Bailey, Beatrice (Hawkins), 1978 August 09
Abstract
The Bailey interview provides many details about lower-middleclass African-American life in Baltimore from the 1900’s through the 1970’s. There is much detailed discussion of her strict disciplinarian parents and the enjoyment of her childhood. She discusses topics such as: family moves, salaries, religion, race relations (“she was once mistaken for an Italian and her brother a white”) and segregation. Coming from one of only two African-American families living in her neighborhood, she recalls the ethnic diversity present in her neighborhood (Jews, Germans and Bohemians.) Also discussed are occupational experiences and her thoughts on how things have changed.
Dates
- 1978 August 09
Creator
- Griffin, Joyce (Interviewer, Person)
Conditions Governing Access
The collection is open for research use.
Biographical / Historical
Beatrice Hawkins Bailey, an African-American, was born in Baltimore on April 6, 1895. She was the youngest of seven children. Her father, Leander Hawkins, was originally from Texas. He worked for North Brothers and Strauss. Her mother, Francis Sullivan Hawkins, was from Annapolis and was a stay at home mother. Mrs. Bailey attended the E Street School and then High School #101 on Caroline and Jefferson Street. At the age of eighteen she married Bernard Bailey. Mrs. Bailey worked at the Maryland Country Club for approximately thirty years, while her husband worked in the Post Office. Mr. Bailey passed away in 1964. At the time of the interview, Mrs. Bailey lived at 1408 Odessa Thomas Court.
Extent
60 Minutes
Language of Materials
From the Collection: English
Existence and Location of Originals
Original format: 2 compact cassettes
Physical Description
Biography form, interview notes, & tape index
Scope and Contents
The Baltimore Neighborhood Heritage Project Oral History Collection contains paper records and audiocassette recordings from 1978 through 1980. The paper records are composed of the files kept on each narrator (the person being interviewed) and the administrative needs of the project. Narrator records contain biography forms, interview notes, and tape indexes for approximately 212 narrators. The interview notes briefly describe the circumstance surrounding the interview(s) session. The tape index includes the name of the narrator, the name of interviewer, the number of tapes, the tape(s) length, and the primary subjects covered. Seventy-nine of the records include transcripts. Transcript length ranges from 8 to 65 pages. Some are single-spaced; others are doubled-spaced. The interviews range from twenty-five minutes to three hours in length. One file, #183, and its accompanying cassette(s) were removed from the collection.
Thirty-two interviewers participated in the project. Typically, the interviews were one-on-one sessions between interviewer and narrator; however, single interviewer and double-narrator situations occurred, as did three group “nostalgia” sessions. Most interviews were prefaced by unrecorded, pre-interview sessions that occurred days before the recorded interview.
Each narrator abstract includes the following information when available: the BNHP interview number; the name of the interviewer; the date of the interview; the place of the interview; the length of the interview; the number of tapes used; the length of the transcript; and the file contents, such as subject index, interview notes, and biography form. The abstracts follow the numerical order of the interview number. However, interview numbers are not consecutive, but site specific. That is to say, any omitted number within a site can be found in another site.
When controversial or outdated terms, especially those referring to race and ethnicity, are mentioned in the abstract, the politically-correct term is used and the term or terms used by the narrator has been placed in parenthetical (“ ”) quotation marks. Specific terms from the interviews and textual uncertainties are often placed in parentheses alone ( ). Maiden names of female narrators are placed in brackets [ ].
Creator
- Griffin, Joyce (Interviewer, Person)
Repository Details
Part of the H. Furlong Baldwin Library Repository
H. Furlong Baldwin Library
Maryland Center for History and Culture
610 Park Avenue
Baltimore MD 21201 United States
4106853750
specialcollections@mdhistory.org