CU Oral History: Milton J. Carr, Jr. of the Arabi Sugar Workers FCU

Yesterday marked the start of my African American credit union oral history tour, and I was fortunate to kick off the project by meeting with Milton J. Carr, Jr., the former president of the Arabi Sugar Workers Federal Credit Union. In addition to being a retired sugar refinery worker, union officer, and credit union volunteer, Mr. Carr is quite the history buff who has been building a second career over the last decade as an historical tour guide. As a result, over the course of our discussion at his dining room table, he provided a fascinating historical sketch of the African American experience in the city and his native Lower Ninth Ward which offered invaluable context for better understanding the dynamics and story of his credit union. We covered a lot of ground in our conversation; check it out!

Coming African American Oral History Tour!

Watch out, dear reader, this blog is about to get quite active! Last week I finished up at my day-job and, to celebrate, I will be embarking on a journey through the South to conduct oral history interviews with African American credit union elders. My trip will start in New Orleans at the beginning of March, and will then proceed through Mississippi, Alabama, Atlanta, North Carolina, Richmond, Va., and Washington D.C. I've already obtained some good leads for interviewees, but if anyone has suggestions as to people to at to my itinerary, please get in touch!

My plan is to take video of the interviews and, after some light editing, post the videos to my Youtube channel. I will also try to write a short summary of my experience at each of my stops which, along with embedded video, will be posted on this site.

Finally, while I'm going to be doing everything I can to minimize expenses, this project will cost some money, so if you are interested in the topic and could kick in a few dollars towards train fare, etc., you can visit the crowd-funding page here and Bitcoin donations can be sent here: 16uLVGBZk45UEmTKYhdqWaviE5zJKA12R4

Onward!