War

Rosalie Abney recounts her experiences working on airplanes at Curtiss-Wright, including the training she received at Ahrens Trade School. She discusses working conditions, women’s expectations with regard to the closing of the plant at the end of the war, and her perception of the influence these experiences had on women working outside home after the war.

Veterans History Project

Veterans History Project

An interview with a Green Beret on his experiences in and feelings about the Vietnam War.

Bill Allison, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, acted as an appeals attorney for one of the Black Six defendants, Ruth Bryant. The Black Six were a group of five men and one woman who were prosecuted for inciting rebellion during the Parkland Uprising of 1968. Allison also represented the Black Panthers in Louisville and in Memphis, Tennessee. In this interview, Allison speaks about cases he was involved in involving government repression and retaliation against Civil Rights activists and how he became involved in that work through the Southern Conference Educational Fund, serving as SCEF's lawyer from 1969 to 1974.

Everylee Ashby discusses her employment, primarily with High Rock Bottling, DuPont and Reynolds, during the war. Ms. Ashby was one of the first two black women hired at the DuPont plant; she also describes an integrated workplace at Reynolds. She also describes her life after her husband returned from the war, and attitudes toward work during the war.

Virginia Bale shared her experiences as a working woman during World War II. Born in Larue County, Bales moved to Louisville in 1942, at the height of the war. She initially worked at Stewart's before securing a job at Curtiss-Wright, a defense company, through a connection. Bales worked in the maintenance department, checking tools in and out. She noted that while there were many women working in the plant, there were more men. After the war, she attended beauty school and worked as a manicurist for many years. Bales believes that the war gave women the idea that they could work and hold a job, leading to an increase in working women today.

Veterans History Project

An interview about the Vietnam War experiences of Col. James E. Bean, a POW for 5.5 years in North Vietnam.

Born in 1931, Mary Jane grew up in Madison, Indiana, moving between there and Corydon due to her father's job as a manager of various grocery stores. She recalls her childhood as innocent and normal, despite the war. Her family listened to the radio for news about the war and her father predicted the U.S. would join the war. When the U.S. did enter the war, Mary Jane's five male cousins and her brother-in-law enlisted. Her father also took a job at the Charleston powder plant, which manufactured ammunition powder. Mary Jane recalls the community of Madison becoming closer during the war and the town being considered a typical American town. She also mentions her uncle's involvement in the Manhattan Project, which he believed was for peaceful purposes until the atomic bomb was dropped.