Minnie Bell Stuart interviewed by Inez Ramsey and Brenda McCormick

Creator:

Stuart, Minnie Bell, 1894-1983, Ramsey, Inez Linn, 1938-2025, McCormick, Brenda, and Staropoli, Theresa

Scope and content:

Records the reminiscences of Mrs. Minnie Bell Stuart (b. 1894) of Harrisonburg, Va., known as Miss Minnie. Describes her childhood living in the black community of Depot Hill and Tin Cup Alley; importance of church in life as a preacher's kid, her grandmother teaching Sunday school to both black and white children from Effinger Street, founding of the AME Church (preacher from Africa, Rev. Marion Gioper, also Rev. Collings); daily life fetching water at the Spring House, using Black's Run as a community gathering place, picking wood from railroad tracks; black businesses (lady who owned a second-hand store, fishmonger who sold fish from Baltimore), other downtown buildings/businesses; courting practices; clothes people/boys wore; home remedies (dandelion wine); people and Asbury Methodist Church she worked for as a cleaning maid; and information about her family and children. Recorded at the home of Mrs. Minnie Bell Stuart, Harrisonburg, Va. in July of 1978.

Other descriptive data:

Recorded at the home of Minnie Bell Stuart in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Names:

Stuart, Minnie Bell, 1894-1983
Ramsey, Inez Linn, 1938-2025
McCormick, Brenda
Staropoli, Theresa

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