Oral history interview with Josephine Turner, June 7, 1976
Subtitle: interview H-0235-2, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Sindelar, Karen, interviewer; Southern Oral History Program; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project); University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library
Edition: Electronic ed.
Publisher: University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill
Published: 2007
Place of publication: [Chapel Hill, N.C.]
Language: eng
Subjects: Interviews; African American women; African American women political activists; African Americans; Social conditions; Political activity; Social life and customs
Other titles: Interview H-0235-2, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Josephine Turner, June 7, 1976; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: Josephine Turner was born in Durham, NC, in 1927. At an early age, she experienced the sacrifices forced upon the poor, exemplified in her mother, who sought to impress upon Turner the value of education though she herself never made it past the third grade. She succeeded, but Turner followed in her mother's footsteps when her father died, leaving school and inheriting her father's job as a chauffeur at age fourteen. Turner's ambition placed her in unique positions: a black female chauffeur, a businesswoman, a political aspirant. However, her willingness to experiment with different jobs, her devout religious faith, and her determination to succeed earned her more respect than wealth. In this interview she reflects on the fruits of her ambition, her background, her children, her working life, and her hopes for the future. This interview is more of a personal portrait than a window into labor, but it will be useful for researchers interested in life and work in North Carolina.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on November 25, 2008).

Interview participants: Josephine Turner, interviewee; Karen Sindelar, interviewer.

Duration: 01:44:16.

This electronic edition is part of the UNC-Chapel Hill digital library, Documenting the American South.  It is a part of the collection Oral histories of the American South.

Text encoded by Jennifer Joyner.  Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers.

Text (HTML and XML/TEI source file) and audio (MP3); 2 files: ca. 252 kilobytes, 190 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series H, Piedmont industrialization, interview H-0235-2, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Transcribed by Patricia Crowley. Original transcript: 67 p.

Funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this interview.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

System requirements:  Web browser with Javascript enabled and multimedia player.