BLACK COMMUNITY PROJECT Leota Harris, resident of Springfield, since 1896, discusses her life experiences as an African American woman. She recalls her family background, conditions for African Americans, discrimination, businesses, Number 5 Engine House, her job with the Pullman Railroad Car Company, and employment at a beauty salon. She also discusses her aunt Kathryn Johnson who set up the Springfield Chapter of the NAACP and wrote Stealing a Nation, changes in domestic life, holiday celebrations, and burials. Also included is an article,"Distinguished Soldier Passes," about Major George W. Ford, the retired superintendent of Camp Butler National Cemetery.

5 tapes, 450 mins., 2 vols., 154 pp. Interview by Reverend Negil L. McPherson, 1975 OPEN See collateral file: interviewer's notes, photographs of Harris, her family, and the beauty salon, and photocopy of various letters and a certificate.