True stories of everyday people
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Olivia Jacqueline McGee-Lockhart
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...
Betty Jo-Ann Montgomery Perry
With tears in her eyes, young Betty Jo-Ann listened to her first youth orchestra in NYC and realized that playing music would be a way to escape a life limited by poverty.
Gwendolyn Julia (Judy) Kelley
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.”
Sherril Lyn Adkins
In the Summer of 1966 Sherril Adkins got a job as a waitress at Catfish King in Birmingham, Alabama. Having grown up on integrated military bases she had not yet experienced the racism of ordinary white folks of the South. When the restaurant would not serve an...
Walter Andrew Blake
While growing up in a family of 17 children in South Bend, Walter helped his Father in the trash hauling business. During his freshman year at Notre Dame Walter came home to visit and gained a fresh appreciation for what his family had done for him.
Betty Shaw
This excerpt of Betty Shaw’s life story focuses on the examples set by her parents, how she became a trail blazing manager, entrepreneur and active community volunteer.
Bryan Hudson
Tired of negative media content in 2000, Bryan Hudson used a Lilly Endowment Grant to establish a Media Camp so that African Americans and other young people could benefit from positive mentoring and learn to be media producers.
Cynthia H Goodyear
Cynthia Goodyear talks about how WWII impacted her childhood and how the nation’s sense of war since has changed.
Diane Lee Richards
Diane grew up admiring her Aunt Helen who, with her husband Don, ran a flight school. It took years to find out that Helen had flown bombers and pursuit planes back during WWII. Diane reflects on the life of her remarkable and yet modest Aunt.