True Stories of Everyday People
True Stories of Everyday People
89 year-old Mary Webster, recorded with her son Damon Richards, tells of her brief experiences with segregation during college and the importance of family.
In this excerpt of her life story we hear Olivia McGee-Lockhart tell about working at the Fall Creek Y during her college years in the early 1960’s. At meetings of The Intercollegiate Club she met different kinds of people, learned about the civil rights movement, the NAACP Youth Counsel, and the challenges facing African Americans in a changing world.
Stephanie Edwards felt Isolated and controlled while attending a minimally integrated school in Irvington. After leaving Indianapolis for college, she discovered a new view of the world and other African Americans who were active in the civil rights movement.
Indiana Historical Society Archivist Wilma Moore talks about growing up as an “observer of history.” From going to segregated Crispus Attucks High School to watching news coverage of historic events on tv with her family, her love of history prepared her for her life’s work.
Professional storyteller Sandra Harris tells Bob Sander about an ill-fated concert on April 11, 1956 in which white men attacked the performer, Nat King Cole, in Birmingham, Alabama. This shocking event furthered Sandra and Ed Harris’s involvement as early civil rights activists and changed their lives.
Gwendolyn Kelley tells about seeing the change in Indianapolis during the civil rights movement and the legacy of her poem about Martin Luther King Jr., “The Dream In You.”
Celestine Bloomfield talks about her early love of reading and the realization that school integration in Gary, Indiana was not working well for African Americans.
© 2024 Copyright Life Stories Project
