Interview with Wilma Simpson

Interview with Wilma Simpson

African American families

African Americans

African Americans -- Genealogy

African Americans -- Social conditions

African Americans -- Social life and customs

Autobiography

Depressions -- 1929

Enslaved persons

Floods

Race discrimination

Segregation

Simpson, Wilma, 1914-2008 -- Childhood and youth

Simpson, Wilma, 1914-2008 -- Interviews

Western Carolina University -- Employees

Herbs -- Therapeutic use

Wilma Howell Simpson is interviewed by Lorraine Crittenden on May 19, 1986 as part of the Western North Carolina Tomorrow Black Oral History Project. Her husband, Morris (1914-) is also present and comments throughout the interview. Mrs. Simpson traces her family tree from her great grandparents who lived in Bryson City, North Carolina. Born in Bryson City, she talks about attending school and growing food during the Great Depression. Mrs. Simpson recalls using food stamps during rations in World War II and how white people received meat before people in the black communities. She also remembers segregated conditions in Bryson and Sylva, such as riding in the back of the bus or train, sitting in a different waiting room at the hospital, and voting in Jackson County. Mrs. Simpson describes wakes and funeral practices, weddings, dances, church entertainments, and Christmas. She talks about working for the Enloe family from 1948 to 1960 and then for Western Carolina University as a housekeeper from 1960 to 1981. She also mentions a huge flood in 1941 that affected Bryson City and Cullowhee.

Simpson, Wilma, 1914-2008

Western North Carolina Tomorrow Black Oral History Project

Hunter Library Digital Collections, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC 28723

1900s (Decade); 1910s; 1920s; 1930s; 1940s; 1950s; 1960s; 1970s; 1980s;

1986-05-19

Crittenden, Lorraine

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/

application/pdf; audio/mp3;

sound recordings

transcripts

interviews

eng

Sound

Text

35911

https://southernappalachiandigitalcollections.org/object/35911

2019-01-25

All rights reserved. For permissions, contact Hunter Library Special Collections, Western Carolina U, Cullowhee, NC 28723;

Bryson City (N.C.)

Cullowhee (N.C.)

Jackson County (N.C.)

Swain County (N.C.)

North Carolina, Western

1:24:39 (sound recording)(duration)

29 pages (transcript)(duration)

Oral Histories of Western North Carolina