Albert Washington

Yvonne Cleveland: What is one thing you would want to share with people today who might be interested in this kind of work? Another question is: do you think this kind of work is still in existence?

Albert Washington: Well, it is now, but when I first started, it was all Black [people] doing it because it was hard work, and then when the white [people] found how much money was in it they kind of took it over. I remember when I started, I went to rent scaffolds and I had to get the man who worked for me to rent them for me because they wouldn’t rent them to me because I was black, and he would have to go rent them for me. So, after a few years, we bought everything we needed: scaffold, tractors and lifts, and everything [else]. Then people that knew us knew we were going to do a good job, and that’s how we went on like that.

Yvonne Cleveland: Good reputation.

Albert Washington: Never advertised or nothing. Just word of mouth and people that knew it. We worked every day, and we wanted to work.

Yvonne Cleveland: Wow!

Albert Washington: So that was a blessing.

Yvonne Cleveland: That was a blessing, I was just going to say it was a blessing for you to be able to have that much work. Didn’t have to advertise, just word of mouth, but that goes to show how good you were at your job.

Albert Washington: And David Rankin used to tell us whatever you do, teach somebody else, so that’s what we tried to do.

Yvonne Cleveland: Pass it on

Albert Washington: Yeah.

Priya Sreenivasan: How do you teach someone?

Albert Washington: Well, the thing with it is, everybody that I taught we paid them. Taught them the trade and paid them to learn.

Yvonne Cleveland: That doesn’t happen too often, you get paid to learn.

Albert Washington: That’s right, but we started them out, taught them and stuff. ‘Cause I took it in school, but we taught all those guys, my nephew, and my son, out on the job and paid them too.

Yvonne Cleveland: Did you ever have someone that you were trying to teach, and you said to yourself, he just ain’t going to get it.

Albert Washington: Yeah, some were like that.

Yvonne Cleveland: What made you interested in becoming a brick mason?

Albert Washington: Well, I took it in high school at Chatham County, Horton High School, and they used to interview us and say who’s going to college? If you weren't going to college, they would teach you a trade—carpeting, brick masonry and all that. It just went on from there. When we graduated, they sent us to Burlington to work for a man named Richard Robinson, and then I came to Chapel Hill and started working for DB Rankins; he stays over in Northside too, him and Roland Harris. And I went to work for William E. Smith, he’s from Chapel Hill. Me and my partner, Barry Kelly, we were in business for, I think, 37 years. And we started working in the triangle area.

Yvonne Cleveland: So, you took up the trade in high school and it was because you didn’t want to go to college. So you weren’t interested in [or] were there other trades?

Albert Washington: Yeah, we couldn’t afford to go to college, and then I wasn’t interested in it. I was trying to work and make some money.

Yvonne Cleveland: Were there any other trades that you might have been interested in? What made you become a brick mason?

Albert Washington: My uncle was a brick mason, and I kind of took that after him.

Yvonne Cleveland: When you were younger, did you lay bricks with him? Did he train you a little bit?

Albert Washington: A little. Mostly, I worked for DB Rankins. He stayed over in Northside too, and Roland Harris they were partners. I went to work for them, then I went to work for William E. Smith.

Yvonne Cleveland: How old were you when you went to work?

Albert Washington: I had to be about 19, but I started off working down where my mother worked at [a] fraternity. I used to work on the produce truck, delivering groceries to the fraternity when I was about nine or ten years old.

Yvonne Cleveland: Nine! What! I guess you didn’t need work permits back then.

Albert Washington: Then I went to work at Southern Insurance. It was an insurance company that was on Main Street, and they used to pay me seven dollars a week.

Yvonne Cleveland: What! Wow!

Albert Washington: I went to work at the Five and Ten, that was over there on Main Street. I was just trying to get into something to make some money, and at that time, good money was in laying brick.

Yvonne Cleveland: Laying brick because a lot of things were being built at that time?

Albert Washington: Yeah.

“Everything you do, just make it look good and have pride in what you do. And we had a lot of pride in what we did.”

- Albert Williams

Albert Washington is a former brick mason and Black business owner. He and his business partner, Barry Kelly, have been in business together for 37 years. Over that time, he’s seen many changes in brick masonry. He reflects on what made him interested in becoming a brick mason and talks about the projects he’s worked on. After this, he notes what he thinks is the hardest thing about being a brick mason and what he liked about the job. He discusses his family history in brick masonry and gives advice to those interested in the profession.

This interview is part of the Marian Cheek Jackson Center’s Oral History Trust. Albert (Bruce) Washington, III grew up in Chatham County with his mother and in Northside with his father and extended family. He was an only child, but grew up in the context of many cousins, aunts, and uncles who cared for him whenever both of his parents were at work, working long shifts in fraternity houses at UNC. He graduated from Horton High School, where he began learning masonry, and went on to work for several major masons and significant mentors in the Triangle area. He then went on to start his own business with his partner Barry Kelley, Washington and Kelley Masonry. They ran this successful business together for 37 years and taught a lot of people the trade of masonry. Albert reflects on his life growing up in the church at Hamlet’s Chapel as a young member of the Male Chorus there, and his return to the church at St. Joseph’s CME later in his life with his wife, Elaine Washington. He shares about starting the Male Chorus at St. Joseph’s along with several other key church leaders, and serving as a Trustee for the church for over 20 years now. He shares about how both his mother and father came to own land in Chatham County and Northside respectively, and the importance of preserving that property as long as possible now that he owns the land. He reflects on the early days of his business and the challenges and success over time, along with the joys of teaching his nephews and son (and many others) to be great masons. He shares stories of growing up in Northside and Chatham County surrounded by family, with such a close network of family members, and summers spent playing with cousins and neighbors at Hargraves. He describes his experience working at the University after he sold his business, first in housekeeping and then in the masonry department, and compares this experience with that of running his own business. The interview concludes with reflections on his mother and his great love for his mother, including the sadness of her passing and the joys of being so close to her throughout his whole life. He shares about her kind, strong personality, and the love that so many had for her – and her great love for his wife, children, and grandchildren.