 |
|
| Narrator: Robert Boykin and Lillian Augusta Boykin |
| Interviewer: Mildred Pratt |
| Date: January 13, 1986 |
|
| Side A |
|
| MP |
Today is January 13, 1986. I am interviewing Mr. and Mrs. Robert Boykin, whose address is 104 North Eugene Street in Bloomington, Illinois.
|
|
| LB |
The initial is L. Augusta. Lillian Augusta was the name, but we just used the L. |
|
| MP |
Lillian Augusta is your married name-your maiden name? |
|
| LB |
My maiden name was Lillian Augusta Heaston. |
|
| MP |
Lillian Augusta. Spell Heaston for me. |
|
| LB |
H-E-A-S-T-O-N. |
|
| MP |
All right. So if you will tell me when and where you were born? |
|
| LB |
I was born in Randolph, Tennessee. I was born in Tennessee. The year was 1908, February 22. |
|
| MP |
Now who were your parents? |
|
| LB |
Doshie Heaston and Jake Heaston. |
|
| MP |
Now were they involved in slavery or their parents involved in slavery? |
|
| LB |
They wasn't involved in slavery, but I think they parents was. Now I really couldn't go back to that.
|
|
| MP |
Now did they ever talk with you at all about slavery and what it was like? |
|
| LB |
It was bad, they said slavery was bad. Now I don't really know about that. I can't remember. They said it was a pretty rough deal-that slavery was. Now he may be able to tell you more with his mother and father than I can tell you.
|
|
| MP |
How did they happen to come to Tennessee, your parents? |
|
| RB |
They were there when I was born. |
|
| MP |
But I thought they may have told you how they came there. Tell me what life was like growing up in Randolph, Tennessee for you.
|
|
| LB |
It was real good. It was nice. |
|
| MP |
How many children did your parents have? |
|
| LB |
Now my mother had thirteen. And it's only two of us left. But she was the mother of thirteen children, my mother was-and father.
|
|
| MP |
What kind of work did they do? |
|
| LB |
Farm-work. They were farmers. |
|
| MP |
Did they own their own farm? |
|
| LB |
No, they-sharecroppers. They had the cotton and the corn and the beans and peas and stuff like that. The main object was the cotton. They raised an awful lot of cotton and corn.
|
|
| MP |
Now did the children help on the farm? |
|
| LB |
Oh yes, we chopped cotton, and we picked cotton, and we did that kind of stuff. Then we left Tennessee and came to Arkansas.
|
|
| MP |
How old were you then? |
|
| LB |
I was about ten, and my sister was about eight. Yeah. About ten when we left there. |
|
| MP |
Why did you go to Arkansas? |
|
| LB |
I don't know. That was my mother and father's idea to do that. |
|
| MP |
I thought they may have told you. |
|
| LB |
For a better living, I am pretty sure of that. |
|
| MP |
Yes. I think you're right. So what do you know about that experience in Arkansas? What part of Arkansas?
|
|
| LB |
Luxora. And we farmed there. And we done farming there and then my mother she done laundry work you know for the people and stuff of that sort, you know. We done our farming there, and we lived in Arkansas until I was married. And then I came to Illinois.
|
|
| MP |
Now when you say your mother did washing and laundry and that type of thing- she did that for the family that you were sharecropping for? Or any white family?
|
|
| LB |
Any white family that needed it. |
|
| MP |
Do you remember anything about what life was like for Black people in Arkansas where you lived?
|
|
| RB |
Very, very rough. (laughs) |
|
| MP |
Tell me what you mean by that. |
|
| LB |
It was really kind of a rough deal. They paid you nothing much and, of course, the laundry didn't amount to anything you know, but it was kind of a rough life in Arkansas. And then as the years grow, it got a little better and a little better.
|
|
| MP |
Do you remember any lynching taking place there? |
|
| LB | No, no. They told us what to do, and we did that. And for my parents they didn't have any trouble, you know, because they obeyed. They knew what they had to do and they obeyed them, and they didn't have any trouble. And we lived there for many years. Then later on, my mother and dad moved from the farm and bought them a little house in the town of Luxora. And that is where they were when I came to Illinois. |
|
| MP |
Now what about your education? |
|
| LB |
My education was very poor. Seventh grade was as far as I could go in school because I had to help work and help with the other children. Now my other sister got a better education. The ones that died got a better education. All of them got a better education because I was the oldest. Mama, would take me to do the laundry and that's what I learned, and that's what I'm doing right these days. I've retired but I do a little laundry around to kind of keep us moving along.
|
|
