Mrs. Grayson:… could be more neighborly with both side of the races, white and colored.
Mrs. Mumford:And you were still on Lane street at the time?
Mrs. Grayson:No. No. In ‘24 I was living at 33rd and Oregon street in Rainier Valley. I bought my home out there.
Mrs. Mumford:Was that the first home you owned?
Mrs. Grayson:Yes, first owned in Washington.
Mrs. Mumford:Right, the other houses you rented. I see. So you do think that employment has changed quite a bit.
Mrs. Grayson:Oh yes. Considerable and what...the money that people are earning in these days, that would be ‘75, why...where we would feel that we were getting a great, great, great price if we could get that for wages, that we can t get.
Mrs. Mumford:Ok. Now in terms of the young people today who are coming out of school and being employed and are being able to go into things they're prepared for...
Mrs. Grayson:Yes, well there...it's a better standard for the young people of today than it was in 1913 and on up gradually, times grow better and more considerate for the dark race of people and it wasn't...not so many foreigners here, when I came in 1913. It wasn't so many foreigners and after the people began to learn to know that the black people would work and was good at their work, what few were here, because it was very few, when we came, Then they would begin to hire them more and more people come then to the State of Washington. The first colored people I understood were only coal miners that was in the State of Washington, and they came to mine coal, from other States, They were shipped in for that purpose that's how the colored people got to the State of Washington.
Mrs, Mumford:That's very interesting those was mostly...they were sent to that first...in the coal mining region of Black Diamond and those places.
Mrs. Grayson:Yes, The first coal mine I think were Roslyn, Washington.
Mrs. Mumford:And you had several...did these people come as families or Mrs., Grayson
Mrs, Grayson:Some were shipped in with their families and some came and their family came later. I was able to visit with one family, I was able to visit with the man that went around the different State, able to visit and become well acquainted with Mr. James Shepperson, The man that immigrant (sic) (imported) black people to the State of Washington for coal mining.
Mrs. Mumford:And it was in Roslyn.
Mrs. Grayson:Roslyn, Washington was the first coal mine to my remembrance there after 1t was quite a few different mines all over.
Mrs. Mumford:And after Mr. Shepperson, sort of broke the ground? Mrs. Grayson
Mrs. Mumford:He was the first, then after that many other black people Mrs. Grayson
Mrs. Grayson:Yes, many other black people came after Mr. Shepperson open broke the ground or open the way for the blacks to come to the State of Washington, and mine. Then the older ones that was here mining they scattered around the different parts of Washington, mostly came to Seattle...and Renton. And Mr. Shepperson he were a Mason he was just as high in Mason as he could go.
Mrs. Mumford:Did he organize the Masonic group here?
Mrs. Grayson:Yes...Yes. His sister-in-law. We were very close.
Mrs. Mumford:Then she settled in Seattle. Dad Mr. Shepperson eventually move to Seattle, too?