Stories

The participants in the Getting Word project tell stories that show the skills, values, and powerful bonds of family that have been passed down over more than seven generations.

Robert Hemmings’s Signature

Listen as Andrew Davenport, Auriana Woods, and Bernetiae Reed share the recent rediscovery of Robert Hemmings’s signature, a revelation confirming the literacy and the agency of the man that Thomas Jefferson enslaved as his valet. As a teenage boy, Hemmings was at Jefferson’s side in Philadelphia when he wrote the Declaration of Independence, and later gained his own freedom, becoming the first of very few to be freed by Jefferson.

“People Had A Struggle” — Eliga Diggs

“She Was A Very Unusual Person” — Vivian Davidson Hewitt and Nancy Lee

“We Should Be Treated As Americans”

“After a while he became interested in politics. He ran for the Board of Education once and didn’t win. In…

“We Should Be Treated As Americans”

Pearl Roberts speaks of her husband’s political views and career.

After a while he became interested in politics. He ran for the Board of Education once and didn’t win. In 1918, he ran for Assemblyman and people thought he was crazy, but he was elected. He was there for 16 years, four terms. He was the first black elected to an official position in the state of California. He was the first black elected to a state office west of the Mississippi….

He didn’t like the word “Negro.” He used the term “Americans of African descent.” He wanted to stress the fact that we were Americans and should be treated as Americans. Whereas most newspapers would say, “another Negro lynched,” his newspaper would say, “another American lynched.” (Pearl Roberts typescript autobiography, Roberts Collection, African American Museum and Library at Oakland)