From Porch Swings to Patios: Oral History Project

Interview of Drewary Brown on December 16, 1980.

Because of taping equipment error, the information in the Drewary Brown interview is that which was recollected by the interviewer in her notes. Brown's father was lynched when the boy was three months old, and his mother died also when he was young. Although Brown grew up on Washington Street, not on Vinegar Hill per se, he did enjoy considerable dealings on Vinegar Hill and recalls several anecdotes about the racism African Americans experienced there. He worked for civil rights and recalls that to a certain extent some members of his own community saw him as a troublemaker given his chosen forms of activism. Brown discusses class within the black community and racist attitudes of a white employer when he was boy. At the time of the interview, Brown was the Director of the Multi-service Center.

From Porch Swings to Patios: An Oral History of Charlottesville's Neighborhoods Prepared by the Department of Community Planning Advisory Board and students of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, 1982 - 1984.