Interviewer
Rita Wicks- Nelson and Ancella Radford Bickley
Files
Download Full Text (34.2 MB)
Description
This interview is one of series conducted concerning Oral Histories of African-American women who taught in West Virginia public schools. Vivian Williams Fleming began teaching in Griffin, Georgia. She gives us detailed information about her family throughout the interview, such as family life during childhood, relatives of different races, her husband (who once worked in a cannery), her husband's teaching jobs, her marriage, going to Washington [D.C.?] with her family, and much information about her children and grandchildren. She also provides detailed information about her education, which includes Oglethorpe Elementary, Booker T. Washington High School, Spelman College, Syracuse University, and George Washington University. She also gives an anecdote about the doctor who delivered her as a baby. Her teaching career is another big topic, and she tells of deciding to be a teacher, her teaching jobs at Eagle Avenue School and Page-Jackson School, school activities, the process of desegregating schools, her students, and her teaching methods. She discusses race relations, such as burdens faced by African-Americans and women as well as the Civil Rights Movement. There are many other topics as well, and some of them include: influences in her life, thoughts on her life in general, her own social activities throughout her life, holidays, traveling, church and religion, as well as her own self-perceptions.
Publication Date
1997
Identifier
OH64-795
Type
Text
Comments
Interview is included in the Marshall University Oral History Collection. The index number is OH64-795.
Rights
Educational use only, no other permissions given. Copyright to this resource is held by the content creator, author, artist or other entity, and is provided here for educational purposes only. It may not be reproduced or distributed in any format without written permission of the copyright owner.
Recommended Citation
Marshall University Special Collections, OH64-795, Huntington, WV.
Library of Congress Subjects
Fleming, Vivian Williams, 1920- -- Autobiography.
Spelman College -- Oral histories.
Syracuse University -- Oral histories.
Page Jackson Elementary School -- Oral histories.
West Virginia University -- Oral histories.