1. Dale Maharidge and Michael Williamson, And Their Children after Them , p. xviii.

2. University of Texas, An Economic Survey of Wood County , table 19, p. 4.0107. If anything, the population drop was more drastic than the census figures showed; census counters almost certainly undercounted blacks before the Depression and then understated their exodus in the 1930s and 1940s.

3. An Economic Survey of Wood County , p. 3.0101.

4. "Cotton Second Only to Steel in Winning War," Mineola Monitor , Jan. 21, 1943.

5. "Wood Co. Cotton Oil Mill Crushing Imported Soybeans," Wood County Record , Nov. 18, 1943. By 1944 three thousand bales of cotton were ginned in Wood County, half the amount of 1943 and one-third the amount of 1942. See "1943 Cotton Ginning Still behind 1942," Wood County Record , Dec. 19, 1943; "Cotton Ginned about Half of 1943," Mineola Monitor , Dec. 17, 1944.

6. Maharidge and Williamson, And Their Children after Them , p. xvii.

5. "Wood Co. Cotton Oil Mill Crushing Imported Soybeans," Wood County Record , Nov. 18, 1943. By 1944 three thousand bales of cotton were ginned in Wood County, half the amount of 1943 and one-third the amount of 1942. See "1943 Cotton Ginning Still behind 1942," Wood County Record , Dec. 19, 1943; "Cotton Ginned about Half of 1943," Mineola Monitor , Dec. 17, 1944.

7. Farm operator figures from An Economic Survey of Wood County , table 9, p. 4.0101-03.

8. Between 1940 and 1948, Wood County produced 118 million barrels of oil; An Economic Survey of Wood County , p. 2.05.

9. See Maharidge and Williamson, And Their Children after Them , for a superb explanation of the rise and fall of cotton in the South. Also see Nicholas Lemann, The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America , for a history of the black migration out of the South.

10. Interviews with various Mineola, Tex., residents, Mar. 1993.

11. Itsie Collins, interview, San Francisco, Calif., Feb. 3, 1993.

12. "Winnsboro Youth Held for Evading Draft Board," Mineola Monitor , Apr. 5, 1942; "Three Men in County under Federal Charge," Wood County Sunday Record , May 24, 1942; "Draft Evaders Get Pen Term," Mineola Monitor , Oct. 8, 1942; "Selective Service Moves against Draft Dodgers," Wood County Sunday Record , Oct. 17, 1943.

13. "Citizens, Sect Group Clash at Winnsboro," Wood County Record , Dec. 17, 1942.

14. "Draft Board Moves Offices to Mineola Post Office Monday," Mineola Monitor , July 16, 1942.

15. "Board Re-Classifying 3-A Men in Category Two at Present," Mineola Monitor , Aug. 6, 1942.

16. "Negroes Called in Cooperation with War Department," Mineola Monitor , Nov. 5, 1942; "Negro Registrants Thought Delinquent," Wood County Sunday Record , July 1, 1943.

17. Hamilton Boswell, interview, Sacramento, Calif., Jan. 28, 1993.

18. Lovia Brown Boyd, interview, Ennis, Tex., Feb. 22, 1993.

19. Itsie Collins, interview, San Francisco, Calif., Feb. 3, 1993.

20. Robert Scheer, "Mr. Speaker: The Flash," Los Angeles Times Magazine , June 23, 1991.

21. Interviews with Gwendolyn Brown Hill, Dallas, Tex., Feb. 20, 1993, and Lovia Brown Boyd, Ennis, Tex., Feb. 22, 1993.

22. Gwendolyn Brown Hill, interview.

23. Rosa Lee Staples, interview, Mineola, Tex., July 9, 1993.

24. Descriptions of picking berries from interviews with Gwendolyn Brown Hill and Lovia Brown Boyd.

25. Lovia Brown Boyd, interview.

26. An Economic Survey of Wood County , p. 4.0103-06.

27. Lovia Brown Boyd, interview.

28. Brown's jobs based on his recollections and those of his family and friends; John Balzar, "The Speaker as a 'Living Piece of Art,'" Los Angeles Times , Jan. 22, 1984.

29. Jerry Carroll, "A Long Way from Texas," sidebar to "Willie Brown: Will the Real Speaker Stand Up?" San Francisco Chronicle , July 16, 1984.

30. Willie Brown speech, school reunion banquet, Mineola, July 9, 1993.

31. Profile of Willie Brown by Jennifer Kerr, Associated Press, Apr. 1, 1984.

32. James Walton, interview, Tacoma, Wash., Nov. 15, 1993.

33. Lovia Brown Boyd, interview.

34. Approximately five thousand acres of forest was cut for firewood each year in Wood County, or twenty-five million board feet of lumber. Economists said that the woods were over-cut by 50 percent each year in the fall after the cash-crop harvest; An Economic Survey of Wood County , p. 2.0401. Those who lived there at the time also described how physically barren the hills were during the Depression.

35. Lovia Brown Boyd, interview.

36. Details of Minnie's trips home based primarily on the recollections of Gwen-dolyn Brown Hill, Lovia Brown Boyd, and James Walton.

37. Minnie's children referred to the train as the "Six-Eighteen" for the usual time of its arrival, 6:18 P.M. Minnie had to be back in Dallas to be available for weekend service, especially if there was a dinner party to be served. Although she worked Sundays, she was able to attend services at the Good Street Baptist Church, where she remained a member for the rest of her life. Lovia Brown Boyd, interview.

38. Reporter John Balzar tells of accompanying Minnie Collins Boyd on a shopping trip and then hearing her later describe the day's events. Her version was far more interesting than what had actually happened.

39. Scheer, "Mr. Speaker: The Flash."

40. Lovia Brown Boyd, interview.

41. Gwendolyn Brown Hill, interview.

42. Willie Brown, interview, Assembly floor, Sacramento, Calif., Mar. 4, 1993.

43. Interviews, Gwendolyn Brown Hill; Lovia Brown Boyd; and Baby Dalle Hancock, Mineola, Tex., July 9, 1993.

44. School spending statistics based on An Economic Survey of Wood County , tables 3-5, p. 4.1701. Per-pupil spending differences between blacks and whites narrowed in the 1940s, but the increased spending for blacks reflected the expansion of the Negro school for high school students. The name of the school changed at various times; at one time called "South Ward," the school's final name when it was closed was "McFarland School," named for a legendary black teacher in town, Attie McFarland, who taught first grade to a generation of blacks. Descriptions of books, classrooms, and school conditions based on numerous interviews with graduates of Mineola Colored High School.

45. Clarence Slayton, interview, Mineola, Tex., July 9, 1993.

46. Willie Brown as told to Paul Burka, "Good-bye to Mineola," Texas Monthly , Jan. 1986.

47. Ibid.

48. Dozens of graduates of Mineola Colored High School were interviewed at their class reunion in July 1993. Although none wanted to return to the days of segregation, all remembered their school years warmly.

49. Frank Crawford, interview, Mineola, Tex., July 9, 1993.

50. Gwendolyn Brown Hill, interview.

51. Ibid.

52. Ibid.

53. Willie Brown, interview, Assembly floor, Sacramento, Calif., Sep. 10, 1993.

54. Gwendolyn Brown Hill, interview.

55. Interviews, Marcus and Emma McCalla, Mineola, Tex., Feb. 23, 1993.

56. Virginia London McCalla, interview, Mineola, Tex., Feb. 23, 1993.

57. Story told by Billy McCalla, Mineola, Tex., July 9, 1993.

58. Lovia Brown Boyd, interview.

59. C. Eric Lincoln and Lawrence Mamiya, The Black Church in the African American Experience , p. 316.

60. Balzar, "The Speaker as a 'Living Piece of Art.'"

61. Joan Chatfield-Taylor, "An Assemblyman Who Mixes Politics and Fashion," San Francisco Chronicle , Apr. 20, 1971.

62. Willie Brown, interview, San Francisco, Calif., Dec. 15, 1993.