Oral history with Pinkey Hall

              An Oral History with Mrs. Pinkey Hall
This oral history is provided through a cooperative project of USM Libraries and USM's Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage It is presented here for reference purposes only. Interviews in this collection are protected by copyright and PERMISSION TO PUBLISH MUST BE REQUESTED from the Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage. Please call ( 601) 266- 4574 for more information.
Biography
Mrs. Pinkey Hall was born in Kemper County, the daughter of Nathaniel and Callie Woods Williams. She was the youngest of twelve children, nine girls and three boys. She was brought up on a 288- acre farm in Shuqualak, Mississippi, northeast of Meridian, where her family produced most of what they need as well as enough to help family less fortunate than themselves. When not working on the family farm, Hall hired out to chop corn, cotton, and other crops. She worked as a maid in hotels and in private homes and eventually, she became a licensed beautician and ran her own beauty shop for many years. Hall has been active in the civil rights movement. When her repeated attempts to register to vote were unsuccessful, she joined with others in the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and attended the 1964 Democratic Convention in Atlantic City. While that the convention, she was interviewed by Douglas Kiker.
Topics Discussed
Family, family farm The Great Depression, earning money " chopping," buying power of money earned Extent of poverty in the Depression for those without their own farms, example of sharing set by Hall's parents World War II, working in the Milner Hotel in Hattiesburg Experiences with discrimination from sales clerks Rationing during World War II, making lard African- American Diaspora North to escape discrimination Discrimination in employment and voting, civil rights movement Hall's attempts to register to vote, Theron Lynd, 1964 Democratic Convention, Freedom Democratic Party, Susie Ruffin, Freedom Registration, Douglas Kiker, Fannie Lou Hamer, Victoria Gray, Vernon Dahmer Success of the civil rights movement On current generation not using the right to vote, sadness of the generation who participated in the civil rights movement, what Hall perceives as the most serious problem facing African Americans today, root of the problem Teenage pregnancies mus- coh. hallp. doc Page 1 of 13