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601 W. Eighth Street, Little Rock, Arkansas
Age 77
"You want to know what they did in slavery times! They were doin' jus' what they do now. The white folks was
beatin' the niggers, burning 'em and boilin' 'em, workin' 'em and doin' any other thing they wanted to do with them.
'Course you wasn't here then to know about nigger dogs and bull whips, were you? The same thing is goin' on right
now. They got the same bull whips and the same old nigger dogs. If you don't believe it, go right out here to the
county farm and you find 'em still whippin' the niggers and tearing them up and sometimes lettin' the dogs bits them
to save the bull whips.
"I was here in slavery time but I was small and I don't know much about it 'cept what they told me. But you don't
need to go no further to hear all you want to know. They sont you to the right place. They all know me and they call
me Mother Johnson. So many folks been here long as me, but don't want to admit it. They black their hair and
whiten their faces, and powder and paint. 'Course it's good to look good all right. But when you start that stuff, you
got to keep it up. Tain't no use to start and stop. After a while you got that same color hair and them same splotches
again. Folks say, 'What's the matter, you gittin so dark?' Then you say, 'Uh, my liver is bad.' You got to keep that
thing up, baby.
"I thank God for my age. I thank God He's brought me safe all the way. That is the matter with this world now. It
ain't got enough religion.
"I was born in Mississippi way below Jackson in Crystal Springs. That is on the I. C. Road near New Orleans. The
train that goes there goes to New Orleans. I was bred and born and married there in Crystal Springs. I don't know
just when I was born but I know it was in the month of December.
"I remember when the slaves were freed. I remember the War 'cause I used to hear then talking about the Yankees
and I didn't know whether they were mules or horses or what not. I didn't know if they was varmints or folks or
what not. I can't remember whether I seen any soldiers or not. I heard them talking about soldiers, but I didn't see
none right 'round where we was.
"Now what good's that all goin' to do me? It ain't goin' to do me no good to have my name in Washington. Didn't do
me no good if he stuck my name up on a stick in Washington. Some of them wouldn't know me. Those that did
would jus' say, 'That's old Alice Johnson.'
"Us old folks, they don't count us. They jus' kick us out of the way. They give me 'modities and a nite to spend. Tine
you go and get lard, sagar, meat, and flour, and pay rent and buy wood, you don't have 'nough to go 'round. Now
that night do you some good if you didn't have to pay rent and buy wood and oil and water. I'll tell you something
so you can earn a living. Your name give you a education so you can earn a living and you earnin' it jus' like she
meant you to. But most of us don't earn it that way, and most of these educated folks not earnin' a livin' with their
education. They're in jail somewheres. They're walkin' up and down Ninth Street and runnin' in and out of these
here low dives. You go down there to the penitentiary and count those prisoners and I'll bet you don't find nary one
that don't know how to read and write. They're all educated. Most if these educated niggers don't have no feeling for
common niggers.
They just walk on them like they wasn't living. And don't come to 'em tellin' them that you wanting to use them!
"The people at the same thing in slavery time that they eat now. It better then 'n they do now. Chickens, cows, mules
died then, they throw 'em to the buzzards. Die now, they sell 'em to you to eat. Didn't eat that in slavery time. Things
they would give to the dogs then, they sell to the people to eat now. People et pure stuff in slavery. Don't eat pure
stuff now. Got pure food law, but that's all that is pure.
"My mother's name was Diana Benson and my father's name was Joe Brown. That's what folks say, I don't know. I
have seen then but I wasn't brought up with no mother and father. Come up with the white folks and colored folks
fust one and then the other. I think my mother and father died before freedom. I don't know what the name of their
master was. All my folks died early.
"The fus' white folks I knowed anything about was Rays. They said that they were my old slave-time masters. They
were nice to me. Treated me like they would their own children. Et and slept with them. They treated me jus' like
they own. Heap of people say they didn't have no owners, but they got owners yet now out there on that government
farm.
"The fus' work I done in my life was nussing. I was a child then and I stayed with the white folks' children. Was
raised up in the house with 'em. I was well taken care of too. I was jus' like their children. That was at Crystal
Springs.
"I left them before I got grown and went off with other folks. I never had no reason. Jus' went on off. I didn't go for
better because I was doing better. They jus' told me to come and I went.
"I been living now in Arkansas ever since 1911. My husband and I stayed on to work and make a living. I take care
of myself. I'm not looking for nothin' now but a better home over yonder--better home than this. Thank the Lawd, I
gits along all right. The government gives me a check to buy me a little meat and bread with. Maybe the government
will give me back that what they took off after a while. I don't know. It takes a heap of money to feed thousands and
millions of people. When the check comes, I am glad to git it no matter how little it is. Twarn't for it, I would be in a
sufferin' condition.
"I belong to the Arch Street Baptist Church. I been for about twenty years. I was married sixteen years to my first
husband and twenty-eight to my second. The last one has been dead five years and the other one thirty-six years. I
ain't got none walkin' 'round. All my husbands is dead. There ain't nothin' in this quitin' and goin' and breakin' up
and bustin' up. I don't tell no woman to quit and don't tell no man to quit. Go over there and git 'nother woman and
she will be wuss than the one you got. When you fall out, reason and git together. Do right. I stayed with both of my
husbands till they died. I ain't bothered 'bout another one. Times is so hard no man can take care of a women now.
Come time to pay rent, 'What you waiting for me to pay rent for? You been payin' it, ain't you?' Come time to buy
clothes, 'What you waitin' for me to buy clothes for? Where you gittin' 'um frum before you mai'd me?' Come time
to pay the grocery bill, 'How come you got to wait for me to pay the grocery bill? Who been payin' it?' No Lawd, I
don't want no man unless he works. What could I do with him? I don't want no man with a home and bank account.
You can't git along with 'im. You can't git along with him and you can't git along with her."
Interviewer Samuel S. Taylor"
