The Centenarian Stories is a program by the Center for Family History and Faith-Based Education and Engagement are interviewing African Americans who are 90+. We are trying to record the untold and documented stories before they are lost. The interviews can be in person or virtually. If you know someone email cfh@iaamuseum.org for more information.
In this interview, the 109-year-old Mrs. Ercelle Chillis of James Island, Charleston County, South Carolina shared stories about her family's history and her life. Her interview opens with the story of her birth during a horrific South Carolina hurricane. She also shared the story of how her paternal grandfather walked with his family from Alabama to Charleston in the 1870s in a bid to hire a boat that would take him and his family to Africa!
Other story snippets included how she left James Island for New Jersey during the Great Migration and what life was like in the North -and what it was like to return to the Charleston area later in life.
96-year-old educator and Civil Rights worker Mrs. Jennie Mae Jefferson was born in Charleston, South Carolina, and raised in Berkeley County, South Carolina.
Mrs. Jefferson spoke about growing up in the coastal part of eastern South Carolina in the 1930s and 40s. She shared her memories about how her community cared for one another and shared resources despite not having financial wealth.
Mrs. Jefferson went on to talk about burial practices in places that did not have an undertaker:
- Preparing bodies in the home
- How community carpenters would arrive to make the coffins
- The practice of sitting with the deceased and their family in the home
- Coffins were transported by a mule and wagon
- Leaving the deceased person's personal items on top of their grave
- The practice of leaving money at the gravesite
She shared her memories of her education. She tells the story of how her mother sacrificed to ensure that Mrs. Jefferson could attend Morris College (Sumter County, South Carolina) where she studied elementary education.
Mrs. Jefferson spoke about how she started her teaching career teaching in segregated Black schools. She would later teach at a white school. She shared her experience of going from an all-Black educational setting to a white educational setting.
The later part of her interview covered her approaches to teaching, her faith life, and her work in the South Carolina Civil Rights movement.
92-year-old trailblazer Ruby (Williams) Jones joined us in CFH to talk about the highlights in her life story.
Ruby was born on Pinckney Island, Beaufort County, South Carolina when it was still owned by the Pinckney family. She shared the story of her birth and the midwife who delivered her.
She spoke about what it was like to grow up with a real sense of community when neighbors came together and supported one another. One of the highlights in the early part of the interview was listening to her talk about how the islanders would use rowboats to go from island to island. She also spoke about the little family farms, what they grew and produced, fishing, and how her community provided for one another in lean times. Her family moved to Hilton Head after the island's owner failed to pay taxes.
Mrs. Jones spoke about her early education when she was taught in a one-room schoolhouse on Hilton Head. She talked about a typical school day.
Another highlight in her interview is when she spoke about how her father helped her enlist in the U.S. Air Force when she graduated from high school. She was the first African American woman to enlist in the Air Force from Beaufort County, South Carolina. She shared what it was like being a young Black woman in the U.S. Air Force during Jim Crow. While she and other African Americans were treated as equals on the base, their lives were segregated off the base.
Mrs. Jones became a cosmologist, opening her own beauty salon. She also helped and empowered young Black women in her community.
