Oral history interview with Jean M. Fasse
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Primarily documents Jean Moore Fasse's early life, her service in Indian with the Red Cross during WWII, and her later work in the U.S. Army Special Services from 1946 to 1963. Fasse discusses growing up on a farm and her desire to attend school. She talks about her struggles to continue her education, find a place to live, and hold a steady job. She recalls winning a speaking contest in high school, but having the title taken from her because of class discrimination, and notes working in Durham, North Carolina, in a hospital, a tobacco factory, and as a domestic. Topics from Fasse's time at Fayetteville State Teachers College include: the admittance process; working on campus; commuting home for harvest. She gives details of her teaching career, including working in a one-room school in Goldsboro, North Carolina, and provides her reasons for leaving the profession. Topics from her move to New York City include: searching for employment in childcare and being turned away because of her race; struggling for money; and poor living conditions. She gives her reasons for returning to Fayetteville and teaching and describes teaching at the Robeson County Training School in detail." Fasse discusses the process of joining in the Red Cross, being assigned to a unit that had been preparing to go overseas, traveling to California via train, and traveling on a troop ship to Calcutta, India, including the segregated nature of the voyage. Topics from her time in India include: traveling on the Lido Road; serving coffee and donuts to soldiers; guards that watched the Red Cross tents; run-ins with a cobras and elephants; living near the jungle; local children doing chores for the army; keeping a pet dog, monkey, and bird; the shack she lived in burning; monsoons; rickshaws; Burning Ghats; Indian weddings; and curry. Fasse discusses taking over the Cosmos Club in Calcutta and the activities she started there to entertain troops. She also recalls an incidence of segregation on her way home from India, and other racial discrimination she faced throughout her life, especially while in the U.S. Army Special Services." Fasse shares her reasons for reenlisting in the US. Army Special Services, including her desire to go to Europe. Topics from her time in Germany include: training in Frankfurt; building a club in Mannheim; club inspections; and getting improvements for the club. She also mentions assignments in Hochberg and Munich, Germany, and Tours and Toul, France, including her job operating tours for families on leave. Fasse also extensively discusses her travels in Europe, including attending bullfights in Spain; traveling behind the Iron Curtain to Czechoslovakia, where citizens were interest in her life as an African American; and a trip to Russia.
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