Edna Sims

 Edna Sims

Edna Greenway was born to Edmund and Lela Greenway on September 17, 1912 in Ashdown, Arkansas. Growing up with two sisters and one brother, she got the best education she could. “Back in my day we didn't have no school; they just taught you what they knew at home. We didn't have a schoolhouse for colored people in Ashdown 'til 1923.  I got to the sixth grade, that's all I got.”  In those days, life was hard for black people, especially in a southern state. “Lord have mercy honey.... We were poor! Every child that lived with a black family had to work. We did everything that poor people had to do.... cookin', sweepin', picked cotton, chopped cotton, and everything else.... whatever we had to do to make a livin' .” In 1928 she married Leonard Owens. Together they had one son before he left in 1929. In 1931 she had a daughter, and in 1933 married Tommy Sims. They were married 52
 years when he died in 1985.

Edna had a hard life, “I was lonely, hungry, and homeless.... And then I got with the Barbee's.” Edna took a job as a cook, housekeeper and nanny for the Barbee family. They had a profound impact on her life. “The Barbee's took me in like I was one of them. They treated me like a human being. I learned all my education from the Barbee's... mmm hmm...they taught me everything I know. I love them white people 'cause they was good to me!” She continued to work, throughout her life, doing whatever was needed to make ends meet. “I even worked for Bonnie and Clyde...the gangsters!.....did some house cleanin' for 'em.....and them suckers didn't even pay me!” Today Edna still lives by herself in her own home, “still raisin' hell!”

Tell me what life was like when you were a little girl.

Ashdown was a little ol' bitty place. Everybody raised cotton...picked cotton... chopped cotton. They'd raise their own garden; they raised their own meats and things. They had slaves. I remember slavery times back down there where I was raised.

They still had slavery when you were a little girl?

Mmm hmm. I went through it. They had slavery down there where I lived. I had an uncle that worked with some of them people, and there was three families of poor people that had never been to town.

They couldn't come to town. They had a homestead, they had a church, and they had a graveyard. And all them black folks stayed on it, and they worked in the fields, and they all wore the same kind of clothes. Children didn't go to school and all that stuff. That was slavery.

Then when the war broke out, the depression started, and that's when a lot of people lost their money and the banks and all that. And that's when they let the black folks be free and go where they wanted to go.

So you're saying those three black families were still owned by someone?

Yeah! That's what I'm talkin' about! They were owned! Everybody! 

 

But I thought slavery ended after the civil war.

No, no. That war didn't mean a thing. They were just like they was before it changed. When I come in the world, it was still the same.... it was harder. Some of the people had owners that was good to 'em, and some owners weren't. They'd beat you to death and all that bit. When I was a girl in Ashdown, you couldn't even walk on the sidewalk. If a white person was coming down that side....you'd best get in the ditch.

So you didn't grow up in slavery, but you had family that did?

Mmm hmm. They didn't get set free 'til I come up here in '31. All them white people, they had horses and cows and all that stuff, and when the banks failed there was a lot of poor folks and poor white folks too. That's when we got more friendly with the white people. It changed 'cause the white people were just like us, tryin' to find 'em a job anywhere.

So you've seen a lot of injustice in your life.

Yeah....I've been there. I've seen things happen that sometimes make me wanna cry. We had a hard life. Black people had a long, hard life when I was coming up. It was terrible. Some of them white people were real cruel to you, some of 'em were nasty. It's the same thing today, some good people and some bad. They was just that'a way.

When the black school got started, two girls come to town, just young teachers, just got out of school themselves. They didn't know nothin' about our town. And one day they was walkin' down the sidewalk and these white girls told 'em to get off the sidewalk and pushed 'em....knocked 'em down. And the police come down there and beat them girls, and they left and never did come back. That's what I lived through. You feared for your life, but yet you had a good life in a way. We had a hard life. We didn't have the freedoms that they got now, and I think if they'd had the freedoms they got now it would've been a better place. It was bad, it was really bad. They just had hate in 'em. There was some mean ones, some mean white ones and some mean black ones..... all races. I think some of that still goes on today, but it's different today than it was then.

I'm gonna tell you something. I hate it, but I'm gonna tell you. When I was a little girl, two white men come and raped my auntie in front of my uncle all night....and he couldn't say a word. They wouldn't do nothing anyway! A lot of that went on back then. They were just mean people, just mean....just mean!

How do you forgive people for things like that?

Well... Say you hate me 'cause your white and I'm black. You don't know any more about me than I know about you, but you might do something to me, or I might do something to you that's hateful, and if you let that linger inside you, it'll eat you up. But if you and I get together and we talk it over, or if you go your way and I go mine, it's over. That's it. Let it go. I've had things happen to me, and I go over it and think about what I'd done and how I'd treated them. Then I'd ask the Lord to forgive me for what I did, and I let it go.

How do you let something like that go?

As long as they didn't put their hands on you or nothing..... it didn't hurt you. I might get mad, and I think about it for a while....then something inside tells me to pray over it and forget it and get on with life. It'll hurt a while, but finally, it'll go away from you. He (pointing upward) won't let it come back to you. He'll stay with you. If you think through it and see what you did wrong and what they did wrong, He'll show you if you're right or not, and that's it. I'm fine, you ain't done nothin' to me. You the one hurtin'; I ain't. I've had people do things to me, and I laugh about it; I don't care. I just go on 'bout my business. That's just how I feel about it. 

Did you go to school?

Back in my day, we didn't have no school like they do now. We didn't have a schoolhouse for colored people in Ashdown 'til 1923. I had an uncle and an auntie that was teachers and they just taught you what they knew at home. Later on, they taught us at the church. My uncle and another lady was teachin' us and that's all the school I had. We got to the sixth grade; that's all I got. I learnt myself, and the Barbee's learnt me. I learned all my education from the Barbee's... mmm hmm...they taught me everything I know. When I come I was lonely, hungry, and homeless. And Ms. Barbee's momma, she hired me and she taught me a lot. I kept house, cooked, cleaned, and looked after all them white children. To them, I wasn't black or white....I was Edna.

So you've got a sixth grade education and you've been poor most all your life.

Mmmm hmmm.

How did you manage your money?

I worked whatever job I needed to, to make ends meet. I even worked for Bonnie and Clyde...the gangsters!.....did some house cleanin' for 'em.....and them suckers didn't even pay me! But I was honest. Didn't nobody have to run me down to pay a bill. If I owe my bills, I pay my bills. Out of all my money, even if I don't have nary a dime left, I'm gonna pay my bills, and I'm gonna be free. If you owe somebody, you're gonna be worried....I don't want to go through that kind of stuff.

I got thru all these hard times by working hard....doing whatever you had to do, and by being honest. That made people trust you, so they would give you credit, or they would help you out, or they would hire you because they trusted you with their children and everything else. I could get a job anytime I wanted one. I never did borrow more than I could pay back. I never was one of these kind that would take my money and go buy something else when I know I owed you. I'm gonna pay you first. I'm gonna pay anybody I owe!

One day I decided I wanted to buy a house, so I went to savin' a little bit at a time. Before you knew it, I'd saved up $650, and I used it on a down payment on this little ol' house. That's how I got a home.

What are you most thankful for?

There's a lot of things....a lot of things. I thank Ms. Barbee. I thank them white people. I love them white people, 'cause they was good to me. They treated me like a human being. I had a good life. The Barbees took me in like I was one of them.

Do you have any regrets?

No I don't guess so, 'cause I always did what I wanted. If I had it in my mind to do it, I did it. If it takes me two or three days or a year, if I had in mind mind to do it, I did it. I stayed by myself, and I did things for myself to please me. I didn't try to please other people. There's no sense in that. But there's a whole lot I wished I didn't do! (laughing).

Like what?

I've been bad, I've been bad. I did sin and I did things that I didn't have no business doin',

So you believe in God?

My life is with God.

What's it like being 100 years old?

Ooh honey....you don't wanna be old! It's hard. You don't ever wanna be old, not this kinda old. I can't do what I want to. When I was 60, I was goin' and doin' whatever I wanted to. I was doin' alright 'til I got 99 years old. I broke down when I got to 99. I was doin' fine! Whenever I wanted to do something I'd just get up and do it, I ain't got time to be sittin' 'round lookin' ugly! Do 'til you can't, and I just did 'til I couldn't anymore.

Do you ever think about dying?

Yeah! (laughing) I was thinking about that today! Lord, “How come I'm still livin'?'' (laughing) I do. I think about dyin'.

Does it scare you?

Uh uh.(no) I'm not scared. When I was younger I was scared of dead people, but when I got older I saw so many people dyin' and I seen how death is and now I just live to die. That's what they tell you, live to die. I hope He comes and gets me and be good to me.

What is your best piece of advice?

Be happy. Love the folks that hate you. Take care of 'em. Be good to 'em.

It's hard for me to understand the kind of hate and discrimination Edna and others had to endure. What's even harder to understand is how Edna not only forgives those people, she loves them! “Love the folks that hate you. Take care of 'em. Be good to 'em.” That almost makes no sense to me. People hate you, look down on you, discriminate against you, abuse you.... and in return.... you love them?

It make no logical sense, but then again, love is not logical. It amazes me that in a self-centered world

of experts, diplomats and scholars, a poor black woman with a sixth grade education is the one who's got it all figured out. Maybe we've got the wrong people running things. God bless you Edna.