Oral history interview with Joyce Braden Harris [Sound Recording 01]
- SR1786_S01
- Item
- 2018-11-19
Session 1. This oral history interview with Joyce Braden Harris was conducted by Jan Dilg at Education Northwest in Portland, Oregon, from November 19 to December 12, 2018. Joyce Braden Harris was nominated by Oregonians as part of a program by the Oregon Historical Society Research Library to enhance and expand the range of voices in the library's collections. Interviewees are selected from the pool of nominees by a staff committee appointed by the historical society's executive director. The interview was conducted in three sessions. In the first interview session, conducted on November 19, 2018, Harris discusses her family background and early life with her grandmother in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, and then with her parents and siblings in Madrid, Spain. She discusses her experiences as the only member of her family to speak Spanish and as the only black person in her class. She also describes growing up in Harlem and its community. She discusses her education in New York, including a teacher strike in 1968; starting a black literature class; racism that she, her teachers, and other students faced; and her early activism and leadership roles. She also talks about the Vietnam War, particularly its effect on two of her brothers, who served in the Air Force during that time. She discusses her experiences at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, including how she chose that school. She also speaks about her and her brothers’ experiences with police. She talks about events that shaped her political outlook, including the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.; her love of mystery novels by black women authors; and people who have influenced her. She discusses some of the awards she has received, her involvement in annual Kwanzaa celebrations, and her work as an educator.
Harris, Joyce Braden, 1951-