Today finds Randall Lee, an old man with fairly good health; he stated that he had not had a doctor for years and his thinking faculties are in good order.  His eyesight is failing but he does not allow that to handicap him in getting about.  He talks fluently about what he remembers concerning slavery and that which his parents told him.  He is between a mulatto and brown skin with good, mixed gray and black hair.  His features are regular, not showing much Negro blood.  He is tall and looks to weigh about one hundred and sixty-five pounds.  His wife lives with him in their two-story frame house which shows that they have had better days financially.  The man and wife both show interest in the progress of the Negro race and possess some books about the history of the Negro.  One book of particular interest, and of which the wife of Randall Lee thinks a great deal, was written, according to her story, by John Brown.  It is called “The History of the Colored Race in America.”  She could not find but a few pages of it when interviewed but declared she had owned the entire book for years.  The pages she had and showed with such pride were 415 to 449 inclusive.  The book was written in the year 1836 and the few pages produced by her gave information concerning the Negro, Lovejoy of St. Louis, Missouri.  It is the same man for whom the city of Lovejoy, Illinois is named.  The other book she holds with pride and guards jealously is “The College of Life” by Henry Davenport Northrop D.D., Honorable Joseph R. Gay and Professor I. Garland Penn.  It was entered, according to the Act of Congress in the year 1900 by Horace C. Fry, in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D.C. (3)

REFERENCES

1.  Randall Lee, 600 Brunson Street, Palatka, Florida

2.  Mrs. Bessie Bates, 412 South Eleventh Street, Palatka, Florida

3.  Observation of Field Worker

FEDERAL WRITERS’ PROJECT American Guide, (Negro Writers’ Unit)

Pearl Randolph, Field Worker
Jacksonville, Florida
December 5, 1936

EDWARD LYCURGAS

“Pap tell us ’nother story ’bout do war—­and ’bout de fust time you saw mamma.”

It has been almost 60 years since a group of children gathered about their father’s knee, clamoring for another story.  They listened round-eyed to stories they already knew because “pap” had told them so many times before.  These narratives along with the great changes he has seen, were carefully recorded in the mind of Edward, the only one of this group now alive.

“Pap” was always ready to oblige with the story they never tired of.  He could always be depended upon to begin at the beginning, for he loved to tell it.