- Collection:
- Civil Rights History Project
- Title:
- Emmett W. Bassett and Priscilla Tietjen Bassett oral history interview conducted by Joseph Mosnier in Grahamsville, New York, 2011 July 21
- Contributor to Resource:
- Bassett, Emmett W., 1921- interviewee
Bassett, Priscilla, 1928- interviewee
Mosnier, Joseph, interviewer
Civil Rights History Project (U.S.) - Date of Original:
- 2011
- Subject:
- Tuskegee Institute
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (1963 : Washington, D.C.)
African American civil rights workers--New York--Interviews
African American college teachers--Interviews
Civil rights movements--United States
Interracial marriage - Location:
- United States, 39.76, -98.5
United States, New York, 43.00035, -75.4999
United States, New York, Sullivan County, Town of Neversink, Grahamsville, 41.84787, -74.54793 - Medium:
- interviews
oral histories (literary genre)
video recordings (physical artifacts) - Type:
- MovingImage
- Description:
- Priscilla Tietjen Bassett recalls growing up in Plainfield, New Jersey, and attending Smith College, and Emmett W. Bassett remembers growing up in Henry County, Virginia, serving in World War II, and attending Tuskegee Institute, where he assisted George Washington Carver with research. They tell how they met at a protest of a segregated restaurant in Massachusetts, raising money for Emmett Till's mother, their involvement in many civil rights groups in New York, and attending the March on Washington. They also discuss Emmett's career as a professor of dairy science, Priscilla's career as a librarian, and their struggles as an interracial married couple.
Recorded in Grahamsville, New York, on July 21, 2011.
Civil Rights History Project Collection (AFC 2010/039), Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Copies of items are also held at the National Museum of African American History and Culture (U.S.).
Emmett W. Bassett was born in 1921 in Henry County, Virginia, attended Tuskegee Institute, University of Massachusetts, and Ohio State University, and worked as a microbiologist. Priscilla Tietjen Bassett was born in 1928 in Plainfield, New Jersey, attended Smith College and Queens College and worked as a librarian. The Bassetts married in 1950, had three children, and were civil rights activists in New York.
Priscilla Tietjen Bassett was born on May 25, 1928 in Plainfield, New Jersey. She married Emmett Bassett in 1950 and had three children, Mitzi, Jonathan and Lydia. She attended Smith College, AB; Queens College, New York, MLS and worked as a librarian.
The Civil Rights History Project is a joint project of the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African American History and Culture to collect video and audio recordings of personal histories and testimonials of individuals who participated in the Civil Rights movement.
In English.
Finding aid http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/eadafc.af013005 - Metadata URL:
- http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/afc2010039.afc2010039_crhp0038
- Language:
- eng
- Additional Rights Information:
- Collection is open for research. Access to recordings may be restricted. To request materials, please contact the Folklife Reading Room at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/folklife.contact.
- Extent:
- 10 video files of 10 (HD, Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (131 min.) : digital, sound, color.
1 transcript (71 pages). - Original Collection:
- Civil Rights History Project collection AFC 2010/039: 0038
- Contributing Institution:
- American Folklife Center
- Rights:
-
