Born in Lewisburg, Neva and Marie are sisters in a family of nine. Neva has lived in Lewisburg her whole life. After marriage, Marie moved to White Sulphur Springs and has lived there for about 70 years. They both worked at the Greenbrier Resort. 

Before Bolling was a High School

Marie: Just like Bus he had to go to Hinton in order to go to high school.

Janice: this was one of their older brothers.  

Sarah: So that was before Boling was high school?

Neva: that was before Bolling was a high school and we couldn't go. We couldn't go to the white school. So he had to go to a black school in Hinton.
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Marie: I always wondered…did he have to spend all four years in Hinton? I suppose so because they didn't have the graduate class until sis graduated in Thirty six. So he had to spend all four years in Hinton in order to go to high school. I imagine mom had to pay them some rent in order for him to live down there with these people in order to go to high school. 

Greenbrier Resort

Janice: Like when you go to the Greenbrier. I know there were parties at the Greenbrier or at Haywood's, but it was primarily just black

Marie: Well when we first started out, it was just black. The black had their parties and the whites had their parties. But then they integrated them.

Marie: they started mixing the white in the black. They had all integrated together. They used to just have the black parties and they had the white parties. But then you started having them together. Just like in the dining room over at the Greenbrier. The black had their side they sat on and the white had their side to sit on down and then down through the years they change it, then they all eat together.

Janice:  This was the employee dining room?

Marie: Yeah.

Janice: So you sit in separate places.

Marie: Right. The whites were over on the left hand side and the blacks over on the right hand side. You’d all go through the same line to get your food but then after you got your food the whites when this way and blacks that way.

Janice: Now, was there somebody telling you to do that or was that just understood that that was what you do?

Marie: When I went there, it was just understood. So I didn't know if they would have told or not, but it was just understood when I went there. I don’t know how long it was before they did integrated the dining room. And still, most of the black folks, after they did that, they still went to work, they had been accustomed to going maybe some few might go to the other side and maybe some few of them will come over there, not too all. Not too many.
 

Segregation

Neva: Oh yes, we couldn't we couldn't go to the restaurant. We could go but we would have to go to the back door to go to the restaurants and venues. And if you went to the movie, you couldn't you couldn't go downstairs with the white folks.
You had to go upstairs, upstairs to the movies. And then, of course, I say to back back doors, if you want anything at the restaurant, then you bet not go to the front door, you had to go to the back door to get it.

Marie: I remember we used to come from church. There used to be a restaurant right up there on the corner.

Neva: Green Lantern.

Marie: huh? Green Lantern yes. And of course, we’d stop by there a lot of times after church. It was at the back door. There was service from the back door. However, it was really convenient because we were coming up from the church anyway. But if we want to get anything. We would have to stop there at the back door and order whatever you wanted. Usually a hamburger or hotdog or something like that. But see, it was convenient for us because we were coming up from church anyway. But someone from the back would come and serve I mean, it was in there would just come and wait on you. Beside it's a long door back they would come back and take your order.

Janice: Did you ever think about wanting to go into the front?

Marie: No. I think you just accepted everything just the way it was. You just accepted it.

Neva: the black folks when they come to town. They couldn't go to the hotels and all but there was a fellow man here black man and he had a right nice size house. And when anyone black come to town, they had a place to stay. They couldn't go to the hotels, but his name was Mr. Brown Williams. And they would go to his house and course he would keep him here. That would be the hotel for them because they couldn't go to the white hotels

Janice: You remember her where that was? Where it was located?

Neva: it was down there across where the jail house used to be.

Sarah: Where the white and black neighborhoods pretty separate?

Marie: Yes they were. Most of the black folks stayed up on the this end and the white folks were downtown. So you didn't have it. They were the only ones who could even live near downtown.  

Sarah: Were they not allowed to move down there or was it more unspoken?
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Marie: They were allowed to go, I suppose. But the people, they just didn't go. They knew they weren’t wanted, so they didn’t go.