Oral history with Mr. Monroe (Bill) Winston

              Oral history with Mr. Monroe " Bill" Winston
F341.5 . M57 vol. 654
Funding for this project provided by The Mississippi State Legislature, The Mississippi Humanities Council, The Mississippi Department of Archives and History, and the Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage at the University of Southern Mississippi.
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Biography
Mr. Monroe " Bill" Winston was born September 12, 1907, in Caseyville, Lincoln County, Mississippi. His parents, Melissa Mitchell and Willie Benjamin Winston, had a total of six children, four boys and two girls. His parents were sharecroppers on the Red Star plantation, the same plantation where his grandmother had been a slave.
Mr. Winston attended school through the second grade. When he was ten years old, Mr. Winston’s family moved to Brookhaven. He stopped his education to begin work in a brick yard. He worked in the brick yard from the time he was ten until he was twenty years old.
In 1929, before he turned twenty- two, Mr. Winston married. He and his wife had two sons. After his first wife passed away, Mr. Winston remarried to Gladys Winston. Of his children, one son is alive and living in Chicago. One son died from a heart attack. Mr. Winston has several grandchildren and great- grandchildren.
As an adult, Mr. Winston farmed, worked as a mechanic, worked in an oil mill, did odd jobs, and worked as a driver for several people. He continues to live in Brookhaven, in the same house he has lived in since 1926.
Table of Contents
I. Growing up on Red Star plantation
II. Grandmother’s memories of slavery and childhood
III. Giving land to former slaves
IV. Education
V. Move to Brookhaven
VI. Punishment at home and at the county prison farm mus- coh. winstonm. doc Page 1 of 40