1. What is your name? Maiden and Marriage (if applicable)
Annie Grace Stapleton
2. Where were you born? Simpson County (Puckett, MS)
3. Where did you grow up? South of Puckett MS
4. What were your parents names and occupations?
DAD – ‘LilBill’ Stapleton Jr. // MOM- Lilly Puckett-Stapleton
(both were farmers)
5. Do you have any siblings? Yes or No, names?
1- W.P. Stapleton (brother)
2- Ruby Jane Stapleton Ducksworth (sis)
3- VelMarie(sis)
4- Lilly Jane (sis)
6. What was your life like growing up as a black girl in _Puckett, MS_?
Hard work farming (cotton and many vegetables) and working and taking care of white children. Later worked in the house take care of white children.
Her dad was a sharecropper-à farmed on white folks land but got paid annually about $200 or $300.
7. Did you ever encounter racism? Explain? Lots of racism. (Didn’t want to go into detail)
8. What privileges or setbacks do you feel that you experienced growing up as a black female in the North/South?
Many set backs with jobs and having to keep switching from white families to take care of their house and families for only .60 Cents/ day.
(When I said privileges she laughed.)
9. What, if anything, do you remember your parents telling you about race?
(MOM)Nothing because she passed when she was 2 years old
(DAD) Always stand up for your own family. He had respect from white people because he told them to not touch his kids because he’ll handle them. For him to have spoken with such authority and no-nonsense in his voice would make them do as he said.
10. What did your parents tell you or instill in you regarding being a woman, specifically a black woman?
Nothing really specifically toward being a woman just being a strong person.
11. Did you attend school? Yes or No, why or why not?
12. Talk a little bit about those days...
*Yes, but a lot of folk couldn’t until the cotton was all picked. School started in November and her dad worked very hard with shoes laced with wire to ensure all work was completed so they could go to school on time and be as smart as they could be.
*Had to take full responsibility by 9 because she had learned how to cook and how to take care of the house. She didn’t have to go out to work in the daytime because of her house duties.
*They tried to split up her brothers and sisters but her dad fought hard to keep the family together. They used to all sleep on the hay mattress but then they got a cotton mattress.
*One day the man who owned the land, his son tried my granny and she said if u do it again I will tell my daddy and he got really scared because her dad was very
*said her dad was smart though he didn’t get a formal education
13. What was it like in school for you as a black female?
*If a black woman/girl was pretty she didn’t have to work as hard
"Also if you look at whites they all the same, but we all look different some even look white, we are a wonder, but they never recognized it."
14. Did you graduate and attend college?
‘I was grown and had children and went back to school to get my GED so I could work out of the state hospital’. She was working as a clean up lady. Then took a typing class because James C. Stubbs, director of the MS State Hospital recommended it. He was a white man and wanted success for Ms. Stapleton. She went from housekeeping to secretary (16yrs here) after treating her wrong for many years she ended up leaving. Before having another job set in stone, she was then blessed and hired in the Jackson Public School. Government money got a few teachers in. She remembered the man over the project was saying, “come on darkie and help me”. A white lady asked her why she wanted to teacher, Ms. Stapleton replied, “Because I can”. She doesn’t like for people to run over her or talk down to her, she wont allow it.
15. Did you get married? To who? When? [Ask about the circumstances]
Earl Purvis -> 1949 (1st husband)
16. Did you have any children? Yes or No? How many? Why? Was this a choice or just happened? If no children, you could ask them why they chose not to or was it medical reasons.
17. Where did they work as an adult?
*Miscarriage of twins
Joyce(RN/ military), George (pastor), Willie(Electrical engineer/military), Mearl (news caster), Don(preacher/military), Teresa(computer technician at Jackson Heart Study), Ricky(police officer/military), Linda(military), Sharon(RN/military)
18. Ask them about their adult life and what it was like living as a black woman?
It was hard and she worked for all she has.
19. Ask them if there are any specific stories that they would like to share regarding their adulthood life and being a black woman
She was treated so different; one white girl got to play with her until white people came around.. they were playmates until they grew up and that was when her family said it was no longer allowed for intermingling.
20. What were their relationships like with other women? Specifically ask about white and black women.
Black women- worked with them, but they would get distant from you if your relationship with white women was pretty decent. They would turn on you and call you “a white folks nigger”
White women – worked for them and they would be friends with you only in private.
21. Would they consider themselves friends with white women? Or do they have friends that are of another race?
‘I don’t have anything against them but I am aware of what has happened. ‘
22. What type of relationship do you have with black men?
‘I don’t trust them’. Married 3 times and none of them treated her that good. “My 4th husband was sent from God, he was some kind of man and when God made him he must have broke the mold”.
23. What do you think is the role of both black men and women in relationships and inside of the home should be?
Respect, trust, and love will keep it together as well as a whopping of everyone understanding their place in the family.
24. What do you think about people dating outside of their race? Black men marrying white women and black women marrying white men?
I don’t judge but I do wonder “what the hell for”. I don’t have any problems with white people and no matter how much I went through because of them I’m still ok. “Every morning and every night when I get on my knees, I pray for blacks, white, and all”.
25. What issues do you think most affect black Americans today?
They let the relationships fail. Also there is no much hatred in the world today and unity heals wounds but it seems it’s getting worse towards each other.
“I will die b4 I let anyone walk over me ever again”
I interviewed my Grandmother because she is amazing. At 79 she is still going strong and has a beautiful and healthy garden she has brought up herself. She still volunteers and cooks amazing meals every chance she gets. She is such a wonderful person to have in my life and I knew she would be perfect to give me the real deal of the past. Throughout the interview she kept saying, ‘you know I’ll never lie to you baby’. I believe her and I always will.
