Oral History and Story Corps

Story Corps has been going around the country the last several years and recording people telling their stories. They have a mobile unit as well as a permanent one in New York. People get a copy of their story and one goes to the Library of Congress or Smithsonian, I forget which one.

Oral histories are very important. I always had my kids write reports about their lives and families. One report was 9-11, after that event. Others were favorite music, a grandparent biography, school before 7th grade, life in 7th grade, and their family and history, where they had to talk to family members about events that had an impact on them.

The WPA sent people out to interview former slaves, and a guy named Lomax went around and recorded folk music. These are all important because once the people are gone, the story is lost.

Once a week I get a report along with part of a recent interview. A few weeks ago, I got the story of Jim McFarland, an older African-American, who told of his train trips from New York City to visit relatives in the south. I found some of his comments to be of great interest.

He said that between the ages of 4 and 11, he an his mother would go by train in an integrated car, but at Washington, DC, had to get into an all-colored car. He thought this was the greatest thing. "I was now with my people. There were brown paper bags with greasy chicken and sandwiches."

When he had to go to the bathroom in the south, there were ones for whites and colored. He knew the letter C, but not how to spell. His mom would tell him to go into the one with a C.

He also thought it was great when he had to sit in the balcony at movie theaters. In New York, only smokers and adults could sit there.

He'd come home and tell his friends, "We brothers got it going on in the south. We have our own bathrooms and drinking fountains."

I found this to be a very interesting account of segregation from a child's standpoint.