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| Narrator: Claude Hursey |
| Interviewer: Mildred Pratt |
| Date: March 30, 1988 |
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| Side A |
|
| CH |
My name is Claude Hursey. |
|
| MP |
Your place of residence. |
|
| CH |
913 W. Monroe Street, Bloomington. |
|
| MP |
When did you come to Bloomington? |
|
| CH |
I came to Bloomington in 1918. |
|
| MP |
Where were you living before you came to Bloomington? |
|
| CH |
In Mississippi. |
|
| MP |
And do you remember the name of the town? |
|
| CH |
Okolona, Mississippi |
|
| MP |
And you came when? |
|
| CH |
Well, we came to St. Louis in 1916 and stayed about four months. We went back to
Mississippi and came back to Champaign and stayed in Champaign until August, 1918. And then we came to Bloomington. |
|
| MP |
How did your family decide to leave Mississippi, do you remember? |
|
| CH |
Well, we had a brother that lived in Champaign, and we had a sister that lived here. So
they just decided they wanted us to come up. My mother and myself and my other brother George. |
|
| MP |
And did your father come with you? |
|
| CH |
No, my father died in 1916. He was in Athens, Greece. |
|
| MP |
Was your father born in Greece? |
|
| CH |
Right. |
|
| MP |
What do you remember about your father? |
|
| CH |
I just remember seeing him and everything. |
|
| MP |
He went back to Greece? |
|
| CH |
Yeah, one of my brothers, Andrew,
went back to Greece with him. |
|
| MP |
And did your brother remain there? |
|
| CH |
Four years, and then he came back to the states. |
|
| MP |
Was your father in business? Would you tell me about your father's business ventures? |
|
| CH |
Well, he had a store and everything down in Okolona, Mississippi. He had some farms and
stuff like that. |
|
| MP |
Do you remember when your father married your mother? |
|
| CH |
No, I don't. |
|
| MP |
You don't remember that. And you don't remember how your father happened to come to this
country from Greece? |
|
| CH |
No, I don't. |
|
| MP |
I guess he came with that flood of immigrants, perhaps, in the late 1800's. You think
so? |
|
| CH |
I don't have the slightest idea. |
|
| MP |
What was his name? |
|
| CH |
George. |
|
| MP |
What was his last name? |
|
| CH |
Cologero. C-O-L-O-G-E-R-O. |
|
| MP |
And he had some business ventures in Mississippi. Was it a grocery store? |
|
| CH |
A combination, just a general store. |
|
| MP |
Was this a town a small town, or was it a fairly large city? |
|
| CH |
It was a small town. |
|
| MP |
Were there a lot of Black people who lived in that town? |
|
| CH |
There was quite a few. |
|
| MP |
Was your father's the only business there? Was it the only Black business in the town? |
|
| CH |
There was two Colored stores in the town. MacIntosh had a store, and Gillum
had a store. General store-sold a little bit of everything. |
|
| MP |
And you had customers-Black and white customers came to his store? |
|
| CH |
Sure. |
|
| MP |
Did your mother work? |
|
| CH |
She only worked in the store and the restaurant. They had a restaurant. She took care of. |
|
| MP |
What kind of food did they prepare in the restaurant? |
|
| CH |
Fish and chickens and stuff like that. Just general food. |
|
| MP |
Any Greek food? |
|
| CH |
No, I don't think they had no Greek food. |
|
| MP |
And how many children in your family? |
|
| CH |
Fourteen. |
|
| MP |
Fourteen children. And how many girls and boys? |
|
| CH |
I think, there was four girls-let's see (papers are being shuffled) four girls and
eight, nine boys. Ten boys, I think, yeah. Four girls and ten boys if I'm not mistaken. |
|
| MP |
And do you know how your sisters happened to come to Champaign and Bloomington? |
|
| CH |
Well, my one sister came after my other sister moved from here to Champaign, then she
went to Champaign from Mississippi. |
|
| MP |
Did you go to school in Mississippi? |
|
| CH |
Yeah. |
|
| MP |
And what grade were you in when you...? |
|
| CH |
Well, I went to what they called the "free school." I think I was only about twelve
years old. I think I was along about the fifth or sixth grade. |
|
| MP |
I have not heard the term free school. Would you explain what that meant? |
|
| CH |
That meant you didn't have to pay. It was a public school, but there they called them
free schools. Then they had one college they called Industrial College. You had to pay tuition to go to that one.
Down there-these elementary schools they call them free school down there. |
|
| MP |
Did your mother remember anything at all about slavery? |
|
| CH |
Not that I know of. |
|
| MP |
She never spoke to you about it. |
|
| CH |
No. |
|
| MP |
Your mother-she would have been alive during slavery, wouldn't she? |
|
| CH |
Well, she died in 1930, and she was sixty-nine years old. Yeah. |
|
| MP |
She never said anything about whether she was a slave, whether her family members were slaves? |
|
| CH |
She never said anything. |
|
| MP |
Would you suspect that perhaps they were free, always free Blacks? You don't have any idea. |
|
| CH |
No, I don't. |
|
| ? |
Did she ever say anything about the confrontations between Blacks and whites? How the
whites treated the Blacks at that time? |
|
| CH |
No. |
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