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Reginald Lingham grew up in Boulder, then lived in California as an adult. He describes his family history and the lives of various members of his family. He recalls his childhood years in Boulder as mainly pleasant and full of family activities, although he does detail one experience of discrimination against him as a Black child involving being turned away by a particular Boy Scout troop leader. After high school, he joined the Navy and served in California and Japan. Settling in California after his military service was complete, he worked for the Post Office for most of his career, mainly working on electronic equipment. Throughout his military service and Post Office career, he continued to receive technical training in electronics. He describes his life in California—in Berkeley and Sacramento—and he talks about his daughter’s life there.

A detailed typewritten summary of the interview is available.

Photographs of houses with families outside in the 2200 block of Pine Street. One photo shows O.T. Jackson and family.

Newspaper clippings and photographs of Lelia Feaster and her beauty shop. Original clippings and photographs can be seen in the Boulder Daily Camera collection envelopes under Feaster, Lelia.

Carole Jones relates her family’s history, reaching back as far as the 1700s, and including those who were “free coloreds” in Baltimore and Freedmen of Oklahoma. She describes her upbringing in Washington, DC, her college education at Oberlin, and becoming a social worker in her post-graduate years. After marrying George Jones in 1959, they moved to Colorado and eventually to Boulder. She explains where they have lived over the years in Boulder, including where they live now. A large portion of the interview details the work that she and her husband did in the Boulder/Denver area and then for 25 years in various African countries (alongside her husband) mainly through USAID, ranging from social work to developing post-apartheid policies for equitable salary levels among all workers, to developing programs for victims of torture and trauma. She also reflects on the challenges of blending work with child-rearing and coordinating her career with that of her husband. Other topics include the Black community in Boulder, the shortcoming of education for children of color in Boulder during the 1960s, and her current volunteer work in Boulder.

Two photographs of James Clay, his wife, and daughter, as well as James Clay's 1927 obituary.

May Snowden describes her childhood in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where she grew up in a diverse community of Mexican Americans, Native Americans, and African Americans. She talks about her parents and about her education, first in an all-Black school, then in an integrated school. She describes many childhood successes and positive experiences, but also some formative experiences of racial discrimination, of being denigrated and excluded due to her race. She also discusses career limitations for women at the time she went to college. She details her career with Mountain Bell (later US West), where she started in the operator services department, moved through many jobs with ever-increasing amounts of responsibility in HR and public policy, ending with leading US West’s efforts in the area of diversity and inclusion. She explains how her goal always was to make sure people felt understood and included at work. She also talks about Chuck Snowden, her husband of 52 years, and reflects on his many accomplishments. Other topics include the importance of their church community at Second Baptist Church and the importance of making a philosophy of inclusion in Boulder a reality for the people who live here.

This folder contains a handwritten list of additional sources of information about Boulder's Black community, compiled by Charles Nilon.

Newspaper clippings about musician George Morrison. The original clippings can be found in the Carnegie Library vertical file "Ethnic Groups - African Americans."