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            In the 1930s, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) launched numerous projects to bring relief to the unemployed. In addition to the thousands of construction projects, the WPA’s Federal Writers Project provided employment to authors, editors and folklorists to record the life histories of everyday Americans who were living through the Great Depression. More than 10,000 oral history interviews were collected. Among those stories were interviews of former slaves.
            Dr. Andrew Lee Feight, associate professor in Social Sciences at Shawnee State University and lead scholar with the “Soul of a People” project at Shawnee State University, wrote and directed a program with four people representing the people interviewed in the project on Thursday, Sept. 17 at Shawnee State University’s Kahl Theatre. Feight played the part of the interviewer.
“These interviews have proven to be invaluable historical resources for the study of slavery and emancipation,” Feight said. “The WPA interviews with former slaves and other Americans captured the “voice of a people’s history” in a time of economic struggle and they provide us a means of better understanding who we are as Americans. They remind us that we too, no matter how low or what little status we may have in today’s world, we are nonetheless living lives worthy of notice and full of value.”
            James Childers, played by Eric O’Neil, was born in Chambersburg, Ky., spent most of his life on a cattle ranch. He described his log cabin home and his childhood – from the homespun clothes to farming to the kinds of foods his family had.
Matt Mathews portrayed Charles Anderson who was born in 1845 in Richmond, Va. He and his mother, father and 13 brothers and sisters were slaves. He was over 90 years old when he was interviewed.
            Aundrea “Drea” Perkins portrayed Tempie Cummins, of Jasper, Texas, did not know how old she was but she did remember when the slaves were freed. She talked about her life as a slave – deprived of food and clothing and brutal whippings. Her mother escaped with her when the slaves were freed but the slave owner did not want to let them free and shot at them as they ran away.
            The last interview was with a man who would not reveal his name portrayed by Brian Richards. He was described as a “high-strung sidewalk intellectual” with a mouth “twisted between self-pity and bitter contempt.”
            “Voices of a People’s History: Readings from the WPA Oral Histories” was produced with grant of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association. SSU’s library was one of only 30 libraries across the country to receive the grant.

Photo:
In the photo from left, are Brian Richards who played a part of a “sidewalk intellectual” whose name was not revealed, Matt Matthews who played the part of Charles Anderson, Eric O’Neil who played the part of James Childers, Aundrea “Drea” Perkins who played the part of Temple Cummins, and the interviewer, Andrew Feight.