Interview with Mabel Hamilton. Interviewer, Judith Monachina
Interview with Mabel Hamilton. Interviewer, Judith Monachina
HamiltonMabel_NAACP
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Title:
Interview with Mabel Hamilton. Interviewer, Judith Monachina
Description:
Mabel Hamilton of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, was born in Mechanicville, NY and moved to North Adams, MA as a little girl. She fondly remembers her childhood within completely integrated communities, with instances of discomfort around certain school topics, such as reading Little Black Sambo. Mabel was very active in church for her entire life. She is a singer, and that singing began when she was a child. She talks about her earliest mentor, spiritual guide, her aunt, whose house was always full of singing, and who brought her to a Black church in Troy, NY. Mabel married, lived with her husband on an Mitchell Air Force Base, Long Island, NY, and the two returned to North Adams, where he worked at Sprague Electric; the couple moved to Williamston, where she heard great singers (at Williams College), and Martin Luther King, Jr. After his death, she decided to move to Pittsfield, where she could be more active in the community. She worked in various service and educational positions, becoming very active working for the Christian Center, Action for Opportunity and Head Start. At one point in the early 1970’s, Mabel looked into becoming involved with the Black Muslims, at their mosque in Springfield, but decided to return to the church, AME Zion. She has five children.
Title from accompanying material.
Photographer: Julie McCarthy
Mechanicville, NY; North Adams, MA; Pittsfield, MA; AME Zion Church; Martin Luther King, Jr., Head Start; Community Activism; Berkshire Theater Festival production People of the Sun; NAACP; Rev. Durant/Christian Center; Singing.
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