Interview with Ella Lee, June 15, 1984

Project: Goin' North: Tales of the Great Migration Oral History Project

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Interview Summary

In this June 15, 1984 interview, Ella Lee (1891-1990) discusses her long and hard life as she travelled from her native Georgia north to Philadelphia during the First Great Migration. Recently widowed, Lee came with her children in 1929 from Jacksonville, Florida to Philadelphia, hoping for a better life and education for her children. Work as a domestic took her throughout New England, doing laundry and housework for white families. Unlike most of her African-American counterparts, Lee refuted the move North, stating "I would have done just as good" if she had stayed in the South.

Interview Accession

2014oh173_gn025

Interviewee Name

Ella Lee

Interviewer Name

Diane Turner

Interview Date

1984-06-15

Interview Rights

All rights to the interviews, including but not restricted to legal title, copyrights and literary property rights, have been transferred to the University of Kentucky Libraries.

Interview Usage

Interviews may be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, Special Collections, University of Kentucky Libraries.

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Interviews may be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, Special Collections, University of Kentucky Libraries.

All rights to the interviews, including but not restricted to legal title, copyrights and literary property rights, have been transferred to the University of Kentucky Libraries.

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Lee, Ella Interview by Diane Turner. 15 Jun. 1984. Lexington, KY: Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.

Lee, E. (1984, June 15). Interview by D. Turner. Goin' North: Tales of the Great Migration Oral History Project. Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries, Lexington.

Lee, Ella, interview by Diane Turner. June 15, 1984, Goin' North: Tales of the Great Migration Oral History Project, Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.





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Persistent Link for this Record: https://kentuckyoralhistory.org/ark:/16417/xt79kd1qjk31