Collection Title: Jackson Purchase Oral History Project – Schools and Education
Series Number: OH238
Interviewee: Carman, Evie Bush
Interviewer: Bates, Mary
Date interviewed: June 28, 1979
Processed by: O’Daniel, Hannah
Date processed: January 30, 2014
Description: 1 sound disc (9 minutes)
Abstract: Evie Bush Carman discusses teaching and living in Benton, Kentucky as an African American in a predominantly white community in 1918. She describes her educational background and attending West Kentucky Vocational School in Paducah, Kentucky. She recalls teaching at various segregated schools in Graves County, Kentucky during the early 1920s after graduation. She also briefly mentions significant events in West Kentucky during World War I.
Biographical / Historical note: Evie Bush Carman was born in 1900 in Panther Creek, Graves County, Kentucky to Richard and Ida Bush. She attended Paducah’s West Kentucky Vocational School, in 1917, but took a break from her education due to the First World War. She taught in Benton, Kentucky for six months before returning to West Kentucky Vocational School. After finishing at West Kentucky, she returned to Graves County to teach. She married Andrew J. Carman on May 2, 1923 and moved to Cleveland, Ohio. They later returned to Kentucky and lived in Louisville, where she received a Bachelor’s degree. After her parents fell ill, she returned to Graves County. At the time of the interview, she worked with the Purchase Area Development District. Her husband, Andrew, passed away in 1983 and Evie died on April 13, 2004.
General information: No user access to original recordings. Use audio user copies, digital derivatives, transcripts, and/or tape indexes. This collection may be protected from unauthorized copying by the Copyright Law of the (Title 17, United States Code). Permission for reproduction must be requested from Murray State University>.
Subject Headings / Descriptors:
Carman, Evie Bush, 1900-2004.
African Americans – Education – Kentucky.
Education – Kentucky – Benton – History.
Education – Kentucky – Graves County – History.
Segregation in education – Kentucky.
Kentucky – Race relations.
West Kentucky Vocational School.
World War, 1914-1918 – Kentucky – Graves County.
