July 3, 1978 Daisy M. Greene - da.mdah.ms.gov

J

An Interview with

MRS. MANNIE JIYlMYE CADl

July 3, 1978

Interviewed byDaisy M. Greene

MississippiDepartment of Archives and History

and theWashington County Library System

Oral History Project:Greenville and Vicinity

MISSISSIPPI DEPT. OF ARCHIVES & HISTORY

NOTICEThis material may be

protected by Copyright

law (Title 17U. S. Code) •

••

(:nJ1UeOH 1979.1.026Interviewee:Interviewer:

Title:

Collection Title:

Scope Note:

Mrs. Mannie Jimmye CalmDaisy Greene

An interview with Mrs. Mannie Jimmye Calm, July 3,1978 / interviewed by Daisy Greene

Washington County Oral History Project

The Washington County Library System, with assistancefrom the Mississippi Department of Archives andHistory, conducted oral history interviews with localcitizens. The project interviews took place between 1976and 1978. The interviewees included long-termresidents of the Greenville-Washington County area intheir late 50's and older.

July 3, 1978. This is Daisy Greene interviewingi-1rs.Mannie (H-a-n-n-i-e) Jimmye Calm (C-a-l-m).

GREENE: Will you give me your Chicago address,Mrs. Calm?

CAI&I: 1748 East 73rd Street, Chicago, Illinois.GP~ENE: Your mother's maiden name?CALH: Amanda Ells (E-l-l-s).GREENE: Your father's name?CALH: Mannie Dunlap.GREENE: The date and the place of your birth.CAU1: On May 22, 1922 at 412 North Broadway,

Greenville, Hississippi.GREENE: That's really pinpointing that address.You told me that you were in the seventh and eighth

grade when Number Two School was being torn down.CADI: Yes, and back there, I was a member of the

last class to graduate from the old Number Two School. Wewent to school the last year at Mt. Horeb and St. Matthewsand this was where our graduation was held in St. Matthew.

GREENE: Did you say why you were there? What washappening to Number Two?

CALM: Number Two was being torn down.GREENE: Wasn't it bedlam?CALl',!:Yes, it was, with two classes. A class

going from Mt. Horeb to St. Hatthew and back again and goingNOTICE

MISSISSIPPI DEPT. OF ARCHIVES & HISTORYThis material may be

protected by copyright

law (Title 11u.s. Code).

Calm 2

a half day - all that kind of thing. This is what we wentthrough with that last year.

GREENE: No partition between teachers?CAL~: No, we had rows of seats between classes.GREENE: But the voices carried.CALN: Yes.GREENE: And, of course, the youngsters took advantage

of the situation.CAU1: We had a balll We had a balllGREENE: Then you went to Little Coleman High School.CALM: Yes, but first we went to Junior High School

and we had the seventh, eighth and ninth grade in what was theold Number Seven. We had to go from Number Seven to ColemanHigh for certain classes. Hainly, we were housed in the oldNumber Seven School.

GREENE: Who were some of the teachers at the JuniorHigh School?

CAU~: Mrs. E. B. K. Butler, Mrs. Daisy Greene,·Mr. Clay Williams and as far as I can remember those were thethree.

GREENE: Was this the year the shop was built?CALM: The year the shop was built was the year we

were L~ the ninth grade. Yes, down Cleveland Street, Mr. George•

Bacon in his first year in Greenville had the shop, and the boysin my class, I imagine, were some of his first students.

GREENE: Do you remember the year?NOTICE


This material may be


law (Title 17U.S. Code).

Calm 3

CAU1: That must have been 1937, 1936-1937-GREENE: Now, when you went to high school, who was

your Glee Club instructor? Tell me something about :themusicdepartment.

CALN: Well, Leyser Crawford Holmes was our Glee Clubinstructor, and she was also the person who directed us in ouractivities with the Luxis Club, a branch of the llyn. Beingblack we could not say that we were in the "'Y". We had anothername but it was all the same thing. In our Glee Club activitiesthe Luxis Club won first place in 1938-1939 - in the state as asinging group, a trio really. The people involved were AmaletaBragg Redmond, Willie Louise Jones and I.

GREENE: Were you a member of the band?CAU1: Yes, the first band. We had as our music

instructor Mrs. Ruby Harris. This was when I was in the tenthgrade - tenth or eleventh - eleventh grade, because I.was in theband for two years. We had instruments that were given to usby the white school, used instruments. We had three clarinets,two trumpets, two trombones, and a drum. The people who wereinvolved were: Carolyn Gardner had a violin, Amaleta Redmondplayed trombone, Bienville Jones, brother of Herticine Jones,played trumpet. The three playL~g clarinets were Mildred Gardner,vlillie Louise Jones and I. Edwar-d Robinson played the drums.

GREEllli: Is this Edward Robinson a brother to JamesRobinson, the photographer?

CALM: Yes, James Robinson of Indianola, and he usedNOTICE





Calm 4

/, leave his drums at my house because he lived on the south sideof town. I lived on the north end, but the school was evenfarther and I was about half way from his house to the schoolso his drums stayed at my house.

GREENE: And this was in 1938?CALM: 1938 and 1939. In 1940 we had another music

teacher and that was Hiss Mildred Jenkins, who taught bandfor a year, the last year that I was there. I forgot to tellyou: too,that we did have - in our first year we had to do a

. .number in between sets of one of the school plays. Thenumber was !tOldBlack Joe". I was so poor that I needed apad for my clarinet. I didn't have the money to buy one soI had put a piece of brown paper in it. When we got on thestage that night, making this high note, the clarinet screeched.This started a chain reaction with the other girls playing theclarinet. They could not, because as you know, the clarinetis a reed instrument; your lips have to be in a certainposition, and they could not. Everybody started laughing andeverybody cracked. We couldn't finish the number and Mr. Maddox(the principal) said the next day, "We have everything in thisparticular class from grand piano players to clarinet screechers."(Laughter).

GREENE: Who was the band director, ~1ildred Jenkins?CALl'I:No, this was the first year. This was when

Mrs. Harris was director.GREENE: Mrs. Harris was band director. How did she take it?

NOTICE


protected by cOPYright


Calm 5

CAUl: Oh , she was so disappointed in us.GRE&1E: She was mortified.CALM: Yes, she was, because she was a soft person

anyway and very shy.GREErlli: Don't forget to tell me about the Christmas

parade.CALH: Oh, yes, our Christmas parade. That was our

first year of doing a~y marching with our band. The paradestarted at the Fythian Hall on the corner of Nelson and Cately.We paraded from there to the Grand Terrace. I think the GrandTerrace site is now the Elks Club. This was the line of paradethat Christmas day. For uniforms the girls had white blousesand black skirts and the boys had white shirts and blacktrousers.

GREEllli:Were there any clarinet screeches?CALN: We screeched a while but nobody noticed the

difference you know. Of course everybody on the street knew allthe people ,who were saying, "Oh , there is so and so, there isold so and so." I t made, you look around, being new with theband anyway, you know.

GREENE: This '.black band was:.a novelty.CAU1: Yes and it was something that the community

was very proud of.GREENE: Yes.CAUl: Even though we were not good at all.GREENE: And what about drama in high school?

NOTICE



law (Title 17U. S. Code).

Calm 6

CAU1: Every year we had a play. Mrs. Holmes was thedrama teacher and I think a little of it still rubbed off onmost of us who worked with her in those plays because I thinkmost of us have a little acting ability from her because she wasa good drama teacher. We did, in my first year, I think thename of the play was tiThe Campbells are Coming", and in everyother play I ca~~ot remember the name of the play, but each yearshe directed a play. I don't know why I can't remember theone we had in the senior class because I was the star. I don'tremember the name of the play.

GREENE: Now who was your sewtng instructor? Se'fingand Cooking?

CAll..:: Well, now , should we start in grammar schoolor should we just --- ?

GREENE: Oh, that's right. We must not forget thatyou had that in grammar school.

CAU·i: Yes, at old Number Two the Home Ec teacherwe had - we called it Domestic Science in those days - wasMrs. Lillie B. Lindsey. She was a disciplinarian I shouldsay, because she did teach and we learned to sew and cook underMrs. Lindsey. Of course we had to serve the meals, you know.When you got to seventh grade I think t~at was when you startedworking in the kitchen. That's the thing we hadn't thoughtabout. The girls in the Home Ec class were also the people whocooked the lunches for the kids. I think the most popular dish,if you had a nickel, was a bowl of soup. It stuck to you.

.'"

NOTICE



law (Title 17U. s. Code).

Calm 7

It had a lot of rice in it. During this time, it was thedepression, we were all poor, and the children did not havesufficient food. He had a loaf of bread, a long loaf of breadthat was cut in two and cut in half down the middle and insidewas salmon. I think this was called - it wasnlt •I canlt remember that name either but if it does come to me 1111

let you knmv what we used to call that. It was for the kids whoThey were three cents, thatls what it was, three

cents, because you might be able to get three cents and you had ahalf a loaf of bread -- I know. It was called "Fill Me Quick".

GnEEI\TE: Was it very filling?CA~~: It was filling - a half a loaf of bread?

It had to be filling.(laughter)GREENE: Well, what did you drink with it?CAI1-1: To drink with itl Well, I'll tell you. About

this time Well, you know, the more you talk, the morethings come back to you. They had the powdered milk. They madethat --- Of course, we didn't like that. It was too lumpy butthatls what we had then. You got your milk and your half a loafof bread with the saLmon in it. The menu for the teachers andfor those people who were able was a bowl of soup and a littleround cake, cooked in those Ii ttle individual cake pans , Mrs.Lindsey used to have. When we went to high school we hadMrs. Lillian Reed, who was a very conscientious teacher, but wegave her a hard time. In fact, I was one of about seven who in

MISSISSIPPI DEPT. OF ARCH1VES & HISTORY


protected by copynght

law (Title 17U.S. COde).

Calm 8

our tenth grade year, or eleventh grade, was put out of classevery day. In fact, before class she would say, "N01¥, ladies,Dunlap, Bragg, Ames, Campbell and three or four others, willyou ladies please leave the room", and, of cOurse, we weresupposed to go to Professor HcGhee's office but we didn't.We wound up outdoors in the toilet. (Laughter). But, we had tokeep out of sight because we were not allowed on the schoolground.

GREENE: You say one of the girls was Ames?CALH: Yes, Hazel Ames. Hazel Ames is now --- I

can't think of what her name is now.GREENE: How does she spell her name?CALH: A-m-e-s.GREENE: A-m-e-s. I just wanted to be sure about the

spelling. I know where she lives.Didn't you say that she taught you how to can chicken?CALM: Oh, yes. Canning was about the height of it

so far as Mrs. Reed was concerned, because I had learned to cookand knew how to sew from home. I had learned the other cookingfrom Mrs. Lindsey, but Mrs. Reed taught me to can. We used touse the old pressure cooker. It's coming back - that had thepetcock on it. She taught us to can chicken, light and thedark meat. She taught us how to make marmalade, apple butterand compote. Don't ask me what it was about, but the name hadsomething to do with apples and some of that fruit, and alsoa date cake. These are the things that I remember from her

NOTICE





Calm 9

specifically, because these are the things that she taught me.GREilli8: Well, evidently you didn't spend all of your

time in the rest room?CAU.1: No. (Laughter) I got a chance to do something.GREENE: Were you engaged in sports?CAL¥.: Yes, I loved it. I loved basketball. I was

on the second string team, but I was not a good basketballplayer. The joke of the who Le team was me. Whenever we playeda game, Hr. Vaddox would maka a point of letting me go in for afew minutes, maybe two minutes. He would always say, "Dunlapinll and as soon as I got on the floor somebody would knock medown and he would say, "Dunlap outfl. I remember the nightwhen we went to Greenwood, and we were beating Greenwood bysomething like nineteen to nothing. He put me in the last twominutes. Really when the game was over I think I was unconscious,but the only score that was scored was over my head with me onthe floor. (Laughter)

GREENE: That Has the only score --- ?CAUf: Tha t vas the only score that Greenwood made

over my body.GHEENE: \-Ihat was your weight?CAI.J1: I imagine then I must have weighed about ninety.

When I finished school I weighed ninety-eight.GfillENE: Well, those girls had _no troubleCAUf: No, because they were --- We used to call them

"~

"'Corn fed".



protected by copynght

law (Title 17U. S. cocei,

Calm 10

GHEENE: Didn't you tell me something about the cake'-lithmeal in it?

CAU'i: Oh , tl<..atwas Mrs. Reed. You knov , during thattime there was not very much of anything, and this cake that wasmade in that little individual pan - If we ran short of flourshe would say, "Put a little meal in it" and that's just what wedid, so the cake was sweet but it had a mealy taste.

GREENE: It was really mealy.CAUl: A real mealy taste.GREENE: Do you ever try that now?CAU'1: No, I don't bake any more. You know the main

dish, the deluxe dish, at that time was neckbones and dressinglThat was ten cents and that was a treatl If you had the dime,everybody bought neckbones and dressing. The soup was a nickeldish and the cake was a nickel, but if you wanted the deluxething you got the neckbones and dressing.

GREEI\;E:Why did you leave the South?CALM: \'lell,I married. That's my only reason for

leaving. I met a young man from Boston, Massachusetts. He wasstationed at the Air Base. We got married and left Greenvillebecause of the things that he had seen in Greenville at thetime. Being from the East it did not e~tice him to want to stayin the South at all, so we settled in Chicago where my motherand father already lived, instead of him going back home or mecoming back here.

,'.

GREENE: You mean that he witnessed racialdiscrimination? NOTICE





Calm 11

CALH: Yes, he happened to have been a soldier at theBase where he had to ride in the back of the bus from the Baseto the city. There were only several places that they wereaLl.owed to go. They had to sleep in a barracks all by them-selves, even though they were a part of the medical team theystill had to sleep away from the rest of the camp, and theswimming pool I think was off limits to him too, so this wasjust not a thing that he would like to live with.

GHEENE: How does the Homecoming Celebration inGreenville compare with the celebrations in other towns?

CALl'~: Well, ha ving been a part of the Chicago Club,really being one of the charter members and having participatedin every affair that we had had there, and having gone tost. Louis and Cleveland to their affairs, I'll say even Chicagowith all of the elaborate setting, grand hotels and this stUff,did not have the flavor of the one that was here. Thedifference, I think \the feel of being home does something toyou. For me it seems to take away age. I never feel as old asI am when I'm at home, and the people --- The people are gladto see us. I YillOW that they are because if they were not theywould not have us here. Just the feeling of being home -- Home,I thiru{ that's the clue.

GREENE: Home, the'magic word.CALM: Home - that's it.GREENE: Did your husband come with you to note the

difference?

""

NOTICE




law (Title 17U.S, Code).

Calm 12

CALH: No, he didn't. He went back home to Hassachusettson his vacation, and I came here on mine.

GREENE: Do you thinL that he might come back here tolive in light of the many changes?

CALH: I'm almost sure that he might. He is so dis-satisfied with Chicago and the way things are progressing there.We talk about it, and the fact that I am buying a house heremight mean that this is what we are going to do.

1GREENE: For retirement.CALM: Well, maybe for him retiring, but I won't

retire as early as that I hope, but I will be home in a coupleof years, if that long. I'm planning it that way. Nothing'sdefinite, but 11m hoping to come home in the next couple ofyears.

GREENE: Mrs. Calm is a member of the graduatingClass of 1940.

CAD~: There were fifty-five of us, which was thelargest graduating class up until that date.

(End of Interview)

FINAL COpy by V.B.August 7, 1978

NOTICE




INDEX

OF MANNIE JIMMYE CALM

BY SHERIL YN D. ALLEN

Air Base, 10, 11

Ames, _____ , 8

Bacon, George, shop teacher, 2

Boston, Massachusetts, mentioned, 10

Bragg, _____ , 8

Broadway (Street), mentioned, 1

Butler, E. B. K. (Mrs.), teacher, Number Seven School, 2

Calm, Mannie Jimmye: born in Greenville, Mississippi, 1;

member, last class to graduate from-,.oldNumber Two

School (class of 1940), 1, 12; student, Number Seven

School, 2; student, Little Coleman High School, 2;

member, Glee Club, 3; member of the first band, 3i

4, 5; recollections of Christmas parade, 5i member,

basketball team, 9; charter member, Chicago Club, lli

retirement, 12

Campbell, _____ , 8

Cately (Street), mentioned, 5

Chicago Club, 11

Chicago, Illinois, mentioned, 1, iO-12.''-

Cleveland (Ohio), mentioned, 11

Cleveland Street, mentioned, 2

Coleman High School, 2. See also Little Coleman High School

NOTICE




Calm 2

Crawford, Leyser, Glee Club instructor, director, 3Depression, the, 7Dunlap, Mannie, father, 1

Elks Club, 5

Ells, Amanda, mother, 1

Gardner, Carolyn, 3Gardner, Mildred, 3

Grand Terrace, 5

Greene, Daisy, teacher, Number Seven School, 2

Greenwood (Miss.), mentioned, 9

Harris, Ruby, band direc,tor, 3, 4

Holmes, (Mrs.), drama teacher, 6-----Homecoming, celebrations, 11

Indianola (Miss.), mentioned, 3

Jenkins, Mildred, music teacher, 4Jones, Bienville, 3

Jones, Herticene, 3Jones, Willie Louise, 3

Lindsey, Lillie B., Home Ec teacher, Number Two School, 6, 8Little Coleman High School, 2. See ~ Coleman High, 2

Luxis Club (branch of the "Y"), -3

Maddox, , 9

McGhee, (Professor), 8

Mt. Horeb (Church), 1

NOTICE




law (Title 17 U.S. Code).

Nelson (Street), mentioned, 5NUmber Seven School, 2

Number Two School, 1, 6"Old Black Joe", 4

Pythian Hall, 5

Redmond, Amaleta~Bragg, 3

Reed, Lillian, Home Ec teacher, 7, 8, 10

Robinson, Edward, 3

Robinson, James (Indianola photographer), 3

St. Louis, mentioned, 11

St. Matthews (Church), 1

73rd Street (Chicago, Illinois), 1

"The Campbells are Coming", play, 6

Calm 3

Williams, Clay, teacher, Number Seven School, 2

"Y", the, 3

MISSISSIPPJ DEPT. OF ARCHIVES & HISTORYNOTICE


protected by COPYright


Documents

July 3, 1978 Daisy M. Greene - da.mdah.ms.gov