But Not Jim Crow: Family Memories of African American Loggers of Maxville, Oregon

by Pearl Alice Marsh

Overview

This book is about African American loggers who came to Oregon during the Great Migration of more than six million African Americans from the Jim Crow south to the north.  They began arriving in Maxville, a railroad-logging town in Wallowa County owned by the Bowman Hicks Lumber Company.  They first arrived in 1923 and continued to come until the mid-1940s.  

Chapters one and two document the migration from historical newspapers, public records, local photo archives, and oral history sources.  The third chapter introduces the six extended families and their southern roots.  The fourth chapter contains the fifteen descendants’memories – beginning with the memoir of one of the logger followed by the memories of fifteen descendants of the six families.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780578504988
Publisher:	African American Loggers Project
Publication date:	04/23/2019
Series:	African American Loggers , #1
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	52 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Pearl Alice Marsh was born in La Grande, Oregon and lived in the town of Wallowa, Oregon until the age of twelve. She is the daughter of Amos Marsh, Sr. and Mary (Patterson) Marsh and the granddaughter of Joseph "Pa Pat" Patterson, Sr. and Arie "Ma Pat" (Spears) Patterson, well-known African-American loggers and spouses in the area, and is a former president of the Maxville Heritage Interpretative Center. Her work documenting Oregon's Black logging history has been featured in Oregon Historical Quarterly and on Oregon Public Broadcasting's Think Out Loud. She is the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California at Berkeley, and she served with the U. S. House of Representatives International Relations Committee as a Senior Policy Advisor with expertise in African political, economic, social, and development issues until her retirement in 2013.

Table of Contents

Chapters include Migrating with the Company; The Families and Their Roots: The First-Generation African Oregonians; The Memories, one original loggers’s interview, Amos Marsh, Sr.; memories of fifteen decendants, Lucille Mays Bridgewater, Joseph Hilliard, Jr., Rosie Thomas Gray, Seretha Lane Marsh Jefferson, Nadine Patterson Kelly, Kerry King, James Lester Lane,  Frank Wayne Marsh, Pearl Alice Marsh, Nathaniel Mays, Robert Minor, Katherine Cook Ramsey, Kay Marsh-Wyrick, Luella Anderson Mazique and Amos Marsh, Jr. Remembered by contributors Gail Davidson Fineberg, Dale Johnson, and “Coach” Don Wilson. There are contributions by local residents Ottis Garrett, Kenneth Brooks, Ona Hug Harwood, Orvalla Hafer, Wes Conrad and memories by Pearl Alice Marsh from earlier publications.

 

Editorial Reviews

"An important work, long overdue. Readers will be rewarded with a deeper understanding of the interplay between Oregon's developing lumber industry and the complex dynamics of race relations in the rural American West of Wallowa County, Oregon."
David Weaver, President Wallowa History Center

"These are touching, revealing and interesting stories of life under sometimes desperate circumstances that speak truth, challenge misconceptions and reveal the humanity of a people who deserve to be seen, heard and understood. ...delightful tales that speak a fuller truth of life in Oregon."
S. Renee Mitchell, Writer. Artist. Creative Revolutionist

From the Publisher