| Summary: | In this interview, Eva Russell talks about her life in Birmingham in the forties, fifties, and sixties, including her husband's job in the mines and the café she ran. Russell was married to a miner, and he was in a labor union. She recalls they were on strikes a lot by that time, so her husband usually had part time work, too. She says her husband was killed in a mining accident around the time their youngest children were entering college. Russell didn't work outside the home while her children were still being raised. In the late fifties, Russell began working in a restaurant that she eventually bought. She ran the Fraternal Café for years, and it was a popular place in her neighborhood. Russell also describes the music scene of her area, including many prominent musicians. Russell discusses being among the first black voters registered in the forties. She says they asked many questions about government. Her husband didn't have more than a fifth grade education, so he couldn't answer them, but she answered for him. She says she never had much problem registering. She also recalls paying a poll tax. Russell remembers the struggles of the civil rights movement. She couldn't march because she was operating her café, but she remembers seeing the marches and even dealing with water from the police hoses coming into her café. She says her contribution was feeding people who needed food. Russell also talks about Parker High School, as well as her impressions of G. A. Gaston and H. D. Coke. Russell concludes by reading two of her own poems. Note: The available transcript for this interview pertains to the first audio file. The second audio file largely consists of the interviewee, Eva Billingsley Russell, reading her poetry, which she says she would once day like to get published as a collection called Golden Threads. Four years after this 1984 interview, Russell's poetry was published as Golden Threads : a collection of poems about the Black family, Zoe Publications, 1988.The digitization of this collection was funded by a gift from EBSCO Industries.
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