Oral history with Mrs. Raylawni Branch

              Oral history with Mrs. Raylawni Branch
This oral history is provided through a cooperative project of University of Southern Mississippi Libraries and USM's Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage.
Funding provided by a National Leadership Grant for Libraries from the Institute for Museum and Library Services
The transcript is presented here for reference purposes only. Interviews in this collection are protected by copyright. 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. Raylawni Branch was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, in 1941, in " the Bottoms." She was the eldest of ten children. She was raised in Hattiesburg, Prentiss, and Mount Carmel, Mississippi, and in Chicago, Illinois. By the time she was graduated from the eighth grade, she had moved eleven times and been in eight schools. Branch attended Royal Street High School and graduated in 1959, after the school became Rowan High School. After graduation, she married and had three children.
The NAACP's offer to pay the twenty- four year old Branch's tuition to the University of Southern Mississippi in exchange for her accompanying a younger African- American woman to school seemed like a dream come true to Branch. In 1965, Branch and Elaine Armstrong were the first African- American students at USM. Branch enrolled in pre- med and got a work- study job. The two women attended classes accompanied by six bodyguards.
Family problems and financial difficulties made it impossible for Branch to continue attending USM, and she withdrew after one year. Later she attended St. John's University, Jamaica, New York. She returned to USM in 1988 and began working on a master's degree in community health nursing with a minor in education.
In addition to her role in integrating USM, Branch has been active in numerous other aspects of the struggle for civil rights movement. She served as secretary of the local chapter of the NAACP; was a member of the Council for Federated Organizations, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and Southern Christian Leadership Conference; and attended the March on Washington. She was the first African American to be hired at the Big Yank factory and the telephone company to a position other than that of housekeeping personnel. She integrated the Greyhound and Trailways bus stations. After leaving USM Branch participated in the anti- Vietnam War movement and the storming of the Pentagon. She describes herself more as staying " open and active in a personal way."
Branch has been married to her current husband for twenty- five years. The couple lives in Hattiesburg.
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