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...

Daisy Elizabeth Borel

In excerpts of her life story, Daisy Borel describes the sheltered self-sufficiency of the African American community along Capital Avenue in down town Indianapolis of the 1930’s and 1940’s. When she returned to Indy from Tennessee with a BS in Nursing and a family...

Dennis Paul Strickland

Beth, the babysitter, is nice but she does not know what four-year-old Paul wants for lunch when he asks for “Foffy.” So begins the quest for food and understanding.

Sally Jane Perkins

Reflecting on her path to professional storytelling, Sally Perkins tells of preparing to tell a flannel graph story at church, before she knew how to read, at the age of five! She has been telling stories in public ever since.

Wayne Roland Wellington

As a child Wayne Wellington was impressed by the manner and dress of his shop teacher. Those polished shoes lead him to the path to higher education, teaching, and a successful career as an administrator.

Beverly Hale

Beverly describes days of simple pleasures visiting her grandmother and cousins in rural Mississippi in the late 1970’s. There were early morning chores, tending animals, and best of all, horseback riding.

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.