Clarksdale Cotton Photo
September 14th, 2009
Wilson, Mr. Mayo
September 14th, 2009
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Interview with Mr. Mayo Wilson
Click here to download the transcript of this interview.
General Topic of Interview: Education, Head Start, Comparison of Jim Crown and Apartheid
Date: 3 November, 2008
Location: Clarkesdale, Mississippi, USA
Narrator: Mr Mayo Wilson
Interviewer: Tiffany Mane
Transcriber: Unknown
Biographical Information:
Mr. Mayo Wilson was born in 1931 in Cary, Mississippi. He studied at Tougaloo College and Jackson State University. Throughout his career he has been variously a math and chemistry teacher at Coahoma Community College, a banker for the Bank of Clarkesdale, and currently, the executive director of Coahoma Opportunities Inc.
Interview Information:
Mr. Wilson provides a life history, and discusses segregation in education, farming, and the Mississippi state flag. He offers a detailed perspective into the mission and programming of the Head Start program, as well as its umbrella organization, Coahoma Opportunities Inc.. Mr. Wilson contrasts the roles of blues and gospel music in black experience, and compares Jim Crow racism with the South African apartheid.
Thomas, Ms. Augustine
September 14th, 2009
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Interview with Ms. Augustine Thomas
General Topic of Interview: Life in and around Jonestown, Mississippi
Date: 5 November, 2008
Location: Jonestown, Mississippi, USA
Narrator: Ms. Augustine Thomas
Interviewers: Atandi Anyona, Kyle Coston, Max Paschall, and Tiffany Mane
Transcriber: Unknown
Biographical Information:
Ms. Augustine Thomas was born on a plantation outside of Jonestown, Mississippi, in 1938. She has lived in or around Jonestown her entire life.
Interview Information:
Ms. Thomas provides a life history, and discusses sharecropping, segregation, Martin Luther King Jr., family relationships, religion, as well as the recent election of Barack Obama to the American presidency.
Shelby, Mr. James
September 14th, 2009
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Interview with Mr. James Shelby
General Topic of Interview: Plantation life, Civil Rights, Education
Date: 29 October, 2008
Location: Moon Lake, Mississippi, USA
Narrator: Mr. James Shelby
Interviewers: Atandi Anyona and James Chapnick
Transcriber: James Chapnick
Biographical Information:
James Shelby’s family has lived in the Moon Lake community for many generations. He was raised in the family home, which bordered two cotton plantations. Shelby observed the lifestyle of sharecroppers firsthand while growing up on Moon Lake. After his college education, Shelby was employed as an assistant principal in Friar’s Point by W.J. Jones.
Interview Information:
Growing up between two plantations allowed Shelby to comment extensively on plantation life during the Jim Crow era. He detailed the hardships of the sharecroppers, including their perpetual debt and being cheated by the commissary store. He also described the inequities that he and his family felt growing up in the area due to racism and Jim Crow laws. Shelby explained the vast inequality present, both in modern times and in the past, in the education system in Mississippi.