Black Appalachians Oral History Project
Interview with Christine P. Price, Interview 1
Date of Interview: 4 March 1991;
Blacksburg, VA
Interviewer: Michael A. Cooke, Assistant
Professor of History, Virginia Tech
Transcriber: Cindy Hurd
Note: This interview was done in 1991
as part of the Black
Appalachian Oral History Project (Ms91-019) by Dr. Michael
Cooke of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
In this project Dr. Cooke conducted 22 oral history interviews
(on 25 tapes) of and about blacks in Appalachia, predominantly
in Montogomery County, Virginia.
Note: Underscores (e.g., ______) indicate
parts of the tape that were unclear.
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Begin Side 2
Cooke: OK, you were talking about WJ Sears
but then you talked about that the Sears lived right below you
right?
Price: No, that was the Carrolls that
lived, the house on the other side of Carrolls' house was
Sears' house but it was down on Jackson street down below where
the Snells live now.
Cooke: Right next to the fire station.
Price: Yeah, it was down there.
Cooke: Could you talk about that property a
little bit more. We just changed tapes here, you were talking
about how they wanted to build the firehouse and there was some
question about whether or not about the property where they
could be added on to or moved or what have you.
Price: Well see the town bought it to build
the firehouse and whoever bought the Carroll's property over
here bought the house and had it moved over on the corner of
the lot.
Cooke: You mentioned before that a black
had wanted to do the same thing and the town said, "No, it
couldn't be done."
Price: Yes, that was one of the Carroll
sons' wife. They owned that and she wanted to build on the
________ and the town told her it wasn't large enough to build
on.
Cooke: When did this happen?
Price: That's been several years ago, I
tell you time...
Cooke: 60's? 70's?
Price: Time goes by so fast.
Cooke: Maybe the 50's? Was it the 50's?
Price: No, I don't believe it's been that
long.
Cooke: The 60's?
Price: Yes, something along that...
Cooke: The 60's or 70's?
Price: 70's, yes.
Cooke: What was the impossible now was
possible. Why do you think that was the case?
Price: Well, I don't know. I guess because
they were black they wouldn't let them build on it. But still
after they moved the Sears house from down on Jackson and put
it over there...
Cooke: And a white person owned that
property?
Price: Uh huh.
Cooke: Hmmm, that's interesting. Well, I'm
trying to think of anything else we haven't touched upon. Do
you think black people get equal justice, now that we're
talking about the issue of justice, by the court system? When
black people got in trouble were they punished more severely
than whites? Did you have problems getting for instance goods
and service? If you wanted to have garbage pickup or something
did you have to sometimes have to wait and go over and get
services and trash pickup?
Price: No, I can't say that I did.
Cooke: OK. I can't think of any other thing
to ask you.
Price: No, I just happened to think now of
Lewis Carroll, one of Carrolls, that big stone building between
these houses over here, now he did run a cleaning shop. One of
the Carroll boys.
Cooke: So that was another business?
Price: A business, right, he did run a
cleaning shop over there. Now I think the whites made it living
quarters, students live in that now.
Cooke: Well, so much has changed. Like all
the fraternities which were family homes and as those houses
got older and I guess people wanted to more modernize
their...
Price: Well see after the parents died and
the children all left and didn't need to come back anymore.
Cooke: That's a good point. Before we end I
guess we should ask one question. Why did so many blacks leave
this area? Why did so many of the children and offspring, cause
at one time, I was looking at the Census, there was a
substantial number of blacks living in this town and now it's
drizzled down to maybe around 400 or 500 where at one time
there might have been over a thousand. What led to so many
people leaving? In fact, what happened to Newtown? It's kind of
like a ghost town.
Price: It is.
Cooke: The Bells left. The Greens, Mrs.
Bell, they didn't keep their properties or sold their
properties or other properties that had just been boarded up
for instance.
Price: Ours up there, the Mays' is in court
now for sale. Alexis sold hers.
Cooke: That's right. The Mays' is the
property that our church is involved in. I should have thought
about that. I have a church meeting today we'll be talking
about the Mays' property again. Anyway, I'm not going to talk
about church business. Why did so many people leave this area
and where did they go when they did?
Price: Well, I guess they went to better
jobs. I guess that's it.
Cooke: There weren't many jobs open?
Price: No, nothin' but the house cleaning.
Many were working for the white families here and I
guess...
Cooke: For boys I guess that wasn't much of
a...
Price: No, it wasn't much a challenge for
them and the girls I guess decided they wanted something better
and you know white folks catch them.
Cooke: What about VPI? Did they hire
people? A lot of blacks or did they have very few blacks?
Price: They had very few blacks. There was
an infirmary over there, now my Uncle Preston, the Mays' house
again, he worked there until he wasn't able. And then Richard
Christian used to be my neighbor lived in that little house up
there, he worked there.
Cooke: But not many?
Price: Nuh uh.
Cooke: So when the mines got played out and
other employment didn't seem to have as much opportunity, so a
lot of people just left. Do you know what kind of places people
tended to go? Are there some places that a lot of people tended
to go to?
Price: Well, my sister and right many of
them, the Saunders girls up here on the hill, they went to
Washington, I think. ____________ jobs. Now my sister married a
fellow she met up there and she still live in Maryland.
Cooke: That's very typical. I interviewed
some other people who lived on Jackson Street. Would Jackson
Street be considered Bitter Hills?
Price: Jackson is where Ethel Dawbins
lived?
Cooke: Yes, that's the person that I'm
referring to. Would that be considered Bitter Hills?
Price: No, I don't think so. It was just on
up above here I think.
Cooke: Yeah, up past ___________ and then
going up past ___________. Ok, then that would be
considered?
Price: Yes.
Cooke: Getting back to the Dawbins, there
sons, almost all of them went to Washington.
Price: Well, see they finish at the high
school and went to college and they seen...my oldest boy
finished over there and he went on to Hampton and then he got
his medical degree in Richmond, and then he went...
Cooke: Oh, now I remember seeing him in the
paper. I was reading a clipping, there was a big write-up about
your son. He was the first black that they could document the
received a MD degree. So it was your son. Which son is it?
Price: That's my oldest son over there.
Cooke: What's his name? I forgot.
Price: James. James H. Price. We call him
Jim.
Cooke: And he went, I believe, to the
Medical College of Virginia.
Price: He did, MCV.
Cooke: And graduated first in his class,
right?
Price: Yes, he was first in his class and
all.
Cooke: Even the white newspapers had to
write about that.
Price: And then my other son, Allen, of
course he wasn't _______ but he did go on up to New River and
he went into the ministry.
Cooke: So the family, it seems did
well!
Price: And Clarence, my third one, he's in
Colorado Springs. He's the one I told you ______ his eldest
son. He started VPI, I guess he went about a year and a half to
VPI.
Cooke: What did he think of VPI?
Price: Well, he quit and went in the
service and he got his BS at Nebraska, University of Nebraska
when he was stationed there in Nebraska.
Cooke: Was he one of the first blacks to go
to VPI?
Price: No.
Cooke: I guess they'd been...
Price: But see they wouldn't let Jim
go.
Cooke: That's right. Did he apply?
Price: Yes, he applied but couldn't get
in.
Cooke: Well, that serves them right.
Price: Because they said there was so many
more black colleges that offered the same. See he was going in
medicine. When he was a little kid he said he wanted to be a
doctor. But they said there was so many other schools here in
Virginia doing the same thing.
Cooke: This was before desegregation?
Price: Yes.
Cooke: I guess before Brown vs. the Board
of Education?
Price: Yes. See now Clarence finished CI
and missed the banks so that ______________ made him stay in
music and wouldn't let him take Algebra so they claimed that he
didn't have enough mathematics to get into VPI. So we sent him
to Lynchburg for a year and then he came back and then he
decided that he was going to join the service, the Air Force.
He just retired here, ___________ and then he turned around and
got a government job in the same building. He's doing the same
thing, computer. He got his Masters...
Cooke: Was he an officer in the...?
Price: Oh yeah.
Cooke: What was the highest rank he
held?
Price: I forget what it was. It was about
the highest cause anytime his boss would leave he'd have to
stay there and take care of things. He pulled his...
Cooke: Your family did real well?
Price: Uh huh. Now Philip the next one,
well Ryan is the next one but he didn't go into the service. He
couldn't go, he tried to enlist but he ________ had an accident
and Ryan _________, I think that kept him out. But Philip, he
meant to make it a career too but he got blind. __________.
He's supposed to get him Masters from _________________ in
June, this June.
Cooke: Well, I'll tell you this family of
yours is something else. Done very well?
Price: Yeah, he wouldn't give up. I went up
there the year before last, and he and his wife both graduating
up in Denver Colorado, but he decided that wasn't enough for
him so he went after his Master's. He feel like he ought to
_________ cause he's blind.
Cooke: I think we have covered all the
ground at this point. I'd like to thank you for you helping me
with my project here.
Price: Glad too. Alice she went to Richmond
and went to business school.
Cooke: And came back to this area?
Price: Yeah, both my girls did.
Cooke: On that note I guess we'll close it
out.
Price: And my youngest boy, he's teaching
down in Shawsville.
Cooke: Shawsville? Does he live there?
Price: Nuh uh. He live out here in
Heathwood.
Cooke: Oh, he lives in Heathwood and
commutes to Shawsville. What's your youngest son's name?
Price: Thomas. Thomas L. Price, we call him
Tony.
Cooke: Tony Price. What sports does he
coach?
Price: Oh, basketball. Girl's basketball.
He did have boys and girls, but he gave the boys up. He's got
the girls now. _________.
Cooke: OK, on that note we will end for the
final time. Thank you again.
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