T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History Collection

ABSTRACT

INTERVIEWEE NAME:     Isiah Smith                                     COLLECTION:     4700.0710

IDENTIFICATION:     South Baton Rouge resident for seventeen years; buildings and grounds

                                         supervisor at McKinley High.

INTERVIEWERS:     Nedra Carter, Khary Carrell

PROJECT:     McKinley Oral History Project

INTERVIEW DATES:     July 11, 1996    

FOCUS DATES:     1980s-1990s

ABSTRACT:

Tape 1037, Side A

Born December 1, 1947 in Baywood, Louisiana; father worked on sugar farm; has four brothers and five sisters; has lived in South Baton Rouge neighborhood about seventeen years; moved to neighborhood to be buildings and grounds supervisor at McKinley Senior High School; recalls businesses on East Boulevard; improvements in street cleaning; decrease in violence in neighborhood; flooding used to be so bad in neighborhood that people would get around in boats; recent improvements in black businesses; patronizing cleaners, grocery store and car wash; McKinley High is thriving; recommends someone else to interview; offers to share his McKinley photograph collection.

TAPES:     1 (T1037)                                           TOTAL PLAYING TIME:     8 minutes

# PAGES TRANSCRIPT:   7 pages

OTHER MATERIALS:     Interview data sheet

RESTRICTIONS:     None