*Interview with Abe Whitess*
--_David Holt_
_"MAYOR OF DOUGLASVILLE"_
When the sunshine is warm, Abe Whitess, "Mayor of Douglasville," sits
outside his cabin door near Bay Minette, Alabama, and watches the stream
of traffic on US 31 just beyond his bare feet, "a' restin'" in the
soothing sand. More than 90 years ago he was born not many miles from
this same cabin over in Mississippi as a slave of Col. Rupert, who owned
plantations in Alabama and Mississippi.
"I come over to Alabama after the surrender," Abe Whitess told his
interviewer after he had retired with dignity to put on shoes before he
permitted his photograph to be taken. "I went to a plantation in Butler
County fust and then came on down here to Bay Minette.
"Slavery wasn't so bad. Col. Rupert was a good marster, but he lived way
over in Mobile and us was at his Scooby (Scooba) plantation. That was in
Kemper County and his overseer there sho was handy with a whup. I was a
cotton hand and spent most of my time totin' water for the other hands.
When Mr. Lincoln 'mancipated us we was free and I didn't carry any more
water. It wasn't 'twell after the surrender I went to Butler County,
where Colonel Rupert had him another plantation.
"I come down here to Bay Minette a long time ago. I us'ta be chairman of
the Republican party in Baldwin County here, but when the Republicans
got in they made the white gem'mun what took my job postmaster. Then the
bank I had my money in went busted in another Republican time and I
loses $658.05. I votes for Mr. Roosevelt now."
Abe Whitess stopped to take a chew of his favorite tobacco and admitted
that he lived alone in his one-room cabin by preference. He doesn't want
women "botherin' 'round his place and ain't had no truckin' with 'em for
years." He cooks on the hearth just as his mammy did before him decades
ago in the slave quarters of Colonel Rupert's plantation.
[Illustration: _Abe Whitess, Bay Minette, Alabama_]
Despite his years, he is well able to take care of himself. He carries
his nine decades lightly, and his kindly face is topped by a wealth of
snow white hair. Though he lost money in the bank failure that made him
a Democrat in politics, Abe owns 14 acres of land, part of which he
farms. He has cleared a portion of it for a baseball diamond which is
rented to Negro teams, who play there frequently. The fee is always
collected before a ball is thrown.
Several years ago he donated a part of the acreage to be used for a
public road which opened up a portion of Douglasville, the suburb in
which he lives, where a number of Negroes had developed a residential
section. His people named him then and since "Mayor of Douglasville,"
without office or emolument, but Abe wears the title with a dignified
content for his remaining years.