-: Stuff and all that nasty music, I cannot stand.
With all that cursing and stuff.
And I don't know why our kids want to listen.
I just got my, and I said
this is why all black men have not,
what I want to say not graduated,
but upgrading themselves to different things
because they still stuck in this mode.
They in this mode and they not coming out.
You know and I'm going to tell you somethin' else.
I used to be prejudice against Mexicans.
I got mad because they was coming over and I said
"they taken over our jobs and everything."
That's a lie.
People, I've worked with law enforcement long enough
to know.
You got to pay probation when you get out.
Take any kind of job you can to make it.
I ain't going to work for McDonald's.
They don't make no money.
These Hispanics are coming over, getting these jobs
making supervisors, making their money,
sendin' it back home.
I, the other day, I was coming from the post office
and I decided to ride down another route rather
than coming the way I come down.
You know, Frazier coming home.
I run through there.
Even the houses that the city has built
you ought to see the way those Mexicans had even
changed the frontage of these houses.
How they done fixed them up and stuff.
Our black people won't do nothing.
They want you to give 'em everything here.
And they satisfied the way it is
and they don't try to make no improvements.
I would like to make improvements to do different stuff
right into this house, but I can't.
Because of the home owners association thing.
And I can't do anything.
And I kind of hated that I moved here
in a way, because had I bought some land
out and had my house moved.
I could do whatever I wanted to do out there,
you know, without all this hanging on my head.
I do miss that.
But I moved out here because I liked the neighborhood.
I went to, I went all over the place.
My girlfriend rode with me
and my church member rode with me one time,
and so did my daughter.
But then I came back to this place and I said
"this is where God wanted me to be."
We got sidewalks, underground utilities, and everything.
This is what I look at it.
I'm down the street from the fire department.
Paramedics are right there with my 872.
Anything happened I'm right here.
I got H-E-B's right there.
I got McDonald's.
I got Baskin Robbins.
I got all these places.
Walmart's around the street.
I'm in the middle of everything.
And it's convenient for me rather
than to drive all over town.
So I'm right here where everything is.
So that's why I chose this neighborhood.
And I said, I'm gonna make myself ready
but in order to be a friend,
you got to show yourself friendly.
I met these people before they got there,
and there was a missus on the other side of them.
Her name was Marry too.
I don't know who's in it now, but I met them at the office.
They had to get some old paperwork.
They moved out of their trailer house
in Willis to that house over there.
And then when they moved in over here Carlos Nam
him and his wife, they were very friendly.
You know, they are now too.
And then there was a deputy sheriff from Montgomery County
stayed in the house next door.
I very seldom see him, but I do wave when I do see him.
And I never forget it;
I stopped over there one day and there was
this female over there talking to him
profiling.
I got it, I'll stop there, say something him
because his mother was working, and his stepfather too,
he worked for the Sheriff's department.
And I understand that they had retired,
so I was, you know, stopped there to speak to him,
let him know who I was,
and I worked with your mom and your dad.
And this female goes "can I help you?"
I looked at her;
I said, no, you cannot,
I'm not even talking to you,
I'm talking to him.
I kept right on talking to him.
And I got through, I said, "by the way,
I'm retired for Montgomery County Sheriff's department."
I said, "I'm done, and you got to go,"
and drove off.
Interviewer: Mhm, wow, Wow
-: You know, some of them got that
"I got my badge and I got my gun" attitude,
and I don't like that.
I, I never did do that.
Interviewer: Yeah, so would you say that,
I guess, the more interacts across racial lines
the better community relations become?
-: I think so.
Interviewer: And you mentioned a little bit about,
I guess, the current situation between,
I guess, police brutality
conversation discussions along with Black Lives Matter,
What do you think, as being a retired law
enforcement, being retired law enforcement officer,
what do you think about those kinds of,
I guess, discussions, dialogues that are happening now?
-: I've seen some things that I don't like, you know
and I would have done something different,
like I said, I never drew on anybody.
And a couple of weeks ago
my son was saying he had this party here
for friends and everybody in there
because they won the Superbowl and everything.
And Ms. Bruce, an artist for Marvelousus, they had gone,
him and Linda had gone and picked her up
and she was sitting in this chair.
And she said, "Ms. Tolbert, did you see where
they killed that black young man now?"
And then said Linda said not too far from
some friends of hers, that stuff where that happened.
And so I'm looking at it and I'm wondering why
this guy took out, the guy was already on the ground.
Why would he take out his pistol and put it to his chest?
I don't understand that.
And what was his purpose?
I don't know.
I guess we'll never know.
The boy's dead,
I mean, and you know, he ain't gonna tell the truth.
And the first thing, when I was going into law enforcement
I was told this, two things and it stuck to my mind,
if you're going to do anything wrong
make sure you're by yourself,
cause you ain't gonna tell off on yourself.
Number two, you don't mistreat inmates because,
and this is what Ralph told us,
if you out there getting your butt whooped
and you done treated an inmate wrong,
he gonna watch you get killed.
But if you'd been nice to him or whatever
he'll come to your rescue.
And since I've been, been, been retired,
I've had blacks,
I've had Hispanics,
everybody coming to me; they recognize me
but I don't recognize them because I'm done
and I try to forget about it.
You know, had to explain to a boy it Walmart,
"Ms. Mary, that you?"
"Yeah."
"You don't remember me, do you know?"
"No."
And he told me who he was because I
didn't know who he was.
He'd been the TDC; he's out.
He said, "I got my life together; I'm married
and I got a baby", went around
and brought his baby right up for me to see his baby.
He said, "I want to thank you."
He said, "you was really nice to me."
I said, "well, okay, you're human just like me."
Got a black guy.
I was bailer from, for the, after I retired
I was calling myself, I was going to bailer
for the grand jury.
And I was coming out of the building and he stopped me.
He said "I want to thank you for what you did."
And I said, "what I did?"
He said, "yes, ma'am."
He said, "I'll always respect you.
I'll always love you."
And I'm going, "what did I do?"
He said, "you don't know what you did?"
I said, "Uh uh."
Then he said "I'll tell you one day,"
So next time I saw him I said
"you gonna tell me what it was that you're grateful
for me for and I ain't going to leave,
not gonna leave until you tell me."
He said, "do you remember that we was in
Judge Stovall's court?"
And he got picked up for drugs.
And he said, "I know I should have been going up,
and my bail should have been set high"
Because that wasn't his first time.
So I told Sydus,
that was a judge that had to give up everything
he was working for the, in the DA's office,
I told Sydus, I say, "you always settin' these
bonds and stuff."
I said, "let me set these-" I'm being funny,
"let me set these bails today."
And he gave me all the paperwork!
(Interviewers laughing)
So I set these bails and everything,
and I said to this young man that his bail is $500
and the rest of them.
And they said, "well, how come he got a $500 bail
And I got some such thing"
I'll say, "because that was the way
I was feeling at the time."
I said, "but it's still low."
(Interviewers laughing)
And so he got out of jail that same day.
And so he told me, he said
"I didn't know what I was going to do."
He said, "cause I knew I was in there,
and I was going to be in there
until I go to trial to go to TDC."
He said, "but you set my bail at $500,
and I got out the same day."
I said, "I did?"
You know, I was just being silly that day
but the DA took it,
and the judge OK'd everything that I did.
You know, what I did.
She didn't know I did it, you know,
she thought he did it, but it happened.
Interviewer: Wow.
And so I've had, I've ran into several,
I got stopped on the freeway one day,
and looped to 36, this girl explained it.
I saw these people kept waving the hand for me
to let my window down.
And they were just waving,
and I'm going, Oh, they being silly
So I let my window down.
One of the Cooper units: "Hey, Mrs. Mary!"
I'm going "hey."
And I recognized who she was.
"I know you ain't working no more."
I said, "I see you're not in jail no more."
"Are you being good?"
"I ma'am!"
My light, the light changed,
And they took off.
I said "yeah. Right, right. Wow."
(Interviewer laughing)
But I, I, I, you know, I talked to, you know
and I got talked about because they said I was,
I didn't really try to get too friendly with inmates,
but I would talk to them.
And I said, "y'all got anything y'all want to tell me
or talk to me about?"
I even started priming in, in, in the jail and everything.
And they would talk to me or whatever.
And some of them I did enjoy.
As a matter of fact, there's one now.
She's a cookie and she work at Mumus?
That, it's a, it's a restaurant down from the post office
I went to yesterday to get a hamburger
and French fries, onion rings.
And she was eating with a friend of hers
and she looked at him and when she came
I said, "Oh I guess you're not going to speak to me now."
I may as well come and speak to you,
you know, I've been knowing her family for a long time.
To be honest they stayed in trouble.
So, but uh,
if I made well, yeah
I probably didn't make some enemies.
I don't care.
I don't know.
Cause I haven't met any yet that said they hated me
or didn't like what I did or said.
But everybody I run into that I helped,
I got no problems with them.
-: And you, in your early days, were part of
the NAACP in Houston?
-: I was a member of the NAACP, and
as a matter of fact, I did join him, but things happened
and the guy that was president before Cole White
became president, things just happened to me in,
in a minute, and several of us,
we just quit going and I haven't bothered to go back.
I really haven't
Interviewer: Are you part of any other
community organizations?
-: Um, let me think.
Well, I'm a mentor
at Booker T Washington school for black females.
When school gets started, I been doing it ever
since I retired, since '84- '04.
'04, not '84, '04.
Our black girls, I'm telling you, I had the worst group
of girls this past year.
And I thought I had a group with my cousin was in it.
And I told these girls, as a matter of fact
they made me so mad one Friday, I got up and walked out
and went and told the secretary,
"y'all go get those girls."
I said, "I don't know if I'm coming back or not."
I said, "cause they really did make me mad today,
being stupid."
You know, this one girl was just calling me a liar
about things that she was doing and stuff.
They like to fight.
Why are y'all fighting?
I mean, you know, you need to be getting educated.
I gave examples of my granddaughter.
She's 16.
Her mom has had her involved with stuff just
like I did them when they was growing up,
to stay out of trouble.
But there's one particular girl, bless her heart,
her mother got out of the pen,
and she was doing pretty good before her mama got out,
but after the mama got out,
oh she turned out to be terrible.
And they let me see the video where she was, Oh Lord Jesus.
She was using, oh, she was using 'em.
And I understand her grandfather and the grandmother came
down with a gun and all that stuff.
Getting in the kid's stuff.
I didn't get in kids fights when my kids get in one.
T was a little bitty skinny thing
and she was in a Taika Paul,
she went off and she made a basketball cheerleader.
They wanted to jump on her and everything, you know?
And but her brother right there, Darryl,
and she had a cousin named big Darryl,
big Darryl walked her to the house and
walked her to the bus stop.
He said, nobody jumping on my cousin.
She too little.
Y'all got to come through me.
You know.
Because if you got kicked out that's a lot of
money me and Leon worked to spend on her
to be in different stuff.
Uh uh. Wasn't gonna happen.
Now, Darryl, on the other hand,
bless his heart, he got arrested,
So he got in trouble.
One day in school, he got, got him in trouble.
And they said, "we going to call your mama."
"It ain't gonna do no good.
My mama don't like white folks.
And she ain't gonna believe nothing you say."
So I had played softball, like I said, during the
summer time so one of the teachers knew me.
She said "uh uh, that ain't gonna be here."
And so they called me at my job
and I called my husband at his job.
He told me, no, you stay there, I'm on my way.
Darryl was in the ninth grade.
Lynn went out there to the,
and Mr. Kyle and Mr. Gibson was black.
They were both counselors.
Leon said bring "Darryl up here.
I want all this teachers up here."
When Darryl got there, Leon took his belt off.
They told him, you can't whoop him up here."
Leon said "not only will I whoop him,
I'll whoop you if you try to stop me."
He said, I sent him up here to be educated,
not to come up and act a fool.
He's not coming up here to clown"
He made Darryl apologize to all his teachers.
He walked up in front of all his teachers.
"Y'all got anymore problems, call us."
We'll be here.
We sent our kids to school to learn, not to act a nut.
And so I'm proud of all of them after that
Darryl, some teachers made him sick.
All I heard was, "do I need to call your mom?"
(Interviewer Laughing)
And the first, and I went to school with them the first day.
And the first day T went to Condor high
she said, "mama you don't have to go to school me today.
I'm in high school."
I said, "I'll see you later, sweetie."
(Interviewer laughing)
No, they know mama didn't play.
(Interviewer laughing)
And when my baby boy, he was young.
Now T went to Prayer View, but she didn't graduate.
I went to Ward and he dropped out and went into the Navy.
Tiger went to, he got a scholarship,
a full scholarship to LSU.
I said, "if you go there, and mess up somethin'
I'm going to kill you.
Your sister and brother dropped out,
you ain't gonna drop out, you going to go.
You're going to get your degree.
Do you understand me?"
"Yes, ma'am"
"You ain't going at a party and have fun.
You're going to get an education.
So I don't care if you never catch a ball on the football,
on the football field or, not get it up in your brains
and you don't have to worry about it, okay?"
"Yes, ma'am."
The day he got his bachelors, we was all outside.
He started laughing.
He looked at me, he ran
over and put his arms around my shoulders.
"You see my ma?"
He said, "if I'd have dropped out
of school and got kicked out, I wasn't worried
about my daddy cause I know I can get by on him."
He said, "but, her? Uh uh,
I don't know where I was gonna run and hide."
(Interviewer laughing)
He knew I meant business.
And I told him, I said, "I want you to stay in school."
Told him "you need to stay in school and get your master's."
Well, he had been in school since he was
three years old too.
"I'm tired of school.
I don't want to go to school no more."
We didn't push him.
He stayed over there in Baton Rouge, calling home one day:
"Ma?"
I said "what?"
"I'm going to school to get my master's."
I said "fine."
And it was about two months later, he called,
he said, "ma?"
I said, "what is it?"
He said, "if I quit my job,"
he said, "I can get my master's sooner."
I said, "consider it done. We'll send your money."
So he did.
And he got his master's.
So as a matter of fact, Carter spoke at his graduation
when he got his master's.
We was on the football field.
Interviewer: What did he get his master's in?
-: Don't ask me.
Business? Some kind of something.
I don't even remember.
I don't even remember what he got his ba-
his uh, his uh, what- bachelor's in.
But, and my daughter was going to be a teacher,
but she dropped out.
And Darryl ran track.
Darryl would have probably wound up being a track coach.
Cause he could run.
He loved coaching.
He loved track.
So-
Interviewer: How did your son end up being a
football coach?
-: Who? Ty?
Interviewer: Mhm
-: He did his internship at LSU because,
well one of the coaches there at LSU talked
to him and told him that he would,
he would make a good coach because that boy was talking
about going to be a secret service guy.
I said, "be daggum if that's true."
"I'm not saying the school for that.
You don't need to carry no gun, boy."
I said, "I don't want you to do it.
You can do better than that."
And so one of the coaches at LSU talked to him.
So he did his internship, his first term internship at LSU.
He did his second term in Monroe.
Okay. They couldn't hire him yet, so he went to Ohio
and got a job.
And he was there for six months.
And just as I was getting ready to go for his birthday
in September, he got a call and he called home.
He said "they called."
I say, "boy, if you don't get Louisiana, that's
closer and I can drive there."
I said "that's closer to home."
I said, "come on."
So he got the job coaching
in uh, in uh, Monroe
For Monroe, he went to
let me think.
For Monroe he went to, oh, oh shoot,
Oh, oh God, it's up in,
I can't think of the name of the school now.
It'll come to me in a minute.
I'm looking at it.
But he went there and of course, Barwon was his name,
got into some trouble with females up there
and Tiger was out recruiting and everything.
When he came in, he called
for Ty to come in and said, "come straight to me."
And he told Ty what was going on.
So of course, of course, you know
when the head coach get fired, everybody's fired.
So he left there
and one of the coaches
who was black,
coach
Bobbin? Bolton!
That's in, he was at LSU,
but he got the job at Lafayette.
He had Tiger on the core staff.
So Ty started to coach there.
So when