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Brinkley, Arkansas
Age 69
"Josephine Scott Lynch is my name and I sho don't know a thing to tell you. I don't remember my father at tall. The
first thing I can remember about my mama she was fixing to come to Arkansas. She come as a immigrant. They
paid her fare but she had to pay it back. We come on the train to Memphis and on the boat to Gregory Point
(Augusta). We left her brother with grandma back in Tennessee. There was three children younger than me. The old
folks talked about old times more than they do now but I forgot all she said too much to tell it straight.
"We farmed, cleared land and mama and me washed and ironed and sewed all our lives. I cooked for Mr. Gregory at
Augusta for a long time. I married then I cooked and washed and ironed till I got so porely I can't do much no more.
"I never voted and I wouldn't know how so ain't no use to go up there.
"Some of the younger generation is better off than they used to be and some of them not. It depends a whole heap
on the way they do. The colored folks tries to do like the white folks far as they's able. Everything is changing so
fast. The present conditions is harder for po white folks and colored folks than it been in a long time. Nearly
everything is to buy and prices out of sight. Work is so scarce."
Interviewer Mrs. Bernice Bowden"
