Roy Glasscock (1936- ): Interviewed on 10 September 1993 -- Glasscock grew up in Maplewood and became a policeman with the St. Louis Police Department. He worked in the 5th, 6th, and 9th districts and recalls observations on race and how the department has changed.

Vida “Sister” Prince was born in 1933 to Vida Tucker (1906-1981) and Myron S. Goldman (1905-1936). She graduated from John Burroughs High School in St. Louis and earned an Associate of Arts degree from Centenary Junior College (New Jersey). Prince augmented her education at Fontbonne College, University of Missouri-St. Louis, and Webster University. She married Ronald S. Prince (1931-2016) and the couple had three children.

Prince began her career with oral history in 1979 when she answered an advertisement for volunteers at the Holocaust Museum & Learning Center. She interviewed over 100 people in St. Louis touched by the holocaust. In 1986, Sister Prince began working with the Missouri Historical Society in several capacities. She taught programs in how to conduct oral history interviews, did research for exhibits, and conducted oral history projects relating to several museum exhibitions, most notably I, Too Sing America: Black St. Louisans in the 1940s, A Strong Seed Planted: The Civil Rights Movement in St. Louis, 1954-1968, and Golden Gateway: Asian Immigration to St. Louis.

In 1993, Prince embarked upon an independent oral history project in which she explored how race affected people of color in their daily lives in St. Louis. After consultations with staff at the Missouri Historical Society, she interviewed 40 people. She called the project “Race and Memory in St. Louis” and it became the basis of her book, That’s The Way It Was (MHS Library StL/305.8/G619t).

SCOPE AND CONTENTS
The collection dates from 1942 to 2014 and is arranged alphabetically into three series: Race and Memory Oral History Project series which is subdivided into the Interviews and Management subseries, Book series, and General Subject Files series. Interview transcriptions and supporting documentation for the “Race and Memory” oral history project conducted by Vida Sister Prince from 1993 to 1995 comprise the bulk of the collection. It also includes files about the management of the project; files about Prince’s book, That’s the Way It Was (The History Press, 2013), which resulted from the oral history project; and general subject files relating to Prince, black history, and prominent civil rights figures in St. Louis.

Sister Prince began this independent oral history project in 1993. The Missouri Historical Society offered limited support: advice and feedback, some transcribing, and a place to conduct interviews if needed. It was also understood that the tapes and transcripts would eventually be deposited with the Society’s Library and Research Center. In That’s The Way It Was, an article for Gateway Heritage (spring 1997), she described her project as:

"…an oral history project about how race affected people of color as they went about their daily lives. I wanted to know how people learned about themselves: how they became aware that there were people whose skin was a different color than their own, and that it made a difference, and where in the St. Louis landscape their memories took place.”

Sister Prince ultimately interviewed 40 people for her project, both African-American and Caucasian. Some interviews included relatives or spouses, but most were with a single individual. Interviewees ranged in age from thirty to over ninety.

See the finding aid: mohistory.org/collections/item/A3071

Interview with Roy Glasscock PART ONE, Vida "Sister" Prince Oral History Collection

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Interview with Roy Glasscock PART ONE, Vida "Sister" Prince Oral History Collection

Missouri Historical Society

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