Mrs. Bernice Bowden

1:ve.ns Warrior
609 ~ 23rd Avenue, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
	Interviewer

	Person interviewed________________________________________

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	“I was born here in Arkansas in I~l1as County. I don‘ t know zackly what year but I was bout five when they drove u.s to Texas. Stayed there three years t ill the war ceasted.

	“Old master‘s name was Nat ~nith. He was good to me. I was big enough to plow same year the war ceasted.

	“Yankees cc~ae through Texas after peace was ‚ dared.. They‘ d coins by and ask my mother for bread. She was the cook.

	“STe left Arkansas ‘roro the war got busy. ~verything-was pretty ragged after we got back. White folks was here but colored folks was scattered. My folks come back and went to their native home in ]~l1as

County.

	“Never did nothin‘ but farta work. Worked on the shares till I got able to rent. Paid five or six dollars a acre. Made some money.

	“I heered of the Ku Klux. Some of em come through the Clei~nons place and put notice on the doors. Say VA~A~. All the women folks got in one house. Then the boss man come down and say there wa8n‘t nothin‘ to it.

Bo ss man didn ‚ t want em there.

	“I went to school a little. Kep‘ me in the field all the tira.

Didn‘t get tur enuf‘ to read and write,

	“Yes‘m, I voted. Voted the Republican ticket. That‘s what they cive me to vote. I couldn‘t read so I‘d tell em who I wanted to vote ~or