- Collection:
- Working Lives Oral History Project
- Title:
- Interview with Leona Williams, 1984 July 30
- Creator:
- Williams, Leona
- Contributor to Resource:
- Hamrick, Peggy
- Publisher:
- Archive of American Minority Cultures
- Date of Original:
- 1983-03-02
- Subject:
- Depressions--1929--Alabama
African American women household employees--Alabama--Birmingham
African Americans--Medical care
Civil rights movements--Alabama--Birmingham
African American women civil rights workers--Alabama--Birmingham
Civil rights workers--Violence against--Alabama--Birmingham
Birmingham (Ala.)--Race relations
African Americans--Alabama--Birmingham--Social conditions--20th century
African Americans--Civil rights--Alabama--Birmingham--History--20th century
Depressions--1929--Alabama--Birmingham--Social aspects
Birmingham (Ala.)--Social conditions--20th century
African Americans--Economic conditions--20th century
African Americans--Segregation--History--20th century
New Deal, 1933-1939 - People:
- Williams, Leona--Interviews
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, Leona Williams discusses her life in Birmingham, Alabama, during the Depression and the Civil Rights movement. Williams was a domestic on and off during her life. After she moved to Birmingham, she also worked at a funeral home. She recounts living through the Depression, how she was working as the cook and maid for a banker, so she had plenty to eat and could share her earnings with her family. She says her family had no garden, and they cut wood for fuel. She also recalls the Roosevelts coming to Birmingham for a visit. Williams talks about living in the country before her mother brought her to the city. She calls their home a "little shack house," with four rooms and no electricity. She talks about schools in the country as well as how they handled medical problems with no doctors. She describes coming to Birmingham and says she doesn't think of herself as a country person anymore. Williams also describes her participation in the Civil Rights movement. She says she was involved with several marches and knew Martin Luther King, Jr. She cooked for the protesters and often put them up at her house. She remembers having dogs set loose on them, as well as being hit with a spray of water hard enough that she remembers seeing people cut and bleeding, just from the water. She also recalls seeing two men shot at a march. Williams also discusses an incident in which a man claiming to be a police officer caught her out late at night trying to get to her sister's house; he propositioned her, and when she refused, he took her to the police station. But her employers at the time were well known, and they got her released.
Interviewed by Peggy Hamrick on July 30, 1984. - Metadata URL:
- http://digitalcollections.libraries.ua.edu/cdm/ref/collection/u0008_0000003/id/174
- Language:
- eng
- Contributing Institution:
- William Stanley Hoole Special Collections Library
- Rights:
-
