A young Black boy of eight years and his cousins are outside playing in the yard in Shreveport, Louisiana waiting for a family Sunday dinner. A black truck drives up with teenage white boys hanging out the windows. “Niggers!” they yelled.
A thirteen-year-old Black girl from Hot Springs, Arkansas is going through culture shock as she is sitting in a southern California classroom where the teacher and the majority of the students are white after being told she was going to California for a summer vacation and then told they would be staying.
An eight-year-old Black girl boards the Southern Pacific train in Texas anticipating going to Oakland, California carrying tea cakes and fried chicken, the same meal her other family members before her carried to their segregated seating arrangements.
Black Gold Storytellers has a free, upcoming online event.
Black Harvest: A Black Gold Storytelling Event. Wednesday, November 29 from 4 to 6 p.m. https://tinyurl.com/BGSBlackHarvest
These are just a few of the stories of the Great Migration as told to the oral storytelling forum, Black Gold Storytellers (BGS). The Great Migration describes Black migration from rural areas to cities and from the south to the north and west.
“I read The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson when it was first published and was inspired by Isabel Wilkerson’s work to gather migration stories. My goal in creating the project was to extend her work and localize it here.
Adrienne Oliver
When Adrienne Oliver, a poet-educator and hip-hop scholar, envisioned Black Gold Storytellers, a Great Migration storytelling forum, she had been a recent transplant herself. She moved here from Little Rock, Arkansas in 2010 to attend Mills College for an MFA program. She then completed her ED. D and decided to stay after being offered a teaching position.
Her storytelling and coaching are under the umbrella of Write Avenue which curates her programs as she relays the stories of Black elders who migrated from the South to Oakland, California. Oliver is entrenched in telling Black stories, the stories that are not in mainstream news.
“I read The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson when it was first published and was inspired by Isabel Wilkerson’s work to gather migration stories,” Oliver said. “My goal in creating the project was to extend her work and localize it here.
The premise of BGS is to pair an Oakland Black elder who was a part of the Great Migration from the South with a writer/storyteller who guides the elder in telling their stories of the trials, tribulations, and joys of their journey. The stories are recorded and then archived so that they can be available to the public and anyone interested. Because this project was developing during the early days of the COVID-19 crisis, BGS held the sessions through by Zoom. BGS plans to record future sessions in person. The storytellers interview and prepare for the stories, which are sometimes characterized by a theme, such as Black History Month or Juneteenth.
“I had asked another relative from Mississippi who was reluctant. I decided not to pressure her to participate as I’ve found as a journalist that people who don’t want to talk are not as forthcoming. But Charlene (Thomas) was a warm and open person who made the interview process fun. She loved telling the stories about her migration from Port Arthur, TX, to Oakland.”
Judy Juanita
Some people are hesitant to share their stories. Others are more of an open book. Oakland author Judy Juanita interviewed her former mother-in-law, Charlene Thomas, who migrated from Port Arthur, Texas. “I had asked another relative from Mississippi who was reluctant. I decided not to pressure her to participate as I’ve found as a journalist that people who don’t want to talk are not as forthcoming,” Juanita said. “But Charlene was a warm and open person who made the interview process fun. She loved telling the stories about her migration from Port Arthur, TX, to Oakland.”
Juanita is adamant that her elder’s story promotes a solid path of community, family unity, and honest hard work. Her uncles were entrepreneurs in Port Arthur and opened up businesses in Oakland. The clan found Oakland a hospitable place to make fruitful lives for themselves and their children.
“No one can explain it unless they have lived it. It was not separate but equal as promised, but separate and unequal.”
Elder Jackie Stewart
Elder Jackie Stewart, a native of Arkansas, feels it is of value to share her story with those who had no idea of the migration experience, particularly those from California. “No one can explain it unless they have lived it,” Stewart said. “It was not separate but equal as promised, but separate and unequal.”
Securing grants is vital for a project of this caliber in order to flourish and continue. Oliver, who teaches English at Laney College, started the project and has been able to cultivate team support with each subsequent program. The first grant support came from the City of Oakland Cultural Funding Program in 2021 to help with coordination support, a website, and promotion/publicity. BGS also secured funding from the University of California at Berkeley, was recognized by YBCA as one of the 2023 YBCA 100 Honorees. With a 2023 Akonadi Foundation, “So Love Can Win,” BGS will create and maintain a web archive for the stories now live. There is also a video editor to offer polished versions of replays in the archives.
Oakland is rich in stories of migration from all over the world. All of these stories are of value. The Great Migration of Blacks from the South is a voice to be heard.
Read an interview with Dera R. Williams, “A Cali girl with Southern Roots,” on Black Gold Storytellers.
For more about Black Gold Storytellers, go to: https://blackgoldstorytellers.com/
Dera R. Williams participated in Black Gold Storytellers twice, as an interviewer and an interviewee.
Dera R. Williams is a lifelong Oakland resident whose family was a part of the Great Migration. Her published writings capture the hardships, heroism, and the joys of families making that journey in both fiction and nonfiction. Dera will soon share her novel with the world and is pioneering that path to publication. Exploring the relationship between myth and honoring oral and family history, she honors the voices of her ancestors in her storytelling.
This is fabulous. Thank you Dera for putting it all together ad for sharing it with us.