Mae Cofield interview recording, 1993 June 29

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Mae McWilliams Cofield	Mae Marie McWilliams Cofield.	0:02
Leslie Brown	Now are you originally from Enfield?	0:17
Mae McWilliams Cofield	It was about this, what, nine miles out? I guess I was there. I think it's something like that. My home.	0:19
Leslie Brown	Nine miles outside of Enfield?	0:33
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Yes, I guess.	0:35
Leslie Brown	And what was that like? What kind of area was it?	0:37
Mae McWilliams Cofield	It was farming area. In fact, just grew up on a farm.	0:44
Leslie Brown	You grew up on a farm?	0:51
Mae McWilliams Cofield	mm-hmm.	0:53
Leslie Brown	Did your family own the land?	0:54
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Yeah, my father owned the land.	0:56
Leslie Brown	Do you know how much, do you remember how much land you had?	0:58
Mae McWilliams Cofield	At one time he, owned over 300 acres. I think, now I'm not too sure. I don't want be too positive.	1:13
Leslie Brown	What kind of crops did he grow?	1:19
Mae McWilliams Cofield	He grew corn, tobacco, peanuts, cotton.	1:21
Leslie Brown	Cotton too?	1:27
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Yes. Yeah, I remember picking cotton.	1:28
Leslie Brown	So you worked, did you work in the fields?	1:39
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Sure I did.	1:39
Leslie Brown	What did you do?	1:39
Mae McWilliams Cofield	I guess you'd say weed the plants and hoe them, or whatever you would say. Come time for tobacco, I could help in tobacco because we would string it, put it on a string. And we would even pull the blades of farrow off in the stalk at that time, because he used team for his farming. Maybe late years maybe got a tractor. Anyway in those days, it was quite a big family. I had seven brothers and seven sisters. 15 lived to be grown, so we could farm right much, I guess.	1:39
Leslie Brown	Did everybody in the family work out in the field at some time?	2:37
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Well there was 15 of us, and just two younger than I, because some of them were grown when I could remember, the older ones. And he also ran a cotton gin and a saw mill.	2:40
Leslie Brown	Did you have other people working for your family? Did other people hire on the side?	2:58
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Sometimes. Sometimes he would have extra people, but not too often.	3:01
Leslie Brown	Do you remember anything about how he found them?	3:11
Mae McWilliams Cofield	How he—	3:15
Leslie Brown	How he decided who he was going to hire and when he was going to hire?	3:18
Mae McWilliams Cofield	No, because I guess he worked them brothers, because all my brothers were older than I was. And there were just two maybe younger. And they were plowing, and we just had a big farm, unless we just worked that farm. And him, in time for in the fall, he would gin cotton for other people too. And he ran a saw mill, and he sawed logs and made them into lumber.	3:23
Leslie Brown	Did Whites ever come to him to have their cotton ginned or to have their logs sawn? Or were his customers all Black?	4:05
Mae McWilliams Cofield	I think he dealt with some White men. Somethings that are gone from there, far as his concern. But anyway, we just, some White in that section. Not too many, but I guess you would say there was more Black. But just White—And I guess poor White.	4:12
Leslie Brown	Did your father take his own crops to the market? Did he take the tobacco?	4:37
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Yeah, my brothers or something anyway.	4:41
Leslie Brown	And besides working in the fields, what else did you do when you were growing up? Did you go to school?	4:49
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Yeah, I went to school. Such school as we had.	4:53
Leslie Brown	What kind of school did you have?	5:00
Mae McWilliams Cofield	One room school where I went. And we walked, we walked to school. I guess it was about a mile and a half or something like that. We walked, because we weren't too far. But anyway, we'd go through the woods and some woods. Not too many. We walked to school.	5:09
Mae McWilliams Cofield	That was, and before I guess I was in the grades. And from then, I went to Brick. That's when I went to Brick. And I didn't go but one year, one season. That was—And then from then, from Brick I went to—You heard of Eastman? Yes, I went to Eastman one or two years. But I didn't finish high school.	5:24
Leslie Brown	Why didn't you finish high school? You laugh when you say that.	5:59
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Well decided I—I don't know, that's something you always regret, I guess. Always regretted I didn't, but I guess I decided I would marry at that time. I was married in '28, in the year '28.	6:02
Leslie Brown	Married in 1928?	6:14
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Uh-huh. I was 21. You know I'm old now. You know I am old. And that's what I thought, I said I'm grown when I'm married. I was.	6:15
Leslie Brown	And did your parents treat you like you were grown when you married?	6:43
Mae McWilliams Cofield	I guess so. I guess so.	6:48
Leslie Brown	Where did you live when you first got married?	6:51
Mae McWilliams Cofield	I lived with my husband's people. I told them, I said something, that's something I said I'd never do, marry anyone, go in the house with his mom and daddy. But I did. Stay with them awhile and then we maybe moved out and—Anyway.	6:52
Leslie Brown	Where was your husband from?	7:11
Mae McWilliams Cofield	He grew up here. He was a brother to Julia, the one that, you know—	7:13
Leslie Brown	Julia Exum?	7:17
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Yeah.	7:17
Leslie Brown	Oh. And so he was from Enfield?	7:24
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Yes. He was born in reared here.	7:26
Leslie Brown	And what was his family like? I'm going to move this closer to you.	7:28
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Oh, he had a nice family, I would think. Yeah, I got along with them very well. And had, was it seven, was it eight brothers, I believe, and one girl.	7:41
Leslie Brown	You said his family was in the funeral business?	7:50
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Yes, his father, had all them was.	7:56
Leslie Brown	You said earlier that he had already established the Cofield Funeral Services?	8:00
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Yes. I think he said maybe when they first—It was three or four men, and then it fell on down. It was got to be just Cofield. First it was Cofield Bullock and Johnson, the name. And they did die out anyway.	8:06
Mae McWilliams Cofield	In fact, it's like it is now. Cofield Funeral Home's been that way. And I think they said, maybe since—Used there to call it in 1910, I think.	8:32
Leslie Brown	1910?	8:49
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Yeah. So that was when I think that when they first started. And I guess they didn't have funeral homes. I don't know how they did, because most times I think they would just go into homes. And I guess when people died, they buried them very quickly because they didn't embalm them. They didn't embalm.	8:50
Mae McWilliams Cofield	They were embalming, I think, when he and I married. And maybe some they didn't then, because I guess they'd just go and do them next day and all nightly. But now they just keep them out and keep on keeping them out too long.	9:14
Mae McWilliams Cofield	All right, next question.	9:34
Leslie Brown	When you got married, what did you do?	9:41
Mae McWilliams Cofield	What did I do? I would say I lived in the home with them, and I just helped around the house.	9:42
Leslie Brown	Did you work outside the home?	10:04
Mae McWilliams Cofield	No.	10:07
Leslie Brown	No?	10:07
Mae McWilliams Cofield	No.	10:07
Leslie Brown	Do you remember anything about your husband's job as a funeral director? Do you remember people calling him?	10:10
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Oh yeah. I was just thinking when we first married, his brother, one of his brothers, went and took embalming, took the course, Nathaniel. And he ran a store too. I think his daddy ran a store, and my husband helped work in the store. It was a regular grocery store.	10:28
Leslie Brown	Did your husband ever face any trouble for having a business?	11:04
Mae McWilliams Cofield	I remember this, I think he had bought a new Hearse, and his brother was driving the Hearse. I witnessed so many things I'm telling, some of them may be kind of faded. But anyway, I know in what I can remember, he must have had gone on his funeral, and he must have stopped at a place to get him a drink. And anyway, they falsified, I think they said he had liquor in there. I don't know, it's just something so ugly. Oh don't think he didn't come up against things.	11:17
Mae McWilliams Cofield	That's a pretty hard way. He had the struggles, far as that's concerned, falsifying. Of course, we had a White one, they're still here.	12:04
Leslie Brown	Well you were saying earlier that people in Enfield, Black people Enfield, had a hard time of it. Do you have other examples? Do you remember other businessmen who had trouble?	12:22
Mae McWilliams Cofield	I don't know if I could just point right out so far as that's concern about anyone else. I can let someone else could join and say don't you remember so and so, or don't you? I think yeah, to work in Enfield and to live in here, it hadn't been easy, so far as that's concerned. That's true.	12:46
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Anything, because this, my husband and his brother, I guess they joined in and maybe bought up houses and built houses, and this and so on. And I do remember this, as to Enfield, I guess the water line in the sewerage line just went a certain distance. I think when I came to Enfield, I don't think Black people, very few of them had inside bath. Very few I could name, I'm quite sure. Because I can remember my husband wanted to get it, and they say, oh it's too near the surface. It won't, what it will not do. Maybe where he wanted the line maybe to go to his business down—Nope.	13:19
Mae McWilliams Cofield	It hadn't been too many years that the school, I guess that's on the main line now. It hadn't been, because it's pump lift right down the street here. Maybe that day—It's been on back when and I, it's still backwards so far as that's concerned. However, yes, it's been pretty rough. Pretty rough. But anyway, I guess we just have tried to keep on going.	14:23
Leslie Brown	Well how did you keep on going?	15:05
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Well right, I guess my husband's father, I guess he was one of them—You know what I mean? He just would make a way I guess for his family and all and this. And so they, a bunch of children, and just one thing after another he would do, I guess. And of course, my father was a farmer. And my husband would always say, I don't know what we'd have done if it hadn't been for your daddy. So far as that's concerned, and I'm quite sure he'd help out some as to when, in our early days, we used to sew.	15:10
Mae McWilliams Cofield	My brother would bring it, and they would—Because they would, I know we'd sell woods. And then my husband started selling coal. They do a lot of things to make ends meet, and help our brothers too. You know what I'm talking about, your fellow man. They have really been helpful, we tried to live that way. Of course, some may not look at it that way, but they have been.	15:54
Leslie Brown	Let's go back and talk about—We'll come back to that. Let's go back and talk about your parents. What was your father like?	16:34
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Just a working man.	16:44
Leslie Brown	He was a working man?	16:49
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Mm-hmm. Yeah, he was a working man, because they have told me that when he moved that he must have rented—I don't know about this sharecropping. I don't know if he was sharecropping or not. But anyway, he moved in this place where I was born. And my mother said, and he started clearing. And so he was cleared the land in his early—I guess he must have been rather young.	16:52
Mae McWilliams Cofield	And he, there's 120 acres, and then he added more. Maybe then he bought another farm. And I was about six years old. And that's where I feel like I grew up, maybe where I'd always been. And he was a working man. He would work, and taught us to work. I'm quite sure he taught them older ones, because he said that's one thing he wanted to do, was send his children to school. And my oldest brother and sister, I think and they went off to school, went to Henderson Institute.	17:31
Leslie Brown	They went where?	18:17
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Henderson. There's a Henderson Institute, that's what the name. Henderson. North Carolina, up there around—Not too far from, where is it? Wise Dearl? What, Henderson, I think it's on Highway 1. You don't know anything about North Carolina, do you?	18:17
Leslie Brown	A little bit.	18:31
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Well anyway, and he said then he started buying land. Buying land, and they didn't. I don't know how many years they went, but they went off. Most children then, that's where they would go, to Henderson, and Kitrall, and Brick. I think.	18:32
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Now Brick was in there and that was it. That was, my father was a working man and my mother must have been a working woman. Must have. But to own as many children as she did. And she lived to be in her 70s. I think she was 74. Yes. Yes, sir.	18:50
Leslie Brown	So you say, what did you do that makes you say that she was a working woman?	19:18
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Just well, I says to her mother 15 children. And kept us all going, you know what I mean, so far as that's concerned.	19:23
Mae McWilliams Cofield	I know she must have been working with the convenience and on, well water. Things have improved for us since in those early days, from to hear our parents talk, what they went through. In fact their parents were slaves, you see. I don't remember too much about them telling things, but because we go back, my grandson, when he talks about—He likes to go back, and so and so. And I said, I was telling him, you know things I can remember them talking about. But not to well. Did you have grandparents, were your grandparents slaves?	19:34
Leslie Brown	I was adopted.	20:35
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Well my mother's mother, I remember her.	20:37
Leslie Brown	You remember your mother's mother?	20:41
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Yes.	20:42
Leslie Brown	What do you remember about her?	20:43
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Because she be coming and living with us a while. Just come maybe stay a week or two and all that. And she would talk about, her husband was a slave too, I reckon.	20:44
Leslie Brown	What would she talk about?	20:59
Mae McWilliams Cofield	I don't know. I was in that time for letting them people get behind what they had to do, and I guess so. I don't know. That's what you think about our children, what we don't tell them. And how much was it recorded in book? How much?	21:03
Leslie Brown	Not very much.	21:22
Mae McWilliams Cofield	That's the thing about it. And that's just in our history, just weren't taught. I can remember when I was in school, I don't remember them teaching about, what little scant it was in there so far as that's concerned in the book. And I don't know how well that was taught, because the teacher didn't have too much training. And there you. That's one thing about it, they didn't have—They hadn't even finished high school. Teachers had to finished seventh grade and they could teach. And that's when I went to get that early training.	21:24
Mae McWilliams Cofield	And when I did go to Brick, which were good teachers, so far as that's concerned, I told them I learned more that year than I had learned up to there, so far as that's concerned. And so much so when I didn't even have anything to show what I had finished. See, because my mother was disappointed. She thought I should have gone higher, and I regretted the minute the day I didn't try eighth. When I tried seventh—Of course there's a big class, but still I said, well I could have made eighth as well as I could seventh. That's true. I always thought that.	22:05
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Then the next year there was a high school in Eastman. And times where they so slow I guess, with my dad and all, because I don't think it cost very much. If you see some of those books, what it cost to go a month to Brick, you see? I don't know. But anyway, I could get a car. My brother drove and we went to Eastman the first year it was a high school. Went there the second year and that's it. And then stopped off.	22:44
Leslie Brown	So you started your second year at Eastman High School?	23:22
Mae McWilliams Cofield	I finished the second there, which at that time, the state eighth grade, they finished your eighth, ninth, 10, 11th. And then you had finished high school. But the state soon changed it, because a lot of children just finished 11th grade and they went on to college or whatever.	23:26
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Yes, yes. It's been, it was cut off, mine was. But I was determined when my children, I stayed behind them.	23:48
Leslie Brown	Stayed behind them to stay in school?	23:57
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Yes, we put them in school early too. I followed them down.	24:00
Leslie Brown	Why was it important to you for your children to be educated?	24:06
Mae McWilliams Cofield	I don't know. I just like myself, and I liked school.	24:17
Leslie Brown	You liked school?	24:18
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Mm-hmm. Because I once went and lived in Virginia with my uncle, from August until December. And I told him, I tell it now, I said I did a lot of living in those few months. And I was eight years old, and I remember my had my ninth birthday there. But they had better schools. And I was just, pardon me, I swallow, but I just remember, I think it was just outstanding at resume. It just made a deep mark on my life, I think, because now I stay in contact with that family, my relatives, through that.	24:19
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Because the older ones all have passed along, but the young ones, we still, I guess I'm the older one now, but we stay in contact with each other I think by—And I just like school. I like school and I just, the young people, I try to really encourage. I don't care whose child it is, I try to encourage them right now to stay in school.	25:10
Leslie Brown	What did you like about school?	25:36
Mae McWilliams Cofield	I liked to study. I liked to read. I just like—I just don't know.	25:43
Leslie Brown	Did you like the teachers?	25:47
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Did I like the teachers? Most of them I did. Most of them I got along with all my teachers. Like I said, yes. I don't think my teachers were so good. At Eastman, they were just out. And that was a beginning. Oh well it was just so different to come from an established school like Brick was, and to go to Eastman, as far as that. Because I don't know how many degrees, this principal had only one or two high school.	25:47
Leslie Brown	Now why did you go from Brick to Eastman?	26:15
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Well I told you that was in the 30s. Well and I guess maybe the farmer, I guess his income was slower. Maybe the cotton or maybe this, and so. And for that reason my daddy said, well as long as you can stay home, go to school, you can do that. You see me? Oh that was wrong with me. Oh I just cried and this. I had gone and I just planned to go back to Brick. I did.	26:19
Leslie Brown	When you went to Brick, did you live on campus?	26:51
Mae McWilliams Cofield	mm-hmm.	26:53
Leslie Brown	What was that like?	26:54
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Oh it was fine. Yeah.	26:55
Leslie Brown	Where did you live?	26:58
Mae McWilliams Cofield	I lived in, where that one that's falling, that Benedict Hall.	26:59
Leslie Brown	Benedict Hall?	27:01
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Uh-huh, on the second floor.	27:01
Leslie Brown	How many other girls lived on that floor?	27:07
Mae McWilliams Cofield	I don't know. I don't know. Teachers lived on there.	27:13
Leslie Brown	Oh, teachers lived on that floor too?	27:14
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Mm-hmm.	27:14
Leslie Brown	Now there's a sign in the front of the door that says Thrift Shop Open, and it gives the hours. Was the thrift shop in that building too?	27:15
Mae McWilliams Cofield	No, I think that's later. Yes, later. Yes, yes. And so anyway, I didn't realize about Brick, I guess until the years after. Because after I married, I'd always try to, whatever happened, I was there, as far as that's concern. I really attend happenings, plays, or whatever they have programs over there.	27:25
Leslie Brown	Did you ever participate in any of them? You ever sing in the choir?	27:55
Mae McWilliams Cofield	No, I didn't. I had a very dear friend, or she lived on the same floor I did. And she left me. I said—And she went on to the choir, and I said—And I was still in the note head group. I guess I was kind of slow on that. But anyway, I always mentioned her. She passed. She finished Brick, went to Hampton. This is our own subject. But anyway, she went to Hampton.	28:02
Mae McWilliams Cofield	And when she finished Hampton, we stayed in contact with each other pretty well. Of course, I was married. And she said why she went to Oklahoma was she said it paid more. And so she went Oklahoma, and that's where she died. She's been dead for quite a few number of years. And she was formerly from North Carolina down in Rich Square. A place, Rich Square. And she went to Brick, and she and I—Evelyn Johnson. Yes, she is some of those—	28:35
Mae McWilliams Cofield	I've seen some of the pictures of her. Let's see, I guess I've had a pretty full life, so far as that's concerned, because I've always trying to help someone, do something for someone.	29:07
Leslie Brown	Like what? Can you give me some examples?	29:30
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Well I have, I guess I'm calling myself a Christian. And have tried to work with the church and activities. And I have—In fact, Noose River Association, a State Baptist, they—	29:32
Leslie Brown	What's it called?	30:00
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Call it State Baptist, I guess General State. I guess it's State Baptist.	30:03
Leslie Brown	State Baptist Convention?	30:09
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Yeah. Uh-huh.	30:12
Leslie Brown	Did you call it the Noose River?	30:13
Mae McWilliams Cofield	But that's just one of the, what would you call it, the Noose River? Of course—Noose River Association. Noose River.	30:16
Leslie Brown	And you said that you belonged to clubs and organizations through the church?	30:29
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Well yeah, whatever. Yeah. And I have now, as to the church. And then maybe, when the children were in school, PTA. I was active in PTA. And Girl Scouts, I once with had the Girl Scouts onto me. And I said well too many things, I'd have to let some go. Yeah. And I've been pretty active, I guess.	30:33
Leslie Brown	What did your church groups do?	31:12
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Well our church group, we have the auxiliaries of the church. We had Willing Workers Club that was under my mother-in-law. I think she organized it, Willing Workers. And I worked with them. They were old ladies, but I thought I was kind of young. But I worked with them.	31:15
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Sunday school, I worked in the Sunday school, Vacation Bible school. I was kind of active until my husband, he was sick a number of years, because he passed. And then my daughter, I had both of them were here sick for, you know what I mean, because she's on bed. And I don't get out very much now, of course, unless I get someone to stay with her. And that's not easy all the time. I still lead a quite busy life I think.	31:45
Leslie Brown	What else do you do now?	32:32
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Well I farm.	32:34
Leslie Brown	You do?	32:34
Mae McWilliams Cofield	I have a big garden, but have you seen any of them pictures Willa had?	32:45
Leslie Brown	No I haven't.	32:47
Mae McWilliams Cofield	She said Mama there just you in the garden. You something right there about you in that garden. Yeah, I grew on the farm, and I just farming. I like farming. And I always have that garden if I can. And I'll tell you I'm getting kind of slow.	32:47
Leslie Brown	Well tell me about this Willing Workers Club.	33:12
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Willing Workers Club, now they—	33:15
Leslie Brown	You said that they were old ladies and you were young?	33:16
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Yeah, I thought they were. But anyway, they were—Because it was my mother-in-law, I think she helped them organize. And it was such a, I think the Willing Workers or whatever, I think they had that name by, they were willing to help each other, help things that would come up. Willing workers. And they were older. They were older and maybe, I think I was about the youngest one in there, but them old ladies. But I enjoyed them.	33:18
Leslie Brown	Why did you join?	33:56
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Why I don't know, I just—I guess they kept asking me to join. And yeah.	33:58
Leslie Brown	Can you give an example of the work they did?	34:09
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Well I think they would visit the sick. It was such as—Most churches have—What do they have in there now? They have—	34:13
Leslie Brown	Missionary society?	34:25
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Uh-huh, something. I think they took that name, you know what I mean, as far as that's concerned. Seemed like we could never get in the missionary going, to where they would always want til Sunday, maybe they would decide. Those people would come from the state.	34:27
Mae McWilliams Cofield	And at Brick they had about two weeks course, ministers, the Noose River Association would convene their, the ministers, the missionaries, and all this. And so, because they set up BTU, Sunday School, deacon, and all. And I thought it was quite interesting. My children were small but I would attend. They were, I guess in school. Somewhere right there I would attend.	34:44
Leslie Brown	And that would be held right down at Bricks?	35:16
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Uh-huh.	35:17
Leslie Brown	What church did you go to?	35:19
Mae McWilliams Cofield	New Bethel Baptist.	35:24
Leslie Brown	New Bethel Baptist?	35:26
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Yes.	35:26
Leslie Brown	When did you join there?	35:28
Mae McWilliams Cofield	I joined there after I was married.	35:31
Leslie Brown	Where did you go to church before?	35:34
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Well just, we had churches out in the countryside. I'd always attend. We had Methodist, Baptist, Holiness. And I'd attend all of them, because young. And that's where young people kind of met in those days. There's someone say, that's why the young people socialize and go to church to see other. And that was, I guess it was something to it.	35:36
Mae McWilliams Cofield	They were growing up in North Carolina, in the country. It's something on the principal that was at Brick, I say you just say, Country, North Carolina. So where are you coming in from? Country, North Carolina. Yes, yes. It's a—	36:04
Leslie Brown	So why was the church such a big gathering space for young people?	36:24
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Well I don't think they had, in them days, they didn't have places to go like they do now. It's just a change. It's just so changed.	36:29
Leslie Brown	And what would people do?	36:38
Mae McWilliams Cofield	What would—	36:38
Leslie Brown	What would young people do when they met at the church?	36:38
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Well what I'm talking, I just—Well I guess they would attend the service, but then would they, far as that's concerned, they'd take part. I'm pretty sure. Always some, and some just go to be—Demonstrated as to why some go, he'd put it on the blackboard and say, if I go I'll see so and so. If I walk out there. If I go out.	36:40
Mae McWilliams Cofield	And so I guess that was it. And some maybe in some had choirs. And some in the choir and some this. So we have a—	37:07
Leslie Brown	Well what were the big events at the church?	37:19
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Oh, Homecoming, I guess.	37:22
Leslie Brown	Would you describe Homecoming for me?	37:25
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Homecoming was, people would come home from the north. You'd go and sure don't miss that.	37:27
Leslie Brown	And what would happen?	37:35
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Just be very glad to see your friends and see people. I'm not quite sure. I know that, they would come. But it's different now. They come a whole lot of times now. They have means of coming, cars and whatnot. And then of course funerals, and they're dying, as far as it's concerned. Because doing this and doing life. People just go with the times, I guess.	37:37
Leslie Brown	Well, tell me about homecoming though. What would people from the north tell people about the north when they came?	38:07
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Oh, well I guess they were telling about the jobs, and they were in the hot sunshine. Like some, because I had two sisters, they said they were going leave the farm. I think in that year, a lot of people left and went north in the '20s. I guess my age people, a lot of them, those that weren't in school and all. They did. I think I'm telling—	38:15
Mae McWilliams Cofield	And those '28 and early '30s and all. A lot of people left the south. I think I'm right. I think I'm very much right, because I was thinking about my daughter, the one that when she went to Howard, I think her husband, them grandsons, their father, I think his parents went from Georgia to Detroit.	38:45
Mae McWilliams Cofield	And I had a niece. Oh, what year? Of course that's later years, because I was like—And she was talking about how many people came there from Alabama and those places to Chicago. How many came in by the month? Because she mentioned an apartment was near her. And she said, I don't know how many people I see go in there. How many stay in there? Of of course she's still out there, but she and two girls. Well she married someone from Alabama.	39:18
Mae McWilliams Cofield	She married someone from Alabama and he'd visit here. And he died. In his funeral, I was in Alabama the day Kennedy was assassinated. I was in—Which was Florence, Alabama? Something, anyway was down. Sure was, that day was a dreary day. We were intending to get to the funeral. Yes, yes.	39:52
Leslie Brown	So homecoming would be when? People who went north would come back and would there be a big celebration at the church or big service?	40:23
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Yes. Yeah, because we'd have a lot of people that were home at homecoming. And it was wild. And a lot of times they'd come maybe to stay. They'd be there for the week. A lot of times service would be that week and they'd stay maybe through the week or something like that. I guess they'd always assign their vacation that time, to come home. Yes.	40:31
Leslie Brown	You remember being baptized?	40:59
Mae McWilliams Cofield	In the swamp.	41:02
Leslie Brown	You were baptized in the swamp?	41:03
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Yeah.	41:04
Leslie Brown	What was that? What was it like? Can you describe a baptism?	41:06
Mae McWilliams Cofield	No, it seemed like I had put on a lot of clothes. Like I did, because I said baptized in a swamp, now we don't. And I have attended a lot of baptizing, people in the streams and all. I think all my children are baptized right down in 301.	41:09
Leslie Brown	In the creek down here on 301?	41:28
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Yes, it's right—301, yes, going north. I look out there in a pasture. Used to like gathering line there Sunday mornings and they'd be baptized, children and people hugging. And they'd be singing.	41:32
Leslie Brown	What would they sing?	41:46
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Be singing, somebody leading a song. Think of John the Baptist. I would always enjoy that. Now when they baptize, most of the churches got pools, huh? Yes, it's a different world.	41:46
Leslie Brown	Was it a big celebration, baptism?	42:07
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Mm-hmm. Yes. Sometimes they're, how many they going to baptize? So and so. Yeah, a lot of them would be baptized.	42:10
Leslie Brown	So a lot of people would go to watch?	42:17
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Yes. We were baptized there too.	42:19
Leslie Brown	Would people from different churches go to different baptisms?	42:23
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Yes.	42:26
Leslie Brown	Or go to different homecomings?	42:27
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Mm-hmm. I think that. And then it's, a lot of time the homecoming service was that week. You know that week.	42:28
Leslie Brown	Well what were the other big holidays at the church?	42:40
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Well I guess that was the biggest because there's Christmas. Then most times just have Christmas program or something at church. They'd have Christmas program. I believe they'd have a Christmas tree. I believe they would. I don't know. But I do believe they'd have a Christmas tree.	42:44
Leslie Brown	They had a Christmas tree?	43:02
Mae McWilliams Cofield	mm-hmm.	43:02
Leslie Brown	What about Thanksgiving?	43:02
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Thanksgiving—I think now most times they have service. Now it's moved up, they have service Thanksgiving. Of course, I think we have had the Horn of Plenty and this, and so. I think we had that at New Bethel. Like I said, some things have faded from my memory.	43:16
Leslie Brown	Do you remember anything like a festival or celebration around harvest time? Corn shucking or anything like that?	43:37
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Halloween. Let's see—I don't know if we had that, because I know they celebrate Halloween. That's all over the—Oh, I can't place it right now. Maybe that turned into the school or something such as that. Seems like I can't remember. And they'd have fairs, you know?	43:50
Leslie Brown	Fairs?	44:13
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Yeah, have fairs. And people would have the products, you know what I mean, the exhibits, and put on exhibits. We had a Flower Garden Club.	44:16
Leslie Brown	Flower Garden Club?	44:27
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Yes. And I was secretary. And Willa and her husband. And my minutes were so short one time. My minutes so short. I bet the next week or two, next week I had. And I kept reading, kept reading. I said, you all want some long minutes, I can write them.	44:31
Mae McWilliams Cofield	And we had names and flowers. And Mr. Sims, I believe that's his name, came from Hampton. And he would be over at Brick, and in fact, he would hold class. And we took lessons under Mr. Sims. He had run a florist down at Hampton, down near the institute, and university now I think they call it.	44:56
Mae McWilliams Cofield	But anyway, however we learned under him. I learned a lot of organic farming from under him. All the way, then I subscribed to the organic gardening. And I still do. And I got a lot of information from them. So I call myself an organic farmer.	45:23
Leslie Brown	Can you describe organic farming and how it's different from regular farming?	45:48
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Well it's better on—I saw that's last night. Anyway, it's better on it than those chemicals. All that I use a little, sometimes chemicals. But anyway, I save all the trash, all the peelings, all this. And now the way I do mine, and man told me, you're going to kill a dog.	45:53
Mae McWilliams Cofield	But anyway, I go out and dig a hole and I rake trash, leaves, and all that in there. And and then I put the soil back on. And see that goes on down and that's deep. I wouldn't appreciate my husband going out because he wouldn't dig the hole deep enough. That's how I'm talking because I don't get it little. And then I actually, I have a disinfect marathon—	46:22

Mae McWilliams Cofield	—And after I had dug and finished and filled the hole up and put trash in there and then put the soil back on it, then I take something, shake some of that [indistinct 00:00:13] over it, and the dog will not dig it up. I save all the leaves in the fall and all this lot back there, it's really fertile in this place. I had built it up 'cause I know what to do, I tell them I could work in a fertilizer factory.	0:01
Leslie Brown	You could work in a fertilizer factory.	0:35
Mae McWilliams Cofield	[indistinct 00:00:41], I just like to say, "Well, I learned by listening and reading." I said, "I'm telling you, I'm a farmer."	0:41
Leslie Brown	You learned organic farming for the first time from someone from the Hampton Institute?	0:49
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Mm-hm, he would tell us what to do and how we could save your leaves, and I used to listen to a state program would come, Ask Your Farmer, something like that, Ask Your Neighbor or something. Anyway, he would be telling about how to do this, and so I've been listening and trying to learn even if I didn't get it in school.	0:53
Leslie Brown	Where did you hear of Ask Your Neighbor? Was that radio?	1:21
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Yep, that was on the radio, Ask Your Neighbor, and I believe he would talk about farming flowers and all, and I'd listen to flower, people explain on the older programs and, like I said, I may not have them all in line but I still listen to some programs.	1:26
Leslie Brown	Where did you used to get your news?	1:49
Mae McWilliams Cofield	When? What?	1:51
Leslie Brown	How did you get news?	1:53
Mae McWilliams Cofield	What you mean, through the years?	1:55
Leslie Brown	Mm-hm.	1:56
Mae McWilliams Cofield	I always read newspapers and periodicals and this when I came up, and my daddy used to say—Of course I'd want the newspaper to read the funny page and I can't even get my hands on the paper, so many politicians around here or something. Anyway, but stories would come in the paper too and I'd like to read them. I've been reading papers ever since I was small, I just like to read, I still like to read.	1:56
Leslie Brown	When you were, let's say before 1950, did you read the Black newspaper or was it the White newspaper?	2:36
Mae McWilliams Cofield	I read both.	2:52
Leslie Brown	Both?	2:54
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Both. I won a car selling subscriptions to the Journal and Guide, which was published in Norfolk, Virginia.	2:54
Leslie Brown	Did you? What kind of car did you win?	3:11
Mae McWilliams Cofield	It was a Dodge, and I didn't ever learn to drive, isn't that something?	3:11
Leslie Brown	Did you learn to drive after you won that car?	3:15
Mae McWilliams Cofield	I got licensed since these grandsons were small, and my husband would go out with me in mornings and I'd say, "I'm going to learn to drive." Their mother was down at school down at the Hampton, I'd say, "I'm going to [indistinct 00:03:35] and I'm going to go and try it." Anyway, but I never did learn, I got licensed, I went two, three times before I got it, and they, "Mama, you act like you were going get a job on the Thurston Motor Line, you just went." I said, "You all told me I couldn't get my license, I just let you know I could get them," I got them. I didn't drive too much since, like I drove on one funeral, and the children are small, them two little boys.	3:21
Mae McWilliams Cofield	I said, "Well I don't want to hurt Tommy and Katie if I didn't drive," because my husband said, "You can drive in the car and learn to drive on it, and run onto the station wagon.	4:09
Leslie Brown	You'd call it the station wagon?	4:20
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Yes, it wasn't so long and they had the Cadillac, "You can take the Cadillac." I said, "That car is too long, I don't want to be traveling, that's too long." I could move it around, see and like I drove it once in the country, but I just never cared about driving. I think that's my trouble, so far as I just never learned, if I'd have kept driving, but I didn't. I won that car when my second daughter, the same year she was born, in '34.	4:26
Leslie Brown	1934.	5:03
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Mm-hm.	5:04
Leslie Brown	Who did you sell subscriptions to?	5:07
Mae McWilliams Cofield	I sold subscriptions to Nash County, did I go into Warren County? No, did I go into Hampton? I went in Halifax County because I went through, I would go in the field, I would go wherever, gatherings, sometime I'd go to churches. I don't know if I could put my hand on the picture and the letter I wrote to the company, it was Norfolk Journal and Guide. The men went from Warren County down there, the people that published it. I sure did, I won the second prize, and the paper was $2 a year. Isn't that something? Some people—	5:13
Leslie Brown	Now, did a lot of people take the paper?	6:13
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Quite a few, but my husband supported me because I'd try to send every week an advance. Son didn't ever pay me.	6:15
Leslie Brown	Son never paid you?	6:26
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Never paid for the subscription, and my daddy was living and he helped me [indistinct 00:06:33]. I enjoyed it because I felt like that I put papers in homes that didn't even know we had a Black paper, and people really supported it.	6:27
Leslie Brown	Now, what was important about the Norfolk Journal and Guide? You said it was Black paper, but what was important about it in that time?	6:50
Mae McWilliams Cofield	It was a national, so to speak, paper along when—What was his name? Congressman Oscar De Priest, anyway, I know the write-ups would be in there about him.	6:58
Leslie Brown	Who else would there be write-ups about in the paper?	7:18
Mae McWilliams Cofield	That was in '34, what was coming up? [indistinct 00:07:27] doing in '30, Hitler carrying on right was then, people were going through training and all, 'cause the World War, what was it? No, that was the Jap, but because the Jap was '41, wasn't it? But they were spatting with Germany in the '30s, weren't they? I forget.	7:24
Leslie Brown	What other kind of news? Do you remember the Scottsboro Boys?	7:59
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Yes. We weren't too far from Scotts, when I went to Alabama to this funeral, we passed somewhere right near this town or something, don't ask me, I don't know, I've forgotten that. I know I kept up with the reading at that time, but we passed not too far from their home or where this took place or something in Alabama.	8:03
Leslie Brown	What did people say about the Scottsboro Boys in the '30s?	8:33
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Were they getting a ride on a freight train, or what was it?	8:42
Leslie Brown	They were riding on a freight train and they were accused of whipping two White women, they were nine young men. Were there organizations around here around the Scottsboro Boys, did people raise money?	8:46
Mae McWilliams Cofield	I know the NAACP maybe was rather—It was in the county, but I don't know how strong they were.	9:05
Leslie Brown	The NAACP was here in this county?	9:16
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Yes, because I know the NAACP, I can remember seeing him in person, Walter White in Rocky Mount speaking, and that must have been the early '30s. I don't believe we had an organization in Halifax County at that time, because it seemed like Dr. Tinsley, which was a Black guy in Weldon, I believe he was our first president. I'm not too sure about these things now, but I know we have had one since that time, but maybe we haven't been as strong as we should be.	9:18
Leslie Brown	There was an NAACP, there was one in the '40s here, you think. Do you remember any other political organizations?	10:11
Mae McWilliams Cofield	What other organizations, what did they have? Voters League, I don't know, don't quote me anything that because I'm not too sure, because maybe I didn't keep up so well. Somethings outstanding, some passed over.	10:27
Leslie Brown	When was the first time you voted?	10:45
Mae McWilliams Cofield	I don't know, I know I had to write.	10:47
Leslie Brown	You had to write something out?	10:53
Mae McWilliams Cofield	I had to write part of the Constitution.	10:54
Leslie Brown	Did you have to write it from memory, or did you copy it?	10:57
Mae McWilliams Cofield	I think so, I think I had to write it from memory, I must have. I think the first time I went, I don't know what, was I turned down and they told us to come back? I believe my husband and I, I think I'm right, but I do know I got that pen and was writing some, and he, "Ah, that's all right," or something anyway.	11:00
Leslie Brown	You were writing something?	11:25
Mae McWilliams Cofield	I'll tell you this one, I'd have somebody needed to help me, a man came here—What did my husband do? He and Ms. Pullin, this was a lady that worked with him and was one of the members of the funeral, Thomas and Ms. Pullin—[indistinct 00:11:52] Did they invite that man here to speak? We were down at the First Baptist Church, Julia May could help me, somebody maybe could help. I can remember this, I don't know if they sent the sheriff down there, he was a White man, he was from Wilson, and they got him out of this town, and they must've told my husband to get out too.	11:27
Mae McWilliams Cofield	That's something I had really forgotten, I told you I had witnessed so many things in this Enfield, and I can remember because I had my three children and I didn't always live out here, I lived in the house next door in '40 when we moved out here, but we lived out down there where he ran the funeral home, and I lived out there for seven years. I can remember him saying, "Get you some things together," and I didn't know what to do with my children's clothes. See, and I got some and put some things in a bag, and I went to see this man, but I know we came back that night.	12:24
Mae McWilliams Cofield	I just felt so bad, I just felt bad about that because I think they had the sheriff to come down there to tell that man to get out of town. And I think Thomas and Ms. Pullin had attempted to go vote, I do believe I'm right, now I hope somebody else remembers it because all of my family, you know what I mean, I think I'm right, I think they had gone somewhere to attempt to vote. It was something about it, and I don't know if the NAACP, that's gone from me, but I do remember that, I know. I just felt, what was I going to do with three children, because my older girl—I can remember putting some baby things in a little bag, this one was young, that's really true.	13:12
Mae McWilliams Cofield	We were going and we must've gone all the way to Wilson, we'd catch the man to stop and talk, or he was coming talking on voting. I don't know if he was a minister or not, but he was White.	14:13
Leslie Brown	But he was White.	14:37
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Yes sir, and they had burning crosses.	14:41
Leslie Brown	Where?	14:53
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Burned a cross in my daughter's yard—	14:57
Leslie Brown	Really?	14:59
Mae McWilliams Cofield	—In Willow's yard.	14:59
Leslie Brown	In Willow's yard?	14:59
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Mm-hm.	14:59
Leslie Brown	When was this, the night when this was going on, 1960s?	15:04
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Yeah, during the early '60s or whatever, and I spent some miserable nights.	15:14
Leslie Brown	Do you remember any other violence, remember people being threatened?	15:19
Mae McWilliams Cofield	I've heard of them downtown sometime [indistinct 00:15:33], and you read of it in other places. A lot of things go on now I don't even hear it, because maybe past me might hear more of it 'cause my husband, a public place, people coming in, telling things and all. It's been pretty rough around in these parts.	15:26
Leslie Brown	Do you remember anything about Dr. Duviset?	15:58
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Have you gone to [indistinct 00:16:04] I think I remember something about it, I don't know if the Klansmen marched that night or something. Some of the things you want to forget, don't you? It was something that night, because I think I was staying, and I guess I think I must've had her as a baby, because I don't think that was before she was born, I think it was after. See, like this night my husband and his daddy and maybe another brother or two, I don't know, but they didn't go out early that night there, because I guess the Black men had kind of—In defense of Dr. Duviset, I guess.	16:03
Leslie Brown	They had gathered in defense of Dr. Duviset?	16:57
Mae McWilliams Cofield	I think that was in my memory, like I was saying.	17:02
Leslie Brown	I heard that they ran Dr. Duviset out of town.	17:10
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Mm-hm. Well, Dr. Duviset, because in fact he was the doctor—In fact, Willow was born in his hospital, he had a little hospital down there, right there where Patty, her house is right on that lot. I think he was West Indian, I think they said West Indian and he was a good doc, but they didn't like him, he was Black. I heard so many and witnessed so many ugly things, some of them you would like to forget. You don't have any in your mind, not such as this.	17:18
Leslie Brown	No, just some. Do you remember when world War 2 started? You remember when World War 1 started.	18:00
Mae McWilliams Cofield	When?	18:04
Leslie Brown	World War 2 started.	18:04
Mae McWilliams Cofield	I remember World War 1, I was about 10 because I had a brother that went to France, and I remember he was sitting on the porch and I went under the shed where my daddy—Anyway, the shed, outhouse, and I went out there and cried.	18:04
Leslie Brown	You laid down and cried?	18:04
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Yeah, then wiped my eyes, "Come on out here, he's going," because then everybody would go to Weldon.	18:04
Leslie Brown	To Weldon?	18:04
Mae McWilliams Cofield	I think they'd leave from Weldon, and they went out with World War 1, and World War 2 we were starting to say, "How many wars have we lived through, and lived right on?"	18:04
Leslie Brown	Your brother went to France in World War One?	18:04
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Mm-hm.	18:05
Leslie Brown	When he was done with the war, did he come back to North Carolina?	18:05
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Mm-hm, and the girl Patty May married his son.	19:17
Leslie Brown	What happened when he came back to North Carolina?	19:25
Mae McWilliams Cofield	He went back to school, he went to school some and always talked a lot and written, did a lot of reading of the Bible. He knew the Bible a lot, could quote it, "Get that Bible now, you know it, don't say so-and-so." He really memorized a lot of scripture, he really did, I remember. He's my third brother, there's just two older than him, and he's just a third brother.	19:28
Leslie Brown	What about World War 2? Did you think that things changed after World War 2?	19:57
Mae McWilliams Cofield	I don't know, had more people, I reckon.	20:02
Leslie Brown	More people>	20:07
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Well, each year don't the world get fuller and fuller? I had a sister, how many sons went in that World War 2, she had nine sons, and I believe eight maybe, I don't know how many went. Anyway, I know she had seven stars in her window, you know they put stars in the window, that was World War 2. One of them got injured in the Battle of the Bulge, I believe that was the Battle of the Bulge. He was all burned on his arm and everything, he ain't living now.	20:10
Leslie Brown	Do you remember any of the soldiers coming back and wearing their uniforms here?	20:53
Mae McWilliams Cofield	What, In Enfield?	21:02
Leslie Brown	In Enfield.	21:02
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Yeah.	21:03
Leslie Brown	Did people treat them with respect?	21:08
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Well, I think that I remember some of them coming back, yeah, I'd guess that. There was World War 1 and I had a brother, and he would mark the cotton after the cotton gin put on the bales of cotton, he'd put how much he weighed or something, I don't know, but anyway, to the mark. He ended up on the building, the gin house and wrote on the wall "ended November the 11th, 1918", didn't he? It stayed there until, I guess, the building was torn down, "world war ended", this was World War 1. There ain't nothing else you wanting to know, is there? What else do you—	21:11
Leslie Brown	Is there anything else you want to tell me?	22:19
Mae McWilliams Cofield	No, how I told you, I'm like James Battle over here.	22:25
Leslie Brown	Do you have any advice for young people?	22:26
Mae McWilliams Cofield	My advice, I really feel like young people ought to go to school as much as they can, because they say our young boys have got to killing each other so much. That dope, don't you think that's it?	22:31
Leslie Brown	Why is it different now from when you were growing up?	22:48
Mae McWilliams Cofield	The world has just changed, I think that's what I hear. Don't you think it's changed since you been growing up? That's what it is, it's the time which we live, I think that's it. Maybe our parents thought we were terrible, you know each generation maybe thinks that, but I don't know, now it's looked like me children killing. One thing, there's too much violence on the TV, there's too much where some of them try it. I've always said that when I first started seeing it, too much violence, and I think they are contesting with each other, the networks, and I don't like that. I think they're doing that, who can get this and so on, who can get that.	22:54
Leslie Brown	Let me ask you about the last series of questions, and then you may want to say some more. What were the signs of segregation?	24:02
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Hm?	24:15
Leslie Brown	What was segregation? If you had to describe Jim Crow, what was Jim Crow? What did it mean to be Jim Crow?	24:16
Mae McWilliams Cofield	I think Jim Crow, I can say what I experienced, I can remember this. Don't ask me [indistinct 00:24:49] in North Carolina, and they had the water fountains, I remember that. I went to a fountain to drink some water, and a girl came and told me I couldn't drink that, and I guess it must've been White. I was just drinking water, and so she let me know there was another one over there, and I asked her, I said, "Is the water different? Is it the water color, it has some color?" I don't know what I said to her, I know that in my experience, and I know you have gone in stores a lot of times and how you could be ignored some as a White person, so far as that's concerned.	24:26
Mae McWilliams Cofield	I know that is really something, they see you and don't see you. I don't think that goes on no more because I don't think we'd stand, we'd go to another place as far as that's concerned.	25:44
Leslie Brown	Did you do that then, when a salesperson ignored you, did you go to someplace else?	26:10
Mae McWilliams Cofield	I guess I left off, mm-hm, but I don't know.	26:31
Leslie Brown	Do you remember anybody ever getting in trouble for breaking the rules? Do you remember anybody ever breaking the rules?	26:31
Mae McWilliams Cofield	I don't know if I remember that right now [indistinct 00:26:45], some things you kind of avoid, you'd rather not to. You know what would happen if this ensued, but I'd guess along that line—	26:46
Leslie Brown	How did you learn?	27:01
Mae McWilliams Cofield	How did I learn?	27:04
Leslie Brown	How did you learn what situations to avoid?	27:05
Mae McWilliams Cofield	I can say my daddy always would say to us, and I guess that came up, he would always say, "I do not want you children to work for White people." He said because when he was 12 years of age, his mother put him out to work, he was 12 and he went and worked with White people, and he worked with them and he ate with them, and I don't know where they had him to sleep. I guess that grew up in me, so far as that's concerned, I think that, and I have never had to work for them, I've never had to work for White people.	27:14
Mae McWilliams Cofield	As far as that's concerned, because he didn't let them stop him from work, if they come by agents and all maybe or something, and I've seen him, if he have his whole—He just keep right on down that road working, and if they wanted to talk with him, they'd have to walk right along. I guess that it's just as a child—He always had plenty of work for us, he had plenty of work for me to do even though I didn't have to, so we didn't have to [indistinct 00:28:51], but you have to realize some things to get along. They're here like we are and we have to get along with them, do we not?	28:07
Leslie Brown	Yes, we do.	29:08
Mae McWilliams Cofield	Yeah. I think we had something just fine with them as anybody else, I think some, I don't know they can't just grab out and [indistinct 00:29:28], you may have to go around and kind of pick sometimes. I think there's some nice people out there, and I guess that's a way for us to look at life.	29:14

Item Info

Title:

Mae Cofield interview recording, 1993 June 29

Date:

June 29, 1993

Creator:

Cofield, Mae McWilliams

Contributor:

Brown, Leslie

Description:

Name: Mae McWilliams Cofield; Date of birth: 1906-10-03; Place of birth: Enfield, NC; Occupation(s): domestic; housewife; clerical; Residence: Enfield, NC
Informant ID: 156; Interviewed by: Leslie Brown.

Occupation:

Location:

Format:

Language:

English

Digital Collection:

Behind the Veil

Source Collection:

Behind the Veil: Documenting African American Life in the Jim Crow South interviews, photographs, and project records, circa 1864-2011, bulk 1990-1999

Series:

Related Resources:

See below

Provenance:

The David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library acquired the Records of the Behind the Veil Oral History Project from the Duke University Center for Documentary Studies in 1997, 1998, 2000, and 2002.

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC 4.0

Rights Note:

Copyright for content created by the Behind the Veil project is held by Duke University and made available to the public using a Creative Commons Attribution / Non-commercial (CC-BY-NC) license.

Identifier:

Interview number: 366
266d7863-1022-411b-a81f-7fbac33fec66
behindtheveil
btvnc03053
ark:/87924/r4fb5218k
bec07502-4f26-41a2-9388-024e6942969f

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4fb5218k

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Mae Cofield interview recording, 1993 June 29

Transcript

Item Info

1. Mae Cofield administrative file, 1993

John Hope Franklin Research Center

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Mae Cofield interview recording, 1993 June 29

Transcript

Item Info

Related Items

John Hope Franklin Research Center

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