• Contributor
  • Cadmus, Emily
• Format
  • Transcripts
  • Interviews
• Type
  • Text
• Extent
  • Pages: 13
• Source institution
  • Western Carolina University
• Identifier
  • HL_HIST340-574_Cadmus_Cotton_2022-03-26_transcript

Cotton 1 Interviewee: Clifford Cotton Interviewer: Emily Cadmus Date: March 26, 2022 Location: East Asheville Public Library Length: 00:48:45 Interview with Clifford Cotton Emily Cadmus: This is Emily Cadmus on March 26th, 2022 or 2022. And I am with Clifford Cotton doing an oral history interview. Mr. Cotton, can you let me know that you know, you're being recorded? Clifford Cotton: Yes. My name is Clifford Cotton and I'm being recorded. This oral history project we're about to undertake, and I just want to explain a little bit about my grandfather, E.W. Pearson who was founder of the west Asheville neighborhood known as Burton Street. And well, to get started, just a little bit of history about him he was born in Glen Alpine in 1872. Many, many, many years ago. But, he is my grandfather because he was out of the army. My grandmother wasn't born when he was in the army, so that's why that he was a very, my grandmother was a very young lady when they married. So and they had three siblings my mother and my aunt Iola and my uncle, E. W. Jr. And right after, he was a very religious person, he is onward till the fourth grade. I think about that time is because after the fourth grade they put all the kids and everything would put them back on the farm and do work and couldn't go in, in the fourth grade, but he was a very studious young man. He was always wanting to rea. Just wanted to do a lot of reading and learning about life on his own. So that was one book that he was very familiar with called a "A Star of Zion" and it was a minster in Salisbury that published this book and it was a weekly either bi-weekly magazine and he goes very interested in and right after his farming duties he, matter of fact, moved to Salisbury. He went to Salisbury because that's where there was the publishing of this magazine, called, "The Stars of Zion," and his name is John Dent, D-E-N-T, and, matter of fact, he's had a lot of history and he was probably the person that introduced him, my grandfather into politics and more by learning about himself and being a better, better person, because he didn't really learn that at home because he was working on the farm and so forth. But when he moved to Salisbury and met his mentor, which I called him, John C Dent and they became acquainted and John C. Dent invited him to live with him. So he moved in with him for a year or so before, there was a big promotion about the mining coal mining business in Jellico, Tennessee. So he decided to go to Jellico, Tennessee and he did go and became a miner, working the coal mines in Jellico, Tennessee, because it was, they had just opened up a, discovered coal in that area, and so he went there to pursue his you know, the rest of his life as being a coal miner, but he went there and was there for about a year or so. And then there was a big promotion that the army was trying to recruit young Black men. So he decided to join and he just went to the office, the army office where they were recruiting and he signed up for the army. And well then probably, just about two weeks or so, well with then within a month, he was already was assigned to Fort Duchesne, Utah. Which is you know, it was about the same time a year and it was very cold at that particular time. You might know, a lot of the soldiers at that time were former had been enslaved in the south, but they were recruiting these Black men to join the army, but it was a separate troop. So when he was in the ninth cavalry at Fort Duchesne that was his first mission. And so at that time he did have some encounters with the, with the Native Americans from what I understand because they have someone who reports from Cotton 2 the army explain that to me, that he had encountered several occasions had an encounters with the Native Americans. So, but he did serve that term time. And after that, he re-enlisted this time when he re-enlisted he was assigned to Fort Robinson, Nebraska. And the next time he moved up a little bit because he was he put him in the medical corps, which was probably a little step higher than being just a regular private, or they were in in the calvary units. And so at that time he decided that he would further his education and after the second term, he moved to Chicago and there he could continue his education. That's where he wanted to learn that real straight politics, religion, and the fraternal organizations, he was very interested in the fraternal organization. And that's where he met a lot of the predominantly Black political people in there in that particular area of Chicago. And he encountered Marcus Garvey. He was one of the founders, he founded that group in Asheville and several other people at that particular time, he was very interested in organizing the fraternal organizations like the Masons and the Masonic, very interested in the Masonic areas. So at that time, this the 1906, he decided to come back to Asheville and went to [inaudible]. In 1906 he moved to Asheville and he opened up a business on Eagle Street. And he well he had several businesses, because he was instrumental in organizing a lot of the organization that you see in Asheville today. And so being that, let's see - he was, as he scattered around, he decided during his travel he decided that really the Black people in the areas should try to do something on their own, on their own property, be more self-sufficient. So he scouted around Asheville, he finally spotted this place in west Asheville, which is actually in the records called the Park View area, and that's what you might find in book registrar's office View Park but later became Burton Street, because as you might notice Burton Street, well going back a little bit, Burton Street was really changed. Burton Street originally was Buffalo Street, and the name, I'm not too sure about that, but anyway, you know, people in Asheville didn't have a street named after one of the founders of Asheville and his name was John Burton. So by someway they decided to split off Burton Street and changed their name to a Burton Street, I mean, split off Buffalo Street and changed that to Buffalo, to Burton Street. So that's sort of named Burton Street and that was in 1921, and there were that particular, that side of the street was predominantly white. So we feel that according to the records, a lot of Black people in here, and we didn't realize what was happening at that particular time so they changed the name from Buffalo to Burton Street. So, and that, that side of the Burton Street named community kind of, more or less, gathered around there because that was the same area that he did, my grandfather was trying to get people to move in that particular area. So he was very successful in that, so there, there are lots of ads and things in the papers where he advertised you know, he wanted to make this community self-sufficient and meaningful for Blacks. So he bought property and matter of fact, doing his work, he had, that was a backer, a financer that had a lot of property in west Asheville and his name was Rutherford B. Hayes and that was the president Hayes' son, because they both lived in this area pretty frequently, but his son was very interested in the landscaping and the horticulture, the trees were the same in the area so he owned a lot of property in west Asheville. So associated with my grandfather, which actually came on as a salesman or representative for John B, Rutherford B. Hayes to sell his property. So that's why, that's how he happened to be in the real estate business because he did have that training and the, in the Chicago area. So he was very successful in buying a property and making homes and things in what we call now called the Burton Street area. And so, at that time he opened up a grocery store. Right at the corner, right on Buffalo Street and Burton Street. He had a, he bought, he built a building there, which is now torn down and it's called it was called the- [points to photo] that's it right there. And that's building is now torn down and you might notice the Cotton 3 Masonic signs, Masonic Oddfellows that he worked to establish in this particular area as to what organizations still exist today. And so I was right across the street from the school and well, at that particular school. I attended that school and that was the elementary school that I attended when I was, it was it was a three bedroom school and it was two classes in three classes. And then our first, second grade in one class and third and fourth in the next room and the fifth and sixth and the third room. And we, at that time, we went on to that and went on to a middle school after going to the Burton Street School, just very, very I learned quite a bit from that school. And, but at that time, people were bused in far away as Burnsville and Black Mountain and Swannanoa they were bussed in to attend the Black school, here, but right down the street, that was the white school, was Aycock. But at that time the schools were segregated and all this. EC: What year was that? That you were in that in that Burton Street School? CC: Oh, '55, '54- '55. EC: Okay. So you grew up in the Burton Street neighborhood? CC: I grew up in, yeah, born and raised right there in Burton Street, I mean, in west Asheville same house, I'm living in the same house now. EC: Oh, really? So you've seen a lot of changes over the years, huh? CC: Oh, quite a bit. Yeah. Cause I was away a number of years when I came back, things really changed. EC: Where, what years were you away for? CC: Oh, I was away 15, 20 years. I went after high school I had left town and I attended college, and I never came back to actually live in the west Asheville area except to visit and see my parents and so forth, but I never actually moved back here, right after I left high school was it was '61 when I left. Right after high school I attended college, and then never came back for any other time until just a few years ago. EC: Oh, really? CC: And I kind of moved back and started discovering a lot of things that my grandfather deals with. But when I was young, I didn't really, [wasn't] too much interested in what he was doing. EC: Yeah. CC: What other things, I mean, I've just found out so much stuff. So I came back and just going through some old papers and stuff at home and I've just found a lot of stuff I should've paid more attention to when I was young, but I didn't, didn't really do that. EC: Yeah. Well, that's, you know, not an uncommon situation. Cotton 4 CC: Well, I mean, there's all kind of papers and articles, newspapers, things I'm just finding all over the place and I've just about discovered all of it now. But, uh. EC: So what, what, I mean, obviously, E.W. Pearson, your grandfather, made a lot of contributions to this area. Just, you know, economically, especially for the African American community. But what do you, but what do you find especially compelling about him as a person? CC: Well, I was young, I remember him somewhat there was yeah, but he was a very demanding man. I remember it was a big, strong voice. I just remember a little bit about him because he died in '46, I think. And so I was very young when he did die, but I know you were manly, man and he was just very statuesque, always had a suit on every time, you never would see him when he didn't have a suit and ties and stuff on, you might notice in the pictures. Yeah, but he was always dressed like that. And but he was very forcefully demanding what he wanted. He managed to get it some kind of way. And he what I remember most about him, well, just one of the, one of the things that I remember is when he founded the first chapter of the NAACP in Asheville and the first chapter in North Carolina, he did, right here in Asheville. And he was the first president of the NAACP, NAACP in Asheville. And just about all the things he did, he was the president of, you might notice a lot on the, that he got accomplished, but he was president of most of them. So I will say he was never at home because he always attended kind of branches and stuff everywhere. He was very, he was always away a lot, but he made sure his family was well taken care of, and he liked to take care of the kids in the neighborhood. So there are always activities and things for them to do, especially on holidays, he would have different rides and so forth other than the fair and make sure that the kids are always had something, something to do. And he like when the fair came along, he would let the kids in free if they'll bring a canned good some type of fruit or whatever, something to donate to the fair and they would get there'll be in the parade and we'll get in the fair, and no charge. So he's always looking out for the kids and everything. I know one thing, my mother and aunt, when they were younger, they he would always encouraged them to sing, my mother played piano, my aunt sang and my uncle played instrument also. So when they, when they would come back home, he would gather them in the room, and if they learned a new song every time he would give them a quarter, but it was a song they were learning, they while he was away. He would encourage them to always learn something about what they were doing and felt that very unique. I didn't know about it until later years. No, but EC: Do you have any personal memories of the fair? Because it, from what I understand, it, it didn't last, it maybe went for another year after he, after he passed. CC: After he passed, no, my uncle had it at that last, last fair my uncle more or less took that over. And that was the ones down on Craven, Craven Street. And that was the last the last one, the one on Craven Street, that's down there by the Belgium Brewery now, that was the big fairground down there. It's called Logan, Logan ground. It was on Craven Street. That's down there at the bridge. EC: That's down there where the livestock auction used to be kind of near that section. Cotton 5 CC: Yeah, yeah. You might, you might have noticed that, you know, although he was a businessman, most of the people that were in his division were related. So you might see Clifford Cotton, Sr. That was my father. He was the vice president. [showing pictures] And this was another brother, Dr. White. Over here is that's Juney, he was he was the secretary, and Randall [inaudible] is he was helping and he was a member of a fraternity and ran over to James Byers that was my wife's husband, I mean, my aunt's husband, because her name was Iola Byer and that was my aunt's husband. And after that, the treasurer, that's my grandmother. EC: How many years did she survive him? CC: Ah, well, that fair started in 1912 and 1946 was the last one. So it was many that fair and it was held over a week and you would have it was a larger, larger affair and you would have thousands of people attending that fair and it was just thousands of people, that's, that's so- and they always had prizes and [reads from an article headline] "Many prizes at The Negro fair." That was all the prizes that it offered. And there's just many newspaper articles about the fair, it was just all about the newspaper articles. And one of his biggest accomplishments was the baseball team. He founded the Royal Giants in 1921, I think it was. And because at that time, you know, due to the General McCoy era, he could not attend the baseball field like McCormick field there, and he could not attend that. So he decided to start his own and develop his own team. So that's how the Royal Giants came about was because he could not attend the baseball games here at McCormick Field, so when played some of the games in Pearson Park, that was the same area in west Asheville. That was the same area that he had the fair. So it was a big a big area right down the street from where I live now, where they had the fair. And when he played the semi pro baseball team played and they traveled all over. From Charlotte to Winston Salem to Greenville, to Knoxville, they played different teams. So they were a very popular team and they played throughout the western Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee. And he was the owner of that team, and people asked me about that the other day, I got some letters from some kids from Claxton school, for Black History, I don't know how they found out about the Royal Giants, what they wanted to know, "Where did they get the name? Where did -" you know, just, they wrote letters and there's things that I just couldn't answer, wanting to know what was the mascot. And that's a lot of questions that, you know, think about it as a kid would ask them, but some of the questions that I just couldn't answer about mascot and all that. But yeah, but that was very interesting they chose the Royal Giants as a project that they did at Claxton school over there. EC: So would they, the Royal Giants, would they travel around and play games regionally or? CC: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. They played the, they most- well, the western Carolina circuit. You know, from Winston Salem, to Greenville, South Carolina, down to some parts of Atlanta, and all the way over to Knoxville areas. And it was a very popular team and he probably won several, several outstanding games from what I understand, but there's not much about that particular team that I can find. You know, but because of this, there's a lot of newspaper articles, but like some of the people in the team, I don't know how to find them. I don't know anything about the, you know, the members of the team. I just can't, there's just no- EC: No records, or rosters. Cotton 6 CC: So far, I've not been able to find any of them. I'm sure there are some relatives and so forth around that were affiliated with that team. But I don't know, I don't know how to get in touch with them so far. I'm still, still trying to do that. Well one of the things that, well, go back to the, what the the fair or one of my reasons he started the fair, because he started teaching people how to grow their own food and be more self-sufficient and how to grow food. And now he started making gardens and it just so much food was available, and they would bring enough food to his store to sell. He decided, "well, what if we have an agricultural fair where they can display all their food and sell it and sell their own foods." And that was very popular because everybody grew, bring everything from eggs to cakes, to EC: Canned goods, and stuff like that? CC: Canned goods, everything, everything. All kinds of vegetables and everything to fill the store. And that's the way he got the idea to start an agricultural fair. So that's what kind of introduced that to him. But on a second hand, being a man that wanted to know, wanted to do more, he had, he supplied everything for the community in that store. He started, a shoe business where he could sell people shoes to work in the garden or whatever to do. And he, then he had an insurance company. He started the Rocky Mountain, no, the uh, Mountain Insurance Company, I think that was the name of it, and he started having insurance, and he would insure people where they would have, if something happened to them they would be would take, take care of whatever needs they had. So he had that business going and with the insurance, the shoe company. EC: What, do you know, what kind of business it was that he first opened over there on Eagle Street that you mentioned? CC: Real estate, real estate, but it went a little further than that because I have seen receipts and things. Well, he also had a maid service. He was sending people out to clean up the people's houses in the area, and there are receipts on that, on, on that. EC: Just as a side note. I was having a meeting with um, the lady who runs the Buncombe County archives at Pack Library the other day, and she's been putting together some an exhibit or, or researching Black women, like working class black women, the type of work they did around, around the town. Would you mind if I shared your number with her so she could? CC: Oh no, I think, I believe you're talking about, because most of my stuff, all this photograph book, copies of this book was done at the library, EC: Oh, then she probably already has it, then. CC: They did a lot of this stuff. EC: Yeah. Cotton 7 CC: You know, so this is up there. So a lot of this stuff is shared up there with you know, I shared up there with them. So and EC: She probably, I don't need to tell her about it then, she already knows. CC: Yeah. Well talking about her, now, my, my aunt. Her name is Iola Byers, and she was one of the first black deputy sheriffs in Asheville. EC: She was a deputy sheriff? CC: Yeah. I have a picture, it might not be in this book. Yeah, she'll have to go out. Her name was Iola Byers and she ran a center when it finally opened over there in west Asheville. She ran it, ran the center for twenty-five years. She was a beautician. She had a beauty shop right next to the store. I have to find, many years ago. I remember that, but she was a beautician and she had her business, can't see, it was a building right next to this was you had a beauty, a beauty shop and so after that, I thought I had that picture in here somewhere, but no, it must be somewhere else. Picture of the sheriff with her in her sheriff uniform. EC: So when did you come back to Asheville? CC: I came back about five years ago. EC: Okay. And the, your parent's house was still in your name or you inherited it? I assume? CC: Yeah, yeah. EC: Okay. So CC: My aunt moved in after my parents got, my aunt moved in and kind of took you out my mother and then my grandmother moved in too and my aunt was, took over that, took over the house and moved all this stuff down because she stayed up over - there was apartment over the, over the store. And she used to live up there. And then after, you know, here's it's kind of, they didn't know what to do, well, they should have known, what to do, but it finally was torn down, so that's gone, but she moved in my house down the street, on Federal Street. So then finally she, when she passed on then house just sitting there. And then I just decided, "Well, let me go back and see what's going on." I came back here. EC: Well, I'm curious to know what were you expecting everything to be different or how different was everything from when you left? CC: Well, yeah, everything was different. When I was when I was here, I mean, you knew everybody. Everybody. I spoke to you, stopped by and talked to you, but the whole climate has changed because during that time doing one just before I got back is when the drug's kind of took over that area. So I missed that era, but that's what I understand happened to that particular area. And it was just I mean, you couldn't walk, I remember coming back several times and you just couldn't walk down the street without somebody wanting to sell you some drugs or something, Cotton 8 but uh, and that can lead to, cumulatively go down because of the drug, that particular drugs scene. But when I came back my aunt had that straightened out because she was a very strong lady, and she got them, got that straightened out more or less. But during that time, everything changed and the people involved has changed. Just the, a lot of the older people are no longer there, so it was just a, and a lot of friends that I know, they're all gone, they all moved away and so forth, so, it's just very few people that I know from then that are still in the area now, you know, maybe count on one hand, probably still in west Asheville. And it's probably the same with, the people in town because I went to Stephens-Lee in high school year. And so just a few of those people around, I see every once in a while, but you just don't see the clubs you used to have, you don't have. You know, now I don't know where to go now. It used to be I knew everything- where everything was. But the way they've changed streets and everything, and a lot of the old landmarks and we used to go are gone. And so that's, that's all torn down and just, I didn't know, a lot of the places where you fit in with being, where they kept, you know, like that building [points to a picture of his grandfather's grocery store] that I thought, I thought they would never tear that building down. EC: Did they tear that down during urban renewal? CC: No, well, no, it was about six, seven years ago. Just, recently when it, tore it down that urban renewal. No, his house was torn down. His house was behind there. It was behind the store and that's gone, his house is gone. EC: When did his house get torn down? CC: Well, well, when he put the freeway behind, you know, back in the, yeah. That's when, that's when they tore that down. EC: When they built 240? CC: Yeah, yeah, because the picture of the house was back on [inaudible], but that's gone. EC: Yeah, is that it, right there? [referencing a photo of the house] CC: Yeah, yeah. And that was down in the deep, like you only see. EC: Oh, I see. CC: Yeah. EC: Okay. CC: But it was because just where the store was, he had the levels down, you know, from the street up from the back of the store was you can only see the top of the house. EC: Cause it was down the slope there. Cotton 9 CC: It went down another level and all has gone, all is torn down now. EC: Was anybody living in that house when they tore it down? CC: No, not when, well did anyone live there? Well, when my aunt moved out and moved up to the apartment, she made her apartment upstairs over the store. When my aunt kinda moved out of that. And then they rented that part, that house out, it was rent. It was a rental, it was rented to people and I don't know what happened with that was when I was gone I know some people that lived, that rented that house and there was several kids, but I don't know the situation, but they had, they did rent that, rent that house there. And I don't know how long it was, I don't even know when they tore that house down because you know, I was probably cause I moved to Philadelphia for a number of years, Detroit, finally ended up in Los Angeles. I was up there 15, 20 years and then back to Atlanta and then back here. So, but yeah, during that time I had never thought I would come back to Asheville though. EC: Yeah, why not? CC: Well I just didn't find nothing particularly here that time when I had moved out and saw the places, moved to Los Angeles, to Detroit, well, yeah. And Philadelphia, I stayed in Philadelphia for about 15 years, I guess before I moved to what, Detroit. Yeah. Then on to Los Angeles. And so, so I just didn't see too much. I didn't see too much here in Asheville, but I heard that was a lot going on, but I, I, missed it. EC: You were probably doing all kinds of other things. CC: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well, I was in music anyway, so I was doing all different things. Yeah. So wasn't that much music. Of course that's where I started playing here in high school. I started playing music here. We had a band, we got out kind of put together here in Asheville and we've left here and moved off. EC: What is like your classmates at Stephens-Lee or people in your neighborhood? CC: Yeah, Stephens-Lee, yeah. So we got together as students, and then EC: What kind of, what kind of music did you guys play? CC: Well, we played, well, rhythm and blues or jazz. A little pop. We had a very popular band. I don't have any of that [referring to the album of pictures and news clippings] that picture's in a different book. EC: Did you play any venues around town, around the Asheville when you were? CC: Yeah. Yeah, we played, well, it was a lot of places, particularly at this particular time, the main place that we played the well there used to be a place called Southland Drive In down on McDowell. Used to be a club called the Owl Lounge. This would be place up on the mountain up there, I don’t know it. Well, one place we played all the time was the Pines and the Pines were, Cotton 10 well, the Pines.... Well, Fletcher, Royal Pines, it was a club in the Royal Pines, called the Pines, we used to play there just about every - a lot on weekends I mean, a lot, a lot. And that was, it was called the Pines. EC: Where they all exclusively Black clubs? CC: No, the Pines was white. EC: Oh, really? CC: Yeah. And, all the other ones were mainly Black clubs. But there were several other clubs we used to play downtown and we'd play at the – When the [inaudible] would come to town we played at City Auditorium, whatever it's called, City Auditorium, it's called something else now. A Cherokee Convention Center or something. EC: Oh, yeah, they just changed the name. CC: Yeah. That used to be the City Auditorium, City Auditorium, that's what we would call it at that particular time. And yeah we played there, some of the shows there and went on to well, I don't have any pictures from that I don't think, I don't know, all this different stuff - some of the guys, well, there's probably guys still playing today, I don't play like I used to, but some guys still playing and recording still today. I got away for a while, when I came back here, there was not too much live music here for the type of music that I was playing with. So I kind of got away from it, I don't play, I don't play much no more there's a, there's a show coming up pretty soon and they’re going to do, let's see, oh, we played at the UNCA a few months back. Some kind of a ceremony for somebody out there at UNCA a couple of months ago, and then, cause I was working with some guys at the Delta, you know, Delta Club down on Delta sorority. EC: I don't know it, no. CC: Oh, that's down on French Broad. EC: Okay. CC: And uh, they have a youth band down there so I've been kind of working with them more or less. And so something coming up pretty soon about that, but I don't play you know, I travel all over playing with different groups. So. EC: Do you, do you remember I don't know that much about when they built 240. I know that that's when a lot of houses got kind of torn down in that area in Burton Street area, but I don't, what time period was that you do, you know, CC: No, well, they haven't finished tearing them down yet because my house was scheduled. We teared down cause I'm right on the free-. Cotton 11 EC: Oh, you're there, they were talking about, they're talking about expanding the highway or something, changing something. Yeah. CC: They will be widening in the lanes. So they got to take some of those houses that goes up to Haywood Road. EC: Wow, okay, that's a lot of houses. CC: And I was, I was in that line, yeah, stop at a church up there and go right up onto Haywood Road because they're going to make the exit. This street is going to be wide. So they're going to start to exit much lower down, so it won't be so short, you know, cause the exits not, there's not enough room up there for that exit on Haywood Road. So they're going to extend it down about a half of mile there and that's where the houses on that side from the church, where the church is, all that was supposed to be torn down, but I think it changed that for some reason. So a lot of the houses been sealed, probably into the storage places it'd probably be gone, and that's in the works now, we're still in spending- they worked for 10 years. EC: I know Mr. Barton is, you know, pretty active about, not, about opposing that in particular, expansion to the highway. Is there is there a large, a large effort, do you think, to protect those houses or do you think? CC: Well, we tried, we've been trying. And so right now, I think the only house they're going to consider is up there where the storage unit is, you know? And cause the question was, why they couldn't go on the other side of the street because there's nothing that's breaking on the other side of the street over there, but now they want to come straight up, you know, up by where it's going. All those houses sold. Well, supposed to be gone every day, according to the original plan but that's been changed. EC: Why do you think they don't want to go on the other side? CC: Well, I, that's a good question. EC: Yeah, and I guess nobody ever said anything about why they don't want to, or? CC: Well, the way the street is going now it would have to kind of go up. Because the way that highway goes now, it comes around. So all the streets on this side and it would have to, they would have to change that to some funny way to get to take that side of the highway. I don't know. EC: Has the, is it the D.O.T.? Or, or CC: The D.O.T. EC: Have they offered you like money for your house or anything? Cotton 12 CC: No, no, cause they haven't really decided they're going to take, well the last thing I heard, they going to take a piece of the property because my house right there next to the freeway, right on Federal Street, which is, goes right along , adjacent to the freeway, the freeway there. But as the last instance, they was probably going to take a portion of that, but nobody has offered anything they haven't really decided if that's what they gonna do. Yeah. Far as I know. [inaudible] but we they're building new houses. I don't know how they going to- I mean, it's a lot of expense, it's somebody’s expense cause they just put up new houses around there. The house right next door to me, he's been like a vacant lot for, well, I don't know how [long], I don't - can't remember when, and they squeezed the house in there, you know? And so, now, as well as all, we have Burton Street, those new apartments up there, on Burton Street, now, you know, all those up, they got four new places up there by the church. That was supposed to be torn down the church up there. You know? But I guess somebody knows something about they put up those new houses there. EC: Do you know when they started with 240, like when they first built it, do you know what time period that was? CC: I don't remember but I remember when they were doing it. And I was dealing that- I remember before they put the bridge down there and… EC: Over the river? CC: Yeah, I remember when they were building that. Because sometimes you'd walk to school and have to go down and walk over to Hill Street from west Asheville, and there was no bridge there. I remember when they built that bridge. And I remember when Bur- when Patton Avenue stopped at Clingman Avenue, and the street didn't go any further. Clingman Avenue was where Patton Avenue came down and there was nothing over, nothing EC: From the downtown side? CC: Yeah. EC: And you just went over Clingman Bridge? CC: Yeah, you came down and went down, Clingman, yeah. But there was no bridge to anything. If you wanted to walk to Stephens-Lee which was just right there on that corner there. Or not Stephens-Lee, Hill Street School. You just walked around, I mean, you didn't have a bridge and they finally built that bridge up there. Westgate popped up over there. And I remember all of that before that was built. That had to be in the fifties? Well, fifty- something when they first put Patton Avenue ran Patton Avenue it kept going with Patton Avenue, kept going on down to [not] joined up. Yeah. No, but, Hmm. But you know, but they've torn down. A lot of houses up there, torn down and people moved out and some houses, they can't, they don't know what to do with, there's this house down the street and there's so many heirs in that house until they say that they can't get in touch with all the heirs to get the property. Cotton 13 EC: Yeah. I've seen that, that, cause they have all the housing authority files in the library at UNCA, and I've seen that exact situation because there's a file for every house. Every property that, that the city took, I've seen that exact situation and there's several where they just ended up not finding anybody. So I assume the city just took it and redeveloped it, or resold it, however they felt like. CC: Yeah, there's a house down there now, right down the street, The Longs, and they had a big family, heirs and the some of the heirs, they can't find, I mean, they don't want to, I don't know what's happening with, they can't do nothing with the property, cause all tied up with all of the different heirs to agree, on what to do with it. So it's just been vacant, been vacant for a while, since I've been back, so how long before that? EC: Oh, the librarian is telling us that our time is up. Somebody else has an interview or a reservation

Clifford Cotton talks about his grandfather, Edward. W. Pearson, who founded the Burton Street community and started the Buncombe County District Agricultural Fair to celebrate the African American agricultural community of Asheville. E. W. Pearson was also a business owner, the founding president of the Asheville chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), founder and president of the Blue Ridge Colored Baseball League, as well as many other organizations. Cotton left Asheville after high school in 1961 to pursue a music career. Upon his return in 2017, he found his community and childhood neighborhood had changed dramatically. He shares what he remembers of his grandfather, growing up in the Burton Street community, and playing gigs around the Asheville area while attending Stephens-Lee High School. Cotton also discusses his efforts to protect what remains of Burton Street from an I-240 expansion.

• Creator
  • Cotton, Clifford
• Contributor
  • Cadmus, Emily
• Format
  • Sound recordings
  • Transcripts
  • Interviews
• Type
  • Sound
  • Text
• Date
  • Date: 2022-03-26
• Extent
  • Duration: 0:48:45
  • Pages: 13
• Subject - Topic
  • African American baseball team owners
  • African American businesspeople
  • African Americans
  • Agricultural exhibitions
  • Asheville (N.C.)
  • Baseball teams
  • Cities and towns -- Growth
  • Community development
  • Cotton, Clifford
  • National Association for the Advancement of Colored People -- Officials and employees
  • Neighborhoods
• Location
  • Buncombe County (N.C.)
  • Asheville (N.C.)
  • North Carolina, Western
• Source institution
  • Western Carolina University
• Source Collection
  • WCU Oral History Collection - Introduction to Oral History
• Identifier
  • HL_HIST340-574_Cadmus_Cotton_2022-03-26
• Repository
  • Western Carolina University Hunter Library