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- I conducted this interview in person at my grandmother’s house in Goochland, Virginia. When I arrived at my grandmother’s I set up a quiet area that allowed us to have a free flowing interview without it being interrupted. I used my iphone 7 and a recording app to record the conversation. Not too many obstacles were presented to us with the set up through the course of the interview because she lives in a pretty remote area with not that much outside noise to distract us.
- Brenda kite Wilcox an 80-year old mother, grandmother, and great grandmother grew up in Elizabethton, Tennessee, with one brother and one sister. She was the child of Fred and Ethel Kite. she stayed in rural Tennessee until she and Donald Wilcox eloped to Hadensville Virginia where they raised six kids (Donna, Fred, Susan, Neil, Brad, and Jason) and where they ran a country store. Donald passed away in 2017. Brenda worked in the store, and also in the local post office. She volunteered in the fire department whenever she could lend a hand because all four of her boys tended to be there at one point in time. She still resides in Hadensville where she works for her son, fred, keeping the books to his HVAC company.
- My grandmother remembers a lot about tennessee in the time of jim crow and before so most of the information i gathered for the interview was through she and her sister, sandy, before making the guidelines for my questions. One thing that tended to come up a good amount in both my research strategies was the use of railroads and how segregation was very harsh on them as stated in this academic journal Kenneth W. Mack. Law, Society, Identity, and the Making of the Jim Crow South: Travel and Segregation on Tennessee Railroads, 1875-1905. Law & Social Inquiry. 1999;24(2):377. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?. Another piece that i looked into a good amount was how they were segregated overall in this community while a lot came from my family telling me that it was separated into two sides of town. Robert Rook, in Race, Water, and Foreign Policy: The Tennessee Valley Authority’s Global Agenda Meets “Jim Crow.” Diplomatic History. 2004;(1):55, speaks in a more formal way from how it was handled all across the state. I tried to stick to a more conventional way of research by personal interactions for this project because towns in a state can be very very different from one another so i wanted to get the best outcome for this project by really narrowing my research down to the specific time and place. The final source i used was a academic journal that shares insight of how some rural streetcars were segregated in tennessee and the reason i chose it was because i believe that this best fit my topic of conversation in the matters of segregation and small country towns in tennessee, August Meier, Elliott Rudwick. Negro Boycotts of Jim Crow Streetcars in Tennessee. American Quarterly. 1969;21(4):755. doi:10.2307/2711607.
MW- “hello mrs wilcox how are you doing this evening?”
BW-” i’m doing fine and yourself?”
MW- “i cannot complain why don’t we go ahead and jump right in. so how would you describe elizabethton tennessee during the jim crow era did you see the area as separated? “
BW- “you know we were always a very small quiet working little town but looking back on it we were separated in one major aspect and that was where we lived on the higher side of town was all white folk and down in the flood area of the town was a area that was always referred to as “bear town” i never could get a straight answer as to why it was called bear town because that how it has always been since we were little kids but there was always rumors because that was were the black folk always lived.”
MW- “did you guys ever have a issue personally with the african americans during this time?”
BW- “no sir, we kept to our side of town as so did they. Although my uncle owned a hardware store right at the edge of both areas and really the only black guy i had ever known worked for him and he was just as nice as he could be he was always very eager to help in any way he could and my uncle trusted him alot with the shop.”
MW- “so he was the only african american you really knew personally up to this point in your life?”
BW-”i would have to say yes like i said we for some reason stayed on our side of town and so did they there was never any problems that was just the way it was.”
MW- “so when they finally started to desegregate the area how did you and your peers feel about this?”
BW- “you know i don’t believe it changed a thing in our eyes we didn’t really care in the grand scheme of things we kinda had our own communities that were functioning in the first place and both of those didn’t really change that much besides in the schools and i was already out of school.”
MW-” how about when you moved to a more diverse area in virginia how was that?”
BW- “that was actually more of a culture shock to me and Donald because when we moved we just never had to interact with african americans that much and then we bought the store and next thing we figured we were selling products that were accustomed to the african american culture, like we had never dreamed about selling items such as pigs feet or chitlins but that was just what was in high demand for this area. “
MW- “so you would say it was a fairly decent adjustment for you guys though?”
BW-” um, in ways yes in others no. buying items for the store that was easy because it was very cut and dry but learning a new dialect was harder just picking up on that kind of slang got a little tricky especially for Don.”
MW- “how long did it take you guys to really get adjusted to this kind of dialect and the culture of a new town?”
BW- “i would say it took us about a year before we really figured out the ends and outs of the culture in haynesville.”
MW- “you guys then moved to henrico county to have children correct?”
BW- “yes that is correct we moved to a more suburb area to start our family while we kept the store the county over.”
MW- “so after yall had kids and everything did you guys just stay in henrico to raise your family?”
BW-”no sir we eventually moved everyone back to goochland right beside the store because it was less stressful of a commute to run the store and we got more land out of it as well so it was just the smarter decision for the family. “
MW- “was there a big difference in cultures coming from the suburbs back to a rural goochland county?”
BW-”yes sir in the suburbs where we had started our family there was very little black folk and the overall culture was very different.”
MW- “how would you describe it?”
BW- “well in the suburbs it was very uppity and very white, while in goochland it was 50/50 and it was just a very mountainy kind of presence were you didn’t need much to get by and you made dew with what you had on hand.”
MW- “could you tell a change in your children’s demeanor when you all made this transition?”
BW- “at first i could sense it a little bit but they were just kids so i could tell they were adapting very quick to their surroundings.”
MW- “how do you think that this area in virginia played with the area in tennessee where you were from in the point of social interactions with african americans”
BW- “well you know i have thought about this in a few different ways and i can tell some very strong similarities and some very strong differences.”
MW- “can you elaborate on that a little bit more?”
BW- “yes so in elizabethton we never interacted with african americans at all compared to in goochland where we interacted with them daily and i think that it was just a learning curve for everyone but the basics were still intact everyone never had a problem with anyone we just kinda did what we had to do and got on with our days. While on the other hand we interacted a lot more just causing more of a culture shock to us and them which made it seem different because we all had our own ways of doing certain stuff so i think heads would kind of collide in that aspect.”
MW- “well Mrs. wilcox i think you alot for your time and the information “
BW-” it was my pleasure “
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