An Oral History

With

Mr. Bilbo Rodgers

Interviewer: Stephanie Scull Millet

Tougaloo College Archives

This interview was transcribed as part of the Civil Rights Documentation Project.

Funding for this project was provided in part by the Mississippi

Humanities Council, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and

the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

2000

Biography

Mr. Bilbo Rodgers was born November 14, 1924, in Louisville, Mississippi; he is one of nine children born to his parents, who were sharecroppers on a plantation in the Mississippi Delta. As a child, Mr. Rodgers helped work the cotton fields, tend the garden and feed the animals that fed his family. When his father died, Mr. Rodgers was a 14-year-old who shouldered adult responsibilities.

In 1943, when he was eighteen years old, Mr. Rodgers joined the Army, took basic training in New Orleans, then went to Europe with the 490 Port Battalion. All of the military was still segregated at that time. Mr. Rodgers worked in Liverpool, England, for ten months dispersing supplies to the Allied forces. Around the time of D-Day,

Mr. Rodgers spent some time in the foxholes of France.

When Mr. Rodgers returned to the United States, he finished his last two years of high school. He moved to Pascagoula where he began a career at International Paper Company that spanned thirty-five years. He is married and has seven children.

Table of Contents

Childhood 1

Sharecropping 4

Church school 8

Truck patch 9

World War II 13

Basic training 14

Liverpool, England 15

D-Day 16

Back to the segregated States 21

State of African-American schools 26

Medgar Evers 29

Charles Evers 31

Integrating the schools 34

International Paper Company 40

Freedom Summer, 1964 43

AN ORAL HISTORY

with

MR. BILBO RODGERS

This is an interview for the Civil Rights Documentation Project. The interview is with Mr. Bilbo Rodgers and is taking place on May 26, 2000, in Moss Point, Mississippi. The interviewer is Stephanie Scull Millet.

Millet: This is an interview for the Civil Rights Documentation Project of Tougaloo College and The University of Southern Mississippi. The interview is with Mr. Bilbo Rodgers, and it is taking place on May 26, 2000, in Moss Point, Mississippi. The interviewer is Stephanie Scull Millet. And first I'd like to thank you, Mr. Rodgers, for taking time to talk with me today. And I'd like to get some background information from you, which is what we usually do, and ask you: could you tell me for the record, your name and where and when you were born, please?

Rodgers: Yeah. I'm Bilbo Rodgers. I was born in Louisville, Mississippi, November 13, 1924. Mm-hm.

Millet: And do you have brothers and sisters?

Rodgers: Yeah, I do.

Millet: Can you name them for me?

Rodgers: Yeah. My older brother is named Lawrence Rodgers, one named R.L. Rodgers, and I have a brother named Robert Rodgers, and that's the only brothers I have. And I have sisters, Rosie Rodgers[?], at that time. And Ruthie Mae Rodgers[?], at that time. And named Willie Mae Rodgers[?], and Linnie B. Rodgers[?], and Hattie Ruth Rodgers[?]. Is that five girls? Four girls?

Millet: Let's see. One, two, three, four, five. Five. Is Linnie a girl?

Rodgers: Yeah. That's right.

Millet: That's five girls and three boys. Four counting you.

Rodgers: Right. That's it.

Millet: So, nine children.

Rodgers: Nine children.

Millet: And, where did you fall in there? Were you the oldest? Or youngest?

Rodgers: I had two brothers older than me, and one sister older than me.

Millet: You were kind of right in the middle.

Rodgers: Right in the middle. (Laughter.)

Millet: Well, tell me something about your parents. What is your mother's name? And if you can recall, when and where was your mother born?

Rodgers: She was also born in Louisville, Mississippi. Louisville, Mississippi.

Millet: And any idea what year?

Rodgers: As close as I can get, she must have been born in 1902.

Millet: And is she still alive? Your mother?

Rodgers: She's dead, now. She died in fifty-eight.

Millet: Fifty-eight. So, let's see, that would have made her?

Rodgers: About--.

Millet: Fifty-six.

Rodgers: Yeah. I believe so.

Millet: That's rather young, actually.

Rodgers: Yeah. It's young. Sure is.

Millet: And what about your father? Can you remember approximately what year and where he was born?

Rodgers: He was born in Louisville, Mississippi, and he was born in, I believe it was 1898. He was born in the eighteen-hundreds. I believe it was 1898.

Millet: And I would imagine he's not still with us in the year 2000.

Rodgers: No. He's not. He died young. He died in 1938.

Millet: And how old were you when he died?

Rodgers: He died four days before I was fourteen years old. I would have been fourteen on November 13. He died on the ninth of November, 1938.

Millet: And so, your mother, then, had small children and was a single mother for some time?

Rodgers: That's right. At that time.

Millet: To raise the kids?

Rodgers: To raise the kids.

Millet: That's awesome. That's an awesome responsibility.

Rodgers: That's right.

Millet: To have those children.

Rodgers: And we grew up without a father after I was about fourteen. I was fourteen years old.

Millet: Right. When your father died, were the older boys in the family able to kind of take over?

Rodgers: Yeah. They helped, because they was older, and they kind of halfway got out on their own. In fact, after my daddy died, I was just about the oldest boy at home, and I wasn't but fourteen, but I had to really take up a whole lot of responsibilities at fourteen. But you know, they kind of helped out. But they were older; they kind of got out on their own. You know. My older brother was seven years older than me. He was twenty-one, and he had kind of got out in the world for himself.

Millet: Had his own life, by then.

Rodgers: His own life. That's right. So, I was just about the oldest boy left at home at that time because the two older brothers was on their own.

Millet: How did your father make a living before he passed away?

Rodgers: He was a farmer. He was a farmer.

Millet: Did he own his own land?

Rodgers: No. We sharecropped.

Millet: Sharecropping?

Rodgers: Mm-hm. Sure did.

Millet: And that was in Louisville?

Rodgers: Well, Louisville, Mississippi, and later on, we moved to the Delta. We moved to Inverness, Mississippi, and Indianola. Right in that area. And we farmed there, also.

Millet: Now, were you sharecropping on a plantation?

Rodgers: Sharecropping on a plantation.

Millet: And, so, what was your childhood like? Did you work in the fields? Did you have chores?

Rodgers: Worked in the field. And we picked cotton. Chopped cotton. And sometimes, when I got bigger, I plowed. You know. And also, we had chores like, we had cows; milked cows. Feed the hogs. Had chickens and all that stuff. You know. And we had to gather wood because we had old wood heaters and a fireplace and whatever. We had all that to do. We had plenty of chores to do, besides the farm, like milking the cows, and feeding the hogs, feeding the chickens, getting wood, and getting water, because we didn't have inside water like we do now. We had to go to the spring or well or pump or whatever. And most of the times it was a spring somewhere nearby. We'd go down there and get our buckets and pails and bring the water to the house. You know. And it was kind of difficult. Things like it is now, you can just turn on a faucet. So, it was really kind of tough back in that time. You know. In those years.

Millet: Mm-hm. What was a typical day like? How early did you get up?

Rodgers: We got up around maybe six o'clock in the morning. You know.

Millet: Was it when daylight was coming?

Rodgers: Just about daybreak. And we got us maybe a little breakfast and all that and maybe about seven o'clock we was in the field, working. You know. Chopping cotton, picking cotton.

Millet: All by hand?

Rodgers: All by hand. It was kind of hard work. We'd work until maybe about eleven-thirty or twelve o'clock. Then we'd go home and eat. Got to get a little lunch, and by one o'clock, we was back out in the fields again, and working, again.

Millet: Until?

Rodgers: Until, maybe, sundown. Because we worked all day. Wasn't no such thing as working eight hours then. We worked all day, and might as well say, "from sun to sun."

Millet: Sun to sun.

Rodgers: Get an early night's sleep and next day, get back and do the same thing.

Millet: Now, if you were having to work in the cotton field from sunup to sundown, what would then happen to the cows who needed to be milked, and the pigs that needed to be fed? And maybe you had a garden for vegetables that you ate?

Rodgers: Yeah. Right.

Millet: Did someone have to start working in the field and go do that and then go back to the field? How did that work?

Rodgers: Now, my mother, she always stopped, maybe an hour or something like that, and go cook. You know. Cook dinner or lunch for us. Prepare for the other part of the family. And maybe we would stop and milk the cows, maybe thirty minutes ahead of time, before sundown. Maybe we'd stop and milk the cows, and feed the hogs and chickens and all that, maybe. It would last about an hour or something like that.

Millet: So, it gave you about thirty minutes of light to get your chores done?

Rodgers: Yeah. Get those chores done. Got to hurry up and get them done. Milk the cows, feed the hogs, and get some wood.

Millet: Well, when you were going to school, then, did you get to go to school for the full term?

Rodgers: No, not necessarily.

Millet: And why would your term be shortened?

Rodgers: Because of the harvest time. Farming, you know, gathering the crops. After we farmed, we're going to finish up crops maybe about the last of October or sometime in November before we finish up. Maybe the average kid would be starting back to school in September; we don't get back maybe till about the last of October, the first of November, something like that. That cut our school time short. Mm-hm. So, you don't really go to full term.

Millet: Right. And how does that compare with other students? For example, the Caucasian students? Were they going to school for the full term?

Rodgers: They'd go full term because they didn't really do the farming. Mostly, you know, they didn't do much farming like we did. Not, especially, kids. They didn't do too much farming. So, they put the farming off. You know. We had to farm. They really made us farm.

Millet: Your education was cut short, then?

Rodgers: It was.

Millet: So that you could work in the cotton fields.

Rodgers: Right.

Millet: And do you have any sense of how the person who owned the farm treated your mother and your [family]? Do you think he was fair in giving them credit for the cotton that they did raise? Or do you have any sense of that at all?

Rodgers: I don't really think it's fair. You know. I don't really think. I don't think they gave them--. We made a living at it. You know. But I don't think it's really fair because, you know, we had to take their word for everything. For instance, we'd go to them for whatever we needed across the year for the expense of the farm, and they jotted it down, and we'd take their word for it, at the end of the year, how much we had made and what they--. We didn't have nothing to do with selling the cotton or whatever, because they sold it and told us whatever, you know, our income were. And they taken out the expense of what, you know, we used across the year, food and clothing or whatever, and sometimes I think they cut us short. I mean, honest opinion, I think they did cheat a little bit on us.

Millet: So, you didn't get a copy, actually, of the records that they kept?

Rodgers: Sure didn't.

Millet: They just added up what you had on credit, and then, you had to take their word--

Rodgers: Take their word.

Millet: For what you had made, what the profit was.

Rodgers: That's right.

Millet: And it would have been very easy for them to shortchange you.

Rodgers: It sure would. And I think they did. I sure think they did.

Millet: That's a hard life.

Rodgers: It is, really.

Millet: Do you have any happy memories of childhood?

Rodgers: Well, yeah. You know. We had family get-togethers. We had a lot of fun doing different things out there on the farm. We went to church and whatever. We had a pretty nice little life, like that. Some memories.

Millet: What church did your parents go to?

Rodgers: We went to a Baptist church. Had one pretty nearby the community, there. And we always went to church meeting on Sunday. Probably didn't go but once a week, maybe. We always went on Sunday. All the children go, and the parents go to church on Sunday. We practiced that, and that was happy. Sometimes we'd go to town on Saturday evening, after, you know.

Millet: What was that like? Going into town?

Rodgers: We'd go into town. We'd get, you know, ice cream and have cold drinks and whatever. Probably didn't get them but once a week. It's not like it is now. You had to go eat that ice cream. We thought that was fun to go to town on Saturday evening. You'd knock off at twelve o'clock maybe on Saturdays on the farm.

Millet: So, if you were working in the field, you would only work till noon?

Rodgers: Work to noon on Saturday. Everybody would be looking forward to going to town on Saturday evening, you know, just about once a week. We'd go and get ice cream, and drinks, and all this stuff. And we thought we was doing something, then. You know.

Millet: It was a special--.

Rodgers: Our fun.

Millet: Yeah. A very special time.

Rodgers: Yeah. Getting away from the farm, you know. We thought that was really something exciting. So, that was one of the things that was real good. You know. We enjoyed that. And like I said, going to church on Sunday and whatever. [Mr. Rodgers' daughter, Julia Holmes, takes his keys from his hand.] (Laughter.) My keys. OK. Alright.

Millet: Good thinking. That was good thinking.

Rodgers: Yeah, yeah.

Millet: Well, where did you attend school? Do you remember the names of the schools that you went to when you were a child?

Rodgers: Well, at that time, they didn't have too many schools. We went to school in one-room shacks at that time and out in the Delta, most of us, some of the churches--and they were little, small churches--we went to school in churches. We didn't have no--.

Millet: You went to school in churches?

Rodgers: Yeah. Probably just one room. You know. Didn't have no big church like they do. You know.

Millet: A one-room church. Oh.

Rodgers: Yeah. That was back in the, maybe, thirties or whatever. And we'd have the heater in there, and all the children gathered around the heater on little benches and just didn't have the big schools. Not in my early [years]. But when I finished high school. I did finish high school after I came out of the Army. And they had a pretty nice school here.

Millet: You finished high school after serving in the Army?

Rodgers: After coming out of the service. Mm-hm. I finished eleventh and twelfth grade after I came out of the service.

Millet: What year did you begin school?

Rodgers: Let's see. I was young. I can't remember what year it was. Let's see. I was born in 1924. I must have started about thirty-one, about 1931, probably.

Millet: So, that was the time of the Great Depression, wasn't it?

Rodgers: It was. It was 1931 or somewhere along there. It was Depression during that time. Thirty-one and thirty-two. That was known for real hard times at that time.

Millet: Did you all have enough to eat, when you were little, during the Depression?

Rodgers: Well, yeah. Well, I'd say enough to get by with, anyway.

Millet: Enough to get by with?

Rodgers: We didn't have abundance. It was mostly what we raised on the farm. You know.

Millet: And what was that? What was the typical--I think, now, they would call it a truck crop or a truck patch. What did you grow to eat?

Rodgers: Oh. For things to eat, we'd grow potatoes, and maybe greens, collard greens or turnip greens or whatever. And then peanuts. And we'd grow cane and made syrup out of it. Molasses. I mean, you might know about it. But anyway, and we grew corn. You know. Carried that to the mill for cornbread. You know. Grind it up for cornbread. And grew cotton, also. But we sold that to pay our bills with.

Millet: To get money. To get cash. That was the cash crop?

Rodgers: That was the cash crop.

Millet: For you. But the other stuff was for you to consume?

Rodgers: Yeah. We had tomatoes and what have you. And we'd grow chickens for our--. Kill a chicken. Like we'd have chicken meat. You know.

Millet: And eggs.

Rodgers: Grew chickens. Eggs. And cows had milk; furnished us our milk and butter. And hogs were our meat, and also had lard. You know. When you take the fat of the hog and cook it into lard.

Millet: You could probably make soap?

Rodgers: That's right. Sure could.

Millet: Did your mother make her own soap?

Rodgers: She made her lye soap. Because lye soap, you take that grease and all that and make lye soap.

Millet: Right. My grandmother did that.

Rodgers: Yeah. And washed dishes, we used that soap. They had an old wash pot. They boiled the clothes back then. If you get dirty, the next day, now, you've got the washing machine. They boiled those clothes. Went out there by the spring and made a fire underneath that wash pot and fill it up with water and boil them and take them out. Had an old rub board. You've got to rub them real good and get all that dirt out of them. Hang on the line. Let them dry. And to iron, you know, they didn't have an electric iron, then. They had to take the iron and put it by the fire and let it get hot. Then, clean it off and then they'd iron the clothes. You know. Much different than it is, now.

Millet: So, it sounds like you might have needed more than one iron, so you could have one heating up while using the other one.

Rodgers: That's right. Sometimes, some people had as many as four. You know. Because, like you say, have some heating up while--. You really needed two, but sometimes people had as many as four.

Millet: I wonder if that's what they mean when they say, "You have too many irons in the fire."

Rodgers: Yeah. I think that's really what they're saying. Really. I think that's what they're really saying, there.

Millet: Who did the churning in your house to get that butter from the cows?

Rodgers: Some of the kids. I did it a lot of times, myself.

Millet: You did?

Rodgers: Yeah. Right.

Millet: That wasn't restricted to just your sisters?

Rodgers: No. No. It was some of us, also.

Millet: Your mother was an equal opportunity employer. (Laughter.)

Rodgers: Yeah. Right. Make everybody work some. (Laughter.)

Millet: And what did that pot look like, that you boiled the clothes in?

Rodgers: It's a big, old, black pot made of steel, I guess, and, you know, it'll hold a lot of clothes. It's got little legs on it. You know. And the legs hold it high enough off the ground so you can [put] wood around it, up under it, and all that. And you make a fire, and really boil them clothes, and get the dirt out of them, too. Them clothes would be clean.

Millet: How did they get the clothes out of that boiling water?

Rodgers: They had a big, old stick, that kind of looked like a paddle. They'd take it and go down under them, and pick them clothes up; let them drain, and put them off in that tub of water. Cold water.

Millet: Cold water.

Rodgers: Yeah. Put over in the cold water.

Millet: Because they're too hot to handle when they come out of the pot.

Rodgers: They're too hot to handle. They put it over in that tub of cold water, and you know, that's where they get cold at. And then you take that rub board and kind of rub and finish getting that dirt out because that hot water done already loosened that dirt up, and you can easily get it out with that rub board. I don't know whether you're familiar with a rub board, or not.

Millet: What does a rub board look like?

Rodgers: Well, it's a big, old thing made of wood and got tin and kind of got roughness on it to make it kind of rough where you make it kind of hard to get that, you know--. Kind of make it--.

Millet: And you rub the clothes against the ridges of the tin?

Rodgers: Right. To get that dirt out.

Millet: That's probably hard on your hands.

Rodgers: It is kind of hard. That's the way we had to do it, back in those days.

Millet: And then, was there lye soap in the boiling water?

Rodgers: Yeah. They did have lye soap in there. That was kind of hard, but once they get it out, they put it in that cold water, it made it kind of diluted more, and it's not too bad on your hands.

Millet: Mm-hm. Ah. Lye is caustic. It burns.

Rodgers: Yeah. That's right. Right. Once you get it in that cold water, it kind of dilutes that lye, which it won't be so strong on your hands.

Millet: So, then you probably had to rinse it.

Rodgers: Rinse it about a couple of waters after you get it out of the washing.

Millet: And somebody had to tote that water.

Rodgers: Yeah. That's right.

Millet: All of the water that was used in this process had to be carried.

Rodgers: Had to be carried. That's right. So, everything, it wasn't near as convenient as they are now. Everything was much harder. Had to carry the water to fill up the tubs and all that. Pails.

Millet: Would you say that you felt you played an important role in your family at that time? You had duties that we would now think belonged to an adult. But in your childhood, you were a part of making the family survive.

Rodgers: That's right. It's a part of it.

Millet: It wasn't just busy work.

Rodgers: It played a big part in it. It was really necessary.

Millet: Really necessary.

Rodgers: Really necessary because, you know, it had to be done. You had to make it. That's the way you made a living, like I said, on that farm. In fact, you raised most of your food on that farm. Like I said, we raised chickens, hogs, and all kinds of vegetables, tomatoes, peanuts, greens, and beans, and whatever. All kinds of vegetables.

Millet: So, you had food to eat, even during the depression.

Rodgers: Even had, in the depression, had food.

Millet: People in cities might have been going hungry because they had no money, but no garden, either.

Rodgers: Right.

Millet: But even though money was scarce at that time,--.

Rodgers: You would have food.

Millet: You all had food.

Rodgers: If you worked. But now, work, back at that time, you had some people, you had some lazy farmers. Farmers who wouldn't get out, who wouldn't work. Now, if you get out and don't work that farm, you can easily not have enough food. Some people wouldn't even have a cow, because they were too lazy to get up and milk them and do whatever was necessary. But a good farmer would get out there and plant everything on that farm and raise everything to eat, have his cows, chickens, hogs and everything; he made a good living. But a lazy farmer, that just didn't have enough get-up about him to do all that, he had less, you know, less food because he didn't quite have enough. But you've got to really be kind of smart, you know, to get up and do the work.

Millet: You have to have some motivation.

Rodgers: Motivation. That's right. That's the word for it.

Millet: Some self-starting.

Rodgers: That's right. You couldn't get up, and it's hot, and sit under a shade tree and make a living on the farm, you've got to get up and work. And that's what we did. They made us work. Whether we wanted to do it or not. (Laughter.) And I'm glad of it. I learned how to work at an early age. You know. And after I got off the farm, I knew how to work. You know. I made a pretty good living. Yeah.

Millet: Yeah. You knew what you could do.

Rodgers: That's right. I knew you had to work to make a living; wasn't nobody going to give you nothing. (Laughter.) I knew that. I went to work.

Millet: Yeah. Well, tell me about how you got into the military.

Rodgers: Oh, yeah. I was eighteen when I went in, in 1943.

Millet: World War II.

Rodgers: World War II. Taken my basic training in New Orleans in 1943 in February.

Millet: What was basic training like?

Rodgers: Oh, you get out there and you--. They train you how to use your rifles. You know. Then calisthenics. You run and keep yourself in shape and exercise. All kinds of exercises. Then you go through an obstacle course, all this kind of heavy--. Go over big things and go under pipes. And it's rough. You know. Just getting in shape. You know. And training how to do all those things and training how to use the gas mask in case the enemy uses gas on you. If you've got a gas mask on, it'll protect you from, you know, getting into your nose, mouth or whatever. Then they train you how to use your guns and how to protect yourself from the enemies' guns. And they train you in so many different things. You know. Physical fitness and whatever, and that's where we taken our training in New Orleans for thirteen weeks. Right in New Orleans, they showed us how to do all that.

Millet: Uh-huh. Now, were there both black and white people in your basic training?

Rodgers: It was segregated.

Millet: Segregated.

Rodgers: Mm-hm. Segregated. Nothing but black.

Millet: You were all African-American?

Rodgers: All African-American.

Millet: What would they call your brigade or troop or battalion?

Rodgers: Battalion. Mm-hm. I was in the 490 Battalion.

Millet: Four, ninety.

Rodgers: Mm-hm, 490 Battalion. Mm-hm.

Millet: And then, what happened after basic training?

Rodgers: Then, we goes on to Charleston, South Carolina, and that's where we went through further training. You know. After basic training, you get more liberty. You know. Everything gets a little bit lighter. You know. You still train, but you don't train quite as hard and you get more liberty to go to town, and you know, do a lot more things. You know. But on that thirteen weeks of training out there in New Orleans, we didn't do nothing but just train. Didn't have too much liberty to go to town or whatever. But once you get out of basic training, it's a different kind of training, but not quite as hard, or as rough on you. But we did train and not only that, I was in the port battalion, 490 Port Battalion. We had to do some work in Charleston, South Carolina, because a lot of boats--. Our job was, in the port battalion, was to load and unload boats, and in New Orleans, we loaded boats there to go overseas. And they'd go to England and different places. They were getting ready for another invasion over there. We was preparing for that. We loaded shells, bombs, food, clothing, and everything that you use in the Army. You know, guns and whatever. They shipped them overseas to fighting men. They was already fighting overseas at that time. And that was our job was to load and unload ships. So, now, after we left New Orleans, or left Charleston, South Carolina, we went to Newport News, Virginia, and that's where we sailed. We sailed from Newport News, Virginia, in 1943 in August, and we went to Liverpool, England. We sailed. It taken us fifteen days to cross the Atlantic Ocean. We ran into a storm out there; we should have did it in twelve.

Millet: Do you get seasick?

Rodgers: Yeah.

Millet: Oh, yeah?

Rodgers: I did. (Laughter.)

Millet: That's a long time to be on a boat when you're seasick. (Laughter.)

Rodgers: Yeah, fifteen days to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Yeah. And we got to Liverpool, England, on September 4. It was on Saturday. We got off that Sunday, and they put me on guard that night with an empty rifle. And I was scared. (Laughter.)

Millet: An empty rifle?

Rodgers: An empty rifle, and I was scared. Because, you know, the English people, even the police don't carry no gun. They don't carry no guns in England. They didn't carry nothing but a flashlight and a nightstick. That's all they carried. Therefore, we couldn't. You know the laws of England.

Millet: They didn't want you to have bullets in your gun.

Rodgers: No bullets. But if you go to France or Germany, you can. Which we finally did. After we left England, we stayed in Liverpool, England for ten months, unloading ships that were coming from the United States. Well, we were loading them in South Carolina, but when we got to Liverpool, we was unloading some of the ships that was coming from the states into England because they was stocking up stockpiles getting ready for the invasion. OK.

Now, once we got all the stuff loaded in England, then we were getting ready to go to France. And you might have heard talk of D-Day. That's the invasion June 6, 1944, the invasion of Europe, they call D-Day. And that's when they had the big thing come off, so many people got killed. They had 31,000 airplanes invaded France coming over from England and different places in the Allied nations. Take England was one of our allies, you know, and we had all our stuff piled up there, but when we got ready for the invasion, we taken all the stuff from England and went over in France to hit the Germans. That's where we hit the Germans at, in France. Because they had already taken over France. So, we had to run them out of France and run them back into, you know--.

Millet: So, were you a foot soldier?

Rodgers: Well, I was still in the port battalion. I was unloading the ships there in France. Unloading guns, trucks, and ammunition, food, medical supplies, all that, in France after I got there.

Millet: I see.

Rodgers: But, we still was involved in battle, because they were shooting at us, trying to get us. I didn't pull off my shoes in three weeks, because they didn't allow you to pull them off, because you might have to run at any time.

Millet: Oh, my goodness. You had to sleep in your shoes.

Rodgers: Had to sleep in your shoes. And we was in France; we slept in foxholes. I don't know whether you're familiar with it, but anyway, you dig a hole down in the ground about four feet, and you get down there, you and your partner. You've got one partner.

Millet: Two people in one hole?

Rodgers: Two people in one hole. Foxhole, and dirt falling all in your face and all that, but you did have your--. You kept your gun and your gas mask with you at all times. And your mess gear; that's your food, something you carry your food in, and they called it, "mess kit." Because, you know, you always carried that with you; that's three things you carried with you, and your helmet. Your steel hat. You know. To protect your head against a bullet or whatever might--.

Millet: Right. Did they tell you what kind of gas you might have to face? You know. Why you would need a gas mask. Did they tell you it would be chlorine or mustard or tear gas?

Rodgers: Yeah, mustard, I believe, was one of them. And chlorine, I believe, was another one. Because that gas would, you know, like I said, it would kill you, if you didn't have that gas mask on. They tested us out a lot of times. They put us in a gas--. They had that gas kind of chamber. And a lot of times they'd let you go in there, especially when you were training, they let you go in there with your gas mask, and you've got to take your gas mask out of your pouch, inside the place where the gas is, and you have to hold your breath until you get that thing on you. You practice that just in case they have an attack there. You're in the gas chamber; a chamber with gas in there, and it will kill you. You've got to go in your pouch, and get your gas mask and put it on your head, without breathing any of that gas into you.

Millet: And if you get in trouble, you have to trust the person who is outside to help you and get you out of there.

Rodgers: Help you. Get you out of it. So, you've got to do it in a hurry. They train you to do that. Just in case you have an attack, you know what to do.

Millet: So, your compadres, the people who are with you, you all relied on each other to save each other's lives.

Rodgers: Help each other. That's right. In case you had a problem or get in trouble.

Millet: Now, when you got to Europe, were you still in a segregated battalion?

Rodgers: Still segregated.

Millet: In England and in France?

Rodgers: All segregated.

Millet: Could you tell any difference in the way natives treated you as an African-American in Europe as opposed to in this country?

Rodgers: I think they treated us a little better.

Millet: A little better?

Rodgers: Mm-hm. I don't know why. Sometimes, I think it might have been the reason because we came over there to help them. They were in trouble. You know. The Germans had really bombed them out, and you know, really taken over, and we came over to aid them. You know.

Millet: Right.

Rodgers: Mm-hm. But still in all, they did treat us better. We were more integrated there, you know, than we were--.

Millet: Did you feel more welcome, like, in public places?

Rodgers: Yeah. You did. You were better in those countries: England and France. Now, England, they were more like Americans in that they spoke the same language as Americans did, in England. Mm-hm. But in France, you know, it's a different language. But they all were nice to us.

Millet: How did you communicate in a different language? What was that like?

Rodgers: Well, it's kind of hard because a lot of times you can't talk, and you've got to try to give signs and whatever. You know. (Laughter.) And you might could speak; you know a few words because they teach you how to say the most important words about, like, you need food, or you're hungry. "Good day." You know, how to speak them: "Bonjour, monsieur." That means, "Good day, mister." Or mademoiselle. That's a lady. And monsieur is a man and work [is] travail. You know. Just different words you ordinarily use. And you know how to use all those words. And they teach you to use all those words. And basically, you talk with them, and you learn more words when you talk along with them, you know, a lot of times. But a lot of times, you wind up giving a lot of signs. (Laughter.) You don't know what they're saying, and they don't know what you're saying. You wind up giving a lot of signs. You know. But they did. Basically, you know some of the words. I could speak a little of it. I stayed there in France nineteen months, and I learned how to speak a few words.

Millet: Nineteen months?

Rodgers: Nineteen months in France.

Millet: Now, what happened at the end of those nineteen months?

Rodgers: Well, that's when the Americans dropped them two bombs in Japan, at the end of the war.

Millet: The atomic bombs?

Rodgers: The atomic bombs. Two bombs. They dropped one in Nagasaki. I believe that was the first one. And Iwo Jima. And after that, Japan surrendered unconditionally. But the war was already over in Germany. I think it was over in 1945 or four. President Roosevelt died, I believe it was. He did die when I was in France. President Roosevelt died, and I think the war was over in Germany just after that.

Millet: Did you pull out right away or were you still in Europe for a while helping?

Rodgers: Well, we were staying there a while because we thought we might have to go over in Japan to fight, and I was so glad when they dropped them two bombs.

Millet: That you didn't have to go?

Rodgers: Oh, because I didn't have to go. And after that, after Japan fell, they said, "Well, y'all can go home, now." Man, I was glad.

Millet: Were you?

Rodgers: Yeah. I was twenty-one years old, then. I was glad to get out of there.

Millet: So, that was at a time when you couldn't register to vote until you were twenty-one. When I registered to vote, it was eighteen. But at that time, you wouldn't have tried to register to vote prior to going to war.

Rodgers: No. By no means, because I don't think they would even consider. You know. Especially an African-American. They would not consider him no kind of way.

Millet: Right. Mm-hm. Do you know if your parents tried to register to vote?

Rodgers: I don't think so. I don't really think they would have.

Millet: Did you try to register to vote after you returned from--?

Rodgers: I did.

Millet: And what was that like? How old were you?

Rodgers: Well, I was twenty-one when I came out of the service, and that's about--. Well, I came down here when I was about twenty-four. When I came down to Pascagoula, and that's when I started registering to vote.

Millet: OK. I'm going to circle [question number] twenty-four and come back to that: voter registration. But tell me about coming back home from Europe. What was that like? Did you come on a bus? Did you wear your uniform? How did you get back in school? What was it like to come back from World War II?

Rodgers: World War II. Well, I got back from World War II; I came back into New York. And saw the Statue of Liberty, there. What you always show. That Statue of Liberty in New York. The lady with the lamp in her hand. I got there on December 30. I spent Christmas forty-five on a boat coming this way from LeHavre, France, to New York.

Millet: In what year?

Rodgers: That was in 1945. I spent Christmas of forty-five on the boat, traveling, coming to the United States, and I got to New York City on the thirtieth of December, 1945. And I left there and went to Camp Kilmer[?] that same night by train. We got to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, and we stayed there about two days. And that's when we got a train coming in to Camp Shelby, Mississippi.

Millet: What was it like on the train from New York to New Jersey?

Rodgers: Oh, it was a long ride. You know. (Laughter.) It takes about three days, I believe. Well, about three days; two or three days, maybe. You know, troop trains were traveling slow. A bunch of troops on there.

Millet: Now, were you still in segregated battalions at that time?

Rodgers: Still in segregated battalions. Mm-hm.

Millet: And even from New York to New Jersey on the train, you were in segregated battalions?

Rodgers: Segregated battalions.

Millet: How did you feel about that? What was that like for you?

Rodgers: Well, at that time, I didn't--. You know. I felt pretty good about it because I wasn't used--. You know. I didn't know nothing about--. Well, I was young. And I thought--. I know, I didn't think they were treated as good as the Caucasians were. I don't think they were.

Millet: You could tell that they were being treated better?

Rodgers: Mm-hm.

Millet: Can you tell me why? Were there specific things that made you think that?

Rodgers: Well, our facilities. We had living quarters, and all that. I think they were better. You know. Everybody visited around, seeing what's going on. Seemed like they had better living quarters or whatever. We had pretty decent, but it wasn't up to par. It was just enough to kind of get by on. So, that's one thing. You know. And a lot of places, they could go in there, like I said, we couldn't go in. Like restaurants or whatever.

Millet: In the United States?

Rodgers: Mm-hm. Right.

Millet: And did you find it the same way in Europe? Or were public accommodations--?

Rodgers: Well, it was just about the same in Europe.

Millet: Is that right?

Rodgers: You could go just about anywhere, you know, you wanted to, at that time. But in the United States, when we got here, they got to go to the side door or go to the back door or whatever. You can't go in to--.

Millet: So, you had been in Europe, putting your life on the line to defend--

Rodgers: The country.

Millet: --democracy in the United States. Stop the spread of the Nazis, and when you got home, you were not given equal opportunities in many places.

Rodgers: Right. Got to go to the back. Got to go to the back. You got to go to the side. Either go to the back or side; they've got a little place for the blacks. White only; colored only, whatever. And not only that, we had drinking fountains that was--.

Millet: Separate?

Rodgers: Right. Restrooms. Whatever. Even on the jobs. After I got back and started working. Even here in Moss Point. We didn't have the same drinking fountain. They do, now, after civil rights and all that. But at that time, we had different drinking fountains. Had drinking fountains marked, "White only." Restrooms, "White only." So, you know, they got a special place for that. Not only that, we had our jobs. You take, for instance, our jobs was segregated when I got back here. They had "black only" jobs.

Millet: Mm-hm. And "white only" jobs.

Rodgers: "White only" jobs. And naturally, they gave the blacks the worst jobs. The jobs that they didn't want to do.

Millet: The hardest, the dirtiest.

Rodgers: The hardest, the dirtiest. They gave it.

Millet: Right.

Rodgers: Mm-hm. They were taking advantage of them. You know. They had the advantage, and they used it.

Millet: Right.

Rodgers: Yeah. Right. So, that's what happened.

Millet: What was it like to arrive at Camp Shelby? And to disembark there.

Rodgers: Oh. I was happy. (Laughter.)

Millet: You were?

Rodgers: Yeah. Been away from home three years. And, you know.

Millet: You were ready to get home.

Rodgers: I was ready to get home. Hadn't seen my mother in three years and all that. You know. And my little sisters, brothers, and all that. I was just happy to get back, you know, at that time. Mm-hm. I was glad to get back.

Millet: Did you have any close calls when you were--?

Rodgers: Oh, yeah. I didn't think I would make it back to the United States.

Millet: Really.

Rodgers: I thought I was going to be killed. One Saturday night, I was out there. Like I said, I was in the port battalion, unloading ships. We was out there one night on Saturday night. It must have been about ten o'clock, and we was unloading gasoline, in five-gallon cans. In a boat loaded with five-gallon cans of gasoline, and a German plane come in there from out of nowhere, and dropped a bomb out there and just missed us. And I knew if one spark of that bomb would hit that ship, we'd have been blowed up. And, Lord! I was scared. Everybody was scared. Wooh! I was trembling after it was all over. I was shaking about thirty minutes after it happened. Everybody on the boat was scared. Well, it was dangerous. You know. That was a close call.

Millet: Mm-hm. Very close.

Rodgers: Yeah. And not only that, you're out there on that ship. The Germans would sneak in at night and drop land mines out in the water, and those land mines would, if they happened to hit the ship, they would blow it up. So, the United States was smart enough to recognize. A lot of times. They had such a thing they called a mine sweeper. A little, old light boat would go around and check and knock them land mines out. The detonator. I can't call his name, but anyway, they would knock out or defuse or whatever. You know. Yeah. With the radar, they would search for those land mines, and they will defuse them.

Millet: Mm-hm. So, they didn't actually blow up, but they--.

Rodgers: But they would have if they had've hit them. If they hadn't had that little boat. And another thing the Germans didn't have that we had, and that's a bomb sight.

Millet: And what is that?

Rodgers: A sight. The United States had a bomb sight, when they dropped that bomb, that's like a sight on a gun. They can hit their target better. And the Germans didn't have it.

Millet: They were having to just eyeball it.

Rodgers: Yeah. They just had to hit it anywhere they think. But if they had had that bomb sight, we wouldn't have stood a chance in France.

Millet: Thank God for that.

Rodgers: Thank God for that. We'd have been gone.

Millet: Isn't that something?

Rodgers: And another thing that we had, helped us out. After we got over there and got situated, we got search lights. It's a light way over here [gesturing]; a great, big, strong light. It's a light over there. [Gesturing.] And when a German plane come in there, that we can hear. "Wu, wu, wu, wu." We'd know it was the sound of a German plane; they sounded different from ours. That light would go up on this side, and the light would come up on this side; if they catch him in that crossfire, that light, two lights: one way on the other side. Two lights that come together and they catch that German plane in that cross and that big 90 mm. gun we've got on the shore, [snaps finger] shoot right in that cross, and knock him out. And you ought to see that plane try to get out of that light. He knew he was in there. He knew we had him in there and the lights were moving to keep him in that cross and that 90 mm. would knock him out. And that helped us out a lot.

Millet: When you realized how close you had come to being killed, do you think that had an effect on the rest of your life? Did it change you, somehow?

Rodgers: I think it did. I think so.

Millet: Can you put that into words? I know that would be hard to put into words, but--

Rodgers: It's kind of hard to put into words, but anyway, it kind of affects your life. You know. I don't really know how to put it into words, but it did affect me.

Millet: Maybe it made life seem more important, and you wouldn't take it for granted so much?

Rodgers: Yeah. That's right. I tell you. Because we run into some tough situations over there. I tell you. Now, a lot of people said they got cut off from the food supply, and they went hungry two or three days, but we didn't. But we were working with the port battalion; we always had food to distribute out to other folks. So, we didn't have that problem. That's a problem we didn't have. Because we always had food because we was the ones to haul it to the other fighting men. So, we kept plenty. We always had plenty food, but we was in danger, also, because--. I've got two battle stars--one for southern and northern France because we was right in the battle. Because, see, they was trying to knock us out. They was shooting at us, because, like I say--.

Millet: You were the supply line.

Rodgers: The supply line. If you cut the supply line off, you've got, you know--.

Millet: Yeah. You isolate the troops.

Rodgers: That's right. So, we were right in the thick of the fight, really. So, I got two battle stars, one for southern France and northern France. Two battle stars.

Millet: That's great.

Rodgers: Mm-hm. And I was a good soldier. I never got an AWOL. I got a Good Conduct Medal. I got six hash marks[?]. I've got several things. You know. I was a good soldier. I never went to the jailhouse stockade, or nothing. You know.

Millet: Well, I owe you some gratitude for having this free country that I grew up in.

Rodgers: Yeah. That's right.

Millet: I appreciate that.

Rodgers: Yeah. I tell you. That Army life was something. You know. Like I said, but--.

Millet: You decided not to re-enlist? (Laughter.)

Rodgers: I decided I didn't want any more of it. I had enough of it. (Laughter.) But I thought about it a lot of times, though. After the war was over, maybe that's the time I should have stayed in there.

Millet: Really?

Rodgers: I thought about it after I got out. I said, "Maybe I should have stayed on in there." I said, "The war is over with. I was in there during the worst three years." And when the war was over, I could have stayed on in there and made a career out of it. I would have been drawing money, you know, for it. Mm-hm. I thought about that after I got out. I had a brother-in-law who stayed in there. My wife's brother, he stayed in there twenty-six years, and he's still drawing money from that. And I said, "Maybe I should have stayed on in there after the war was over with." And, "I stayed in there the worst part, and got out after it got easy." You know. Once it got easy.

Millet: My dad did. My dad was in Europe in World War II, but he died when I was thirteen. So, I don't know that much about where he was, but the ironic thing is, you know, that he did stay in the Air Force, and he died about five months after he retired.

Rodgers: Sure enough?

Millet: So, you just never know.

Rodgers: You don't never know. That's right. How many years did he stay in there?

Millet: I don't know how many years you have to have to retire. Maybe twenty or twenty-five?

Rodgers: Twenty years is a minimum, I think. I think it's a minimum of twenty years.

Millet: Yeah. And who knows? You know, maybe he would have lived longer if he hadn't re-enlisted.

Rodgers: Could have. You don't really know.

Millet: No. You really don't know.

Rodgers: Life is like that.

Millet: And then they say, "Hindsight is twenty, twenty." (Laughter.) When you're looking back, you see everything so clearly.

Rodgers: You see everything when you're looking back. So, I tell you.

Millet: Well, some people have reported that when they were in uniform in Mississippi on public transportation, that kind of singled them out as a target, [of] the white supremists, KKK kind of white power that was entrenched here. People actually were beaten up just for wearing their uniforms home from World War II.

Rodgers: Yeah.

Millet: But, you didn't have that experience?

Rodgers: I n