Collection Title: Jackson Purchase Oral History Project – Schools and Education
Series Number: OH239
Interviewee: Chinn, Addie Mae
Interviewer: Bates, Mary
Date interviewed: July 29, 1979
Processed by: O'Daniel, Hannah
Date processed: January 30, 2014
Description: 1 sound disc (15 minutes)
Abstract: Addie Mae Chinn discusses segregation and being a student at Lincoln High School in Paducah, Kentucky during the 1920s. She mentions the teachers who most influenced her and her chosen career as a teacher and missionary. She recalls her experiences at West Kentucky Industrial College in the early 1930s. She offers insights on the Civil Rights movement decades after she had completed her education and provides her opinions on the positive impact of desegregation in school systems and the expansion of opportunities for younger generations of African Americans.
Biographical / Historical note: Addie Mae Chinn was born at Paducah, Kentucky on April 2, 1909. She spent her childhood and early adulthood in Paducah. She attended public segregated schools and graduated from Lincoln High School in 1928. After graduation she attended West Kentucky Industrial College and afterwards relocated to Louisville with her husband, Henry Chinn, where they resided most of their lives. She became a noted African American missionary for the Baptist Church. She died on November 27, 2003.
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 United States (Title 17, United States Code). Permission for reproduction must be requested from Murray State University.
Subject Headings / Descriptors:
Chinn, Addie Mae, 1909-2003.
Kentucky – Race relations.
Education – Kentucky – Paducah – History.
African Americans – Education – Kentucky.
Segregation in education – Kentucky.
West Kentucky Industrial College (Paducah, Ky.)
