Interview with Geneva Blasingame, July 12, 2013

Geneva Johnson Blasingame discusses the Linnentown, also known as Lindentown, community and Black neighborhoods in Athens, Georgia. She recalls the University’s efforts to push out black communities in 1962. Blasingame comments on the children attending the Union Institute, working in the garden before school, and making soap with her mother. She describes how the neighborhood has changed from “the place to be,” to a bad neighborhood, and presently to a good neighborhood. Blasingame recalls picking cotton with her mother and buying shoes from the kurd (flea) market. She recalls attending the Honor Grove Baptist Church, meeting her first husband on a dare, and finishing high school in 1964. Blasingame reflects on demonstrating in downtown Athens when the University of Georgia was integrated, and going to jail as a result. She discusses the jobs she’s held, including at a sewing factory, the poultry plant, and at a Creation Windows off of Cleveland Road.


This interview is part of the Georgia Narratives series.

2013-07-12

RBRL324FPP-0014

37 minutes