Alice Johnson
From:
Arkansas
Interviewer: Samuel S. Taylor
Person interviewed: Alice Johnson
601 W. Eighth Street, Little Rock, Arkansas
Age: 77
"You want to know what they did in slavery times! They were doin' jus'
what they do now. The white folks was beatin' the niggers, burning 'em
and boilin' 'em, workin' 'em and doin' any other thing they wanted to
do with them. 'Course you wasn't here then to know about nigger dogs
and bull whips, were you? The same thing is goin' on right now. They
got the same bull whips and the same old nigger dogs. If you don't
believe it, go right out here to the county farm and you find 'em
still whippin' the niggers and tearing them up and sometimes lettin'
the dogs bite them to save the bull whips.
"I was here in slavery time but I was small and I don't know much
about it 'cept what they told me. But you don't need to go no further
to hear all you want to know. They sont you to the right place. They
all know me and they call me Mother Johnson. So many folks been here
long as me, but don't want to admit it. They black their hair and
whiten their faces, and powder and paint. 'Course it's good to look
good all right. But when you start that stuff, you got to keep it up.
Tain't no use to start and stop. After a while you got that same color
hair and them same splotches again. Folks say, 'What's the matter, you
gittin so dark?' Then you say, 'Uh, my liver is bad.' You got to keep
that thing up, baby.
"I thank God for my age. I thank God He's brought me safe all the way.
That is the matter with this world now. It ain't got enough religion.
"I was born in Mississippi way below Jackson in Crystal Springs. That
is on the I. C. Road near New Orleans. The train that goes there goes
to New Orleans. I was bred and born and married there in Crystal
Springs. I don't know just when I was born but I know it was in the
month of December.
"I remember when the slaves were freed. I remember the War 'cause I
used to hear them talking about the Yankees and I didn't know whether
they were mules or horses or what not. I didn't know if they was
varmints or folks or what not. I can't remember whether I seen any
soldiers or not. I heard them talking about soldiers, but I didn't see
none right 'round where we was.
"Now what good's that all goin' to do me? It ain't goin' to do me no
good to have my name in Washington. Didn't do me no good if he stuck
my name up on a stick in Washington. Some of them wouldn't know me.
Those that did would jus' say, 'That's old Alice Johnson.'
"Us old folks, they don't count us. They jus' kick us out of the way.
They give me 'modities and a mite to spend. Time you go and get lard,
sugar, meat, and flour, and pay rent and buy wood, you don't have
'nough to go 'round. Now that might do you some good if you didn't
have to pay rent and buy wood and oil and water. I'll tell you
something so you can earn a living. Your mama give you a education so
you can earn a living and you earnin' it jus' like she meant you to.
But most of us don't earn it that way, and most of these educated
folks not earnin' a livin' with their education. They're in jail
somewheres. They're walkin' up and down Ninth Street and runnin' in
and out of these here low dives. You go down there to the penitentiary
and count those prisoners and I'll bet you don't find nary one that
don't know how to read and write. They're all educated. Most of these
educated niggers don't have no feeling for common niggers. 'They just
walk on them like they wasn't living. And don't come to 'em tellin'
them that you wanting to use them!
"The people et the same thing in slavery time that they eat now. Et
better then 'n they do now. Chickens, cows, mules died then, they
throw 'em to the buzzards. Die now, they sell 'em to you to eat.
Didn't eat that in slavery time. Things they would give to the dogs
then, they sell to the people to eat now. People et pure stuff in
slavery. Don't eat pure stuff now. Got pure food law, but that's all
that is pure.
"My mother's name was Diana Benson and my father's name was Joe Brown.
That's what folks say, I don't know. I have seen them but I wasn't
brought up with no mother and father. Come up with the white folks and
colored folks fust one and then the other. I think my mother and
father died before freedom. I don't know what the name of their master
was. All my folks died early.
"The fus' white folks I knowed anything about was Rays. They said that
they were my old slave-time masters. They were nice to me. Treated me
like they would their own children. Et and slept with them. They
treated me jus' like they own. Heap of people say they didn't have no
owners, but they got owners yet now out there on that government farm.
"The fus' work I done in my life was nussing. I was a child then and I
stayed with the white folks' children. Was raised up in the house with
'em. I was well taken care of too. I was jus' like their children.
That was at Crystal Springs.
"I left them before I got grown and went off with other folks. I never
had no reason. Jus' went on off. I didn't go for better because I was
doing better. They jus' told me to come and I went.
"I been living now in Arkansas ever since 1911. My husband and I
stayed on to work and make a living. I take care of myself. I'm not
looking for nothin' now but a better home over yonder--better home
than this. Thank the Lawd, I gits along all right. The government
gives me a check to buy me a little meat and bread with. Maybe the
government will give me back that what they took off after a while. I
don't know. It takes a heap of money to feed thousands and millions of
people. When the check comes, I am glad to git it no matter how little
it is. Twarn't for it, I would be in a sufferin' condition.
"I belong to the Arch Street Baptist Church. I been for about twenty
years. I was married sixteen years to my first husband and
twenty-eight to my second. The last one has been dead five years and
the other one thirty-six years. I ain't got none walkin' 'round. All
my husbands is dead. There ain't nothin' in this quitin' and goin' and
breakin' up and bustin' up. I don't tell no woman to quit and don't
tell no man to quit. Go over there and git 'nother woman and she will
be wuss than the one you got. When you fall out, reason and git
together. Do right. I stayed with both of my husbands till they died.
I ain't bothered 'bout another one. Times is so hard no man can take
care of a woman now. Come time to pay rent, 'What you waiting for me
to pay rent for? You been payin' it, ain't you?' Come time to buy
clothes, 'What you waitin' for me to buy clothes for? Where you
gittin' 'um from before you mai'd me?' Come time to pay the grocery
bill, 'How come you got to wait for me to pay the grocery bill? Who
been payin' it?' No Lawd, I don't want no man unless he works. What
could I do with him? I don't want no man with a home and bank account.
You can't git along with 'im. You can't git along with him and you
can't git along with her."
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Allen Johnson
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Adaline Johnson
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