Oral History with Christine P. Price, March 4, 1991 (Ms1991-019)

Partial Transcript: Christine Price: I tell you I just got books piled up-
Michael Cooke: Oh, don’t worry about it. Okay. Today is March 4,1991. I am conducting an interview with Christine P. Price of Blacksburg, [Virginia]. Mrs. Price, could you give us a brief sketch of your life, your birthdate, your birthplace, education, and occupation?
Christine Price: Well, I was born July 21, 1915 in Giles County.
Michael Cooke: And what town were you born in?
Christine Price: Kimbalton.
Michael Cooke: Okay. And when did you first come to this area?
Christine Price: As I’ve said, I think I was just about six years old.
Michael Cooke: Oh, so you hadn’t even probably started school yet? So, you never even went to school in Giles County?
Christine Price: Unh-uh.

Keywords: biography; birthdate; birthplace; Blacksburg, Virginia; Christine P. Price; education; Giles County

Subjects: Giles County

Partial Transcript: Michael Cooke: Did you have any older brothers or sisters who might have went to school there?
Christine Price: Well, I had three older brothers and five older sisters.
Michael Cooke: What did your father and mother do when they were living in Giles County? What kind of occupations did they have?
Christine Price: Well, he worked at the rock quarry and the farm.
Michael Cooke: Okay. He did both?
Christine Price: Uh-huh.
Michael Cooke: Did your mother work at all?
Christine Price: Well, she took care of the house.
Michael Cooke: That’s housework. That is work.
Christine Price: Yes. And the garden and all like that. And the cows.[Laughs].
Michael Cooke: That is work.
Christine Price: Yeah, that’s work. That’s what she’d done.
Michael Cooke: Why did he leave the area of Giles County?
Christine Price: Well just to get us closer to school, so we’d have a school.
Michael Cooke: Were there problems with your older siblings? They said they had to walk to school early before.
Christine Price: Yes, they just couldn’t go. The weather would get so bad they just couldn’t walk that far. I forget how many miles they said they had to walk.
Michael Cooke: And there was probably very few schools for Blacks.
Christine Price: Yes.
Michael Cooke: That was very inconvenient from that standpoint, very inconvenient.

Keywords: brothers; cows; education opportunities; garden; Giles County; housework; moving; school; sisters; transportation

Subjects: Education Opportunities; Giles County; Housework

Partial Transcript: Michael Cooke: So, your parents moved here. What did they do upon moving here? What kind of jobs did they have once they got to this area?
Christine Price: Well, they didn’t have any at the time. Nothing but he had his team of horses. He plowed gardens and all like that. Back then, you know, they didn’t have tractors.
Michael Cooke: Okay so he did farm work?
Christine Price: Yeah, farm work.
Michael Cooke: Now you mentioned before when we were off-tape—and I guess we should get it on-tape—you said your father got hurt in an accident? Was that before he came?
Christine Price: Yes, before he came here.
Michael Cooke: So that might have been one of the reasons he came?
Christine Price: Well, yes I guess because I think it was my second oldest sister...I think they said she was a baby when he got hurt.
Michael Cooke: Can you tell how he got hurt?
Christine Price: Well, they said a rock in the quarry. I guess they were blasting rock, and it crushed his leg and they had to take it off.
Michael Cooke: His leg was amputated?
Christine Price: Um-hm.
Michael Cooke: So he couldn’t work in that employment anymore?
Christine Price: Unh-uh.
Michael Cooke: So he came here and did farm work, I guess. Operated teams of wagons.
Christine Price: Yeah. Plowed gardens, everything around in town.

Keywords: job opportunities; plowing; quarry injury; work opportunities

Subjects: Farming; Quarry Work; Work Opportunities

Partial Transcript: Michael Cooke: When you first came to this area, what area of Blacksburg did y'all settle in? Did you live here?
Christine Price: Out in the part where they call Newtown.
Michael Cooke: Oh yeah, off of Gilbert Street.
Christine Price: Um-hm. Out there where Hunter Bell used to be. It was a big ole’ house between on this side the Mays’ house out there. They got burned down, and that’s where we moved to.
Michael Cooke: So how far were you from Hunter Bell’s property?
Christine Price: Oh, it wasn’t too far.
Michael Cooke: Actually, I guess his wife was the one...Her family really owned all that land there, probably.
Christine Price: Well, yes. Her family lived there. They owned that.
Michael Cooke: I forgot Mrs. Bell’s maiden name. What is it?
Christine Price: Green. See one of my sister’s married her half-brother, Johnson, legally a [inaudible 04:47].
Michael Cooke: Okay. So you lived in Newtown? And that was one of the larger Black communities back in the past.
Christine Price: Yes, at the time. See that’s where the hall is now.
Michael Cooke: Yeah. How many people lived in Newtown?
Christine Price: Oh well when I was [inaudible 05:02] a right many out there.
Michael Cooke: If you had to guess, fifty or a hundred?
Christine Price: Oh no, not quite that many. But, I mean, I had two aunts out there but neither one of them had children-
Michael Cooke: Twenty-five maybe?
Christine Price: Ethel Bond, and then a family, Youngs, that lived right down below the hall. There was a house there.
Michael Cooke: Oh you’re talking about the-
Christine Price: St. Luke’s.
Michael Cooke: St. Luke and Odd Fellows Hall--St. Luke’s Hall, which is now a carpentry shop I believe.
Christine Price: Yeah. Ethel Lytton and somebody worked in there.

Keywords: Blacksburg, Virginia; Ethel Bond; Ethel Lytton; Hunter Bell; Newtown; Odd Fellows; St. Luke's; St. Luke's Hall

Subjects: Black Community; Blacksburg, Virginia

Partial Transcript: Michael Cooke: That’s how I came across the order of St. Luke. Some materials and records that they had left in the attic, and when they closed it, they probably forgot about it. And so when the owner—the guy now who assumed ownership of the place—was going through the materials, he came across the materials in the attic. So that’s how I came across your name.
Christine Price: Well, that’s where we had our meeting, out there.
Michael Cooke: Did you have the meeting on the top floor or the bottom floor?
Christine Price: The top floor.
Michael Cooke: And both the Odd Fellows and the St. Luke’s had their meetings?
Christine Price: And the household group and all.
Michael Cooke: How did they use the bottom of the hall?
Christine Price: Well, at times we would have a group of dancers or something like that.
Michael Cooke: But, they never let people go on the top floor.
Christine Price: Unh-uh.
Michael Cooke: Was it about the same size in terms of the top floor and the bottom floor were about the same size?
Christine Price: Yes.
Michael Cooke: That was your private domain.
Christine Price: Yes, that was it.
Michael Cooke: You didn’t want anybody-
Christine Price: We did private things up there and no one else—if you wasn’t a member—was supposed to know.
Michael Cooke: That’s right. That’s obvious. Because that was a fraternal order?
Christine Price: Um-hm.
Michael Cooke: Tell us about the Independent Order of St. Luke? Did both men and women belong to that fraternal order?
Christine Price: Yes, sir.
Michael Cooke: Was that different than most of the orders?
Christine Price: Well, yes. Now Odd Fellows, nothing but men belong to that. But the household group, men and women could belong to that.
Michael Cooke: Right, and that was kind of the auxiliary?
Christine Price: Uh-huh. Of course, the St. Luke’s had a smaller lodge as juveniles who could go in there. After we got a certain age, we could transfer over to St. Luke’s [inaudible 7:30].
Michael Cooke: Were you a member of the juvenile division?
Christine Price: Yes, I was.
Michael Cooke: How did that work? Did your parents say, I’m going to pay your dues, or whatever it was?
Christine Price: Yeah. I believe it was thirty-five cents or something in there. Seven of my oldest children was in the juveniles, too.

Keywords: Anise Scott; Aunt Ethel; awards; bottom floor; Ethel Vaughn; Grand Council; Household of Ruth; Independent Order of St. Luke; insurance; juvenile division; juvenile organization; Lily Reynolds; Meg L. Walker; members; Odd Fellows; Pat Burger; Richmond, Virginia; services; sickness insurance; St. Luke; top floor

Subjects: Blacksburg, Virginia; Household of Ruth; Independent Order of St. Luke's; Odd Fellows; Social Organizations

Partial Transcript: Michael Cooke: That’s interesting. Well let’s talk about education and talk about how you were born. What are some of the things that stand out in your mind when you were a young girl growing up in Blacksburg?
Christine Price: [Laughs]
Michael Cooke: [Laughs] That’s another loaded question.
Christine Price: The main one, my big brother was born in [19]24, and I’d tell him every time I’d get outside playing with the other children. He'd wake up and mother would call me in to take care of him. I told him he totally messed up my childhood. [Laughs].
Michael Cooke: So you didn’t have one?
Christine Price: [Laughter]. She’d say, Christine, the baby’s awake! I’d have to go in and take care of my baby brother.
Michael Cooke: That didn’t hurt your ability to go school did it?
Christine Price: No.
Michael Cooke: It was just when you were home?
Christine Price: Home, yeah, just then.
Michael Cooke: Can you describe what it was like for a young Black woman or a young Black girl at that time to be going to school in this area?
Christine Price: Well, it was alright for me because it wasn’t segregated or anything at the time.
Michael Cooke: It wasn’t segregated?
Christine Price: Not when I went, no. I walked from out there at Newtown up in here to the Middle School.
Michael Cooke: You mean it wasn’t segregated?
Christine Price: Uhn-uh. It wasn’t segregated around here. I mean, it was segregated cause my two children were the first two that went. My son that is in Colorado and my oldest girl.
Michael Cooke: Okay, let’s get this straight. You went to a segregated school?
Christine Price: No, unh-uh. I didn’t. No.
Michael Cooke: You didn’t?
Christine Price: No, I just went to a little, one room school up on—
Michael Cooke: You had Black and white children?
Christine Price: No.
Michael Cooke: Just black?
Christine Price: Yes, just black. There wasn’t no busses or nothing. We had to walk.
Michael Cooke: You had to walk. What’s the name of the school? What did they call it?
Christine Price: They just called it the Black school.
Michael Cooke: It was just a school?
Christine Price: Uh-huh.
Michael Cooke: How many teachers? Just one or?
Christine Price: They had two. Because they had the little old school house for the other grades then they built another one of the other grades, the higher grades. And had a teacher for each one.
Michael Cooke: Now, did they go all the way from first to eleventh?
Christine Price: No, first to the eighth, I believe.
Michael Cooke: First to the eighth? That’s right, they didn’t have a high school.
Christine Price: No, they didn’t have a high school.
Michael Cooke: So you’d a had to go to Christiansburg, or Christiansburg Institute if you wanted to go to high school?
Christine Price: Um-hm yes.

Keywords: barber shop; Blacksburg, Virginia; childhood; Christiansburg Industrial Institute; education opportunities; John Sears; Laura Annison; Lee Street; Mrs. Sears; Newtown; Price's siblings; segregation; W. J. Sears

Subjects: Blacksburg, Virginia; Educational Opportunities

Partial Transcript: Christine Price: There used to be a whole lot of Black families. Tillman ran the cleaning shop over at VPI.
Michael Cooke: That’s right. And I guess various other people too. Charles Johnson now is the-
Christine Price: Well, Charles was at the time.
Michael Cooke: He’s in the military, probably.
Christine Price: No, he’s in Wake Forest. His home’s down in Wake Forest. That’s where he come from. Charles finished C.I. and then I think John Sears barber shop used to be down here on College Avenue.
Michael Cooke: That’s right.
Christine Price: The Warren boys, the eldest, Drury, one of [inaudible 17:36] boys, he was a barber down there.
Michael Cooke: I didn’t know that.
Christine Price: Um-hm. Pete, little Pete Carrol over there and all.
Michael Cooke: Where did they learn their trade?
Christine Price: I guess from like their fathers.
Michael Cooke: Did they get any help from Christiansburg Institute?
Christine Price: Yes.
Michael Cooke: Because they had barber training there.
Christine Price: One of my sons took barbering over there.
Michael Cooke: Okay. Did you go to Christiansburg Institute?
Christine Price: No, I didn’t.
Michael Cooke: You never did.
Christine Price: Miss Nettie taught to the tenth grade, and I just went up here because my youngest sister come out and at the time we had to pay taxes to drive.
Michael Cooke: Oh, yeah. There was no county-
Christine Price: No county, nothing.
Michael Cooke: So you had to pay. That kept some people from going.
Christine Price: Um-hm. The brother next to me, he started here. And then I quit, and after, he went to West Virginia to go to the mines. That was that, so it fell on me. So I just kept working a little bit and sent her.

Keywords: Black families; Charles Johnson; Christiansburg Industrial Institute; Christiansburg Institute; Drury; Pete Carrol; Wake Forest, Virginia; Warren boys

Subjects: Black Businesses

Partial Transcript: Michael Cooke: What kind of work did you do?
Christine Price: Housework, cook, you know, for private families. White families.
Michael Cooke: Were they connected to the university?
Christine Price: Well, no. Uhn-uh.
Michael Cooke: I know from talking to some people that the professors quite often had live-in maids. Were you a live-in maid?
Christine Price: Oh, no. Unh-uh. I just had to straighten up over her on Fergus Street, just old family. Now one of the daughters was a secretary down on the campus and one was a nurse in the infirmary over there. Miss Swopes.
Michael Cooke: So, were you still living at Newtown?
Christine Price: No, we had moved up here. My daddy bought that house right up there.
Michael Cooke: When did you all move from Newtown to this area?
Christine Price: I really don’t remember—about six, seven years when we bought the home up here.
Michael Cooke: So in other words about the late 1920s maybe?
Christine Price: Yeah, something like that.
Michael Cooke: Do you have any idea why you left the property in Newtown?
Christine Price: Well, it wasn’t for sale.
Michael Cooke: Oh, you were renting?
Christine Price: Um-hm, we was renting.
Michael Cooke: Oh, so you were renting. Do you know who you were renting with?
Christine Price: Well, it was some family named Page.
Michael Cooke: Another Page.
Christine Price: [Laughs].
Michael Cooke: Are these the Page’s that you were related to?
Christine Price: Well, they were from Wake Forest.
Michael Cooke: Oh, these Pages are from Wake Forest?
Christine Price: Yes.
Michael Cooke: But, even your father was originally from Wake Forest?
Christine Price: Yes, my father was from Wake Forest, too.
Michael Cooke: How close were they in terms of relations to you because you were a Paige?
Christine Price: Well, I really don’t know.
Michael Cooke: You don’t know? Might have been cousins or something?
Christine Price: Cousin, yes.
Michael Cooke: So he did look around for a property to buy?
Christine Price: Uh-huh.
Michael Cooke: Did this community have a name? Over at Gilbert Street they called it Newtown. Did they have a name for this area?
Christine Price: No, I guess not. Well, up further we called it Bitter Hill. On up-
Michael Cooke: Oh, Bitter Hill? Like up on Lee Street?
Christine Price: Uh-huh.
Michael Cooke: Oh, that’s Bitter Hill. I used to live over there. I interviewed somebody else, and they said Bitter Hill. And it didn’t register. So, Lee Street, that’s a high hill, so that well deserved the title Bitter Hill.

Segment Synopsis: In this section of the interview, Christine Price mentions that she rented a house from a family with the last name of Page. While Price's maiden name was Paige, it is important to note that there were multiple families with the last name Page and Paige.

Keywords: Bitter Hill; cooking; domestic work; Fergus Street; Gilbert Street; housework; Lee Street; Miss Swopes; Page; Wake Forest, Virginia

Subjects: Black Communities; Work Opportunities

Partial Transcript: Christine Price: See when we moved, it wasn’t a street. It was all built up. We called it [inaudible 21:26]. There wasn’t a street there.
Michael Cooke: So, you really didn’t have great service in access to the public road?
Christine Price: Unh-uh. No.
Michael Cooke: Did you all ever petition the town and say, why can’t we have a road or something?
Christine Price: Yes, they finally got it through.
Michael Cooke: Did you have a petition though?
Christine Price: Uh-huh. We did.
Michael Cooke: Do you know when that road was built?
Christine Price: No, I don’t.
Michael Cooke: It’s been a long while.
Christine Price: Yes, it’s been a good while.
Michael Cooke: Did any whites live in this area? Or near Bitter Hill?
Christine Price: Oh, yes. There was a white family that lived all down here where these fraternity homes are.
Michael Cooke: So those were private homes?
Christine Price: They were at the time. The Martins and-
Michael Cooke: And now they’re all kind of fraternities. The fact, though, that the fraternity [inaudible 22:15] the university.
Christine Price: Yes. The trailer court was over here. A few years later. And all of them were white. We had enough whites. So we really, as far as I know, got along pretty good.

Keywords: Bitter Hill; fraternity houses; Goods and services; race relations; roads; streets

Subjects: Public Goods and Services; Race Relations

Partial Transcript: Christine Price: My daughter wouldn’t tell that because she had a rough time going up here to the high school.
Michael Cooke: What daughter was that?
Christine Price: My oldest one. I told you.
Michael Cooke: Her name is?
Christine Price: Anna.
Michael Cooke: Anna. What kind of problems did she have? Was this during desegregation?
Christine Price: Yes. That’s when, see I told you, she and my little blind son, now, was first ones to integrate up here at Blacksburg High School.
Michael Cooke: Okay. Your son is named?
Christine Price: Philip.
Michael Cooke: Philip Price. What kind of problems did Anna have?
Christine Price: Well, you know, the kids picking on her and all like that.
Michael Cooke: Picking on her just for being a kid?
Christine Price: For being Black.
Michael Cooke: Oh for being Black.
Christine Price: There wasn’t but two Blacks even there.
Michael Cooke: That must have been rough.
Christine Price: See, Philip, they claimed he—one of the teachers, Mary Louise [inaudible 23:28] down here—kept him back from graduating, graduating with mixed folks. He just couldn’t march in. She wouldn’t allow him to march in with his class.
Michael Cooke: So, Anna didn’t feel that she was very comfortable being the first?
Christine Price: Unh-uh.
Michael Cooke: Is she still living in town?
Christine Price: Yeah, she lives out in the county while living in town, Cambridge Square.
Michael Cooke: Oh, yeah. Right. Is she married now?
Christine Price: No. She’s not married. No, she was working for AT&T until they closed. She’s not doing anything. Looking for work.
Michael Cooke: Looking for work. That’s interesting. I would be interested to get her experiences.
Christine Price: I don’t know if she would or not. [Laughs].
Michael Cooke: You don’t think she’d be willing?
Christine Price: No, of course she won't. She can’t stand it. [Laughs]. She told me. Of course, Phil will just laugh about it.
Michael Cooke: Did they both graduate from there?
Christine Price: Um-hm. Yeah, Anna marched in with her class she graduated with. But I told her just think what she’d done for her brother. Her youngest brother, now, he’s King Rex of Blacksburg High. First black, and there hasn’t been anyone since.
Michael Cooke: He was the first Black to be what?
Christine Price: King Rex. You know they had-
Michael Cooke: King Rex? What was that?
Christine Price: King! Crowned the king!
Michael Cooke: Oh, King. Okay.
Christine Price: So that was Tony. He lives out in Heathwood with his wife and two boys.
Michael Cooke: That must have been some experience. Did anybody ever bother you? I mean, call your phone or make harassing calls or mail anything of that nature?
Christine Price: No, they didn’t. I mean we seemed to get along alright.
Michael Cooke: Just the children had a little problems in the school?
Christine Price: Course, during that time, some boy, I believe he was a Linkous, used to live right down here on the corner of Wharton [Street] and Jackson [Street] in that old house there. He used to walk up every morning to walk to school with Phil and his sister. [Laughs]. I mean, you know, it’s just like some people now pick on you. I mean, some of them, you know you don’t. You haven’t got as far as you think you have around these white people. They don’t get much better than that, some of them. And some of them do.

Keywords: Cambridge Square; desegregation; Heathwood; high school; Jackson Street; Mary Louise; race relations; Wharton Street

Subjects: Desegregation; Educational Opportunities; Race Relations

Partial Transcript: Michael Cooke: That’s the truth. Let’s see. What about the Black businesses in this area? Do you recall growing up if there were any Black business establishments? Did they own any stores or dancehalls? We know they had the Odd Fellows and the Independent Order of St. Luke-
Christine Price: Yeah, they had that. And, you know, Kid Wade did own a shoe store right down here where the Post Office is on Jackson [Street]. Years ago he owned a shoe store right in there.
Michael Cooke: Any other Blacks have any successful businesses? What about that Sanders Cleaners. So you recall that?
Christine Price: Sanders Cleaners?
Michael Cooke: Cleaners. Right near South Main. You're not familiar with that?
Christine Price: Well, what I’m thinking about is right across from the National Bank.
Michael Cooke: Yeah, that’s it.
Christine Price: Well, it belongs to the Warrens, I guess. It did. But I can’t remember them. The only time I remember anything is Mary Taylor running the cleaning shop on campus. I know that building used to belong to the Warrens. It did. I don’t know [inaudible 27:50] about it know.
Michael Cooke: I just don’t know. Any other business, Black cab companies, or Black restaurants?
Christine Price: No. Unh-uh. Well, there was a couple of Black cabs. My husband drove a cab, and his brother that lived up there, he drove a cab. There was only two Black cabs.
Michael Cooke: That was Leonard Price and his-
Christine Price: And James.
Michael Cooke: And James Price.
Christine Price: They called him, Chippy. Rett and Chippy.
Michael Cooke: Who was which?
Christine Price: My husband was Rett. [Laughs].
Michael Cooke: I remember seeing that somewhere. And who was Chippy? Was his brother.
Christine Price: Uh-huh.
Michael Cooke: So, did they just simply work part-time operating cabs?
Christine Price: Yeah.
Michael Cooke: Do you know when they were doing this?
Christine Price: Well, Chippy did it up until he died. He was driving a cab when he died. But Leonard had gave it up. Of course, he retired from the electric check-out here on the road. When he was working for the girls dorm on VPI, he drove a cab.
Michael Cooke: Was that Hillcrest [Hall]?
Christine Price: Um-hm.
Michael Cooke: So, he worked in Hillcrest [Hall]?
Christine Price: Um-hm. Then he stopped that and went over to the electric check-out.
Michael Cooke: I don’t believe Hillcrest [Hall] today is a girl’s dorm. Just making it for the record. At one time Hillcrest [Hall] was a girl’s dorm. I don’t believe it is today.
Christine Price: I don’t think so, no.
Michael Cooke: Any other Black businesses that you can think of? Or fraternal organizations?
Christine Price: No.
Michael Cooke: Were there any dance clubs? I remember talking with one person. Do you know an Aubrey Mills?
Christine Price: Yes.
Michael Cooke: Did they ever operate a dance hall or something?
Christine Price: Yes. I don’t if it was Aubrey or who but it-
Michael Cooke: Was it on Penn Street somewhere?
Christine Price: Yeah, on Clay and Penn.
Michael Cooke: Yeah. Yeah. That’s it.
Christine Price: Used to call it Moonglow I believe.
Michael Cooke: What did they do at Moonglow or did you even go?
Christine Price: I didn’t go that much.
Michael Cooke: [Laughs]. You stayed away from Moonglow.
Christine Price: Well I don’t know. I never was one. I never cared nothing about dancing or nothing.
Michael Cooke: Moonglow.
Christine Price: As a matter of fact, I think that’s what. I think Sears and Richard Christian owned one down in Nellies Cave, ran one down that way for a while.
Michael Cooke: They did?
Christine Price: Uh-huh. W.J. Sears, Jr.
Michael Cooke: W.J. Sears, Jr. operated it.
Christine Price: Uh-huh.
Michael Cooke: Did he live in Nellies Cave or he just operated it?
Christine Price: He just operated it.

Keywords: Aubrey Mills; Black Businesses; cab driving; chauffeur; Chippy; dance hall; Hillcrest Hall; Jackson Street; James Price; Kid Wade; Leonard Price; Mary Taylor; Moon Glow; Moonglow; National Bank; Nellies Cave; Penn Street; Rhett; Sanders Cleaners; shoe store; South Main Street; W. J. Sears

Subjects: Black Businesses; Blacksburg, Virginia

Partial Transcript: Michael Cooke: Okay, you were talking about W.J. Sears but then you talked about that the Sears lived right below you right?
Christine Price: No, that was the Carrols that lived-
Michael Cooke: I’m sorry Carrols.
Christine Price: The house on the other side of Carrols’ house was Sears’ house but it was down-
Michael Cooke: Near Jackson Street?
Christine Price: On Jackson Street down below where the Snells live now.
Michael Cooke: Yeah, right. Right next to the fire station.
Christine Price: Yeah, it was down there.
Michael Cooke: Could you talk about that property a little bit more? We just changed tapes here, you were talking about how they wanted to build the firehouse and there was some question about whether or not about the property where they could be added on to or moved or what have you.
Christine Price: Well, see the town bought it to build the firehouse and whoever bought the Carrol’s property over here, bought the house and had it moved over on the corner of the lot.
Michael Cooke: You mentioned before that a Black had wanted to do the same thing and the town said, no, it couldn’t be done.
Christine Price: Uh-huh. Yes, that was one of the Carrol sons’ wife. They owned that and she wanted to build on the [inaudible 32:15] and the town told her it wasn’t large enough to build on.
Michael Cooke: When did this happen?
Christine Price: That’s been several years ago. I tell you time-
Michael Cooke: [19]60s? [19]70s?
Christine Price: Time goes by so fast. [Laughs].
Michael Cooke: Maybe the [19]50s? Was it the [19]50s?
Christine Price: No, I don’t believe it’s been that long.
Michael Cooke: The [19]60s?
Christine Price: Yes, something along that-
Michael Cooke: The [19]60s or [19]70s?
Christine Price: [19]70s, yes.
Michael Cooke: What was the impossible now was possible. Why do you think that was the case?
Christine Price: Well, I don’t know. I guess because they were Black they wouldn’t let them build on it. But still after they moved the Sears house from down on Jackson [Street] and put it over there-
Michael Cooke: When a white person owned that property?
Christine Price: Uh-huh.

Keywords: 1970s; Carrol family; fire station; Jackson Street; Sears house

Subjects: Blacksburg Fire Department Station

Partial Transcript: Michael Cooke: That’s interesting. Well, I’m trying to think of anything else we haven’t touched upon. Do you think Black people get equal justice—now that we’re talking about the issue of justice—by the court system? When Black people got in trouble, were they punished more severely than whites? Did you have problems getting, for instance, goods and service? If you wanted to have garbage pickup or something, did you have to sometimes have to wait longer to get services or trash pickup?
Christine Price: No, I can’t say that I did.

Keywords: court system; equal justice; garbage service; goods; services; trash service

Subjects: Blacksburg, Virginia; Public Goods and Services

Partial Transcript: Michael Cooke: Okay. I can’t think of any other thing to ask you.
Christine Price: No, I just happened to think now of Lewis Carrol, one of Carrols, that big stone building between these houses over here. Now, he did run a cleaning shop. That was one of the Carrol boys.
Michael Cooke: Okay. So that was another business?
Christine Price: A business, right. Yes, now he did run a cleaning shop over there. Now, I think the whites made it living quarters, something I think. Students live in that now. [Laughs].
Michael Cooke: Well, so much has changed.
Christine Price: Um-hm. Yes.
Michael Cooke: Like all the fraternities which were family homes-
Christine Price: Um-hm. Yeah, that’s what I-
Michael Cooke: And as those houses got older, and I guess people wanted to more modernize their-
Christine Price: Well, see after the parents died and the children all left and they didn’t need to come back anymore.
Michael Cooke: Okay. That’s a good point. Before we end, I guess we should ask one question. Why did so many Blacks leave this area? Why did so many of the children and offspring—cause at one time, I was looking at the census and there was a substantial number of Blacks living in this town. And now it’s drizzled down to maybe around 400 or 500 when at one time there might have been over a thousand.
Christine Price: Oh, yeah.
Michael Cooke: What led to so many people leaving? In fact, what happened to Newtown? It’s kind of like a ghost town.
Christine Price: It is.
Michael Cooke: The Bells left-
Christine Price: The Bells left.
Michael Cooke: The Greens, the family Mrs. Bell. They didn’t keep their properties or sold their properties or other properties that had just been boarded up for instance.
Christine Price: Ours up there, the Mays’ is in court now for sale. Alexis sold hers.
Michael Cooke: That’s right. The Mays’ is the property that our church is involved in.
Christine Price: Yeah.
Michael Cooke: I should have thought about that. I have a church meeting today. We'll be talking about the Mays’ property again. [Laughter]. Anyway, I’m not going to talk about church business. Why did so many people leave this area and where did they go when they did?
Christine Price: Well, I guess they went to better jobs. I guess that’s it.
Michael Cooke: There weren’t many jobs open?
Christine Price: No, nothin’ but the house cleaning.

Keywords: Bells; Bitter Hill; Ethel Dobbins; Greens; Jackson Street; job opportunities; Lewis Carrol; Mays; migration; Newtown; Richard Christian; VPI; Woolwine Street

Subjects: Black Businesses; Migration; Work Opportunities

Partial Transcript: Christine Price: And you see, my oldest boy finished over there, and he went on to Hampton. And then he got his medical degree in Richmond, and then he went-
Michael Cooke: Oh, now I remember seeing him in the paper. I was reading a clipping, there was a big write-up about your son. He was the first Black that they could document who received an MD degree. So, it was your son? Which son is it?
Christine Price: That’s my oldest son over there.
Michael Cooke: Okay, what’s his name? I forgot.
Christine Price: James.
Michael Cooke: James.
Christine Price: James H. Price. We call him Jim.
Michael Cooke: And he went, I believe, to the Medical College of Virginia.
Christine Price: He did, MCV.
Michael Cooke: And graduated first in his class, right?
Christine Price: Um-hm. Yeah, he was first in his class and all.
Michael Cooke: Even the white newspapers had to write about that. [Laughs].
Christine Price: And then my other son, Allen, of course he wasn’t going to school but he did go on up to New River, and he went into the ministry.
Michael Cooke: So, the family it seemed to do well.
Christine Price: And then Clarence, my third one, he’s in Colorado Springs. He’s the one I told you had his eldest son. He started VPI, I guess he went about a year and a half to VPI.
Michael Cooke: What did he think of VPI?
Christine Price: Well, he quit and went in the service, and he got his BS at University of Nebraska when he was stationed there in Nebraska.
Michael Cooke: Was he one of the first Blacks to go to VPI?
Christine Price: No. Unh-uh.
Michael Cooke: I guess they’d been-
Christine Price: But see they wouldn’t let Jim go.
Michael Cooke: Oh, that’s right. Did he apply?
Christine Price: Yes, he applied.
Michael Cooke: He applied but couldn’t get in.
Christine Price: Yeah, couldn't get in.
Michael Cooke: Well, that serves them right.
Christine Price: Because they said there was so many more Black colleges that offered the same. See, he was going in medicine. When he was a little kid, he said he wanted to be a doctor. But they said there was so many other schools here in Virginia doing the same thing.
Michael Cooke: This was before desegregation?
Christine Price: Um-hm, yes.
Michael Cooke: I guess before maybe Brown vs. the Board of Education?
Christine Price: Yes. And Clarence finished C.I. and missed the banks so that [inaudible 40:44] made him stay in music and wouldn’t let him take Algebra. So they claimed that he didn’t have enough mathematics to get into VPI. So, we sent him to Lynchburg for a year and then he came back and then he decided that he was going to join the service, the Air Force. He just retired here and then he turned around and got a government job in the same building. [Laughter]. He’s doing the same thing-
Michael Cooke: He’s doing the same thing-
Christine Price: Computer. He got his Masters-
Michael Cooke: Was he an officer in the...
Christine Price: Oh, yeah.

Keywords: Alice Price; Brown vs. the Board of Education; Clarence L. Price; Hampton; Heathwood; James H. Price; Medical College of Virginia; Phillip H. Price; Richmond, Virginia; Shawsville, Virginia; Thomas L. Price; University of Nebraska; VPI

Subjects: Education Opportunities

Partial Transcript: Christine Price: Okay. Well, on that note, we will end for the final time. Thank you again.
Christine Price: Oh, you’re welcome.
[End of Interview]