Evelyn Groom oral history interview, May 30, 2025

Scope and content:

Dr. Tameka Hobbs interviews Evelyn Carter Grooms at the African American Research Library and Cultural Center on May 30, 2025. Grooms explains her genealogy on both her paternal and maternal sides of her family and where they are from. She recalls her childhood growing up in rural Springville within Columbia County, Florida and attending a Rosenwald school. She describes the activities and customs that celebrate May 20th, the Emancipation Day of enslaved peoples in Florida, both with her school and with her family and community. Grooms describes having devotion, playing field games, creating ribbons by ripping colorful cloth and plaiting the maypole. She explains that the May 20th celebrations and its history did not resonate with her when she was young, but she began to understand its significance during high school. She recalls celebrating with the local Black community under a large oak tree across the street from her home by having a barbecue, making "ice shivers" (a.k.a. snow cones or snowballs), women from the church and members from the Sunday Morning Band making sandwiches, and the adult men playing baseball. Before the celebration extended to the community, Grooms's family celebrated under a Chinaberry tree in their yard and provided food for free, but they charged to raise money for local churches, the Sunday Morning Band, and Florida Memorial College after it extended outside the family.

Grooms recalls cycling through attendance of one of four churches every Sunday at the Sunday Morning Band, two Baptist churches, and a Methodist church. She explains how the celebration originally happened in May but transitioned to the first Saturday in July later, as well as how the event was like a homecoming because many people who moved away came back for the celebrations. Grooms recalls having a May king and May queen for the celebrations at her Rosenwald school. She mentions attending Richardson High School in Lake City, Florida. She recalls the food traditions during celebrations and generally with her family. Grooms recalls her parents' farm and the produce they grew and livestock they raised, and describes the mule-pulled sugarcane mill on their farm.

Grooms explains the importance of continuing to celebrate the 20th of May and recognizing its history. She describes how these celebrations are still happening today in the Springville area and that there is a big festival in White Springs. Grooms lastly explains that she knows another oral history participant, Loretta Scipio Whittle, and that she is related to the Hankerson family.

Material specific details:

00:31:52 (31 minutes, 52 seconds)

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