Veterans of World War I of the U.S.A. Walworth County Barracks No. 3241 (Delavan, Wisconsin) Records,

Container Title
Session I, August 24, 1976
Reel/Side   16/1-A
Time   0:00 to 0:25
Introduction
Reel/Side   16/1-A
Time   0:26 to 6:40
Family background--mother born in Illinois, father in Indiana--family lived in Coweta, Oklahoma--father as a drayman and farmer
Reel/Side   16/1-A
Time   6:41 to 17:15
Coweta--Scott family one of few with northern background--Scotts as a black family in Coweta, got along with whites and Indians--recollection of Indian pow-wow in June--feasts for the dead--lodges and churches
Reel/Side   16/1-A
Time   17:16 to 24:56
Segregated schools in Coweta--county exams, black students graded low--nearest black high schools at Tulsa and Muskogee--Indians attended white schools
Reel/Side   16/1-A
Time   24:57 to 27:37
Scotts lost home in Coweta--Dr. Carter
Reel/Side   16/1-A
Time   27:37 to 29:32
Family religious background--father offended by church-going hypocrites
Reel/Side   16/1-B
Time   0:00 to 4:35
Family political background--parents “working the poll tax”--no voting rights for blacks in Waggoner County, Oklahoma--awareness of voting as power--use of the term “colored”
Reel/Side   16/1-B
Time   4:36 to 10:26
Little sense of class--no library in Coweta's black school--throw-away books and crayons--other school problems
Reel/Side   16/1-B
Time   10:27 to 15:49
Parents did not compare Coweta with Indiana or Illinois--no reaction against segregation--spiking tops on the playground--J. S. wanted to be a doctor
Reel/Side   16/1-B
Time   15:50 to 25:08
J. S. and the railroads, hired by the Pullman Co.--move to Chicago--hitchhiking, driving for drummers--fourteen year-old hobo out of Coweta, left home in Coweta hoping to be able to go to high school, no opportunity available--ranged over the whole country during early Depression years, welcomed back home by father
Reel/Side   16/1-B
Time   25:09 to 30:14
Riding the freight trains, living in hobo jungles--the workhouses--dodging the railroad dicks--states to stay out of
Reel/Side   16/2-A
Time   0:00 to 0:10
Introduction
Reel/Side   16/2-A
Time   0:10 to 10:15
Women in hobo jungles--protection--more on evading railroads dicks--hoboing in cold weather--comment on Grapes of Wrath--J. S. as the “youngest bum”--boarding trains
Reel/Side   16/2-A
Time   10:16 to 17:06
Railroad men helped hobos evade railroad dicks--hitching-hiking and riding rails--law enforcement and hobos--help from churches in Chicago--Pilgrim Baptist Church, later when working for Pullman
Reel/Side   16/2-A
Time   17:07 to 21:42
Hardships in Chicago, before being hired by Pullman--beginning with Pullman--too much travel with Pullman--then a waiter with the Chicago and Northwestern
Reel/Side   16/2-A
Time   21:43 to 28:53
Member of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters--strikebreakers and the grocery store--fights with winos during strikes, J. S. has scar from such a fight--during stockyards strikes
Reel/Side   16/2-B
Time   0:00 to 2:25
Comments on Sleeping Car Porters leadership--respect for A. Philip Randolph
Reel/Side   16/2-B
Time   2:26 to 8:40
Service on the “Dakota 400” and the “Merry-go-round”--fellow dining car workers--leaving the Chicago and Northwestern in 1948, no more troop trains
Reel/Side   16/2-B
Time   8:41 to 12:55
Looking for a home in Wisconsin--problem in Chicago school--need to be home more--fears of Chicago
Reel/Side   16/2-B
Time   12:56 to 14:56
Visiting in Janesville--unaware of the absence of blacks--attended First Baptist Church
Reel/Side   16/2-B
Time   14:57 to 19:37
Primarily worked on troop trains with the Chicago and Northwestern, the “Challenger” comments on passenger service--late-running passenger trains
Reel/Side   16/2-B
Time   19:38 to 25:23
Finding a home in Janesville--getting approval from the “Good Neighborhood Association”--overview of working experience--coal from Hill's Coalyard
Reel/Side   16/2-B
Time   25:24 to 29:19
J. S. had to buy a home in Janesville--no rentals to blacks, lost room at Milton Hotel, finally got a room at 104 S. Locust--deal for present home--decided to stay in Janesville after retirement