22065 total results

Oral history.; Mr. Earl Napoleon Moore was born in Biloxi, Mississippi, on December 19, 1914. His father was a ship and bridge carpenter, and his mother was a homemaker. Mr. Moore graduated from Biloxi Colored High School. He was a boxer and a spar mate, traveling the boxing circuits through New Orleans, Mobile and Texas where it was prohibited, and the boxers had to dodge the Texas Rangers. Mr. Moore attended college to learn masonry and wood crafting. In 1942, Mr. Moore was drafted into the United States Army; he became an Army Police corporal in the first African-American police force of the United States Army. He served for four years, during World War II, in North Africa and Southeast Asia. Mr. Moore's career in the civil service from 1965 through 1978 was to manage the V.A. building in Biloxi, Mississippi. Mr. Moore is a Mason, Henry Beck Lodge, and a member of the NAACP; he was awarded the First Missionary Baptist Golden Years of Service honor, 1946 through 1995.

Oral history.; Mr. Augustus (Gus) Ashby Sr. was born in 1924, in Washington, D.C. and moved to Tupelo where he became active in the local church. After high school, he attended college in Holly Springs and Okolona, Mississippi. He was a member of the Henry Hampton Elks Lodge Number 782 and served as its Exalted Ruler. He was also president of the Tupelo Civil Improvement Club and for his services was awarded the Golden Heritage Award from the NAACP as well as the Special Service Award from the Black Business Association of Mississippi. He was a veteran of World War II and worked at the Day-Brite Lighting Company. With his wife, he ran Ashby's Cash Grocery Store.

Oral history.; Ms. Frances Elkin Joyner was born on November 23, 1909, in Tupelo, Mississippi. She graduated from Tupelo High School and then attended National Park Seminary in Forest Glen, Maryland. She married Ernest Love Joyner, Jr. just months after the worst tornado in Tupelo's history. She and her husband owned and operated manufacturing plants in Mississippi that made shirts for New York markets. She is a member of the Presbyterian faith; served as the treasurer of the Red Cross; and has volunteered in service work for her community in Tupelo throughout her life there.

Oral history.; Dr. Charlotte Siegel Kaplan was born in Sunflower, Mississippi, on August 20, 1920, to Sadie Courland Siegel and Samuel Siegel who had emigrated from Europe at the turn of the twentieth century. In the Delta of Mississippi, the Siegels were members of a rather small but thriving Jewish community. During Dr. Kaplan's childhood, her father owned a grocery store and each member of the family worked there. Dr. Kaplan earned several qualifications including her doctorate in psychology from the University of Mississippi. She made her career in counseling, psychometry, and teaching as well as serving her community in a variety of volunteer capacities. Charlotte Siegel married Louis Kaplan in the early days of World War II and when returned from the war they made their home in Cleveland, Mississippi.