Cornwell, Ruby, November 24, 1982
Scope and Contents
The Avery Institute of Afro-American History and Culture Oral History Project contains 44 oral history interviews arranged in three series based on the corresponding project or scope of the oral histories. The majority of the oral histories were conducted or coordinated by Avery Institute of Afro-American History and Culture members with the exception of Phase 2 of the Avery Normal Institute Oral History Project which was conducted by the Avery Research Center. Within each series, the oral histories are arranged alphabetically by last name. Greater details about the contents of each oral history can be found at the file level abstract of each interview. Each oral history, when available, includes a transcript and any supporting documentation like questions, notes, tape logs, and interview release forms. Transcripts do not currently exist for every interview and work to create them is ongoing.
Series I: Avery Normal Institute Oral History Project, 1980-1996 contains oral histories with former students, teachers, principals, and community members of the Avery Normal Institute discussing their attendance at the school including classes, teachers, extracurricular activities as well as perceptions of the school in the larger African American Charleston community and perceived reasons for why the school was closed. 12 of these oral histories are accessible on the Lowcountry Digital Library including the interviews with Ruby Cornwell, Julia Craft DeCosta, Marcellus Forrest, Dr. Joseph Hoffman, Felder Hutchinson, Anna D. Kelly, Louise Mouzon, Peter Poinsette, and both interviews with J. Michael Graves and Eugene C. Hunt.
Series II: Laing School oral histories, 1981 contains two oral histories with former students of the Laing School in which they discuss their time attending the school, their lives after graduation, and their impressions of the Avery Normal Institute.
Series III: Avery Institute of Afro-American History and Culture oral histories, 1983-1995 contains seven oral histories with members of the Avery Institute of Afro-American History and Culture discussing the founding of the organization and its grassroots efforts to acquire and preserve the Avery Normal Institute school buildings. There are also oral histories in this series with former students of the Avery Normal Institute and Immaculate Conception discussing their attendance at both institutions.
Dates
- Creation: November 24, 1982
Creator
- From the Collection: Avery Institute of Afro-American History and Culture (Organization)
Access Restrictions
There are no restrictions to this collection; however, a cassette player is required to listen to the audiocassette tapes. A cassette player will be made available to researchers in our reading room.
Full Extent
From the Collection: .834 linear feet (2 Hollinger boxes, 79 audiocassettes, and 27.7 gigabytes (audio and transcripts))
Language of Materials
From the Collection: English
Abstract
Ruby Cornwell (1902 – 2003) recalls her early life in South Carolina and her experiences with segregation. She talks about her grandmother, Isabella Reeder Chavis, who graduated from Avery Normal Institute in 1873, and her roots in Charleston. She discusses issues of class and colorism and her experience growing up as a light-skinned person coming from a free Black family background with mixed white and Native American heritage. She recalls growing up as the child of an American Methodist Episcopal minister, Durant Percival Pendergrass, who was educated at Hampton Institute and worked as a wheelwright and latrine cleaner before entering the ministry. She refers to her first school experiences and what it was like to live in the countryside, where life was still organized around a race-based economic system like sharecropping. She describes attending religious revival meetings and how her father dealt with root medicine and other non-Christian spiritual beliefs. She discusses moving to Charleston to live with her uncle, Rev. P.J. Chavis, the pastor of Mt. Zion AME at the time, to attend Avery for one year and then meeting Mary McLeod Bethune and following her to Daytona, Florida. She mentions teachers at Avery, including the principal Benjamin F. Cox, whom she described as a good teacher but not a particularly good administrator. Cornwell concludes by discussing attending Talladega College, moving to Brooklyn to work at the YWCA, and returning to Charleston to teach English at Avery with Edith McFall.
The oral history is conducted by Dr. Edmund L. Drago and Eugene C. Hunt.
Repository Details
Part of the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture Repository
125 Bull Street
Charleston South Carolina 29424 United States
843-953-7608
averyresearchcenter@cofc.edu