T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History Collection

ABSTRACT

INTERVIEWEE NAME:     Betty Nelson                            COLLECTION:  4700.0733

IDENTIFICATION:  Civic leader in Port Allen, Louisiana

INTERVIEWER: Brenda Morgan

SERIES: West Baton Rouge Remembrance Project

INTERVIEW DATE:  November 20, 1996

FOCUS DATES: 1930s - 1990s

ABSTRACT:

Tape 1062

Nelson was born in Port Allen; parents’ occupations; segregated neighborhood; grandfather, Sam Caldwell, overseer at Cohn family’s Carolina Plantation; Caldwell instrumental in establishment of school for black children in Port Allen; Henry Cohn donated the property for Cohn High School;  men digging for treasure in Port Allen; Port Allen Colored Elementary School; teachers; Viola Logan; attending school in the 1940s; McKinley High School; ferry; shopping; Third Street; Rev. T.R. Provos; voter registration drive; church; World War II; Pearl Harbor; Leland College; family; oldest daughter one of the first students to integrate Port Allen High School; race relations; move to Los Angeles; decision to return to Baton Rouge; Judge Marino; political involvement; NAACP; police jury; parish council; community issues.

TAPES:   T1062                                                       TOTAL PLAYING TIME:    90 minutes

# PAGES TRANSCRIPT:    20

RESTRICTIONS:    None