Library and Information Science Commons^™

2018-07-16 Oral History With Myrtle Ross, Matthew R. Griffis

Oral History Archive

Myrtle Jackson Ross was born in 1929 in Austin County, Texas, where her father worked as a cotton-picker. When she was about eight years-old, Ross’s family moved to Houston, settling on Mason Street in the city’s Fourth Ward. There, her father worked at a hospital and her mother worked as a homemaker. Ross graduated from the Gregory School on Victor Street before attending Booker T. Washington High School on West Dallas Street.

Ross was in high school when she began visiting Houston’s Colored Carnegie Library, which was situated directly behind Booker T. Washington High School. For Ross, the library served …

2018-06-02 Oral History With Willie Hartwell, Matthew R. Griffis

Oral History Archive

Willie Hartwell was born in 1942 Glenn, Texas and grew up in Houston, where she lived on Andrews Street in the city’s Fourth Ward. There, she graduated from the Gregory School before attending Booker T. Washington High School. Later moving to the Third Ward with her mother, Hartwell attended Miller Junior and Yates (now Jack Yates) Senior high schools.

Hartwell was about seven years-old when she and her younger brother happened upon the segregated Carnegie Branch library one afternoon on Frederick Street. Neither had visited a public library before. Located about seven city blocks from her home, the Carnegie Branch …

Oral History With Karen Edwards-Hunter, Matthew R. Griffis

Oral History Archive

Karen Edwards-Hunter was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1950 and has lived most of her life there. Her father was a mail carrier and her mother, who was originally a homemaker, was later a Teacher’s Assistant at Perry Elementary School. Edwards-Hunter grew up on 15^th Street in the city’s Russell neighborhood and attended Perry Elementary School and Harvey C. Russell Junior High School when both were still segregated. She later attended Louisville Male High School before earning a B.A. in English at Eastern Kentucky University and the University of Louisville. She completed further studies at Bard College in New …

Oral History With Houston A. Baker, Matthew R. Griffis

Oral History Archive

Born in March of 1943, Houston Alfred Baker Jr. grew up in segregated Louisville. His mother was a schoolteacher; his father served as chief administrator of the city’s African-American hospital, the Red Cross Hospital, and had earned a master’s degree in hospital administration from Northwestern University on a Rockefeller fellowship. When Baker was a child, his family lived on Virginia Avenue, where Baker attended Virginia Avenue Elementary School. After his family moved to Broadway Street, Baker attended Western Elementary, later Western Junior High School, and then Male High School before leaving for Howard University in 1961. The family attended Grace …

Oral History With Maxine Turner, Matthew R. Griffis

Oral History Archive

Maxine Turner was born in 1940 in Holt, Alabama, and moved to Meridian, Mississippi when she was three years-old. After living in the George Reese Courts, Turner’s family moved to 34^th Avenue and 13^th Street in the northwest part of town. They attended St. Paul Methodist Episcopal Church, just across the street from the 13^th Street library.

Turner began using the library when she was in third grade, mostly for personal reading and to support her schooling. She attended several of Meridian’s segregated schools, including St. Joseph Catholic School, Meridian Baptist Seminary, Wechsler Junior High School and …

Oral History With Jerome Wilson, Matthew R. Griffis

Oral History Archive

Dr. Jerome Wilson was born in Meridian, Mississippi in 1942. He attended St. Joseph’s Catholic School in Meridian from kindergarten to secondary school, whereupon he attended Dillard University in New Orleans to earn a BA in Chemistry and Mathematics.

Wilson later earned an MA in Immunology and Biochemistry from Cornell and, in 1983, earned his PhD in Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He spent much of his career as a researcher and a research administrator in the pharmaceutical industry, later transitioning to academe when he helped set up the department of epidemiology at Howard University. …