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Work Projects Administration

"Arkansas Narratives, Part 2"

I herd
a heap they done along after that. They say some places the Ku Klux go
they make em git down an' eat at the grass wid their mouths then they
whoop em. Sometimes they make em pull off their clothes and whoop em. I
sho did feel for em but they knowd they had no business strollin' round,
vistin'. The Ku Klux call that whoopin' helpin' em git rid of the grass.
Nells moster lived at what they called Caneville over cross the field.
"The way that Patty Rollers was. The mosters paid somebody. Always
somebody round wantin' a job like that. Mars White was his own overseer.
All round there was good livers. They worked long wid the slaves. Some
of the slaves would race. Papa would race. He wanted to race all time.
Grandma cooked for all of us. They had a stone chimney in the kitchen.
Big old hearth way out in front. Made outer stone too. We all et the
same victuals long as Mars White lived. Then I left."


Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: James Dickey, Marianna, Arkansas
Age: 68
[May 31 1939]

"I don't know much to tell about my folks. My parents died when I was
young. Mother died when I was twelve and father when I was seven years
old. Great-grandma was an Indian squaw.


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