Liz Wells - Black Belt Inheritance

Published on June 14, 2017

https://www.samford.edu/departments/oral-history/projects/faces-of-marion/Liz-Wells-Black-Belt-Inheritance.mp3

Liz Wells recounts her experience with both poverty and promise in the Black Belt.

Transcript

ELIZABETH WELLS: For the Black Belt to claim its inheritance in that the
people who live there, the people who work there—I don’t care if you black,
white, whatever—to claim the gifts of that era, of that place.  I mean, not
just being farmers and whatever else everybody does, but to say, “I am worth.
I have worth. I am a person give me a job. Help me get a job.”  Put
industry—put something in there—that will help these people grow and be.
There are young people who want out. And people wonder, “Why the Black Belt
isn’t growing?” What do they got to grow to? If you have an education and
you’re smart like this young man is, where is he going to go? What is he going
to do? Instead of starting a private white school, why not funnel all of your
money into the public school there? So that’s when I say—and I get on my
soapbox—because I believe in those people and their ability and what they can
be.  I had never seen poverty like that before. Never knew that my kids who
didn’t have—if you didn’t have a breakfast or lunch, you didn’t eat.  So
when people talk to me about welfare programs and all these kinds of things that
are bad, maybe we need to restructure them and help give that aid but give them
something in return as a way to work. A way to work and go.  Because the Black
Belt is not just land, it’s the people, and they have a rich heritage.

Audio Information
Attribute	Value
Date	2014-01-24
Interviewer	Ben Woodwall
Interviewee	Elizabeth Wells
Repository	Samford University Oral History Collection
Collection	STORI Collection
Accession	SUHist/Marion/013