Interview: Bessie Yancey, March 13, 1984

Interview: Bessie Yancey, March 13, 1984

African Americans--Southern States.

Traditional farming

African Americans--Employment.

United States--Race relations.

Philadelphia (Pa.)--Social conditions.

African Americans--Recreation

Philadelphia (Pa.)--Social life and customs.

African Americans--Social conditions.

African Americans--Social life and customs.

African American churches

African Americans--Religion.

Migration, Internal.

Born in Boykins, Virginia, Bessie Yancey (1898-1897) grew up on a farm where her family raised a variety of crops, including cotton and sugar corn. Yancey was the seventh of twelve children. During World War I when her older brothers went to fight in Europe, Bessie and her sisters and younger brothers worked the farm with their father. Disliking the corrupt business dealings her father encountered as a Black man in the South, she left for Philadelphia in 1918. There she worked as nursemaid for a White family and was an active member of a church.

1984-03-13

audio

2014OH192GN044

Charles Hardy

Bessie Yancey

Domestic work

Domestic workers

African American families

World War, 1914-1918

Race discrimination.