An Hour Before Daylight: Memories of a Rural Boyhood

The most frequent travelers the Carters saw were itinerant laborers and unemployed persons who either rode in train boxcars or walked along the road. Most were men; a few were families. In 1938, one in four Americans was unemployed, many displaced by mechanization. Lillian never turned away anyone who asked for food or water. They were polite and often offered to do yard work in return for a meal. Lillian learned from one of them that the itinerant laborers had a system of symbols that showed who was likely to provide food. She found the symbols on her mailbox post and left them there.

Chain gangs, Black and white men chained together, worked on the road. Most of the prisoners were white, since crimes by Black people against white ones were rare, and landowners would intercede to keep good workers on their land. White people were also more likely to do white-collar crime.

Carter and his friends were fascinated by gangsters and played games in which they fought FBI agents. Lillian once offered lemonade to the guard and the chained men. Carter also watched the railroad repair gang, all members of the AME church who took pride in their work and sang together.