Mr. Richard Blount

I was born on December 25, 1901 just down the road here a little ways—the Blount’s Tract between here and Smithfield—the old home house.  My father built something onto it before he died, but it’s still there.  One of my sister’s sons is living there.  I can recall going to Old Little Zion Baptist Hall that the county rented.  I went from there to a private school known as River School in Smithfield.  To get there, we had to walk.  Then white children had 5 to 6 months of schooling a year and went to school in a covered wagon while the colored children only went 3 to 4 months and walked.  If you went the fourth month, your parents paid for it.

I stayed with my father ‘til I was 19.  I went to Virginia State University.  It was then the only industrial institute.  I stayed a couple of years.  The doctor told me to get out of school—because of my health situation—stay out for a year and if I did go back to school, not to board on the grounds but find a place in the city and be a day student. 

The book Many Voices was published in 1986 as part of a project of the Interview Committee appointed in 1984 for the Isle of Wight County 350th Sesquitricentennial Celebration. The Oral History project taped the recollections of our older citizens and developed their stories from the transcriptions. Many Voices gave a permanent record of the previously unrecorded family life and history in Isle of Wight County. These excerpts take only the discussions dealing with the education memories of some of those citizens.