Post Contributed by Mattison Bond, Project Outreach and Research Associate
Digging Through the Tapes: Celebrating Black Business Month in August.
While we celebrate Black History month in February, August also holds a number of African American commemorations and celebrations that are recognized. Marcus Garvey Day is celebrated on August 17th. Nat Turner’s Revolt and the beginning of the Haitian Revolution also happened within the month of August. Black August, a month-long commemoration that focuses on the lives and works of political prisoners and freedom fighters is meant to be a time of educating and reflecting on the fight for black liberation and those who have risked their lives for it.
August is also Black Business Month. Started in 2004, the month is meant to recognize and support Black entrepreneurs and their businesses. And while you may have taken the time to buy from your favorite black business and support your brother/sister/ cousin/ friend who considers their selves an entrepreneur, we at the John Hope Franklin Center encourage you to take it a step further by learning about some of the black businesses that are mentioned within the Behind the Veil digital collection!
There is an array of oral histories within the collection that mention or focus on Black businesses within the South during Jim Crow. To start there are two oral histories that fall under the occupation of being “self-employed”. One of them belonging to Roosevelt Cuffie [Roosevelt Cuffie interview recording, 1994 June 29 / Behind the Veil / Duke Digital Repository] of Sylvester, GA. The other from Charles Gratton [Charles Gratton interview recording, 1994 June 22 / Behind the Veil / Duke Digital Repository] of Birmingham, AL who became a business owner in 1957/58, operating the Green Acres Café. Green Acres Café is now its own franchise, having multiple locations. It is ran by Charles Gratton’s son, Greg Gratton and has received the 5 Star Business Award, given by the Mayor of Birmingham. You can learn more about its history here: https://www.greenacrescafe.org/
When listening to many of the other interviews, you will notice that the interviewers often ask about person’s family history. Those interviewed often going into detail about the lives of their parents, grandparents, and as far back as their great grandparents. And while the person being interviewed may not be a business owner or entrepreneur, you may find that perhaps one of their elders were.
York Garrett [York Garrett interview recording, 1993 June 03 / Behind the Veil / Duke Digital Repository], born in Princeville, NC, the oldest black town within North Carolina, recalls his father owning and operating a grocery store called “Plain and Fancy” in Tarboro, NC. Garrett tells a fascinating story of how this “Black and White” store came into the possession of his father and the relationship that his father had with the previous white owners.
By the time he was born, his father had been owning the store for a few years. His experience in the store would influence his decision to be a store owner himself.
Part 1 37:26 “So after I came back home, I asked Pa, I said, “What you going to do?” I said, “Well, only thing I can see is you train me, Father. If I can get in the pharmaceutical school, I can be a druggist and I could do—All the thing you teach me to selling and all the stuff like that, that would be my field. Only thing about it, it’ll be professional.” So he said, “If that’s what you want to do, do it.” So instead of entering dental school or Howard Medical school, which I didn’t want to do, into Howard’s Pharmaceutical School. And I graduated and came out of school, passed the board. My father was still in business in this store, in Tarboro on Main Street. And saved some money and all of the trouble of it. And he had enough money to buy things that I needed, and I opened my first store. Brand new store, everything custom built, in Edgecombe County, in Tarboro. That was in 19 something. It was 1920. I finished Howard in ’20, in pharmacy, and I took the board that year. It took me a year to build the furniture and everything. The new store, I was going to put up in Tarboro. And I opened my first store May the 2nd, 1921.”
Garrett’s Drug Store was the only Black drugstore in Tarboro at the time and Garrett talks about it with much pride. His oral history not only details a unique personal history within eastern North Carolina, but also stretches into historic Hayti in Durham.
Garrett’s oral history as well as the many others that fall into the category of business owners, even those people who experienced working within a black owned business, share a since of pride and accomplishment that just like those today will pass down to others. Not even Jim Crow could stop the genius and persistence of black ingenuity. Which is why, for Black Business month, we challenge all readers and listeners to not only “buy black” but to also learn about the struggles, success, and determination of black businessmen and women throughout South.
Post contributed by Mattison Bond, Project Research and Outreach Associate
We at the John Hope Franklin Research Center are back again with another blog post to highlight some of the unique oral histories that can be found in the Behind the Veil Digital Collection. Last week’s post featured interviews from folks from Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, and South Carolina. This week, we take a deeper look into the collection by focusing on the interesting items that can be found from Tennessee and Virginia.
While the Tennessee location filter contains over one hundred items, it is also home of a very unique occupation within the collection. There are three baseball players mentioned in the collection and pictures of baseball teams from different universities. Two of the oral histories were recorded in Tennessee and the other was in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Today we will focus on the oral history of Joseph Burt Scott, World War II veteran, left hander, and major league baseball player.
Scott was born and raised in North Memphis to a single mother and four other siblings (one passing in infancy). He attended Corns Avenue School and enjoyed learning and working for what he wanted. He speaks highly of the people in his life throughout the interview. Mentioning the dedication of his mother keeping his siblings within the church, and the refined principle and teachers that molded much of his early life.
At an early age he loved baseball and began playing in Memphis as a child. When moving to Chicago to attend high school, he would continue to play, joining little leagues and amateur leagues within the city. He would join the service in 1942 and play on the service team, being the only black player. Scott seems unphased by this and other instances dealing with race throughout the whole interview. He recalls a time when sitting in a restaurant with his teammates, the waitress and manager refusing to serve him, until his lieutenant threatens to make the whole team leave the restaurant. He does not press the issue, saying that he would “look for further adventures” elsewhere if need be. His upbringing and early experiences instilled in him the ability to effortlessly brush off any of the negative products of Jim Crow and persist with determination.
Part 1 16:39 “And I’ve had a lot of words said that a lot of people wouldn’t like, but in my coming up through Chicago little leagues, my coach would always say, “Let it go in one ear and out the other.” And I did that all the way through my career. I never paid any attention to the bad talk about race. And I enjoyed listening to it because I would be laughing at it. As my coach would say, “Let your bat do the talking and your legs do the running,” and that’s what I did.”
Joseph Scott Profile from the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum https://nlbemuseum.com/history/players/scottj.html
Scott would go on to play for many other major professional teams such as the New York Black Yankees, the Pittsburgh Crawford, and Chicago American Giants, and of course the Memphis Red Soxs. There would be times where Scotts would be paid for playing, and other times he would just play for fun because of his love for the sport. He would also play for the Zulu Giants, a team created by Abe Saperstein, owner of the Harlem Globetrotters.
Separate accommodations were a well-known product of the Jim Crow era as it came to many entertainment and sports teams. Scott speaks about it, but never seems discouraged by the discrimination that he faced. Even when he is asked about race relations while working at Teamsters, a union trucking job he worked after getting injured during his baseball career, Scott says this:
Part 1 37:57 “Oh, what I can say, race is always going to be a problem in the world, in the entire world. It’s a culture of an animal, just like we are animals, just like a cat and a dog. They square with each other. But I don’t have no complex, like a lot of folks do. I don’t envy any race. I don’t. I will only tell you that the way I come up, not to beg and not to borrow. I don’t like that. I like to work for what I want and I like to help people. I’ve always been a type of guy that will give out a lending hand, although I may get burned later on by doing it, which I have over the years, but I don’t look back. I still look ahead”
Virginia has a total of 63 oral histories, with a majority of teacher within this part of the collection, most who have multiple occupations. Evelyn Peevy is in some ways no different.
Dr. Evelyn Sears Peevy 1923- 2017, Obituary from Legacy.com https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/pilotonline/name/evelyn-peevy-obituary?id=17672435
Dr. Evelyn Sears Peevy, born in 1923 was a guidance counselor, civil rights leader, and writer in Norfolk Virginia. She grew up in a well to do neighborhood as the daughter of a mother and father that owned two businesses. Her home doubled as a place to live and a commissary that her parents ran. She recalls the rest of childhood, being the seventh among fifteen children and the responsibilities that she had
6:59 “: I cooked. I sewed. I remember I had to sew my brothers’—If they lost buttons on their shirt, it was my job to sew them on because I was next to the oldest girl. Since the oldest one was gone, I did a lot of cooking and sewing, plus working in the store. I got my lessons while I was working in the store. I always felt that my mother had a heavy load, and I wanted to do all I could to help her. So, some of my brothers and sisters called me Miss Goody-Two-Shoe.”
She, along with all of her sisters, graduated from the Hampton Institute. She recalls the culture of Hampton women that was taught to her by the dean of women, having “teas on Sunday afternoon,” not smoking or wearing pants and wearing gloves and hats when going to town to shop.
After graduating from the Hampton Institute majoring in English and minoring in social studies, Dr. Peevy married her first husband. The marriage was unsuccessful and after going back to work, she was given the opportunity to study at Virginia State in counseling. Peevy attended a few different universities, deepening her education. But the running away of her two children served as the largest lesson of her life during this time.
13:35 “They were with my sister in Hampton. They said my sister was pregnant, and she was evil to them. So, the two younger children, they were about 10 and 12, got the little money that I was sending them for spending change, got on their bicycles, went to the grocery store in Hampton, bought luncheon meat and bread, and went to the recreation playground and played all day. My sister finally found them, whipped them profusely, and made them sit down and write me and tell me what they had done. I got that letter, and I cried. I said, “Here I am out here in California trying to learn what to do to help other people, and my own children are suffering.” I never left them again. I started taking them with me to all of the regional conferences and all of the national conventions, because I said it wasn’t worth it if I lose my own children.”
The rest of Dr. Peevy’s oral history details her time within the Iota Phi Lamba Sorority, serving as president for a time. When asked about the racism that she experienced in her life, Dr. Peevy admits that for her it was “like living in a colorless world”. But when she was the head of the guidance department during the time of integration, she started to noticed the effects of racism.
16:22“They sent two women over from North Side Junior High School who were counselors there. They didn’t want to come, and they didn’t want to work under a Black. I had a time with them because they were used to sitting in the lounge reading the paper. What I’d do is go through the lounge to go to the bathroom, and they were saying, “Don’t come over here checking on me.” I said, “I don’t have time to check on you. I had to use the restroom.” You see, that was when I began to realize this thing, this racism is here. Here are these ladies going to come to this Black junior high school and sit around, read the paper or sit in the lounge and could care less about counseling our children.”
While she does not talk about it, she was also the first African American to be appointed to the Norfolk Electoral Board and also served s the Chair of the Advisory Board for Tidewater Community College. She also wrote a weekly column for The New Journal and Guide, a weekly newspaper based in Norfolk Virginia.
Dr. Evelyn Sears Peevy passed in 2017 and is remembered for her work within the schools she served, her sorority, and her community.
“In Loving Memory of Alpha Chi’s White Rose Queen Soror Dr. Evelyn Sears Peevy” https://iotaalphachi.org/honoring-leadership
We have come to the end of part of the series that highlights interesting oral histories that can be found under the many location filters that are listed within the collection. But no fear!! We will be back with more interesting oral histories!
If you have been enjoying the series let us know in the comment section below. We would love to hear from you!
Post contributed by Mattison Bond, Project Research and Outreach Associate, John Hope Franklin Research Center
We at the John Hope Franklin Research Center are back again with another blog post to highlight some of the unique oral histories that can be found in the Behind the Veil Digital Collection. Last week’s post featured interviews from folks from Kansas, Louisiana, and Michigan. This week, we take a deeper look into the collection by focusing on the interesting items that can be found from Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, and South Carolina.
Also all the oral histories that will be featured this week focus on the lives and experiences teachers!
Mississippi
When using the Mississippi location filter, you will find a total of 71 items that are listed in the collection. But using the search bar will let you into another part of the collection that is just as valuable and interesting. It would be a disservice to the researcher to not point to the Mississippi Self-Portrait file that contains a total of 42 pictures of men and women from the 1950s. Flip through the collection to see the faces of graduates, families, couples, and even a Santa Clause.
The oral history that is highlighted today is accompanied with just as many interesting photos. Lucinda Gulledge, born on a farming community in 1913 in Hernando, Mississippi. Along with being a teacher assistant, Gulledge was active within the Civil Rights Movement. The first time she began to take part was when she boycotted the Liberty Cash grocery store because they would not allow Blacks within the facility.
Lucinda Gulledge slides: Family portrait, 1940s https://repository.duke.edu/dc/behindtheveil/btvst008001007
Lucinda could be described as fearless and resilient, as she boldly stated on multiple occasions that she did things other people were afraid to do. Such as driving a woman and her children to an integrated school:
Part 2 00:00“People were just plain scared. And so I don’t guess you could blame them for it. They was plain scared. And this one lady and my son and her daughter was the only two kids in my integrated that school. She wouldn’t carry her daughter over there unless I went with her, she was just plain scared. Some people just had that fear, but I never was. Never was. And so when they went from Davis to Greenwood High, I’d get in my car, I’d go over there and pick both of them up. Pick both of them up, bring them on home.”
And housing some of the white protesters that were coming down to participate in the movement.
Part 1 7:40 “See, I wasn’t like the rest of the Colored people, scared. “No, he ain’t coming to my house.” A lot of them didn’t let them come in their houses. I said, “They can come here.” They come here, and I ain’t never did have to trouble. They stayed as long as they want. Stayed all night. Yeah, they stayed all night. Sure did. When I didn’t cook for them, they would get up and go in there, and fix something their self. Even I had some white ladies to come. Sure did. It was rough, but we made it through.”
Like many folks Gulledge participated in the movement by attending boycotts and marches, even attending a march to see Martin Luther King Jr. She would provide a place to stay to local and sometimes well know civil rights activist like Marian Evelyn Wright, children’s rights activist. She would work with organizations like SNCC and SCLC and help organize voter registration.
New Jersey is another one of the smaller location filters within the collection. There is only one oral history within this part of the collection and it belongs to Dolores Bradley, who is actually a North Carolina native from Northampton County.
From Bradley’s interview, researchers gain insight into how the civil rights movement impacted her hometown in rural North Carolina, where she attended Northampton County Training School. She recalls that one of their early fights was for transportation for Black children to attend school. Her father, a principal, and community members organized the NAACP, successfully obtaining buses for Black students and a gym for the school.
Part 1, 12:07 “There weren’t any Black buses originally, I don’t think, when I first started to school, because I can remember my older cousin who was almost 10 years older than me, and his friends. He would wait for them, and they came from a little town, it’s called Pleasant Hill, which was two miles beyond where we lived. They had to walk up almost five miles into town. Then, I can remember a man named Mr. Buffalo, and my dad, Mr. Earl, who was the principal at that time. I guess I must have been between eight and 10 or 11 years old, because I vividly remember when they fought to get the school buses for the Black students to ride. They had meetings and what have you, and basically, that was the same group of people that organized the NAACP in our county”
When Bradley moved to New Jersey, she was originally under the impression that things would be better. She admits to feeling freer in the South than she did up north.
Part 2, 3:41”…I had heard the myth of the North and had bought it. And then, when I moved there, after I was grown and out of college or what have you, I realized that I was no more free than I was in the South. In fact, I think I felt freer, because I was younger and maybe more—Again, I was in that kind of shelter thing in the South. So in some ways, I felt freer than I did in New Jersey.”
She provides listeners with an intimate view of her life as she tries to pursue education, travels to Norfolk, VA, and enjoys holiday celebrations with her family.
When opening the location filter, you will notice that the first state listed, indicating that it is the largest part of the collection comes from North Carolina. With a total 338 items, the materials within the North Carolina collection span audiocassettes, oral histories, and pictures. Not listed under the location filter are two videos from the Duke University Center for documentary Studies [https://documentarystudies.duke.edu/] that features teachers from Wilmington NC.
These videos detail black education in New Hanover County, giving viewers information about the history of education within the county and the thoughts of different educators about their jobs. For example, Educator Lavinia E. Sneed believed that
Video 2, 7:17 “teaching gave me good full life, and it was because of my opportunity to help develop my students that I feel like my life has been fulfilled. I’m praising the pression of teaching, because it has been the best thing that I have known.
Some would speak on their experiences dealing with desegregation, attending programs to learn about the problems of desegregation sponsored by UNC Chapel Hill and pushing for it within their own schools. Bertha Boykin Todd, a media specialist spoke about trying to purchase books and materials that taught about desegregation.
Video 2, 1:41:50 “I was reprimanded several times for ordering too many books on the desegregation and integration topics. Of course, that didn’t stymie us too much. We continued to provide for our students what we thought was best.”
While there are many teachers to be found under the North Carolina location filter, these videos allow viewers to connect a face to the voice, and to experience first hand the passion and resilience of educators as they strive to make a difference during Jim Crow.
There are a total of 123 items within the collection that can be found under the South Carolina location filter. Fittingly, there were more educators interviewed within this part of the collection and thus we will end this blog post with highlighting educator Lula Homes.
Earnestine Atkins, Lula Holmes, and Louise Nesbit slides: Lula Holmes with four generations of women (Lula Holmes in standing, with her grandmother, mother, and daughter present), 1930s-1992
Throughout Holmes recollections, the oral history provides a vivid picture of the what it was like attending the historic Penn School, located on Saint Helena Island. She speaks about the classes that were offered and which ones especially piqued her interest.
Part 2, 1:17 “Let’s see. English, literature, math, biology, chemistry. I’m trying to think now. And then, we had the industrial. We had Home ec, sewing…My favorite class would be chemistry. I like history. Ancient history or just plain history.”
There was a clear difference in the what was taught between the boys and girls within the school. Regardless, the Penn school provided opportunities for the children to learn skills that would be helpful to not only them, but the surrounding community. She recalls participating in what was called the “better home day” where,
Part 2, 21:08 “the home ec class would take a building in the community that was in disrepair and they would use it as a project. And the girls, the boys would do the woodwork, put in new interiors…the girls would go and we’d make draperies, we’d make the— Even if the bed was an old bed, either we would find somebody who would give a bed. Some of the stores or some White family would donate a bed or some Black family who had an extra bed or an extra table or an extra, not lamp. Well, oil, kerosene lamp then. And the boys would make, if they had a fireplace, they’d make [indistinct 00:23:06] iron, and so that it would be nice looking. And anything in the house that needed repairs was done. And the boys would take old furniture and refinish it. And then we would have a big day, a celebration where the public could go in and out and see what can be done with little or no money. And that involved both the boys and girls in our industrial work. They saw some of the things that we learned at Penn in our classes. That was a big day.”
While there are no photos directly linked to the oral history, searching for “Lula Holmes” on the webpage provides access to photos of Penn students and campus buildings from another part of the collection.
St. Helena Island, South Carolina, Penn School and Penn Center: Prints https://repository.duke.edu/dc/behindtheveil/btvst035019Earnestine Atkins, Lula Holmes, and Louise Nesbit slides: Girls with vegetable sign, Farmer Fair, Penn School, St. Helena Island, S.C., 1939 https://repository.duke.edu/dc/behindtheveil/btvst009001001
Post contributed by Mattison Bond, Project Research and Outreach Associate, Jon Hope Franklin Research Center
Highlighting Oral Histories by State Part 2
We at the John Hope Franklin Research Center are back with another blog post to highlight some of the unique oral histories that can be found in the Behind the Veil Digital Collection. Last week’s post featured interviews from folks from Alabama, Arkansas, and Florida. This week, we take a deeper look into the collection by focusing on the interesting items that can be found from Georgia, Illinois, and Kentucky.
While searching through the collection using the Georgia location filter, you will find two women that share similar names but different lives, Carolyn Johnson King and Carol Johnson King.
Carolyn King, born in 1948 on what was once a plantation. The Keaton Quarter was owned by a white doctor, had a white overseer, and held multiple black families that worked on the land. Her oral history starts with detailing life in rural Georgia and the relationship that she had with the other families:
Part 1, 13:05 “It was great. Everybody just was quiet and people got together and went to church and we had to go to Sunday school every Sunday… Most people were kin, we were all kin people, one thing. We were all related. All family people, we really were. Like if someone would have a baby, like if my mother had a baby, a lady in another household would come and cook for us and wash for us maybe one or two weeks until my mother able to get up and go and do what she could do, until she got better…If anybody got sick, people would just go to that house and just really take over until that family got better…Everybody, just one happy family. We didn’t have much, but we had a whole lot of love, that was one thing.”
Interestingly she also goes into details about her time as a minster, detailing some of the visions that she experienced in her life time.
Part 3, 1:58 “If I sit down, this angel would sit down. If I get up, it would get up. It followed me around the house for a couple of months… I would see blood. The walls would be covered in blood…And I know some of this that I seen was the devil. The devil was showing some of these things, I know that now.”
About a month before, Sally Graham, who also interviewed Carolyn King, had a conversation with Carol Johnson King. Carol was an educator and the first director of a federally funded Head Start program within the southeastern part of the country. Her oral history details her time as not only an educator and director, but also being apart of the Dougherty County School Board, an activist, community organizer and the wife of famous civil rights lawyer C.B. King.
Along with her story, Carol’s oral history is unique because it has 34 related items that contain the photos of the autograph books of her in-laws Margaret (Maggie) Slater and Clennon King when they attended the Tuskegee Institute. Carolyn recalls that “Daddy King” drove horse and buggy for Booker T. Washington and that George Washington Carver wrote a note in “Mama King’s” graduation book.
Carol King slides: Clennon King’s autograph book – note from T.V. Gaunt, 1916 April 17 https://repository.duke.edu/dc/behindtheveil/btvst007006004Carol King slides: Maggie Slater’s autograph book – note from C. Valentine, 1912 April 20 https://repository.duke.edu/dc/behindtheveil/btvst007006023
It is important to note that both interviews are titled “Carol King”. By paying attention to the “Item Info” found below the interview transcript you can distinguish between the interviews, paying attention to the description info and the occupation. Or you can use these links to find them here!
There are only three oral histories found under the Illinois location filter. All three interviews were recorded in Chicago, Illinois and each interviewee was born in Arkansas. Today we focus on the life of Christine Trailor , one of the seventeen beauticians that can be found in the whole collection.
Christine Trailor was born January 5, 1928, in Crittenden County, Arkansas. Within the interview, she shares her experience learning how to do her own hair and how she came to be a beautician.
“I learned by doing—Well, I always have had to do my own since I was six years old, so I used to have a lot of hair, so sometime a girl would stop on the way to school, and help me do my hair. It was real thick and long. And then I started, when I came here, I guess it was a, well, passing time, and I just started doing hair. Actually, I didn’t play basketball because—I liked playing basketball, but every time I would start to play, it was a girl that didn’t like me. She would come and just ring the ball out of my hand, and that just turned me off. And I started going to the hut, I guess was a way of passing the time, keep from being bored. So that’s when I started doing hair.”
She migrated to Chicago, IL in 1951 after finishing college at Arkansas AM&N. Once there she worked at two tailoring shops, pursuing a career in cosmetology after. Two years later she opened her own shop. At the time of the interview, she was operating her second shop for 22 years.
Within her oral history, researchers can learn not only her experience of being a beautician but also her experience migrating northward to Chicago.
By clicking on the Kentucky location filter, you will find the only five oral histories of “coal miners” within the collection. From those five, you can learn more about James “Jim” “Red” Eaves, the only federal mine inspector in the collection. Within his oral history, listeners can learn about the family of Eaves, back to his grandmother,
Part 1, 10:43 “And she was an old woman then because she had a Barker stick about four foot long, I guess, where she’d walk with. And she would follow you upside the head with that stick. I had a little old wheel I rolled around the house. She was sitting out in the yard, had a pipe in her mouth, smoking. She told me, said, “Boy, you get on out there if you want to roll that wheel. Don’t roll that around here near me.” I got out there. A few minutes later, I got back close to her. Next thing I know, that stick went upside in my head. The wheel went one way and I went the other. But she didn’t play now. When she told you something, she meant business.”
James Eaves started working in the coal mines around the age of 18. In the later half of his interview, listeners can learn more about his time within the coal mines as one of the few federal mine inspectors that were black. By searching deeper within the collection, you can also view his Foreman of Coal Mines Certificate.
Alex Byrd slides: First Class Certificate Foreman of Coal Mining for James Eaves, 1966 https://repository.duke.edu/dc/behindtheveil/btvst010008036
Mr. Eaves also makes an appearance in the oral history of Sydney Gilmore, another coal miner.
Post contributed by Mattison Bond, Project Research and Outreach Associate, John Hope Franklin Research Center
Highlighting Oral Histories by State Part 1
After the Civil War, newly freed African Americans began to utilize their newfound rights and freedoms to improve their lives across the South. The Reconstruction era (1865-1876) stands as one of the most progressive periods for African Americans. During this time, Black Americans were actively participating in government, establishing schools, and creating opportunities for housing and employment. But this period of progressiveness did not last forever. The return of the Democratic party and white supremacists to political power, along with the withdrawal of Northern intervention, plunged the South into the period known as Jim Crow (approx. 1880s-1950s).
Jim Crow laws, created and enforced by southern state legislatures institutionalized racial segregation and the disenfranchisement of African Americans. These laws would impact almost every aspect of Black life and essentially roll back most of the progress that was made by African Americans during Reconstruction. What came next would leave a lasting impression on the world. African Americans of all ages, occupations, and backgrounds would begin standing up for their rights. Courageous leaders, determined students, resilient activists, and everyday people would begin boycotting and challenging Jim Crow throughout the country. The Civil Rights Movement (approx. 1950s-1970s) would change the country as they knew it and ultimately lead to the destruction of the Jim Crow system.
The Behind the Veil digital collection offers a rich and irreplaceable repository of oral histories, images, and administrative files from the people that experienced Jim Crow and the Civil Rights Movement across the South. The collection features the personal histories of individuals from a wide array of occupations and backgrounds. Researchers can navigate the collection using filters to locate historical accounts by occupation, format, and location. To assist you in exploring, the John Hope Franklin Research Center has chosen a few unique examples from different locations within the collection.
Alabama is one of the larger location tags within the collection with over 200 photographs and 100 oral histories. Start your search by listening to the oral history of one of the more famous interviewees within the collection: Johnny Ford, the first African American mayor of Tuskegee Alabama.
Source: Thomas, Deborah. Johnny Ford, mayor of Tuskegee – Tallahassee, Florida. 1984-01-12. State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory. <https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/112336>
Johnny Ford was born “deep in beautiful Bullock County” Alabama. He was adopted by his uncle at the age of four, moving to Tuskegee. He shares his experiences growing up in Tuskegee, detailing not only racial segregation but also divides in social and economic classes. With his everyday observations of segregation, he also reflects on when the idea of becoming mayor first crossed his mind.
[10:53] “We would have to watch the games from a tree, climb up in the tree and look over and watch the little White boys and girls playing in the park, playing ball. I used to hear my parents complain about that, and they said, “We are paying for these parks just like everybody else, yet we can’t get in.” I had read about Al Clayton Power and heard about him being elected and all of this. I said, then I remember saying to the guys, we would have to peep through the fence, and I said, “The mayor of this town must be a powerful dude, if he can keep us out of this park. One day I think I’d like to be mayor of this town.”
Ford would go on to be involved in the Civil Rights movement in Knoxville, TN as he attended college. He would work on the Kennedy campaign in 1968 and later help to elect the first two African Americans to the Alabama legislature. Johnny Ford served as the Mayor of Tuskegee from 1972- 1996, and then again in 2004 and 2012.
You can hear the voice of Mayor Johnny Ford by listening to his oral history here:
There are a total of 64 oral histories that are available under the Arkansas location filter. Within these 64 items you can find the oral history of Willie Lucas. While there are a total of three midwives mentioned throughout the collection, Willie Lucas is the only midwife that has a recorded oral history.
Willie Lucas was born in Hughes, AR in 1921. The daughter and granddaughter of midwives, Lucas was convinced she would not follow in her mother’s footsteps. She recalls her mother waking up in the middle of the night to deliver babies, sometimes having to travel through the cold and rain.
[8:52] “They didn’t have any cars and she would come in sometime and raining in the wintertime and her clothes would be frozen stiff on her. She’s be standing up and I said “Lord I’ll never be a midwife.””
That sentiment did not last long. Lucas would later train to be a midwife, shadowing her mother. The first time she delivered a baby, the parents named the child after her. Within her interview she speaks about the differences of midwifery during her time in the 40s and that of her mother’s time. She details the types of tools that were used, the ways that they were paid, the home remedies that helped with the birthing process, and the obstacles that the medical field posed to midwives.
Her oral history contains two parts and a transcript. You can listen to Willie Lucas’s oral history here:
There are a total of 216 items that can be found under the Florida location filter. Within these items you can find the oral histories, administrative files, and specifically a collection of images of students and faculty at Florida A&M University, thanks to Sue Russell.
Born in Milton, Florida in August 1909, Russell was the daughter of a teacher and brick mason. She recalls that her mother encouraged education for her and her siblings. They attended school up until the 6th grade in Milton, until they were sent to Pensacola to finish high school.
[44:00] “The biggest problem we had was school problem, I guess, because after we finished the sixth grade there as—Well, they used to call us Negros then. We couldn’t go to school with the Whites… We had to leave Milton for Escambia, or go somewhere else if we wanted to finish high school.”
Seniors from Florida A & M football team, 1936 Source: https://repository.duke.edu/dc/behindtheveil/btvst009006025
Sue Russell first attended Florida A&M College in 1928, graduating two years later with courses in business administration. In 1943, she re-enrolled and eventually completed her four-year degree. It was in school that Russell admits to experiencing her first taste of racial discrimination. Further into the interview she talks about campus life, her ambitions to be a home economics teacher, and some of the discrimination she experienced. Even more interesting is the numerous pictures of students and faculty that attended Florida A&M during the time that Russell was enrolled.
Home Economics, Florida A & M pamphlet – staff portrait, 1933-1934 Source: https://repository.duke.edu/dc/behindtheveil/btvst009006012
The John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History & Culture is pleased to announce the launch of the Behind the Veil digital collection, now accessible in the Duke Digital Repository – https://repository.duke.edu/dc/behindtheveil.
Behind the Veil digital collection homepage
Behind the Veil: Documenting African American Life in the Jim Crow South was an oral history project conducted from 1992-1995 by the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. The 3-year digitization project, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities in 2021, expands access to this archive of oral histories, photographs, and video recordings of African Americans who remained in the US South through the period of Jim Crow (see grant announcement here – https://blogs.library.duke.edu/rubenstein/2021/07/05/neh-implementation-grant-to-duke-libraries-will-increase-access-to-african-american-oral-histories/).
Olivia Cook and family, New Orleans, 1940sThree schoolboys, Wilmington, NC 1920s
The digital collection has over 4,200 items, highlighted by over 1,100 fully transcribed interviews and over 1,700 photographic slides. This archive represents the largest repository of stories authored by African Americans from the American South during the period of Jim Crow. In the coming weeks we will be sharing more of the interviews and supporting materials in Behind the Veil through a special blog series.
Behind the Veil Project Staff, 1990s
Use these links for more resources on Behind the Veil:
The Pan Am Digital Collection can be searched using free-text keyword searches, as well as through faceted searching by year, aircraft type (under the “Subject” search facet), language, departure and arrival locations, and source collection. Highlights from the Pan Am Digital Collection include:
First passenger service across Pacific, Atlantic, to South America, etc.
First jet service, including the debuts of the Boeing 707 and 747.
Inaugural service between New York and Moscow.
Noteworthy campaigns including the Clipper concept, “around the world service,” and the debut of new services such as in-flight entertainment.
The Pan Am Digital Collection is part of a larger collaboration with the University of Miami Libraries, who hold the corporate records of Pan Am, and HistoryMiami Museum, who hold artifacts from Pan Am. Together, our digitized materials and artifacts serve as the foundation of the Digital Public Library of America’s new aviation portal, Cleared for Takeoff: Explore Commercial Aviation. In addition to showcasing Pan Am’s history and impact on aviation, the DPLA portal also includes materials related to the broader history of other commercial aviation in America and associated airlines. The portal will eventually feature a chronological representation of Pan Am’s achievements and history through an interactive timeline, which is linked at the top of the portal. The timeline curates materials from each grant partner and puts otherwise disparate items in conversation with each other.
The DPLA Aviation Portal will eventually feature a Primary Source Set, curated by members from the Hartman Center, UMiami Libraries, and HistoryMiami. The Primary Source Set is meant for classroom use and focuses on how Pan Am impacted and “shrank” the world, encouraging critical thinking and analysis of primary source documents and touching upon numerous social, political, and cultural issues.
The Hartman Center is grateful to the Council on Library and Information Resources and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for funding this important project, as well as to our colleagues at UMiami Libraries, HistoryMiami, the DPLA, and our colleagues in Digital Collections & Curation Services and Conservation Services in Duke libraries.
Post contributed by John B. Gartrell, Director, John Hope Franklin Research Center
This summer Duke University Libraries will launch a project to provide expanded digital access to the Behind the Veil: Documenting African-American Life in the Jim Crow Southoral history collection, housed in the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Libraries and curated by the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History & Culture. The project, titled “Documenting African American Life in the Jim Crow South: Digital Access to the Behind the Veil Project Archive,” received a $350,000 Humanities Collections and Reference Resources Implementation grant supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).
Behind the Veil (BTV) was undertaken by the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University (CDS) from 1992–1995 and co-directed by Drs. William Chafe, CDS co-founder and Alice Mary Baldwin Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History, Robert Korstad, Professor Emeritus of Public Policy, and the late Raymond Gavins, the first African American faculty member in Duke’s Department of History. Chafe, Korstad, and Gavin’s vision for and title of the project refer to the concept of the “veil” introduced by scholar and activist W.E.B. DuBois in his iconic book The Souls of Black Folk (1913). In that work, DuBois discussed the metaphorical concept of the veil as “separating the two worlds of white and black,” designed to protect African Americans who had to balance comporting their lives as subservient and compliant in front of a White dominated society while simultaneously living free in their own community.
Henderson, Larry – Birmingham, Behind the Veil Collection
BTV was a groundbreaking documentary project for its time that recorded and preserved the living memory of African American life during the age of segregation in the American South. Over the span of three summers, cohorts of graduate students and early career scholars from universities across the country received training with the project’s scholarly board and then resided in selected locales for two weeks to conduct oral histories. The team conducted interviews with more than one thousand community elders who shared their memories from the Jim Crow Era of legal segregation. Nineteen distinct communities were identified for interviews: Albany, GA; rural Arkansas; Birmingham, AL; Charlotte, NC; Durham, NC; Enfield, NC; New Bern, NC; LeFlore County, NC; Memphis, TN; Muhlenberg, KY; New Iberia, LA; New Orleans, LA; Norfolk, VA; Orangeburg, SC; St. Helena, SC; Summerton, SC; Tallahassee, FL; Tuskegee, AL; and Wilmington, NC.
All of the BTV project files were transferred to the John Hope Franklin Research Center in subsequent years after the project’s completion. The BTV collection encompasses a number of formats including over 1,200 taped audio cassette interviews and 3,000 photographic strips, slides and prints, manuscript project files, training materials, administrative records, and born-digital files. The grant work will focus on the digitization and transcription of the oral histories, scanning of the photographic materials, and sharing the collection’s contents with students, educators, and the wider public through virtual programs and webinars. The digital collection will be published in the Duke Digital Repository, where 410 BTV interviews are currently accessible for research. Funds will also allow the project team to hire graduate level interns for archival processing, digitization, and outreach.
John B. Gartrell, director of the John Hope Franklin Research Center and principal investigator for the grant noted, “The Behind the Veil collection is one of the most used collections in the Franklin Research Center. These oral histories truly broaden our understanding of the everyday lives of African Americans during the early-to-mid twentieth century. They represent one of the largest bodies of scholarship on African American life documenting that time, and I’m excited to share the depth of these stories and honor the scholars who recorded them.” Gartrell will be joined by co-principal investigator Giao Luong Baker, who serves as Duke Libraries’ Digital Production Services Manager. Together they will lead the digitization efforts in collaboration with library colleagues over the course of the next three years (2021–2024).
Post contributed by Jessica Janecki, Rare Materials Cataloger
The Project
Over 200 items—bills of sale, rental agreements, “free papers,” and even one arrest warrant—make up the American Slavery Documents collection held in the Rubenstein. In Technical Services, rare materials catalogers are in the process of individually cataloging the documents in the collection.
An important part of the cataloging process involves researching the names we find in the documents so that we can correctly identify people and either associate them with their Library of Congress Name Authority File heading or create an authorized heading for them. In attempting to describe enslaved or formerly enslaved persons, the majority of whom did not have last names, we tried to do as much research as possible (is the Sue mentioned in one document the same Sue mentioned in another document? If not, how can we distinguish them?) Our hope is that by identifying and describing these individuals researchers may be able to connect them to other parts of their stories that may be contained in other repositories.
However, even with the addition of subject headings, authorized name headings, genre/form terms, and other helpful metadata, there are just some things that cannot be easily encapsulated in a catalog record. One example is the story of Lott and Frankey.
Lott and Frankey
Deed of manumission for Frankey, 1801
To begin this project of individually cataloging the American Slavery Documents collection, I deliberately chose one of the happier document types: this deed of manumission freeing an enslaved woman named Frankey. It is dated June 25, 1801 and was recorded at the court of Albemarle County, Virginia by clerk of court John Nicholas.
In it, William Champe Carter, Frankey’s enslaver, declares:
…in consideration of the sum of forty two pounds to me in hand paid by Lott (the waggoner) who was liberated by my deceased father Edward Carter, esq., as well as in consideration of the meritorious services of she, the wife of the said Lott, named Frankey, I have emancipated and set at liberty, and by these presents do emancipate and set at liberty my said negro slave Frankey…
In other words, Frankey’s husband Lott purchased her freedom for 42 pounds.
From this deed we know nothing else about Frankey other than her name, the name of her husband, and that in June 1801 she lived in Albemarle County, Virginia. In my research I have not been able to discover how she came to be enslaved by William Champe Carter, which of the many Carter family plantations she might have lived at, or even her approximate age.
The deed actually tells us more about Lott than Frankey. We learn that Lott had been enslaved by William Champe Carter’s father Edward Carter, who also emancipated him. When Edward Carter died in 1792, he left instructions in his will to emancipate Lott,[1] one of the few enslaved persons he mentioned by name in his will. We also learn Lott’s profession as William Champe Carter refers to Lott as “the waggoner,” which means wagon driver.
If Lott was a free man by 1792, what might he have been doing between his emancipation and when he purchased Frankey’s freedom in 1801? In the deed he is referred to as Lott “the waggoner,” suggesting that he found employment after his emancipation. I searched early Virginia property tax records (available here) and found 2 promising entries in Albemarle County. The first from 1795 reads: Negro Lott emancipated by Edwd Carter decd [ie deceased] 1 tithe 2 horses and the second from 1797 reads: Wagoner Lott free negro 1 tithe 1 horse. These entries show that the commonwealth of Virginia recognized Lott as a free man, and one who owned enough personal property to owe property taxes. The 1797 entry helpfully confirms that he worked as a wagon driver. That these tax records are from Albemarle County also shows that Lott stayed close to Frankey during the 9 years he worked to earn the 42 pounds to buy her freedom.
What happened to Frankey and Lott after 1801? In the tax records for 1803, 1805, 1806, and 1807 there are references to Lott Saunders, a “free negro.” Is this the same Lott? Unfortunately, we have no way of knowing for certain and after that the trail grows cold. Searching for any traces of Frankey are especially difficult as court documents from a lawsuit in 1821 between members of the Carter family show that at least two women still enslaved on Carter plantations were named Frankey.
If Frankey and Lott remained in Virginia after Frankey’s emancipation they would have faced challenges. William Champe Carter refers to the “privileges” to which “emancipated slaves are entitled under the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia.” One of those “privileges” was constantly having to prove their freedom. The 1793 state law An Act for Regulating the Police of Towns in this Commonwealth, and to Restrain the Practice of Negroes Going at Large required free people of color to register with the towns where they worked or lived and pay a fee for a copy of their certificate of registration. This registration had to be renewed every year. If they could not produce their certificate they could be jailed indefinitely.
Future Connections
The story of Frankey and Lott is one of many glimpses of humanity and struggle (as well as oppression and cruelty) that can be found in the American Slavery documents collection. It is our hope that our efforts to individually catalog the documents will improve access and allow users to discover materials (and the lives that they reveal) by searching names, places, subjects, and document types in addition to browsing the digital collection. And in this process of discovery, connections will continue to be made, so that the humanity of lives lived, such as Frankey’s and Lott’s, will continue to be revealed and remembered.
Full transcription of Deed of Manumission
Transcript of recto:
To all whom these presents shall come, know ye that for divers good causes and considerations me hereunto moving, but more especially in consideration of the sum of forty two pounds to me in hand paid by Lott (the waggoner) who was liberated by my deceased father Edward Carter, esq., as well as in consideration of the meritorious services of she, the wife of the said Lott, named Frankey, I have emancipated and set at liberty, and by these presents do emancipate and set at liberty my said negro slave Frankey, giving her all the privileges and [?] to which emancipated slaves are entitled under the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia, given under my hand and seal, at the county of Albemarle, in the state of Virginia, this 25th day of June in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and one.
Signed, sealed, and delivered in the presence of [blanks for witnesses]
William Champe Carter
Transcript of verso:
At a court held for Albemarle County the 6th day of July 1801 this deed of manumission from Wm Champe Carter to Negroe Frankey was produced into court and acknowledged by Wm Champe Carter party thereto and ordered to be recorded
Teste
John Nicholas
[1] The Carters of Blenheim: a genealogy of Edward and Sarah Champe Carter of “Blenheim” Albemarle County, Virginia. [Richmond, Va. : Garrett & Massie], 1955.
Post contributed by Liz Adams, Rare Materials Cataloger
“I don’t know when I’ve ever been so flattered to see so many people getting up this early in the morning.”
Lady Bird Johnson wasn’t exaggerating when she stumped for her husband’s presidential campaign in front of a crowd of 12,000 Durhamites on Wednesday, October 7th, 1964. It was 6:45 AM when a group of “early birds for Lady Bird” congregated to meet her at the Durham Parking Lot, brandishing free coffee and donuts. It was 7:04 AM when North Carolina politicians—including Terry Sanford (the governor and future president of Duke)—began their remarks. And it was 7:11 AM when the woman of the hour spoke behind Thalhimer’s department store in downtown Durham, highlighting the “present prosperity” of North Carolina, Lyndon B. Johnson’s familial connections to the state, and the Great Society he planned for the country.
A flyer held by the Rubenstein Library offering free coffee and “do-nuts” for those waking up early to meet Lady Bird Johnson in downtown Durham.
To understand why Lady Bird Johnson stopped in Durham 56 years ago, we need to frame our story: It was 1964, and the Civil Rights Act (CRA) had just gone into effect on July 2nd. According to Hersch & Shinall (2014), the CRA “sought to improve access to voting, public accommodations, and employment as well as improve the overall status of individuals discriminated against on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, and national origin” (p. 425). At its heart, the CRA sought to create equalities where none existed, especially for Black Americans. It was and is an important, imperfect piece of legislation, one that only passed after years of tragedy and occasional triumph, including the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, the March on Washington, and the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Jr. Relying on an uneasy coalition of Republican and Democrat votes, Lyndon B. Johnson plowed the CRA through Congress. Southern Democrats and the Republican nominee for president, Barry Goldwater, stood in opposition (Hersch & Shinall, 2014).
Lady Bird Johnson believed in the CRA and her husband. Just as relevant to our story, she was also a native Texan and is quoted saying—in a piece for PBS NewsHour by Judy Woodruff—that she was “proud of the South” and “proud that [she was] part of the South” (2014). Lady Bird Johnson thus knew she needed to act. And so as Meredith Hindley documents in “Lady Bird Special,” on October 6th, she climbed aboard a train named the Lady Bird Special and embarked on a Whistle Stop Tour, a four-day trip winding through eight Southern states. Liaising with local politicians and their partners, she shored up support for the CRA, defended her husband’s past decisions, and fought for his future plans. In total, she gave 47 speeches and traveled over 1600 miles. Occasionally her path intersected with Lyndon B. Johnson’s campaign trail, but for the most part, she travelled alone or with her daughters. Finally, on October 9th, 1964, the Lady Bird Special arrived in New Orleans, La., and the President and First Lady of the United States reunited (Hindley, 2013).
28 days later, on Tuesday, November 3rd, 1964, Americans went to the polls. In a landslide victory, Lyndon B. Johnson won 44 states (and Washington, D.C.), 15 million more votes than Barry Goldwater, and 486 Electoral College votes (Levy, 2019). And although five of the six states he lost were in the South, there was a southern state he didn’t lose: North Carolina (Levy, 2019).
Lady Bird’s Whistle Stop: Durham, NC: 10/7/64, 7:04 AM, Sound Recordings of Lady Bird Johnson’s Whistle Stop Campaign Tour, 10/6/1964-10/9/1965, Records of the White House Communications Agency, LBJ Presidential Library, viewed via YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fyDOFkmGg8
