<!DOCTYPE TEI.2 SYSTEM "http://docsouth.unc.edu/dtds/teixlite_sohp_ms.dtd">
<TEI.2>
    <teiHeader type="Southern Oral History Project" status="new">
        <fileDesc>
            <titleStmt>
                <title type="main">
                    <hi rend="bold">Oral History Interview with Leroy Magness, March 27, 1999.
                        Interview K-0438. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007):</hi>
                    Electronic Edition. </title>
                <title type="descriptive">Avoiding Conflict during Desegregation</title>
                <author>
                    <name id="ml" reg="Magness, Leroy" type="interviewee">Magness, Leroy</name>,
                    interviewee </author>
                <respStmt>
                    <resp>Interview conducted by </resp>
                    <name id="mm" reg="Markey, Michelle" type="interviewer">Markey, Michelle</name>
                </respStmt>
                <funder>Funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services supported the
                    electronic publication of this interview.</funder>
                <respStmt>
                    <resp>Text encoded by </resp>
                    <name id="jdj">Jennifer Joyner</name>
                </respStmt>
                <respStmt>
                    <resp>Sound recordings digitized by </resp>
                    <name id="as">Aaron Smithers</name>
                    <name id="sfc">Southern Folklife Collection</name>
                </respStmt>
            </titleStmt>
            <editionStmt>
                <edition>First edition, <date>2007</date>
                </edition>
            </editionStmt>
            <extent>95.6 Kb</extent>
            <publicationStmt>
                <publisher>The University Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill </publisher>
                <pubPlace>Chapel Hill, North Carolina</pubPlace>
                <date>2007.</date>
                <availability status="unknown">
                    <p>© This work is the property of the University of North Carolina at
                        Chapel Hill. It may be used freely by individuals for research, teaching and
                        personal use as long as this statement of availability is included in the
                        text.</p>
                </availability>
            </publicationStmt>
            <sourceDesc>
                <biblFull id="recording">
                    <recording type="audio" dur="01:21:45">
                        <p>MP3 file derived from WAV preservation master, which was derived from
                            original analog cassettes.</p>
                    </recording>
                    <titleStmt>
                        <title type="recording">Oral History Interview with Leroy Magness, March 27,
                            1999. Interview K-0438. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)</title>
                        <title type="series">Series K. Southern Communities. Southern Oral History
                            Program Collection (K-0438)</title>
                        <author>Michelle Markey</author>
                    </titleStmt>
                    <extent>149 Mb</extent>
                    <publicationStmt>
                        <pubPlace>Chapel Hill, N. C.</pubPlace>
                        <publisher>Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina at
                            Chapel Hill</publisher>
                        <date>27 March 1999</date>
                        <authority/>
                    </publicationStmt>
                </biblFull>
                <biblFull id="transcript">
                    <titleStmt>
                        <title type="transcript">Oral History Interview with Leroy Magness, March
                            27, 1999. Interview K-0438. Southern Oral History Program Collection
                            (#4007)</title>
                        <title type="series">Series K. Southern Communities. Southern Oral History
                            Program Collection (K-0438)</title>
                        <author>Leroy Magness</author>
                    </titleStmt>
                    <extent>34 p.</extent>
                    <publicationStmt>
                        <publisher>Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina at
                            Chapel Hill</publisher>
                        <pubPlace>Chapel Hill, North Carolina</pubPlace>
                        <date>27 March 1999</date>
                        <authority/>
                    </publicationStmt>
                    <notesStmt>
                        <note anchored="no">Interview conducted on March 27, 1999, by Michelle
                            Markey; recorded in Lincolnton, North Carolina.</note>
                        <note anchored="no"> Transcribed by Michelle Markey.</note>
                        <note anchored="no"> Forms part of: Southern Oral History Program Collection
                            (#4007): Series K. Southern Communities, Manuscripts Department,
                            University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.</note>
                        <note anchored="no">Original transcript on deposit at the Southern
                            Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina
                            at Chapel Hill.</note>
                    </notesStmt>
                </biblFull>
            </sourceDesc>
        </fileDesc>
        <encodingDesc>
            <projectDesc>
                <p>The electronic edition is a part of the UNC-Chapel Hill digital library, <hi rend="italics">Documenting the American South.</hi>
                </p>
            </projectDesc>
            <editorialDecl>
                <p>An audio file with the interview complements this electronic edition.</p>
                <p>The text has been entered using double-keying and verified against the original.</p>
                <p>The text has been encoded using the recommendations for Level 4 of the TEI in
                    Libraries Guidelines.</p>
                <p>Original grammar and spelling have been preserved. </p>
                <p>All quotation marks, em dashes and ampersand have been transcribed as entity
                    references.</p>
                <p>All double right and left quotation marks are encoded as "</p>
                <p>All em dashes are encoded as —</p>
            </editorialDecl>
            <classDecl>
                <taxonomy id="lcsh">
                    <bibl>
                        <title>Library of Congress Subject Headings</title>
                    </bibl>
                </taxonomy>
                <taxonomy id="docsouth">
                    <bibl>
                        <title>Documenting the American South Topics</title>
                    </bibl>
                </taxonomy>
            </classDecl>
        </encodingDesc>
        <profileDesc>
            <langUsage>
                <language id="eng">English</language>
            </langUsage>
            <textClass>
                <keywords scheme="lcsh">
                    <list type="simple">
                        <item>
                            <!-- LC headings go here -->
                        </item>
                    </list>
                </keywords>
                <keywords scheme="docsouth">
                    <list type="main_topic">
                        <item>Desegregation <list type="sub-topic">
                                <item>North Carolina</item>
                            </list>
                        </item>
                    </list>
                </keywords>
            </textClass>
        </profileDesc>
        <revisionDesc>
            <change>
                <date>2007-00-00, </date>
                <respStmt>
                    <name>Celine Noel, Wanda Gunther, and Kristin Martin</name>
                    <resp/>
                </respStmt>
                <item> revised TEIHeader and created catalog record for the electronic
                edition.</item>
            </change>
            <change>
                <date>2007-09-25, </date>
                <respStmt>
                    <name>Jennifer Joyner </name>
                    <resp/>
                </respStmt>
                <item>finished TEI-conformant encoding and final proofing.</item>
            </change>
        </revisionDesc>
    </teiHeader>
    <text id="ohs_K-0438">
        <front>
            <div1 type="about_interview">
                <head>Interview with Leroy Magness, March 27, 1999. Interview K-0438.</head>
                <byline>Conducted by Michelle Markey</byline>
                <note type="deposit" anchored="no">
                    <p>Transcript on deposit at The Southern Historical Collection, The Louis Round
                        Wilson Library</p>
                </note>
                <note type="citation" anchored="no">
                    <p>Citation of this interview should be as follows: <lb/>“Interview
                        K-0438, in the Southern Oral History Program Collection #4007, <lb/>Southern
                        Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, <lb/>University of North Carolina
                        at Chapel Hill”</p>
                </note>
                <note type="copyright" anchored="no">Copyright © 2007 The University of
                    North Carolina</note>
                <note type="transcription_note" anchored="no"/>
            </div1>
            <div1 type="abstract">
                <head>Abstract</head>
                <p>Leroy Magness spent most of his life in Lincolnton, NC, about thirty-five miles
                    from Charlotte. A poet, and a man who "didn't want to be a
                    troublemaker," Magness has an easy relationship with his past as an
                    African American in a segregated southern town. He did not participate in the
                    civil rights movement, nor approve of those that did, believing that good
                    behavior was a better catalyst for change than activism. This determination to
                    avoid conflict lies at the heart of this interview, and, it seems, at the heart
                    of Magness's character. He will not place blame for segregation, and
                    his principal memory of desegregation was some trouble between white and black
                    students.</p>
            </div1>
            <div1 type="short_abstract">
                <head>Short Abstract</head>
                <p>Leroy Magness describes his belief in avoiding conflict, and how that belief
                    shaped his response to the civil rights movement.</p>
            </div1>
        </front>
        <body>
            <div1 id="K-0438" type="sohp_interview">
                <head>Interview with Leroy Magness, March 27, 1999. <lb/>Interview K-0438. Southern
                    Oral History Program Collection (#4007)</head>
                <list type="simple">
                    <head>Interview Participants</head>
                    <item>
                        <name id="spk1" key="lm" reg="Magness, Leroy" type="interviewee">LEROY
                            MAGNESS</name>, interviewee</item>
                    <item>
                        <name id="spk2" key="mm" reg="Markey, Michelle" type="interviewer">MICHELLE
                            MARKEY</name>, interviewer</item>
                </list>
                <div2 id="tape1-a" n="1-A" type="tape_side">
                    <pb id="p1" n="1"/>
                    <head>[TAPE 1, SIDE A]</head>
                    <note anchored="yes">
                        <p>[START OF TAPE 1, SIDE A]</p>
                    </note>
                    <milestone n="6667" unit="empty" type="start" timestamp="00:00:00"/>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>I've lived here all my life. I did leave here in 1933; I
                            thought I wanted to go and live in Chicago but I found I
                            didn't want to live there. I was in the wrong place. I left
                            in October and in December I came back home. My mother had two sisters
                            and a son and a couple of aunts, and I met a cousin and an aunt up
                            there; I thought I wanted to go there but I found out that I
                            didn't like it. It was too cold, for one thing, and I
                            hadn't been used to …</p>
                        <p>I left home in about the sixth or seventh grade - about 13 years old -
                            and I'd never been to a mixed school before, but I went to a
                            mixed school in Chicago for a couple of weeks, and everybody was
                            nice… but I didn't have any children to play <pb id="p2" n="2"/> with where I was living. I was living in the west
                            side of Chicago, and I only saw - in the section, you know, a big city
                            like that, so big I couldn't tell you - I saw a little black
                            boy and a little black girl going to school … I think they
                            were going to the same school I was, but I never did see them once I got
                            there. But that wasn't the reason, I just didn't
                            like to talk… it was cold, and …</p>
                        <p>But we didn't move up there; my mother had two sisters living
                            there and an aunt, and I had a brother living up there. He went up there
                            in 1926 but he liked it all right, but I didn't so I
                            didn't stay. I went in October and got back home by
                            Christmas, by accident. But Daddy didn't really want to send
                            me the money to come back, because he said I was so hot to go he wanted
                            me to stay up there, because it was near Christmas time and I had a
                            brother and two sisters. Back in the thirties, nobody had much money,
                            but I had been working at a store on Main Street, that guy on Main
                            Street right there, and of course it's torn down now. And the
                            lady and her husband found out about it and kind of wanted me to come
                            back. So it was right funny, she told my Daddy if he would give me half
                            the money, she would give me the other half and I could work to pay her
                            back. Well, they sent me twelve dollars, I believe it was. And I was
                            thirteen years old, but being small like I am right now, my aunt went
                            down and bought a half-fare ticket and said ‘don't
                            you tell <pb id="p3" n="3"/> nobody you're more than twelve
                            years old.’ So I came back from Chicago to Lincolnton for six
                            dollars and fifty cents.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p>Oh my gosh!</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p> It was on the bus. Well, when I got back - I had always been taught to
                            be honest - I gave my daddy six dollars and a half back thinking that he
                            had paid the whole thing, but when I found out about it, I had to work
                            to pay them people back at fifty cents a week and I didn't
                            make but a dollar a week, so I had to pay them fifty cents out of my
                            dollar a week before I could pay them back. But things … I
                            don't know … children now are different; we were
                            discussing that this morning. Children now are different, not what they
                            were when I was coming up. If I offered my grandson fifty cents to do
                            something around here, he'd laugh at that. He
                            wouldn't accept that. But we took what we could get, and if
                            we weren't satisfied, we'd pretend like we were,
                            but now they'll let you know if they're not
                            satisfied. However, I have something here called <hi rend="i">Lincolnton
                                Tales …</hi></p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>And I wrote a piece in that</p>
                    </sp>
                    <pb id="p4" n="4"/>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p>So tell me then - what was it about here that made you come back from
                            Chicago?</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>Well, I had a girlfriend, for one thing,There's my school
                            picture right there. We had nine.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p> What school was this?</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p> Oaklawn School. The building's still there. But it was a
                            black school. And it went from the primary to the high school, and in
                            Lincolnton at that time, the high school wasn't accredited.
                            That was one reason I guess I quit. I dropped out of the tenth grade. I
                            didn't finish school. Yeah, I quit the tenth grade. But I
                            don't know whether I missed out on things or not, I mean,
                            I'm getting along all right. I'm retired going on
                            eleven years, and I'm still working some. How old do you
                            think I am?</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p> Sixty-five?</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p> Seventy-nine years old.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p>Oh my gosh!</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p> If I live to see January twelfth I'll be eighty years old!
                            I've been married sixty-one years. Sixty-one
                            years…</p>
                        <p>Well, see, we went to school, and that was the class. I think it was
                            seventh or eighth grade, I believe.</p>
                        <pb id="p5" n="5"/>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p>That's everyone that was in it?</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p> In that one class, yeah.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p>It must have been a close group of friends.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p> Well, that was all we had, that one class. Didn't have too
                            many, and that day I believe there's one, two, three,
                            four… there's ten there, but we had eleven; one
                            must have been out on picture day. That was the seventh or eighth grade,
                            in about 1936. But that piece, I wrote that piece …</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p> I'd really like to read it. </p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p> Yeah, I wrote that. We had a good setup. But I look back and see a lot
                            of stuff I could've gotten or a lot of things I
                            could've done, and I didn't do. But we had a good
                            English teacher over there. In fact, he's been retired now, I
                            guess two or three years, so he'd be about ninety years old
                            now. He taught - in '63 or '64, he was head of the
                            English department down there at Southern University. I made a trip down
                            there, and my cousins lived down there. And we went down there thinking
                            we were going to see an old man, but we saw a super-young man. He had
                            about two or three kids.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p> A lot of that, I missed that, so some of that I kind of regret, but
                            other than that, I don't regret … When you work,
                            it's not what you make; it's what you do with it
                            after you make it. I never made a whole lot of money in my life, but I
                            managed to pay my debts, and I got along good.</p>
                        <pb id="p6" n="6"/>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p>What did you do when you…</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p> I worked as a hospital orderly for sixteen years. Then I worked over
                            there at the ABC store where I told you to turn. That's my
                            work. I worked over there for twenty years, and I've been
                            retired for eleven years, and I still work over there some. Maybe a
                            couple times a month. So I worked over there a while, and then I was on
                            with Carolina Cameras for a bit. I've been to about every
                            school in Lincoln County, too. Sometimes I go around there and I recite
                            poetry. I don't read it, I recite it. Most of it that I have,
                            I've already memorized it before I even write it. For
                            instance, next Sunday's Easter, and spring means Easter
                            …</p>
                        <lg>
                            <l>Mr. Winter packed up all the sleet and snow</l>
                            <l>March winds came everywhere</l>
                            <l>but where, I do not know.</l>
                            <l>Birds are singing everywhere</l>
                            <l>Buds are showing here and there</l>
                            <l>Lots of people seem to care</l>
                            <l>Because the day He died is near.</l>
                            <l>On this special Sunday morning</l>
                            <l>Samuel will be loud and clear.</l>
                            <l>They'll be talking ‘bout our Master</l>
                            <l>Whom we all should love quite dear</l>
                            <pb id="p7" n="7"/>
                            <l>For as we enter this new season</l>
                            <l>Won't you try to change your ways</l>
                            <l>For the day is surely coming</l>
                            <l>When you must also face the grave.</l>
                        </lg>
                        <p> Those thoughts… I had them before I ever wrote them down.
                            Just probably an act of God.</p>
                        <lg>
                            <l>I'm not angry with being the color black</l>
                            <l>For only God can create this day.</l>
                            <l>I've been taught since I used to know</l>
                            <l>My soul can be as white as snow</l>
                            <l>For if I live from day to day</l>
                            <l>And conduct myself in a Christlike way</l>
                            <l>He will at some time call me home</l>
                            <l>To live with him upon the throne.</l>
                        </lg>
                        <p>It's no use going around, holding you head up, being angry
                            with someone. I'm not angry with anybody. There's
                            a lot of things that I didn't approve of, but the way I felt
                            about it, we had a voice back in the fifties …being in the
                            choir. We'd go around to different places and sing. But I
                            told them, integrate yourself with the very best of people as much as
                                <pb id="p8" n="8"/> possible, but segregate yourself from those who
                            are impossible. That's doesn't just mean white,
                            that means everybody. There's plenty of black people that I
                            don't want to be bothered with. I don't like their
                            attitude and I don't think they're acting like
                            they should act, so I don't want to be bothered with them. I
                            dodge a lot of people I don't want to be bothered with. You
                            see a lot of people you don't want to be bothered with. You
                            ever seen black people you don't want to be bothered with?
                            Same way, no different. There's only two kinds of people:
                            good ones and those that are not so good. I told my wife the other day:
                            ‘I figured out what the problem is in this world.’
                            ‘What you think it is?’ she said. I said:
                            ‘Well, respect, responsibility, understanding, love,
                            kindness, friendship, and only God above knows whether or not
                            they're going to go back to work or not.</p>
                        <p>Now I was in the Boy Scouts back when I was a boy, and if everyone would
                            act like Boy Scouts, we wouldn't have a bit of trouble in
                            this world. We had rules we'd go by, and oaths…
                            but it's a whole lot easier to do good than to do bad, I
                            think. But some people just, I don't know…</p>
                    </sp>
                    <milestone n="6667" unit="empty" type="stop" timestamp="00:15:13"/>
                    <milestone n="6574" unit="excerpt" type="start" timestamp="00:15:14"/>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p> What was Boy Scouts like for you? </p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p> Well, it was nice. Here in Lincolnton, we didn't have enough
                            black boys to carry out all the details, or all the things it took to be
                            a Boy Scout, but we could do things at <pb id="p9" n="9"/> home. But
                            taking trips, we'd usually go with the boys from Gastonia in
                            the summertime when we'd go to camps and stay on about a
                            week. Now my son - I have one son - they had a pretty good little group,
                            and they'd go up to King's Mountain for I believe
                            what they called an academy with the boys from Gastonia, too. And
                            they'd go to other places…</p>
                        <p>We got along pretty good. I don't think … well,
                            Lincolnton's always had a lot of church people and I think
                            most of them … I think 95 percent of them wanted to do right,
                            tried to do right. We had picture shows, and we had to go up and sit in
                            the balcony, but that didn't bother me. Some other people, it
                            might have bothered them. But I might have been one who had a little bit
                            different attitude from some people. Some people didn't like
                            certain things, but the way I looked at it, if you don't like
                            certain things, you don't have to deal with it.
                            I've been on a lot of boards around here - the human
                            relations council for a good number of years, I've got it in
                            a scrapbook somewhere - but the City Council named people, black and
                            white, to be on that council, and during that time they still had
                            segregation. But I called up the chairman, and - we had a hotel here,
                            but it was being torn down; it was where the citizens' center
                            is now, but - I went up there to the council, and nobody said anything;
                            they all treated me right. I've been working for the
                            Democratic Party I don't know how long, and I've
                                <pb id="p10" n="10"/> been in programs and there might not be but
                            one or two blacks there, but everybody always treated me right. Of
                            course back years ago when we went to the picture show, we had to go
                            upstairs to the balcony, but if I wanted to see the picture bad enough,
                            it didn't bother me. But like I said, I was just a little
                            different from some people. You might talk to some other folks that have
                            a different idea about it, but I just, I don't know. I
                            didn't want to be a troublemaker. Some people
                            didn't mind being a troublemaker.</p>
                        <milestone n="6574" unit="excerpt" type="stop" timestamp="00:19:49"/>
                        <milestone n="6668" unit="empty" type="start" timestamp="00:19:50"/>
                        <p>But I remember when I was in Chicago one time - I've been up
                            there several times - the taxi driver told me that you can catch more
                            flies with honey than with vinegar, and I would agree with him there
                            because if you try to treat people right, then most of them - maybe not
                            all - will treat you halfway decent. But if you go and try to treat
                            someone ugly, then that's exactly what they want. Yeah,
                            that's what they want.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p>Do you think there's ever a time when being nice
                            doesn't work?</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p> Yeah, I think being nice does work. But I always tried to be nice to
                            people, and I got along with people most of the time. I worked up on
                            Main Street for sixteen years as a hospital orderly and I met a lot of
                            people there I guess. If you try to put some good into things,
                            you'll get some good out of it. If you're not
                            going to put <pb id="p11" n="11"/> something worthwhile into it, you
                            can't expect to get anything out of it; that's the
                            way I look at it..</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p>Have you enjoyed living here?</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p> Oh yeah. I wouldn't move. I'll be here until the
                            Good Man takes me. I like to go out some. Sometimes I'd go up
                            to Fort Washington. I met President [context later in the interview
                            suggests he means Senator Edward] Kennedy up at Andrew Air Force Base.
                            The first time I went up there I was just going to try to make
                            arrangements to see him; after I made arrangements, I didn't
                            get there soon enough so I didn't get to see him, but he did
                            write me a nice letter to tell me he was sorry he missed me. The fellows
                            over there where I worked - about three or four years ago, I guess -
                            when the Charlotte Hornets were getting started, we all went in together
                            and bought him a Hornets sweatshirt and we took it up to him
                            … yeah. I had written a couple of poems about his brother,
                            the last time he was in North Carolina, and the other was after he
                            passed. My and my wife, when our son was going to school, North Carolina
                            Central … so we went over there because a fellow had gotten
                            us some tickets … I got a scrapbook with all that stuff in
                            it. Big scrapbook with lots of letters; I've even got a card
                            from Norman Rockwell.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p> Yeah, I'd love to look at it. </p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p> Let me see if I can get it right quick …</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p> What's this?</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p> Did you serve?</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p> Well, I've got a brother that served in two wars, but not
                        me.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p>It looks like you saved most all your letters here. </p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p> Yeah.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p>Is this from your school? Could you tell me a little more about your time
                            in school? What was that like?</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>That was nice, I enjoyed it.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p>What were classes like? A typical day in school? </p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>Well, good, but some of them wasn't too good for me because I
                            wasn't doing my French and English quite like I should have.
                            We had about six or seven teachers though. We had one who was a
                            professor, a very good mathematician. And we had a very good English
                            teacher who I told you about named Faggett, Henry Faggett [sp?]. And I
                            believe Juanita Baker [sp?] was in charge of the seventh
                            grade…and we had some others but it's been so
                            long, I can't remember most of them. But I enjoyed going to
                            school. We had all our friends. I didn't play ball; I loved
                            to watch it, but I didn't play it. We had football and
                            basketball and baseball, but I didn't have any part because I
                            was working <pb id="p13" n="13"/> in the store before school and after
                            school, so I didn't take any part in it …
                            didn't take no part in it. Trying to make a few nickels. See,
                            back when I was in school, we didn't have money much. That
                            was back during the Depression.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p>What did most people do for a living?</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>Well, most of them worked when they could, but the common laborer
                            wasn't making but ten or fifteen cents an hour till Roosevelt
                            came in. He was working about twelve hours a day, sunup to sundown; when
                            Mr. Roosevelt came in, I think he changed it to eight hours and raised
                            the minimum wage to twenty-five cents and hour. Yep, that's
                            what he did.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p>And what did your family do?</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>We had Social Security…I don't know if
                            I've got that card in my pocket or not. I got my Social
                            Security card in 1937, and they only took out a penny on the dollar.</p>
                        <p>Well, that's the second Social Security card I had. I know
                            I've got the original around somewhere…no,
                            actually that's what that is - says 1937. Yep, they took out
                            a penny on the dollar. </p>
                        <pb id="p14" n="14"/>
                        <p>My daddy worked at a powdery [sp?]. My mama didn't work - she
                            stayed home. We were discussing that in Sunday School this morning. She
                            stayed at home and cooked good meals - beans, biscuits, and stuff like
                            that. But everybody now wants to keep up with the Joneses, and the
                            mothers work and the husbands do too, so I think that's why
                            the children aren't getting the attention they need. Not
                            getting the attention they need.</p>
                        <p>If they're not getting the attention they need at home, they
                            don't get it in school, then they don't get it at
                            all. You can't expect the teachers to do it because
                            they're there to teach, not to tell them what to do. Now,
                            everybody wants something … money to buy a car and this and
                            that, and I had to save up my money just to buy a bicycle.</p>
                        <p>You see, we had a couple of theaters here in town - I think I told you
                            about all that - at one time, you couldn't go in the front.
                            And we had cafes, and we couldn't go to through the front of
                            them for a long time before they changed things. We had to go to the
                            back. But we was lucky in a way. We had our own cafes. I think they had
                            one on each end of town. And then they had a place out there called
                            Midland, and you could get treats sometimes on a Sunday night. It was a
                            white place, and you would go get a cone of ice cream and they had a
                            little place to sit down; of course, they didn't have much of
                            a place to sit down for anybody.</p>
                        <pb id="p15" n="15"/>
                        <p>That's Kennedy right there. During that time we had this
                            boy's cousin … he came here twice.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p> Really?</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>Those two are dead, but I don't know about the other one.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p>They came here to Lincolnton?</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>Yeah, we had them down here twice. Down at WBTV.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <milestone n="6668" unit="empty" type="stop" timestamp="00:33:15"/>
                        <milestone n="6575" unit="excerpt" type="start" timestamp="00:33:16"/>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p>You were talking earlier about when you had to go to the back of the
                            theaters and cafes, and then all that changed. What was that like for
                            you? What were you thinking at the time?</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>Well, like I told you, you can't compare me to other people
                            because I had a different attitude than some. But … you had
                            to get used to it. Beause when things change you got to get used to
                            things, but like I said, some people wanted to change things worse than
                            I did. And they were willing to make sacrifices to do it. But I
                            wasn't willing to make sacrifices to do certain things. I was
                            pretty well satisfied with what I was doing. But after everything
                            changed, people did what they wanted to do, about going to cafes,
                            sitting where you wanted to sit. We had buses here in Lincolnton - you
                            had to sit in the back - we couldn't sit up front.</p>
                        <pb id="p16" n="16"/>
                        <p>All this was changed. In fact, I think I read a piece in the paper
                            yesterday where they were giving Rosa Parks a plaque or something to say
                            what she did. At that time, maybe it didn't seem like it was
                            right, but in the final analysis, they figured out that that was the
                            thing she should've done. Because what they were doing was
                            taking away our rights when they really didn't have any
                            reason to do that.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p> What did you think at the time when Rosa Parks did that?</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>;Well, in a way I wasn't too thrilled over it
                            ëcause we had to take a lot of abuse - well, you
                            didn't have to take abuse, with your hands - but, in places
                            where we were working … there wasn't but two
                            blacks where I was working at that particular time. And so you always
                            have a few around that didn't agree with what she was doing,
                            and they would make remarks you didn't like…but
                            the best thing you could do was be quiet and not say nothing about it
                            and let it go at that, because if you did, you might get in trouble with
                            a fight, or you might lose your job.</p>
                        <p>So you just had to look over things like that, and I found out that all
                            through the years when I did that, things began to change. Like the old
                            Negro spiritual says, let God take charge, and things'll
                            come. They may not come when you want them to, but right'll
                            always come when it's supposed to come. But you'll
                            meet many other people out here in the community who will tell you <pb id="p17" n="17"/> they see things differently. I'm just
                            the kind of person who doesn't want to get into a whole lot
                            of stuff. I'm just not that type. Never was. Too old to do it
                            now.</p>
                        <p>But I'm glad things are working out like they are. They
                            actually have something this week where black churches and white
                            churches are having holy week services together. Like tonight the
                            service is at the white church, but I think the next night
                            it'll be at a black church … and
                            that'll go on all week. And I had a man make the remark when
                            they were just starting to integrate - he said, ‘Leroy, if we
                            had more people like you, I reckon we wouldn't have
                            trouble.’</p>
                        <p>‘Listen, there's a lot of people better than I am,
                            but you just don't know them.’</p>
                        <p>Now see [addressing Markey] if your teacher or whomever hadn't
                            recommended me as being the right type of person for you to come visit,
                            you wouldn't have come, would you?</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p> Well, I guess I wouldn't have known</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>See, that's what I mean. I think that how we conduct ourselves
                            - that's the way people begin to learn us a little bit. And
                            then some people you think are all right aren't what you
                            think they are. But I say 95 or 96 percent you would expect to have good
                            dealings with, I think most of them would be all right.</p>
                        <milestone n="6575" unit="excerpt" type="stop" timestamp="00:39:11"/>
                        <milestone n="6669" unit="empty" type="start" timestamp="00:39:12"/>
                        <p>Now I was telling someone the other day that I had a good mother. She
                            died …if I could keep my right mind, I wouldn't
                                <pb id="p18" n="18"/> do a thing today to make her wish she
                            wasn't here. I respected my mother. She taught me how to do,
                            how to live - try to live, and I want to try to be that way. Because I
                            know that sometimes I get a little disturbed at my wife, and I know
                            sometimes she gets a little disturbed at me. But we really get along
                            pretty good. And we're just two months and a week from
                            sixty-one years, so that's a long time to live together,
                            ain't it?</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p> What kinds of things do you hold on to from your mom? What do you
                            remember about her?</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>Oh, I just remember, she was almost too good to me in a way. Even when I
                            was getting up to be a pretty good size of a boy, about ten or eleven
                            years old, and we didn't have no bathtub, just a tin tub to
                            bathe in. My mama was still washing my back. She'd cook
                            something, and even when I wasn't around, if she thought
                            I'd like it, she'd save me some. And
                            she'd save me a lot of it - a piece of white meat or the
                            breast of a chicken - and I never did tell her, but I really
                            didn't like white meat that good, but I didn't
                            want her to feel bad. No, I didn't like it that good.
                            I'd eat it, but I liked the other part of the chicken better
                            than I liked the breast.</p>
                        <p>And there are so many nice things that parents - good parents - do for
                            children. Like seeing them to Sunday school. And we were poor and
                            didn't have too many clothes, and she would see that they
                            were always clean, and sometimes she'd have to put a <pb id="p19" n="19"/> patch on top of a patch. Things like that were
                            good because it taught me how to live … and to try to have
                            something and be somebody. If you don't teach children when
                            they're young … we had a preacher several years
                            ago who said you've got to start walking with them when
                            they're two to three years old, teaching them how to be.
                            Beause when they get to be about four or five years old
                            they'll be out of reach. I think there's a whole
                            lot to that.</p>
                        <p>Some of these young people now, I don't think they know what
                            they want. I got one grandson who's already been married
                            twice. Got three children by one and two by another. I don't
                            know. They just don't seem to be like what they used to
                        be.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p> Why do you think that is?</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>I just don't know. I guess it's the times. Well, I
                            guess it is the times, because I know I was reading a couple of weeks
                            ago, when they were carrying Jesus Christ to the cross to be crucified,
                            some lady began to cry and didn't sympathize - of course,
                            nobody sympathized, but this lady broke down and somebody said,
                            ‘you ain't got to save them for yourself because
                            the time would come when a barren woman would be considered
                        fortunate.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p> What? </p>
                    </sp>
                    <pb id="p20" n="20"/>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>When a barren woman - a woman who couldn't have kids - would
                            be fortunate. Wouldn't have all this mess to go through. I
                            think me and my wife are ready to turn that. I've got this
                            little book to read, and me and my wife read it every day. Like a book
                            of inspirations, tells you what passages to read in the Bible to read,
                            and I read that. In fact, my sister who lives across the street there,
                            that's what she gives me for Christmas every year.</p>
                        <p>I have two sisters, one lives across over there and the other one lives
                            down the street. I had two brothers and two sisters, and I think I was
                            the puniest one in the family. One of my brothers served in World War II
                            and then the Korean War, and then he came home and had an accident. My
                            older brother who's about ten years older than me died in
                            '56. So I outlived my mama and my daddy too. He died not
                            quite seventy and my mom died when she was 72. And my wife's
                            75 …</p>
                        <p>But I think all in all we've got a pretty good place to live
                            in. Everybody might not agree with that, but that's just my
                            feeling about it. We've had some tough times, but I think
                            things have improved for everybody.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p> In what way?</p>
                    </sp>
                    <pb id="p21" n="21"/>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>Well, we have better facilities. We have, if you qualify, the chance to
                            get a better job, not as many as like Charlotte, but I think most places
                            around here, if you qualify you can get a better job. And that was
                            something you couldn't do years ago, because if you were
                            qualified, maybe the job was filled with someone else who was white, but
                            I think it was all right generally.</p>
                        <p>What I'm saying is you've got to get out there and
                            work for something. You can't expect people to come and just
                            hand you something without working for it, because that's
                            just not going to happen. Like I told you, I quit school. I
                            could've been a teacher; I had the opportunity to go to
                            Southern University if I'd have finished high school. But I
                            chose to get married, and I'm not dissatisfied by it.
                            I'm happy. Maybe I don't have as much money as I
                            would've had, but I don't think money's
                            everything anyway. Being happy is what really counts. I know plenty of
                            people who have plenty of money but they're not happy. I
                            mean, I try not to get down and out, but I'm a
                            little… not exactly depressed, but… my
                            wife's not feeling as good as she'd like to, and
                            I'm hoping that she'll get to feeling better. She
                            fell and broke her hip about four years ago, and before she did that,
                            she could do some things I couldn't do. She could bend over
                            and touch the floor without bending her knees - I can't! But
                            I hope she'll get better. We had good days. We've
                            been on <pb id="p22" n="22"/> some good trips, and we've got
                            grandchildren and great- grandchildren, so I'm happy now.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p>What are some of your best memories?</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>Oh, well…I guess there's been so many good ones I
                            can't … Well, she was with me - I enjoyed going to
                            Senator Kennedy's office, that was one, maybe not the best
                            one. He had the nicest secretary. A lady from Boston, Massachusetts, and
                            she loves to take pictures, took our picture. We had a nice day there. I
                            don't know where they are now, but I've got so
                            many photographs here I can't sort them all. And we made a
                            trip to Florida, right before Disneyland opened; we were down in that
                            neighborhood. Went to the World's Fair in New York. Then
                            Chicago. And we've got friends in Columbus, Ohio, so
                            we've been there a few times. And Wright Air Force Base where
                            we got to see all those nice old antique air force planes, and then the
                            Langley Air Force Base. So we've enjoyed it. I
                            don't have many regrets. No regrets.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p> What have been some of the most significant events or people in your
                            life?</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>Well I don't know… when I met her, I guess. I
                            guess. And I was a mama's boy, so Mama was next to her. I
                            guess between the two of them, that was the most wonderful things that
                            happened to me, being associated with those two. Of <pb id="p23" n="23"/> course, I enjoy my grandkids. But children, like I told you,
                            they're just not like they used to be. I thought the world of
                            my granddaddy, and I try to be good to them because back when I was
                            coming up, we didn't have much. But my granddaddy, he was a
                            pretty good house carpenter, so he had a lot of stuff around. House
                            carpenters, now I know they didn't make what they make now,
                            but he made a little more than the average common laboring man. A lot of
                            things that we didn't have that we needed - I
                            wouldn't say wanted - he would help us get. So that clock up
                            there, that's my granddaddy's clock.</p>
                        <p>But it won't run eight days like it's supposed to
                            without winding it. I don't know what it is, I guess the
                            springs are weak or something. If I don't wind it, it
                            won't run eight days.</p>
                        <p>So I don't know. Like I told you, I could give you some other
                            names you could contact that might give a different story, but I never
                            was one to be a troublemaker. I kind of stayed back, didn't
                            like to be in front like some people. I'm satisfied with the
                            way I got along. Not angry with anybody. Satisfied.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p> What are these letters from?</p>
                    </sp>
                    <pb id="p24" n="24"/>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>Oh those are from doctors where I worked at the orthopedic hospital.
                            There was a little boy down there. He didn't have anybody,
                            and I would try to be nice to him and do things for him because he had
                            nobody to ever come see him. Now what do you think of somebody being in
                            the hospital and nobody ever coming to see him?</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p> I can't imagine. </p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>Yeah, our son had some trouble when he was an infant, and he had to go to
                            the orthopedic hospital for about six or seven months, and me and my
                            wife would go twice a week to see that boy too and bring him things.
                            Like he didn't have a radio… yeah, we just kind of
                            divided with him.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p>I guess the church is pretty important to you? I see some letters here
                            …</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>Oh yeah. Very important. I used to be an elder in the church, but I
                            stepped back a little bit, but I go. I go to Sunday school every morning
                            at ten o'clock. We're not in the same church;
                            she's a United Methodist, and I'm an African
                            Methodist Episcopal. So we went to her church today. She goes down to
                            church out there in the country on [Hwy] 73; you probably passed it.</p>

                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p> What's it called?</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>Tucker's Grove United Methodist Church.</p>
                        <pb id="p25" n="25"/>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p> I remember that. They have the camp meetings there, don't
                            they? </p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>Yeah, they had the camp meetings there in August. About two weeks.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p> Do you go to that? </p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>Yeah, we went there today. That's where she goes, but I go in
                            town here on Main Street. But she never asked me to quit and join her
                            church so I don't ask her to quit. So what we do is go to my
                            church first for Sunday school and the service and then we go to hers.
                            Her church doesn't start till twelve because their preacher
                            preaches at two churches. So that gives us plenty of time to get down
                            there before they start. Now you told me one time, but what part of
                            Virginia are you from?</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p> A place called Rockville. It's kind of a rural area about 20
                            miles from Richmond. </p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>Oh yeah. My nephew's in Richmond right now.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p> What does he do there? </p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>Well, he's a lieutenant. Oh, he told me… they buy
                            things for the government? He went to Utah this month, and he just got
                            back yesterday, I think. But his home - where he's got his
                            wife and house and a baby - is in Fort Washington, Maryland. But
                            he'll go down there in the morning and go back home Friday
                            evening. So he came down here with his wife and they picked us up <pb id="p26" n="26"/> to visit them up there and then they drove us back
                            here afterwards. Now at my age, I don't do a lot of driving.
                            I drive, but I just don't make those long trips. I did drive
                            to Pittsburgh, because she's got a sister there, and a niece
                            who's a retired schoolteacher … but things are
                            really better now. If you want to get out and do, you can do. What are
                            you planning on doing? Journalism or something?</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p>
                            <note type="comment"> [text missing] </note>
                        </p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>Well, you might get a news desk, get on TV!</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p>I really don't know. </p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>You might get on TV.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p>
                            <note type="comment"> [text missing] </note>
                        </p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>She's dead now, but she was a white lady I worked with up at
                            the hospital. They're both dead now, but they were the nicest
                            people.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p>
                            <note type="comment"> [text missing] </note>
                        </p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>Well, I don't know if there's any connection there,
                            but there's a good many Dellingers in Lincoln County.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <pb id="p27" n="27"/>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p>You've really collected a lot of stuff here.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>Yeah, I reckon I'll leave it to my great-grandson when
                            I'm gone.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p>
                            <note type="comment"> [text missing] </note>
                        </p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>Oh, that's Pat Taylor. He was running for governor. I was the
                            chairman of a program, yeah. Patrick Taylor. He was a nice fellow.
                            Skipper Bowles beat him out, though. They had some kind of a conflict,
                            Skipper Bowles beat him out, and that's how he got to be
                            governor. The Democratic party split. One got angry, and I
                            don't know who was right and who was wrong. I was a Pat
                            Taylor man, but I could have voted for Skipper Bowles, and I guess I did
                            at the final analysis, but a lot of Democrats didn't vote for
                            him on account of Mr. Taylor. That's how you get beat,
                            though; when you've got one side of a party against another,
                            and get them angry, that's what gets them beat.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p> What happened? </p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>I don't exactly remember. Just politics.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <milestone n="6669" unit="empty" type="stop" timestamp="01:03:34"/>
                        <milestone n="6576" unit="excerpt" type="start" timestamp="01:03:35"/>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p> Well, what would you say have been some of the biggest changes around
                            here in your lifetime? </p>
                    </sp>
                    <pb id="p28" n="28"/>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p> I'd say the schools when they integrated. You mean through
                            the years, is that what you're saying? Yeah, I guess the
                            schools.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p> What were you thinking when desegregation occurred? </p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>What did I think about it? Well, I guess I didn't think about
                            it as much as some people because I wasn't in school and when
                            they started going, they had a little trouble at first, but I
                            don't think it really amounted to much.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p>What was the trouble specifically?</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>Well … I don't know … like I told you,
                            maybe one or two of the whites and a couple of the blacks
                            didn't see eye to eye on something - schoolchildren. Yeah,
                            schoolchildren. I don't think any grown people were involved;
                            I don't really remember. But I do remember hearing something
                            about some of the schoolchildren getting into a ruckus, but they got it
                            straightened out pretty quick and there wasn't any bad
                            results out of it. I think some of the NAACP offices went and
                            straightened out some of the black children, but I can't say
                            about any of the white children or who looked after them. They did get
                            it straightened out so it wasn't too bad.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p>Do you think desegregation was worth it? </p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>Well, some are discussing it now, but I don't really know.
                            What they're saying is that is wasn't equal and
                            that the blacks weren't getting what they were supposed to be
                            getting. I know <pb id="p29" n="29"/> back when I was in school, my
                            mother and some other ladies - we didn't have a principal
                            connected with it; but we didn't have a bus to ride home. And
                            they had some children down at the other end of the county who
                            didn't have a way to get to school, so I think they finally
                            bought an old bus to transport the children up here to school. And I
                            think one of them might have been in my class. And I don't
                            mean any harm for saying it because you couldn't help it and
                            I couldn't either, but these buses were running up and down
                            the road hauling white children and some of the black children had to
                            get to school the best way they could. Now I don't know whose
                            fault that was and I'm not laying the fault on anybody, but
                            it wasn't exactly right - you know that too, don't
                            you? I'm not putting the fault, unless it was the state,
                            because it was segregated. I know a black fellow who worked at a mill
                            around here. They say he did it for devilment, but he went and drank out
                            of a white fountain, and they fired him. In the courthouse, they had
                            restrooms for blacks, water fountains for blacks, restrooms for whites,
                            water fountains for whites. But like I was telling you, you might meet
                            somebody tomorrow or the next day who would say, ‘I went and
                            got some water out of there, I did this… ’ but I
                            didn't force myself to do anything about it, and maybe you
                            say I'm chicken and maybe I am, but I won't admit
                            to it because I just don't like to get in hassles about
                            things. I don't like to do that. And that's <pb id="p30" n="30"/> the way I've tried to tell my boy, not
                            to get in things when you don't have to get yourself in
                            trouble. Even now, out on the highway, me and my wife are out there
                            driving. I'll be doing the speed limit which is 45 or 55 and
                            somebody'll be behind me and they're just
                            dissatisfied because they want me to break the speed limit. And I just
                            hope that we'll get to a place where they can go around me so
                            I won't have to deal with that. I know that some fellows got
                            in a fight right down here at Gastonia. Man was driving a truck, and he
                            said he was pushed out off the highway, and he got off at a ramp and the
                            man followed him home, and they got in a fight. So you don't
                            know when you're right or when you're wrong now.
                            So I just don't like to get in things like that. And when I
                            say something, I want to be honest and tell the truth about it, and they
                            can believe it for what it is. If the truth hurts, now I
                            can't help that. That's just the way I am. I
                            don't want to be involved in certain things. Because I love
                            my family, I love my wife, I love my children, my grandchildren, my
                            neighbors, and I try to love my neighbors in other families. I
                            don't want to go around here with someone shooting at me,
                            because you can't tell what people will do to you know.</p>
                        <p>Just like Charlotte. I don't go to Charlotte. I went to
                            Charlotte one time several years ago because I wanted to see about
                            getting me a suit. I went to the store and went in. But then I came out
                            and my wife said, ‘Where's your suit?’
                            And I <pb id="p31" n="31"/> said, ‘We're going
                            home.’ I'm scared of Charlotte. Yeah,
                            I'm scared of Charlotte.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p> What scares you about it? </p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>They've got so much hell raising going on over there
                            wouldn't you be afraid? I'm afraid of it, and I
                            don't mean any harm telling you. I'm scared of
                            Charlotte. I don't go, not by myself. I go with somebody
                            else. It shouldn't be that way. Just people have got so mean.
                            They'll take your car. I heard people bumping cars with folks
                            over there. Man down the street said someone bumped his car.</p>
                        <p>I don't know what it's coming to. What do you think
                            about this 2000 millennium? I was talking to a white lady who I used to
                            work for last night. The way she was talking last night, it's
                            scary.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <milestone n="6576" unit="excerpt" type="stop" timestamp="01:12:24"/>
                    <milestone n="6670" unit="empty" type="start" timestamp="01:12:25"/>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p> You mean about the computers? </p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>They say if the computers go down, everything will go down.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p> I hope they're wrong. </p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>Yeah, I hope they are, too. How would we get along? If you had a
                            generator but no gas to run it, you still wouldn't have no
                            lights. She said they bought a wood stove just in case. Well, as high as
                            wood is, a pile from down the road there is fifteen dollars and that
                            would hardly last you three days. I don't know what
                            it's coming to. Sad. The thing about it is, young folks like
                                <pb id="p32" n="32"/> you - at my age, I've lived my best
                            days and I'm gong downhill, but you folks are going uphill,
                            and that's who it's going to hurt. They keep
                            saying we'll be ready for it, but I don't know
                            whether we will or not. I hope so.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p>Well, I've kept you a while. If there's anything
                            you'd like to add that I haven't asked yet, feel
                            free to mention it. Maybe something that I didn't ask that
                            you feel it would have been important to discuss …?</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>You might have asked me something that I could have answered, but I
                            don't know anything in particular. Maybe you know something
                            you want to ask me, so feel free to ask me and I'll be honest
                            with you. I won't tell no story; I'll tell it like
                            it is, the truth. Like I said, I've gotten along pretty good.
                            Except during the Depression, we had financial problems. But even back
                            then, there were white people in this town - if they knew you,
                            they'd help you if they could. You always had some good
                            people around here in Lincoln. Good church people, and I think that made
                            a difference. I know some of my white friends would say,
                            ‘Leroy, now that I'm grown I know better. A lot of
                            things my folks told me, I don't agree with any
                            more.’ So I'm not holding anybody responsible.
                            We're supposed to be good Christians, and that's
                            what I'm trying to do. We're supposed to love
                            everybody, and <pb id="p33" n="33"/> that's what
                            I'm trying to do. If they don't love me,
                            that's their problem.</p>
                        <p>Like there were several folks around here who, if they knew you,
                            they'd give you some bones and even leave a little meat on
                            them so you could make some soup. And that was white giving black
                            something. So there's always been some good people. If there
                            wasn't the world wouldn't stand. As many good
                            people during segregation as any time.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p>
                            <note type="comment"> [text missing] </note>
                        </p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>Yeah, Mr. Harley worked in a meat market. He was nice about giving you
                            meat bones and things. If they knew you, they'd try to help
                            you out. Even during segregation. I was brought up in the Presbyterian
                            Church, even though I go to a Methodist Church now. Well that
                            Presbyterian Church is having a mixed service tonight. Every Christmas
                            they give all our children nice bags. If they needed books,
                            they'd give that. But I can't help but like them
                            because there were a whole lot of Christmases when I was a boy when I
                            didn't get as much as I wanted. So I've got a
                            place in my heart for that congregation because they were so nice to us.
                            The reason I got in to the Methodist Church where I'm going
                            now was because one of those girls I liked started going there and I
                            just <pb id="p34" n="34"/> sort of followed the crowd. My mother would
                            still be happy if I was going there, but they don't have
                            services but twice a month. You get used to going to church services
                            every Sunday, you don't like that twice a month business. I
                            don't anyway. You want to go every Sunday. So I go every
                            Sunday unless I'm sick or something. I don't miss.</p>
                        <p>I'll tell you what - do you have a piece of paper or something
                            so I can get your phone number and address? I'll just stick
                            that in my book so I can keep it. I enjoyed talking with you. I hope I
                            helped you.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p> Oh definitely. This has been great and I've enjoyed it. </p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk1">
                        <speaker n="1">LEROY MAGNESS:</speaker>
                        <p>I hope so.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <sp who="spk2">
                        <speaker n="2">MICHELLE MARKEY:</speaker>
                        <p> I appreciate your taking the time to talk. And to put up with my
                            lateness.</p>
                    </sp>
                    <p>
                        <note anchored="yes">
                            <p>END OF INTERVIEW</p>
                        </note>
                    </p>
                    <milestone n="6670" unit="empty" type="stop" timestamp="01:21:45"/>
                </div2>
            </div1>
        </body>
    </text>
</TEI.2>