00:00:00Laura Duvacat: This is the First Person Project, interview number fifteen. I am
Laura Duvacat, and I'm here with Renee Donnell. And today, I'm talking with
Fannie Jordan. We are in the Bob Short Oral History Studio inside the Richard B.
Russell Library's Wilson Oral History and Media Gallery at the University of
Georgia Special Collections Libraries in Athens, Georgia. Today's date is
Friday, July 12, 2013. Fannie, we'd like to start with, I guess, talking about
where and when you were born.
Fannie Jordan: I was born on Earl Street, 1922. February the 14th, 1922.
Duvacat: And you were born on Valentine's Day
Donnell: Yeah, okay.
Duvacat: Were you born at home?
Jordan: Yes.
Duvacat: Okay, and how long did you live in that house?
Jordan: Well, as far as I can remember. I think about four years. We moved from
00:01:00there, Church Street. And from Church Street, after I got in seventh grade, we
moved to Finley Street. And from Finley Street, I did some time in New York.
Then I came home. And I'm living in my grandma's house. I bought my grandma's house.
Duvacat: Where is that?
Jordan: Oh, Hancock.
Duvacat: Hancock, okay.
Jordan: 650 Hancock.
Donnell: So, your family is from Athens?
Jordan: Yeah.
Donnell: Grandparents, and how far back can you go with your family history here?
Jordan: I can go back to about three or four years old.
Donnell: Okay. And how many generations have lived in Athens?
Jordan: Let me see. It's about six generations.
00:02:00Duvacat: Oh, wow. Okay. Um-- Did you have any siblings? How many siblings did
you have?
Jordan: Three.
Donnell: Three? Oh, so you had a small family. It was just the four of you guys. Okay.
Jordan: I had two brothers and one sister.
Duvacat: Oh, wow. Okay. Okay. What did your parents do for a living when you
were young?
Jordan: Well, my daddy was, he worked for, it was an admin grocery store, that's
where my father worked. And my mother was a cook at Delta House.
Donnell: Oh, okay. Okay, and did they go to school, did they go to school? Um,
what was their, if they did, what was the highest grade they completed?
Jordan: Uh, my mama went, finished school, it was a private school up in
00:03:00Morristown. A lady ran it and she graduated from there. And I don't know how far
my father went.
Donnell: Okay.
Jordan: Because she, Ann Derricott, that was her name.
Donnell: Okay.
Jordan: And she had a large, diploma. They don't make 'em like that no more.
Duvacat: Okay. Was it hanging in your house?
Jordan: I don't have it. I think one of my nieces had it.
Duvacat: Oh, neat.
Donnell: Um, well, and you said you finished high school as well?
Jordan: Yeah, finished at the Industrial.
Donnell: Okay.
Jordan: And one year, college at Morris Brown.
Duvacat: You went to Morris Brown? Uh-huh. Okay.
Jordan: Which is no more. Yeah.
Donnell: Okay, it's a very small campus. I was there in June and it's very
small. It's nice though. Okay.
00:04:00So what what did you do here for enter--or did you go to church when you were here?
Jordan: Yes, First AME. That was my African-American Episcopal Church. Okay.
That was my church. That was our family church. Okay.
Donnell: Okay. Do you still go there now or no?
Jordan: I don't go there 'cause I can't do any walking. And the steps to go up,
and I can't climb steps.
Donnell: OKay. What was your school like when you were young, do you have any
memories of how big it was, or any teachers you remember?
Jordan: Yeah, school was fine. I played basketball, I thought I was a shot.
Donnell: (laughs) I'm sure you were.
Jordan: And, uh, I went to private
00:05:00school first. It was called Little Knox. It was on Finley and Reese Street. It
was a two-story house. And I left there and went to fourth grade to West Broad.
Then when I left West Broad, I went to Athens High Industrial. It was Reese
Street before it was Athens High. Reese Street was the corner of-- Oh, what's
that corner? It was on Reese Street, the corner of Reese Street and Church
Street. It was a two-story building. And then they moved that to the corner of
Pope--Pope and Reese Street.
Donnell: Is that where the Boys and Girls Club is now? Or is that what the H
00:06:00.G. Edwards School was? Or was it the same place? It was a different place?
Jordan: He was my principal when I graduated from high school. It was across
from the First Baptist Church. [laughs] It was a brick building there. At one
time it was Knox Institute. Then, that's where I graduated from, Athens High
industrial right there.
Donnell: Okay. Okay. So, outside of basketball, when you were growing up, what
other kind of social and extracurricular activities did you participate in?
Jordan: Well, we loved to skate. We used to skate. And, uh, well, Girl Scout.
Girl Scout. And then when I got grown, I helped a lady with the Girl Scout.
00:07:00Donnell: Okay. Did you go through all levels of Girl Scouts? I forgot what the
highest level is.
Jordan: No I didn't, I thought I knew too much to be a Girl Scout. (laughs)
Donnell: So when you were growing up, where did you guys, or you and your
friends, or you and your family, where did you guys hang out?
Jordan: We didn't have anywhere to hang out. We went to each other's homes,
because it wasn't a place to hang out. At least, I wasn't allowed to hang out anywhere.
Donnell: Okay.
Duvacat: What was your neighborhood like when you were growing up? Were you very
close with your neighbors?
Jordan: It was like a family. Everybody knew everybody. Went to everybody's
house. It was like a family. It was real nice.
00:08:00Everything was nice and calm. You didn't have any headaches or anybody being naughty.
Duvacat: You said you moved into your grandparents' house. When was that? What
year was that? That you moved into your grandparents' house where you live now?
Jordan: Well, my grandmother, it was my mother's mother, she died. She left it
to her niece. And I bought it from my niece.
Duvacat: In what year was that, more or less? How old were you?
Jordan: I've been living there over fifty years.
Duvacat: Wow. Did your grandparents build the house?
Jordan: The house was built when I went there. And I'm 91, so it had to be about
100-- It's house has to be about 100 or more years old.
Duvacat: How has the house changed? How has it changed
00:09:00 since--
Jordan: Any changes that I changed.
Duvacat: What changes have you made?
Jordan: Well, um-- I grow flowers. At least, they grow flowers now. But at the
time, when I first went there, they had chickens in the backyard. It was a fence
around it, and it was chickens in the backyard. And we used wood and coal
stoves. But now, I'm on gas.
Duvacat: How has the neighborhood, the houses around you changed?
Jordan: Good neighbors. Good neighbors.
Duvacat: Do you still feel like there's a strong sense of community? Is it
different from, I mean you said that your neighbors were like family. How do you
think, is it still the same?
Jordan: Now, it's a different set of people.
00:10:00But we are all friendly. And it's not like it was when I was growing up.
Donnell: Okay, so you said you've been in the house that you live in now for
over fifty years.
Jordan: Yes.
Donnell: Did you raise your family in that house too, I guess?
Jordan: I raised a daughter.
Donnell: Okay, how old were you when you got married?
Jordan: I was twenty.
Donnell: Okay.
Jordan: And my daughter been dead four years, she died in '08.
Donnell: I'm sorry to hear that. So how did you meet your husband?
Jordan: Through friends. Second husband. My daughter's
00:11:00father. Mm-hmm. Then he died and I remarried.
Donnell: Okay. How old were you when you remarried?
Jordan: I had to be in my forties.
Donnell: Okay. Um--so-- I don't know, like, is there anything that you would
like to share with us? Any specific stories or anything like that?
Jordan: Yes. On West Hancock where I live now, that street was all Black.
Donnell: Okay.
Jordan: It's not all Black anymore. Now, on one corner church, not
Church--Church Finley and Hancock, we had a principal. She taught, she was a
principal at East Athens School.
Donnell: Okay.
Jordan: And
00:12:00then below that was a Presbyterian preacher. We had a Presbyterian church on
corner of Pope and Meek. And he lived in the house on Church Street. And down
from there we had a cousin. He was in insurance. Now, across there, it was a
lady that was with Girl Scouts. Now, on up from Pope, up to the block I'm living
in, we had a dentist, doctor, and her daughter was-- named Miss Wimbley. She
taught school and she had a kindergarten
00:13:00where most of the younger children went until they got to go into first grade.
And next door to that was a dry cleanser. Next to that was a wet Morton, Morton,
that old Morton building. And next to them was a--oh, he was a postman, so in my
neighborhood it was pretty good people. And on Lee Street, back in the 600
block, was a
00:14:00pharmacist that had a drug store down on Hot Corner they called it at that time.
Donnell: He's on Odd Street on the drugstore was on Odd Street you said?
Jordan: No in Morton building.
Donnell: Okay.
Jordan: It was a pharmacist there. He had a house on Reese Street. And across,
when we moved to Church Street, I had a distant cousin, was a pharmacist. He
went off, he was a pharmacist, but he died. His wife was named, we called her
Ms. Freeman.
00:15:00Have you heard of Ms. Freeman? She taught at Reese Street School, sixth grade.
Duvacat: Can you point out, I think Church Street is on this map. Can you show
us more or less where your house was there? There is it, Church Street is right
there. Oh thank you. (laughs)
Jordan: That's me, Reese. Where's Hancock?
Unknown: That's Finley right there.
Jordan: That's Finley. Yeah. That was Newton Street.
Unknown: So we up here somewhere, see that's North Church Street right here.
Jordan: Yeah, that's where I used to stay.
Duvacat: So
00:16:00that was on, it was on Church and Hancock?
Jordan: I used to stay on Church Street. Where's Hancock? That's me.
Duvacat: Uh, isn't this Hancock?
Jordan: And where's Hancock? Went as far as Miller's Avenue.
Donnell: Okay.
Jordan: All, it was all Black neighborhoods. And a lot of them died out, you
know, and everything. On Meigs Street, that's where the Black Presbyterian
Church was at one time. There's a house there now in that place.
Donnell: Okay.
Jordan: And he stayed, I told you, he stayed on that block. And
00:17:00Church Street, Reese Street went as far as Miller's Avenue. That was all Black
neighborhood too, from Noon Street up to Milledge. Then cross Milledge, that's
when it was the Black community to West Broad.
Duvacat: When do you think that started to change?
Jordan: Lately. I mean, I guess the last ten years. Because most of the older
people died out and the children didn't take over the homes. I think I'm the
oldest one in the neighborhood. I claim the neighborhood. (laughs) It's just
three of us now. The Greens,
00:18:00me, and then another lady just moved in lately.
Duvacat: Have those other families been living there for generations like you have?
Jordan: Well, the Greens have been living there for years. They took over the
house on the corner when he first came here. Then they built that house now
where the girls are staying. And what's the lady's name next to me? Stumpstohn,
with an H. Let me see, what else can I think of? Oh, Reese Street goes to
Milledge and jump over. Go on down.
00:19:00What else can I think of? When you get this old, you can't think.
Duvacat: That's fine, you remember a lot. I have a question, this is
backtracking a little bit, but you said that you went to New York for a little
while, was that, that was in the 1940s, right, after high school?
Jordan: Well, after I, the year I stayed at Morris Brown, when I left, I went up
there to go make money to go back to school. I never went back to school. (laughs)
Duvacat: What was that like, going to New York after being in?
Jordan: It was alright.
Duvacat: What did you do?
Jordan: Nothing.
Duvacat: Nothing?
Jordan: I worked.
Duvacat: Where did you work?
Jordan: I worked at a button place, where they sew buttons. Then I got married,
my first husband in New York,
00:20:00is my daughter's father.
Duvacat: Oh, you met him in New York? Did you say you met him in New York, your
first husband?
Jordan: Yeah, through friends.
Duvacat: And you brought him back to Athens?
Jordan: No, I came on my own and brought my daughter back because during the
winter I would bring my daughter home. My mama would keep her. I would come back
and get her during the summer. And then I moved home for good.
Duvacat: What year would you say you moved back? Sorry, I forgot. What year did
you say you moved back to Athens for good?
Jordan: '43. That's when my daughter was born.
Duvacat: So, while you were in Athens before New York, what was life like?
00:21:00Jordan: I thought it was heaven, 'cause all my school friends were here. And
see, I graduated high school in 1939. And all my friends were here. So, we
communicated. And I think I'm out of my class. I think it's just two of us in Athens.
Duvacat: Have you kept in touch with them? Have you kept in touch with them?
Jordan: Well, yeah. One of my classmates stayed way out on the highway. What do
those people name out there on the highway? Bonnets. The Bonnets. They have a
hallway back on the Atlanta Highway. She's
00:22:00in Maryland now, but she comes home. And my schoolmate that's here, Harrison, we
get together when she comes home. So it's just three of us out of my class.
Duvacat: How many people were in your graduating class? Do you remember?
Jordan: I think about thirty of us. I tell you I'm the oldest one.
Donnell: It's good to say that you know.
Jordan: Yeah I look around at some and I feel proud because I can see, I can
talk, I can hop along. On Reese Street,
00:23:00the family that stayed in that house was Harris's. He the one that had the, he
was a pharmacist and he the one that had the drugstore down in Morton building
You know, in that Morton building downtown. It was a, what you call, pool room?
Donnell: Yeah, a village room. Okay.
Jordan: And across the street, on the other street, down what they call Hot
Corner, it was, uh, and that block was Black. One was out of market. (laughs)
And across the street was a cafe. Upstairs in the building across the street
was, uh,
00:24:00whatchacallit, dry clean. Now, he didn't dry clean, he press, whatchacallit,
press. And they stayed, and the ones that would cross the street from, uh, down
on Hot Corner, they stayed on Reese Street. It was two brothers. One of the
brothers has a cafe downstairs. One brother had a dry clean upstairs in that
front, on the front, in that building. It was a barbershop. Because I used to
get my hair cut there, I used to wear a short hair. And he used to cut my hair.
Duvacat: What was the barbershop like?
Jordan: I don't know, I wasn't allowed in there.
Duvacat: Okay.
Jordan: But it was
00:25:00quiet, you know, it wasn't a lot of shooting and fighting going on when I was
coming up. If it was a disagreement, they settled it quietly. Okay.
Donnell: Um, so you moved back to Athens in the 40s?
Jordan: Yep.
Donnell: Okay. Um, so, around the Civil Rights Movement, do you remember
anything, or what was your life like while all that was happening?
Jordan: Well, only, what I remember about it, it was--down on the Hot Corner of
that building was a, some kind of lodge, and they, they gave sit-in. But I
didn't take part in the sit-in,
00:26:00but I was, I was along with them, but I didn't do any sit-in. It wasn't, in
Athens, it wasn't, it wasn't tough, you know, people didn't, the whites and the
Blacks didn't bother each other. What else can I think of? Yeah, did I tell you
about the West Broad Street School? It was down on the low end of West Broad.
Duvacat: It's the one that's still there, right?
Donnell: Yeah, the building is still there, right? It's where the community
garden is now? The city garden?
Jordan: It's across from, yeah.
Duvacat: Okay.
Jordan: It's down there.
Donnell: That's a really big building.
Jord Duvacat: To walk all the way down there?
Jordan: Yeah, we walked. I walked from Church Street to the end of West Broad
Street. We thought nothing of it. It was an everyday thing.
Donnell: How long did it take you to walk to school? Do you remember? Or never
timed it?
Jordan: It didn't take any time 'cause we had to be there so dialed. And when
you left home in time to get there, you didn't play. When you went to school,
you went to school. When school was out, you brought it back home. It was--see,
it was a group of us staying in Reese Street, Church Street, Pope Street,
00:27:00and Hancock. We all left. and came back together. I can't think. Nothing comes
to me when I want it to.
Donnell: It's okay. What are some noticeable changes that you've noticed in
Athens since, I guess, your childhood? Like how has it evolved over the years?
Jordan: Well, see we didn't have any paved streets. Everything was dirt roads.
The street I'm on, Hancock, it was a hill like, but see, it's no hill like down.
And on Lee Street, it was a man
00:28:00on Lee Street, his wife was the principal in Newtown. He had a Hawkinson buggy,
and he had it downtown somewhere. He and his horse, every day, we would meet him
up on Pulaski and Hancock to ride home.
Duvacat: Did people, did he keep his horse in town?
Jordan: Yeah, he kept it on Reese Street. It's this two-story house on Reese
Street now that they stayed in. And in the backyard, he had big backyards. He
kept his horse back there. And we would meet him every day to ride on.
Donnell: That's pretty interesting.
Jordan: We thought that was great.
00:29:00Donnell: Any other changes in all these years?
Jordan: Oh yeah, a lot of changes. People changed. See, people now, I don't know
them like I did. I knew everybody on the street, everybody on Pope Street,
everybody on Hancock. But now-- I don't know, because most people my age are
dead, and the children moved away. So, I tell you, I'm the oldest thing in the neighborhood.
Duvacat: Do you still, do you live alone in that house now? Do you live alone in
that house now?
Jordan: Yeah, I stay by myself, but they take care of me. They come see about me
every day and call to see if I'm alright.
00:30:00You know, when you've been by yourself so long, you, you like it. Oh, on
Hancock, at Dougherty Street, you know where that, uh, I think it's, it used to
be the Girl Scouts, white Girl Scouts, right there on that corner, girls from
the church. Okay. Used to be a Girl Scout, and on down in the next block, it was
nothing but a vacant field. And at the time, dozens of people used to play
football down in that field. So when we first started living on Finley Street, all
00:31:00that was vacant. Now it's a motel. New apartments up on Hancock. Things come to
me a little bit at a time.
Donnell: Well you are doing great, so.
Duvacat: You said you were married a second time?
Jordan: Yes.
Duvacat: In Athens? What did your husband do?
Jordan: One worked in clothing. My daughter's father worked in manufacturing in
New York. And my second husband, he worked downtown, he said,
00:32:00at some restaurant. I just crossed from, the rest of them crossed from City Hall
and it was, that's when Belks was downtown. Belks used to be downtown on Clayton Street.
Duvacat: Is there anything else that you remember that used to be downtown
that's not anymore, any other changes?
Jordan: Well, it was a jury stow on the corner. There's a jury stow on Downs
Street. Across the corner was a drug store, then a
00:33:00dress shop for women. And across the street was Michael. It was like Gallabels.
Donnell: Okay.
Jordan: And across from that store, that's where Gallabels used to be downtown.
'Cause we used to go down there at Christmastime to see Santa Claus and get oranges.
Donnell: Well we have like a couple more minutes left, so is there any, are
there any last few things you want to share with us? Just come to mind?
Jordan: Well, I'm enjoying these late years and I plan to stay because if I see
death coming I'm running. (laughing)
00:34:00Other than that I'm doing okay. With my nephew and his wife I wouldn't give a
million dollars for them honey. What'd he say?
Donnell: What's your favorite pastime?
Jordan: I love to read. I read anything but detective stories.
Duvacat: Okay.
Jordan: I don't read detective stories, but any other kind of book, bring it to
me. In the news, if I got to see a newspaper, and I got to have a book to read.
Donnell: So you never read, like, the Nancy Drew books or anything like that?
You never read, like, the Nancy Drew books, the little teenage detective? Those
old books. Duvacat: What are you reading right now?
Jordan: I like books with substance.
Duvacat: (laughter)
00:35:00Okay, what are you reading right now?
Jordan: Well, my nephew brought me some books that a girl gave. I haven't got
into them yet, but--I got to have that book and that newspaper. And I look at,
uh--the weather program on television and the news. But I got to check the
weather report first so I know whether I can sit on my porch or not.
Duvacat: Okay.
Jordan: I can't think of anything. It never -- It can't come to me like it used
to. My mind is good, but not that good.
Donnell: That's fine. You're doing fine. Well, I guess we're going to
00:36:00wrap it up now.
Jordan: Okay.
Donnell: Okay.
Jordan: I enjoyed talking with you.
Donnell: Thank you for sharing, and thank you for coming.
Duvacat: Thank you so much.
00:37:00
