Hist 350: History of Race in the West

Noting that the stories of African American women were inadequately documented in the Schlesinger Library and at other centers for research, Dr. Letitia Woods Brown, professor of history at George Washington University, recommended that the Schlesinger Library of Radcliffe College collect the oral memoirs of a selected group of older black women. These women, many already in their 70s, 80s, and 90s, had made substantial contributions to improving the lives of African Americans and all people, through professional and voluntary activities, in their communities and nationally. With initial funding secured from the Rockefeller Foundation, staff at the Schlesinger Library, most importantly Ruth Hill, guided the Black Women Oral History Project, and from 1976 to 1981, 72 women from all over the United States were interviewed. The interviews discuss family background, marriages, childhood, education and training, significant influences affecting their choice of primary career or activity, professional and voluntary accomplishments, union activities, the ways in which being black and a woman had affected their options and the choices made.