Bridges Digital Archive: Audio and Video Recordings

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Document Type

Oral History

Abstract

Jennifer Tilton interviews Flora Williams, a woman originally from Alabama who lives in California. At the beginning of the interview, Williams talked about how segregation and racism were stronger in her home state. After coming to California and getting a job, she saw the better difference between how people interacted. However, she was still scared for herself and her children. She then worked in the In-Home provider sector as a senior companion. Going back to the topic of living in Los Angeles, Williams details how she saw people, including children at school, on drugs. Though she wanted to go to college for four years instead of only two, she suffered a nine-year-long marriage to an alcoholic man and dealt with domestic violence. Eventually, Williams was able to leave with the help of her income, which she felt was much more than what she would have been paid in Alabama. The interview ends with Williams talking about working at the Metropolitan Skills Center, the woman who was slanderously called “The Welfare Queen”, and how the latter turned her life around.

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