Ella Johnson
Transcript
JS- Ok my name is Jeffrey Shenton and I’m the instructor for Anthropology 389 lived histories at Centre College and I’ll be responsible for recording this interview. The date is January 28th, 2021. This is being recorded and conducted by telephone and recorded over a zoom call. The interview is scheduled to last approximately one hour and will consist of an oral history that covers Mrs. Johnson’s life and career in Danville and Boyle County and especially on the urban renewal period in Danville and its effects on the local community. Now I would like each of the interviewers to introduce themselves, can you give your name, your age, your year at Centre, and where you’re from.
AL-I’ll go first. My name is Avi Leffler, I am 18 years old, I am a first year student, at Centre College and I’m from Louisville, Kentucky.
KM- I’m Kambe, I’m 20 years old, I’m a junior at Centre College and I’m from Boston, Massachusetts.
CS- I’m Chandler Steele, I am 18 and a first year and I’m from Murray, Kentucky.
JS- Now I would like Mrs. Johnson to introduce herself could you please give your full name your age and where you currently reside?
EJ- Yes my name is Ella, Ella Johnson, I’m 77 years old and I live in Danville, Kentucky.
JS- Thank you and now we’ll start the interview.
AL- Good afternoon Mrs. Johnson how are you today?
AJ- I’m doing fine and you?
AL- I’m doing well it’s a little bit cold but otherwise. Um, so why don’t we begin with your early life? Could you tell us about your childhood and what your family was like?
EJ- Well, oh, where do I start? Well, um I remember, I remember when I was 4 years old, that’s when I first remember me and my grandmother made me a birthday cake that was my first memory when I was a little girl. Anyways I lived with my grandparents we always lived on a farm and if you know where, um, Bate Junior High. . . Do you know where Bate Junior High is? [AL- ummm] Off Stanford? Well, you probably don’t well anyways we lived on a farm called Old Crow in, that’s were I was raised up at, it was off of Stanford Road. And we could walk to school, but if it was too bad my grandfather always drove us so other than that I graduated from Bate High School before it was integrated. It integrated in 1967 I think. They, um, tried And I think back in the 70’s it was Ms. Helen Fisher Frye she took on the responsibility of, um, taking students up to like the drug stores you know where we couldn’t sit and protested. But my grandparents wouldn’t let us go, she said we might get killed so we couldn’t go. So she took a bunch of students up to like the drug store and you know, they did the sit-ins therefore we couldn’t go in and sit in and order we had to stand at the end of the counter and order. So other than that, you know we didn’t have no big riots here in Danville, really. Most everybody was like on 2nd street on the weekends. Everyone would go sit in the cars. People, you know, dress up and would walk up and down the street and socialize. Do you have any questions to ask me, or?
AL- Um yeah, what was your neighborhood like? Were you in a more rural part? Or. . ..
EJ- Oh yeah, we lived on the farm we didn’t have any neighbors or people we played with were our cousins. Cause my grandmother babysit for them. We just had our friends, you know in school, we didn’t see them until school started again so we didn’t have any neighbors you know, just neighbor-neighbors. Like I said, the only people we had to play with were our cousins. And the people we went to church with we’d just see them on Sundays the other days you know didn’t have no playmates like we do now we just played with each other, you know like with our cousins and things.
AL- Did you work on the farm and help run it?
EJ- Oh yeah, yeah. We worked, I worked on the farm like a. . . you heard of, well, you know how to plant tobacco, we’d reset tobacco you had to pull the old dead plants up and set them out by hand. And we used to chop back the corn fields and help with the tobacco. The men put to tobacco on the wagon to take it to the barn, us kids we helped take it off the wagon and hand it to the men so they could hang up in the barn. Yeah, I worked on the farm. The only thing I couldn’t do was milk the cows. My cousins could, but I couldn’t, I couldn’t milk a cow. Yeah, we worked on the farm. Chopped outside . .. It was all day long, chop up the cornfields there was big cornfields and we had chopped those out and the tobacco, they call it top the tobacco, we had to pull the little flower off of it. And, um, take the worms off the tobacco.
AL- It was hard work wasn’t it?
EJ-Hum? Tobacco gets worms on it so we had to take those worms off.
AL- Yeah, right. It was hard work wasn’t it?
EJ- It was, I said when I grow I’m not going to live on no farm and I didn’t. It was hard work, yeah.
AL- So when did you exactly stop doing that? Like maybe once you got out of high school?
EJ- Yeah, yeah, when I got married, yeah I did.
AL- Did you do any extracurriculars in high school?
EJ- Yeah, I was a cheerleader, I was. And we didn’t have a basketball. . . I’m like 5’10 ½” and at that time we didn’t have a basketball team when I was in school and I was a cheerleader. I ran for May Queen. I didn’t win it, but I came in second.
CS- Have you lived in Danville your entire life?
EJ- No, I worked for AT&T. The office closed here so I transferred to Louisville for 3 years, then that office closed and I transferred to Florida for 2 years and it was too far from home so I transferred to Cincinnati for 3 years and that office closed so I retired from AT&T
CS- So you moved to a couple of big cities after Danville.
EJ- Yeah.
CS-How was that transition like?
EJ- Oh, it was. . .Well Florida, I moved to Florida and it wasn’t like I thought it’d be. I moved to Jacksonville. I thought it was going to be like palm trees and sunny and ocean and that, some parts are like that but the part I was in wasn’t like that. But you had to go up () for that. The part I was in reminded me of Danville. Louisville, Ky was alright. I moved to Louisville because I had family down there.
CS- So, uh, you mentioned Second Street when you were talking about growing up could you just like describe what 2nd street was like, how big?
EJ- My mother had a restaurant up there called Turner, Turner Grill. She had a restaurant there and we helped in the restaurant, me and my sisters would helped her in the restaurant, you know like we didn’t cook or anything, I guess you just call us waitress, we’d give people their food and stuff.
KM- So in your perspective how has Danville changed over time? Do you think it’s changed a lot or do you think like it’s similar to how it was like back then?
EJ- Yeah, it’s changed some. Danville’s been alright. It’s changed as far as, you know, treating people equal but you know urban renewal came through, you know, and bought up the black people’s property and promised we could buy it back and that didn’t happen. Out here where I live, I live here in West Danville, they bought up all this property and told us we could buy the property back but they sold it to someone else. That was back. . . .
KM- How was life on 2nd street before urban renewal and you know before they started taking over the businesses and like a lot of the homes.?
EJ- The part I was in, you know, like, the block I was in my mother had a restaurant downstairs and we lived upstairs. There was a barbershop, cab station, I think it was about two or three restaurants, poolroom, and of course a church was on, was across the street right there on the corner of Second and Walnut, First Baptist Church.
AL- So you could say it was the heart of the town or?
EJ- Like I said, Yeah that’s where people would mingle on Saturday nights. People come set in cars watching people go up and down the street.
AL-There was always a buzz going on in the air?
EJ-Umhm.
AL- So you’re back in Danville correct? [EJ- Yes, umhm] Did you ever feel uncomfortable living here?
EJ- No because, you know, we were young we really didn’t know any better. It was the only thing we knew. I never felt uncomfortable living here in Danville. [AL- ok] You know, like, like when we was in school we had this restaurant called Bun Boy and we could order but had to go to the back door to order our food. You know, they gave it to us out the back window or door or something but we couldn’t go inside you know, to get food, we had to go around to the back to order, of course we couldn’t go inside.
AL- How did that make you feel?
EJ- Well, like I said we really didn’t know no better until I grew up and knew that was wrong.
CS- Did you experience anything worse as you got older and moved from city to city?
EJ- No.
CS-Did you, like, see anything that made you understand more, like, than you did when you were a kid.
EJ-Well, you know when you work in a place you see things you know it’s not right, yeah, it’s not equal.
AL- Was there any, like, excuse me, defining moment to where you realized there was a problem? That there really was things going on the world that weren’t right?
EJ- Oh yeah, let me see. Well yeah, you know, well yeah, when we’s at school you know we had. . . the books we had we got them from Danville High School, you know the used books? The books that had pages torn out and backs off. You know, they was wrote in and stuf. . .they didn’t have all the pages in it. So we always had to, used the used books from Danville High. You know, they got the new ones we got the old ones, they’d been tore up. So that’s what we had to study out of. But look, you know, things turn around because you know, there’s doctors and lawyers out of Bate School, studied out of them old raggedy books. You know, we did good. Although we had to use those raggedy books, but, other than that, we did good.
CS- Did the urban renewal in Danville did that affect your restaurant?
EJ-Did it do what?
CS- Did the urban renewal of Danville did that affect your mother’s restaurant?
EJ- Well, yeah my mother was just renting so yeah they bought it and tore it down. Everything that on 2nd street that the blacks had is all torn down now.
AL- So what happened with your mother after that? Did she go to open up a new restaurant somewhere, or start a. . . .
EJ- No,no, no, she got another job. She got a job as a cook at a rest home you know and she bought her a house at the west end.
AL-Ok
KM- How did you personally feel about that when it happened?
EJ- Well you know, at the time we thought it was awful.
KM-How did your mom react at the time?
EJ-Well, of course, she was sad, you know, but there was nothing she could do about it.
AL- Um, so when. ..how long did it take her to find her new job?
EJ- Oh, it didn’t take her long. About, let’s see, may, maybe a month or two maybe.
AL-I was just asking because I know. . .
EJ-She knew they were going to sell it or whatever, so she was looking then. But she found her job before they tore it down.
[long pause]
CS- Um, so, what was, could you describe about the West Danville urban renewal?
EJ – Well yeah, well, they didn’t bother the street you know, that I lived on. The street before you get to me, they bought all those houses, tore those down. Then they put apartments, someone bought the land and put, um, low house, low income apartments over there.
CS- So did those people whose houses were bought out and torn down, did they live in those apartments or did they have to find another housing.
EJ-No, they found somewhere else to go. They found somewhere else to go. Like the street I live on, it’s mostly family. It’s just like eight houses on it. So they didn’t bother this street.
CS-Did you know anybody personally that got affected by that?
EJ-Oh yeah, umhm.
CS-Did they like describe to you how it, how that felt to them?
EJ- Yeah they was upset because you know some people be living there for years and years, And they came through and bought the properties, but like I said they promised they was gonna sell it back to us but they didn’t. They didn’t sell it back to us.
KM- So when the businesses and homes got taken down and demolished, was it hard for, you know, the African-American community to be able to find new, um, places for work or like new places to live? How long did it take to, um, you know find like new places?
EJ –Oh, I don’t know how long it would take . . . I don’t know how long it took, um. But see I don’t know how to describe this. Like over on Dillehay and Bate Street it's in the city. Back over in there they tore down all those houses down and those people had to find places, you know, to live. Everybody didn’t own a home over there, most of ‘em were probably renting so you know they had to find, so they had to find, I didn’t even know if they gave, I guess they gave them moving money I guess, I don’t know. Some people you know that’s the only place they ever lived. It is, you know, it was the only place they ever knew, you know, where they lived at, then they had to pack up, go somewhere else, try to find something else.
KM – Yeah it must’ve been a really big transition for a lot of people, you know, to have to go. . . .
EJ- Mmh hmm yeah. Now where I’m talking about, I don’t know whether or not if you know the Smith-Jackson Funeral Home, that’s the black funeral home here, that’s all in that area. They didn’t involve the funeral home, but they tore all those houses down around the funeral home. Yeah Jackson field is over there by the Centre soccer field, back up in that area. You know where the Centre College Soccer new soccer field. . . , oh you're new here. The soccer field?
KM- Yeah.
EJ- It’s back up, Smith-Jackson Funeral Home is back up there, you know, back up in that area.
KM- Yeah I think I know where that is.
EJ-Yeah.
CS- Did most of those people who were uh, who had got their houses and business bought out did they try to find something else in Danville or did most of them that you know leave Danville?
EJ- Yeah, they found other places. Like, uh, you know they tried to find other places like uh, the projects, well, used to be named Bate-Wood home after Professor Bate, he was a professor at the Bate School, the old Bate School, they uh named it, we call it the projects but they call is Bate-Wood Homes but then they changed the name on that too. So most people I think, you know, moved in because that’s low income housing and they found places there and then. . .
AL- Do you feel that, um, Centre College has had a big role in the urban renewal movement?
EJ- No I don’t think so.
AL- Oh okay, I just didn’t know if there were any specific events
EJ- As far as I know, they haven’t. You know not seeing it I don’t know what their doing, they might be doing something but I don’t think at least back then.
AL- Oh I meant to ask earlier did your family own the farm or did you just work there?
EJ- No my grandfather, you know, he just worked on the farm but we didn’t work on the farm, no.
AL- Okay
AL- How long had you all had been there? A few years or ten years?
EJ- What, lived on the farm?
AL- Yes, ma’am.
EJ- Like I think like I said, I was 4 years years old, that’s when I remember. And then he retired. I lived at home. . .I guess I lived there about 20 years, about 20 years I guess .
AL- Um, was it under the same person, like, the same owner?
EJ- Yeah
AL- ok
KM- Who was the owner at the time?
EJ- Her name was Mary Adams, Mary Adams.
AL-Um how was you all’s relationship with her?
EJ- Uh it was good, she was good to us.
CS- Uh, was it just, uh, you and your family on the farm or did other people work there?
EJ- No, no just me and my family. Well you know worked on the farm but she had somebody work at the house you know, like, she had a cook and you know people like that but on the farm it’s just my grandfather.
CS- How many people were in your family lived on the farm and worked there?
EJ- What you say?
CS- Uh, I said, how many people uh were in your family that lived on the farm and worked there?
EJ- Ok my grandfather, well, me and my aunt, she’s like two years older, me and my aunt, my grandfather and grandmother, we all lived together.
AL- And you all worked there, each one of you?
EJ- No, we were little kids, no we didn’t work, we didn’t work on the farm. You know, we just helped my grandfather, you know, around tobacco time, we helped him. Yeah, but getting paid and stuff naw. Well, we worked on the farm, well, my cousins when they had came you know we would help them with the bacca and corn and stuff like that, slop the hog, milk the cows stuff like that.
AL- Um what was you all’s main way of being paid? Was it just being allowed to live on the farm or did you get some sort of financial compensation as well?
EJ- No, they paid my grandfather, my grandfather got paid.
AL- Would you say it was a fair wage?
EJ- Oh well back then I don’t even know how much he got paid, I don’t know. I was young then. I don’t know how much daddy got paid, yeah I don’t know. You know, I don’t know if it was rented or if they let ya live in the home. I know that on some farms they let you live in the tenant housing they call it, they still for a check, you still got paid.
AL- So when you all left what happened to the farm? Did it go under?
EJ-It’s still there but you know who ever bought it just let it go you can’t even find the house anymore. Uh Do you know where Pioneer Playhouse is?
AL- I'm sorry what?
EJ- Do you know where Pioneer Playhouse is on Stanford road?
AL- Mmhm I can’t say I do.
EJ-Pioneer Playhouse.
AL- I can’t say that I do.
EJ- Oh okay, anyways it’s behind Pioneer Playhouse. I think it’s a winery out there now, I think they made a winery out of it but I know they let it grow up and you can’t see the house you used to be able to see the house but you can see it no more.
AL- It’s just overgrown.
EJ- Yeah.
AL- Okay.
CS- Did the impact of urban renewal on Danville, is that one of the factors that made you move to Florida or Louisville and Cincinnati.
EL- Oh no, no when I first started working at the phone company it was South Central Bell. AT&T bought out South Central Bell, and they closed this office here in Danville. And, you know, then we can transfer here anywhere we wanna go if they had an opening. So when I left here I transferred to Louisville and that office closed, so I transferred to Florida. But that was too far from home and then I transferred to uh Cincinnati and that office closed. So I had enough time I can retired and came back to Danville.
CS- So how far away um how long in total where you away from Danville?
EJ- Let’s see 3 years each, that’s, that’s about 7 years.
CS- Could you describe, like, what it was like coming back and if there were any major changes at all?
EJ- Oh no see I was already married and my family was still here and I had transferred there, we had kids in college and stuff so I just transferred there to work you know, no nothing has really changed, no. I came back and forth you know when I was in Louisville on weekends, I came back and forth you know I came back and forth on weekends. I’ve got four sons. So, um, the youngest boy he was in, graduated, when the office closed and that’s when I transferred to help them with school and stuff.
KM- How was it getting married and you know having children of yourself and raising them, how was that experience?
EJ- Oh, see, I got married when I was 16 years old, before I even graduated from high school. So yeah, it was alright, I guess, what was the question again, what was the question again?
KM- Oh no I was just wondering, you know, how was it raising 4 children yourself and you know raising them in the communities you raised them in?
EJ- Oh well yeah, it’s, out here where we lived it was real good. We lived just like a family thing you know, like I said on this street where I live my last name is Johnson, where a family of Johnson’s. This community we live in, it is just like a family, a family community. Yup, it was nice raising kids out here.
AL- So, everybody health each other with somebody needed it?
EJ- Oh yeah, they still do it, we do.
AL- Yeah that never happened where I’m at in Louisville.
EJ- Oh yeah where do you live at in Louisville?
AL- Do you know where Hike’s Point is?
EJ- Yeah. Hike’s Lane.
AL-I’m about two minutes from Bowman Field.
EJ- Ohh, I used to have an apartment off Hikes Lane, I caught the bus downtown to go to work.
AL- Do you know where Furman Boulevard is?
EJ- What blvd?
AL- Furman.
EJ – Furman? Uh uh.
AL-No. Well I’m about two minutes away from Bowman Field.
EJ- Oh okay.
CS- So you said you got married at 16, uh, was your family accepting of getting married at that age and, like, being able to raise a family and stuff?
EL- Well, somewhat, somewhat and so you know of course 16, my mother had to sign for me to get married so. Some accepted and some didn’t, so. But I think we I good getting married at 16 ‘cause we built a house when I was 19 and we still live in it.
CS- Was it easy for you and your husband to find work?
EJ- Well uh, see I didn’t try to find work then, he always worked you know he worked, I didn’t try to find work.
AL- What did your husband do if you don’t mind me asking?
EJ- Oh yeah, when we first started out he worked at the cemetery. And then he got a job at, um, when Whirlpool came in to town he got a job there at Whirlpool, he retired from Whirlpool. Then after he retired he had his own business, he used to redo furniture, frame pictures, then at the end he, uh, he was a custom cabinet maker. So he passed that, about three years ago, to my oldest son, not my oldest, my next to oldest and that’s what he did, cabinet maker.
CS- So you guys got a family business, kinda running?
EL- Yeah.
CS- Where did your kids live?
EJ- Well, I got one of them in Georgia, the other three live here, in Danville.
AL- Would you say their, uhm, sorry let me rephrase that. How was their, like, experience, being in different areas and that and that growing, or not growing up, how was life for them, being in different places?
EJ- Being in different places when? They grew up here. Oh you mean when they growed up. Is that what you mean?
AL- I mean like, in Danville. Excuse me, sorry.
EJ- Well, life, it was good. It was them growing up in Danville, I don’t think they had no complaints.
CS- Did they go to the same school that you went to?
EJ- No, they went, they graduated from Danville High School. They tore down Bate High School in nineteen...seventy, seventy-one I think. They went there to the old school for junior high years but in high school, they went to Danville High School.
AL- Did they ever have any problems with it? Or would you say that they really enjoy it?
EJ- Yeah they had problems. Yeah they did. They had problems.
AL- Uh, could you elaborate please?
EJ- Well, like, on some tests if they seen what the teachers did for one child, they might throw a fit because they got a B, but they’d go to the teacher, sayin, and they’d raise that up to an A. You know, just stuff like that.
AL- So...Were they being given unfair grades, or did they have to kinda, like, fight for the A?
EJ- Fight for the A?
AL- Yes ma’am. Uhm, like, would you say that the work that they were putting in was the same as other students and they were being treated unfairly by the teachers?
EJ- Sometimes, yeah. Some teachers, not all the teachers. Some of them.
CS- Did any of your kids have a teacher or coach that they played sports in the school system, that maybe helped, um, them through those unfair times?
EJ- No, not that I know of.
CS- Did you have anyone like that when you were in school?
EJ- No, no I didn’t. No, when we was in school, if you didn’t do what you were supposed to do, you know, the teacher would tell your parents. And then the parents wouldn’t go up to the school, they wouldn’t jump on the teacher, the parents would jump on you. They wouldn’t go up there and lay into the teachers, they wouldn’t do that.
AL- So it was kind of like it was a “you’re on your own” mentality in school?
EJ- No, not “you’re on your own”. But, uh, Your teachers looked out for you. And you know if you didn’t do what you were supposed to, like I said, they’d tell your parents. And most of the time, you don’t have people () going to school, cutting up like they do today. The kids now tell the teachers what to do.
AL- I’ll definitely agree that, the way that--I think that respect in the school system for teachers has changed drastically.
EJ- Oh, for sure. I mean it’s awful. Cussing a teacher out? Just terrible. And then they go home and then the parents come cussing the teacher out and it’s just--you’re not gonna get nothing done like that….I’m trying to think of something else to tell you but, I don’t know.
AL- So... if you could change anything about Danville, like if you had the ability to change absolutely anything, what would you change first?
EJ- Well, I would change—like, uh, I don’t know how to say this, but like, you know like the office courthouse and doctor’s offices, and banks? They don’t have black. . . courthouse don’t, I don’t think they have one black person working in the courthouse, that’s the easiest one.
KM- What do you think could be done today to make Danville a more inclusive, um, town for you know, people to like, live in? Because I know you mentioned that there isn’t like, any African American representative in the courthouse, so what do you think could be done to finally get that representation for the African American community?
EJ- I...I don’t know. You know we got a Black Mayor-Pro-Temp, James Atkins, so...I don’t know. I just don’t know.
KM- I definitely agree though. I feel there’s a lack of representation for certain groups of people and I don’t think that’s fair at all.
EJ- Yeah, when I went to Louisville, you know, just general conversation, well I said “we don’t have no Blacks,” we didn’t have none on scene work at the bank. They said “Really? You don’t have nobody Black working at the bank?” I said no, not at the time. You know, I can’t even think of a Black person that works at the bank now. I used to work at the bank, you know, when I was retired from the phone company. I was working doing bookkeeping. At the time when I was working up there, there was one...two..it was three of us, three Black women, but no Black men, working at the Farmer’s bank.
KM- Tell me about the bank. So you were working at a bank. And, how is that compared to the phone company? Did you enjoy one over the other or did you like them the same?
EJ- I liked them both. I enjoyed working at the phone company because you got to talk to people , you know, from places you’ll never get to go. You know, like, overseas, and like, I enjoyed that. And at the bank, they call in, you help them with the checking account and stuff, you can help them that way. Yeah, I’ve enjoyed both of them.
AL- So were you at the bank first I assume?
EJ- No, I was at the phone company first.
AL- Okay.
EJ- When I retired from the phone company, you know, I needed something to do. So uh, I got hired through a temp service, answering the phone at the bank. Then they had an opening and I applied for the bookkeeping department. So I got that. I quit that now I’m a private sitter. Nurse.
AL- And how is that?
EJ- Oh, it’s good. Of course, I just do it part time. Part time.
CS- Are you involved politically any? Like, do you keep up with the news and politics and stuff?
EJ- Oh yeah, I’m on the Board of Election.
CS- And how’s that?
EJ- Oh it’s good. We just meet once a month and discuss, tell you how many Republicans, and how many Democrats, and stuff like that. And I call and get people to work the booths at the elections.
AL- Uhm, when election time comes around, is there a lot of tension in the air? Between certain people or groups of people?
EJ- Um hm Yeah.
AL- Because I know--
EJ- Working at the polls and stuff, some people smart off and stuff.
AL- I know in Louisville, when election time comes around every year, it’s certainly not the brightest of times. Or happiest of times.
EJ- It’s crazy, ain’t it?
AL- Yes.
EJ- Well somebody’s got to win, and somebody’s got to lose.
AL- So is that job; would you say it’s pretty important? Being on the board of election?
EJ- Yeah, I think, it is important, I think. So you- you know what’s going on.
CS- Uh, how did you get on the board of election?
EJ-Well, um, they asked because they had an opening; this guy, he quit. And they had an opening. And uhm, they you know, went to the Democrats Women Club, and just asked me if I wanted to be on the board of election. Just meeting once a month when there wasn’t anything going on.
KM- So do you think there’s more equal representation in--on the board, than there is, in other like, other organizations? Like have you seen, have you experienced more equality on the board since you’re on it?
EJ- Equality? Yeah. There’s more equality, yes. Because everything you do, you know, on the Board of Election, you’ve got to have Democrat and Republican. Therefore You know-- you can’t let people say-- I don’t know why people are saying Joe Biden stole the election--I don’t understand how he stole it. You know, you gonna sit there and let the Democrats steal the votes with the Republicans looking at ya. So I don’t understand it.
KM- Yeah. So what are some of your own political goals that you have?
EJ- What?
KM- What are some political goals that you have?
EJ- Political goals… Lemme think...[long pause] To get more, I don’t know how I would do it, but get more minority people involved. And you know, in the election things.
KM- Yeah, I think that’s definitely important.
CS- I was going to ask, have you seen any progress in that over the years? More minorities getting involved in the election process? And politics?
EJ- No, not here. No.
AL- How exactly would you say that’d help? Having more diversity included? Having more diverse inclusion?
EJ- Well I think it’d help a whole lot. Giving everybody equal rights, you know. I think it would help. You know, everybody, we involved, got our rights. But people don’t want to get involved, I don’t know. I don’t know why.
AL- Personally, what I think, having more inclusion of different groups of people make Danville, or any place, seem much more welcoming than just having, let’s say white people, in office.
EJ- Yeah. Yeah. Let them know that we’re here, you know.
AL- Right.
CS- For us as the younger generation, do you think we could, or how do you think we could help with that?
EJ- Yeah. I think the younger generation could help.
CS- Do you think it’ll take a lot longer than most people want to get that inclusion? Or do you think we could get diversity and inclusion quick?
EJ- I think it’ll take longer. I mean, I don’t mean to talk-- it’s just like they’re not interested in anything like political and stuff like that. Around here. I don’t know how it is in other cities.
CS- I mean most of the people that I know, from my hometown, my friends and stuff, either side or the other, they try to get educated as they can on either side. They try to get into it, which I think is helpful. It’s helpful for everyone to see both sides and have uh educated and opinions and stuff.
EJ: Right.
CS-And be able to talk.
EJ- Without getting mad.
CS- I think that’s our first step.
JS- Well Ms. Johnson, we’ve had you for almost an hour now. I want to make sure that we give you a chance to say anything you’d wanted to say that you haven’t talked about yet about your life experience, or anything that’s on your mind before we let you go?
EJ- I’m sorry that I didn’t give much information. I hope I helped out. No, I’d say everything is okay. I don’t have anything else to say.
JS- Well for my part I really want to thank you for your time today telling us about your life experience, it was valuable to the class and the project. Thank you on behalf of everyone else.
EJ- Okay, thank you. You too. Bye bye.
KM- Thank you!
CS- Thank you.