From Porch Swings to Patios: Oral History Project

Interview of Walter Jones by Milton J. Carpenter and Trina Poole on October 9, 1980.

Walter Jones was born c. 1914 in Albemarle County, and moved to the Starr Hill area of Charlottesville when he was sixteen years old. He compares the county school he went to, Albemarle Training School, with the city school Jefferson High School. Jones remembers Zion Union Church's move -- involving "the whole family" of the church -- from Vinegar Hill to Preston Avenue before the urban renewal of Vinegar Hill, but also remarks on how churches were "splitting" over those years. His neighbors called Walter Jones "the mayor of Sixth Street" because he kept their children in line and could be relied on to shovel snow from their walks in the winter. Jones played a pivotal role in desegrating the city golf courses, fighting whites' assertions that black people weren't interested in golf and securing a day a week of play for black golfers on the McIntire course. Jones comments on what he perceives to be a lack of unity among black people in Charlottesville throughout his lifetime.

From Porch Swings to Patios: An Oral History of Charlottesville's Neighborhoods Prepared by the Department of Community Planning Advisory Board and students of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, 1982 - 1984.