Dawn Johnson
Transcript
Carlehr Swanson: [00:00] So, Miss Johnson, starting, can you state your full name and spell it.
Dawn Johnson: Dawn, DWN. Roxanne Starks, STAR. KS. Johnson, JOHN SON.
Carlehr Swanson: [00:16] Thank you. Okay, so can you take us back and tell us when and where you were born?
Dawn Johnson: I was born on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, June tenth. 1962, at the University of Virginia Medical Center, in Albemarle County.
Carlehr Swanson: [00:34] Great. Okay, what family do you have in Esmont? And how did your family end up in Esmont?
Dawn Johnson: Currently I have my family, my husband, and myself. And I have 2 sisters that also residing as my one that who lives right behind me, and the other who lives about a mile away. My grandfather, was a lifelong member of Esmont, and he and his family 2 generations before him, also lived on the property that I currently live on. We have about 25 open acres, maybe which houses 6 houses, all of starxes, and his wife, Mary Virginia Gray, Starks. She was also born in Esmont, or her fam family came down from Campbell County. In the late 18 hundreds, I believe.
[01:36] And so yeah, but our our property has been in our family since the mid 18 hundreds. If I am, believe I'm remembering correctly. And so we currently have about 6 homes on about open, maybe 25 acres.
Carlehr Swanson: [01:57] Wow, that is great. Okay? So growing up in Esmont, what communities were you a part of and describe the neighborhood and communities you grew up in.
Dawn Johnson: Basically, just Esmont. Again, a lifelong member. In our community. Back in that day. BF Yancey elementary schools are local school. I belong to Cheston Grove Baptist Church on Cheston Grove Road. I've been a lifelong member there. So my day-to-day, from what I remember, playing with lots of cousins again, because we're on family property. And all of the homes and all of the homes had children.
[02:41] We will walk the dirt roads, dusty roads. We will play in the woods, the local creeks occasionally going to the James River to swim in the James River. But yeah, basically, just playing with cousins all around. We would go to the movies, to local restaurants. My parents would take us out at least once a month to they would take us to Natural Bridge, Virginia. And I can remember playing in caverns and creeks in that area, going swimming as well as Nelson County. My mom was from Nelson County, so we did a lot in Nelson County. Swimming and bike riding and things of that nature in Nelson County.
Carlehr Swanson: [03:31] Great. What were some of those restaurants you went to? And you talked about the movies? Where was the movies?
Dawn Johnson: Wow! I don't know if I remember exactly where it was because there were so many of us packed in.
Carlehr Swanson: [03:45] There you go!
Dawn Johnson: Sorry it was. It was 7 of us, and my mom always took at least 2 or 3 of our cousins. A lot of kids could fit in A and pala back in those days. But I the one that I remember very much was caravan, which was on 29, near the post office. And then there was a restaurant out on 29 and rail road. Oh, my goodness! I don't remember the name of it. But it was yeah. 29 and railroad, the movie theater. Honestly, I don't remember where it was. I know it was in Charlottesville.
Carlehr Swanson: [04:24] Thank you.
Dawn Johnson: Yeah, but the caravan. We went there every Friday evening.
Carlehr Swanson: [04:30] Okay, great. So a mixture of like Esmont community familiar things being around family, but also sometimes coming to Charlottesville and going to. Anyway.
Carlehr Swanson: [04:39] And things like that.
Dawn Johnson: Yes, most definitely. Most definitely. And also we would go to Nelson County. There was a little restaurant in Nelson County on 29 that we would go there often to get ice cream. And again Mom would just load us all up in the vehicle and we go up to it was called Colleen's Ice Cream stand, and we would go there to get ice cream, and because my grandparents my mom's parents, lived in Nelson County we would often, always. We didn't go to Nelson County without going to Colleen's to get ice cream. Yeah, we would take our little nipple, and that would bounce a cone of ice cream.
Carlehr Swanson: [05:19] Good days.
Dawn Johnson: For real.
Carlehr Swanson: [05:22] Okay, so what were some of the staple institutions and centers of the community that bonded Esmont together?
Dawn Johnson: Wow! You know everything. In the early seventies was so precious and innocent. I think churches, strong upbringing and discipline. But just you know, we we united from church to church, and our parents, friends, homes, the gardeners, and just different people throughout the, the mills family, just different families within the Esmont, the overall Esmont community, even though I live in what's considered Chestnut Grove. My! My parents, both especially my mother, mother, was very active in the Esmont community and other areas. So she was that person working the election poll and Pto and just everywhere. I can remember she and my auntie working together to. We lived on our dirt road. And the dirt road literally had holes in it, that when we walk the road we would have to be careful, because my mom would always say, Okay, you all could fall in one of those craters which was one of the mud holes. And she worked so hard to have our road fixed so that it would be drivable, and so forth.
[06:52] She was a pioneer, and I think I took after her in that respect. And though, you know, they fixed that road and so forth. It wasn't paved until, like maybe 2018, which is really sad. But those kind of things. Mama took us to the voting polls, got us involved in civil rights, the, the right to vote. And while we were voting and what we were voting on she made us politically aware of our surroundings. She taught us a difference in black people and white people. And why sometimes white people were privileged or thought to be privileged. But she would also remind us that, Hey, this is where you live, and this is what what you have. And she told us I'd appreciate that in the home that we grew up in we were probably one of the first blacks in, most definitely, the Chesnut Grove area. But we lived in a two-story. 4 bedroom home with bread and water and all the amenities.
[08:05] And for years we were the only home in our neighborhood that had run a water and electricity. But again my home was built in the net in 1937. I believe my father grew up in the home that I lived in. And a lot of folks didn't have what we have. We work gardens as children, and we also help my mom and grandmother take vegetables and fruit because we had orchids to other families homes, and they sold what they could sell, and others they just gave away.
[08:44] I can remember baking with my grandmother and my mom and my auntie. and we were baked big, baked. And then they would either go out and sell, or just give away baked goods to people that might not have had to had the funds to purchase them.
Carlehr Swanson: [09:07] Wow! All of that was really great. I wanna go back to your mom a little bit. So the the act of this work that she did. Was it like a part of a church, or was she an NAACP, or any organizations? You remember she did that work with.
Dawn Johnson: My mom was she was involved in the NAACP . She was also involved in the Pto. She, she was just every she was just, you know, everything in the community. She. the belonged in the Women's Auxiliary, which I think a lot of this came out of the Women's Auxiliary, and just kind of branched into other avenues of just working in the church and for the community. And I think that's how she kind of got started. I can remember her vividly from. I guess, our early ages when during segregation and we left Bf. Yancey School and had to, it was, integrated into Scottsville school, and I think I went to Scottsville in the sixth grade, and they had to do a segregation and because she worked. It was very hard for a lot of students, but because she worked at Scottsville it made it a little bit easier for us. Me and my siblings.
[10:31] Just because of the vast change of leaving Yancy and going to Scottsville, and I think I was in sixth grade when that happened.
Carlehr Swanson: [10:43] Okay, okay, great. And you said the church is kind of united together. What were some other churches? So you went to Chestnut Grove? What were some other ones?
Dawn Johnson: Other churches. Also in Esmont was New Hope Baptist Church and New Green Mountain Baptist Church, in Mount Pleasant Baptist Church. We, with fellowship with all 3 of those churches, doing annual revivals. As a child we participated in the choir, and was very active in the church, so if there was a service elsewhere, and we needed to go and be on that church's program service for program. We would go sing, and if there was no one else. My mom would take myself and my siblings. It was 7 of us. And we became that formal choir. Or she would have us praying or reading Scripture, whatever was necessary. Yeah.
Carlehr Swanson: [11:44] That's great. Thank you. Okay. What places did you attend for fun? Slash entertainment?
Dawn Johnson: [11:56] I'm gonna go back to a lot of visiting in the Nelson County area. Nelson County. We would go to different parks. Again to the rivers. We were like little beach bums. But of course it was rivers and not beaches then but in the Isma community, the James River, we would go out to be a BF Yancey and use the park, the, the scoop! I'm sorry. The outside equipment at the school. The James Rover, of course. And you know it didn't seem like it sounds maybe crazy now, but because it was so many of us. Fun for us was a lot of times just playing in the yard kickball, dodgeball, basketball, football. We had a creek right down from our house, so we would go down and play in the creek, and I think that was probably our best. But we could have fun at home all day long, and I think that's what we did a lot. If we didn't go to Nelson County, or maybe down to Scottsville there were some little restaurants. I don't remember the names, but we would occasionally go there, and of course, back up to Nelson County and do things. But we would.
[13:23] We have playhouses down through the woods. Makeshift lot of houses that we would play inand trails through the woods that we could walk for days and by the time all of my cousins and my siblings got together, it could be easily 18, 20, 22 of us 16, 4, and we had a local store in our neighborhood. That was maybe a mile from our house, and we could walk there. I bought bubble gum. I can remember buying penny candy. A panna ice cream was like 45 cents or something. And so that was my treat. Butter pecan. Yeah.
Carlehr Swanson: [14:08] Great great. Do you remember the name of the store?
Dawn Johnson: We? You know what? It's funny, because we cannot remember the name, the store, but the owners.
Carlehr Swanson: [14:17] Because.
Dawn Johnson: The owners was married, and Walker Rush. And that's all we are recalled. It was Marian Walker’s store.
Carlehr Swanson: [14:25] Okay.
Dawn Johnson: And as part of the project that you working on. That was one of the questions of the smaller businesses in the Esmont community, and I don't think anyone ever came up thought of what that name was. Yeah. And I and I actually saw Walker a couple of days ago, and I was like oh, I should have asked him what was their store call. We have no clue. We just called it Marion Walker Store.
Carlehr Swanson: [14:51] I like it. That's good. Okay? So you kind of talked about this a little bit. But what schools did you attend? And what were your experiences?
Dawn Johnson: Let's see. So kindergarten through fifth grade. I was at Bf Yancey and Scottsville, sixth grade, Walton Middle School, Seventh and eighth grade. Jack Jewett was ninth grade and Albemarle High School 10 through 12. Being at Yancey. I think I just kind of went to school, and every day I was ready to go home at the end of it every day. I never was subject to any prejudice or any bad moments. I enjoyed my elementary days even being bus to Scottsville in sixth grade. It wasn't a bad experience for me, because my mom was there, and I had all of my siblings close by. For other people, because I was lighter skinned. I think, through all of my school years I always felt a little out of place, or I could be on the line with black or black and white.
[16:14] And I saw I felt like I saw disparities when we went to Scottsville. And then, when I would talk to my mom about it, she would told me that it was all in my head, and I think she tried very hard not to make us feel any different, or let us think that we were any different from the next person. I was an athlete. Once I got to Walton, and so I played volleyball and basketball in seventh and eighth grade and in high school at Jewett I played junior basketball and volleyball. And when I got to high school I played basketball, red track. And one year of softball, and I never had any issues in High school, and once I got to Jewett.
[17:05] I had one incident at Jewett, and that's when the movie, the roots roots was out. And because I was so fair skinned. A girl came up to me and remarked. Made some remarks to me regarding the movie roots, and I didn't really know what she was talking about, because we didn't watch the movie roots at the time. And she kept pushing me in. It ended up being a brawl in our classroom business. Nova. Jack was the math teacher in the class and it literally broke out into a all brawl fight, and I got suspended, and I had no clue. Why I was being suspended because I had no clue, and this is the naepness that I had then.
[17:53] I was not aware that she related me to something that I hadn't even seen but she remarked on my hair, the color of my skin, and compared me to someone in the movie roots. And she stabbed me with a pencil because I was unresponsive to her. And so I'm, that fight brought my bore me 3 days of suspension, and I'm still sitting in the office, not realizing why I am suspended from school because I didn't even throw a punch when I think about it nowadays.
[18:31] But it brought me 3 days suspension, and as I thought about it, and the assistant principal continued to try to explain it to me, and I said, You can't suspend me from school. My mom's going to kill me. And, more importantly, I can't play basketball. I said. But really my mom's gonna kill me and bury me in the backyard.
[18:52] I said. We have lots of trees and lots of property, and she's going to bury me. She's going to kill me because she doesn't expect us to come to school and get in trouble. And so he called my mama and told her what happened. And she basically was like, no, Roxanne was not fighting anyone- which I didn't. And sign the pattern to take 3 days in school suspension because I think after a while. He also believed that my mama would kill me.
[19:26] So that was probably my worst experience in ninth grade and in high school. I didn't have any issues. I think I was a floating athlete. Yeah, just happy to blossom.
Carlehr Swanson: [19:45] Wow! Thank you for sharing that. So do you recall major historic events that affected Esmont. Whether, like divestment, redlining, gentrification, anything like that. And then I have some follow-ups. After that.
Dawn Johnson: Okay, not really. I think we were sheltered from so much of what was going on.
Carlehr Swanson: [20:11] Okay.
Dawn Johnson: Mama would tell us things when we needed to know. But I think we were really sheltered from a lot of stuff. I think my older brothers may have known but I think the way that mama would tell us things was on a need to know basis. And I think there was some, so that we didn't need to worry. But also, I think she truly felt like we didn't know. You know, we just didn't know, yeah, because we didn't do a lot of watching TV and stuff. Even though we had a TV, we could only watch wild kingdom and something else. And cartoons on Saturday mornings. So but no, not as a child. I really don't remember a lot of it. Or at least not in the immediate moment of things happening as such.
Carlehr Swanson: [21:10] Okay, so what changes have you seen in your lifetime in Esmont?
Dawn Johnson: Development. Paved roads. Thank you. Lord! Oh, nice. Culture changes! When I was a child in the Chestnut Grove community we may have had 4 Caucasian families in Keston Grove alone. Like the road that I currently live on Park Lane. When I was a child we may have had 10 houses on that road. Even when I moved back home in ‘90, ‘93, we probably might have had 14 houses. I know we didn't have enough to have a paved road. And now on Pocket Lane we have 22 homes, I believe. So you know. Development, of course. And it's no longer, predominantly African American neighborhood. It is most definitely mixed. Almost every home that sold a Caucasian family moves in. In the Esmont community at large. We have more stores. We have a beautiful community center. Which is nice and convenient. We also have a park. So instead of take having to take our children and grands to Scottsville or Barbara, or somewhere form the play. We can take them, you know we can.
[22:55] We can have fun in our own neighborhood. Just what Abe Brooks has done with the Yancey Community Center. Sampson Park. You know, taken advantage of it. Trails and the park and the softball field like the basketball courts. Those kind of things we can entertain there. I think that is such a big asset for the S. One community. If you're a home body person and don't feel the need to go outside of your community, if you want to stay as mom- based. I think it has grown. I think our churches have grown. Yeah, I see lots of growth.
[23:44] I mean, we would as children, we would be out of power if there was a storm or something that came along, we would be out of electricity. Seem like for weeks at a time. And now we can actually have a storm, and we may be out of power for a day or 2. So that's a big improvement.
Carlehr Swanson: [24:04] Yes. Have you noticed any changes in maybe, like the age demographic?
Dawn Johnson: Not really. We have a lot of retired people that has moved into our community. I know we have in the Chesnut Grove community. We have folks that moved here from Jersey and Pennsylvania and Connecticut. Occasion folks. They retired and brought property here like years ago, and they have come and built on the properties. So that's a change. And that's bringing in at least, I think I'm gonna say, maybe 6 families into our community the board property years ago. When I stop and talk to them or meet them somewhere and talk to them.
[24:59] And they were like, Oh, yeah, I bought this property back in 1985, but we didn't move here until you know 2000. So I found that to be very interesting. But I'm I'm assuming that. And there are a lot of the property probably went up for taxes and so forth. For really cheap, and they brought and brought into it. But yeah, so in that respect,yeah, age specific, maybe. But that's isolated to the Chestnut Grove community. I'm not real sure about the, is my community as a whole. I do see again. A lot of black families, now have Caucasian folks and then.
And it hurts a little bit, but at the same time I know that there's generational differences. And a lot of younger people do not want to. You reside in, you know, quote unquote the country. Math.
Carlehr Swanson: [26:03] Very soon.
Dawn Johnson: Yeah.
Carlehr Swanson: [26:07] Especially when sometimes families have land in these areas. You know, the young people can keep it going and take care of it and keep it in the family.
Dawn Johnson: Thank you.
Carlehr Swanson: [26:18] So what do you remember about Porters Road?
Dawn Johnson: Only that it was the throughway to Esmont. It was thriving. Thewater supermarket was one of the thriving stores and yeah. That was our bus. Stop for the athletic bus. I have quite a few cousins that live on that road, but that's about it other than it'd be in the through way. Youou know, pretty much through as want.
Carlehr Swanson: [26:56] Okay. Okay? So you probably touched on a few of these. But what are some of your favorite places in Esmont? What memories, stories, events, do you associate with them? So maybe you can tell a particular story about one of your favorite places something like that.
Dawn Johnson: Well honestly. My favorite place in Esmont is home. So when we think about what our families had, how long our families have had it, had it property. I'm a homebody. And I relate to home. I relate to the Starks property. I have made, with the help of my husband. I have made our home our sanctuary.
[27:48] Yes, I could go to Virginia Beach, and I could go wherever and have a event. Our home sits on 2.3, 3 acres, but it hosts every event that I have and I love my home. I love my family heritage. Whether from a wedding to a family reunion. To any event. Birthday parties all year long. Repasses after family after family funerals. I host them all at our home. I love my home. I love the Thor set in my backyard is my baby sister beyond her house. It's probably that my children can build on. There's a creek that I played in as a child. The fields that I ran up and down in my front yard is where my as a child was my our barn that I played in, and I crawled from, you know, top to bottom, and I got to milk the cows and ride the cows.
[29:05] We had a cow named Big Bill, and we must have had that cow for 10 years. We watched her give birth. If we needed to get to into a apple tree or a pear tree, or a peach tree. Big Bill and she was female, but she was staying there. We would get up on her and stay in to get into the apple tree. Peach tree. Pear tree, plum tree. Those are my memories. Yeah, my family, my home. Yes, we mingle with cousins and people in the Esmont community and at the community center and at various churches and whatnot. But my memories are all on Pocket Lane in the Stark community. With my family. And that probably sounds really selfish. But yeah, those are my memories. I tell my children all the time.This is me. This is who I am. This is Dawn Roxanne.
[30:58] I mean, you know, I can remember getting fruit in. And my mom and grandma showing me how to make preserves and how to can vegetables and how to, you know. Need your DOE for your pie, you know. We just picked all these peaches. Let's make a pie: fresh from the trees, you know, fresh from your picking. So I honestly would have to say, my memories are on our Starks property. And that's that's like the love of my life for real.
Carlehr Swanson: [31:37] I love that answer. That's a beautiful answer. Homeis where the heart is. I love it.
Dawn Johnson: Home is where my heart is. Home is where I am, and I live there all my life minus 10 years. I left in 1983, when I married my High school sweetheart and we built started. Built it in 1992. We came back in and we've been there. You know, with God's blessing, every sense. And so we have. We've made our home, our sanctuary. And love.
Carlehr Swanson: [32:15] Great. So my last question. What do you value most about what you do now? How has Esmont shaped your worldview?
Dawn Johnson: I think his mind has shaped my worldview in. We're small but we're broad. We have purpose. We stay in together. I think a lot of value come from small town standing together, standing together. Be a prominent even against the odds. Working together shoulder to shoulder, bringing Esmont back to vitalization matters. And I thank God for the vision that Ed Brooks has had: to make this happen but also all of the Esmontonians working together to make it happen. Whether it's roadside cleanup being in up the park. Just bringing it all together, every event that we host, we is host with pride and a sense of love and attention to all that we grew up with and that we want it to be sustained to have sustainability within the Esmont community.
[33:46] And I just think it's beautiful, I think, about our ancestors and what this means to them. And I think they would be proud of us.
Carlehr Swanson: [34:01] It would be. Yes. it's amazing. It's so important to preserve our history and pass it on and teach other people about it, and to stick together the most important.
Dawn Johnson: It is, it is.
Carlehr Swanson: [34:16] So what do you value most about what you do now?
Dawn Johnson: Oh, wow! I value my work in the community. I think I make a difference. I value my work in the church. I'm very busy within the Chester Grove Baptist Church. I am part of our council. I am our church clerk. I think I make a big difference I bring.I think I bring a lot to our church because I'm a manager in my position at the University of Virginia, and I've been here for 43 years at Uva. And so at, I'm pretty sure I bring some value and self worth and I can make a difference in decision making. But also being, I call myself, or consider myself a lifelong number. I think when we can work together and make it happen. That's value within itself. When we can bring our own, our own perspectives, and we can collaborate, you know, on a different scale and bring it all together.
Carlehr Swanson: [35:33] That's very true, very true. So Ms. Johnson asked you a lot of questions. But is there anything I haven't asked that you would like to share.
Dawn Johnson: I don't know if I stated my parents' names, and I think that's important. Given that I'm number 6 of 7, and so I am the daughter of Lewis, Jr. And Barbara Eps, EPPS. Starks.
Carlehr Swanson: [35:56] Thank you. Okay. Anything else, any any stories, any places, any people?
Dawn Johnson: No, I don't think so.
Carlehr Swanson: [36:08] Okay, we covered a lot. We got a lot. Okay, I'm gonna stop the recording.