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Interview with Eugenia Dennis Jarrett

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Item 1 - Interview with Eugenia Dennis Jarrett

Interview with Eugenia Dennis Jarrett

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Interview with Eugenia Dennis Jarrett

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  • Eugenia Jarrett 1 WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA TOMORROW BLACK ORAL HISTORY PROJECT Interviewee: Eugenia Dennis Jarrett (J) Interviewer: Edward Clark Smith (I) County: Buncombe Date: March 3, 1987 Duration: 0:31:56 Eugenia Jarrett: ... things like that at home. And if anything was wrong, she'd make us take it out and fix it right. I thought it was hard then, but I see, I understand now because she was right in getting us to fix things right. Edward Smith: Um-hm. Did you have brothers and sisters? J: Yes, I had three brothers. There were six of us in the family, three girls and three boys. And I have only one brother left now, my brother in Victoria, Texas, and myself. We're the only ones living now. I: How did you first come to North Carolina? J: Well, after I had finished, graduated from school, the president of the Nacoochee Institute wrote to the president of Samuel Huston College and asked that he would recommend someone to come to Nacoochee Institute and work among our people there, and the president of the Samuel Huston College, Reuben Shannon Lovinggood, recommended me. The president of Nacoochee Institute wrote me and asked if I would come up. I consulted my parents and they agreed that it would be all right to come to Nacoochee, and I went to Nacoochee. I stayed at Nacoochee for 27 years working among my people. Home Ec. I: Yes, ma'am. J: It was called Domestic Science then, but it's Home Ec now. And I worked among my people there for 27 years. In the meantime I married, and I have two boys, Wallace Jarrett and Willard Jarrett. Willard is a retired postal worker, and Wallace is a cook in Nashville, Tennessee. Willard lives down the street from me. And I go home occasionally, sometimes because of death and then sometimes I just go down, fly home to be with my people here for several days and then I come back. I'm a United Methodist woman, I belong to the NAACP, and I belong to several clubs there at ... ah… here in Asheville. I love to travel. I've been over in Canada. My granddaughter and her husband live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They lived in Ithaca, New York, at first, and when I was in Ithaca visiting them they carried me over into Canada for several days. And I just retired now and I have my own home. I love to travel, but I don't travel as much right now as I used to because I'm crippled and I don't get about very well. But I love to go to national conventions and things like that, and I always went that I wasn't sent, I went ... and I enjoyed things like National Association for Negro ... you know, NAACP, and the YWCA. I'm attached to both of those very closely. Eugenia Jarrett 2 I: What year... Can you remember the year that you first came to North Carolina? J: It was in... let me see... it must have been 1918. I: What was it like when you got here? J: Well, you know, we traveled by train then. I caught the train in Victoria, Texas, I changed trains in New Orleans, Louisiana, I think I changed again in Atlanta, Georgia, and on to Nacoochee. And the people with whom I was to stay met me at the train, and I boarded with them. It was... well, it was all right in... then. You know, we were separated, you know how the races were then. And, but everything – I: Was it separated, were they still separated when you got to Asheville? J: No, no. I: Were the races separated when you got to Asheville? J: Hm-mm. No, we could sit anywhere we wanted to when I came to... Let me see! Wait a minute now! I believe they were. Yeah, I believe they were separated. I: What was Asheville like when you got here? What did the town look like? J: Well, I liked Asheville very well. I sent my children to high school, and occasionally I would go over there and visit the school. It was... I took up nursing. I'm not a trained nurse, I'm a practical nurse. And nursed for a while. My husband wanted me to stay home with… you know, to keep house and prepare the meals and all, so I even quit that. But so far ... [May have been third voice making comment distant from mike.] Urn-hm. I: Mrs. Jarrett, can you remember, what was were your mother and father's names? J: Names? I: Uh-huh. What were their names? J: My father was named William S. Dennis, William Stanley Dennis. My mother was named Louise Robinson before she married my daddy, then she was Louise Robinson Dennis. I: Do you remember both your mother and father? J: Yeah, oh, yes, yes, yes. I: Tell me something about them. Where... J: Well, my mother and father were… Pardon me, did you want me? [Outside interruption] Eugenia Jarrett 3 I: Tell me about your mother. Where did your mother originate? J: She's, ah… in Texas, at Jackson County. My mother and my father, in Jackson County, Texas. Edna, I think, is the largest little place near there. Edna, Texas. And they moved from Edna, Texas, over to Victoria, Texas, and that's where I went to school and graduated and went on to Samuel Huston College, which is a Methodist school in Austin, Texas. Samuel Huston College. I: Do you recall how your father and mother got their – How did your father get the name of Dennis? J: I just don't know. I guess... I don't know. Maybe Grandma's name was Dennis. Millie Dennis. And I don't remember… I: And what was your grandfather's name? J: No. I: You don't remember him? J: No, I don't remember his name. Grandmother lived longer than Grandfather. I was little tiny then. I just don't remember. But I remember Grand-Millie, Grandma Millie. And then… that was on my father's side. Grandma Ellen was on my mother's side. Ellen Robinson and John Robinson. That's my mother's father and mother. My daddy's mother was a Dennis, Millie Dennis, but I don't remember his daddy. I: Do you recall either of their birthdays, your mother or father's birthdays? J: Hm-mm. I: Back to Asheville, when you first came to Asheville, what kind of work did you do? J: When I first came to Asheville, I was a practical nurse. I'd just nurse first one place and then another. Say, for instance, a mother would come home from the hospital with a baby. I'd stay with her a week or two until she was able to do her own work, and then, in the meantime, maybe I'd get a call to stay with some elderly lady who needed someone to stay with her. Just first one place and then another. I wasn't stationary any special place. I went from one place to another. Practical nurse. I: What were the social conditions like for people when you came to Asheville? J: Well, that was before the races were mixed and the better class of Negroes had their own division. We had our own little clubs and social gatherings and all like that, and there were those whose life we didn't exactly like, and we didn't associate with them too much and then they Eugenia Jarrett 4 didn't associate… they had their things and we had ours. Uh, I was, as I say, a practical nurse, and I like to work in the church with the other ladies. I did. We had our own little… I: Which church was that? J: We had an organization called Asheville Federation. Negro Women's Club, the Asheville Federation of Negro Women's Club. We still have that. I: What year was that organized? J: Lord, I don't know when it was organized. I didn't keep up particularly with the dates. We have our own organization, we have a state's meeting, we have a national meeting, and I'm a great NAACP worker, too. I love my NAACP. I used to never miss a NAACP national meeting. I do now because of my health. I'm not sick, I'm just crippled and can't get about like I used to, and I just kind of resigned because I think I've done my share. I still have memberships in those things and occasionally I attend the meetings, but not regularly like I used to. I used to not even miss anything that happened in Asheville or any other place where I was. If it happens to me I heard of something in Atlanta that I wanted to attend, I'd just hop a bus and go to Atlanta. Yeah, any place near Raleigh, Durham, or any place that I wanted to go if [there was] something particularly going on that I wanted to hear and see or to speak and all like that, I was always there. I: What was the purpose of the Federation of Negro Women? What did they do? J: Well, the Negro Women's Club is just an organization among women who... they aspire for higher things, I mean education and social workers and church leaders and church workers, anything in the community that would improve that particular community. We are interested in things like that. I: What was were there black leaders in the community when you came to Asheville? J: Yes, kind of on the... yes, that's right. I: Can you remember who some of those people you considered a leader? Who were some of those people? J: Mary McCloud Bethune. She came here several times and spoke to us. Dr. Charlotte Hawkins Brown, president of a school in Geor... in North Carolina. I stayed there one year. I had charge of the boys of the Charlotte Hawkins Brown School. I: Where was that school? J: That's, ah… what is that, right out of Greensboro. What is that place? I thought I'd never forget it, but I'm getting to the place now where I don't remember things as well as I used to. I: Take your time. Eugenia Jarrett 5 J: Let me see. It was Dr. Charlotte Hawkins Brown... I: Mrs. Jarrett, do you remember any special holidays that black people celebrated that were different from the days that white people celebrated, like the Fourth of July? J: June the 19th was the celebration that we had in Texas. That was when the Negroes were... I think the Negroes –Anyhow it was a big celebration. We'd come together with a big dinner of barbecue. My husband... uh, my father used to barbecue and the women of the community would bring baskets and communities from all around would come and stay with us and we'd have a speaker for that day, Negro, and I remember that better than any other holiday. Cause the 19th of June every year was a big day for us. And that's what we were celebrating, the freedom of the Negroes. I don't know whether it as generally or just a Texas affair. But anyhow we celebrated it and they always… I: Did they celebrate June the 19th when you came to Asheville? J: Yes, uh-huh, yes, they did. June the 19th. They celebrated then. After I got big enough to, you know, know what celebrations were. I guess they had been celebrating it for years, I suppose, but, anyhow, after I was in school and high school and finished college... Of course, the year I finished college, in the spring. I: Do you remember what year that was? J: Nineteen and twenty-one, I think it was. 1921. Samuel Huston College at Austin, Texas. That same year that I finished, Dr. Lovinggood in Nacoochee, Georgia, wanted someone to work among the Negroes there, and he wrote Dr. Lovinggood, who was the principal of the college where I finished. I: Thinking about the church, Mrs. Jarrett, were there any different customs in the church. J: 'Tween Methodist and Baptist, I I: ... that are different now? J: Um-hm. No, not particularly, I don't think, any special difference. They'd attend our church, and we'd attend their church. They had an occasion or something at that church and they wanted visitors, why, we'd go and if we had the same thing they'd come to us. I: Were there any differences in the church? J: Yes. If I went to a Baptist Church on their communion, they did not serve me communion because I'm a Methodist. That's the only thing that I remember. They were that’s the only thing that I remember. But we went to their church quite often because sometimes, when my girlfriends were Baptist and some more Methodists, if they had something to invite us I'd go there and if I had something in my church and I wanted them, I'd invite them. Kind of, in a way, Eugenia Jarrett 6 selfish. Now, maybe we were kind of selfish, too, with our church. Maybe we thought we had the best and they thought they had the best. I: That's the Baptist and the Methodist. J: Hm-hm. That's way back yonder, before they were enlightened, I say. I: Why did you decide to come to North Carolina, to come here to Asheville? J: Well, I married while I was in Georgia, and my children, my two boys, Wallace and Willard Jarrett, had finished high school, and I wanted... I mean, had finished grade school... and I wanted to put them in high school, so I moved to Asheville. I didn't want to rent a house, so I bought a place and we had a house. I: Here in Asheville? J: Uh-huh. I: Well, why did you come to Asheville? J: To put the boys in high school. I: Here? J: Uh-huh, yeah, to put the boys in high school. I: That was your reason for coming to Asheville? J: That was my special reason for coming because I wanted to come to either Atlanta or Asheville. I had been in Asheville before attending summer schools when I was teaching, and I liked Asheville. I: You came to Asheville to attend summer schools? J: Um-hm, yeah. I: Where did you come to? J: Hill Street School. And you had summer school at Hill Street School, and teachers would come to Hill Street School for a six-week session, and I would come to Asheville and stay with a group of people at home that I knew, the girls, and we would attend this six-weeks summer school for teachers and then go back home, go back to Georgia. And then finally when I finished, as I say, when my children finished grade school in Georgia then I came to Asheville to put them in Stephens Lee. It was Stephens Lee School then. And they graduated from Stephens Lee, and both of them were called into service, both my boys. My younger boy was wounded in the service, but my older boy was... they both went through this ... that term of.... in service, and Eugenia Jarrett 7 they both came home. They're both married, both my boys. I: Mrs. Jarrett, do you recall any historic events such as floods or maybe hurricanes that affected your family? Like droughts, or the Depression? Do you remember any of those kinds of events that affected your family? J: Well, I remember the Depression, all right enough. I remember it quite well. But it didn't affect me too much because, after my grandfather and grandmother passed – My grandfather had 600 acres of land he fought for, I think, a dollar a acre maybe, 50 cents a acre, something like that. Both of them passed and that fell to his children. Well, as the children passed that fell to us, and I have never known to want for anything. I didn't consider ourselves rich but we had enough money to supply our needs by being careful. When we decided to give up the place at home, we sold our place and everyone got his part. I have a brother who is down there now. He is the only one that lives on the area where… used to be ours, the whole families. But he's the only he and myself are the only two children left. The rest of them have passed on. I: If I were to ask you, what are some of the specific contributions that you think the black people have made? J: That I've seen here? I: Uh-huh. What would your answer be, the contributions that black people have made to western North Carolina in terms of education and work and things that black people have accomplished? J: I'm trying to think. I'm trying to think. When anything special comes to Asheville, the group of Asheville Federation of Negro Women's clubs contact the rest of the women in Asheville to see if they will attend any meeting that will help us in any way. Anybody who is coming to Asheville for a certain purpose or for a lecture or anything like that, why, we find that the Asheville Federation of Women's Clubs will contact the members of the NAACP or maybe they'll contact us, and the YWCA. We kind of work together to see that our people is included in anything that is up building, uplifting, and, more so, we try to impress the younger people, because a lot of us, as I say, are older women now, and we are constantly kind of fading out, but we're trying to impress the young people to continue to seek things for them just like the whites would get for their people. That's what we're trying to impress on our youngsters, not to let anything good pass and they not attend to find out some of the problems and some of the things that would encourage our young people to aspire for things in life that are worthwhile. And we're having pretty good luck. I mean, when we tell them to attend these meetings or to engage in some of the things that, when they see a white person trying to find a place or get into something, to seek a place for themselves and see what it is and see if they will, could get in there and help out in any way they could or find out what it's all about and if it's for the good, and of course, naturally that's what we want it for. That's what we are trying to get our youngsters to do. I haven't been working like I should have been because of my health recently, but I think in some instances they are having some success because sometimes when I pick up the newspaper and see a picture of somebody in there, there's… say, for instance, the little Girl Eugenia Jarrett 8 Scouts and first things like that, I want our people to be interested enough to see that their children or grandchildren are interested in those things also. Girl Scouts, and Boy Scouts, whatever is good for them, it's good for us. I: Mrs. Jarrett, when you were a child, were you in any of those kinds of organizations? J: No, there wasn't anything like that when I was a child. Huh-uh. The only thing we could do was go to Sunday school and church. They didn't have Girl Scouts and things like that. That's been years ago! I: What did you do as a child to entertain yourself? J: Go to church and Sunday school, sing in conventions, and, if anybody came to town to lecture to us, why, we would go there, and if any... ah... anything like that! I: Do you remember any stories about your relatives or your grandparents that you still remember, things that you may have heard? J: (Laughter). Let me see. No, not particularly. You know, way back then you have no idea, you're too young to remember anything. In my coming up, in my eighteens and twenties as I say, I left home at twenty years of age to come to Nacoochee, Georgia, to work among my people there. When I was twenty years old. I had graduated at Samuel Huston College, and that same year in the fall of the year I came here, came to Nacoochee to work among my people there. And I was... 'course I'd go back home every— I: What type of... and you were a practical nurse? J: Yeah, uh-huh. I: What type of situations did you work in? What type of conditions were the people in that you helped? J: Well, as a rule, black was black, and we'd have to – we just didn't... we couldn't mix too much so with the other race, no matter what... if I was a nurse. I went to the hospital one time to nurse and they only wanted to put me with my own people who were there. If something had happened amongst their people and they were there, I was a practical nurse, I couldn't go there and… to start with, I could now if I was there, but, to start with, I couldn't. [speaking to someone else in the room] Is the van there? Oh, the van's here? I: How are things different now? J: Oh, things are so different. If there's anything specially going on among us that I want some of my white friends to attend, all I have to do is get on the telephone and call. Tell them what it is and when it is and all like that and invite them. And the same thing about them, in some instances. They find out something, that someone is coming to Asheville, and, of course, it isn't necessary to invite us because we know we can go. But sometimes a friend will call and say, "I'm Eugenia Jarrett 9 specially interested in this affair that's going to be at such and such a time and I want you to be there." I: And you couldn't do that back then? J: No-o-o-o, no. Hm-mm I: What was it like trying to get along back then, with things like they were? How did you feel about that? J: I knew one day or another it was going to be better. I knew that. And I was looking forward to that particular day and I was trying to prepare myself for the time when it was that I could... how I could help my children, my neighbors, and my neighbors' children to take the authority, take the means of attending all these things and hear these things and let their children take a part in the things that would improve their community. And I have had pretty good success. Oftentimes when some of the youngsters perhaps wouldn't have attended certain things and heard certain lectures, and perhaps they are there only because I have tried to make it possible for them to attend and to learn all they could and to take part in everything in Asheville that could be elevating for them. Whatever's good for them, whites, and also or us, and that's what I tried to instill into the minds of the youngsters. Even today, if I hear of something going on, all I have to do is just call them and say, "So and so is coming to town and such and such a thing is going to be done. I want you to attend it, take an interest in it, ask questions, and be ready to... whatever is necessary to be done, be part of it." And oftentimes I lucky in having someone to respond. I: Mrs. Jarrett, what would you like to see in the future of black people? J: Well, I'm beginning to see it now. I want to see our men take a part and be a member of… say, for instance, the City Council, whatever is necessary… I mean, whatever they have them, I want our people, somebody, to be in there also and to maybe be an officer. I think there ought to be more than one black person in the City Council, Police Department, I don't care what department it is here in Asheville, where there are whites I want some black person who is capable to be a part of it, I don't care what it is. And the same thing about... ah... now that they are attending the same schools and all like that, I urge my children to be the best in their class, try to be. Don't let because you are black sit back and not have anything to say. You try your very best to do the things that the other school children are doing; the other whites are doing. Their good grades… I want your grades to be good. I don't want you to be slack in anything. I: Mrs. Jarrett, can you think of anything else that you'd like to tell me about your family or about... How long have you been writing poetry? J: Oh ... I: Can you recite any of it? Recite me a poem. J: Let me see. Here not long ago, this is what I wrote: Eugenia Jarrett 10 I was home alone, I was lonesome, I was blue, With lots of leisure time and not too much to do. As I cook or clean house, I'd hum a song. The days to me were, oh, so long. Ah, let me see what that other verse is. Let me see. I: Take your time. J: Let me see if I don't have [it right here] one day it [was asked that] I'd meet the Senior Citizens on South Grove Street (that's this place). The moment I entered the building I knew the lonely days for me were over for sure. We don't worry about getting there for there's a van The driver picks up everyone that he can. Some go to the craft room and knit, crochet and sew, each one doing what she best know. And that's one of them, but that's not all of them. And then I was trying to find the one when I went to New York and over in Canada. This is... no, that's not the first of it. I'm a senior citizen and very proud to be. There are lots of others out there just like me. We've been very important through many, many years. Although we've made it this far, we've had to shed some tears. It wasn’t always easy on the road we had to trod. But so far we made it for we put our trust in God. And that's quite a long one. Things like that. The wakened one worrying not to shoo [inaudible] or to heard [inaudible] Listened carefully and decided it was the song of the bird. I pulled back the draperies and peeped out at the tree. It was a tiny little robin up in my apple tree. As I lay there listening to the little birdie sing, I thought of the joy that was mine coming from such a little thing. It cast out all gloom and brightened my day, Helped me to assist someone on their way. I thought immediately of the Optimist men, A dedicated group of Christians sure to win. Last Christmas they thought of family’s hungry day after day. So a huge box of groceries was soon on its way. Each Tuesday they meet and together make plans Eugenia Jarrett 11 How they might assist the less fortunate man. They seek guidance from God and talk with each other On just what and how to help a down and out brother. And that's part of it and that's the rest of it. I: That is so beautiful. How long have you been writing poetry like that? J: Since I was… my last year in college. I used to write little four-line verses and pass it to my next door, my mate in school. I: Have you written a lot of that? J: Quite a bit of it. When I was in Nacoochee, Georgia, working, I wrote more there than I have here. As I say, I'm getting older and I'm forgetful. I guess a lot of people are. As I say, I'll be 91 in September, and I just don't… I: What is your birth date? J: The 24th day of September. I: And what year? J: Uh, chuckle. Ninety years ago. Laughter. I: That's all right. I'll find it out. J: Anyhow, that reminds me, it's in our… all our birthdays are in our Bible at home, and my brother has the Bible. I just wrote him the other day and told him to send me our Bible, family Bible. We've had it for years and years, and [Tape Ends]
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