Ruby Nell Sales Oral History Interview

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

The oral history consists of ten digital files: 2011.174.7.1a, 2011.174.7.1b, 2011.174.7.1c, 2011.174.7.1d, 2011.174.7.1e, 2011.174.7.1f, 2011.174.7.1g, 2011.174.7.1h, 2011.174.7.1i, and 2011.174.7.1j. Ruby Sales discusses her father's military career, growing up in Columbus, Georgia, and attending the Tuskegee Institute. Her father was a Baptist minister and grew up in a racist and segregated society. Her grandmother was either born into slavery or right after it, and learned to read and write. She recalls joining the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Selma to Montgomery March, registering voters in Lowndes County, Alabama, and her arrest in Hayneville, Alabama. She remembers the murder of Jonathan Daniels, a seminary student who saved her life, and discusses her opinions on African American history and the current rate of African Americans in prison.

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