Crosby Brittenum's Interview
Listen to and explore the curated OHMS index for Crosby Brittenum's interview, created by John Berry in Spring 2016.
A native of Arkansas, Crosby Brittenum (b. 1899) was working as a waiter in Saint Louis when a step-uncle paid for his ticket to Philadelphia in 1920 so that he could read for him. There he did hotel work and then worked as a barber for more than 50 years. In his 1984 interview, Brittenum talked about his early life in Arkansas, his first impressions of Philadelphia and misconceptions of race and ethnicity, and how he would return to Broad Street Station to watch the arrival of hundreds of southern migrants.