Collection Title: Jackson Purchase Oral History Project – Schools and Education
Series Number: OH258
Interviewee: Marable, Addie
Interviewer: Bates, Mary
Date interviewed: July 11, 1979
Processed by: O'Daniel, Hannah
Date processed: March 12, 2014
Description: 1 sound disc (32 minutes)
Abstract: Addie Marable began by describing her elementary school education in the Jackson Purchase of Kentucky. She discussed the racial charged conflicts that occurred between white and black students on the way to school and the school facilities. Due to not having adequate textbooks, she mentioned how the students used catalogs, newspapers, and magazines to practice reading. She discussed the role of parents in education and discipline and recounted the teacher certification examination for McCracken County. She described West Kentucky Industrial College while she was a student there, how she was able to work her way through school. She described her first teaching job, which was at the segregated Garfield School in Paducah. She talks about social functions at the Garfield School, including Thanksgiving dinners, musicals, plays, and Christmas events. She recounted the building of the new school at Northside and the consolidation of some of the all-black elementary schools. She discussed the introduction of city lunch programs at Paducah Schools. She asserted that West Kentucky Industrial College helped to improve the quality of life for many African Americans in Paducah by expanding education. She concluded by telling how consolidation of McCracken County Schools caused some communities to decline in population as families moved closer to the consolidated schools.
Biographical / Historical note: Mrs. Addie Marable was born in McCracken County, Kentucky on February 28, 1904. She began her education at an all-black elementary school at the age of six years old. After graduating from eighth grade, she passed the teacher examination at the McCracken County Courthouse and received a teaching certificate. She attended West Kentucky Industrial College in Paducah and graduated in 1928. She taught fifth grade at the all-black Garfield Elementary School in Paducah. When Paducah Schools were consolidated, she taught at the newly built Northside School. She died at the age of 83 on April 1, 1987 in Paducah.
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:
Marable, Addie, 1904 -1987.
Segregation in education – Kentucky.
Education – Kentucky -- Paducah – History.
African Americans – Kentucky – History.
Kentucky – Race relations.
McCracken County (Ky.)
West Kentucky Industrial College (Paducah, Ky.)
Garfield School (Paducah, Ky.)
Northside School (Paducah, Ky.)
