Interview with Grace G. Coleman, May 19, 1988

Interview Summary

Grace Coleman talks about going to school with some of the children from the Colored Orphan Industrial Home and her impressions of them. She talks about children who came to the home whose parents were alive but were too poor to keep them. Coleman later became a member of the board of the Colored Orphan Industrial Home. She talks about changes in the treatment of and attitude toward the children over the years. She expresses concern over what she characterizes as the board of managers' lack of compassion in earlier years, for both the children and the parents. She discusses the turning point in the board's improved attitude toward the children.

Interview Keyword

Boards of directors Child abuse Colored Orphan Industrial Home (Lexington, Ky.) Colored Orphan Industrial Home--Lexington (Ky.) Discipline of children Race discrimination Robert H. Williams Children's Home and Cultural Center Robert H. Williams Cultural Center Women in nonprofit organizations

Interview LC Subject

African Americans--Education--Kentucky--Lexington Children--Institutional care Children--Kentucky Lexington (Ky.) Orphanages Orphans

Interview Rights

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Interview Usage

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