks like for me, I'm not going to be able to go to this meeting that's going be out from Raleigh with the Black elected officials. Now this morning we had Tuesday morning breakfast club, they call that. And then the Black political calls me third Sunday night. But are you eligible to vote in this particular state? | 45:25 |
Rhonda Mawhood | No, I'm a Canadian citizen. | 46:14 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Canadian citizen. | 46:16 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Not American. So I can't. | 46:17 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | But you do vote where? Yeah. | 46:19 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Yes at home I do. And I vote by mail now that, [indistinct 00:46:25] | 46:21 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Oh yeah. Well you good. Always like to be in touch with people who vote. My philosophy is that I don't see how in the world folks said there's anything wrong with voting. I think politics probably like anything else, is whatever you make it and you have to select your lead some kind of way. And I'm a Baptist and I don't know what the [indistinct 00:46:54] is. What are you called? Any particular [indistinct 00:47:01] . | 46:25 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | —see Smith a full year and CPCC off and on for 20 years. It's part time. Maybe a quarter, maybe sometime all the quarters there, three quarters, and so I didn't get in no Carver College. | 0:03 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | I taught there, and so in other words, I'm an English teacher basically with high school but also the junior and senior college. You could put that down, and having taught in the junior—see junior, the community college is the old Carver College was junior and then community college, CPCC, and then John C. Smith was senior college. Even though I taught freshman course, Barbara Scotia was a senior even though I taught freshman course. | 0:17 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Kind like, let's see, with the White schools, you had [indistinct 00:01:00]. Wingate used to be a private school down the road here. They used to be junior and then they went to senior. In Raleigh, St. Mary's was a junior college and I believe they may be senior now. Meredith, I think, was always senior. Wake Forest was just 17 miles out of Raleigh before we went to Winston-Salem. | 0:54 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | I know all those days when those little boys used come around and see those girls, evidently [indistinct 00:01:31] come out US-1 flagging, and I did some work out there to the boarding house. You flag and sometime you got a ride but you had to wait for it. Things were not like they are now. Everybody's scared of everybody now. It makes it bad. It makes it bad. Anytime I just hate for folks to have to have fear. | 1:25 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | You could do a lot more for people. Sometimes you pass up a person who may need your help. There's nothing worse than being out there needing help and nobody will acquiesce and stop, something like that. I've never really been stranded on the road, but I seen people that I thought were, and then you can't trust them because they can look so charming and all that and then be so bad and they [indistinct 00:02:34]. | 2:01 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | My philosophy is, if I have one, if you can't help, don't worry. I think it's one of the most lasting and disconcerting thing in the world, to rape somebody. That's an unfair tradition. | 2:34 |
Rhonda Mawhood | These kinds of things that you're talking about, of trying not to hurt anyone. You mentioned rape as an example. Did your parents teach you those kinds of values? | 2:54 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Well, I think in a way they did, and maybe not even sitting down just saying, but I think their philosophy and their belief was not in geared up to really mistreat. My daddy was a fair-minded man. He was liked and my mother was liked and they were not liked because they were devils and wanting to mistreat folks. Because Truemella's the same as my mama, she's very out there at home too and always about the same person you see. That's it. I was a very likable person. | 3:08 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | All of us have our weaknesses and our strengths. Well, when you're out just to deceive and to mistreat people, and you don't care anything about them from what you get out of it. Well, [indistinct 00:04:14], I said, "Well, you do what you like." But I'd rather not do some things and be called a gentleman and respect it than to mistreat and do, and then you viewed as a scoundrel. | 3:52 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | You see, people are human and we all, you know now. It's a little different now from what it was some years ago. Growing up in the South, I know about the city but I know about nice people. I met some very nice, charming young ladies and all of them are not Black either. I met those just like you seem to have no fear. | 4:29 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | In other words, if you Black or whatever you are, I just accept you, accepting, and I don't like folks to really fear me. I don't like to hurt them or anything like that. Trust is another thing that's important too. It's bad to be trusted and then you betray the trust. | 4:59 |
Rhonda Mawhood | It is. | 5:29 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | This body is bad sometime, and it want to be kissed and the fellow's scared to kiss. But sometimes, well, and I said, "What were they looking for? Who's that doing?" All this kind of little things with the innuendos. But I've had a good relationship with people, for the most part. | 5:29 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | It was pretty nice. You have to know how to say what to say, when to say and be confidential in the world. People will reveal to you a number of things, and those are the people that are out their mind. But if your mind is already walk and made up and you are twisted or they're twisted or any twist is unusual. Heathen, that kind of thing. It's going to be—and what are some of your ideas? Of course, I know you want to get to that too. | 5:56 |
Rhonda Mawhood | I wanted to, well, maybe I'll ask you to fill out the form, and then I can— | 6:54 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Yeah, go ahead on. We'll fill that out, sure. Let's do that, [indistinct 00:07:02]. | 7:00 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Can you give me the place of your birth? You mentioned it [indistinct 00:07:05]. | 7:02 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Clayton, C-L-A-Y-T-O-N. | 7:05 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Clayton County? | 7:05 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | No, it's Johnston County. | 7:05 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Oh I see. | 7:05 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | J-O-H-N-S-T-O-N, Johnston County, and it isn't suburb, it was near Clayton or in Clayton. I don't know where the city limit been back then. It's only 1500, 1935, and Garner was 800 in '35, because it was taken from that '30 census, every 10 years you [indistinct 00:07:34], so it was Johnston County in North Carolina. | 7:06 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Your wife's name is Clara Hawkins Stone. | 7:40 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Yeah. H-A-W-K-I-N-S was her middle name, C-L-A-R-A. | 7:42 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And what's her date of birth please? | 7:42 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | June the 21st, 1928, she'll be—have you got mine? | 7:52 |
Rhonda Mawhood | It's the 16th of September 1917. That's right. | 8:08 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | So you see we are 10 year, nine months and five days, see that five on 16 will give you 21 and from September, October, November, December, January, February and March, April, May, June, nine months and 10 years, nine months and Friday. So most of the time I'm about 11 years older than she is. | 8:12 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Sometimes it makes a little difference, but it's a decade you see and sometime you may see, because always going to be men [indistinct 00:08:53] like each other and they go across. But you told me this, of course, that could be characteristic of anybody and you see it come to pass. But it's something good about staying in touch with young people and younger people. | 8:39 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | I tell them all I'm interested in other people's children just as well as I am mine and all that kind of thing. Because they too, some of them are doing very, very well and don't think, because you're here today, that tomorrow has me well, the rug pulled out or something. And now what else do you have then? | 9:15 |
Rhonda Mawhood | There are a few questions I'll go through as quickly as I can. Where was your wife born? | 9:38 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Oh she was born in Franklin County, near I call it was really Louisburg is the county seat out near Centerville. There was no place so they was calling it down there as there are no crossroads. But Franklin County is her birth, and Louisburg, North Carolina, is the county seat. | 9:43 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Thank you, and your mother's name? | 10:07 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | T-R-U, I'm going to put E in it, M-E-L-L-A. She was a Sanders, S-A-N-D-E-R-S, and she married Howard Jones. | 10:07 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Sanders, I'm sorry— | 10:18 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Truemella Sanders Jones. | 10:22 |
Rhonda Mawhood | I'm sorry, could you spell that— | 10:25 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | T-R-U-E-M-E-L-L-A. | 10:32 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Thank you. | 10:32 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | On the tombstone, it was T-R-U, they didn't put the E in it. She was a Sanders, her maiden name, and then she married a Jones, and Mama later married a Bell in the second marriage. See, my dad was Jones. | 10:33 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | She later married Marshall Bell, he had children about my age. He was a good farmer, a better farmer than my dad, but Dad was—well, he's peculiar. He was a friendly fellow, we got along, that kind of way. But Marsh was a better farmer. | 10:48 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Do you know what year your mother was born, approximately? | 11:11 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | 1895, about May the 10th approximately. Her mama was ailing and she died before, I'm think her mama died before she was two or three years old. They never put it down, but they always said it around the 2nd Sunday in May. You know Mother, they come the 8th and it's over by the 14th. Anything second is 8th through 14th. One through seven is the first week, eight through 14, 15 through 21, 22 through 28 and 29. Then 31's the fifth on our calendar. | 11:13 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And what year did your mother die? | 11:47 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Mama died in 1969. | 11:56 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Thank you. | 12:02 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | We lost a lot of folks out that year. | 12:03 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Where was your mother born? | 12:10 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Mama was born in Wake County near Garner. She was born right in that general area where my granddaddy came out of. Her daddy came out of Johnston County. Came up there and married this only daughter of Eli Jones and he was from Johnston but she, Mama, was born up there. | 12:10 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And your mother's occupation? | 12:43 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Mama was, I would say a housewife and farmer, and that's what she— | 12:45 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And your father's name? | 12:56 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Howard Jones. | 12:56 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Did he have a middle name? | 12:56 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | No. Even if you put the L before the Howard, his real name was Len Howard. Nobody ever called him that. I doubt you'll find any documents with L before it but that's where it would be today. I have a brother that was named Len who was seven years younger than I, the middle boy I told you was dead. He was in the service too, but he was named for Papa and Mama has a daughter named Atrice Truemella. She's living, she's the one next to me now because there's one between us. | 13:04 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And your father's date of birth, the year? | 13:37 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | April the 20th, 1891. Father would have been 100 years old about two years ago. | 13:46 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And what year did he die? | 13:52 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | 1946. It was in August because he was funeralized. I believe that August was either 28th or 29th, [indistinct 00:14:01] I believe it was the fourth Sunday, and I went back to work. See he took [indistinct 00:14:12] was up there in school. I went home. Let's see. | 13:54 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Your father was born in Johnston County? | 14:19 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | No, he was the name of Wake County. | 14:20 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Wake County. | 14:22 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Wake County, and I would put Wendell, North Carolina, near Wendell. Shotwell was the little old, well, it's not really, just a section, but Wendell was closer to him than Zebulon. | 14:23 |
Rhonda Mawhood | You've given me some of the names of your sisters and brothers but I don't remember all of them. So if you could tell me your sisters and brothers names. | 14:43 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Do you want those who died or those that—well, I can give you all those who grew up. | 14:51 |
Rhonda Mawhood | The ones who lived to be grown. | 15:01 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | All right, my name, I'm the oldest. | 15:01 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And then the next one after you? | 15:01 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Genva, G-E-N-V-A, her regular name, that's the way they spell it. She was a Jones and then rather Lucas, and then Atrice, Atrice Truemella Jones, and she married a Turner. | 15:03 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Turner. | 15:25 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | That's it, Genva married Lucas [indistinct 00:15:32], and then the other one is Thelma, I'm giving it to you in order. And she was a Jones, Thelma [indistinct 00:15:41] Lee Jones, she married a Jiles, J-I-L-E-S, and then Len, well named for Papa, L-E-N. Watkins was his middle name, W-A-T-K-I-N-S, and he's Jones. He's deceased now. | 15:27 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Alphonzo, A-L-P-H-O-N-Z-O. It's spelled different ways, A and P-H and F and all kind of ways. I forgot, Jones. He doesn't have a middle name. Now, he's still living. You have Juanita. | 15:57 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Juanita. | 16:17 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | J-U-A-N-I-T-A, Juanita Jones, and she was married to White. I know she married White, and then you can put an Ellis, she married an Ellis. I suppose she married Ellis but that was the nice fellow that she was with. But I know she had John White first and then Ellis, I think Ellis is somewhere living now, but these days, those are all the ones that— | 16:19 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Well now, Daniel Lindsey was born before I was, Daniel Lindsey Jones. He was older. He was older than that one. Now the little girl, there was a girl there, just the baby girl Jones. Mama never didn't name that child, but she lived about three weeks. But she was born live birth, and she was between Juanita and my brother Alphonzo. She was a little skip there between my daughters and that boy up there and then skip. | 16:56 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Do you remember any of the years that your brothers and sisters were born, Genva? Do you remember what year she was— | 17:33 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | 1919. | 17:38 |
Rhonda Mawhood | 1919. | 17:38 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Papa was 24 in 1919. | 17:38 |
Rhonda Mawhood | You have a wonderful memory and Truemella? | 17:41 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Atrice Truemella. | 17:41 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Atrice Truemella. | 17:41 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Atrice, A-T-R-I-C-E, make sure you have that one there. | 17:52 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Yes, sir. | 17:54 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | She was born June the 4th of 1921. | 17:56 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And Thelma? | 17:58 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Now listen, you know Thelma, Thelma was born, she arrived the 4th 1923. | 18:05 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Really? | 18:10 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | But now you put 4th down there and then put seven up the top there. Now, I don't know whether this was because of race or whatnot, but mama knows when her children were born and when Thelma started searching her records, she found the 7th on it. | 18:14 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | I'll tell you what I believe it was, and I'll tell you, it may have been because Buffalo may have gotten mixed up. He was a White physician. I think it was the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, probably two year medical school. And I don't know whether he didn't want to put down that the child was born the 4th, or whether he got confused, because he did Whites and Blacks and everybody else down there he could have. | 18:30 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | But so that's what you would find out. He was going down to Len, oh, how well do I remember Saturday, February 7th, 1925. I walked to get somebody to come see my mama. Alphonzo, Sunday night, October 17th, 1926, and Juanita, I believe that was August. I think it was the second or third or one, 1933. | 18:58 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And those who have passed on? | 19:54 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Daniel Lindsey. | 19:54 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Dan. | 19:54 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | He was born March, I believe it '16, he was 1916. Let's see what was his birthday? Put down March and put seven but put a question mark by the seven. I don't know what that little tombstone was out there, but it was 1916. See, and he died in May, and then of course— | 19:55 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And the baby girl who passed away, do you know what year it was? | 20:13 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | I was just thinking about that. Now, she was born between '26 and '36, I believe it was—it possibly was '31, and put question mark with that. The baby girl in '31, and you know I am not altogether she which month that was, whether it was—let's take a wild guess at that too. It may have been about June, but it seemed like was— | 20:18 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Tell you the truth, I have forgotten. I don't remember that, but just put question mark, because she was born possibly that year. We never did—I don't know. It ought to be a record somewhere. It was Truemella and Howard Jones. Howard Jones and Truemella Jones, one gone. They would show that because I remember getting a person to do the casket, and that's why we had a bread out there at home. | 20:58 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | That's really the only one that [indistinct 00:21:33]. I could carry right off the others just like that because they lived and survived a while. But Mama never just named that child because she didn't think after what [indistinct 00:21:40] wasn't even going to live. But anyway, and now let me see, I'll go ahead. I'm sorry. | 21:31 |
Rhonda Mawhood | The brothers and sisters who grew up but who have passed on? | 21:48 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Genva. | 21:51 |
Rhonda Mawhood | —later. | 21:51 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Genva, did I give you Genva? Genva Jones. Lucas, L-U-C-A-S. She's passed on. | 21:53 |
Rhonda Mawhood | When did she die? What year that? | 22:00 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | I was in the service, 1943. | 22:02 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Thank you, and you have other brothers and sister who have passed away? | 22:15 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Oh yeah, go down to Juanita. | 22:16 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Yes, sir. | 22:16 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | It was after Christmas. I'm going to have to guess that all, because I'm going to put that down, and that far he gave me a birth certificate. This is 19—it was around Christmas. It was December, and guess at the year, I'm going to have to guess at that, and I could check with Alphonze and find out, I can give you his number, about '85. | 22:17 |
Rhonda Mawhood | That's fine. | 22:53 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | It was in the '80s some time, put a question mark, and then, let me see, Len. The Coliseum opened in 1955. When that Coliseum, that scene that Sunday morning before the Coliseum opened, and I'm have to put that date down. Let's take a shot at, let see, Alphonze and I went down there, we'll say about April, March when we went. | 23:02 |
Rhonda Mawhood | That's fine. | 23:49 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | But it's a question mark right there. I can trace all of it. | 23:51 |
Rhonda Mawhood | So 1955, that's fine, and if I could have the names of your children, please, and their birth dates. | 23:54 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Mona, M-O-N-A, her name Mona. You can put C. Jones if you want to, and then she's married now to Roberts, June 15th, 1953. Cedrella K.R Jones. | 24:05 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Could you spell her first name for me? | 24:29 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | C-E-D-R-E-L-L-A, some call her Cedrella, C., Cedra C. Jones. She is a Taylor, T-A-Y-L-O-R. November the 30th, 1955, this one will shock you, Ina, of course, she's seated over there, October the—Ina J, stands for Juliet, Jones. She's single, October the 19, 1956. | 24:29 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | That's not a year, that's about ten to eight months. Somebody got greedy. See, they're the same age for a week or so. This boy is September the—Len, he's had same name I have, C-E-D-R-I-C, H. Jones, and he's junior, but junior was his and September the 28th, 1961. | 25:19 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Thank you. How many grandchildren do you have? | 25:50 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Six. Ina has no children. The boy has one boy, and then my oldest daughter Mona has a daughter and a son, and then the doctor in Atlanta has a son and two daughters, and that winds out to six children. | 25:55 |
Rhonda Mawhood | That's nice, and I have this information. Oh, what church were you a member of as a child? | 26:29 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Good Sameritan. Good, and then Sameritan, S-A-M-E-R-I-T-A-N Baptist Church, and that's Route 1, Garner, North Carolina. It's right out there. If you go home, look right up there and see it. | 26:35 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And now you're member of First Baptist [indistinct 00:26:55] | 26:53 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | First Baptist Church West of Charlotte, North Carolina, and they're the only two churches available full time. I did join Star of Bethel in Hendersonville, but it has watch gear like. I didn't even have to go back be reinstated a year. I asked the pastor about it, and he told me and came here. I didn't join him for '49. I told the pastor I was going to visit some, but I was coming. I said, "I don't know exactly about coming back to Second Ward," but I went there more than some of the members. I teach Sunday school, adult Sunday school, class. I've always been fairly active in it. | 26:55 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Is one of your name, your middle name, how do I spell that? | 27:40 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | H-U-G-H-E-S. | 27:46 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Good. | 27:50 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | H-U-G-H-E-S, so I say Hughes and some say Hughes. It doesn't make much difference there, but that's what it is. That's who I am. | 27:50 |
Rhonda Mawhood | So we're done with that, that's wonderful, except I have to get your signature on one. | 28:11 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | On nothing. | 28:20 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Which is a permission form for people to use these [indistinct 00:28:20] | 28:20 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Come sit up here. | 28:20 |
Rhonda Mawhood | All right, there are two forms. One is interview agreement, the other one is interview agreement with restrictions. Now I'm hoping you'll agree to sign this one, because this one simply says it gives the purpose of our project to gather and preserve historical documents. That means the tape recorded interviews. | 28:21 |
Rhonda Mawhood | It says the tape recordings and the transcripts will become a part of the archives of what we called Behind the Veil Collection of Duke. Another copy will also come back to the Charlotte area. We're not sure where it'll go. It might be Johnson C. Smith, it might be the public library. We're not sure yet. But one copy will come back to this area. | 28:34 |
Rhonda Mawhood | This would simply state that you would allow anyone to have access to your interview so that as many people as possible can learn from the experiences that you had sharing— | 28:53 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | That'd be all right with me. | 29:05 |
Rhonda Mawhood | —same time of period. That'll be fine with you if you don't need to restrict it. | 29:05 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | No. | 29:07 |
Rhonda Mawhood | That's wonderful. | 29:08 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | I don't have anything to hide. | 29:08 |
Rhonda Mawhood | All right, good. Doesn't sound like it. | 29:10 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | I was a single man a long time. | 29:18 |
Rhonda Mawhood | That's all right. | 29:18 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | I was until I was 34. | 29:21 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Really? If you could initial here and then sign there. | 29:22 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | This year, CHJ. | 29:24 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Thank you, and then sign your name down. Thank you. | 29:28 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | You know what I thought, I thought to myself, I said if I'm going to marry, I'm going to marry later than when I'm 30 years old. | 29:32 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Really? And I'll sign here, [indistinct 00:29:44]. So you wanted to— | 29:46 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | Well, when I was 35, not later, I figure I'll get ready at least during my 35th year before I got too old to do much, and that was just kind of something that, but after I had come back from the Army and come here at 31, and so I was 34 in September in '51, and we married April '52, so that was about six or seven months afterwards. | 29:49 |
Rhonda Mawhood | What did your parents think about the fact that, or your father, I suppose, was deceased— | 30:28 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | He was deceased. | 30:32 |
Rhonda Mawhood | But what did your mother think about the fact that you were finally getting married? | 30:33 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | I think she was glad. Some of my friends, and I think she made some remark and one of them told me something like, "Oh well," then proceeded to getting married or something, and it's called [indistinct 00:30:46]. And she met Clara, she said, "Well, she's more like a girl." She had met one or two others. | 30:41 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | She came here to Charlotte when I was teaching at Second Ward. Then she came back after we moved here. I was rooming at that time, and I had [indistinct 00:31:13], she met about, including my wife, she met three, two of them were here, one's dead, one's still living. She was married and separated, probably divorced. But her second husband is dead now. So [indistinct 00:31:33] | 31:02 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Did she give you advice on the kind of women you were supposed to be looking for? | 31:35 |
Cedric Hughes Jones | No, she didn't. She just knew it all to be pretty good, nothing about, and all that kind of thing. Do you get much advice? | 31:39 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Oh, more than I can use. | 31:49 |
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