TT, Kentucky
Photo and Interview by TT
Interview with Francis L. Davis (my grandmother) Danville Kentucky Feb 14, 2024
Born: 1948
Interviewer: This is an interview for my school project through the Smithsonian Institute collecting oral history and photos around the Danville community
Francis: I’'ll talk about my childhood I guess… I grew up in the country on a farm, we had animals and we also had a big garden that we grew every year ------ and we had an outdoor toilet. We would have to help mama pick the vegetables from the garden so we could can them and have food for winter.
Interviewer: Who all lived in the house?
Francis: [chuckles] My mom, my dad and my brother --------- Those are some of the memories I had, picking vegetables, and helping my mother wash clothes and hang them out to dry.
Interviewer: What about your grandmother, were you close to her?
Francis: Yeah I was close with my grandma, we would visit her on weekends. She lived in Harrodsburg [long pause] we would watch tv over there, we didn't have a tv at home so we'd always watch her tv -------- We would go over there on weekends and grandma would fix dinner for everyone on Sunday,
Interviewer: What was your experience in Bate like?
Francis: I started First Grade there and uh I made lots of friends there, I don't remember -- that was 70 something years ago.
Interviewer: Could you tell me more about your mother?
Francis: Um my mother didn't have much education and she really couldn't read well ------ that's the way it was back in the day, you had to go out and make a living, that's why now I feel that education is so important if ur ever gonna get anything in life.
2/15/24
Interviewer: What was the process of canning food like?
Francis: You wash it and prepare it, put it in the can and put it in the oven, and it'll seal the jar, that's what keeps the food for a long time, the heat seals the jars.
Interviewer: Why do you think your mother wasn't in school?
Francis: Well -- she went for a little while but she never learned how to read and write, she was the oldest of her siblings so I guess she had to stay home and take care of her siblings while her mother worked.
Interviewer: What did your mother do for a living?
Francis: Nothing ----- my mother didn't work.
Interviewer: What are some qualities you favored in your mom? What's your favorite memory with her?
Francis: My mother was a sweet soul, She loved everybody. --------- Well I do remember when we used to get together and she used to show me how to make those meringue pies, they were chocolate, lemon, brown sugar.
[She still buys those pies when we go to the grocery store LOL]
Interviewer: Tell me about your experience in segregation.
Francis: We weren't allowed to go where white people went, they always had a sign up that said ¨colored people¨ we had to stay separated because they thought we were so much better than we were, that's a true fact.
Interviewer: Did you experience a lot of racism growing up?
Francis: No, I honestly didn't, when the schools integrated, I was the only black child at a school in Mackville Kentucky, when we integrated in 1954, everyone there was white except for me.