Oral History Interview with Wallace Baptiste Page: 4

                                
BP: How many times was your father married?
WB: One time. I'm one of 11; I was the eldest. I was the
first child, Wallace Baptiste. We had my brother,
Lawrence; I remember him. But there's two or three
siblings, Anatole and Antoinette, and then my brother
[Philip?] -- my brother Philip was killed in an automobile
accident crossing the Mississippi River Bridge in New
Orleans. There was my brother, Bill; my brother, Ray; my
sister, Gloria; my sister, [Willamaya?]; my sister, Louise;
and I might have left somebody out.
BP: Where were you just before you joined the Navy? Were you
working on a farm?
WB: No, I went to Xavier University for two years, Xavier
University of New Orleans; the only Black Negro college in
the country. They're a Catholic university.
BP: You were born what year?
WB: I was born November 4, 1916 in St. James Parish, Louisiana.
My dad moved to Jefferson Parish when I was four years old.
We moved the family across the river from the City of New

Orleans; like Oakland and San Francisco. That's where we
were raised and educated. The first school I attended was
in the Odd Fellows Hall. We had no school, and the Odd
Fellows Hall -- I don't know how to describe that. But we
had four grades: first, second, third, and fourth grade,

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