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Title
Oral history interview with Charles B. Maxey [Sound Recording 07]
Date(s)
- 1994-03-25 (Creation)
Extent
Audiocassette; 00:30:32
Name of creator
Biographical history
Charles Britton Maxey was born in St. Augustine, Texas, in 1917. His parents separated when he was young, and he moved with his mother to Longview, Texas. He earned a bachelor of arts degree from Texas College in Tyler, Texas. In 1939, he and Johnnie Obina Samples were married; they later had five children. After briefly seeking employment as a teacher in Utah, he relocated to Portland, Oregon, in 1943, where he found work in the shipyards during World War II. Johnnie Maxey followed soon after. After the war, Charles Maxey got his certification as a barber and owned barbershops in North Portland. After his first two shops and his home were seized by the state of Oregon for the construction of Interstate 5, he opened a barbershop and grocery store in North Portland, which the family operated for many decades. He was also active in the Oregon Republican Party. He died in 2001.
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Scope and content
Tape 4, Side 2. This oral history interview with Charles B. Maxey was conducted by Jim Strassmaier at Maxey’s home in Portland, Oregon, from February 25 to November 18, 1994. Johnnie Obina Maxey was also present and occasionally contributed to the interview. The interview was conducted in six sessions. In the third interview session, conducted on March 25, 1994, Maxey talks about a fight between his father and a white police officer in Texas, and how the fallout affected his family. He discusses conditions for black people in Texas, and how they changed during the lead-up to World War II; talks about his experiences working wartime jobs; and describes the development of his political philosophy at the time of the war. He talks about his involvement with the NAACP; discusses people being accused of communism for advocating for civil rights; and discusses conditions for black people in Portland after the war. He talks about the social life of the black community, racism they experienced, and the passage of Oregon’s various civil rights acts. He also talks about the experiences of black members of the U.S. military during World War II, as well as his involvement in the Oregon Republican Party.
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Copyright for this interview is held by the Oregon Historical Society. Use is allowed according to the following statement: Creative Commons - BY-NC-SA, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.
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- eng
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Subject access points
- Oregon--Politics and government--20th century
- African Americans--Oregon--Portland
- African American barbers--Oregon--Portland
- Barbers--Oregon--Portland
- Business enterprises--Oregon--Portland
- Gentrification--Oregon--Portland
- Grocery trade--Oregon--Portland
- Racism--Texas
- Racism--Oregon
- Shipbuilding--Oregon--Portland
- World War, 1939-1945--Oregon--Portland
- Republican Party (Or.)
- Maxey, Johnnie O. (Johnnie Obina), 1919-
Place access points
Name access points
- Strassmaier, James (Contributor)