Ernest McKissick and Magnolia Thompson McKissick Oral Histories

University of North Carolina at Asheville D. Hiden Ramsey Library Special Collections/University Archives Oral History Register for Ernest and Magnolia Thompson McKissick Oral History Ernest McKissick Asheville Area Photographic Collection, aap98 D.H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, UNC Asheville, 28804
Title	Ernest and Magnolia McKissick Oral History
Creator	Ernest and Magnolia McKissick
Alt. Creator	Interviewer: Dr. Louis D. Silveri
Subject LCSH:	Affirmative action programs -- United States -- North Carolina World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns African Americans -- North Carolina -- Religion
Subject Keyword:	YMI (Young Men’s Institute) ; Grant, Reverend Wesley ; Soul City ; Depression ; World War I ; Religion
Description	Mr. McKissick tells about his family background, his education, experiences in the army in World War I, church influence, occupations, and the Young Men's Institute. He remembers the Depression in Asheville. He talks about his son Floyd McKissick, and Soul City, Floyd McKissicks's HUD-sponsored town in Warren County, NC. Mrs. McKissick discusses her background, race relations, the election of 1976, and local politics. Other subjects mentioned are Reverend Wesley Grant, and the importance of the YMI building. Transcript of interview only: no tape.
Publisher	D. H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville, NC, 28804
Contributor	Ernest and Magnolia McKissick
Date	Electronic Record Issued: 2001-07-23
Type	Text
Format	TRANSCRIPT: 46 double-spaced pages
Identifier	http://toto.lib.unca.edu/findingaids/oralhistory/SHRC/mckissick.html
Source	Louis D. Silveri Oral History Collection, D.H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804
Language	English
Relation	Heritage of Black Highlanders Collection
Coverage	c1900's-1977 ; Asheville, NC
Rights	No restrictions ; Any display, publication, or public use must credit the D.H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville. Copyright retained by the authors of certain items in the collection, or their descendents, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Acquisition	Donor number: 23 ; Date of acquisition: August, 1977
Processed By	Southern Highlands Research Center staff , 1978 ; Special Collections staff, 2001
Interview Date	1977-08-02
Biography	Ernest McKissick, 1895-1980 At the turn of the century, Mr. McKissick's family moved to Asheville from Kelton, South Carolina near Spartanburg. Asheville, then a small community of around 15,000 people, offered more opportunities for work than rural SC. He quit school after second grade, but Dr. J. W. Walker of the YMI took an interest in him, found him work, and helped raise enough money to send him to Livingstone College. After service in World War I, McKissick married Magnolia Thompson. He worked in hotels, in Florida in the winter, in NC in the summer. In 1943 he left the George Vanderbilt Hotel to work for the Postal Service, and then for the Oteen VA Hospital, until he retired in 1957. Mrs. McKissick worked for 29 years for the North Carolina Mutual Insurance Company. The four McKissick children all finished college. Their oldest son Floyd was the first black student in the law school of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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University of North Carolina at Asheville D. Hiden Ramsey Library Special Collections/University Archives

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Ernest and Magnolia Thompson McKissick Oral History

University of North Carolina at Asheville
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Ernest and Magnolia Thompson McKissick
Oral History