Legacies Project Oral History: Eula Eaddy

Mon, 08/29/2022 - 11:51am

When: 2022

Transcript

• [00:00:11] MALE_1: We'll just pick up where we left off. Now before we start, please turn off all your cell phones, pagers, paper or metal, anything else that could make any noise. You can call for a break at any time they want to. Also, please remember that you can decline to answer any questions if you feel uncomfortable. [NOISE] I'm first going to ask you some simple demographic questions. All these questions may jog memory. Please keep your answers brief and to the point, or not. You can elaborate later. Please say and spell your name.
• [00:00:50] Eula Vee Eaddy: Eula Vee Eaddy; E-U-L-A V-E-E E-A-D-D-Y.
• [00:00:59] MALE_1: What is your birthday, including the year?
• [00:01:01] Eula Vee Eaddy: 1-18-1952.
• [00:01:05] MALE_1: How would you describe your ethnic background?
• [00:01:07] Eula Vee Eaddy: African-American.
• [00:01:10] MALE_1: What is your religious affiliation?
• [00:01:12] Eula Vee Eaddy: Baptist.
• [00:01:14] MALE_1: What church do you go to?
• [00:01:15] Eula Vee Eaddy: Second Baptist, Ann Arbor.
• [00:01:19] MALE_1: What is the highest level of formal education you have completed?
• [00:01:22] Eula Vee Eaddy: I have a master's degree.
• [00:01:25] MALE_1: Where did you attend college?
• [00:01:26] Eula Vee Eaddy: Eastern Michigan University.
• [00:01:29] MALE_1: What is your marital status?
• [00:01:30] Eula Vee Eaddy: I'm single, divorced.
• [00:01:33] MALE_1: How many children do you have?
• [00:01:35] Eula Vee Eaddy: I have two children.
• [00:01:36] MALE_1: Two girls, two boys?
• [00:01:37] Eula Vee Eaddy: I have a son and a daughter.
• [00:01:39] MALE_1: What are their names?
• [00:01:40] Eula Vee Eaddy: Ashley Renee, and Morris Anthony.
• [00:01:44] MALE_1: How many siblings do you have?
• [00:01:46] Eula Vee Eaddy: I have [NOISE] four sisters and two brothers that are deceased.
• [00:01:53] MALE_1: What do you consider your primary occupation?
• [00:01:57] Eula Vee Eaddy: Retired right now. I'm a retired educator.
• [00:02:01] MALE_1: What did you do before you retired?
• [00:02:02] Eula Vee Eaddy: I was a teacher in Ann Arbor Public Schools.
• [00:02:06] MALE_1: Very nice. For about how long were you a teacher?
• [00:02:08] Eula Vee Eaddy: Thirty-plus years.
• [00:02:12] MALE_1: Now we can begin the first part of our interview, beginning with some of the things you can recall about your family history. We are beginning with family name and history. By this, we mean any story about your last or family name or family traditions. [inaudible 00:02:27] your first or middle names. Do you know, any stories about your family name?
• [00:02:34] Eula Vee Eaddy: I do. My grandmother's name was Luella Pennell. Originally I noticed on my birth certificate that my name was Eula Vee Pennell, but later changed to Salley, S-A-L- L -E -Y, because that was my father's last name. I think I shared this story with you before that my mother found my name in a newspaper. She'd read an article about a young lady who had graduated from one of the local universities, and so that's where she got the Eula part from.
• [00:03:12] MALE_1: Are there any name of traditions in your family?
• [00:03:15] Eula Vee Eaddy: No, but there was a rhyming tradition. I think my mother was on a roll. My middle name is Vee, so there was Eula Vee, Will Marie, Willie Marie, Cynthia Dee, and then Eunice. Her middle name didn't rhyme with anything, so she got off [LAUGHTER] there, but that's about it.
• [00:03:38] MALE_1: Do you know any stories about how your family first came to the United States?
• [00:03:43] Eula Vee Eaddy: I do not.
• [00:03:47] MALE_1: Any recent memories or stories.
• [00:03:50] Eula Vee Eaddy: I don't have any, no.
• [00:03:56] MALE_1: If anything, do you remember the name possession that your ancestors brought or pass on through tradition.
• [00:04:07] Eula Vee Eaddy: Good question. I'm curious myself now, I do not know of any.
• [00:04:15] MALE_1: What stories that come down to you about your parents and grandparents?
• [00:04:24] Eula Vee Eaddy: My grandmother's mother was a slave. She worked on a plantation in Louisiana. That would be my great-grandmother. My great-grandfather then was a farmer and that's about as far back as I can go. I don't remember much else. I remember some pictures and seeing some photos of them.
• [00:05:06] MALE_1: Do you know any courtship stories, or how did your parents and grandparents, other relatives come to meet and married?
• [00:05:17] Eula Vee Eaddy: These are very good questions. I didn't know how my mother and father met, but I wouldn't call it a story per se, but my mother and father were never married. They met, he was an army, but he was in the army on leave. They met socially and, again, they were never married. My mother became pregnant with me. My father stayed in Michigan. My mother, well, she went back to Louisiana. She was in Michigan visiting when she met him and then moved back to Louisiana. I was born. Between the two of them, they raised me, and they shipped me back-and-forth from Louisiana to Michigan. Then finally, my mom got me and I ended up graduating high school in Louisiana, but I came here for college. My father influenced me to come here to Michigan. If I wanted to teach, to come and go to the teaching college, Eastern Michigan University.
• [00:06:28] MALE_1: Was it hard for you to always have to be moving back and forth between Louisiana and Michigan?
• [00:06:33] Eula Vee Eaddy: It was not. I was very young, and I didn't know anything but how exciting it was to ride a train and see nature. I think that that is what inspired me to travel, to have a desire to travel, and it wasn't grained in my blood and I love it and I love nature, so no. No worries about that.
• [00:06:58] MALE_1: Next, we're going to go to your earliest memories as a child because you're nervous.
• [00:07:01] Eula Vee Eaddy: Okay.
• [00:07:03] MALE_1: You're going to have these questions jog memories about other times in your life. Only respond with memories about as fairly as probably your life was. Where did you grow up, and what are your strongest memories of that place?
• [00:07:15] Eula Vee Eaddy: I grew up in Lake Providence, Louisiana. I was primarily raised by my grandmother. What I remember about her, she was a very strong woman. She was a fisher person, [LAUGHTER] a fishermen. I often think that if they'd had their fishing shows or back in her time, she could have been on some of those TV shows because she would get these huge fish, and I remember her bringing them home and I was taking a picture. I just remember my grandmother fond memories. I don't have any. My schooling; elementary, middle school, high school was great. Had some of the best teachers in the world. I think that's what inspired me to become a teacher. Even though I was growing up in this rural town where it was basically considered an illiterate tow. People couldn't read or write but it was wonderful. The teachers brought the world in it. During their travels, during the summer, they would bring back things that I'd never seen, pictures of cities and what have you. That inspired me to become a teacher so great childhood memories.
• [00:08:38] Speaker 1: Interestingly I always had a house, my grandmother's home was very nice. It was not modern like the houses we live in now, but we had four rooms, I remember, before we got an inside toilet or bathroom, we did have to go outside, to the shed to use the bathroom and then I remember when she finally got someone to come in and attach the bathroom on to the house. It was very nice, comfortable, sometimes cold. We didn't have cold weather like here, but the houses weren't built with the installation that the houses are now, and we didn't have carpet. It was nice though, I always had a home, a house.
• [00:09:40] Speaker 2: Did you live with your grandparents?
• [00:09:42] Speaker 1: My grandmother, yes. Primarily my grandmother.
• [00:09:45] Speaker 2: What languages were spoken in or out of the household?
• [00:09:49] Speaker 1: Just English.
• [00:09:52] Speaker 2: What was your family like when you were a child?
• [00:09:56] Speaker 1: I'm the oldest of seven children, I was the illegitimate child, so that's why my grandmother ended up raising me, if I reflect back on the story I was telling you about my mother and father never being married, the man that she did marry, she had six children by, so I was the black sheep of the family, so to speak. My stepfather was very mean, he's not very nice to me, so that's why my mother put me with my grandmother to raise me.
• [00:10:31] Speaker 2: What was your early life when you were a child?
• [00:10:43] Speaker 1: It was good, even though my grandmother raised me, I would go and visit with my other sisters and brothers and so it was good, we had a lot of fun we were very creative, we didn't have the Internet and things, I remember my stepfather was building a store and he never finished it, so we would go inside of the store which had the frame of a house and we would build a house and because I was the oldest, I would play the mom and my oldest brother would be the father, and the rest of the kids were our children. We built the house inside of the store, we had seven bedrooms because there were seven of us, everybody had their own bedroom and we crawl around in the house on our knees and that was cool. We would make dinner, we would use the grass would be spaghetti and then we would roll up mud-balls for the meatballs and so I would cook and bake chocolate cakes, creamy mud and it was so hot in Louisiana, you could make mud patties and they would actually get hard and then you can make it soupy and make your icing for your cake, so it was really fun. [LAUGHTER] We were very creative [LAUGHTER] we had a lot of fun.
• [00:11:59] Speaker 2: Going back to what you said about your step father, was it hard for you to communicate with him at times?
• [00:12:09] Speaker 1: Not really, but there was a fear, he was mean, a mean man and he was stern and so he just didn't say much, I didn't say much, and I ended up leaving his household to be with my grandmother very young, so very early in life, so there wasn't, we'd never really developed any kind of close relationship.
• [00:12:41] Speaker 2: What is your earliest memory that you can think of?
• [00:12:44] Speaker 1: I remember my father teaching my ABCs and I think I must have been about three, I remember that just very vividly. He had this triangular-shaped board with the ABCs and the numbers 1-10 at the bottom, 0-10, and I remember I could never get ABC up to M, I couldn't go down the other side, or NLM, I couldn't go down the other side. That was pretty rough, but I do remember that, and as I said, the childhood memories of playing with my brothers and sisters out in the yard, we had property, my stepfather had quite a bit of property, and so just playing and having a good time and learning my ABCs. [LAUGHTER]
• [00:13:44] Speaker 2: What was the typical day like in your [inaudible 00:13:46]?
• [00:13:51] Speaker 1: I just remember summertime we would get up and just go outside and play all day long. You know, you get up and I assume it was summertime because I just remember we would get up and go out and play and till it seemed like dark, [LAUGHTER] and then we'd come back in, everybody get a bath and go to bed. [LAUGHTER] Specifically weekends, I remember Sundays, the food, dinner was hoist fried chicken, it seemed like we had fried chicken on Sunday, Saturday night popcorn and Westerns, watching movies, old movies.
• [00:14:34] Speaker 2: Did you have a bigger toy when you were growing up?
• [00:14:37] Speaker 1: I did, it was this jewelry box or a music box that had a little bell ring on it that you wound up, I don't know if you would call that a toy, but it was one of my favorite things that I had, that I remember from childhood.
• [00:14:56] Speaker 2: Do you remember who made it?
• [00:14:57] Speaker 1: I don't, it was a gift, I think it was bought at a store.
• [00:15:02] Speaker 2: How about a favorite thing of yours.
• [00:15:06] Speaker 1: We didn't play a lot of games, we did those kinds of things that I was just sharing with you. Not any of the structured games like you guys have or the kids have these days that my kids had, we didn't have monopoly or, I'm sorry, Checkers, Jacks, yes, we did play those games, that's right, I do remember Jacks, Checkers, [LAUGHTER] that's what I can remember.
• [00:15:39] Speaker 2: Who was the best in your family at Checkers?
• [00:15:42] Speaker 1: I was okay, I'm still okay, Chess is my game and all these other games they have now. [LAUGHTER]
• [00:15:52] Speaker 2: What was one of your favorite books growing up?
• [00:15:56] Speaker 1: I don't remember, it seems like my mother brought it, we had a lot of newspapers and magazines around, and I remember when I got to school, we had a lot of old books, there was lot of textbook, kinds of our jargon, but just magazines and newspapers I don't specifically remember any childhood favorite books.
• [00:16:26] Speaker 2: Do you remember what your favorite movie was?
• [00:16:30] Speaker 1: I don't, we had one movie theater in my town and we didn't in terms of going out to a movie and there weren't as movies on TV and the shows on TV were very limited, and there were Westerns, and there was the Ed Sullivan Show on Sunday night, I remember that but I don't think I ever went to a movie until I probably was in my teens. I don't even remember what the first movie was that I saw, it's a good question. [LAUGHTER]
• [00:17:08] Speaker 2: Were there any special days, or events or family traditions you remember from this time?
• [00:17:16] Speaker 1: Sundays were special, there were times when I was staying with my mom and my stepfather, we would always go to Mississippi because that was where his family was, I grew up in Louisiana but he had his sisters, they lived in Mississippi. I can't remember where, somewhere near Jackson, Mississippi, and I remember crossing the Mississippi river or the bridge to take us over, I think it was Vicksburg, Mississippi. That was fun, all seven of us would get into this $4 car [LAUGHTER] and I don't even remember how long it took us to get there now, but that's one fun memory that I have.
• [00:18:05] Speaker 2: How often did you go? Every week, every month or every year?
• [00:18:08] Speaker 1: No, this was like during the summer, maybe once a year we would go to Mississippi. We would take rides on Sunday, Sunday afternoons, my stepfather would take us kids, we keep piling the car and go for a ride, just ride. [LAUGHTER] So that was cool.
• [00:18:28] Speaker 2: Was there a special place that you wanted to go growing up?
• [00:18:33] Speaker 1: Well, I liked the travel back and forth from Louisiana to Michigan again because I got to see just a lot of scenery and it was really beautiful, I remember the trees and mountains because I traveled by train, so lot of scenery. But I did enjoy going to Mississippi because even as far back in time as it seemed, as though I was growing up, when I went to Mississippi, his sisters didn't have running water, so we got to go out and pump water from a hand pump from the ground, and then one of his sisters actually gathered rainwater in barrels, that was the best tasting water. Their houses were older and more run down than the ones that we lived in, we lived in what we consider the town part of the city, part of my little town, so our houses were a little bit more modern, but then when we go to Mississippi, which was very rural, they lived in the country, that's why we called it. They lived off the land, animals, livestock, cows, pigs, chickens walking around in the yard, so that was cool, I remember that.
• [00:19:47] Speaker 2: Now we're going to discuss the times you remember personally, from about the time that school attendance took [inaudible 00:19:52] in the United States, up until you began your professional career, don't worry about that. Did you go in kindergarten?
• [00:20:02] Speaker 1: I did.
• [00:20:03] Speaker 2: Where?
• [00:20:09] Eula Eaddy: In my little town, the school was connected, so it was the elementary and the high school. I think it was kindergarten or preschool that we attended before first grade. Right in my hometown, in the school that was there in Lake Province.
• [00:20:30] MALE_2: Do you remember anything special about that kindergarten class?
• [00:20:35] Eula Eaddy: I don't [LAUGHTER]. I just know that I went. Actually, when I think about it, I did some preschool or kindergarten in Lake Province because my mother and father transferred me back-and-forth. I actually spent my first two years of elementary school in Detroit, which is where my father was, at a school called Boynton Elementary. It's no longer there now. They put an expressway through that community. It's no longer there. It seems as though I remember attending a Catholic preschool in my hometown, and then I spent my first and second grade elementary in Detroit, and then my mother finally got me back and decided she wasn't going to be shipping me back-and-forth anymore, so I started elementary in third grade in my hometown in Lake Province.
• [00:21:39] MALE_2: How did the two elementary schools differ from Detroit to Louisiana?
• [00:21:46] Eula Eaddy: Well, again, this was a rural town that I grew up in. Very poor, books were very dated. I remember taking art in the school that I attended in Detroit at Boynton. I don't remember taking art or having any art classes in my elementary school when I got back to Louisiana. I would say, definitely a little bit more advanced, more materials and different classes and just different exposure to things that we didn't have in Louisiana.
• [00:22:32] MALE_2: What do you remember about high school?
• [00:22:35] Eula Eaddy: It was fun. Sports was a big part of growing up in my town. There was not anyone who wasn't into basketball, football, track. It was just great. School, for me, was just a wonderful experience all the way through. As I said, I think I had some of the best teachers in the world, and I think that's what truly inspired me to become a teacher. But we had gym classes, I remember we dressed in uniforms in gym class. That was great. I had a very caring and nurturing sixth grade teacher. We were all poor. In the town that I grew up in, I would say there was the lower-class poor, middle-class poor, the upper-class poor, everybody was poor. But anyway, the ones at the bottom were, as you can imagine, a little bit worse off, there were students who would come to school, their clothes wouldn't be clean, or they didn't have soap to bathe with or toothbrush and toothpaste. I had a very caring sixth grade teacher who organized a group of us girls in this class. We brought in towels and soap. She actually started teaching these children how to take care of themselves with whatever they had around the house. If you didn't have toothpaste, you could use baking soda to brush your teeth, and I think even as deodorant. But then she would bring in those things and if the kids came to school, we would take them to the health clinic and show them how to clean themselves up and just basic personal hygiene care. That was cool.
• [00:24:26] MALE_2: Do you remember the name of the teacher?
• [00:24:28] Eula Eaddy: Miss Lily. Yes, Miss Lily. I do.
• [00:24:32] MALE_2: On your opinion, what was your better sport, basketball or track?
• [00:24:37] Eula Eaddy: Basketball. I used to play basketball.
• [00:24:40] MALE_2: What position were you in?
• [00:24:41] Eula Eaddy: Four.
• [00:24:45] MALE_2: What about your school experience, it's different from school as you know it today?
• [00:24:50] Eula Eaddy: What was the difference in my schooling and school today? My God, we're world's apart. I said I grew up in a very poor town. Just totally different, the experiences and my exposure that students have today. We didn't have anything like what school is like today for these young people, the opportunities that they have. But I think the desire was there. If you grew up in the town that I did, you knew that education was your only way out. I do think that a lot of the young people these days tend to take education for granted. They don't realize the importance of it. Some don't, I don't want to categorize. But I think we valued education more than a lot of the young people do these days. Some, not a lot, but some.
• [00:25:53] MALE_2: Before you went to Eastern Michigan, did you do any extra career training before you went?
• [00:25:59] Eula Eaddy: Not extra but I did attend Washington Community College, and then I transferred to Eastern. I did two years there and then transferred.
• [00:26:17] MALE_2: Please describe the popular music [inaudible 00:26:20]
• [00:26:22] Eula Eaddy: Soul music, The Temptations, The Four Tops. I remember growing up with groups like that. But being in Louisiana, again, there weren't a lot of black radio stations, so I listened to a lot of country and western. I think my music, I have a broad range and a great appreciation for a variety of music. Growing up, Baptism Church being an important part of my life as well. Gospel music. I sang in the choir in the youth, and soul music, gospel music, western music, on occasion, some opera. Then we got exposed to what I guess were The Beatles, what would that be pop? [LAUGHTER] When they came onto the scene on Ed Sullivan, groups like that. Quite a range.
• [00:27:29] MALE_2: Did you have a favorite artist that you remember?
• [00:27:32] Eula Eaddy: I remember The Temptations. What was that guy's name? Oh my God, I can't think of it now. But there was this one. [LAUGHTER] I can't think of his name, it'll come to me. Sam Cooke. He's one of my favorite artists.
• [00:27:55] MALE_2: Did the music of your time have any particular dances associated with it?
• [00:27:59] Eula Eaddy: Absolutely. James Brown, Chubby Checker, The Twist, The Jerk. I don't remember all the artists, but, yes, there was a dance. The youth got a lot of their exercising doing dancing. You guys don't dance enough. You get out there, and what is it that you guys do? I don't know what you do. When we danced, it was a workout. We went to a dance or something at school, and we got done, you'd lost a pound [LAUGHTER] or two because danced the whole time. You worked on all parts of your body, The Twist, The Jerk, The Mashed Potatoes. There was a dance with pretty much every song that came out on the radio. Some danced and got attached to it.
• [00:28:50] MALE_2: What were the popular clothing or hairstyles of this time?
• [00:28:55] Eula Eaddy: I remember when The Beatles came out, everybody started trying to wear their hair like The Beatles. I remember miniskirts. We weren't allowed to wear your skirts too far above the knees, but I do remember that being a style. Hairstyles. Other hairstyles? It was pretty simple. Braids were always in. Clothing?
• [00:29:37] FEMALE_1: I just remember I was very conservative. I always liked my skirts right above or maybe a little below my knee. I can't remember the names of some styles right now. I'm just looking at them and wondering, remember plats were in. Plats never seem to go out though. [LAUGHTER]
• [00:29:58] MALE_3: Can you describe any other fads or styles?
• [00:30:03] FEMALE_1: Hair styles, bangs, three-piece suits. I don't know what they did, I can't remember. I'm sure if someone were to say it, it would come to my mind but I'm just doing a blank. I can't really attach a name to some of the things that I'm thinking we're seeing or imagining.
• [00:30:44] MALE_3: Were there any particular types of shoes that you remember?
• [00:30:49] FEMALE_1: There was black and white Oxfords. I remember those. I had a pair. Every kid that had to wear those hated them. [LAUGHTER] But they were really cool, it became a fashion statement. Now people are wearing them, it's no big deal. But I remember the black and white Oxfords. Nothing else that people really didn't like. I don't remember the guys wearing anything in particular as far as a shoe was concerned, nothing stands out.
• [00:31:24] MALE_3: Were there any slang terms, phrases, or words used then that aren't used today?
• [00:31:30] FEMALE_1: I'm sure there were. Goofy, seems like one. [LAUGHTER] I don't think as much, but there were a few. That's the one that just pops out of my mind right off the bat. Like I said, I think we were more into dancing and music than slangs and phrases, so to speak.
• [00:31:59] MALE_3: What's a typical day like for you [inaudible 00:32:01]
• [00:32:07] FEMALE_1: As I said I remember fun, I remember school. I just remember having a good time for the most part. I remember my grandmother going fishing and then when she'd come home, we had to clean the fish and cut it up and that usually end up being dinner. [LAUGHTER] But just having a good time. School was fun. We walked to school, there was no busing. Well, not for the kids who lived in town. That's the way we phrased it. I just remember having a good time, I don't have any bad memories, just fun. I enjoyed school. Just having a good time being a kid, which I think a lot of the youth today misses out on. They see so much on TV that influences them and tends to take their lives in different directions. They grow up too fast. Yes, so to speak. They don't get to be kids and use their imagination. I just remember fun, enjoying life as a kid, having a good time, being with my friends, hanging out. We hung out. [LAUGHTER]
• [00:33:28] MALE_3: What's the biggest difference between kids today and kids that time in terms of any other, not growing up too fast?
• [00:33:38] FEMALE_1: Creativity. They have so much that other people have done that they get to see they don't use it. I don't see them being naturally creative. I mean, there are some very bright young people these days. Today's youth are very bright. But just seeing natural creativity come and blossom and grow, I think they're missing a lot of that. They tend to get into imitating and not being original, being creative.
• [00:34:14] MALE_3: Did your family have any special setting for expressions growing up?
• [00:34:30] FEMALE_1: Nothing that comes to mind right now. Nothing off the top of my head.
• [00:34:39] MALE_3: Were there any big changes in your daily life [inaudible 00:34:42]
• [00:34:46] FEMALE_1: Well, being separated from, there were seven of us, as I said, and me having to be placed with my grandmother and having to be the one who went to visit. I mean, they would come and visit my grandmother too, but I felt apart from the rest of the family always. I was a loner and had to be by myself and make decisions. That took away from the closeness although we were close, but that put a little wedge in between things with the family.
• [00:35:34] MALE_3: How often were you able to see the rest of the brothers and sisters?
• [00:35:40] FEMALE_1: Daily. I don't remember being away from them for any long periods of time. Except when I would go away when she would ship me to Michigan Medical School. But then I don't remember that as well. But from the time that I can remember, we could see each other on a daily basis.
• [00:36:04] MALE_3: Are there any special days, events, or firm conditions you remember growing up?
• [00:36:11] FEMALE_1: Thanksgiving. We always had a lot of food and my stepfather would allow us to have a glass of Morgan David wine. [LAUGHTER] That was just his thing on Thanksgiving week. Not a glass. I shouldn't say glass, but maybe a shot, at what would be the equivalent of a shot of Morgan David wine. Christmas was very special because we hide the gifts and bring them down and we would get up and on Christmas morning and it was just fun. Opening up presence and we didn't have a lot. All we had was just special and fun. Yeah, those were particular holidays. Birthdays, I don't know. I don't remember a lot of anything particularly special about birthdays, but I do remember those. Easter was another big holiday too. We had to go to church, we had Easter egg hunt, and that was pretty special.
• [00:37:22] MALE_3: Do you remember what your favorite Thanksgiving was or the tradition you had?
• [00:37:27] FEMALE_1: The traditional stuff. Turkey, [LAUGHTER] stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy. We had all that stuff and it was good.
• [00:37:43] MALE_3: Have there been any special recipes passed down and preserved in the family?
• [00:37:47] FEMALE_1: Yes. My mom's lemon meringue pie. Actually, she wrote the recipe for me on a paper plate and I still have that paper plate in her handwriting. Sweet potato pie, I make the best sweet potato pie in the whole wide world. My grandmother's collared greens, I don't know how she did it. She would cook them in this pot, I think the pot was cured, it had all flavors and things that she cooked those greens and that just made them the best. We had some good cooks in the family. I'm a good cook too by the way. Excellent cook. Yeah, got some recipes, my mother was a great baker. I cook, I don't bake. My mother was a great baker. My grandmother was a good cook. I get it from her.
• [00:38:38] MALE_3: What's your favorite dish now?
• [00:38:44] FEMALE_1: My daughter likes this chicken creole thing that I make. I make great spaghetti, I'm just a good cook. I enjoy cooking, so anything that I do, I try to go for it. I like flavor and know what makes food taste good. I don't like to see people add seasonings to their food. Once I've prepared it, you grab the salt shaker, I think. Oh, no, what did I do wrong? But favorite dishes, I do them all well, whatever I cook, I don't know that any one particular one stands out for me. I like food, so I don't think I have anything but I like food. All of it tastes good to me. [LAUGHTER] It all works for me.
• [00:39:30] MALE_3: When thinking back on your school years, what important social or historical events were taking place at that time? And how did it personally [inaudible 00:39:38]
• [00:39:41] FEMALE_1: I remember the Civil Rights Movement being very important, registering people to vote for young people growing up in my town, we were very politically aware what was going on in the world. Most of the people in my town, as I said, they were illiterate, they couldn't read or write, they weren't registered voters. I remember becoming very involved politically and helping get people registered to vote. I remember when, I think it was President Johnson that forced integration in the South in 1970. I remember when the schools and racist started to merge, that was really, really important and crucial time and just being involved in seeing things change from being an all-white town to people coming together across racial lines and traditional offices that have been held. The police force, for example, was always all white. Sanitation department, the mayor. I saw things like that start to change and really, my class, we were very involved and very concerned and very aware of the political scene during my time. Getting people registered to vote was important and getting them out to vote, realizing that it didn't matter. Very important.
• [00:41:25] MALE_3: Do you remember participating in any [inaudible 00:41:27] or protests during Civil Rights Movement?
• [00:41:44] EULA EADDY: I did not get to leave my town to do anything particular, but again, being involved in the whole voter registration thing. But no, nothing specific in my town. Specifically, no. No sit-ins. Things started to change with the change that was happening throughout the country because I remember everything was very segregated. When we went to a movie theater, we had to sit upstairs, the white people sat downstairs. Those things starting to change, but there were any marches or anything in particular in my town. No sit-ins or anything like that.
• [00:42:40] MALE_4: Do you remember if any Mother Nature Movements or events drawing that besides the civil rights movements?
• [00:42:48] EULA EADDY: Well, the revolutions happening in music with people being allowed to dance together on TV. There was the traditional American Bandstand where everybody was white, and then you start singing. Blacks being allowed to be on TV and mixing in. I saw a lot of changes happening, but not enough, and we still long way to go. We've come away, but we still have a ways to go.
• [00:43:31] MALE_4: So our next set of questions covers adulthood, marriage, and family life.
• [00:43:35] EULA EADDY: Oh, boy.
• [00:43:37] MALE_4: This covers a relatively long period of your life. By the time you completed your education, entered the labor force, or started a family, until all the children left home, and you and or your spouse retired from employment. We're possibly talking about stress at times but then as much as four decades. After you finished high school, did you move right away to Eastern Michigan?
• [00:44:03] EULA EADDY: I did.
• [00:44:04] FEMALE_2: I actually going to have you start there next time.
• [00:44:07] EULA EADDY: Okay.
• [00:44:07] FEMALE_2: There are questions, you're not quite done yet.
• [00:44:15] MALE_4: Great follow-up questions. That's nice. A lot of that came out off the template that's great.
• [00:44:21] EULA EADDY: Really?
• [00:44:22] FEMALE_2: When you Eula, you could hear very well, right?
• [00:44:25] MALE_4: Yeah.
• [00:44:26] FEMALE_2: Okay.
• [00:44:26] MALE_4: Perfect. That everything looked at?
• [00:44:32] FEMALE_2: Do you want me to start?
• [00:44:34] MALE_4: No. Go ahead and answer Evan though, since I'm way off to the side.
• [00:44:41] EULA EADDY: That's a loaded question.
• [00:44:43] MALE_4: What was the-
• [00:44:44] FEMALE_2: He means talk to Evan as if
• [00:44:48] MALE_4: Wherever you can go ahead.
• [00:44:50] EULA EADDY: Oh.
• [00:44:50] FEMALE_2: You said Lake Providence Louisiana.
• [00:44:52] EULA EADDY: Lake Providence, Louisiana.
• [00:44:54] MALE_4: Okay. I manage evidence. I was able to Google it and look it up right here, and that's what right near the Mississippi River.
• [00:45:01] EULA EADDY: It is. We have a branch of the Mississippi which actually separates our town. The blacks lived on one side and a wife lives on the other. We have this beautiful lake. It would make a great resort town. I often wanted to get somebody like Bill Gates or what's it other rich guy's name with the hair that goes really weird to come and invest some money and, turn out of town it to this resort area. This is really beautiful. It was a great place to grow up even with all the poverty and lack of education. It was just a place to grow up. But then the poverty overtook things, we may Time Magazine, I believe in 1986 for one the poorest places to grow up in America. Then I think we made it again in 2000 something. So poverty was very prevalent. It was a farm town, cotton was king in the South and that was the major product that was produced. If you didn't work on somebody's farm, the more educated people that I saw, I saw teachers. I didn't get to see doctors and lawyers that looked like me anyway in my community. I think that's probably what influenced me certainly to become a teacher because it was the people that I saw every day and had a big influence on my life. Lake Providence is beautiful, beautiful town. People know about my town, it's like you have to go through Lake Providence to get to Mississippi. We are right in the northeast corner, right at the Arkansas line. It's a major highway, goes right through. I'm often surprised, I'm sitting in an airport and I mention my town and they said, "All right, I've been through there. I know lake Providence, beautiful lake.".
• [00:47:21] MALE_4: Mississippi River, it's just such a Historic thing. I was thinking like Mark Twain and all that. Did it factor into the culture, the tunnel, that shipping lane going through there.
• [00:47:32] EULA EADDY: It's not that big. It's a small lake, so no shipping but boating, and what do you call it? Fun water sports. Fourth of July, fireworks and skiing and boating kind of activities definitely took place.
• [00:47:51] MALE_4: You mentioned during the Johnson administration that forced integration of schools, did that happen in your school?
• [00:47:57] EULA EADDY: 1970 in the middle of my senior year. I had attended, it was an all-black school my whole entire life. From December to January, the laws changed and we went from what wasn't all black school. They literally moved us to what wasn't all white school because none of the white kids did. They decided not to show up. They had literally built an academy on the other side of the lake, overnight. It seemed as though because we were physically moved from one building to another, we were still an all-black school, but in what was an all white school at one time. Yeah, that happened in the middle of my senior year, 1970.
• [00:48:54] MALE_4: How did that work? That's pretty big displacement in the middle of the school year.
• [00:48:59] EULA EADDY: It was terrible.
• [00:49:00] MALE_4: Was there conflict or was their curfew?
• [00:49:02] EULA EADDY: Well, it was us in the building though. The one or two students that stayed, I think it was the young lady who was slated to be the valedictorian of the class, she did not believe. They will want it to that state. But the one young lady from my class actually beat her out for that, so she ended up being a celebratory and that's the valedictorian.
• [00:49:31] MALE_4: To clarify, none of the white students.
• [00:49:34] EULA EADDY: They didn't show up. They did not come,
• [00:49:36] MALE_4: Showed up to the integrated school?
• [00:49:37] MALE_4: Exactly. They built it was called Brian Wood Academy. On the other side of the lake, we didn't even know where it came from and that's where they ended up attending. They must have known all along that something was coming down through the legislation.
• [00:49:53] MALE_4: They build other another school.
• [00:49:56] EULA EADDY: Yes. They had another building. Yes
• [00:50:01] FEMALE_2: It was a public school.
• [00:50:03] EULA EADDY: I t was a public school. That's something. Well, they call it Brian Wood Academy.
• [00:50:14] MALE_4: I have one last thing that popped in my head, you talked about schools got torn down for three ways, would that be 375? Would that would have been Paradise Valley?
• [00:50:22] EULA EADDY: It had 75 North and west right off of Fort Street.
• [00:50:30] MALE_4: Okay. What was the name of that school?
• [00:50:31] EULA EADDY: Boyton, B-Y-T-O-N.
• [00:50:33] MALE_4: Boyton Elementary.
• [00:50:40] MALE_5: Is that the neighborhood that got disbanded during the [OVERLAPPING]
• [00:50:46] FEMALE_3: Do you remember that, where are you from?
• [00:50:47] MALE_5: Well, I've heard about it. I was being displaced them, and they called it. Well I have two names, black body because of the soil when the French settlers came, rich soil. Then they also call it paradise valley jazz area. And I got disbanded because three weeks, now I'm wondering if you had any memories of her.
• [00:51:05] FEMALE_3: I don't know the history of that that's very interesting, but that is the area, that's where my father lived, he lived in that area during his time. Southwest Detroit.
• [00:51:18] FEMALE_4: Interesting.
• [00:51:23] MALE_5: Great job.
• [00:51:26] FEMALE_4: We're going to stop, something you may want to mark.
• [00:51:32] FEMALE_3: That was a lot, but what are done taping? I can talk now of camera.
• [00:51:48] MALE_5: During your time as a teacher, what technology changes occurred during your term as a teacher?
• [00:51:56] FEMALE_3: We went from using machines that you had to operate manually, to make copies of things for the students to, the more automated ones where you just stick it in the machine and it can print, hundreds of copies at a time. Certainly the introduction of computers, we didn't have that. My goodness, when you want it to show slide presentations, you had to manually stick individual slides into a machine, and then manually progress it forward, so a lot of changes in technology, a lot of changes. We went from cassette tapes with listening to stories to CDs, my goodness. The music I think when I first started, had record players where you had a vinyl records that you actually put on, and had to have a needle as it was spinning to help the play, God all changes. I can't even think of, those are some that are coming to mind right away. I know the big headphones at the students we used to wear back in the day, now they have the little earplugs or the sound in your classroom now comes from the speakers in the ceiling. Just all changes, using overhead projectors where teachers would have to stay in, and write everything on the board. We can put it on a piece of clear plastic, and write on it, and we can stay facing the audience so you don't have to have your back to the students at anytime. That really was good with helping with classroom management. Lots of changes, those are some of the ones that come to mind right away.
• [00:54:07] MALE_5: Do you feel like the new technology has made the classrooms more efficient?
• [00:54:11] FEMALE_3: As far as yes, classroom management, I think just being able to keep an eye on the students, and captivating their attention because the media is big, and the students lives now, that's, technology. They're up on all of the latest trends and everything. Absolutely, if you've got something, you've got a picture of something that you're talking about, you can show them a place that you're reading about, or that has to be covered. Absolutely technology has definitely improved instruction, and holding students' attention as well, absolutely.
• [00:54:54] MALE_5: What is the biggest difference in your primary field of teaching from the time, you started until now?
• [00:55:04] FEMALE_3: More diversity as for students having, I initially started in my teaching career, and will run community schools which was predominantly black. There's certainly coming to Ann Arbor a lot more diversity. Technology again, that's the methods of teaching has changed dramatically when you're trying to not leave any child behind or reach all of the students, and you have students coming with so many different learning styles, and from different backgrounds as far as their educational experience. It helps to have a lot of different means, and methods to approach that, so I think, from the big picture education, those who are really creating the curriculum have really tried to focus on reaching a wide variety of students. Students who come with a second language or a different language that's being addressed, and how to get instruction to them, as well as just students who have difficulty learning. Everybody doesn't learn at the same speed or the same pace, and there are different learning styles. I think there's been quite a few changes to help address the educational needs of students.
• [00:56:32] MALE_5: How do you judge excellence in the field of teaching?
• [00:56:38] FEMALE_3: That can vary because what would be a degree of excellence for one students certainly wouldn't be for another just because again o skill levels. You got a student who has a learning disability, excellence for them could be something as simple as I'm just being able to sit in a classroom, and listen for a long period of time. Whereas students who learn by primarily listening can achieve, and that's how they excel. They read, they get it, they hear it, and that's it. It can vary depending on the student's ability levels and their skills, and what they come to you with from as I said, something as minor as getting to class on time to something way beyond that. Absolutely way beyond that.
• [00:57:31] MALE_5: In your opinion, what makes someone be respected in the teaching field?
• [00:57:39] FEMALE_3: I think dedication, commitment. I think when you see teachers who are interested in continuing their education, and staying, I guess for lack of a better word, on the cutting edge of what's happening in education. Just genuinely concerned about students willing to be open and to new ideas, different ideas. Again, students who come with all kinds of as I said, learning disabilities and different learning styles.
• [00:58:24] MALE_5: What do you value most about teaching?
• [00:58:29] FEMALE_3: Just being able to reach students or even you'd like to think that you're reaching them all, but just to be able to reach one. It might sound like a small goal, but when you get students from all different learning backgrounds, just the thing that you may have made a difference in somebody's life or are you affected something maybe you said something that changed their whole opinion about school. Maybe they weren't as serious as they needed to be, and we're able to maybe say something or share something that made an impact on their life.
• [00:59:14] MALE_5: Do you remember some of the ways that you tried to open up, ask yourself?
• [00:59:19] FEMALE_3: just being genuine, showing them that I really cared that I was someone that they could trust. I like to refer to myself as an equal opportunity teacher. I treated all children different, I never was accused of, you being unfair, you did something for someone that you didn't do for me, or you're treating them different. I really took a great deal of pride in being that kind of a teacher. I think kids respond when they know you really care, somebody is concerned and that all the hard work that you put in really it's for them, and that you really care about them. You're going to great lengths to do things for them to really help them better their lives. You've got yours, so you want them to see, and become a value part of the community themselves.
• [01:00:12] MALE_5: Do you think like no child left behind act is really benefited from the classroom in terms to keep and stay on same place of others?
• [01:00:19] FEMALE_3: I think it brought out awareness to teenagers, and people in education who might not have thought about that because I think for years students were just passed along, and not maybe the effort and concentration that needed to be given to students who weren't excelling at the same level as others. I think it brought attention to that and that was definitely something that was needed. As I said, all students don't achieve and accomplish, and do things at the same pace and rate. To get programs, and attention brought to students who weren't just going to get it all as fast or as quick or get it period, I think that was very valuable. Yes, I think I shared a lot of light on students, so who were being left behind or passed over.
• [01:01:14] MALE_5: You love to travel?
• [01:01:15] FEMALE_3: I do.
• [01:01:16] MALE_5: Do you plan on you moving anywhere, from outside of Michigan after 50 years?
• [01:01:22] FEMALE_3: That would depend on finances, and family, and friends. When you get to be my age, it's a little difficult. This past winter has certainly made me think about having a summer home someplace [LAUGHTER] out of the Michigan, but I really liked Michigan and I don't plan on having a permanent home anywhere else so I really liked it here. But certainly I like to have a winter home if we have another one like this one, some place to be when it's really cold for the four months. December, January, February, and now March. I love to be in Hawaii.
• [01:01:55] MALE_5: Sounds financial [inaudible 01:01:57] .
• [01:01:58] FEMALE_3: Yes, it does.
• [01:01:59] MALE_5: What [inaudible 01:01:59]
• [01:02:03] FEMALE_5: The diversity, the places to go eat. I like being in a college town. I think that provides an opportunity for a little bit of more open-mindedness and people. I like the parks. I just like it. It's just a nice style. I like college towns. I think that's a great place to raise a family, to grow up, and to live.
• [01:02:29] MALE_6: Now going into your family. How did your family life change, after all your children left the house?
• [01:02:36] FEMALE_5: They're still there. It hasn't changed much. [LAUGHTER] Now, initially, it was short-lived. My son went away to Western and came back. My daughter went South to Louisiana to see if she could handle that and came back. Actually, they're both still home with me right now. That's okay. It's it's fine. I don't have a problem, I think family is important. With the economy the way it is and job opportunities it is being difficult even with a college education. It's still difficult out there. Having two adult children in the house with me, it's different, but it's okay. It's okay. I like it, I enjoy cooking, so I still do that and they like that and they help out. It's good, we get along.
• [01:03:33] MALE_6: Could you describe a typical day, in the life with this kids.
• [01:03:39] FEMALE_5: Oh, now that I've retired, I smile a lot more. There's not as much stress. Oh my God, the lack of stress, just not having to go to work. I get up and I'm involved in things like this project for example. I got up this morning, I had breakfast, and my focus was on coming here and then I have to run errands. My mailboxes in my neighborhood were destroyed, so I have to now go to the post office downtown to check my mail, but it varies. I tried to get exercise and I go places. I'm involved with my church, I'm involved in the community. I just do a lot of different things. It's wonderful. There are no two days are ever the same and I love it. I'm not bored. That's one not one word you would ever hear out of my mouth. I try to keep myself busy involved in things. I still travel. I'm on my way to my hometown, Louisiana for an all town reunion at the end of next month. I'm going to be doing a cruise in August and anything else that comes up in between, I am able to get on board and go. I think there's another trip. My daughter and I do a mother-daughter trip every year. I'm looking forward to that. Typical day, no two days are the same. I'm active, I'm involved. I'm I getting up and getting out and doing things. It's wonderful. [LAUGHTER].
• [01:05:08] MALE_6: What are some of the activities that your church does?
• [01:05:12] FEMALE_5: We have what we call ministries, and we have the young adult ministry. We have a marriage enrichment ministry, which basically focus on married couples and activities for them to do, and the senior ministry. I think actually that's how I got involved with this project. Through the senior ministry, I was referred to by one of my church family members to be involved with this program. We do all kinds of activities, we go to movies, we go out to dinner, we go to shows, plays. The various ministries provide activities and avenues for all the members of the church, from the youths to the seniors, older people, older adults and the church to be involved in. It's really cool and it's nice.
• [01:06:12] MALE_6: Well, thinking about your life after retirement. Or when you take the phone to the president, what important social or historical events were taking place and how did they personally affect you?
• [01:06:28] FEMALE_5: Well, this was a little before I retired that the big political thing was we had an African-American president elected. I just retired this past June. That's been 7-8 months now. Not a whole lot has happened on the political scene. We have this plane that has disappeared that everybody is wondering about how, I'm curious, what do you guys think about? What has happened to this plane that has just vanished? That's a news event, but I don't think there had been any major political while the whole long rests with the Ukraine and what's happening there. Things on the political scene but nothing really big since I retired, because I just retired this past June, 2013.
• [01:07:16] MALE_6: Thinking back on your entire life, what important social or historical events happened [inaudible 01:07:22]?
• [01:07:24] FEMALE_5: Again, I have to refer back to the election of an African-American President. I think that was really big. I can't go back to graduating from high school, 1970, President Lyndon Baines Johnson was in office and he forced integration in the South. That was a big political deal. There still were many segregated schools. Most of them still were. The immediate impact that that had on my life was the middle of my senior year. I went from what was an all black school in the middle of my senior year and moving to what was an all white school. Basically because the white spotted and they were just not on board with having that happened. We just ended up moving a student body of about 400 and some students to a different building because we were still an all-black school because none of them showed up. They actually built another school which they call a Brightfield Academy, and they all attended that. I think with the exception of maybe one or two who were slated to be like the valedictorian or salutatorian of a class actually came. But that had a big impact business. I said it was the middle of my senior year. It just separated everything that I had known, school that I had known, all my high school years, that everything just changed. I don't know. I have mixed feelings about the whole integration thing and I think in some respects has been good. In some respects we still have a long way to go. If you didn't [inaudible 01:09:26] [LAUGHTER]. That's a long story.
• [01:09:29] MALE_6: Are you saying that the election of President Obama's slowly but surely getting that integration and more prominent in people's lives?
• [01:09:44] FEMALE_5: I hope so. [LAUGHTER] I have to remain hopeful. It's really hard to say because I'm sure you guys witnessed a lot of the reactions to him his first term and it was horrible the way some of our leaders, senators, and representatives were acting towards him on national TV. Some of the outlast, some of the outbursts, some of the comments, and we even have some TV stations that are still just so anti-Obama, it's not even funny. Racism is still alive and well in this country and it's evident. You just listen, read. I think we still have a long way to go. We've come a long way, but we still have a long way to go.
• [01:10:34] MALE_6: What family will matter [inaudible 01:10:35]?
• [01:10:38] FEMALE_5: Photos. [LAUGHTER] Things that I can't really put my hand on it. They feel anything right now, but I have photos come to mind. Recipes, my mum left me. My grandmother was really into quilting. I have some really nice handmade quilts she made unlike now they have those machines that can do everything for you. If that's what you meant by who my mentor was.
• [01:11:11] MALE_6: Do you have very special quilts?
• [01:11:15] MALE_6: Well, the ones that I'm not in great lenses for as characters and that kind of thing. I just know they were made from the materials from clothes that I wore and that rewards kids. It was cool. Our old clothes that were cut up into little pieces. I can look at pieces in and say this was from a dress that I had or a skirt or something like that. That's cool. Or maybe a sheet or a pillowcase or something from around the house, a towel or something. That's cool.
• [01:11:48] MALE_6: Taking back over your entire life.
• [01:11:50] FEMALE_5: Oh boy. [LAUGHTER] [inaudible 01:11:57] The fact that I finished my education, I completed it, I was one. This was something that was very important to my mother and she never got to do it. My grandmother didn't get to do it. I was the first in my family of seven to actually do the whole thing, high-school, college, the masters. To complete my college education and actually have a career. Then my two or three my sister's followed and suit and so that I can help us and my kids. I guess will come next, but completing and getting a college education and then having my children. [inaudible 01:12:37]
• [01:12:44] FEMALE_6: Pretty good coming from the town that I grew up in that as I said, made Time Magazine in 1989, I believe. Then again recently for being one of the poorest places to grow up in America. Just overcoming some of the obstacles that I had to overcome makes me feel pretty good. Really goes along with that you can do and be anything that you want to be if you really work hard at it.
• [01:13:14] MALE_7: What advice would you give to my generation?
• [01:13:20] FEMALE_6: Oh boy. [LAUGHTER] Don't give up. Hard work does pay of. Remember where you've come from, try to reach back and help somebody. Don't forget that no matter how successful you are in life, there's always someone who is not doing as well or who is just not doing as well as you are and needs help. Think about the people because we're all in this thing together. We all swim or sink together, so at the end of the day, reaching out and helping someone is one of the most important things you can do. That's something that I think teaching allowed me an opportunity to do, is to reach out and help people in ways that I may not even have known. I think I probably touch more lives than I'll ever realize. I think I would say definitely remember those who are behind you, so to speak, and reach back and help someone else along the way if you can.
• [01:14:35] MALE_7: Thank you.
• [01:14:37] FEMALE_6: That's it. Yay.
• [01:14:42] MALE_7: What is the name of your home town?
• [01:14:43] FEMALE_6: Lake Providence, Louisiana.
• [01:14:47] MALE_7: How far is that from Lake Providence?
• [01:14:54] FEMALE_6: At least four or five hour drive. Let's say over 200 miles, maybe 300 miles. I'm not sure exactly. I don't think I've ever driven directly from Lake providence to Moorland .
• [01:15:11] MALE_7: You want to go side [inaudible 01:15:12]?
• [01:15:16] FEMALE_6: No, Lake providence is in the northern part of the state near the Arkansas lines, so I was right near the Arkansas line, about 10 miles from Arkansas.
• [01:15:25] MALE_7: What was the major source of income for most of the people in your province?
• [01:15:31] FEMALE_6: It was a farming town, so cotton was king [LAUGHTER] in the South and particularly in the area that I grew up in, so farming. People lived on plantations and basically farmed.
• [01:15:47] MALE_7: What was the estimated population of your province?
• [01:15:51] FEMALE_6: It was under 15,000.
• [01:15:54] MALE_7: What was the racial/ethnic background of the community?
• [01:16:01] FEMALE_6: Well, it was pretty divided. I think I mentioned earlier and then in our discussions, I'd say probably 60-40 and black people lived on one side of town and white people lived on the other side. Let's say black people were the majority.
• [01:16:25] MALE_7: Did you ever experience racial discrimination?
• [01:16:29] FEMALE_6: Not directly but I think the overall effect was prevalent as far as the schools that I attended was segregated. The materials that we had in our schools were less than par. They were not up-to-date materials, so in a broad sense, yes. We were not allowed to go into the same movie theaters. Well, we could go into the same movie theater, but we had to sit segregated, black sit sat at the top of the theater and the whites sat at the bottom. I guess I did.
• [01:17:11] MALE_7: What were some of the stereotypes of this?
• [01:17:19] FEMALE_6: Well, because, it's kind of hard. I was at an all black school, so there was some of that going on among our own people too. I would say some stereotyping as far as if you were smarter than that, how you dress. If you didn't dress well, that kind of thing. Among my own people, so some of those things.
• [01:17:53] MALE_7: Did those stereotypes really bother you?
• [01:18:01] FEMALE_6: Not really, I would say not directly. Nothing that I can pinpoint. I think I was part of the popular group of kids when I was in high school and elementary, middle school. I was smart so I guess I didn't get. If I was stereotyped, I didn't know. We were all poor. There were actual segments, even being poor there's the lower-class, middle-class, and upper-class poor people. But we were all poor so you didn't get a lot of backlash in that sense from a social economic standpoint, but I'd say not directly, I wasn't directly affected.
• [01:18:51] MALE_7: What was the average [inaudible 01:18:52]?
• [01:18:54] FEMALE_6: Oh my, low. I think the teachers were the professional people that I saw in my daily life. I think probably back when I was in school, they weren't even making $10,000 a year so somewhere maybe $3000-$4,000 a year for teachers and people who were doing farm work probably were certainly a lot less than that.
• [01:19:23] MALE_7: Did the opening of [inaudible 01:19:25] high school help in racial discrimination or worsen the situation?
• [01:19:30] FEMALE_6: Well it didn't help because things didn't change a whole lot. As I said, we just basically moved from one location to another. We were still basically a segregated school. Our community certainly remained segregated because as I said, black people lived on one side of the lake and white people lived on the other side, so there was only mixing when you went into town and there were just certain stores you went to and all that thing. Not a whole lot in the '70s and the early part of the '70s and I actually graduated in 1970 when the law was enforced, it came into effect so I didn't see a lot of change at all.
• [01:20:10] MALE_7: What were some of those interactions around the [inaudible 01:20:12]
• [01:20:15] FEMALE_6: Around the segregation or the integration? That brought us together.
• [01:20:22] MALE_7: I mean, crossing the other side of the river.
• [01:20:24] FEMALE_6: We just didn't do it unless you were going over to work. There was a tradition for black women to go and work in the white women's homes to do their cooking and cleaning and taking care of their children. It's really weird. It was interesting. That's always baffled me how it was socially acceptable for black people to go into their homes and cook and clean and take care of their kids. But any other aspects of socialization was frowned upon us I should say.
• [01:21:12] MALE_7: How was the province affected by the civil rights movement?
• [01:21:12] FEMALE_6: Because it was basically a welfare town where a lot of people were illiterate, couldn't read or write. We were able to get and I was happy to say I was very bothered getting a lot of people registered to vote so I would say for the first time, a lot of people who had never voted before were allowed and able to actually register and vote. As time went on and as I've gone back over the years, the whole integration scene, it's changed. I think that probably was brought about through the civil rights movement. Just the attitudes, the kids and the younger people's attitudes about the racist mixing is so different now than it was back in those days. I think the civil rights movement properly contributed to that.
• [01:22:16] MALE_7: What are some of the challenges you faced in getting [inaudible 01:22:18].
• [01:22:21] Eula Eaddy: As I said [NOISE] it was a welfare town so people couldn't read and write so you actually had to [NOISE] explain a ballot to them, talk them through the process of registering to vote. Well, I really show them how to do it more or less helping to get people to the polls to vote. It was just interesting because I was young and I was excited to be involved in something like that and when you're young, you don't have a lot of fear about situations and what's going to happen to you. You see things on TV but the area that I grew up in didn't think anybody big like Dr. Chain would come to your town or have an API route Ralph Abernathy anybody like that so you didn't get a lot of people coming in causing protests and things like that so there wasn't a lot of fear. It was actually fun and very educational to help get people registered to vote and explain the whole process to them.
• [01:23:30] MALE_8: But what year did you note this?
• [01:23:31] Eula Eaddy: The year 1970. I graduated in May and I was actually on the [LAUGHTER] bus the next day I think May 31st. I think I actually got here June 1st or May 31st or something like that. I actually left town the day after I graduated high school.
• [01:23:49] MALE_8: What circumstances resulted in [inaudible 01:23:52]
• [01:23:53] Eula Eaddy: My father influenced me to come. He said, if you want to teach you need to come here, we have the best teaching college in the nation, the United States, Eastern Michigan University and so he influenced me to come here to go to school because I expressed an interest in teaching.
• [01:24:13] MALE_8: In comparing your experiences in and out of your experiences in Michigan has there been more or less racial discrimination here in Michigan than Louisiana?
• [01:24:27] Eula Eaddy: When I first came here I had a really hard time dealing with all of what appear to be the integrated population. The first big challenge was my father and his wife. My father was married to this white woman and I had never come that close and direct contact with anybody white so that was a big challenge for me. Then she was a nurse at the University of Michigan's hospital so she got me a job there and so I'm in this population where it's just integration everybody black and white people live together. It was a struggle for awhile because I came in contact with the law professional people, racism wasn't big on their agenda, everybody treated people with respect and as professionals and it was hard for me to deal with because I wasn't used to that environment. But I slowly adapted and then accepted. But overall I think racism is still alive and well in America. I know that I could go 10 miles either direction, Dexter, Chelsea, Manchester and be hit. Then in some areas right here in Ann Arbor there were some people especially back in those days early '70s. It was different, it wasn't as blatant and people weren't as outward with it but I was very sensitive to people who have never been around black people, I'm a very, personable person so if I'm in close contact with you I might touch you or something like that and I could tell if I was around somebody who was not comfortable being touched or being around a black person at all. I was always aware, I've always been aware because the first thing you see when I enter a room or a building or a place is my skin. For people who are blatantly racist you can tell, I know. I was always aware and it was a struggle for awhile.
• [01:26:50] MALE_8: Has there been a time while you've been here in Michigan that you've been judged by the color of your skin?
• [01:26:56] Eula Eaddy: Oh, absolutely. I'm sure. I don't know that I can pinpoint or just pick out one particular situation right now, but I know I have. It's unfortunate and it doesn't make you feel good. [LAUGHTER] But I have I'm sure.
• [01:27:22] MALE_8: In your opinion have we reached a world where racial discrimination is at least tolerable compared to the many ethnicity [inaudible 01:27:29] ?
• [01:27:33] Eula Eaddy: A lot of situations, yes, especially on the surface. I think that the people who are just never going to change until they're dead or they said to their relatives, their ancestors or whatever have died off, they're not going to change, that's going to always be with us. But yes I think we've come a long way but we have a long way to go.
• [01:28:01] MALE_8: How is your life experiences growing up and in adulthood as well as your attitudes or your power to love people that ethnicity is for a race?.
• [01:28:13] Eula Eaddy: I've always been accepting of people I think maybe my mother and I give her my grandmother full credit because they never as backwards and as racist and as separated as things were, we were never taught to hate or dislike white people. We were just taught how to stay in our place so to speak, where they were concerned. We were never taught to hate them because of how they felt about us. I was always accepting of other people and as an educator, oh my God there's so much you can learn, there's so much that other people have to offer. My own personal background has just kept me open-minded to other people and other cultures, other races and I think it's been a wonderful experience. But again when you're on the other side and receiving backlashes from being judged by the color of your skin that's not the fun part of it.
• [01:29:25] MALE_8: Why do you think that is that some races are accepted?
• [01:29:32] Eula Eaddy: I want to say education. People just don't know any better and when you don't know you don't do [LAUGHTER] any better. I think just lack of knowledge and the way you've being raised a certain way in certain culture. I think I've always said travel I think is the best education in the world. Once you get out and see and visit and see that the world is, oh my God a vast array of people from all different colors, races, backgrounds, experiences, then you certainly learn and you grow and you become more acceptable of things. But people who are stagnated in one situation in one place they never get to branch out or they never get to learn or become socially accepting of others they just stay stuck in their place.
• [01:30:33] MALE_8: Was it ever one where in your life where you thought I'm never going to be accepted?
• [01:30:39] Eula Eaddy: No. I've always felt comfortable in my skin so to speak. I was the oldest of seven children so I've always had confidence in myself, I've always had to be a leader. My mom, my grandmother and the village that help raise me, instill pride and self-confidence. I didn't have to hear Jesse Jackson say that I'm somebody to realize and remember and always know that I was. I think I've always had confidence in myself and I've never had any self-esteem issues [LAUGHTER] so to speak.
• [01:31:32] MALE_8: Is there one person that you go to talk to [inaudible 01:31:33] facing discrimination [inaudible 01:31:36] handle it?
• [01:31:41] Eula Eaddy: I'd say my mom and my grandmother because they were just two very strong women. They were just strong. I didn't really see them deal with anything direct. I know that my mom she worked in a white woman's house and she did ironing and cleaning and that kind of thing, but she did it with a great deal of pride, she had confidence in her skills and what she could do and so I never felt my mom felt inferior to anybody so I would have to give both of them credit
• [01:32:28] MALE_8: What in your opinion would make the world a better place and help improving relations between the races?
• [01:32:34] Eula Eaddy: Education. Have to come back to that again. Just having people learn about other people. Then some direct experiences too I think or people have to be put in situations sometimes if they're not comfortable in to for lack of better way and maybe experience what it's like being on the other side sometimes or experiencing what it's like so I would say education. At the end of the day knowledge is power and when people know better they do better sometimes [LAUGHTER]. I've generalized too much on that one most of the time I think when people know better they do better.
• [01:33:30] MALE_8: Thank you.
• [01:33:32] Eula Eaddy: We're done? Okay