Interview with Dera Simpson

Interview with Dera Simpson

African American families

African American farmers

African Americans

African Americans -- Religion

African Americans -- Social life and customs

Agriculture

Autobiography

North Carolina, Western -- Race relations -- History -- 20th century

Simpson, Dera, 1898-1988 -- Interviews

Dera Smith Simpson is interviewed by Edward Clark Smith on February 17, 1986 as a part of the Western North Carolina Tomorrow Black Oral History Project. Born in 1898, Simpson discusses her family members and growing up on the farm in Union County, South Carolina. She recalls picking cotton, peas, and corn. Ms. Simpson describes moving to Asheville, North Carolina in 1920 where she began working as a cook. She talks about voting for the first time in Asheville in 1941 or 1942 and remembers friendly relations between whites and Blacks. She mentions living in Bryson City for a brief time after remarrying her second husband, Andrew Samuel Simpson. She returned to Asheville in 1956 after his passing. Ms. Simpson also briefly discusses topics such as past and present church customs, parenting, and the “colored hospital” in Asheville (now known as Mission Hospital).

Simpson, Dera, 1898-1988

Western North Carolina Tomorrow Black Oral History Project

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

1910s; 1920s; 1930s; 1950s; 1960s; 1970s; 1980s;

1986-02-17

Smith, Edward Clark

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

application/pdf; audio/mp3;

sound recordings

transcripts

interviews

eng

Sound

Text

35944

https://southernappalachiandigitalcollections.org/object/35944

2019-01-23

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

Buncombe County (N.C.)

Union County (S.C.)

North Carolina, Western

00:42:20 (sound recording)(duration)

11 pages (transcript)(duration)

Oral Histories of Western North Carolina