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Title
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Rosa Lee Coleman oral history interview, 1979 May 25
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Interviewee
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Coleman, Rosa Lee, 1909-1993
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Interviewer
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Causby, Anna
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Place of Publication
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Charlotte, North Carolina
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Publisher
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J. Murrey Atkins Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
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Date of Interview
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1979-05-25
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Physical Description
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1 audio file (10:30) : digital, MP3 + 1 transcript (6 pages : PDF)
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Object Type
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sound recording-nonmusical
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Genre
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spoken word
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Language
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eng
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Interviewee Biography
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Rosa Lee Coleman was a 69-year-old woman at the time of interview. She was born in 1909. She completed the sixth grade and was employed as a domestic worker.
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Abstract
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Rosa Lee Coleman recounts her early life in Fayetteville, North Carolina, as well as her employment as a domestic service worker. As an African American, Mrs. Coleman discusses the complicated dynamics of her relationship with her white female employer, with whom she moved from Fayetteville to Charlotte in 1933. She explains that her employer treated her in a contradictory way. Mrs. Coleman specifically recalls how her employer once cared for her during an illness and yet refused to offer her sufficient wages and food during her work hours. The inadequate compensation and the lack of empathy from her employer ultimately forced Mrs. Coleman to pursue employment in another household. She also recalls racial discrimination that she encountered from a Charlotte bus driver who adamantly enforced the segregated bus seating policies. Although Mrs. Coleman laments the difficult hardships her grandparents endured during slavery, she explains that she is grateful for the racial progress made since that time.
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Digital Object Notes
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MP3 access copy created on ingest from WAV preservation master. Interview originally recorded on reel to reel, duplicate audio analog cassette digitized using a Digidesign 003 rack.
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Interviewee Occupations
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Household employees
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Subjects--Names
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Coleman, Rosa Lee, 1909-1993
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Subjects--Topics
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African American household employees
African Americans--Segregation
Household employees
Race discrimination
Race relations
Segregation in transportation
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Subjects--Geographic
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North Carolina--Charlotte
North Carolina--Fayetteville
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Subjects--Genre
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Interviews
Oral histories
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Coverage--Dates
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1930-1980
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Digital Collection Title
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Ed Perzel WSOC project on twentieth century Charlotte
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Digital Project Title
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Living Charlotte : the postwar development of a New South city
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Rights
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The materials included on this web site are freely available for private study, scholarship or non-commercial research under the fair use provisions of the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, United States Code). Any use beyond the provisions of fair use, including but not limited to commercial or scholarly publication, broadcast, redistribution or mounting on another web site always require prior written permission and may also be subject to additional restrictions and fees. UNC Charlotte does not hold literary rights to all materials in its collections and the researcher is responsible for securing those rights when needed. Copyright information for specific collections is available upon request.
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Grant Information
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Digitization made possible by funding from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by the State Library of North Carolina, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources.
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Internet Media Type
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audio/mpeg
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Identifier
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OH-CO0036
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Handle URL
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http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/uncc:269