Pre-2000

When Stories to Save Lives was first created, researchers culled the Southern Oral History Program’s oral history database for health-related stories and narrative opinions, a few of which can be found below. Rather than a comprehensive overview of our work, these interviews only represent a portion of the archive’s past examination of health and illness in the South. They serve as a jumping-off point for the current work that researchers are doing to document the Southern experience of health, from giving care to receiving it, from victory to heartbreak, and from injustice to health equity.


 

Janawa McCaskill, a farmer from Lexington, Mississippi, discusses his interactions with the health care system as an African American and the impact of racism on the quality of care. Listen to the full interview here. (Recorded June 29, 2011 as part of the “Breaking New Ground” oral history project.)

 

Louise Harris, a textile worker in Bynum, discusses the health care options available to people in her community. Towards the end, she talks about people in her community using the Emergency Room as a health care tool despite its expense because it is all that is available. Listen to the full interview here. (Recorded October 24, 1978 as part of the “Piedmont Industrialization, 1974-1980: Bynam, N.C.” project.)

 

Johnnie Jones, a maintenance worker from North Carolina, discusses the impact of his wife’s struggle with cancer on their finances. Listen to the full interview here. (Recorded August 27, 1976 as part of the “Piedmont Industrialization, 1974-1980” project.)

 

Ernest Latta, a labor leader and union member, discusses the impact of tobacco on health. He refutes the beliefs of the AMA that tobacco negatively impacts health and claims that his first hand experience in the plant demonstrated otherwise. Listen to the full interview here. (Recorded June 7, 1977 as part of the “Piedmont Industrialization, 1974-1980: Durham, N.C.” project.)

 

Carroll Lupton, a North Carolina doctor, discusses delivering babies. There was an older midwife in his community named Granny who women trusted more than him. Rather than refusing to work with her because he was the perceived expert, he worked alongside her to help decrease the community’s infant mortality rate. Towards the end of the clip he discusses ‘quilling,’ a method Granny used to speed up labor by putting tobacco up the laboring mother’s nose. Listen to the full interview here. (Recorded April 2, 1980 as part of the “Piedmont Industrialization, 1974-1980: Burlington, N.C.” project.)

 

Mandy Carter, a community organizer and social justice activist, discusses the difficulties facing activists who can not afford health insurance and how they avoid seeking medical care. Listen to the full interview here. (Recorded July 11, 2007 as part of the project, “The Long Civil Rights Movement: Heirs to a Fighting Tradition.“)

 

Harry Rogers, a textile worker from North Carolina, discusses the impact of his father’s death on his schooling. Listen to the full interview here. (Recorded on July 21, 1977 as part of the “Piedmont Industrialization, 1974-1980: Burlington, N.C.” project.)

 

Annie Baldwin Watson, a teacher from Bynum, North Carolina, explains a shift over the course of her lifetime in the reasons why people go to see the doctor. Listen to the full interview here. (Recorded on September 3, 1979 as part of the “Piedmont Industrialization, 1974-1980: Bynum, N.C. project.)

 

Bill White, a forty-eight-year-old hairdresser from North Carolina, discusses how he was diagnosed with AIDS. Listen to the full interview here. (Recorded on October 8, 2000.)

 

Inez Hanchey, a farmer and business owner from Wallace, North Carolina, discusses the impact of Hurricane Floyd on the health of her son, as well as the death of a friend. Listen  to the full interview here. (Recorded on January 13, 2001 as part of the “Voices After the Deluge: The Great North Carolina Flood” project.)