Audio
Oral History Interview with Julius Keaton
Transcript
Abstract: In this oral history interview with Julius Keaton, Keaton talks about growing up as a black man in segregated Homestead, Florida. During his childhood, he spent the weekends at the beach with his extended family. Most memorable, he explains, were the family parties held at the beach where aunts and uncles brought food, played music, and everyone danced. He explains that even the roads to the beach were segregated. Later in the interview, Keaton describes the changes that came with integration in the mid 1960s. He concluded the interview speaking about Virginia Key and seeing all the different animals and vegetation he had not seen before.
AISHA LOWMAN: Today is December 9th, 2011. I am Aisha Lowman, intern at Biscayne National Park and master student at University of South Florida. We are here with Julius Keaton at Biscayne National Park. And Julius, you agree to consent, um, for the park and for my research to give your information to be recording?
JULIUS KEATON: Yes, I really do.
LOWMAN: Okay. Great. Let’s get started. Okay. Um, first of all, you know, just tell us a little bit about yourself—you know, state your name, date of birth.
KEATON: Hello Everyone, my name is Julius Keaton. Born [REDACTED] in Camila, Georgia. My mother came south and when I say south, I guess two and a half years after I was born. I’m in Homestead. Been working at the park. I’m in my 37th year. Enjoy every minute of it.
LOWMAN: And do you mind stating which racial ethnic group you identify yourself with?
KEATON: Ah, back in the days, ah, we were called the N words. And that will push you over but you got to learn to control the anger.
LOWMAN: Uh-huh
KEATON: Yeah. I experience a lot of that, especially on Saturdays when we had the opportunity to go to Econ Army/Navy. That was I would say one of the cheapest schools at the time our parents could afford or my mom could afford and that’s where we went. But all the time we always go there and always be some individuals out of Tennessee, okay, mostly out of Alabama that used the N word. Where are you so and so going and my mom don’t worry, don’t worry about that. Just keep going, just keep going. So one day mom wasn’t with us and we saw what the N word really, really, really means. And we got to do a little running, jumping real high, they were through rocks. Opened my eyes. The racials back then—it was the black section of town or the white section of town.
LOWMAN: And this is here in Homestead.
KEATON: Homestead.
LOWMAN: Okay. You want to tell me about your experience at the beach at the time?
KEATON: Oh, no, back in the days on Sundays we had a lot of family outings and—you know, on Saturday we had to do chores. Once you finish your chores, they say well—and then you have the church and then the great aunt will call up and say oh, we’re having a picnic and they holler where at. On the beach. So on Sundays we come out here in the days—some days we come out here the water be above the ground and we go in the picnic area or the parking lot area. Some early mornings you come out here you see bobcats, you’ll see different species of snakes which black people don’t like snakes. I don’t know about you. It was—so at that age I thought coming out here was one of the greatest experience because you get a chance for us to get away and play with cousins. See your aunt, eat some good southern food and just enjoy the day.
LOWMAN: How long did you say you lived in the Homestead area?
KEATON: I’d say pretty close to 35 years.
LOWMAN: And do you still have family in the area?
KEATON: Yes. Mother is here.
LOWMAN: What kind of things did you all do, the typical day at the beach?
KEATON: Oh typical day at the beach, we played tag you it. We played, ah, what’s called underwater—we just like lower bridges—you know, you see on TV and we figured we’d be lower bridges and all that stuff. I loved that. We could only go so far but we played lower bridges. That was our favorite program, especially on Saturday see when we come out here we thought we were lower bridges. Okay. But we didn’t have all the necessary equipment he had—you know, imagination, we just had a great time.
LOWMAN: Okay. What’s your earliest memory of the beach?
KEATON: Oh man.
LOWMAN: Like the first time you got here?
KEATON: The first time—the first time my cousin brung us out here. Okay. But we couldn’t get in the water. That was the first memory. I mean I was about maybe seven when she brought me and wouldn’t let us get in the water. She’s go no, you can’t get in the water. I just kind of show you all this, all that and I go awe man. Oh God.
LOWMAN: So what else did you all do?
KEATON: Oh besides that we played tag. We played what you call hide and ghost seek, ducking up. Okay. And a lot of time we just had to sit and watch the elderly play cards and we didn’t like that. Mostly we just had rules and regulations. If you’re out of eyesight, you would never come again so you always supposed to be in the eyesight so they could see you.
LOWMAN: Okay. What’s your favorite experience? Your favorite memory of the beach?
KEATON: Oh, we used to have parties out here. The leaves probably—the Leaves probably one of the—I’d say the wealthy families in the black community and daddy was working, is a masonry and he had a truck and he’s always throwing his kid a birthday party and they always came on the beach. And we loaded on the back of that truck and when I say load we loaded that truck up. Come out and Ms. Margaret would have the food and the music will be play and oh man, everybody having a good time.
LOWMAN: All right. So were there places you could not go on the beach or did not want to go?
KEATON: Yeah. You couldn’t go toward the shoreline or the deeper water. Okay. And like I say, ah, you couldn’t—you couldn’t be out of eyesight for so many minutes. That was the bottom line.
LOWMAN: Did black and white people share use of the beach together?
KEATON: No, this is all blacks.
LOWMAN: Uh-huh
KEATON: Mostly, how can I say, if you were light color you were on this team. Okay. Most of the Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, all us was on this side of the beach.
LOWMAN: Okay. Did you—at that time did you know anyone who worked at the beach?
KEATON: We know the light guy. We know him for years. Mr. Jose Williams and then there was, ah, I think Mr. Willie Vane. Because mostly—mostly the light guy be the islanders from the Bahamas or Jamaica because they—you know, know how to swim.
LOWMAN: Do you know how long they worked here?
KEATON: No. No, none whatsoever.
LOWMAN: Okay. Did you go to any other beaches at that time?
KEATON: No.
LOWMAN: All right. So, um, you said there were parties held here and the dance floor.
KEATON: Yeah, the dance floor had it going on. We had a big round circle, okay, and jukebox used to be right in the middle but on the edge. And back then it was a nickel. Nickel used to play one song. So on Saturday you had to have a couple nickels in your pocket to listen. But you had to have somebody help you put the nickel in, to the put the numbers and all this stuff. It was different all together because that’s when you met your—your elder relatives on Sundays when they’d come up with this collard greens and cabbage and cornbread fried chicken. I mean southern throwdown. Mostly falling on the Sundays; that’s what we lived for. We lived for [inaudible] food. After we eat all that. And after we eat we couldn’t go swimming. All you guys got to sit down for an hour, to hours, all that good stuff. Lay down and take a nap. Man—you know, that’s the way it went. Back in the day, people were different. It’s much better now—I mean it’s much better back then than it is now because people back then cared for one another. People these days, they’ll rob you for nothing. They’ll rob you thinking you got something so.
LOWMAN: Could you just tell me about the dances, like describe what it was like to be there?
KEATON: Oh man, looking at adult dance, juvenile saw that type of dance and he was doing all that good stuff and—you know, the moves they used to make with the body and you go awe, man, oh, that’s cool and stuff like that—you know. Like slow dancing—you know, like when a kid sees another man put his hands on a woman butt, you go ohhh, they get excited. Like they never seen [inaudible] stuff you see out here, you be amazed and catch it—you know. Okay.
LOWMAN: At some point you told us how you could see the white side of the beach from driving up.
KEATON: Oh yes.
LOWMAN: Can you tell us about that?
KEATON: Okay. We had a white road and a black road. The white road got 160 second which is [inaudible] road, that’s where it split. Okay. The road on the north side was the black road, the road on the south side was the white road. If you get caught on the white road and you go down there, you would get stopped by the police and you would have to drive all the way back to the entrance to get on the right road. I tell you, that was—that was complicated. Put it this way I never saw certain racial things until we mostly traveled back and forth on the beach. Like a vehicle could be broken down and stuff like that and the next vehicle would pull over, especially if it was a different color, like a white guy, can I help you boy, what’s you doing boy and stuff like that. I wasn’t used to that. But in the long run it—it—it didn’t phase me then because I didn’t know no better but as I got older it really got to me because I remember pulling in South Carolina one night, well one morning about 2:00 in the morning and a man—a white man ran out—ran out billing with his shotgun, can I help you, boy. I didn’t know what to do. And I know that I needed that fuel but, ah, I kept going. It was different.
LOWMAN: And how long had you been coming to the beach?
KEATON: Oh we came to the beach until they closed it down. We used to come like every other Sunday either—you know, a good outing. You go there if you made good grades at school, you can do this, you can do that. Oh yeah. That’s how it works but we came to the beach pretty close about seven years. Okay.
LOWMAN: And you said, ah, so most of your family came out here or just everybody would get together—?
KEATON: Family parties, most of the families and that’s when the ladies have a big party for the kids. When I say party for the kids half the community used to be out here. Okay. Good times. As my great aunt would say well, since you’ve been a good boy—since you all been a good boy this week, let’s go to the beach, let’s do this, let’s do that. My mother was afraid of the water so she didn’t bring us out here. And we went anywhere it’s always the elderly, the oldest women who want to see stuff and do this and do that.
LOWMAN: Were there any problems with, um, the beach stuff and—you know, having parties out here?
KEATON: No, no, no. Because everybody did their thing. We know we had to clean it up and we always started the unit. We always said okay, we’re going to police the grounds, we’re going to clean up the grounds before we leave to have a party. We clean up before we leave. So—you know, we didn’t want to leave a mess and that’s what we did. Mostly—not only that the elderly people used to guide us anyway. Okay. Oh you can’t do this, you can’t do that. I’m going to tell your mama, I’m going to tell your dad. I ain’t got to tell my—. It was to me coming out here, it was different and we looked forward to coming out here. Okay. You could do you thing. Four, five hours after that you know you’re going back home.
LOWMAN: Did they ever call the beach anything other than the beach or was it just—?
KEATON: The black beach. The colored beach.
LOWMAN: Okay.
KEATON: Nigger beach.
LOWMAN: Okay. Well, could you tell me about living in Homestead?
KEATON: Oh man, living in Homestead is different all together. It’s still segregation, still racial and all this good stuff. My early years, ah, my mom kept us close, in wing and we got to be teenagers we had to span out. I remember one year, we were coming back from football practice, me, and my brother, we were the first black who played for Tom Harris Field. Okay. This is in 1967 and stuff like that. One night we was coming home from practice and as late and, ah, we had made a flat—back then it was a whole lot of, ah, how do you say, big factories, big industries at the time and, ah, always the railroad tracks. Once we made it to the railroad tracks, we were safe. So we’re just crossing the flag area and they said what are you—me and my brother and his friend was coming home from football practice and I guess they were drinking, whatever, some country boy stuff. What are you Niggers doing out here? I go what? Oh you’re going too slow. I said we’re going turn the car—they turn their car completely around and headed at us and I said all right boys, let’s hit the tracks. To the railroad tracks, once we got on the track we had plenty of ammunition. We had rocks. And—you know, I spaced my brother here, I put the other guy here and I said ready, ready, chuck and we threw rocks at them. Oh yeah, oh yeah. Yep. I remember them nights. That was the first experience that me and my brother actually went through that. And then after that, I said you want to hit the tracks, we hit the tracks and we had no problem.
LOWMAN: What other kind of things did you all do for fun in Homestead?
KEATON: For fun, you know what ducking up is?
LOWMAN: No.
KEATON: That’s a game. You pick so many on your team.
LOWMAN: Uh-huh
KEATON: And you got an hour to find all the rest of them and we would—okay. You got six on a team. You got six. You got to find all your six before you get a chance to go.
LOWMAN: Okay.
KEATON: We didn’t have no boundaries. When we say ducking up, we split. You got fire, okay.
LOWMAN: Wow.
KEATON: Okay. Yep. We play hide and go seek. We play tennis ball. We play watch back [inaudible]. It’s a mop handle and a tennis ball. And you always picked the best catcher. The one with the good aim because once you miss you got to run to first base. Okay. The good aim he’ll pick you out before you get to first base with that tennis ball. We were allowed—the tennis ball, [makes noise]. We played football. We played baseball. I played little league baseball for a couple of years. Community back then it was more togetherness. Not like it is now because it was—we all had baseball. Okay. We always had basketball and football. You could start a football game up with anybody. Okay. It was real fun. Until we got to high school it wasn’t fun anymore. We had a long hours doing homework and then they closed the only black school down here. Mace High Junior and Senior High School. Closed them, closed it, but they opened it back up for junior high and stuff like that. Okay. We had to go to South Dade [16:50] High. We experienced a riot, a fight, individual going to jail on the weekends. A lot property got damaged. A lot of vehicles got damaged. It was different all together. It was April 11th, 1970 when the riots got South Dade High School—you know, all us guys stand in the hallway. It started—really it started in study hall, that was the library. This guy, was a white guy started with black guy and the black guy that’s my brother, leave my brother alone and see, oh Nigger girl—oh and once he said that word it was on. That girl broke his nose. And the fight started in the library and spread throughout the whole school. Okay. Fight, fight. Okay. That year we had Ms. Homecoming, it’s a black girl. Okay. Once we started at that school, they wanted—no way. They were south day rebels. Okay. And that year, ah, Niggers go home and take your black ass queen with you and stuff like that. And then I go oh man, God. I never figured I would experience this first hand but it happened. One day we were standing up—you know, like the guy, stand up and get ready to go to another class, these kids—the white kids come out in the hall, we’re gone. We go oh—you know, so we try to make exit in and after we tried that, the dude put padlocks on it, locked the door. Oh man. So we ended up squeezing and believe it or not, we went through that door homey. They’re all, you can’t come in here. Lady, they got guns. We’re coming up here. Okay. [Inaudible] up in Home Economic, rounded, what’s new. That’s it. I mean, oh, we were awesome. And then this big four back got caught up on the second floor of the class and we did some damage to the typewriter room. It’s a riot, we did some damage. I mean racial damage. He said bait them in here, bait them in here. I said okay I’ll bait them in there. Hey, what you white blood going in there. So as soon as they come in there he whips one of those typewriters, [makes noise]. Push them in the corner, make small [inaudible]. We were only doing that. That’s the only defense we had. We were outnumbered bad. It was two of us to about 30 of them but we even the score after two hours. Two hours. Man, we had—we had—he left. We locked them out. We left. We drag them in and lay them on the floor. It wasn’t then—we didn’t know they had cameras in all the rooms and stuff like that. Since I was short, it only got my shirt. It didn’t get my face. I was lucky.
LOWMAN: Wow.
KEATON: So all of us had to meet to go to church two days later and they start showing the films. They showed that shirt, I go [makes noise]. Okay. I ain’t going to wear that shirt no more. Once I got home I burned that shirt. I wasn’t wearing that shirt no more. All right. So about two weeks later every Friday afternoon three 60 passenger bus pulled up to the school. And if you’re on the list you get on the bus. Okay. My luck was I was not tall enough so they didn’t see my face, they only saw the shirt and so after that I go oh man, I ain’t go no—I ain’t never going to be like that. We got kicked off the bus one day and had to walk home from South Day High School. And you know we had to go through some white neighborhood. And hey, once we start running, we didn’t stop. Okay. That’s about it then.
LOWMAN: All right. I just want to go back to, um, in your seven years of—you know, going to the beach—
KEATON: Coming out here.
LOWMAN: —how has it changed? Like through the years?
KEATON: How did it change?
LOWMAN: Yeah.
KEATON: In a certain it changed I guess because I got older in a certain way. We used to come straight here but afterwards, mine started bringing some fishing poles. It was a big change after that. Okay. They would fish over there but we couldn’t fish unless they called us, oh come and bring it in, bring it up. Sit right here. You fall over I’m going to hook you with this king pole, pull you out and all this good stuff—you know. To me when I was small and my great aunt always used to bring us out. And they had their rules and go by their rules. So they told us a lot about racial and how to control this and how to control that. You know, and they say that’s the way it’s going to be. Because one of my great aunt—well, actually they went through slavery because some days, ah, I would travel with them or as I got older, we had to go to funerals. And I had a van and I had to take them and they started telling me different portions of—different sections of—like the story my great aunt told me one night, ah, the boys that want to go rabbit hunting, they want to go work in the field that day and then the white only come by and say where are the boys at. They went rabbit hunting and all this stuff. Well, I’ll tell you what, by the end of the night I want you off my plantation. So at the end of the night they had to pack up and move. And I go you all went through that and they say yep, yep. I go oh man. I said it’s going to be like that—they said it’s going to be little different, but it ain’t going to be better. You got to make it. You make it. You just waste your whole life so.
LOWMAN: So how was it at the beach between the races like? Did you ever see any white people or interact with them?
KEATON: Oh yeah, check it out. Check it out. We had—we had back in the days we had, ah, the white landlord used to collect rent. I was—I was his rider, okay. And I say rider, he comes and get me Saturday morning, put a couple dollars in pocket and says come on, come ride with me. Come on. I said okay. You go in these black communities then they see me they don’t bother. But if they go in themselves, they’re going to rob them so that was it. I used to be like a little [inaudible]. He wouldn’t get out of the truck. I say go knock [makes noise]. Red man, who is it, red man. Well tell them—you want to tell him yourself, ma’am, he’s right out there. You know, he got the right to receive, you got to come out and tell him, something like that. It was nice. It was nice. Yep. The boy come and got me every Saturday. Every Saturday. Time to collect rent, come get me. I mean we used to ride to all these different communities and collect the money and stuff like that. We had—it was good people. There was some good people, real good people.
LOWMAN: So how was it on the beach after everything was, um, after you were allowed to go on other sides?
KEATON: Oh oh, it was way different. That’s when we—they started letting us spread out on our own after we got a little older. We started collecting crabs and stuff like that. It was—it was—you know, it was real amazing that we go in the picnic area and you see these little holes and you see the crabs coming up and you go, oh man, the next thing you know you go look for a stick, you think you’re going to dig them out. Right. You dig and dig in that hole. Oh man, wait, wait, don’t do it that way, don’t do it that way. I said how are we going to do it. Pour water in the hole, they’ll come out that way. We pour and they come out. That’s nice. Everything is different. It was fun. It was safe. When I say safe it was real safe.
LOWMAN: It was safe even after—?
KEATON: Yeah, it was one of the mostly safest spot.
LOWMAN: Okay.
KEATON: Not only that when you come out here you’re in a different world anyway.
LOWMAN: Uh-huh
KEATON: You could see the border. Okay. You could see different creatures. And that does something to the kids’ minds. It was real fun. Real fun.
LOWMAN: So when were you able to go to the other side of the beach?
KEATON: What other side?
LOWMAN: The white side. White side.
KEATON: Which side, the white side?
LOWMAN: Yes.
KEATON: When it was integrated in ’68.
LOWMAN: ’68.
KEATON: Right. We used to go to Virginia Key a lot because all brothers out of Miami talking, we had a picnic up here and [inaudible]. Okay. And then ma says well you know how they make it, you all want to go to the beach all the time. We go take you local and then we go oh man. Yeah, we’re going to take you all local so we start going to the other side.
LOWMAN: Okay.
KEATON: Before they started pricing. The other side used to be free but it’s different. What they had we didn’t have. They had swing sets, volleyball and stuff like that. We didn’t have none of that.
LOWMAN: Okay.
KEATON: So when we did get over there, you know what that means.
LOWMAN: Were there any white people when you all went over there?
KEATON: Oh yeah, oh yeah.
LOWMAN: So how was that?
KEATON: It was like oh—it was different all together. That’s when you integrated. First time you integrated. You got little black kid family, little kid and all that—you know, right on the shoreline making friends. It was real fun. It was—I mean it was different all together.
LOWMAN: Well they were allowed to play together, the parents were okay?
KEATON: Some parents just let them. We’re like oh, it’s allowed. It’s allowed.
LOWMAN: Oh that sounds fun.
KEATON: Yeah it is.
LOWMAN: Okay. So overall living in Homestead for many years as you have, what do you think is like interesting about Homestead—you know, what has kept you here?
KEATON: The most interesting about Homestead is Kane Bay. Okay. I don’t care where you go, I always come to the bay. It’s different all together. The bay is like a [inaudible]. Say you leave home and come out here, walk where you walk, you watch the sunrise. Okay. While you’re watching the sunrise you see different species of fish, crabs—you know, just out of the ordinary. You see different lizards that we’ve never saw. Different species.
LOWMAN: Okay. You like see nature, different species.
KEATON: Yeah, that’s right. Instead of looking at four walls all the time. You got out there and see. Coming out here was what you call real, real, real, real adventure. Real adventure because black people don’t get wanted and all that.
LOWMAN: So you didn’t feel that while you were living in the city and Homestead?
KEATON: Oh no, no, no. Uh-uh
LOWMAN: Okay. Um, you mentioned Virginia Key, could you tell us about—?
KEATON: Virginia Key. Virginia Key, the beach was different all together. That’s when, ah, you had make that drive to get there. You go walk across the bridge and then it was next to a sewage plant. I was real freaked out. You got two roads. You got one to the sewage plant and you got one to the beach. You got on the wrong road you go oh man, we missed the beach. You got to turn around. So they seen much different. Since they were on the north end, the landscape was much different. Much different. It was say different. And they had trees. The way laid out, pretty. I say pretty. I mean you couldn’t beat scenery at the time.
LOWMAN: You think it’s better?
KEATON: Yes, better and bigger. Okay. You go wow. Not only that then you could see the ocean. You could only see the bay from here but over there at that time you could see the ocean. You go oh wow and then when you see a fish jump up or a dolphin jump up you go oh man that’s cool. Virginia Key was different all together because it was right next to the Atlantic, you’re like ohh.
LOWMAN: Okay. Was it like a different feel on the beach when you went out to play?
KEATON: Oh yeah, yeah. The sand—once you put your foot in that sand and walk through it, oh, get to the water, oh, girl, oh. It was different all together because their sand was mostly like, ah, ah, say walking on a sponge to get to the water. And once you got to the water it was different all the time because you then see little spices of fish and like oh man, you try to chase them like up. What are you doing, you can’t chase those fish. It changes. You know you’re not going to catch them, right. Then you see these pieces of crabs and stuff. The water much cleaner because of the ocean and that was oh, especially the breeze when it blows north going south it makes you fell [makes noise].
LOWMAN: Did you also play with the other children?
KEATON: Oh yeah. We had family. You had a family of friends. We go on outings like that mostly family and friends like I invited this neighbor, that neighbor and this neighbor and all that stuff. Once we get there, we had a great time.
LOWMAN: So you didn’t play with anybody else besides family and friends?
KEATON: We played with everybody, girl. We played tag, you it. Ducking up. It’s what’s that game. We had to teach a lot of them the game we were playing on this end, they don’t play on that end. Like stick ball. You know, get a mop hand and a tennis ball, you’ve got a game. Oh, that’s fun. Let’s do that all the time. That’s the way we did it.
LOWMAN: Okay. Is there anything else you would like to say about Homestead or the beach?
KEATON: Oh no, Homestead improved—you know, it’s—at the time the beach is what you call was the getaway specially on Sundays after church, looking forward to eating southern food. It was—and going to be the beach. You say you’re going to be there, I’m going. It was really different. It be at the bay we had one car but sometimes there would be eight or nine of us in one car, coming this way. Sometimes more than that. Sometimes we’re sitting on each other’s lap. Okay. It’s fun. It was fun.
LOWMAN: Do you still come out to the beach with your family or anybody else?
KEATON: Do I still come out to the beach?
LOWMAN: Of course.
KEATON: This is my getaway which I call my plantation. Somebody—some days after work I come back out here to fish, the beautiful scenery. Especially you could look at the nuclear plant and it’s all light up or the full moon. It’s different all together. Yeah, I still come out here. As a matter of fact I have plans for this weekend. You know, just a getaway.
LOWMAN: Um, is there—you know, those are pretty much all I have.
KEATON: That’s good. Thank you.
LOWMAN: Anything else you want to let me know, just let me know.
KEATON: Thank you very much.
LOWMAN: Thank you. And is there anyone else you think we should talk to besides—you know, you—.
KEATON: Oh yeah, Boyd was on my home [inaudible] mechanic, yeah.
LOWMAN: Okay.
KEATON: Oh Boyd.
LOWMAN: All right. Thank you very much.
KEATON: You’re welcome.
[END OF INTERVIEW]
Description
In this oral history interview, Julius Keaton talks about growing up as a black man in segregated Homestead, Florida. During his childhood, he spent the weekends at the beach with his extended family. Most memorable, he explains, were the family parties held at the beach and explains that even the roads to the beach were segregated. Later in the interview, Keaton describes the changes that came with integration in the mid 1960s. Interviewed by Aisha Lowman on December 9, 2011.
Credit
Biscayne National Park
Date Created
12/09/2011
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