Oral Histories
Caribel Washington
Caribel Washington lived most of her life in Bloomington. She graduated from Bloomington High School during the Depression, and then for several years worked in a WPA educational program for preschool children. Later she worked at State Farm Insurance when opportunities for Blacks there were very limited.
Claude Hursey
Claude Hursey was born in Mississippi, the son of a Greek father and an African-American mother. His mother brought her son to Bloomington when he was about thirteen. His memories of Bloomington at the time of the World War I and after are very strong.
Ethel Murray
Ethel Murray was born in Lincoln. She remembers a childhood relatively free from racial prejudice. However, her home was near the gathering place for the Ku Klux Klan. She moved to Bloomington in her late teenage years and began to do day work in domestic service. At one point she was a full-time worker for Mrs. Hazel Buck Ewing.
Howard and Elaine Bell
Early Bloomington family, WWII veteran, Depression era history, Elaine was active in community service.
Josephine Samuels & Reginald Whittaker
Normal, IL family, business, work at Woolworth's, GTE, Baha'i
Kathyrn Dean
State Farm employee, civic & social clubs, grandfather was Civil War veteran.
Lucinda Posey
Pre-Civil war Bloomington family, Dir. of Medical Records (Brokaw Hospital), community & civic boards, Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church.
Lue Anna Clark
Father was enslaved, WWI era restaurant business, boarding of ISNU students
Merlin and Beulah Kennedy
Active in civil rights, NAACP, Youth Council, employment & housing issues.
Oscar and Ruth Waddell
WWII veteran, skilled employment at GE, breaking employment barriers, home ownership, Willis Stearles
Roy and Delores Shavers
Melody Gospel Choir, African-American business in Bloomington & Clinton, St. Mary's Catholic Church.
Robert Gaston
Barber, WWII veteran, Chamber of Commerce Board member.
Robert and Lillian Augusta Boykin
Social clubs, Union Baptist Church, domestic, yard & railroad work, farm life & sharecropping in the South.
Richard and Rose Bell
Business owner and farmer, Rose Anna from early McLean County family, Illinois Soldiers & Sailors Home, domestic.
Wilbur Barton
Early Normal family, ISNU grad & athlete, WWII veteran, teacher/principal.