Everyday Life Under Segregation
Everyday Life Under Segregation: First-Person Narratives
Family, Neighborhood, and Community Life
1. Mary Colston: Family and Neighborhood Life in Segregated Washington, D.C. Mary Colston oral history | Mary Colston; interviewed by Marilyn Saks-McMillion | Ruth Ann Overbeck Capitol Hill History Project | May 7, 2002
Colston recalls raising a family in Washington, D.C., describing neighborhood relationships, shopping, churches, transportation, schools, and movie theaters. Her testimony explores both everyday life under segregation and the uneven transition to desegregation, including the persistence of familiar neighborhood institutions and social boundaries.
2. The Loving Arms of the Black Community The Loving Arms of the Black Community | Yemi Toure | American RadioWorks / American Public Media | Undated
Toure remembers growing up in South Carolina surrounded by the care of Black family members, neighbors, and teachers. His account emphasizes how communities created safety, affection, educational opportunity, and self-confidence within the restrictions of segregation.
3. Better, Not Bitter Better, Not Bitter | Ron Reaves | American RadioWorks / American Public Media | Undated
Reaves describes a father who worked multiple jobs, parents who encouraged reading, and family vacations complicated by discriminatory restaurants and lodging. His narrative connects everyday economic pressures with the determination to provide children with education, travel, and opportunities denied to earlier generations.
Schools, Books, and Educational Opportunity
4. Sue Russell: Leaving Home to Continue School Sue Russell interview recording | Sue Russell | Duke University Libraries, Behind the Veil | August 5, 1994
Russell recalls growing up in Milton, Florida, where racial exclusion required Black students to leave town to continue their education beyond sixth grade. Her oral history also covers college attendance, campus experiences, and professional ambitions, showing how segregation shaped the geography and expense of education.
5. Bridgeport Library Branch, Chicago, Illinois, Circa 1963 Bridgeport Library Branch, Chicago, IL, Circa 1963 | Kenneth M. Stone | American RadioWorks / American Public Media | Undated; recalls approximately 1963
Stone remembers visiting a library in a white Chicago neighborhood with two other Black boys because their local branch lacked needed books. White youths pursued them afterward. The account illustrates how intimidation enforced racial boundaries around ordinary educational activities outside the South.
Employment and Economic Discrimination
6. Cynthia Baker Anderson and Fletcher Anderson: Segregation and Employment in Bogalusa Cynthia Baker Anderson and Fletcher Anderson oral history interview | Cynthia Baker Anderson and Fletcher Anderson; interviewed by Joseph Mosnier | Library of Congress, Civil Rights History Project | May 27, 2011
The Andersons describe segregation and job discrimination in Bogalusa, Louisiana. Their recollections connect the daily realities of racial inequality with their decision to participate in the civil rights movement, providing a household perspective on the relationship between employment, community life, and activism.
7. Jim Crow in Philadelphia Jim Crow in Philadelphia | Nicholas Chacon | American RadioWorks / American Public Media | Undated
Chacon recalls being recommended for a store job and learning its duties before being told that the business did not employ Black workers. He later earned an academic award presented by the same businessman. The narrative documents employment discrimination and a young person's determination to challenge its assumptions.
Travel, Restaurants, and Public Facilities
8. Packing the Pee Can for the Road Trip Packing the Pee Can for the Road Trip | Jerry Hutchinson | American RadioWorks / American Public Media | Undated
Hutchinson remembers family journeys from Indiana to Tennessee with a coffee can packed for use as a toilet. Exclusion from restrooms and concern about safety limited where the family could stop. His account demonstrates how segregation shaped the practical preparations for an ordinary visit to relatives.
9. White Only White Only | Anonymous narrator | American RadioWorks / American Public Media | Undated; recalls the 1950s–1960s
An anonymous narrator recalls childhood in Natchez, Mississippi, through restrictions at transportation facilities, dentists' offices, schools, lunch counters, hotels, and theaters. The account also describes unequal emergency services, showing how segregation affected routine activities as well as moments of urgent need.
Recreation, Parks, and Movie Theaters
10. Johnny Ford: Childhood Exclusion from Public Parks Johnny Ford interview recording | Johnny Ford | Duke University Libraries, Behind the Veil | July 13, 1994
Ford recalls growing up in Tuskegee, Alabama, and watching white children play in a park that Black children could not enter. He describes climbing trees or looking through the fence to watch activities. These experiences helped inspire his interest in the political power that controlled access to public facilities.
11. I Sat Where I Wanted to at the Movies I Sat Where I Wanted to at the Movies | Beverly Prince | American RadioWorks / American Public Media | Undated
Prince recalls visiting a theater in Jackson, Missouri, at age nine and being directed through a separate entrance to balcony seating. The experience contrasted with moviegoing in her hometown. Her account captures a child's discovery of segregation and the enduring memory of an otherwise ordinary outing.
Childbirth, Health Care, and Community Work
12. Willie Lucas: Midwifery and Everyday Community Care Willie Lucas interview recording | Willie Lucas | Duke University Libraries, Behind the Veil | July 7, 1995
Lucas, an Arkansas midwife whose mother and grandmother also practiced midwifery, describes attending births, learning the work, receiving payment, and using home remedies. Her account documents community care during the Jim Crow era and the changing relationship between midwives and the medical profession.
Additional Research Collections
A major collection of recorded interviews and transcripts documenting Black experiences of family life, work, education, religion, recreation, discrimination, and community organization under Jim Crow.
Short recollections organized around childhood, public places, survival, desegregation, and other themes. Several entries listed above share a category page; locate each account by its individual title. These contributed recollections have less archival documentation than the recorded oral histories.
