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Article by Fred Travis on tent city resident Mrs. Georgia May Turner

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@ Tennesse State Library and Archives

Travis, Fred

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This article draft gives a very personal look at the African Americans affected by the land evictions and living in the "Freedom Village." Travis begins this article by describing Mrs. Georgia May Turner, a 58-year-old woman living in the Tent City, who is described using a hoe to drain the water in front of her tent to the road. Travis describes the tent where she and three of her children live, complete with Turner's refrigerator and stove that are stored outside the tent due to lack of electricity. Travis conjures up a great mental picture of the tents in Tent City. Turner's interview, however, is perhaps more striking. Regarding her former home as a tenant farmer on a white woman's property, Turner says, "I been on that farm just about all my life... I always done what she said. I never disobeyed her, and I ain't holding nothin' agin' her now... However,[l]ast summer I went down an register to vote and she say she seen my pi'ture in the paper. Then she tell me las' fall I got get off her farm, that she don' want me there no mo'."
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Record Contributed By

Tennesse State Library and Archives

Record Harvested From

Digital Library of Tennessee