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African Americans in Harrisonburg Oral History Collection

JMU Special Collections

The oral histories comprising this collection were compiled as part of James Madison University’s 1978 summer workshop, “Oral Tradition and Storytelling in the Black Community of Harrisonburg.” Interviewees are Peggy Curry and James Curry, Virginia “Willie” Nickens, Minnie Stuart Bell, Helen Irvin Wells, and Roberta Morgan Webb. Under the direction of Dr. Inez Ramsey, JMU librarian and professor from 1975 through 1998, six JMU students conducted interviews with Black community members in an effort to “reconstruct the kind of lives Black people in Harrisonburg have lived over the years.” (1) Supplemental materials include a list of persons buried in Newtown Cemetery, a roll of African American voters in Rockingham County, and photographs.
This WordPress site was created in 2018 as a project by Special Collections to increase access to oral history interviews in our holdings through online publication, when possible, given appropriate permissions from interview participants. Special Collections graduate assistant Karisa Harris-Cleary created this website during the spring semester of 2018, using existing transcripts and description, in collaboration with Kirsten Mlodynia and Kevin Hegg of JMU Libraries Digital Projects. Elements of this website may change as records are revised as part of ongoing re-description efforts.

(1) Reed, Gary. “Workshop seeks to preserve local black heritage.” The Breeze, August 2, 1978.

Background Materials (SdArch5-1)

Background Materials (SdArch5-1)

Supplemental background materials and information include a list of persons buried in "Newtown Cemetery," the cemetery for people of color located on Kelly and Hill Streets in Harrisonburg, Va; "Roll of colored voters in Rockingham in the early 1900's," researched...