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Johnson, Annie Victoria, 1925-2015

 Person

Biography

Annie Victoria Braddock Johnson was born in Ripley, Mississippi, in 1925 to George Braddock and Georgia Scott. The family were sharecroppers. Johnson was one of five daughters and five sons. Her grandmother was born into slavery. In addition to Mississippi, Annie Braddock lived in Jackson, Tennessee, Chicago, and Waterloo, Iowa. She worked in domestic service, at factories, in hospitals, and at Ravenwood Care Center. In Waterloo, Annie Braddock married Clyde Johnson. She was a member of the Gift of Life Church. Annie Johnson had two sons, two stepdaughters, five grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren. Annie Victoria Johnson died in 2015 at the age of 89. Biographical information found in Johnson’s obituary as published in the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier.

Found in 1 Collection or Record:

Johnson, Annie Victoria, 2009

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Scope and Contents

Annie Victoria Johnson speaks about going with her mother when she did domestic work, such as caretaking for both Black and white children and washing and ironing clothes for white families. She shares stories of Black and white women’s integrated social lives in Mississippi, working together to garden and can produce, trading food they grew with one another, and quilting and sharing meals in one another’s homes. She also recalls Black and white families socializing together at yard parties, noting that the only social arenas that were segregated were school and church. Johnson speaks about regional differences between the Mississippi Delta and the northern part of the state where she grew up, describing the conditions facing Black people in the Delta being like slavery. Her interview also covers the topic of white men who sexually assaulted Black women. She describes a woman she worked for in Chicago as being more hateful than anyone she met in Mississippi or Tennessee.

Dates: 2009