Interview with Arthur Clark Smith

Interview with Arthur Clark Smith

African American families

African Americans

African Americans -- Social conditions

African Americans -- Social life and customs

Autobiography

Enslaved persons

Murder

Racism -- United States -- History -- 20th century

Segregation

Smith, Arthur Clark, 1902-1997 -- Interviews

Arthur Clark Smith is interviewed by Edward Clark Smith on February 5, 1987 as part of the Western North Carolina Tomorrow Black Oral History Project. Born on December 2, 1902, Smith discusses his family members and growing up on a farm in Mitchell County, North Carolina. He recalls his mother digging roots to sell at the market to make medicine, attending school and church, and celebrating Christmas. Smith talks about a flood destroying homes and businesses around 1916 and frost damaging crops in 1917. He describes how one of his brothers, Hobert, was killed by a white man while working on the railroad. At 21 years old, Smith remembers moving to McDowell County and then Kentucky to work in the coal mines. He moved to Asheville about 1935 where he worked at the Davenport Hotel as a dishwasher and later as a street paver for the Scenic Highway. Smith describes segregated conditions of water fountains, stores, and transportation in Asheville. He also describes voting for the first time i

Smith, Arthur Clark, 1902-1997

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;

1987-02-05

Smith, Edward Clark

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

application/pdf; audio/mp3;

sound recordings

transcripts

interviews

eng

Sound

Text

35914

https://southernappalachiandigitalcollections.org/object/35914

2019-01-25

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

Buncombe County (N.C.)

Mitchell County (N.C.)

North Carolina, Western

00:53:14 (sound recording)(duration)

16 pages (transcript)(duration)

Oral Histories of Western North Carolina