Oral history interview with Floyd Alston Jr., November 29, 1995

Granville County, North Carolina, residents Floyd Alston (in his sixties in 1995) and his mother, Ethel Thorpe Alston, remember their lives in the area in this interview. Floyd and Ethel trace their family lines, some of which lead to slaves, others to sharecroppers, some to brothers and sisters who died, still others to factory workers. This interview offers more information on the Alston and Thorpe families than it does about African Americans' lives in the rural South generally, but it does offer some revealing insights into racial identity and the struggles of post-emancipation African Americans to find economic and social security.