Doris Crump Rainey
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Women's Club Portrait, Doris Rainey - middle row on left
Photo courtesy: Albert W. Durant photography collection, Visual Resources, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Mrs. Doris Crump Rainey provided the reflections below as part of the Oral History Community Nights hosted by Colonial Williamsburg during the late 1980s and early 1990s. The clips are excerpts from The Depression Years, one of several films produced from these oral history nights. The full film can be viewed here.
Film Credit: Media Collections, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Mrs. Rainey discusses her mother's emphasis on the importance of education as something white people could not take away from you.
Mrs. Rainey remembers how her family managed through the Depression years.
Mrs. Rainey recalls how many Black people lost their homes during the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg, and, if they didn't want to sell, their homes would be condemned.
Mrs. Rainey describes how the Navy took land from families living in Magruder during WWII and how some families had to stay on the abandoned Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp at William & Mary as they had no where else to go.
Mrs. Rainey describes the substandard conditions families faced at the CCC camp.
Mrs. Rainey situates the dispossession experienced by Magruder residents as part of a pattern of Black communities losing their land in the Hampton Roads area.
Mrs. Rainey recalls being chased as a young girl by white soldiers and the tragic events that followed when they would not leave her alone.
Mrs. Rainey remembers enjoying her time at the Baptist Young People's Union.
Mrs. Rainey explains her decision to stay in Williamsburg to try to address the racism she experienced growing up.
Mrs. Rainey and others provide final remarks and thoughts for the future.
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