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today's oral history interview is part

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of a project organized by chick history

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in partnership with humanities Tennessee

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I am fami Ajanaku a member of the

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Memphis area branch association for the

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study of african-american life in

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history with assistance from our host

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site the Civil Rights Museum Rose

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College lemoyne-owen College and the

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University of Memphis

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I'm also interviewing miss Barry

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Mitchell who is actually going to give

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us more information this morning about

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her great-aunt

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Maggie white and her grandmother Mary

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Adams Jones so I'd like to thank you

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very much for talking to us again miss

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Mitchell could you tell us something

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more about your grandmother and give us

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her name again okay and thank you dr.

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John Akoo it's my pleasure

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my grandmother was Mary Adams Jones and

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she was born in South Carolina

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I think mid South Carolina a father she

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was born to slaves and her father and

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his brothers the family oral history is

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that they stole a horse and they wrote

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it to Tennessee two of her father's own

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brothers and then the family the Adams

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family moved from the Adams slave

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plantation to Tennessee and Maggie Adams

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white is her sister I think her baby

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sister because she will always call my

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grandmother babe she was maybe it was

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the youngest and they moved to Tennessee

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and they sell in Shelby County around

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the Collierville area and they were one

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of the phone

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members of oh st. James AME Church in

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Collierville and most of them resided

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there until my grandparents moved to

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Memphis in the historic orange mound

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community where I was born in 1936 and

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others migrated north like sister Meg

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she lived in st. Louis R for years and

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years which until she became elderly and

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ill and had to come back home her other

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siblings moved to Chicago and to Canton

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Ohio so can you tell us the reason for

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them living well one of the things

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probably just be some the work for work

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at the particular time part of well it

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could have been a little bit earlier

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than the uh northern migration for them

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but I'm sure it had a lot to do we work

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and the room in my family is that one of

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my grandmother sisters we call her a

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sister Mandy the one who moved to Canton

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Ohio they had moved end up didn't

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Arkansas for a while and so this aunt

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she was attacked or insulted our white

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man and she cut his throat and they had

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to get her out and a wagon in the middle

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of the night and of course she ended up

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in Canton Ohio where she did develop a

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business and would all they come back

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home to visit when I was a little girl

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but this particular incident that I'm

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sharing occurred before I was born I'm

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sure

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and you've mentioned Maggie white well

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my Aunt Maggie white was just so

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phenomenal character her own my

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grandmother's sister she lived in st.

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Louis

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she lived Oh quitea for years she was

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very very active in everything political

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uh she liked to talk about the fact that

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she could pick up the phone and call

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I think the first black of congressman

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from the st. Louis area she was very

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active in the CM e Church all of her

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books and write and she did it gave them

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to lay in college she was a millinery

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she made had she was a really more than

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just a centrist she could design pose

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she worked for the st. Louis Park

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Commission she was always getting

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petition she was quite quite politically

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active and uh she was a Republican one

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of the things I can remember she died in

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1980 probably about oh she was probably

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about 98 because she had moved back home

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an elder and then was staying with us

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and she would always say what this kind

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of hippie boys I'm a Republican and I'll

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be Republic wouldn't until I died and

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that was her dedication to Abraham

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Lincoln and all that was gained in her

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era for african-americans in the

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Republican Party

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I have pictures of her but I couldn't

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find the one picture that I promised but

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I did bring a picture of her a group

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picture of her where she was attended

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the 1955 in a ACP conference in Atlanta

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is a big group picture but she was

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everything in an ACP everything but

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african-americans being great everything

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she always made sure that we were aware

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of our royalty regardless of what the

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Society of her times as well as my times

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would say about us she always made sure

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that we would bear much aware of our

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royalty and I can remember her my dad

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was heard near for you and I can

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remember her coming down when I was a

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little girl and my dad would never be

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walking around kind of like you know

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just relax

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oh yeah head up you are a child of a

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king and she would say that to my grown

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daddy so she was quite a great person

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she was one of the founders also in st.

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Louis I think of Murchison CMA Church it

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was a sima church up there

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she was very politically civically

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activist in everything

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you mentioned some of the things she

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said and about her being a Republican

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were there any other terms that she used

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about african-american progress or

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african-american activism

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well I can't necessarily think of it a

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term per se at this time that she used

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what I could say for sure that she was

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very very much of the mentor the

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inspiration to anybody who was of

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african-american descent to remember

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that the passage of the mill passage

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voyage that brought us over here was not

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a cruise ship that we signed up to be

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passengers for and I would also remember

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understand any person who looked like us

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the Diaspora of African Americans across

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the world that survived the mill passing

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voyage we agree I can remember her

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always saying how great we are

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regardless if somebody was walking down

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the street and maybe intoxicated to

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somewhere she was that oh he doesn't

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know his Rorty because if he knew and he

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would be acting like that