Oral Histories

Interview of Ruth Washington

Publisher and business manager for the Los Angeles Sentinel.
Subtitle:
Black Leadership in Los Angeles: Ruth Washington
Series:
Black Leadership in Los Angeles
Topic:
African American History
Journalism
Biographical Note:
Publisher and business manager for the Los Angeles Sentinel.
Interviewer:
Hopkins, Ranford B.
Interviewee:
Washington, Ruth, $d 1914-1990
Persons Present:
Washington and Hopkins.
Place Conducted:
Tape I: Vernon Branch-Leon H. Washington, Jr., Memorial Library in Los Angeles, California; Tapes II-V: the Los Angeles Sentinel offices in Los Angeles, California.
Supporting Documents:
Records relating to the interview are located in the office of the UCLA Library's Center for Oral History Research.
Interviewer Background and Preparation:
The interview was conducted by Ranford B. Hopkins, UCLA Oral HistoryProgram. B.A., M.A., Ph.D. candidate, Department of History, U.C. Santa Barbara. Hopkins prepared for the interview by reviewing photographs and files at the Los Angeles Sentinel, the Sentinel's anniversary issue, Sentinel 50, and his own research on his doctoral dissertation, "Growth of the Black Community in Los Angeles from 1890-1930."
Processing of Interview:
Program staff edited the interview. They checked the verbatim manuscript against the original recording, edited for punctuation, paragraphing and spelling, and verified proper names. Words and phrases inserted by the editor have been bracketed.The edited manuscript was sent to Washington in September of 1985. She died before reviewing the transcript, and thus some of the proper names were never verified.Steven J. Novak, editor, prepared the table of contents, biographical summary, interview history, and index.
Length:
3.8 hrs.
Language:
English
Copyright:
Regents of the University of California, UCLA Library.
Series Statement:
Interviews in this series were made possible by support from the UCLA Center for African American Studies, Institute of American Cultures. This is the first of several Oral History Program series focusing on social, cultural, economic, and political aspects of African American citizens in the Los Angeles metropolitan area.
Abstract:
Kansas childhood and schooling; move to Los Angeles; marriage to Leon H. Washington Jr.; Leon Washington's civil rights activism; his founding of the Los Angeles Sentinel; his political connections; Ruth Washington operates a photography studio; she assumes operation of the Sentinel after husband's stroke; her changes in the Sentinel; African American newspapers and journalists; the National Negro Newspaper Publishers Association; the Black Women's Forum; religious beliefs.