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Object Description
Interview no. | U-0968 |
Restrictions | No restrictions. Open to research. |
Project | U.19. Long Civil Rights Movement: Breaking New Ground |
Project description | Interviews, 2011-2012, conducted for the Breaking New Ground: A History of American Farm Owners Since the Civil War project. This project was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and was coordinated by Adrienne Petty (of the City College of New York) and Mark Schultz (of Lewis University in Illinois) with assistance from Jacquelyn Hall. Interviews were conducted by two cohorts of research fellows and centered on African American farmers', landowners', and descendants' political, social, and economic experiences in the American South from the Civil War onward. |
Date | 7 July 2012 |
Interviewee |
James, George Franklin, 1935- James, Lula Bell Harris, 1936- Lyons, Barbara Ann, 1956- Lyons, Ivory Lee, 1958- |
Interviewee occupation |
Military Automobile drivers Cooks Homemakers |
Interviewee DOB | 1935; 1936; 1956; 1958 |
Interviewee ethnicity | African Americans |
Interviewer | Teague, Riva Brown. |
Abstract | This interview focuses on the 32 acres George James’ father purchased and a separate 30 acres Lula James' grandmother purchased in the Catahoula community in Hancock County. George James’ family had to move off their land onto land owned by Willie T. Sellers because of the NASA buffer zone; the land is still in the family, but nothing can be built on it. Lula James grandmother’s land was not in the buffer zone, and she and her husband live on some of it today; some of the land is being leased out. The James’ both discuss some other black property owners in the area during that time period (1940s and earlier). Each family grew cotton, fruits and vegetables and raised farm animals. George James recalls thinking he was the poorest person when he was growing up working on his father’s farm. When he left to join the Marines, he sent money back to help his parents buy a tractor and build a well. Later in life, George James said he wished he would have listened and learned what his father tried to teach him about farming and spirituality. Lula James said her grandmother purchased her land for $120 in 1920. |
Citation | Interview with George Franklin James, Lula Bell Harris James, Barbara Ann Lyons, Ivory Lee Lyons by Riva Brown Teague, 7 July 2012 U-0968, in the Southern Oral History Program Collection #4007, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. |
Description
Interview no. | U0968_Audio |