Ella Lee's Interview
Listen to and explore the curated OHMS index for Ella Lee's June 15, 1984, interview, created by Shila Scott in Fall 2014.
In this June 15, 1984 interview, Ella Lee (1891-1990) discusses her long and hard life in Georgia and Philadelphia. Recently widowed, Lee in 1929 moved from Jacksonville, Florida to Philadelphia, hoping for a better life and education for her children. In the decades that followed she did housework and laundry work in Philadelphia and New England. Unlike most of her African-American counterparts, Lee regretted the move north, stating “I would have done just as good” if she had stayed in the South.