Return Source
MR. WILSON HALL'S INTERVIEW
By Dr. Maxine Jones
Dr Jones: This is an interview with Mr. Wilson Hall, on Friday, September 24, 1993 and Mrs. Stephanie Hall is present. Mr. Hall can you tell me something about yourself and where you were born, your parents, etc.?
Wilson Hall: Well, I was born in Rosewood, Florida, April 10, 1915 and I lived in Rosewood until I was about - between eight or nine years old when the riot started then we had to leave, and I have been away since that time and I have been living all over where ever I could make a living.

Dr Jones: What did your parents do in Rosewood?
Wilson Hall: My parents were farmers.

Dr Jones: Farmers?
Wilson Hall: My father was the principal at the school, plus he was a minister, and he also did a lot of sharecropping for people all around Levy County. He used to bring their merchandise there, he used to secure it, including the - he also had a ah ... what you call it a wash pan for meat. We had a big smoke house, we didn't have the money to get it on shares, plus we had a store that we used to also supply the community. And in this store, he had just about everything you needed on a farm, plus caskets for people who died or whatever. He also was the minister of the church, and ah, from what I can understand, I was quite young, but he was the pastor of two churches and the principal at the only school.

Dr Jones: Did the school have a name?
Wilson Hall: Yes but, I was a little young, I don't remember the name of the school. I think it was Rosewood High, or something like that.

Dr Jones: What was your father's full name?
Wilson Hall: My father's name was Charles Bakkus Hall.

Dr Jones: Charles Hall, and your mother's name was?
Wilson Hall: Mary.

Dr Jones: Okay. Do you remember the house you grew up in, was it onestory or two-story?
Wilson Hall: Two-story.

Dr Jones: How many acres of land did your father own, or do you have any idea?
Wilson Hall: Yes, my father had 80 acres in one place and had 60 in another place. In other words, like our home was here (facing this way) and behind us we had 80 acres kind of on the Northeast side but then we had another 60 acres, but where the house was sitting that really wasn't our land, we was leasing that.

Dr Jones: Do you know who you were leasing it from?
Wilson Hall: No, I don't knno exactly because my father use to take care of peoples' horses and cows and things like that, and that piece of land that's what that was for, just for the maintain the people stock and what not.

Dr Jones: How many brothers and sisters ah did you have?
Wilson Hall: Well, I had five brothers, well its four brothers and three sisters at that time, now its only three here.

Dr Jones: Did your mother work outside the home?
Wilson Hall: Yes.

Dr Jones: What did she do?
Wilson Hall: My mother she mostly done domestic work and quite a bit of it, and after my father died that was all the income.

Dr Jones: When did your father die?
Wilson Hall: My father died ah, let me see now, ah my father died when ah, it must have been 1918 something like that.

Dr Jones: Did he died before Rosewood?
Wilson Hall: Oh, yes.

Dr Jones: Was your mother able to keep the land?
Wilson Hall: Yes.

Dr Jones: Okay, and she worked as a domestic in Sumner?
Wilson Hall: She worked in Sumner, but during the time of the war she worked in Sumner, cause she was working at the sawmill, and after that she worked in Rosewood for Mr. Wright. Mr. Wright, he had a grocery store and so she mostly worked for Mr. Wright.

Dr Jones: Do you know what families she worked for in Rosewood, or in Sumner?
Wilson Hall: Sumner.

Dr Jones: Did she work at the mill?
Wilson Hall: She worked at the mill, and I think she also did some domestic work Sumner, because those people they were recommend their help to their friends.

Dr Jones: I wonder what type of work women did at the sawmill?
Wilson Hall: Mostly the same work that the men do, because men were so short (shortage). I know my wife she used to turn logs and catch lumber and all that, the same thing the men did.

Dr Jones: Really? I didn't know that.
Wilson Hall: Yes.

Dr Jones: What do you remember about the house you lived in?
Wilson Hall: Well, it was a frame house, and we had the upstairs and downstairs like a dinette area, but off from the house was the kitchen, the kitchen was not attached to the house, the kitchen was sitting about ten or fifteen feet from the house and it had like a walk that opened and ran to the kitchen, they had a canopy over the walk, and that's where we done all of our cooking at. And right off from the kitchen was the big smoke house where they cured all the food and meat stuff and right of that back a little bit was the cane mill that"s where they grind all the cane and made all the syoip. And just the other side of that was like a sugar mill that's where all the com and stuff was cured and grind. And ah, I can remember the cane mill, because I used to have to ride the horse (when you go around). My brother, who is a couple years older than me, was a real sleepy headed, we would put him on a horse he go around a few times and he gets sleepy and fall off, they were afraid that the horse would step on him, so they had to watch him, so when he got sleepy and started to nodding they just take him off and put me up there. I was a wide awaker. I stayed up the rest of the week if necessary, until that grind all that cane. Sometimes we used to work night and day during cane grinding season, cause sometimes they didn't finish during the day they had to keep on grinding at night. They had lights they had to grind by. My mother she done all the cooking, making the syrup, sugar, mostly syrup they didn't make much sugar.

Dr Jones: Do you know who your neighbors where, or how close where the houses?
Wilson Hall: Well, they weren't very close. Let me see, on the west all I remember is Dooey, but I don't remember the last name. And on the other side it was no one between where we were living and what they called the downtown, where Mr. Wright's store was, and right straight across from us was the railroad. We could stand on the railroad, I mean that is during the winter when the leaves and things had fell, we can stand on the railroad and look right in our house. The railroad it went on to Sumner and when we leave our place going to Sumner we use to go kind of category eater-cornered right across our property and get on the railroad and go right on into Sumner, cause I had to use to go with mama, I went with her everywhere she went, I was right there

Dr Jones: Was your store located on your property next to your house?
Wilson Hall: No, it wasnt next the house, it was a distance between our house and Sumner. It was kind of on the comer of the land, it was on our land but kind of on the comer, just before you got to the railroad. I remember that because we had to go to the store a lot of time during the day and by me being the knee-baby so I was always on hand to do, I was too young go to school and too young to do anything else, but I could run errands

Dr Jones: So your father was a teacher and also a minister, and did he manage the store or some of the older kids work in the store?
Wilson Hall: Some of the older kids that is, at times that is, when the store was open. See because during the time, the store wasn't really open all the time, see that's when the farming season, when school all the kids was in school and when they come out of the school most of them had to go to the field so uh, then the store will only be open when somebody needed something.

Dr Jones: So, you weren't much competition for Mr. Wright?
Wilson Hall: No, no, no that was, white people you know they had everything. They pass by the black people and go to the white people store. Mr. Wright used to get a lot of things from my father.

Dr Jones: Did your mother ever re-marry?
Wilson Hall: Yes.

Dr Jones: Do you know when?
Wilson Hall: See, my mother didn't re-marry until she got to Gainesville, but the man that she married he helped us while we were in Rosewood. So Mr. Henry, he used to - he was a turpentine man and, during that time we camped out during the weeks, because they only go in there at the end of the week, and he will camp out - and where he was camping out it was between where we lived and Wylly, cause see my mother used to go over and fix his food, she and I go over and fix his food and then she will leave his food and we will go back home. Then at the end of the week he would probably come up to our house and she will fix dinner for him, but he still be camping out and during the time of the Rosewood, what happened he was there that night.

Dr Jones: He was there?
Wilson Hall: He was there at the house and when they started shooting and coming that way - see cause where our house where we had a long big, in fact we had two gates in the front one they called the big gate and then a little gate that the people go through and the big gate was just for the transportation (wagons mostly). And ah, when they started to coming you can see the lights of the automobiles, see for miles, but when my mother looked out the window upstairs she saw the cars coming then she went and got all the kids up and said "yall lets go, cause they are coming." See cause that had been going for about a week, it was just working that way and they had started to killing more and more people - the more it was going. Cause see when it first started, they only wanted two different people that was the Bradleys and the Carriers, but after Sylvester stayed at his home and told them don't come through his gate but they didn't believe him they shot in the house and killed his mother, quite naturally, he had a 30/30 so he just stood (he was in one of the two-story houses too see), but just when you come inside the door where the stairs went up he could stand back in that staircase and they couldn't see him from the gate, so that's where he stood and every time one put his head in the gate, he kind of more or less ah tried to change their mind with that 30-30, but until they changed their mind he just dropped them.

Dr Jones: Do you know how many people he killed?
Wilson Hall: No, I don't, not exactly. Some people said eighteen, but I don't know exactly how many he killed.

Dr Jones: Where were your house in relations to the Carriers house?
Wilson Hall: It was some distance.

Dr Jones: When your mother saw the headlights coming, what type of preparations did she make? Did she try to get you out of the area?
Wilson Hall: Well, that's the only thing she ... you know we were all sleep, so quite naturally she went around and got us all up cause the house we were living in was pretty good size, but after she went around and got all of the kids up then she brought to the back door, then she took them all downstairs to the back gate. See in other words, we had a front gate and a back gate. She took them down to the back gate and she leave them all there until she go and gathering them up. She thought she had them all gathered up, then she carried ... we all headed for the swamp, but then before we got started, she started to counting her kids and find out there was one missing, and so she said well, she had Charles in her arms, she thought it was Mary, she had me by my hand, I was standing by her. See Charles was about two years older than me and I'm about pretty close to five years older than Mary see. So then she said to Henry, said ah "we got a child missing", said who do you have? He looked and said, "I got Charles". He said, well Mary is left in the house, we can't leave her. Mr. Henry said well, I'll go back and get her, so he dropped Charles and went back in the house and got Mary, and brought Mary out, and then she counted all the kids and said well they are all here now and they all started out to the swamp.

Dr Jones: Now, how many kids where there again? (Mr Hall) I think it was five kid, five.

Dr Jones: And you were about eight at the time?
Wilson Hall: Yeah.

Dr Jones: So, Mr. Henry, your mother, and you and your four brothers and sisters went to the swamps. What do you remember about that?
Wilson Hall: Well, down there in Gulf Hammock and we wasn't the only ones down there and people would be coming all the time, you see, now but they could still hear the shooting and the whatnots throughout the community. And they could all just see the lights of the cars, so we had run somebody had to be on the watch our age, and they would let us know something get dose there, so one would let us know and quite naturally everybody was just like a lot of little puppies do now, go somewhere a be quiet until things kind of straighten out ...

Dr Jones: Do you remember which, what night of the week was this, was it Thursday night, or early Friday morning, or can you recall?
Wilson Hall: No really.

Dr Jones: But, it was later in the week?
Wilson Hall: Yeah, it was later in the week. I know it was late in the week, because ah, cause Mr. Henry had spent the night there see cause that's mostly the time he would come over near the end of the week. Because things had got pretty hot then, so maybe it could have been he was coming over to help my mama, see. But I know it was early in the morning, it wasn't ah ... first part of the night.

Dr Jones: Do you know how long you stayed in the swamp?
Wilson Hall: Yeah, but ah, a day in-a-half I guess.

Dr Jones: Where you aided by any white folks?
Wilson Hall: Yeah.

Dr Jones: Do you remember who?
Wilson Hall: Mr. Wright and it is another man, I think the guy that ran the turpentine steel in Wylly, I think between the two of them, they had the train

Dr Jones: The Bryce brothers?
Wilson Hall: Yeah, they had the train to stop and let us know where the train was going to stop at, and then we all can get on the train.

Dr Jones: Now, this was in January, so it was probably cold ...
Wilson Hall: Chilly, yeah.

Dr Jones: I'm assuming your mother didn't have time to get the proper clothing for you, or make, or take any food or anything like that?
Wilson Hall: Right. We were all bare feet and pretty naked.

Dr Jones: Well, as an eight year old, did you have any idea of what was going on, or did you ...?
Wilson Hall: Sure.

Dr Jones: You knew?
Wilson Hall: Yes, sure I knew what was going on. Cause like I said, I was always been dose enough were I could touch my mother, see. And ah, see we had a uncle (my mother brother) living in Gainesville, he had a fish market and so that's when my mother had ... even though when we got to Gainesville we didn't know where he was. And so, the train stopped at the station then my mother started straighten out and hunt her brother, because by him being there so long in the fish market a lot of people knew him. So my mother started asking question with different ones and they tried to direct her to where he was at, but she never did find him. Finally, one guy came up and uncle Joe got the wind of it and he sent a guy at the station to get my mother and us. And when this guy came, he said I understand you are looking for Joe Davis, and she said yes. He said what relation he is to you. She said that is my brother, and he said come on, I can take you to where he at. So all of kids got on this little ford truck, and so he took us on down to where uncle Joe was. Quite naturally we was all naked, tired, and hungry and by him having a fish market he started cleaning fish and so we all sat down and had a good meal in all and then stretched out on the floor and went to sleep.

Dr Jones: Now, Mr. Henry couldn't get on the train?
Wilson Hall: No.

Dr Jones: So what happened to him, how did he get to Gainesville?
Wilson Hall: Well, he came later. Like I said, he was a turpentine man, you see, and that's all he did.

Dr Jones: So he was used to living out in the woods?
Wilson Hall: Yeah, used to travelling alone.

Dr Jones: So he felt safe?
Wilson Hall: Oh yes. So he came on, I don't know exactly how long it took, but I know we were there for a pretty good while before he showed up.

Dr Jones: How did you find out about your property? Did your mother make a trip back to Rosewood, or no?
Wilson Hall: No but there were people that came from Rosewood there wanting to get her to go back. Mr. Wright came there ... the last.one came, I think it was Mr. Wright, that was when the first census was taken when we was in Gainesville. Then they tried to get her to go back, then after she wouldn't agree to go back, wouldn't even talk about it, so they brought some papers wanting her to sign the papers, so she wouldn't do that either.

Dr Jones: Do you know who these people where?
Wilson Hall: No, I don't.

Dr Jones: Were they white?
Wilson Hall: Yeah, all white.

Dr Jones: As far as you know, your family house and store was bumed down with everything else in Rosewood?
Wilson Hall: No.

Dr Jones: It wasn't bumed?
Wilson Hall: No, the store wasn't, the store had burnt before, but the house was the last thing that burnt. They burnt that after we left. Cause when they came to Gainesville for my mother to tell her to go back down there and turn the land over to them by selling the land to give permission or what-not and my mother wouldn't do it. And that's when I found out that they had done bumed the house down, that same night we left they bumed the house down.

Dr Jones: They bumed the house. Do you know who some of the people were, who were involved with the burning and the killing.
Wilson Hall: No I don't, but ah that's one thing that they ... you know kind of kept more or less a secret. See cause as our mama smaller kids grew up, she always figured that they would go back down there and get themselves killed and leave trouble or what-not, but so she never would talk about that too much, but my older brothers and sisters, see they would say things, I would hear them, and I would go back to mama to find out if what they are saying is true. Then she would tell me so much, she would tell me, then I would say well I'm going down there, and she would say no, you're not going down there, see cause my mother she knew all of it. See cause when Mr. Wright baby -when Mr. Wright died, Mr. Wright's wife died from childbirth during that time see my mother was carrying Mary, so after Mrs. Wright died my mother nurse that child, you see, alone with Mary and me, cause me I was the last one she weaned. I was about six-years old when she weaned me.

Dr Jones: Did you notice any changes in your mother after Rosewood, after you moved to Gainesville?
Wilson Hall: Sure, well actually she didn't have nothing to do, but go around and beg for us that first year. With my mother not being that educated woman see it wasn't no job, and see she mostly ran our store and taking care of our family and run the plantation, and that's the only thing that she was taught to do, but after a period of time she could get some domestic work there in Gainesville that is if you wanted to work for nothing.

Dr Jones: How long did you all stay in Gainesville?
Wilson Hall: Well, I stayed in Gainesville myself, I left home when I was fifteen dose to sixteen that was in about 1933 or 32 something like that. I stayed there from then until I got 32 or 33, and ah when all the kids got older enough to leave home, well they did, that only left myself and baby sister. So when I got old enough, I had to go to work cause I couldn't stand for my mother to be wanting something and nothing in the house, and we didn't have no place to live, cause right after we got in Gainesville, uncle Joe he left, he went down to Crystal River and started his business over again, and quite naturally that left my mother more or less stranded.

Dr Jones: Was Mr. Henry still apart of your mother's life?
Wilson Hall: Yes, but then after uncle Joe left so we that little old piece of house down there that we could live in. It wasn't nothing but a $1.75 a week or something like that, but that was enough to have a cover our head. And with me, I was always a man I guess cause the railroad the turn up there the round house was right next to where we was living at, and the man that worked at the round house his name was Jack Dunloff. see I would hang around with him the time he come to work about 5:00 o'clock in the evening. I'll be done caught them cores around the house and I'll be go over there to his place and help him put sand in the engines and do what little thing I could do, he would give me a quarter, fifty cent, or sometime a dollar but that was a lot of money then. See I did that until we moved further up in town ... up in the quarters we got a house, then I was old enough then to get a job, but my sister Margie was working in and out at the Acker Manufacturing Company. So when I got old enough, I can get a job at the Acker Manufacturing Company, so I worked there. They would only work during seasons, when the mill got slow then we had to run round, me I would go out and rake yards or pick up pecans or do whatever necessary to survive and I did that until I left home. I left home in 33, went down there where my oldest brother was on the other side of Miami, a place they call Perrine. I stayed down there with him, he was working in fruit, mango, avocado, oranges and all that, that's what he was doing. I stayed down there and helped him, in fact, I worked with him and I sent my money to my mother cause Mary was still in school. I worked down there ... that's where I was working when she finished school, when my mother told me don't send no more money to Mary go ahead and do something for yourself, so that's when I started kind of fixing myself up.

Dr Jones: You said that your mother change, how did she changed?
Wilson Hall: When she first got to Gainesville, she didn't know nobody, she didn't have nothing, and then quite naturally as she grow older... I began to help her, but then she began to go out, spread around and meet people and they would recommend her to other people, joined the church and they began to help her, but she still had five kids and they would help her. And ah, she began to spread out a little bit and let people knew who she was.

Dr Jones: Did your mother trust whites, mean after what had happened in Rosewood, she never really trusted whites again?
Wilson Hall: She had to at a certain extent, cause we had no other alternative for living other than for the white people, but she haven't never really trusted them no more.

Dr Jones: Ah, how long did your mother live?
Wilson Hall: My mother lived until 1951-52.

Dr Jones: Do you have any pictures, or anything of her?
Wilson Hall: I have one picture of my mother and my sister... and I have - I made that after everybody was gone. Like I said, see I took care of my mother as long as she lived. I went to Miami, my mother was living down there with Mary (my baby sister), I went back down there on my vacation visiting, when I got down there my mother was sick, I was dose to my mother as I am to you, and she didn't even know me. So I said, "mama don't you know who I am", she said, "that sounds like Wilson". I said, "whats the matter can't you see"? She said, "no, I can't see". So everything in me kind of turned over, so I went back to the train (I was riding that train down there then) had my ticket changed and got her a ticket with mine, went and called my landlady in Chicago and told her to make arrangement for my mother cause I am bringing her back, and call the doctor and have him ready. I ran and told my mother to start packing, cause I had two weeks there - I made it short - I made it the next day. I started packing, I'm taking you back to Chicago and put you in the hospital and get you well cause this doesnt make sense. I was mad with Mary she was still out somewhere, she was even there. When Mary did come home, I had went on visiting other people cause I know my mother was getting ready. When she came home, she said, I wonder who gave you permission to come there and disturb mama and take her home. I said, I don't know, but that's what I am going to do, because she shor ain't hitting on nothing here. I said, "look at her sick" and don't even know her own kids, going blind, I said what else you think we need to do, so anyhow I took her away put her in the hospital and got her well, and she lived a happy life. And that's was near bout ah, that must have been about the '40s and she live right on through. She got up well and hardy, she lived a good life up until she taken sick, and this was about seven or eight years later. Certain things, you know, we don't want to remember.

Dr Jones: Right, sure.
Wilson Hall: Sometimes I just don't want to hear about the people and things that I have went through, you know, but to me there is no reason why I had to but I did.

Dr Jones: So, what has Rosewood done to you, being eight-years old, but being very much aware of what was going on? Did it take your childhood away?
Wilson Hall: Taken everything, taken my childhood, my manhood, they took my early education, and everything that I should have had, they took it.

Dr Jones: How exactly has it affected your relationship with other people, with whites?
Wilson Hall: Well, I couldn't that against my future, cause see I had to carry on.

Dr Jones: Right
Wilson Hall: And ah, I had bout as much taken from me since Rosewood by the whites, as I had before, but I still can't hold grudges against the future for the past. So I just try to keep pushing, keep pushing like I still am.

Dr Jones: Have you been back to Rosewood?
Wilson Hall: No madame.

Dr Jones: Do you have any desire to go back?
Wilson Hall: I did. I tried my very best to get my mother just to tell me what direction that I should start to go back to our place, but she had a fit, don't you even mention that, don't ever mention that to me again, ever - them buckers. She called them white people buckers, them buckers down there, said "they don't :e us, they don't want us cause we was living too good, we were getting along better than a lot of them", and they don't like you for that...

Dr Jones: How many whites lived in Rosewood? I know the Wrights lived there, can you think of any other whites who lived in Rosewood?
Wilson Hall: I can't think of them by name, but my sister could if she don't have blanked her mind out. Cause she know all of them, she know the one that started the riot and she know why, and - well I know that now, but she know them by their name.

Dr Jones: Does Poly Wilkerson ring a bell, a name?
Wilson Hall: That was one of the - well I know it was two -two whites.

Dr Jones: Poly and Henry Andrews?
Wilson Hall: V-ah, I think that sounds right.

Dr Jones: Okay, what about the sheriff, do you recall anything about the sheriff there at all?
Wilson Hall: No, I didn't even know the sheriff, cause ah, we never did have no contact with them people.

Dr Jones: When you played as a kid, did you ever play with any white children?
Wilson Hall: Yeah, they were more or less babies, cause my mother used to go and work for different white people and all I could do was sit with the babies, keep the babies while my mother had to work, and that's all they do to me just to kind of baby sit since I was a little older them babies were, I could keep them

Dr Jones: Were you related to any other of the black families there in Rosewood?
Wilson Hall: No, we were supposed to have been related to some of the Carriers. We were suppose to be some kind of cousin to some of the Carriers. Now I don't know too much about that, but I was told that since I got grown, well a big boy living in Gainesville. It was a guy there that came there (he was much older than me), name was William Bradley and ah, I understand that we were some cousin, so I must was some kin to some of the Bradleys, and ah, my sister married a Bradley. Quite naturally that brought the Bradley more or less in the family.

Dr Jones: You had said earlier that your father taught school and he was a minister. Do you know if your father had much education, or where he went to school?
Wilson Hall: Yeah, from what I gathered at the time, my father was educated in Nigeria.

Dr Jones: Nigeria?
Wilson Hall: I have to listen to my boss sometimes to give me chance to think. I would do a lot of things to keep her from fussing, so I just go alone with her.

Dr Jones: So, Nigeria? Was your father from Africa?
Wilson Hall: Yes. Well, his father was.

Dr Jones: Okay, and then he migrated over with his father to?
Wilson Hall: Yes, that's the way I understand. Understand that see my father's father was in slavery. He was a slave, and ah, after slaves were freed they give the slaves so much like a mule and four acres of land, and all that kind of stuff, so they say. Even though, I never got mine, so from that, I think that's when my grandfather got his stock.

Dr Jones: Do you know if your grandfather was a slave in Florida, or was he a slave in one of the other southern states?
Wilson Hall: No, I'm pretty sure it was in Florida.

Dr Jones: It was in Florida.
Wilson Hall: See cause my mother, she was a South Carolina woman and ah, she never did say too much about her mother cause her mother was supposed to have been a Cherokee.

Dr Jones: Hummm.
Wilson Hall: Her mother was a Cherokee Indian, but now she got three brothers (had three brothers). Now, I never know how they come about, but I can look at my mother's picture and see she got the Indian in her see, but now her brothers uncle Joe was - two men in one - doubled jointed that's what they called it. Uncle Joe was doubled jointed, I see him put 700 pounds on his shoulder and walk seven blocks with it.

Dr Jones: Wow.
Wilson Hall: Holding me by my hands. Uncle Hardy now, I never did be with him too much, I know that he never did get married.

Dr Jones: How did your father end up in Rosewood?
Wilson Hall: That I don't know.

Dr Jones: Do you know how your father and mother met?
Wilson Hall: No, not really, but what my mother said, she was raised by some white people in South Carolina, cause I don't know what happened to the Indians (her mother), but she was raised by some white people. And when she got to the age of sixteen that's when she married my daddy. I don't know whether they met in South Carolina and brought her to Florida, I don't know. I don't know too much about that, but I am pretty sure that's the way it happened.

Dr Jones: Do you know how he purchased his land?
Wilson Hall: No, I dont know how he purchased all that land.

Dr Jones: Okay, what about his education, do you know where he went to school?
Wilson Hall: No, the only thing that was told to me that he went to school in Nigeria.

Dr Jones: In Nigeria.
Wilson Hall: And that's where he was educated at.

Dr Jones: Do you know much about the small town of Wylly?
Wilson Hall: No, not too much. I know that's where my brother was working at.

Dr Jones: At a turpentine mill, or still?
Wilson Hall: I know it was a turpentine company, see cause the turpentine they only bring it to the mill after it they gathered it. See, you first got to make the trees where the turpentine would come out the trees, then it would get caught into a container, then people would go out there in gathered turpentine and then they would take it to the mill, then they would stir it and make plaster out of it.

Dr Jones: Was Wylly smaller than Rosewood?
Wilson Hall: Well, it was about the same, no difference. The only thing that was in Wylly was mostly the commissary in Wylly, cause it was more like a store. Wylly was a little larger than Rosewood, I will have to say that.

Dr Jones: Were there as many black in Wylly as there were in Rosewood?
Wilson Hall: Yeah, I think it was.

Dr Jones: Do you think they owned there own land?
Wilson Hall: Not, not in Wylly.

Dr Jones: They worked in turpentine.
Wilson Hall: They were mostly working in turpentine. Rosewood was where they - they mostly black people there mostly owned Rosewood, see.

Dr Jones: I'm assuming that many of the people in Rosewood had there own farms, some of them hunted and trapped animal, some of them worked at the mill in Sumner, can you think of any other occupation that they did? Who taught school other than your father, do you remember?
Wilson Hall: No, no I don't.

Dr Jones: Did you ever go to school in Rosewood?
Wilson Hall: No in Rosewood. See you couldn't go to school during that time until you got up of age, and then you started - like I know these kids now they starts them anyway they want to, but then you had to start in primary (that's below ABC's), in primary then you leam your ABC's. When you got good enough then they would move you up to first grade, on to first, second, third, and on up to twelfth grade, but now that start kids anyway they want to.

Dr Jones: Do you remember the school building?
Wilson Hall: No.

Dr Jones: No.
Wilson Hall: The only thing I know was that the church and the school was closed together. I remember the white church, but the school, I don't think it was white.

Dr Jones: Do you know how many churches there were?
Wilson Hall: Just that one.

Dr Jones: Just that one.
Wilson Hall: Just that one, that I could remember.

Dr Jones: Have you heard anything about a Masonic Lodge?
Wilson Hall: Yeah.

Dr Jones: Do you know where it was located and its relations to the church and the school?
Wilson Hall: I think the Masonic Lodge was in school or the church. I think it was the school, it was the Masonic Lodge.

Dr Jones: Okay.
Wilson Hall: See because ah, my father he was a 32nd degree mason, and that's what Sylvester - that's what saved him, by him being a 32nd degree mason, and when they thought they had killed him they killed his mother. When they watching for him - after they burned the house down, they was watching for him to come out, but he was already gone.

Dr Jones: I wonder who they killed? Do you have any idea?
Wilson Hall: Who Sylvester killed?

Dr Jones: No, okay, if Sylvester got away, and they taught they had killed him, I wonder who it was they actually...
Wilson Hall: His mother.

Dr Jones: His mother, and that was Sarah?
Wilson Hall: That's right.

Dr Jones: Do you have any idea, how many blacks died? I know Sam Carter died.
Wilson Hall: No, I dont know exactly how many blacks died, because a lot of blacks were hurt that didn't get killed, but a lot of blacks were shot and killed, and there were some of the blacks, I don't know if it was Rosewood or between Wylly and Rosewood where they caught this man and cut his arm off and made him dig his grave and shot him and made him fall in it. See, now these things I being hearing, was told, see I wasn't old enough to know these things.

Dr Jones: Do you think there were more than two whites killed? Do you think there were whites other than Poly Wilkerson and Henry Andrews that died?
Wilson Hall: Yeah, oh yes. Like I said, I dont know them by name but I know there was more than two.

Dr Jones: More than two.
Wilson Hall: Yes.

Dr Jones: Do you think that there is an unmarked mass grave somewhere in Rosewood? Do you think they took all of the bodies and buried them in one large grave? Have you heard anything about that?
Wilson Hall: Yes, I did, but I don't have no idea where its at.

Dr Jones: So Sylvester got away as far as you know? You know what happened to him?
Wilson Hall: He just died here last year. I think he was some ninety-six years old in Houston, Texas.

Dr Jones: In Houston, Texas, and what about Aaron Carrier.
Wilson Hall: I don't think he died, maybe he died too, but I don't know. I know its Aaron, Sylvester, and that's all I can remember now, but there were more Carriers and Bradleys.

Dr Jones: What do you remember about your childhood before Rosewood?
Wilson Hall: Rough, pretty bad, because I wasn't old enough to go with the other kids, but I was too little to stay home so I was kind of dangling in between... The kids will take me with them (boy I had a rough time). They would carry me with them, but I couldn't keep up so they would run off and leave me, so I'll go and hide in the bushes somewhere and they would leave me out there stranded - out there and I was scared to death, so I had to rush back and get my mom.

Dr Jones: But as far as having food to eat and a place to stay that was no problem, you had enough.
Wilson Hall: No, we didn't have enough food, but we had a place to stay. We used to do all kind of things to get food. I have hunted all night just for one animal.

Dr Jones: Even that young?
Wilson Hall: Yes, all night. Me and Fanny, that's our dog name, Fanny. She's a coon special.

Dr Jones: I take it you had to leave that dog, when you left Rosewood.
Wilson Hall: Oh, that dog had died sometime, yeah, we used to hunt all night, then we used to go out to Gulf Hammock and get palmetto cabbage... You never seen a palmetto cabbage have you?

Dr Jones: No, but I have heard about it.
Wilson Hall: Well, I have eaten a lot of it.

Dr Jones: That's the same as swamp cabbage?
Wilson Hall: That's what it is, swamp cabbage. You see the big palm trees there, that's what the cabbage tree looked like, and at the top of that tree some of grow maybe a hundred feet high. You have to get up to the top of them, and after that cabbage you go down there and split that hull and take that core out. That core be about this long sometimes and about that big around. You take that core out. We used to take that top off and use it for leggings. That's how a lot... After we split that legging and take that core out. Legging, that's the seed and that's what you cook and eat.

Dr Jones: Do you remember anyone from Sumner delivering ice to your family?
Wilson Hall: Yeah, but I don't remember the name. Yeah, that's where we got ice from, it was delivered up to Mr. Wright, and we used to go up to Mr. Wright's and get it and bring it back. We had regular place where we used to keep ice. We bury it in the ground and put these bags over it and cover it up, and that would keep it sometimes two or three days.

Dr Jones: Was tf.e house that you lived in a frame or brick house?
Wilson Hall: Frame.

Dr Jones: Was it painted, do you know what color it was?
Wilson Hall: It wasn't painted. It had a little white paint on it that had faded off, but it mostly wasnt painted.

Dr Jones: Okay, can you think of anything else that might be helpful, anything that I haven't asked, something you expected me to ask and I haven't?
Wilson Hall: No. Not really.

Dr Jones: Maybe we can talk a little more about you after you left Gainesville, you mentioned that you took your mother to Chicago, at what point did you leave Florida and moved to Chicago?
Wilson Hall: Well, I left... what agreed to me, see my brother lived in Chicago and he had taken sick, the eight-day pneumonia. Well, I was living in Miami at the time, so I gets a telegram from him that if I didn't come right away he would be dead, because he had already been in the hospital for three-days, but after the eighth day if you were not dead, you was up and welll. Well, I got up there the eighth day. It was the eight day when I got there, he had just got up out of the hospital, he had just got home, see. So I balled him out because he had me to come all the way up there and I lost my job all for nothing, so he said, you'll probably be better off up here, you'll find a job, knowing you, I said yeah, but that's a poor excuse. But anyhow, so I made the best of that. So I went on, I did, I got a job and went to work, and done real good. Cause I got one job and kept it until I got tired of it and got me another, and the second one I kept it for thirty-six years.

Dr Jones: So, how long were you in Chicago?
Wilson Hall: Forty-two years.

Dr Jones: Forty-two years.
Wilson Hall: Uh huh.

Dr Jones: So, you married and had kids and all, how many children do you have?
Wilson Hall: I only have one.

Dr Jones: Son or daughter?
Wilson Hall: Son. Now he has one, so I have a grand child.

Dr Jones: So, you moved back to Florida?
Wilson Hall: Yes.

Dr Jones: You went back to Miami?
Wilson Hall: No, I have been trying to get back to Miami, but after I stayed on this job, like I said, thirty-six years come time for me to retire, so the first little lump sum I got, I came down here where my sister Margie was and Doshia

Dr Jones: Where is this?
Wilson Hall: Margie and Doshia they lived in Hilliard, so I came down there to visit them and the guy just had this little dub, its only one little club down there, and it was up for sale, so I said well, I know I need something to do, so maybe if I buy this little club that will give me something to do. So I did, I brought that dub and I've been running it every since.

Dr Jones: I know, where is ... is it Hilliard?

Dr Jones: Where is Hillyard, what city is it near?
Wilson Hall: Jacksonville.

Dr Jones: Jacksonville.
Wilson Hall: About forty miles north of Jacksonville.

Dr Jones: And the job you had in Chicago you stayed there for thirty-six years?
Wilson Hall: Uh Huh.

Dr Jones: What was it? What did you do?
Wilson Hall: I worked for the motion picture company.

Dr Jones: Oh, really.
Wilson Hall: M. C. Universal, Fox Paramount, (and another one) ... all of those were companies right there in that sector, but at the time, I worked for Universal. M.C. A. brought Universal, and they brought Decker Records, and they brought United World. M.C. brought all that out, so then I started to working for M.C.A. I worked for M.C.A. for about twenty-six years before they retired me.

Dr Jones: How did you get involved with the Rosewood survivors? How long ago did you become a part of this?
Wilson Hall: Well, now I think that was in '80 what? Was that in '80 when Sammy went down there?
Stephanie Hall, wife: '84 ... when his brother was on 60 Minutes.

Dr Jones: Okay.
Stephanie Hall, wife: That's how, that's how I came in on it.

Dr Jones: Yeah, I was going to ask have he ever mentioned Rosewood to you before?
Stephanie Hall, wife: Uh huh.

Dr Jones: He has?
Stephanie Hall, wife: Yes.
Wilson Hall: When that happened, I was down here in '80, but she was in Chicago, but we were still communicating. So when that came on, I called her in Chicago and told her to turn it to watch. So she had a chance to watch alone with me.
Stephanie Hall, wife: Because he used to talk about Rosewood all the time, and then he called me one Sunday night and said turn on the TV Rosewood, they are talking about Rosewood. And sure enough, I had never seen his brother, but that was Sammy on with ah, I forget his name.

Dr Jones: Ed Bradley?
Stephanie Hall, wife: Uh huh, talking about 1 think they went back to Rosewood, or something and ah Sammy is no longer living, his older brother.

Dr Jones: So how did you feel about this, after all those years of not having to talk about it?
Wilson Hall: Well see I had brought it up before, but I couldn't talk to much about as long as my mother was living, because I didn't want to upset her.

Dr Jones: Right.
Wilson Hall: But where I was working at, the news reel man that worked with the same company I was, so I was talking about it one day so he said, "I want to hear about that". I was telling him about seeing what happened in Rosewood, something happening out there from Chicago, I forget now but something happened. But anyhow him and I was sitting down talking in his office, I was telling him, I said, "you something like that happened in Rosewood", that's why I had to leave there. So he sad, "what": then I was telling him about this massacre, these white guys just went round killing black people. He said, "you know I heard something about that". He said, "I want you ... lets talk about it, I want you to tell me about that". He said, "I understand your land is still down there", I said, "yeah". He said, "well have you ever tried to get it". I said, "no". He said, "that's your land, you should work on that". I said, "well, I don't have enough information about it, I don't even know where to start". He said, "well, I will tell you, I'll tell you where to start." Then he started telling me about, see he come from some part of Georgia and that's where his people, his wife's people went through with that. That's why he was rich, because his wife went back and got some property that was taken from them and sold it. Then he was pretty well off. Anyhow we talked about it, and I said, "well, let me talk to my mother", I said, "my mother was still living then, let me hear what she say about it." So when I spoke with mama about it, well the roof started to shaking. She didn't want no part of it, and don't you let nobody talk to you about nothing like that cause those people ain't gonna do nothing but kill you.
Stephanie Hall, wife: Tell her what Sue said.
Wilson Hall: Oh, yeah, that was since I been here. So she came up and said ah, that was since Sammy was on. And they were talking about Sammy Hall and she wanted to know if he was related to me. I said, yeah that's my brother. She said, "its a damn shame (excuse my language), its a damn shame, the way that black raped that white woman, and started all of that commotion. That thing just turned me inside out, and I said something to her I don't even want to use, but I told her, you wasn't old enough, I know. I said, "who ever told you that lie, you should go back and let them straighten it". I said, "because you are way wrong".

Dr Jones: Now who is Sue?
Wilson Hall: That was a white woman that use to hang round my place.

Dr Jones: Oh.
Stephanie Hall, wife: And she was just telling him what her grandfather had told her about Rosewood, cause evidently she has some relatives or ancestors that were from Rosewood.
Wilson Hall: Yeah, cause her grand-daddy, I found out that he still had some evidence that he's holding.

Dr Jones: Oh really.
Wilson Hall: See, because since I found that out she wouldn't even talk to me no more. So I told her, you know what (when she came back), about six-months later, I said, "I want to ask you a question"? She said, "about what", I said, "about that Rosewood thing". She said, "I don't know anything about it".

Dr Jones: So she doesn't want to talk about it any more.
Wilson Hall: I said, "I understand that your grand-daddy got some evidence that we need". No, no, I don't no nothing about it. So she hadn't talked about it since.

Dr Jones: Okay, I appreciate your taking the time to come to Tallahassee and to talk with us about it.
Wilson Hall: See, when time - with things like that you got on your chest you need to get it off.

Return Top of Page