- Collection:
- Working Lives Oral History Project
- Title:
- Interview with Ella Pegues, 1984 August 22
- Creator:
- Pegues, Ella, 1903-
- Contributor to Resource:
- Hamrick, Peggy
- Publisher:
- Archive of American Minority Cultures
- Date of Original:
- 1984-08-22
- Subject:
- African American women civil rights workers--Alabama--Birmingham
Civil rights movements--Alabama
Boycotts--Alabama--Birmingham
Civil rights demonstrations--Alabama--Birmingham
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing, Birmingham, Ala., 1963
Bombings--Alabama--Birmingham--History--20th century
African Americans--Civil rights--Alabama--Birmingham--History--20th century
African American churches--Alabama--Birmingham--History--20th century
Murder--Alabama--Birmingham--History--20th century
Birmingham (Ala.)--Race relations--20th century
Discrimination in public accommodations--Alabama--Birmingham - People:
- Pegues, Ella, 1903-
Wallace, George C. (George Corley), 1919-1998
Shuttlesworth, Fred L., 1922-2011
Connor, Eugene, 1897-1973
King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968 - Location:
- United States, Alabama, Jefferson County, Birmingham, 33.52066, -86.80249
- Medium:
- oral histories (literary works)
transcripts
sound recordings - Type:
- Sound
Text - Format:
- image/jpeg
- Description:
- In this interview, Ella Pegues recalls life during segregation as she recounts her active role in the events of the Civil Rights movement. Pegues remembers the difficulty of dealing with segregation. She says she was active in boycotts of and sit-ins at establishments that would not serve blacks. She recalls being in jail a couple of times for this passive resistance, and she remembers Martin Luther King, Jr., visiting them to instruct them on how to behave. She also recounts stories of problems on public transportation. Pegues says that older folks didn't think the marches and other efforts to push civil rights would accomplish anything. She says they seemed even more excited about the successes because "they didn't know it could be done." Pegues remembers the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. Afterwards, she said she felt "empty": "I didn't exactly feel angry because we had been conditioned . . . not to be angry with anything that happened." But she questions why it had to happen, especially to innocent children. Pegues describes segregation as "stupid." She says that it didn't make any sense that she could work with whites and be a wet nurse to white babies, but could not eat with whites. Another example she gives is of an old boss: "Lord have mercy! I cook her food. I couldn't come in the front door. Wasn't that stupid?" She also describes segregation as wasteful because the building of separate facilities was expensive. Pegues discusses the hypocrisy of whites. She says she hates it when whites say they like black people but do so in a condescending way, heard in "the way they would say it, and the terms they would use." She says this is still a problem, and it will take generations to correct. Pegues also discusses Fred Shuttlesworth and her experiences with Martin Luther King, Jr. She recalls Gov. George Wallace's Stand in the Schoolhouse Door. She also tells the story of a friend of hers who was a nurse to Bull Connor. The woman tormented him subtly for a time, but Pegues convinced her to stop. Pegues says she believes his attitudes were a result of his raising.
Interviewed by Peggy Hamrick on August 22, 1984. - Metadata URL:
- http://digitalcollections.libraries.ua.edu/cdm/ref/collection/u0008_0000003/id/265
- Language:
- eng
- Contributing Institution:
- William Stanley Hoole Special Collections Library
- Rights:
-
