Transcript
Index
00:00:25 - Family background--mother born in Illinois, father in Indiana--family lived in Coweta, Oklahoma--father as a drayman and farmer
00:06:46 - 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
00:17:26 - Segregated schools in Coweta--county exams, black students graded low--nearest black high schools at Tulsa and Muskogee--Indians attended white schools
00:25:10 - Scotts lost home in Coweta--Dr. Carter
00:27:51 - Family religious background--father offended by church-going hypocrites
00:29:41 - 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”
00:34:18 - Little sense of class--no library in Coweta's black school--throw-away books and crayons--other school problems
00:39:16 - 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
00:45:31 - 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
00:54:52 - Riding the freight trains, living in hobo jungles--the workhouses--dodging the railroad dicks--states to stay out of
01:00:12 - Introduction
01:00:22 - 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
01:10:30 - 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
01:17:24 - Hardships in Chicago, before being hired by Pullman--beginning with Pullman--too much travel with Pullman--then a waiter with the Chicago and Northwestern
01:21:59 - 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
01:29:25 - Comments on Sleeping Car Porters leadership--respect for A. Philip Randolph
01:31:42 - 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
01:38:06 - Looking for a home in Wisconsin--problem in Chicago school--need to be home more--fears of Chicago
01:42:20 - Visiting in Janesville--unaware of the absence of blacks--attended First Baptist Church
01:44:22 - Primarily worked on troop trains with the Chicago and Northwestern, the “Challenger” comments on passenger service--late-running passenger trains
01:49:07 - Finding a home in Janesville--getting approval from the “Good Neighborhood Association”--overview of working experience--coal from Hill's Coalyard
01:54:55 - 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
