BLACK COMMUNITY PROJECT Ferguson, African-American resident of Springfield, discusses her family background, conditions for African-Americans, employment and unemployment, segregation and discrimination, the 1908 race riot, neighborhoods and businesses, Bunn Park, education and counseling students in the schools. She discusses changes in Springfield, attending the University of Illinois receiving a degree in Home Economics, marriage, and her husband's early death. She also recounts her family history, including relatives who took advantage of the Homestead Act. She also discusses issues and employment with the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services, employment opportunities for African-American teachers, experiences teaching in Metropolis and at Lincoln University, her second marriage and being stationed in Germany after WWII, Lincoln Home for Colored Children, African-American businesses, Civil Rights, early 20th century recreation, effects of the Depression, and the funerals of her parents.

6 tapes, 540 mins., 2 volumes, 154 pp. Interview by Reverend Negil L. McPherson, 1975 OPEN See collateral file: interviewer's notes, photographs of Ferguson, her family members and the family home, photocopy of a land grant, and a photocopy of a newspaper article on the old club house at the Springfield Golf Club.