True stories of everyday people

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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...

Lee Parsons

As a young man in the early 1960’s, Lee Parsons became an advocate for new environmental concerns that were affecting his family’s beloved farm near Avon, Indiana.

Paul Francis Smith

Paul Smith grew up in a Navy family. In the 1960’s when he was a teenager they moved from Athens, Georgia to Monterey, California. Paul talks about the challenge of fitting in and learning to be true to himself.

Ellen Marcy Rosenthal

Ellen Rosenthal tells of researching the history of her great-grandfather, Maurice Rosenthal, a Jewish peddler during the 1880’s; a challenging time for families living in the tenement apartments of New York City.

Letha &Tisha Pletcher

Letha Pletcher tells her granddaughter Tisha about living near the railroad in Pierceton, Indiana during the 1930’s; playing in grain elevators, air that smelled of peppermint, and feeding the hungry.

Vop Osil

Vop Osilli’s earliest memories are from Nigeria at the beginning of civil war when his mother, an American, decided it was time to leave.