Velma Nesbit manuscript
Object Details
- Scope and Contents
- This collection, which dates from circa 2000, contains a 144-page typescript copy of the unpublished autobiography of Velma Nesbit, the daughter of an Alabama sharecropper. Also present are 14 audiocassettes, one diskette and four compact discs relating to Nesbit's life and career.
- Biographical / Historical
- Velma Nesbit (1925-2002) was born in Fayette, Alabama. She was one of five children; her father was a sharecropper. During the 1950s and 1960s, Nesbit was a nightclub singer in and around New York City, sharing the same bill as Redd Foxx, Nipsey Russell and Dinah Washington. From 1966-1968, Nesbit worked as a governess for the Berking Family. Peter Berking recorded and transcribed Nesbit's oral history.
- Date
- circa 2000
- Extent
- .5 Linear feet (1 box, 6 linear inches)
- Citation
- Velma Nesbit manuscript, Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution, gift of Peter Berking.
- Type
- Collection descriptions
- Archival materials
- Audiocassettes
- Compact discs
- Manuscripts
- Oral histories (document genres)
- Topic
- African American women -- Biography
- Children of sharecroppers
- Sharecroppers
- African Americans -- Social conditions
- Identifier
- ACMA.06-127
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