- Collection:
- Civil Rights History Project
- Title:
- Ellie Dahmer oral history interview conducted by Emilye Crosby in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, 2015 November 30
- Contributor to Resource:
- Dahmer, Ellie J., 1925- interviewee
Crosby, Emilye, interviewer
Bishop, John Melville, videographer
Civil Rights History Project (U.S.) - Date of Original:
- 2015
- Subject:
- Alcorn State University
Ku Klux Klan (1915- )--Mississippi--History
Mississippi Southern College
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
African Americans--Suffrage--Mississippi
African American women civil rights workers--Mississippi--Interviews
African American women teachers--Mississippi--Interviews
Civil rights movements--Mississippi
Civil rights movements--United States
Mississippi Freedom Project
Murder--Mississippi--Hattiesburg
Segregation in education--Mississippi
Violence--Mississippi--History
Voter registration--Mississippi
Hattiesburg (Miss.)--Race relations--History - Location:
- United States, 39.76, -98.5
United States, Mississippi, 32.75041, -89.75036
United States, Mississippi, Forrest County, Hattiesburg, 31.32712, -89.29034 - Medium:
- personal narratives
interviews
oral histories (literary genre)
video recordings (physical artifacts) - Type:
- MovingImage
- Description:
- Ellie Dahmer discusses her involvement in the NAACP and voting rights activism in Forrest County, Mississippi. She recalls her experiences in education, both as a student at local schools, Alcorn State University, and Tennessee A&I, and as a teacher in schools throughout Mississippi. Her career as a Forrest County election commissioner is also discussed. She speaks about her husband, fellow activist Vernon Dahmer, and remembers the night when Klu Kulx Klan members burned her home, killing her husband and injuring her children.
Recorded in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, on November 30, 2015.
Civil Rights History Project collection (AFC 2010/039: 0110), 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.).
Ellie Jewel Davis, born in Rose Hill, Mississippi, attended Alcorn State University and Tennessee A&I, and worked as a teacher throughout Mississippi. She married Vernon Ferdinand Dahmer, Sr. (1908-1966) in March of 1952. Vernon Dahmer was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement and president of the Forrest County chapter of the NAACP in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. On January 10, 1966, the Dahmer home was firebombed by the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. Though Ellie escaped with the children, Vernon died from resulting injuries.
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_crhp0110
- Language:
- eng
- Additional Rights Information:
- Collection is open for research. To request materials, please contact the Folklife Reading Room at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/folklife.contact
- Extent:
- 7 video files (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (1:22:32) : digital, sound, color.
transcript 1 item (.pdf) : text files. - Original Collection:
- Civil Rights History Project collection AFC 2010/039: 0110
- Contributing Institution:
- American Folklife Center
- Rights:
-
