Scope and Contents Adams was born in Greenwood, Michigan, where she worked as a gym teacher. She moved to Salt Lake City in 1943. She was employed by Mrs. Daniels (presumably at a beauty salon) in 1944, where she worked for eight months. In 1945 she opened a beauty shop of her own. Because she was African American, it was difficult for her to find a shop to rent. She was eventually able to get a store space between State and Main Street from 1951-1960. When Adams came to Utah she was unable to find a...

Scope and Contents Mrs. Brown was born in Lansing, Kansas in 1914. She only encountered school segregation through elementary school. She attended the University of Kansas, which was integrated. Her husband was born in Kansas City, Kansas in 1912. He attended school through high school, which was segregated throughout its entirety. The couple moved to Carbonville, Utah, in 1931, to help Mr. Brown’s mother, whose husband had fallen ill. She owned a farm. Mr. Brown worked in the mines during the winters, which Mrs....

Scope and Contents Dooley was born in Marlington, Arkansas. He attended segregated schools throughout his childhood and adolescence, and notes that there was a real disadvantage in Black schools as opposed to White schools. He attended some college at Lank Smith College in Little Rock and later moved to Salt Lake City with some friends in the early 60s. He states that he liked Salt Lake because it lacked a lot of the environmental problems, crime, drugs, and other things that made Arkansas less enjoyable. He...

Scope and Contents Mrs. Eberhart was born in Columbus, Mississippi on January 20, 1912. She attended school up through eighth grade and came to Utah in 1946, where she started work as a housekeeper. She later worked for a doctor. Because of discriminatory housing practices, she was forced to live in a hotel for an entire year when she first moved. During the Depression, she says she struggled to find adequate food and relied on food stamps, coupons, and other aid. During this time she worked at a furniture store...

Scope and Contents Mrs. Fagen was born in Texas December 7, 1897, and completed school up until the fourth grade. She moved to Ogden in 1942 because of an opportunity to work at a hotel. She recalls thinking it was “the worst place in the world” when she first moved. In Ogden, she met her husband who was doing labor at the time but eventually became employed by Southern Pacific Railroad. She says that most of the married African American women she knew in Ogden also had husbands working for the railroad. She...

Scope and Contents Gordon was born May 5, 1901 in Holcomb Mississippi. He attended school through grade school and later attended business college in Memphis at age 18. He did not finish his high school degree. He came to Salt Lake City following in the footsteps of his brother and uncle who worked at Hotel Utah, where the pay was good at the time. He worked as a waiter until 1927 and then worked for the Union Pacific Railroad in Montana for two years. During the Depression, he worked for the WPA on the Jordan...

Scope and Contents Gray discusses his childhood in Colorado Springs and describes growing up in a well-integrated neighborhood. As he grew older, he was better able to see the divide between races and felt especially left out once he entered high school. Gray was introduced to the LDS faith by some of his neighbors around the year 1964. He was particularly taken with the faith because he felt there were fewer loose ends and loopholes in their fundamental doctrines than in other religions he had studied. At this...

Scope and Contents Green begins the interview by relating his family history. His grandfather was the first African American to graduate from high school, play football, and earn a scholarship in Utah. Green also talks about how his grandfather held the belief that African Americans were never discriminated against, which was apparently a relatively common feeling from African Americans who traveled with the Latter Day Saint pioneers (his grandfather was a member of the LDS church). He also discusses how his...

Scope and Contents Mrs. Haley was born in 1889 in Sedalia Missouri, where she only made it through the sixth grade. She came to Ogden in 1922. At the time, the economy was based around the railroad, where her husband got a job. She states that the economy has since shifted to an emphasis in government defense plants, and that the city has grown since they first arrived. She claims that the main jobs available to African Americans when she moved were for waiters, cooks, domestic service, and railroad jobs and that...

Scope and Contents Mr. Junior Hall was born in Quentin, Mississippi on August 21, 1933. He attended Alexander High School. Mrs. Junior Hall was also born in Quentin June 19th, 1934. Mr. Hall came to Utah in October of 1951, where he began work as an aircraft cleaner for $1.30 an hour. His main complaint about this work was that it was extremely difficult to move out of the entry -level positions as an African American, regardless of skill, unless you had a PhD. He also mentions his difficulty in...