Watkins / Jim Crow in Bryan and Across the Country
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Interviewer: The sixties, or I guess the late fifties, you go to college. Socially, what motivates you to—did you participate in organizing? Watkins: Yes, I was part of the organizing. By traveling from Texas to Virginia, we went on the train. The trains were not segregated but if you got off the train, you had to go to where it said black—it said colored. Colored water fountain. Colored this. Everything. We grew up—even in Bryan, we had to go upstairs in the theater. So, we grew up knowing—and I will not say “knowing my place.” Some people say we grew up knowing our place. I don’t think that was my place. We grew up, though, with segregation. My mother wouldn’t go shopping with us, but she would send us to the store. We were one of the few that could try on something in the store, try on a pair of shoes. We were one of the few black people that could do that in Bryan.
| Interview | Interview with Halcyon O. Watkins |
| Subjects | Discrimination or Segregation › Discrimination or Segregation in Stores |
| Historic Periods › Jim Crow Period | |
| Tags | sign up or sign in to add/edit tags |
| Interview date | 2015-07-23 |
| Interview source | CRBB Summer 2015 |
| Interviewees | Watkins, Halcyon O. |
| Locations | Bryan, TX |
| Virginia | |
| Duration | 00:01:29 |
| Citation | "Jim Crow in Bryan and Across the Country," from Halcyon O. Watkins oral history interview with , July 23, 2015, Civil Rights in Black and Brown Interview Database, https://crbb.tcu.edu/clips/282/jim-crow-in-bryan-and-across-the-country, accessed April 26, 2024 |
