Guide to the Bessie Grayson Reminiscences, RG 32
Listed by: Dieter C. Ullrich
Date: June 2003
Size:
1 file folder (70 pages)
Historical or Biographical Sketch:
Bessie Leola Rivers Grayson was a born in
rural south Alabama in 1925. Grayson was raised on a family farm and attended local segregated
schools. In 1944, she became a teacher and assistant principal at Myrtlewood Junior High
School in Marengo County, Alabama. The following year she moved to Demopolis and taught at John Essex
Junior High School. In 1947, she became principal and teacher at Sidney Chapel Junior High School.
During the late 1940s she attended Alabama State University and in 1950 received a Bachelor
of Science degree in Education. She became a librarian at the Hale County Training School in 1952 and two
years later received a Master's degree in Education. From 1959 to 1963 she taught at McIntypre
Elementary School and in late 1963 was Assistant Librarian at Philander Smith College.
She attained her Master's degree in Library Science at the University of Alabama in 1965 and the next
year became an Assistant Cataloger at Alabama State University. She remained at Alabama State until 1981
when she took a position at Alabama A & M University as Associate Professor of Library and Media
Services. She currently is retired and resides in Huntsville. She has received Phi Delta Kappa award for
Outstanding Educator (1973) and the NAACP Outstanding Service Award (1976). (Who's Who in Library and
Information Services, 1982, p. 182)
Scope and Content:
Bessie Grayson's reminiscences concern African-American life in rural
south Alabama from the 1930's to the 1960's. Includes stories of picking and ginning cotton, canning,
making syrup and malasses, quilting, church activities, African-American schools and segregation in the
south prior to the civil rights movement of the 1960's.
Item list: