Telling Memories Among Southern Women: Domestic Workers and Their Employers in the Segregated South [Paperback]

Susan Tucker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2002

In Telling Memories Among Southern Women, Susan Tucker presents a revealing collection of oral-history narratives that explore the complex, sometimes enigmatic bond between black female domestic workers and their white employers from the turn of the twentieth century to the civil rights revolution of the 1960's. Based on interviews with forty-two women of both races from the Deep South, these narratives express the full range of human emotions and successfully convey the ties that united-and the tensions and conflicts that separated-these two mutually dependent groups of women.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This collection of oral history narratives explores the attitudes and experiences of black women who worked as domestics in the segregated South and their white women employers. Although the narratives cover 1900 to the beginning of the Civil Rights era, the interviews were conducted in the 1980s. The memories, therefore, are recounted in light of the changes wrought by the intervening years. Tucker analyzes the complex social patterns of the times, the women's lifestyles, and the effect of selective memory on their stories. A fascinating study of a hitherto neglected area of social history. Susan B. Hagloch, Tuscarawas Cty. P.L., New Philadelphia, Ohio
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Susan Tucker is curator of books and records at the Newcomb College Center for Research on Women at Tulane University in New Orleans.

Product Details

• Paperback: 279 pages
• Publisher: Louisiana State Univ Pr (May 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080712799X
• ISBN-13: 978-0807127995
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,997 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #2 in Books > History > Historical Study > Oral History
  • #7 in Books > Gay & Lesbian > History
  • #48 in Books > History > Africa

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

139 of 140 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Some stories behind The Help, March 23, 2010

By 

Joan Maute - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Telling Memories Among Southern Women: Domestic Workers and Their Employers in the Segregated South (Paperback)

While reading The Help I found myself wondering what Kathryn Stockett was using as a foundation. Yes, she'd lived in Jackson, MS (I spent my first two years of undergrad in Jackson '65-'67) and yes, The Help was fiction...but what else was there? I was thrilled to read in the acknowledgments "Thank you to Susan Tucker, author of the book Telling Memories Among Southern Women, whose beautiful oral accounts of domestics and white employers took me back to a time and place that is long gone". I immediately went in search of this book. I can tell you it was next to impossible to find the the copies available were priced reflecting the supply and demand, I think the cheapest one I could find was around $90. Fortunately I was able to find a hard-backed copy through my local library, which I devoured. I've now ordered my own copy since evidently more have been published and prices are reasonable.

Telling Memories Among Southern Women: Domestic Workers and Their Employers in the Segregated South is a collection of interviews done by Susan Tucker, a white archivist and librarian and Mary Yelling, an African-American social worker. They are arranged by topics such as "Giving and Receiving." Each topic is introduced in the context of the times and we read interviews from both the domestics and employers. Each interview has an introduction that sets the context for reading the interview. It gives us an historical, qualitative research-based look at these times in the south. While reading what was said by the women who lived different sides of this social institution we get a glimpse of a former time. If you read and enjoyed The Help but would like more, you'll love this book.

43 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Telling Memories, May 12, 2010

By 

Sally S - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Telling Memories Among Southern Women: Domestic Workers and Their Employers in the Segregated South (Paperback)

This book is a wonderful supplement to "The Help", it only made "The Help" which I really enjoyed come to life. It is so amazing how much insight and wisdom these workers had into the life of their employers. it's hard to believe it's true not fiction.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Two sides to a story, May 25, 2011

By 

Macan - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Telling Memories Among Southern Women: Domestic Workers and Their Employers in the Segregated South (Paperback)

This historical publication interviews 42 women(both black and white) in the 1980's to determine their perspective regarding the bond between domestic workers and their employers from the turn of the century to the 1960's. It was referenced in "The Help" and provided much background. It definitely shows that, although these women often worked under the same roof, they definitely had two different opinions relative to their own situations and lifestyles. Some of the women interviewed were open and honest, and others were obviously reticent still to candidly speak their opinions, maybe out of a feeling of loyalty or possibly fear. Several times I felt as if I walked in to an already-in-progress interview and missed much of it. I don't know if parts were edited out (and possibly the lapse in time has caused interviewees to forget), but I would like to have heard more. The book is an intense piece of work and left me feeling hungry to read more on the subject.