Hampton Roads Oral History Project (HROHP)

The Hampton Roads Oral History Project (HROHP) is an audio-based history project, documenting the impact of the civil rights movement on area residents.  It was established in the fall of 2012 by CNU history professor Dr. Laura Puaca, in conjunction with two community organizations, the Newsome House Museum and Cultural Center and the Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center. Most of the interviews were carried out by students.

Mentions of coal being used for heating:

• https://chris.cnu.edu/files/original/af9a51f26a48c664240bcd74679f28ad6db57529.pdf
• https://chris.cnu.edu/files/original/9b3f7ab4d3898a0193ec7ef9951fdedeffc5d0b6.pdf
• https://chris.cnu.edu/files/original/ff20771f50a2ac2571d0fcb084e7068cad4da59b.pdf
• https://chris.cnu.edu/files/original/68089a084aa481bde34a6977ecbcf1b37c6ba6df.pdf
• https://chris.cnu.edu/files/original/83a92e78967e18d7e9d94fb91b17d4603c087211.pdf
• https://chris.cnu.edu/files/original/932047765ae36c2de094d9b53236276e9745e350.pdf
• https://chris.cnu.edu/files/original/5866e533603183916d0b633aa129437eb973b7e4.pdf
• https://chris.cnu.edu/files/original/68d87b2e5f21e630a6488d4fec152e9053e6b24e.pdf

Mentions of coal mining:

• https://chris.cnu.edu/files/original/94afd98f91e5c013d6f9c61883102d776a41ef27.pdf
  • “Mr. Edwards was born in the coal-mining region of West Virginia in 1931. He grew up there…”
  • “There was only one source of income and that was coal mining so, subsequently, we got along well.”  
  • “The boys took care of the coal and the wood.”
  • “It was all because we had one employment and that was coal mining. Everybody looked the same when they came out of the coal mines. They might have went in looking a different color but, when they came out, they were all dusted with coal. So it was no difference. I think that played a major part. I know that a white man stayed next door to us and we got along well. Sure, we quarreled and we had some difficulties with each other but that was life. You have to really have experience living in the coal mines area to be able to get the full impact on growing up in the community where everybody did the same job and had no other choice of income.”
  • “Motivation came from knowing that there were no jobs in the coal-mining area.”
  • “They didn’t have paved streets in the hills of coal-mining areas.”

Mentions of coal trains/railroad/pier

• https://chris.cnu.edu/files/original/223907f45b1a0eee44f8704a4a8e87521b057f80.pdf
  • “Underneath, there’s the coal cars. There’s all this on 39th Street.”
• https://chris.cnu.edu/files/original/fcdc6b81d1df73ebeb30056a483d0c38847c8f7a.pdf
  • “Then we’d go down to the railroad tracks, and pick up coal off the side of it and bring it home. That involved you then. They’d want to go put you in jail if you picked up coal off the railroad tracks now.”
• https://chris.cnu.edu/files/original/8e2c236f3e54ba917432dbb5630d97a8a63ae35e.pdf
  • “Although my husband had a fairly stable job working with the railroad at the time--the war was over,and he was a brakeman on the [C&O] railroad [coal piers]. The railroad and the shipyard were the two best jobs for uneducated [black] men I would say, or the post office.”