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Two Unreconciled Strivings

African American baseball players of Morris Brown College, with boy and another man standing at door, Atlanta, Georgia Family

Childhood memories These three manuscripts are taken from American Life Histories, 1936-1940 recorded by the Federal Writer's Project between 1936 and 1940. The childhood memories presented here seem straightforward in how they are told, but care should be taken to consider the relationship between the interviewer and the subject.
  • How, for example, was the person being interviewed addressed or described by the interviewer?
  • How was the life history recorded? Is it a summarization in the interviewer's words, or a transcription of the subject's words?
  • Does the interviewer attempt to record dialect, and, if so, can we be sure the dialect represents what was actually heard or how the interviewer imagined impoverished African-Americans talked?
In short, here is a rich historical source that, like all documentary sources, must be used with care and sensitivity.

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I am a Negro

I Saw the Stars

Negro Life on a Farm

Overview Family Work Play Faith Education Race Violence

 

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Last updated 10/01/2002