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Oral history.; Edward Boggs was born in Gulfport, Mississippi, on December 25, 1938. He attended Thirty-third Avenue Elementary School and High School; he attended one year at Dillard University and then transferred to Mississippi Valley State University where he earned his B.S. degree. From 1963 to 1966, he served in the United States Army. After his military service, Mr. Boggs worked for the United States Postal Service for twenty-nine years where he was a postal clerk in finance, a postal systems examiner and director of finance.

Oral history.; Interview conducted on August 6, 2003. Born in December of 1922 in Orange, New Jersey, Colonel Lawrence E. Roberts grew up about twenty-five miles west of New York City. Colonel Roberts attended Howard University, received his bachelor of science degree from Morningside College, and received his master's degree from Tuskegee Institute. He entered the United States Army Air Corps as a private, and he retired from the United States Air Force as a colonel. He was a graduate of the Forty-four K class of the prestigious Tuskegee Airmen. His first assignment was the pilot training program at Tuskegee Army Airfield where he graduated as a second lieutenant and was assigned to the 477th Medium Bombardment Group and later the 332d Fighter Wing. Among the nineteen service medals and awards received during his service career are the Legion of Merit with two Oak Leaf Clusters, the Joint Service Commendation Medal, the United States Force Commendation Medal, and the Distinguished Service Order and Air Service Medal received from the Republic of Vietnam. Colonel Roberts served in numerous flying, technical and command assignments in the continental United States and Japan, Canada, Turkey, and Vietnam. This service included duty as a jet fighter pilot in the Air Defense Command and as a flight instructor at the fighter school at Williams Air Force Base, Ground Electronics Officer in Japan and Canada, Chief of Ground Communication-Electronics and Meteorological Maintenance at an Air Division Headquarters, Department Chief for Ground Electronics and Officer Training at Keesler Air Force Base, Commander of a NATO communications organization and Chief Communications- Electronics and Logistics Advisor to the Vietnamese Air Force Headquarters, and Commander of the Maintenance and Supply Group at Keesler Air Force Base. After retirement from the United States Air Force, he worked for Global Associates at the National Space Technology Laboratories. Colonel Roberts was very involved both in his church and in his community. He was a former member and vice moderator of the General Assembly Council, Presbyterian Church USA; former member and chair of the council of the Presbytery of Mississippi; and an elder, First Presbyterian Church, USA, of Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Colonel Roberts' community activities include being a member of the board of trustees, Leadership Gulf Coast, former member and chair of the board of trustees for Pass Christian School District; former member and chair of the executive board of the Mississippi School Boards Association; former member and chair of the southern region of the School Boards Association; and director of the Genesis Foundation. On Tuesday, October 12, 2004, Colonel Lawrence E. Roberts, USAF, Retired, died in Biloxi, Mississippi, at eighty-one years of age. He had been a resident of the Mississippi Gulf Coast for thirty-five years, living in Pass Christian and Biloxi.

Oral history.; Eugene Lawrence Christy was born in 1930, in Gulfport, Mississippi. Christy graduated from Thirty-third Avenue High School. In 1951 he was drafted into the military during the Korean War. Upon returning home he began working at the Veterans Administration Hospital in dietetics. In 1961, he was called up from reserve status at the time of the Berlin crisis. In 1983, after serving thirty-two years, he retired from the military as a first sergeant. After thirty-six years at his second career as a nurse's aide at both the Biloxi and the Gulfport VA Hospitals, Mr. Christy retired.

Oral history.; Born in 1921, in Pass Christian, Mississippi, Bidwell Barnes left school at age fourteen to help support his family. From 1940 to 1942, Mr. Barnes served in the Civilian Conservation Corps; in 1942 he was drafted into the United States Army for deployment in World War II. In 1951 he also served in the Korean war. In 1977, Mr. Bames retired from Keesler Air Force Base where he had worked in the civil service.

Oral history.; Clifton Thomas was born in Forest, Mississippi in 1920. Mr. Thomas attended rural school at the Crudup Bottom School. In the late 1930s, Mr. Thomas joined the Civilian Conservation Corps preventing and fighting forest fires. After leaving the CCC, Mr. Thomas moved to Gulfport, Mississippi, and worked for the Armor Company and the Merchant's Company. In 1943, he was drafted into World War II, serving in the Pacific. He returned to civilian life on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and again worked for the Merchant Company as a truck driver. He went to school on the GI bill, eighteen months at the Coast Cooking and Baking School in Biloxi, and sixteen months to the Mississippi School of Business. In 1984 Mr. Thomas retired from the Merchant's Company.

Oral history.; Born in Gulfport, Mississippi in 1932, Alfred Brown attended Thirty-third Avenue High School from which he graduated. He was drafted into the United States Army during the Korean Conflict, and he served for one year and nine months. He earned his B.S. degree at Howard University and completed some postgraduate work there. In 1960, Mr. Brown taught at Coleman High School in Greenville, Mississippi; from 1961 to 1965 he was a bell captain at Sun and Sand in Jackson, Mississippi; from 1965 to 1973, he was a Manpower specialist and counselor for Star, Inc., and he has been self-employed since 1969 in his business A and B Construction.

Oral History.; Interview conducted on March 4, 2003. Born on April 1, 1916, in Grove Hill, Alabama, Clark County, Mrs. Gaynette Cox Flowers Pugh was one of seven children born to Mr. George Cox Sr. and Mrs. Susie Alma Dickinson. When her mother was twenty-five years old, she died, and Mrs. Pugh and her siblings were reared by their grandmother and grandfather. As Mrs. Pugh grew up during the Depression, her grandmother was a schoolteacher, and her grandfather was a farmer, a blacksmith, and a saw mill worker. Mrs. Pugh began her education at a Rosenwald School in Alabama. Her education was interrupted when her grandmother became ill, and Mrs. Pugh cared for her. After her grandmother died, Mrs. Pugh returned to school, and she was graduated from Thirty-third Avenue High School in Gulfport, Mississippi. When she was nineteen years old, on November 30, 1937, she married Charles B. Flowers Sr. In 1947, that marriage ended in divorce, and on June 1, 1968, she married Richard Pugh. In 1966, Mrs. Pugh was employed by the Child Development Group of Mississippi as Field Program Advisor; she organized employees and supervised their teaching activities. She attended school in Alabama, and on May 29, 1977, she was graduated from Bishop State Junior College in Mobile, Alabama. On June 7, 1981, she was graduated from the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama. As a volunteer, she has tutored children in kindergarten through third grade, and she has served as a guidance counselor to teenagers in North Gulfport. She is a member of Greater Mount Olive Baptist Church, where she has been a Sunday school teacher, a choir member, and a youth director. She has served as secretary of the Gulfport branch of the NAACP and also of the Mobile, Alabama, branch where she has been a member of the executive board.

Oral history.; Transcript of interview with Bessie Mae Peters Randall conducted on April 8, 2003. Bessie Randall was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. At age six she moved to Gulfport, where she was educated. She considered becoming a beautician, but opted instead to be a teacher. Randall was active in her church, Saint James, attending services and singing in the choir.

Oral history.; Celestine Labat graduated from high school in Indianapolis, Indiana as there were no high schools for black students in 1918 in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. One of thirteen children of a Catholic French Creole family, she became a teacher and later did office work at St. Augustine Seminary in Bay St. Louis.

Oral history.; Clifton Thomas was born in Forest, Mississippi in 1920. Mr. Thomas attended rural school at the Crudup Bottom School. In the late 1930s, Mr. Thomas joined the Civilian Conservation Corps preventing and fighting forest fires. After leaving the CCC, Mr. Thomas moved to Gulfport, Mississippi, and worked for the Armor Company and the Merchant's Company. In 1943, he was drafted into World War II, serving in the Pacific. He returned to civilian life on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and again worked for the Merchant Company as a truck driver. He went to school on the GI bill, eighteen months at the Coast Cooking and Baking School in Biloxi, and sixteen months to the Mississippi School of Business. In 1984 Mr. Thomas retired from the Merchant's Company.

Oral history.; Willie Mae Merrell grew up in rural Liberty, Mississippi and moved to Gulfport in 1935 to complete high school at Thirty-third Avenue High School. After raising 14 children she returned to her education and graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1973. She went on to work for the Harrison County Gulf Coast Mental Health Center and also served as the first African American member of the Gulfport School Board.

Oral history.; Jimmie Jenkins was born in 1937, in DeRidder, Louisiana, and his family moved to the Mississippi Gulf Coast in 1941. In 1954, he graduated from Turkey Creek High School. After serving three years in the United States Army, Mr. Jenkins held several jobs, as he had done throughout his school years. He worked for Anchor Glass from which he retired after thirty years. Mr. Jenkins has held several civic leadership positions. He is active in various churches and professional organizations as well.

Oral history.; John D. Dean was born in 1916, in Bond, Mississippi. His family moved to Gulfport during the Depression. At the age of sixteen, Mr. Dean began working for $1 a day cutting paper wood to help support his family. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, Mr. Dean registered for the draft, and he was called up to service in 1942. He was shipped to Europe in the 953rd Quartermasters. During the war, Mr. Dean worked as a cook in the United States Army. After his discharge from the Army, Mr. Dean returned to Mississippi. Mr. Dean was hired as a janitor at Scott Field Air Base. He was promoted to a supervisory position, transferred to Keesler Air Force Base, and retired in 1981.

Oral history.; Born in Louisiana in 1924 Walter Walker worked in construction, farming, in seafood factories, and on the railroad. In 1933 he moved to the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Later Mr. Walker worked as a home builder, and in the kitchen and patient wards at the Veterans Administration Hospital, in radio and television repair, as a truck driver and as a refrigeration and air conditioner repairman. During World War II, Mr. Walker served in the United States Army in the Pacific.

Oral history.; Horace Tate Jr. was born in 1934 in Gulfport, Mississippi. In 1953, he graduated from Thirty-third Avenue High School, and attended Jackson State University from which he graduated with a B.S. in 1957. He was drafted into the Army in 1958, and after completing his military duty, he returned to Gulfport to teach at Thirty-third Avenue High School. For thirty-seven years, he taught on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, during segregation, during the transition into integrated schools, and after schools had become fully integrated. Mr. Tate earned his M.S. at Jackson State University. In 1977, he became assistant principal at Central Junior High School, where he served until his retirement in 1996.