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Description
Ms. Lucille Young Full Interview
Lucille Young was born in Jackson, Mississippi in 1928. Her father and her five brothers and sisters lived on eight different plantations throughout Mississippi during her childhood; her mother became ill and died when she was an infant. Lucille attended school up to tenth grade, then worked at the Swift Packing Company, a box factory, and as a house cleaner and nanny. She married and had eight children, seventeen grandchildren, and fifteen great-grandchildren.
She moved to Portland, Maine, in 1967, after her eldest daughter got a JobCorps position in the city.
On Employment:
“Well, I'd have to start from way back, you know. I'd have to tell some of the story the way I really know it. I was born on a plantation they called the Latham Plantation, and my mother got sick and went into the hospital. And my mother died, and we never saw her again. So we don't know what happened-where they buried her or what happened. So we had to leave from that plantation. We moved to another plantation called the Chamber plantation, and we lived there for quite a few years, I don't remember. And the man came and told my father, says 'Your wife has died.' Then my father came back inside and told us that 'Your mom has died, but we can't bring her home-we don't have money.' So that's all we know-we never heard from our mother again. So we lived on the Latham plantation, to the Wallace plantation, to the Walker plantation, to the Armstrong Plantation, and to the Johnson Plantation. I lived on about eight different plantations from the late 20s to the late 40s…”
Publication Date
3-31-2001
Publisher
University of Southern Maine African American Collection
City
Portland
Disciplines
African American Studies | American Studies | Cultural History | Digital Humanities | Education | Genealogy | Higher Education | History | Labor History | Oral History | Other American Studies | Other Education | Other History | Public History | Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies | United States History | Women's History
Recommended Citation
Osman, Anah, "Ms. Lucille Young on Employment" (2001). Quotes. 5.
https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/we5quotes/5
Included in
African American Studies Commons, Cultural History Commons, Digital Humanities Commons, Genealogy Commons, Higher Education Commons, Labor History Commons, Oral History Commons, Other American Studies Commons, Other Education Commons, Other History Commons, Public History Commons, United States History Commons, Women's History Commons
