In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

19 Bertie Duff Branham I am Bertie D. Branham. My father was Eddie Branham and my mother was Dessie Johns Duff Branham. I have three sisters and two brothers. I’m married to Preston Branham and we have seven children,Percy,Wilburn, Regina, Janet, Michael, Annie, and William, in that order. Preston and I have one grandson, Curtis. I attended St. Pauls Mission School and I don’t think I ever questioned why. I think I took that for granted since my siblings, cousins, and friends attended St. Pauls, too, as had our parents before us. The thing I did question was why the big yellow school bus with lots of white kids riding on it, passed us by as we walked along the same road to our school.We always had to step aside into the ditches alongside the road as the big yellow school bus roared past us. So, one day I decided to ask my mama why. She always knew the answers to my questions. “Mama, why do the white kids ride on a school bus and we walk to St. Pauls School?” Mama answered, “Because the school bus is traveling in the wrong direction .” Somehow, I knew that was the only answer that would be forthcoming. We lived way over on High Peak Mountain.Some black families lived out that way,too.They walked the same dirt road we walked out to the main road,where at the forks of the road, a big yellow school bus picked up the black kids, but we weren’t allowed to ride on that bus either.We had to walk on miles and miles to St. Pauls Mission School. For those of us who were very young with short legs, the mission school seemed a distance away like on the other side of forever, especially on cold, snowy days. On the walk along the dirt road,the black kids wouldn’t walk alongside us just as the white kids would not.They walked in front of us or behind us, but never with us; nor would they play with us. Both black and white races preferred to 114 / Bertie Duff Branham pretend we didn’t exist.We were grown before we understood those children in those days were only practicing what their elders had taught them was the proper way to treat a non-race such as we Monacan Indians were thought to be in Amherst County. We Monacans had our own set of rules as to the order in which we made our way to school. The older kids walked either in front or behind us younger kids.They had stuff they wanted to talk about that had to do with their age and interests and they certainly didn’t want big-eared, younger kids overhearing their conversations. We didn’t really care. We were busy hopping and skipping, playing chase, and chattering about things we thought interesting.We knew there was no need to be afraid they would let us get too far ahead or too far behind.The older kids accepted the responsibility given them by our parents to make sure we little ones were cared for. We never had much time for fun and games, so what little time we had was precious to us.We had to rise very early each morning to help with chores.The boys busied themselves filling the wood boxes with firewood and we girls helped to clean up the kitchen after breakfast.Then we walked up to fifteen miles to the mission school and home afterwards to help with evening chores. Later, we did our homework by lamplight and then went early to bed. We never had any complaints about any of our schoolteachers.They were all white women. At first, the Episcopalian diocese furnished the teachers for the mission school.Then later on there were two teachers from Sweet Briar College. Then, in the 1920s, Amherst County decided to send county-supported teachers to our mission school. Later on,in 1954,by an act of Congress,theWarren Court passed the law that all schools must become integrated. But that law was not obeyed in Amherst County until 1963–64. Sundays were always kept for the Lord by all three races in Amherst County, but even on the Lord’s Day, prejudice was still in effect.We Indians still had to walk fifteen miles to St. Pauls Mission Church for worship services.There were churches for white people and...

Share