Our country is made up of people from different backgrounds and beliefs. But while we live together, we do not always know each other. Last year cast in stark relief the chasm between culturally different communities in America — and our need, more than ever, to understand our histories so we can forge our future together.
As we celebrate Black History Month, we are sharing some StoryCorps conversations of Blythewood residents and others that feature voices in discussions about Black history, identity, struggles, and joy — stories that reveal our shared American history.
Click on the images below to hear the stories of Silvia, Olivia, Doris, Fannie, and Theresa. We invite you to also become apart of this digital vocal history by recording your own story that will become a part of the historical legacy of documented stories for the Museum
Sylvia’s Legacy
In the 1950s, Ellaraino, then age 16, was sent to Louisiana to visit her great-grandmother Silvia, who had lived through the Civil War. That summer, Silvia shared the moment she got her freedom.
The Enduring Legacy of Elijah and Alice Kelly
Listen below to Doris Coleman talk about the legacy of her maternal grandparents, Elijah and Alice Kelly, of Blythewood.
Olivia J. Hooker on Making Military History
Dr. Olivia J. Hooker, 103, shares what it was like as one of the first Black women to join the United States Coast Guard Women’s Reserve in 1945, and what her time in the service has meant to her. Dr. Hooker was thought to be the last surviving witness to the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921.
How Many Black Jelly Beans? and A More Perfect Union
Theresa and Toni, her granddaughter
As a Black woman who came of voting age in the late 1940s, Theresa Burroughs was one of many Americans to fight against voter suppression. During the Jim Crow era, the Board of Registrars at Alabama’s Hale County Courthouse prevented African Americans from registering to vote. Every month for two years, she traveled to Alabama’s Hale County Courthouse in pursuit of her right to vote. Undeterred, Theresa ventured to the courthouse on the first and third Monday of each month, in pursuit of her right to vote. Theresa Burroughs (left) came to StoryCorps to tell her daughter Toni Love (right) about registering to vote. Theresa Burroughs died May 23, 2019.
Watch “A More Perfect Union,” the animated version of Theresa’s story, and go behind the scenes to see the making of the animation.