e white folks put the Negroes out of
office. They put J. T. White in the river at Helena but I think he got
out. Several was killed. J. T. White was a colored sheriff in Phillips
County. In Lee County it was the same way. The Republican party would
lect them and the Democratic party roust them out of office.

"In 1872 I went to school 2-1/2 miles to Arkansas Post to a white
teacher. I went four months. Her name was Mrs. Rolling. My white folks
started me and I could spell to 'Baker' in the Blue Book Speller
before I started to school. That is the only book I ever had at
school. I learned to read in the Bible next.

"In 1872 locust was numerous. We had four diseases to break out:
whooping cough, measles, smallpox; and cholera broke out again. They
vaccinated for smallpox, first I ever heard of it. They took matter
out of one persons arm and put it in two dozen peoples arms. It killed
out the smallpox.

"In 1873 I saw a big forest fire. It seemed like prairie and forest
fires broke out often.

"When I growed up and run with boys my color I got wicked. We gambled
and drunk whiskey, then I seen how I was departing from good raising.
I changed. I stopped sociating with bad company. The Lord hailed me in
wide open day time and told me my better life was pleasing in his
sight. I heard him. I didn't see nuthin'. I was called upon to teach a
Sunday School class. Three months I was Sunday School leader. Three
months more I was a licensed preacher. Ordained under Bishop Lee,
Johnson, Copeland--all colored bishops at Topeka, Kansas. Then I
attended conference at Bereah, Kentucky. Bishop Dizney presided. I
preached in Kentucky, Missouri, Kansas, Alabama, Tennessee,
Mississippi, and Arkansas. I am now what they call a superannuated
minister.

"One criticism on my color. They will never progress till they become
more harmonious in spirit with the desires of the white people in the
home land of the white man. I mean when a white person come want some
work or a favor and he not go help him without too much pay."

Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: Absolom Jenkins,
R.F.D., Helena, Arkansas
Age: 80
[Date Stamp: MAY 31 1938]

"I was born a few years before the break out of the old war (Civil
War). I had a boy fit in this last war (World War). He gets a pension
and he sends me part of it every month. He don't send me no amount
whatever he can spare me. He never do send me less than t