Transcript of an oral history interview with Minnie Lou Robinson

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Robinson, Mitmie Lou
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EASTSIDE DOCUMENTATION PROJECT
Interviewee's Full Name: Minnie Lou Robinson
Interview's Address: 605 E. 361
' Street
Savannah, Georgia 3140 I
Interviewee's Neighborhood: East Savannah
Interviewer: Charles J. Elmore
Date of Interview: November 11,2008
Length of Interview: 29 minutes, 33 seconds
Interview Medium: Video (Reginald Franklin - Videographer)
Transcriptionist: Samanthis Q. Smalls
Date of Staff Review: Reviewed and corrected by Michelle L. Hunter on 17 September 2009
CE: ... your mother and your father and then, then we'll go from there. Whenever he says he's
ready.
RF: I'm ready.
CE: Okay.
MR: I was born in Dover, Georgia. My mother name was Bessie, uh, Bowman Robinson. My
father's name was Jake Robinson.
RF: Just talk to him. Don't talk to me.
CE: Just talk to tne.
RF: I'm not even here.
MR: My father's name was Jake Robinson; and as, as far as I know, he was born in Dover, Georgia.
CE: Alright. Do you have any brothers and sisters?
MR: No.
CE: Okay.
MR: My sister, I had one sister and she's deceased. No brothers.
CE: Okay. When did you come to Savannah?
Robinson, Mi1mie Lou
MR: My father brought me down here to live with my mother when I was twelve years old. Brought
me down here 'cause he, they was living in Dover, Georgia. And my mother and father
separated and my mother came to Savmmah to her, to my grandmother, to her mother, which is
my grandmother.
CE: Um hum.
MR: Minnie .. .
CE: Alright, let's just stop a minute. You say your parents separated?
MR: Uh huh.
CE: And you stayed for avvhile with your daddy?
MR: Uh huh.
CE: Okay and he brought you to Savannah at twelve?
MR: Uhhuh.
CE: To your mother?
MR: Um hum. 1 was supposed to be coming on a vacation. But when I got here my mother took me
from my daddy. And kept me and wouldn't let me go back.
CE: Keep talking.
MR: And she was living out on LePageville and that's where I lived at until 1938. And then my, I
lived with my grandmother which was Mi1mie Bowman.
CE: Okay, you lived in LePageville from nineteen, literally, from 1936 to 1938?
MR: Yeah.
CE: Okay. Tell me about what life was like, was like in LePageville.
MR: Oh, it was fun time. We had, we had a grand time out there. Growing up, but every afternoon
we'd angry though 'cause we had to tote water from Hine Street clown to number ten on
President Street. We didn't have running water down there, we had to tote water; for cooking,
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Robinson, Mitmie Lou
bathing, and washing. We had to put the wash water, we tote it and put it in barrels and tubs
and wash pots; every evening. But then we had to go to school.
CE: Okay. Um, how far did you have to carry water?
MR: From Hine Street on LePageville down to number ten also, What was that street name? It was,
uh, President Street.
CE: From Hine Street. How you spell Hine Street? You know?
MR: H.I.N.E.S
CE: Okay. In LePageville?
MR: Um hum.
CE: To, literally to, to where?
MR: Number ten on East President Street. But it was, what was that street name before they called it
President? Was the street, but I don't remember the name
CE: That was a good little distance wasn't it?
MR: Yeah, that was quite a shoot, shoot, long distance to us.
CE: Good grief. Okay, let's, go, now tell me about, you told me about your uh, grandmother.
MR: My grandmother, Minnie Bowman. Mitmie J. Bowman. She and my grandfather lived up there
at first 'cause my grandfather was a railroad worker.
CE: Okay. They lived in LePageville first?
MR: Yeah, they lived out there first.
CE: Um hum.
MR: See my grandfather was a railroad worker.
CE: What was his name?
MR: David Barn. But before they moved to LePageville they was living in Orangeburg, South
Carolina. And the railroad transferred him here. And give him this house . ..
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Robinson, Minnie Lou
CE: Okay.
MR: ... on LePageville.
CE: What, what railroad did he work for?
MR: Um.
CE: Coastline?
MR: Coastline Railroad. Coastline Railroad that's, and they transferred him from Orangeburg, South
Carolina down here to Savannah and set him up on LePageville. And from what I can
understand from them, when they came here, the church that, that we, was given to us ...
CE: Um hum.
MR: ... was a Methodist church at first.
CE: The church in LePageville was Methodist at first?
MR: Yeah, was a Methodist church. Because out there in that community there was Methodists and
Baptists living out, working for the railroad and living in that section.
CE: All black right?
MR: Uh huh. And my grandmother, she told me that uh, when they first went out there, see my
grandmother and grandfather was Baptist. And when they first went out there the Methodists
would hold their services twice a month and then the Baptists would hold their services twice a
month. And then eventually, they merged into one, to a Baptist church.
CE: Okay, let me get that point. Boy that's important.
MR: He vvrite faster than a typewriter.
CE: Okay, merged into a Baptist church by when?
MR: That was in oh, it, Lord I had the history in my hand.
CE: We can stop recording until you go find it.
[brief break in video]
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Robinson, Minnie Lou
MR: Um, it was tore down LePageville ...
CE: Um hum.
MR: ... Baptist Church. The church was given to us by Mr. R.F., F.D. Delaney.
CE: Um hum.
MR: In eighteen, 1986.
CE; Umhum.
MR: I believe it \Vas. I think it was 1986.
CE: Okay, how, okay, okay.
MR: All of that is in there.
CE: Alright. We are, we going, we got,
MR: And after
CE: I got a form that I'm going to fill out.
MR: Um hum.
CE: Saying that I have this document and that it, you know, will be returned to you.
MR: Okay.
CE: This is really important. Wow. Man it's a blessing to do this you know. This a blessing.
MR: Well good.
CE: Ya ' ll think I'm crazy but I mean.
MR: I hope, I hope it'll be a blessing to our church 'cause see when we tore down that church, when
the church was given to us ...
CE: Um hum.
MR: ... it was given because they didn't want to tear it down. It was given to us and we had
permission to move it. So at first we were thinking about reestablishing, moving it from
LePageville and setting it up, setting it up in East Savannah.
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Robinson, Mitmie Lou
CE: Wow.
MR: And they couldn't find a lot in East, in East Savmmah.
CE: Um hum.
MR: So, the Reverend um, Peter Holmes ...
CE: Umhum.
MR: .. . give us a lot on West fitly, 56111 Street.
CE: Right.
MR: You know Peter Holmes.
CE: Yeah, I know that church is still there. I drove right cross it after church.
MR: Uh huh. And uh, he give us a lot out there on his property. But then when we checked into
having the church rolled instead of tearing it down, the price was too high. We couldn't,
couldn't afford to pay the price for the rolling and then there was too much handicap vvith the
wiring; the streetlights and the wiring and what not. So then, that's when we set out then to
buy, to find, to find a lot. We tried on Harmon and uh, Anderson; we couldn' t afford that. And
my sister was working forum, the Nathan Tenenbaum, where those, Chatham Steel over there.
CE: Okay, what I'm going to put down here is that, hold on for a minute let me write ...
[brief break in video]
CE: In the time you lived in LePageville, um, you say about fun, what did ya'll do for fun?
MR: What we did for fun?
CE: Um hum; as children.
MR: Hide-and-Go Seek. Hide-and-Go Seek. That's the mostest thing we did, play Hide-and-Go
Seek. And, and, and, and the younger, the young, the younger ones can tell you more than that.
CE: Alright. And um, what did the people do for fun? The adults?
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Robinson, Minnie Lou
MR: The adults they would have parties and, what they was, fish fries. What they call it, rent
money? And they would get together and . ..
RR: (whispering) Tell about Captain Sam's boat rides.
MR: Huh?
CE: No. I don't want you talking when your mama talk. You'll have your time. You tell me, you
tell me. You don't need her.
MR: (laughing) She, she, she helping me out.
CE: No, she ain't going to help you out. Fish fries, what else did they sell? Did they have any kind
of illegal whiskey or anything going on?
MR: Oh honey. Let me tell you 'bout that. They had the home brew and the white lightning. That's
what they used to call it, white lightning. I ain't hear nothing, you didn't hear so much about
beer.
CE: Um hum.
MR: Home brew. And people would come all the way from the city out there to buy home brew
from Mr. Smith. And then they would go down there by the Southern State Fertilizer Company
and go in the swimming hole.
CE: Wait a minute.
MR: If not that, then they'd get all, get a carload and go out to uh, out to Gunney's ...
CE: Um hum.
MR: and, and the Treetop Inn. I remember that.
CE: Alright. The, the adults would go where now? To the swimming?
MR: To the swimming hole clown behind, 'round there by Southern State. That used to be the
baptism pool too. Down there by Southern State, it was a big place down there. Yeah, that's
where, that's where they vvould go swimming at. And if not that, then they would go down to
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Robinson, Mitmie Lou
the Deptford, go down there in Deptford. It was someplace to go down there in Deptford and,
and play. I don't know.
CE: And also the baptism pool for LePageville?
MR: Yeah, it was. That's where I got baptized at. Got baptized in that pool and they tell me there
was a snake just a swimming around in that pool but thank God I didn't see him. 'Cause if I
would've saw him, it wouldn't have been no baptism that day. No sir.
CE: When did you get baptized?
MR: 1945.
CE: The year I was born. Okay. Now, your grandfather, was he a railroad man too?
MR: Yeah. He was a railroad man. My grandfather was a railroad man. That's how, that's how he
got to Savannah.
CE: I think you told me that. Yeah. Was your daddy, your daddy was a railroad man too?
MR: No.
CE: Okay. Um, what are some of your most vivid recollections of just the neighborhood in
LePageville? How people felt about each other, did they help each other?
MR: It was a close knit uh, neighborhood. If you could do something for someone, you did it. There
was no, to my, to my recollection that everybody was just friendly out there. And, and, and, and
you know the old adults used to chastise the children out there.
CE: Um hum.
MR: When they doing wrong. And if them old folks see you doing something wrong and go tell your
mama and you say you didn't do it, you still gone get a whipping. The old folks gone whip you
before you get home and then when you get home and say you didn't do it, you gone get
another whipping.
CE: Umhum.
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Robinson, Minnie Lou
MR: So that's the kinda, uh, uh, environment LePageville was. People looked out for each other.
They didn't uh, they didn't, there was no integration out there between them.
CE: Okay.
MR: If they could help, they would help.
CE: In terms of uh, LePageville was all black wasn't it?
MR: Yeah.
CE: There were no blacks, no blacks living in LePageville? No whites?
MR: No whites, no.
CE: Okay.
MR: The whites lived on the other side of Wilshire Road. Over there in, what's that apartment was
over there? Oak, Oakview.
CE: Okay.
MR: Was on the other side of, but no blacks was on LePageville. The only blacks that I can
remember, can recall being out there on LePageville was the Price's and they was behind
CE: Um hum.
MR: the cemetery, like you going toward um, the old Standard Oil Company. Those the only one's
CE: Okay. The Prices' were white?
MR: Yeah, they was white. And they lived, they lived out there but you never did see them.
CE: Who lived behind LePageville Cemetery?
MR: Yeah.
CE: Are any of your relatives buried in LePageville?
MR: My mother out there. My mother out there and I got a first cousin out there.
CE: You know what your first cousin name?
MR: My first cousin name is uh, Melvin Moore.
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Robinson, Minnie Lou
CE: Okay. Anything else? What was the, what was the rent ya'II paid, rent you paid?
MR: As far as I can remember, as much as I can remember the highest rent you paid out there was
$7 a month. You had them $7 fish, $7 Saturday night fish fries, those that didn't have the
money. Have them $7 fish fries and sell all that home brew and that white lightning. And get
that, pay that $7 rent, a month rent. That's as high as I remember. I don't think they even, I
don't think it ever got up to $10. (talking to someone off screen) Bring him David. You tired of
him? Bring him here.
CE: They sell chicken, chicken dinners too? Did they sell chicken too?
MR: Yeah.
CE: How 'bout chittlings?
MR: Chittlings? Oh, that was the, that was the pot. The chittlings and the chicken and the um, what
you call that other thing? Um, the hogmaw.
CE: Um hum.
MR: All them kind of stuff, all that kind of stuff. It was good eating, it was good eating then.
CE: Okay.
MR: Go in there, go out there in that garden and crop them collard greens. And have all that kind of,
and 'specially them chittlings.
CE: I still eat 'em.
MR: Huh?
CE: Love 'em. Okay, at these house parties, would they have music?
MR: Yeah with the, with the, with the record player.
CE: Okay.
MR: They didn't even have television, they had record players. You know, the one's you turn?
CE: Um hum.
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Robinson, Minnie Lou
MR: Some of 'em had that.
CE: Really had Victrolas right?
MR: Yeah, Victrolas. That's what you call 'em? Victrolas?
CE: Umhum.
MR: Yeah. Some, some of, some peoples had Victrolas. And the ones that had the Victrolas, that's
where the party go on. And on Palm Sunday ...
CE: Um hum.
MR: ... everybody from everywhere came out there on Palm Sunday. Walk down that railroad track
to get on LePageville. LePageville was the stumping ground. Everybody having fun from house
to house, all clay long; especially drinking that home brew. But you know, there was very
seldom a fight on LePageville, out there. The only fighting that I can remember out there was
with that one Palm Sunday. Happy, I don't know whether you remember that or not. Happen a
group, another group of boys from the Westside .. .
CE: Umhum.
MR: ... came out there and they started that big fight. Coming clown President, coming clown the
railroad track 'cause there wasn't, wasn't no road cut through there that one time. You had to
walk clown the railroad track from, from Randolph Street all the way to LePageville or come
'round that back street clown by the ...
CE: Umhum.
MR: ... by the uh, Southern Light.
CE: You say Westside boys came to LePageville?
MR: Yeah. And that's when ...
CE: Okay. Boy, that's, that's vivid. You know, it reminds you ofuh, like Porgie and Besse, Catfish
Rovv.
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Robinson, Minnie Lou
MR: Yeah.
RF: Um hum.
CE: Life was like that for real in the South for us black folks.
RF: Umhum.
MR: Yeah.
CE: And now you know, people look at that and think it wasn't. But it was like that.
MR: Yeah it was like that. It, it, it, it um, that, that's the only fight that I can remember there .. .
CE: Okay.
MR: . .. 'cause they had, they had county, city police, everything, everybody out there.
CE: What were, what were the relationships like between, you had much interface or any, any, too
much interaction with whites?
MR: No.
CE: Okay.
MR: We didn't have none of that.
CE: Alright. And most, where did most of the men work? Just on the railroad?
MR: Most of the mens worked to the Southern State Fertilizer Company.
CE: Or the railroad?
MR: No, the Southern State Fertilizer Company or the Standard Oil Company down there. It was the
Southern States and the Standard Oil Company. And a lot of the mens worked at the Standard
Oil Company. But the majority of them lived on LePageville worked at The Southern State
Fertilizer Company.
CE: Okay. Were some railroad men?
MR: Yeah. Some of 'em were still railroad 'cause my grandfather was, worked on the railroad until
he passed. And he passed in nineteen, 1936.
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Robinson, Minnie Lou
CE: Okay. When you first got there?
MR: No. No, no, not when I first got there. It was '36, '37.
CE: Okay.
MR: My grandfather passed in '37 and my mother passed in '38.
CE: Okay.
MR: And then, that's when we, my grandmother moved from out there in '38.
CE: Alright. Granddaddy 193 7 and your mom?
MR: '38.
CE: Okay, '38. After which you and grandma moved?
MR: Yeah. Into the city. I remember right, when my grandma was over there on 5th Street
CE: Fifth Street? I'll be James Brown. Right down the street from 6th Street.
MR: Yeah.
CE: 'Cause that's where, my wife and I lived on 6th Street when we first got married.
MR: Well my, my, my
CE: That's 5th Street offWheaton?
MR: Yeah.
CE: I'll be.
MR: And then she moved from there, she moved from there clown on, clown there in Hitch Village,
down there where Hitch Village is now; down there on Jackson Street. And we lived on
Jackson Street awhile. And what happened? I'm moved on Clifford Street? I think they, I don't
know. But we lived down there in the Fort, they used to call it the Old Fort.
CE: Okay. You lived in the Fort, right.
MR: We lived down there in the Fort until 1942 I believe it was; '42 or 43. Anyway, when they start
tearing down that project down there, then that's when we moved from down there.
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Robinson, Mitmie Lou
CE: Okay.
MR: Then they was fixin' to build uh, Fred Wessel.
CE: Okay.
MR: That's when we moved from clown there.
CE: Okay, moved when they began ...
MR: 'Cause when they start to tearing clown that project down there, we was living on Randolph
Street then; right in front of New Hope Baptist Church. And that, I can't recall what year that
was.
CE: Okay. Let me, let me ask you something else.
RF: Hold for just. ..
[brief break in video]
CE: When you were in LePageville, school, schools. Where did everybody, where did the black
kids go to school?
MR: Thunderbolt; right where Savannah State College at now. Right, right where Savannah State
College is built.
CE: Okay. Did, did you go to the laboratory school?
MR: No, it was, it was, it wasn't but one school down there.
CE: Okay. You remember the name of it?
MR: Thunderbolt Elementary School.
CE: Was it on the campus of Savannah State?
MR: No, it wasn' t on the campus.
CE: Oh, okay.
MR: It wasn' t, it wasn't no Savannah State clown there then. It wasn't nothing down there but, but
uh ...
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Robinson, Minnie Lou
CE: Okay.
MR: ... Thunderbolt Elementary School.
CE: What, what uh, what grades did it go to?
MR: Seventh.
CE: Grades one to seven?
MR: I, I went down there to seventh but it went higher than that. See, after we moved into the city,
then they, then I was transferred. I think it went up to the 12th grade. I think it went up to the
12th grade.
CE: Okay.
MR: I'm not too sure.
CE: Alright. And after, after ya'll moved from LePageville, you went there one year?
MR: No, I went there from the time I was out living on LePageville until we moved.
CE: First to seventh. 'Cause all the people told me they went to Powell Lab School on the campus
of Savannah State.
MR: Oh. I don't know. All I, all I know is that it wasn' t but one school down there that I know of
and that was called the Thunderbolt ...
CE: Okay.
MR: Elementary School.
CE: Alright. So first through seventh grade you went there. And after seventh grade, did you
continue to go to school.
MR: No. I think that's when I dropped out of school. Because I was supposed to enroll in um, the
Paulsen Street School.
CE: Um hum.
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Robinson, Minnie Lou
MR: But when I went to Paulsen Street School, they was full and East Broad Street was fu ll. And I
was supposed to go the next year, but the next year didn't never come.
CE: Okay. Okay, what did you do then? After you got out, after you didn't school you were about?
What did you do after, after seventh grade? What did you do?
MR: Went, went to work.
CE: Okay.
MR: Went to work with my grandmother, I used to go to work with my grandmother. And then, I
got a job of my own, start taking care of myself. And the first family that I worked for was the
Wises' . That's where my grandmother was working. And she would take me to work with her.
CE: You talking ' bout them movie people?
MR: Yeah.
CE: Work for Albert Wise and them?
MR: Uh huh. My grandmother worked for them.
CE: Okay. So you got you a job on your own. Who did you ... ?
MR: I worked to the, the Chatham ... what the school up there? Up there on Oglethorpe and uh ..
CE: Chatham Academy?
MR: Up there on Oglethorpe and Bull. What's the name of that school up there?
CE: Chatham Academy.
RR: That's where the Board of Education is now.
CE: Chatham Academy.
RR: That one.
CE: Chatham Academy.
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Robinson, Minnie Lou
MR: Chatham, Chatham, it wasn't Chatham Academy, Academy then it's Chatham Academy now.
But it was Chatham Junior High? 'Cause my aunt, my aunt was working up there and I got a
job working up there in the cafeteria.
CE: Okay. How, vvhen did you go there to work?
MR: I can't remember what year that was. But I knew I was, I had to go to work. The first job I had
was working at the cafeteria on Bull Street with the Mazo's. That's when uh, when uh, used to,
the, the train used to run from Randolph Street to Tybee. And the Mazo's had a cafeteria there
on, on Bull Street between State and Ogle, isn't that where the Post Office.
CE: Mazo, how you spell that name?
MR: M.A.Z.O. I worked there, worked with them for a short period of time. And that's when my
aunt got this job to the school, working in the, got this job for me to the, to the school, to start
working at the school in the cafeteria. And I stayed there until, I don't know how many years I
stayed there.
CE: Okay.
MR: But then the next job I had, I had a job working for
CE: You worked in a school cafeteria you say?
MR: Uhhuh.
CE: Okay.
MR: Serving lunch, getting the lunch ready.
CE: Okay. Uh .. .
MR: I had to . . .
CE: ... what job did you spend the longest time with?
MR: The job I'm on now.
CE: What job is that?
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Robinson, Minnie Lou
MR: Working for the Mazo's?
CE: You still working with them?!
MR: I, I started with the Mazo's and then I left the Mazo's and then as I got older,
CE: Umhum.
MR: I worked for the uh, I worked for the uh, oh I can' t call the people's name now. I worked for
them.
CE: Umhum.
MR: Oh, oh goodness. It'll come to me.
CE: Don't worry about that. But basically, you worked at Chatham Junior High, the cafeteria.
MR: Yeah.
CE: Then you worked for the Mazo family's cafeteria.
MR: Yeah.
CE: Okay. On Randolph, from Randolph, on Randolph Street, okay.
MR: That's where I lived at, on Randolph Street. The Mazo kitch, the Mazo cafeteria was uh, on
Bull Street.
CE: Okay. On Bull Street.
MR: It's two something; 220, I think the address is 220.
CE: Um hum.
MR: And I didn't work there but just a short period of time. The longest period of time I worked was
at the school and the job I'm on now.
CE: Okay. And how long you worked at the school? You think.
MR: I don't know.
CE: Okay. But how long you been working for the Mazo's you think?
MR: The job I'm on?
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Robinson, Minnie Lou
CE: Yeah.
MR: Fifty, 52 years.
CE: Okay. Worked. What do you do for a living?
MR: Cook. I was, in the begitUling I was a housekeeper.
CE: Fifty-two years.
MR: Umhum.
CE: And you still working?
MR: Um hum.
CE: You off today?
MR: Um hum. I don't work but three days, a couple of hours. Mondays, Wednesdays, and
Thursdays, home Tuesdays and Fridays.
CE: Okay. Only for a couple of hours.
MR: Um hum.
CE: Monday,
MR: Wednesdays and Thursdays.
CE: Okay. That's remarkable. Now, let's see, we already said that. Did you, vvere you ever involved
in any Civil Rights activities in your lifetime.
MR: Um, um.
CE: Okay. Okay, let's see. I think you told me, and you told me, you told me about everything else:
'bout what the people did for fun and amusements. 'Cause I'm really interested in LePageville.
MR: Umhum.
CE: I guess, anything you want to tell me that you, you think I ought to know about your life in
LePageville?
MR: Well I think you got it all right there.
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Robinson, Mitmie Lou
CE: Yeah, I believe so. That was great.
END
City of Savannah NOTES
l. Footage is unedited and presented in the form that it was recorded. Breaks represented
pauses or c hanges in taping medium.
2. Filmed on the dale indicated a t the home of !he resident.
3. Designations-- "MR" indicates Minnie Robinson. "RR" indicates Ruthie Rawlerson. "RF" indicates
Reginald Franklin. the Projecf Videographer. "CE" indicates Charles Elmore. the Project
Historian.
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