Oral History Interview with Geraldine Ray, September 13, 1997. Interview R-0128. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007).
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Abstract
Geraldine Ray is a lifelong resident of Barnardsville, North Carolina, a small town near Asheville. Ray describes her childhood and young adulthood caring for her disabled grandmother, working on the family farm, and attending all-black segregated schools. She recalls racial segregation as relatively easy to avoid compared to the segregation and prejudice that her black neighbors practiced based on skin tone. She devoted most of her time to school work, raising livestock, cooking, and helping to plant tobacco. She learned these skills from her grandmother because her parents left the state while Geraldine was young. Geraldine briefly lived with her father in Cincinnati before returning to Barnardsville to care for her grandmother. She sacrificed her love of education and desire for a career to nurse her relatives and friends through several illnesses, though she also endured health problems. The interview ends with discussions about her marriage to childhood friend J. T. Ray, her two miscarriages, and raising her two children.
Excerpts
Segregated primary school has fewer resources than the local all-black high school
Comparing Ray's childhood with white children to her time at an all-black high school
Ray's grandfather had white ancestry but did not discuss race relations
Country life exposes Ray to segregation within the black community
Family uses herbal remedies instead of doctors
Skills learned from grandmother while young
Working to help provide for the family farm
Production and struggle on grandparents' farm
Caring for friends and family prevents Ray from attending college
Absent mother results in missing life lessons
Moving in with husband after falling ill
Regular church attendance seen as family tradition
Black high school teaches Bible verses and devotionals
Adjusting parenting styles as adults based on childhood experiences
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Subjects
Family--North Carolina--Social life and customs--20th century
North Carolina--Race relations--20th century
African American women--North Carolina--History--20th century
African Americans--Segregation--North Carolina
Buncombe County (N.C.)
Ray, Geraldine
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