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Myrtle
L. Williams: Great
Depression, World War II, and the Civil Rights Movement Interviewed 2004 Student Interview Q:
What is your name? A:
Myrtle L. Williams Q:
When and where were you born? A:
Muskogee, Oklahoma Q:
When? A:
I was born March 6, 1921. Q:
What did your parents do for a living? A:
Didn’t no body work but my daddy. Now what he done, I don’t know. Q:
You don’t know? A:
Uh-huh. Q:
OK. What type of education did you pursue and how far did you go in
school? A:
Me? Q:
Yes. A:
Oh, I didn’t get no farther than the sixth grade. Q:
Sixth grade? A:
Ah-huh. Q:
What types of jobs did you have a young woman? A:
Oh, I worked at H. L. Green’s. I worked at Woolworth’s. Q:
What are those? Department stores? A:
Ah-huh. Q:
Department stores. OK. What was it like for a young woman in the 1920s
and 30s, that is, what were the attitudes about what young woman could and could
not do? A:
When I first started working, I was working at home – at a home. And
what that lady’s name now, I don’t know. Q:
OK. What was it like for a young woman in the 1920s and 30s, that is what
were the attitudes about a young woman – what could a woman do and what could
a woman not do? What were the attitudes? A:
In the 1920s? Q:
And 30s. What was common for a woman to do? A:
Well, young women didn’t do too much working back in them days. Q:
Women didn’t work? And what kind of attitudes did men expect for a
woman to have? A:
Oh, a good attitude. Better have a good one. Q:
OK. What did you and your friends do for entertainment in the 1920s and
30s? A:
1920s and 30s? We would go out to dances and be around football games,
but we wasn’t interested in them. (laughing) Q:
Just the boys? A:
Yea. After Douglas men would have them football games, we’d go to the
dance afterward. Q:
What are your recollections about the 1930s and the Great Depression? A:
1930s? Q:
During the Great Depression. A:
Really, we wasn’t doing nothing ‘cause we couldn’t do nothing. Q:
What do you mean, couldn’t do nothing? A:
Couldn’t work or nothing. Now, they would have such as the W – WPA,
and all that kind of stuff, but back in then, you wasn’t old enough to get on
them jobs. Q:
So what did your family do during the Great Depression? What was it like? A:
Well, my step-daddy would work. He worked at . . . Q:
So he did have a job? A:
Yea. And then we would get the free stuff. . . Q:
Stuff donated? A:
. . . like food and clothing and stuff like that. Q:
From where? Like churches and stuff? A:
No, we would get it from the, ah, the welfare or whatever or whoever
would give away that stuff. Whatever they gave away, we got some of it. Q:
So during the Great Depression, were you all, like kind of poor? A:
We was poor. But things back in them days was cheaper than stuff is now. Q:
When did you meet your husband and when did you get married? A:
Well, I met my husband – back in them days – yea, the 30s, ‘cause
Rudy (?) was born in ’38, and . . . we got married when . . . Q:
You got married in the 30s? A:
Yea. Q:
You can’t remember what year? A:
No, ‘cause we – Rudy was 38 years old – born 1938. Q:
Did you get married before or after? A:
After. Probably back in the 40s. Q:
You can’t remember which year – 1940, ‘41, ‘42? A:
I would say about ’45. And we was going together before then. Q:
What did he do for a living? A:
He was a construction worker. Q:
What was your reaction to the outbreak of World War II? How did you feel
about that? A:
World War II? I think I was working then at Green’s and Woolworth’s. Q:
What was your reaction to the war? How did you feel about that? A:
Well, I really didn’t pay it really the hard attention to it, ‘cause
I was working and didn’t pay the war no attention. Q:
Because you were working? A:
Ah-huh. Q:
Pretty much supporting the family, huh? A:
Ah-huh. Q:
How did other young women and men feel at the time in the area of which
you were living? A:
I don’t know how they would feel. Wasn’t none of them working. They
was getting that welfare. They wouldn’t stood by no work. (laughs) Q:
Did you enter the military? A:
No! Q:
Did you work in the defense industry in any way? A:
No. Q:
That is, did you become one of the women in the stories labeled as
“Rosie the Riveter?” A:
Uh-huh. Q:
I want to shift gears for a moment and ask you about race relations for a
bit. What were the attitudes of white people that you came in contact with while
growing up? A:
Well, now, when I started working, I come in contact with some very nice
white folks. Q:
Really? A:
Ah-huh. They was young, though. It was kind of hard to get a job back in
then. Q:
It was? A:
Ah-huh. Q:
How did other African-Americans of your generation view whites? A:
I guess we got along OK. Q:
White people and African-Americans got along OK? Back in those days? A:
OK. We was working for them, we had to get along. Q:
So there was never any problems – fights or anything like that? A:
Oh, Lord, no. We didn’t near by have what’s going on here now.
Uh-huh. Q:
OK. What kinds of experiences did you have, if any, with Jim Crow
segregation in the places you lived in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. Jim Crow laws? A:
I don’t know. Q:
You didn’t have . . . A:
Not as I know of. Q:
So pretty much, I mean you didn’t have a problem with segregation or
nothing like that? Didn’t nobody didn’t ever segregate against you? A:
Uh-huh. Q:
OK, you remember the Civil Rights Movement? A:
Uh-huh. Q:
Don’t remember that? A:
No. Q:
What was your impression of Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X? A:
No. Q:
You didn’t have any impression? A:
No, didn’t know nothing about them people. Q:
Absolutely no impression? A:
Uh-huh. Q:
What was your overall impression of the Civil Rights protests in 1960s? A:
None, ‘cause I didn’t get involved in that stuff. Q:
So, how did you feel about it? You didn’t have no feelings about it? A:
I don’t know – no. Q:
How do you feel it changed American society? A:
Really, I didn’t study up on that kind of stuff. I never did pay no
attention. I really didn’t. Q:
OK, what do you think about the young people today? What are your
impressions? How are they different. . . A:
Oh, Lord, there’s so much going on around here now till you don’t
know who to trust. These young folks – and old folks, too. Things done got
rough around here. Q:
So how are the young people different today than they were? A:
They kill and they messing with older folks and doing everything –
snatching purses and – everything. Got you scared to get out on the street. Q: OK, that’s all. Thank you. Rose State College |