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CH: Was the llth grade the highest?
WK: Yes.
CH: What style of schooling did you receive? All ages in one room, or separate classes for age groups?
WK: In one, big room school with a curtain stretched across to separate the two rooms---the older students from the younger ones. This was in the Sharman community school before the Sharman and Bussey schools were consolidated. The Bussey school, I don't remember how many rooms, but was divided into more rooms by age groups. It wasn't big enough for all grades.
CH: Do you remember a Magnolia Square incident where a black man was hung?
WK: I heard about it.
CH: If so, what did you see or hear?
WK: I remember the whole square, the outlay of the square is the same, but if I'm not wrong on my remembrance, it was on the south side where that black man was hung. I think he shot or killed or murdered a police officer. It may have been the sheriff that he killed. That's right, I think that's right.
CH: How old were you?
WK: I was six or seven years old. It made an impression on me. I was very young but I remember that. I was shown about where he had shot somebody. I think it was the sheriff of Columbia County he shot. They hung him on the south side of the square. The square looks just like it did then. I was taken up there and it was shown to me where it had happened. The place there on the square.
CH: Did ya'll have a lot of racial trouble?
WK: No, never did have in this part of the country, we never had any trouble. Little Rock was the closest to this part of the country that had any racial trouble.
CH: In your own words what were the race relations back then?
WK: Never did have racial trouble in this part of the country.
CH: Did you ever get around them (black people) in your life?
WK: Oh yes, I was around them all my life. I can't say that we ever ... you know I always... I can't see any difference now than the way it was back when I was coming as a teenager. We worked with or worked niggers, or black people, on the farm and never had any trouble with them.
CH: Did you play with them while you were growing up?
WK: Yeah, yeah, sure did. Never did go to school with them together, but we played and had good relations, I guess you would call it, with the black people here.
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