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Black History Project
/ Oral Histories
Oral Histories
Caribel Washington
Dates: 1914 - 2011
Depression era, early civil rights work, YWCA, Wayman A.M.E. Church, civic work, WIlliam Shields
Claude Hursey
Dates: 1905 - 1990
3rd Ward Club (owner), African-American businesses in Bloomington, Republican, WWI era memories, Revy Rhoades
Ethel Murray
Dates: 1917 - 1990
Domestic for prominent families, social service work, civic & social clubs
Howard and Elaine Bell
Dates: 1922-living, 1923-2005
Early Bloomington family, WWII veteran, Depression era history, Elaine was active in community service.
Josephine Samuels & Reginald Whittaker
Dates: 1919-1999, 1925-living
Normal, IL family, business, work at Woolworth's, GTE, Baha'i
Kathyrn Dean
Dates: 1910 - 2001
State Farm Ins. employee, civic & social clubs, grandfather was Civil War veteran
Lucinda Posey
Dates: 1908 - 2000
Pre-Civil war Bloomington family, Dir. of Medical Records (Brokaw Hospital), community & civic boards, Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church.
Lue Anna Clark
Dates: 1892-1992
Father was slave, WWI era restaurant business, boarding of ISNU students
Merlin and Beulah Kennedy
Dates: 1926-living, 1923-2002
Active in civil rights, NAACP, Youth Council, employment & housing issues
Oscar and Ruth Waddell
Dates: 1917-1990, 1923-living
WWII veteran, skilled employment at GE, breaking employment barriers, home ownership, Willis Stearles
Richard and Rose Bell
Dates: 1910-1988, 1923-2005
Business owner and farmer, Rose Anna from early McLean County family, Illinois Soldiers & Sailors Home, domestic
Robert and Lillian Augusta Boykin
Dates: 1896-1989, 1908-1999
Social clubs, Union Baptist Church, domestic,yard & railroad work, farm life & sharecropping in the South
Robert Gaston
Dates: 1918 - 1993
Barber, WWII veteran, Chamber of Commerce Board member
Roy and Delores Shavers
Dates: 1905-1990, 1902-1998
Melody Gospel Choir, African-American business in Bloomington & Clinton, St. Mary's Catholic Church
Wilbur Barton
Dates: 1914 - 2005
Early Normal family, ISNU grad & athlete, WWII veteran, teacher/principal