Richard McCrary interview with Jerry Moore, Jewell Hobbs, Tom Hobbs, and Yvonne Edwards (part two)

The John Burrison Georgia Folklore Archive recordings contains unedited versions of all interviews. Some material may contain descriptions of violence, offensive language, or negative stereotypes reflecting the culture or language of a particular period or place. There are instances of racist language and description, particularly in regards to African Americans. These items are presented as part of the historical record. This project is a repository for the stories, accounts, and memories of those who chose to share their experiences for educational purposes. The viewpoints expressed in this project do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of the Atlanta History Center or any of its officers, agents, employees, or volunteers. The Atlanta History Center makes no warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of any information contained in the interviews and expressly disclaims any liability therefore. If you believe you are the copyright holder of any of the content published in this collection and do not want it publicly available, please contact the Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center at 404-814-4040 or reference@atlantahistorycenter.com. This audio contains references to physical assault and racial violence in the story about African Americans in Cumming, Georgia, at minute 24:20. The story lasts until the end of the recording. This interview was conducted by Richard McCrary at Tom and Jewell Hobbs home in Cumming, Georgia. It begins with Jewell Hobbs talking about the Shelton Brothers Gang from when she lived in Cisne, Illinois. Specifically, she recounts the funeral of one of the brothers that effectively ended the gang. [Silence 4:25-9:02] At minute 9:02, Jewells husband, Tom, reflects on his childhood. After his family moved from Indiana to Missouri, Tom and his father encountered a black panther. [Silence 9:57-11:17] Beginning at minute 11:17, the Hobbs granddaughter, Yvonne Edwards, tells several short ghost stories. Her stories include: an encounter with The Headless Lady, The Invisible Donkey and Cart, the adventures of Jimmy, Eddy, and Dale in Tennessee including, The Floating Bible and The Dancing Statue, the train accident behind The Ghost Lantern, a short joke about The Empty Grave, and her fathers Rocker Prank, where he frightens bullies with a skeleton. [Silence 15:50-16:55] She ends her stories with The Man with the Golden Arm, in which a dead man is desperate to get back his prosthetic golden arm. [Silence 19:55-22:50] At minute 22:50, the interview shifts back to Jewell Hobbs. Another woman asks her if she believes in visions, and Jewell Hobbs remembers a vision her mother experienced when she was caring for Hobbs baby and shortly afterwards the baby died. [Silence 23:33-24:20] At minute 24:20, Hobbs finishes the interview explaining why no African Americans lived in Cumming, Georgia. She says that around 1900 a couple of African American men were accused of assaulting a white woman and were subsequently lynched. An unnamed white woman worked with other community members to move the remaining African American families. It is implied that she moved them for their safety. Jerry Moore (1941- ), William Baregrons son-in-law, was born in Casper, Wyoming and moved to Conley, Georgia, in 1964. He lived next-door to Richard McCrary. Tom Hobbs (approximately 1900-1993) was born in Indiana. He moved as a child to Missouri. Jewell Bradley (1904-1989) was born in Illinois. She married Tom Hobbs and they lived in Cisne, Illinois, then retired to Cumming, Georgia. Yvonne Edwards (1953-) is one of their grandchildren. AHC Oral History Cataloging Worksheet File Information Catalogue number ~~,t<;) ~) jt :In'?). rf! [)' I Source Field' , (ContentDM) Release form Yeso~~ Transcript Yes or No scanned: From Yes~ Default text: Contributed by an OR: Donated by individual: individual through <your org. name> Georgia Folklore Collection through <your org. name> Object Information Enter .Informat"Ion about the pnhysl.caI Ob)l'eCt here: Title =Sf l~X:) He) (interviewee l name and date of interview) -=r!rtt:e\ \)i(' l,) lq bCZ) QJI.'i 1'I'1\ (J'j ,.~ Description (bio on interviewee) 1 Creator (Enter either an individual's name or an organization) Burrison Folklore Class Collection Name (within the organization) Georgia Folklore Archives Creation Date (use only one) Exact Date (yyyy-mm-dd) Year (if only the year is known) Circa (4 digit year) Year Span From To Object Type Image_ Text Text and image _ Video and S~/d _ Sound only Derivatives Access copy: Yes or No Media Format (VHS, reel to reel, etc Recording extent Reel-reel Hours: 0 Minutes: ~::J \ '. 0 ", Access copy format: Recording clip Yes or No Time code for clip (h:m:s) Beginning: (\() ';?,) .... ';,; \ Clip extent: t \'" ',>he \lon 1!ll\c)! (,tjt>(,~\ () VI. ~1&.:jt 'l@-.lc ViVdJ l,e~-_, CI..nc) t- ::. ",.) \ @ tAl') t\ot\x" 'tE:lIs 01,' \\ OrVl{c".oYl i (\ t.\ "../,\ul, , ,--..Jf C> ~" '\\0\;\'> ..1:0 I v...?h i \e i 1\ (), "'The :r n,}!::>' & Hy'", t\O\,cj'D" -\cui r'e j\f,f)IO(l h~S; (' <1 '::',C\\", tbol (' Notes (interview summary) o 0\ Recording issues l~ee 0".)<:0\0 (0~_', \J E'J\ "\ \ow \lI (~,>'O\Y\<' ,'>:r>o" " (background ~.-.:-) noise, echo, static, etc.) Subject Information Enter information about the content of the obiect here: Subject Date Exact Date (yyyy-mm-dd) (use only one) Year (if only the year is known) Circa (4 digit year) Year Span From To Subject Who Last Name First Name MI liD\'\f ~ .\....- \ -._} -rb rV\ r~/OI\(I IIAnu;, C "C.'\\'.Q l.-,) '--, Subject Country State County Town Local Name Location uc~~>p\. GA CU!'AI', "'!".('r;: Subject What AHC Cataloger will complete this for you. -, (LOC subject headInns onlv\ Keywords Burrison, John Personal names See subject who for additional names tto,b \'" :,l) I ICCj){' ( +\o'vt-:/r) I ~\ ClVY l t:(7) \;U0", 1 ! Y'vV{\N? Koo\'E' ~--S-'e 1\",- 'r \~ \ ' "~'\ -... ! 3 Corporate names Geographic - locations If. 0 ,J(eli\l(~ \ (')iSr\\)\ I :Glll '1\(')\0 ,J \,\<\('\ 1''11\' '(\ V"; -,," , ,,-_J Topics '/.':,:)~\.'\(".) 0....,J,1(" 4 AM~RICAN TALES AND LEGENDS by Richard S. McCrary for John Burrison English 405 Spring Quartpr 1968 My first informant was Mrs. Jewel Hobbs of Route Five, Cumming, Georgia. She and her husband, Tom, had come South to retire from Cisny, Illinois. I had known her son for some time and was always ~lad to go see them. My wife and I went on a SundaY,as they wanted us to come UP for lunch. When we arrived there was already a fair size crowd of family from around Atlanta; this family is quite close and often have ten or fifteen people for lunch. One of the grandchildren, Yvonne Edw",rds, turned out to be my best source. The HobbS had led a full life before coming South and their tales of earlier life were interesting. The Shelton Gang Mrs. Hobbs: Well, it was back in uh, I forgot whether it was in 1920, and the Shelton bOyR was there, thelr mother and father 11ved just, oh bout twelve, fifteen ml1es from us, and they come In to the store and traded wlth us, and they had the lovllest parents, but they were dl11ies them boys were, they was gangsters; and therr brother, Walter, 11ved just; no, now I sald 1920 I, I was wrong there, that's when they flrst began, l~hen I knew about them was in 19, you was born ln 194'7 "Jeren' t you Barbara (to granddaughter) see Walter 11ved rlght down the road from us when we, had a store ln Clsny, Illlnols; and uh, he was a very nice boy. And one morning we went down to the store and we heard that uh, one of the boys had killed another gangster down in Falrfield, Illlnois, that was the town where all the gangsters were, now you may ,have to make this over a little different the way you want it, I cA.n t remem ber just off hand, but anyway they had killed this one boy and uh, he was going down this lane, they was on a big farm and he, the boy, was in a car and they shot him and killed him right there and they went and picked up one of the 2 Shelton boys and before they could get him to jail why they had, his brothers, had come, friends or somebody had come and got him and. they had. the funeral for this Shelton boy there in Cisny at the Methodist Church and big Cadillacs , big limousines, drove up there and these men got out and they hRd a big funeral for him there and uh, they uh, at this one floral piece they had was a 9reat big '.,'hite Bible And it was made out of all white carnations; and one wreath the,Y had was the great big uh, whe el with two spokes out, no body ever knew why the two spokes was out , but they had two spokes out and they had. uh, I wap trying to think of that other unique spray they had, Phyllis,(to daughter) do you remember, member when that there Shelton boy they had his funeral there in the Methodist Church, you member, what kind of sprays i t ~Jas they had 1 Come on in Tom (husband enters). Anyway, they had a big funeral there ami after the funeral they took him out to the uh, Calvary cemetery and put him in; buried him in a mausoleum, and. they guarded. that mausoleum, because they was afraid somebody was going to come and take the body. And uh, they, that was about the end of that bunch, that's the tail end of that Shelton gang, but they had all kinds of killings d.own there and. they blamed. everyone, all the killings was bl'emed on the Shelton bo ys whether they done them or not, they got blamed for them. Down at Fairfield, Illinois where they, all the killings took place. The Blacl{ Panther Tom Hobbs: We lived in Missouri there, when I was a boy we went from Indiana to Missouri in a covered. wagon, and. uh, drawn by two horses; we made that trip and uh, my dad. settled on a homestead there, forty acres, and uh, we didn't have any water where we was, so we had to go to the spring and draw water. I 3 member one time I went 1~ith my dad , I was just; can remember we were filling UP the barrels and right up above us was this great big black panther, and he made that big screech, I can remember my dad throwing me down in the bottom of that wagon and driving them horses just as fast as they could run, we lost our barrels of "Iater and everything. The Headless Lady Yvonne: Thes e t~TO men, Unc1e crom and some other guy, they went walking down the road and this one guy kept cussing and cussing and cussing, and Uncle Tom says; you better stop cussing cause somebody might hear you and s~ he just kep a cussing and just kep a cussing and so finally this lady started walking up the road 8.nd uh, Uncle crom said; you better hush, here comes a 19.dy, and so he keeps walking and keeps on a cussin, finally they get up to the lady and she didn't have a head and they went running down the road and that guy was just a cussin going down the road just a cussin, just a cussin, just goin as fast as he can. The Invisible Donkeys and Cart Yvonne: There's one about the uh, uh, cart you can hear the donkeys and cart but you can't see it, you know; you go walking down the road late at night and you hear this and all of a sudden you hear clip,clop,clip,clop, and you hear the donkeys going to brqy(braying noise) and you keep hear1ng it go squeak, squeak,squeak,squeak; you hear the wagon, qnd then you hear the man go(kissing noise twice) but you can't see it and you look out the window and it's not t~ere but you keep hearing 011p,olop, clip,clop; squeak,squeak; (kissing sound tWjde) The Floating Bible Yvonne: Well there's these guys, it was uh, Jimmy and Eddy and 4 Dale, they went up to this, some place in Tennessee, and so uh, they kept hearing this tales of this floating Bible, so once, long ago there was this man, and he was walking down the aisle, walking up the aisle with his Blble in his hand and he had a heart attack, and he died there and he fell do',m with his Bible too ,9,nd so the Bible ,just got ri~'ht back up and floated back to the altar and so Eddy and Jimmy and uh, Dale they all went up there and they went and got the Bible and they took it down from the altar and they cnrried it all the way back down to the end of the aisle and then they set it down there, five minutes later it got up and started moving baok like somebody was oarrying it you know, it just kep going and finally it got b90k to it. The Dancing statue Yvonne: And then they wp.nt to this other p~e and you uh, shine a light on the statue and it'll start'moving, danoing, so they shined a light on it 'bout half an hour late:!;" they didn't think it was going to work, but uh it started dancing, Jimmy uh, broke the key in the ignition ~rying to get out of there so fast. The Ghost Lantern Yvonne: There's this 'nother one, they uh, was going down this railroad track and this man was carrying a lantern and he got killed, a train ran over him and so now you oan go there at certain times and start hearing the train going and hear it coming and everything and this man's just swing the light and the light's just s'N'inging but you oan't see the tr'Jin, but you oan hear it and all of a sudden you hear this man screaming. The Empty Grave Yvonne: There's this grave and it's open and you go down there and say; Whatcha doin? and it'll say, nothing. 5 The Rocker Prank Yvonne; Daddy use to say, there's this old doctor you know, he had this skeleton in this rock in chair you know, and he just left it there and po there's these old rich kids you know, and they's bossin everybody around and so ah, daddy and them told them about it, 'bout this old haunted house and they went up there, and these old rich kids said; ah, there's nothing gain to happen, so urn, they go in this and daddy and them they tied a black piece of thread to the rockin chair you know, where the skeleton ,,'as 8-nd so they in and started squeakin that rocker and those kids went tearing off you know, running and screaming their heads off cause that rocker rockin back and forth, they thought that skeleton WAS alive. The Man with the Golden Arm Yvonne; There was this man and woman lived together, he was a "rooclchopper and they loved each other very much and so one day the man was out wood chopping and so he chopped his arm off, and the lady felt so sorry for him that she just went and bought him a golden arm and they lived happily ever for a long time. Finally the old man died and so they burried him and the woman was lying in bed one night and she says, I'm going to get that golden arm myself, I can get some money for that, and so she , that night she went out there and she opened up the casket And it went squeak, she gets out the arm and tqkes it back in there and puts it up in the room and so the next day g.he went on about her housework and didn't think anything about it and the next night phe heard the casket go squeak, she heard something moving abrmt down stairs, and then it walks ;up 8nd heard something P;O; I'm at your door, beware, I ",ant my golden arm, ad I'm at your door, she looks up, what's 6 that, Rhe looks around the room, she says, ah, its my imagination, she goes mack, she hears the door open, Rhe hears it slam, then she hears something go, I'm at your stairs, I want my golden arm, she goes, what ",as that, what was that, she gets up out of the bed, she looks around; its ,just my imagination, this golden arm is getting to me, I've got to get rid of it, then she heard something going up the stairs; clip,clop,clip,clop; I'm coming up your stairs, I w'nt my golden arm, here I come, I want my golden arm, clip, clop, clip, clop UP the stairs; oh no, someone's coming after me, then she hears it go, I want my golden arm, Pm at the top of your stairs, I want my golden arm, she gets up, she runs and locks the door(click) locks the door, she voes back in bed, I'm safe, whew, she hears it moving, clip, clop, cli p, clop, she hea Y'S some~ody scratching on the door, (scraping sound) let me in, I want my golden arm, she says, I'm ICI",'t safe, he~get me, I've got the door locked, and all of a sudden she hears someone picking at the door,click,click, it gets in, it comes over there, she looks up, but she doesn't see anything, ~he looks round the room, she just sits there, and all of a sudden she just lays there I GOT MY GOLDEN AHM (jumps at aUdience). The fuby Vision HUby: Do you believe in visions? mama used to see them just like they was really there. Mrs. Hobbs: My mother saw one, one time, she had my baby, your daddy's little sister and she was uh, her baby had died on uh, mother's day and uh, ahe's sittin there rocking my baby and uh, she said she just looked up in the corner of the room and her little baby held out her hands to her, like that you know(holds arms outstreched) and on Declaration day my baby died, that's the thirtieth of May. 7 Why there are no Negroes in Cumming Mrs. Hobbs: They's ct couple of colored men come in and raped a white woman here, and they took them out and hung em, right up here in Cumming and his mother knew he, he cctlled that judg&s name here in Atlanta and he t00k one family(of negroes) for her, and uh she called somebody else and somebody else took the other (negro) family for her, ca.use they were good colored people see, and she tried to find homes for them and that was the last of the colored people her in Cumming, and. that ',Tas b8ck in 19, after 1900. This next series of tales was gathered from my next door neighbor, Jerry Moore. Jerry is originally from Casper, Wyoming and is very familiar with many of the tales and legends ctbout the indictns and early in~abitants of the area. The Lisa2pearing Mine In the 1850's, these partners came out from Philadelphia, out to the west, to the Wyoming territory And they were just out of a town now called uh, Manita, l~anita and POT'1der River, and they found themselves a gold strike out there, a pretty good rich gold strike and they made themselves a pretty good hunk of money so they decided one of the partners would stay and in the meantime while they were there, they built themselves a cabin and the other fella had a fiancee in Philadelphia and he's gain back and get her and bring her back out there and live and work their claim; so he left, of oourse it took him about a year to get back. when he got back to uh, the area there was no oa.bin, no partner, no trace of the cabin and now there's a settlement out 8 there called Lost Cabin, Wyoming; the partner was never found and the gold laden mine was never found, whether or not indians destroyed it, or whether it was claim jumpers they don't know, but the thing that's puzzling is that they never did find any trace of the cabin, there was no nails, no charred wood or nothing where it had been burned, it was just gone, it disappeared. Buffalo Bill's Burial Buffalo Bill, not known to most people when he died, he was destitute, a drunkard and he was a notorius gambler. So after he sold his wild west show, he didn'.t sell it he lost it in Europe & he returned to the Uni ted States, he went to his home, which wap in Cody, Wyoming and uh, he was broke so he sold his body to the state of Wyoming for ten thousand dollars, took that ten thousand and blew it, gambled it a"'ay, so he went to the state of Colorado and sold his body again for twenty thousand dollars and when he died he died in Colorado, so the state had a legal claim to his body so they buried him on Lookout Mountain, so some of the irate Wyomingites knew they'ed paid ten thousand dollars for it e.nd they wanted it, so they went to Lookout Mountain and dug him up, stole his body, and got him to Cheyenne, Wyoming before the people of Colorado got a cO'Jrt injunction to get his body baCk, so they took him up to Lookout Mountain and they buried him, and this time they buried him to stay because they buried him under twenty tons of concrete reinforced with steel, and that's where he is today. Buffalo Bill's Hotel He was also as I said before known as a big gambler, and ther's a hotel in Cody called the Buffalo Bill Hotel today, and he won it in a poker game and after he won it, the same night he won a ranch that consisted of about four sections and uh, his gambling 9 streak at that time was running pr~tty good, so he sent to Europe and ordered a bunoh of ohandeliers and a bar and some mirrors, and to this day, these bars uh, the bar I should say and the chandiiers and all the mirrors are still there and one of his favorite pastimes while he owned it was uh, you know, being bartender, gettin all the drinks up for all his friends 8nd he lost his ranch and the bar the same way he won it, in one night, in one poker game, he lost the whole shobtin match, and that's the way he lived and that's the way he died. The ~~gend of Crow Heart Butte West of Riverton, Wyoming; there's a butte that sits out in the middle of. the plains. it's probably ten miles square and back: uh, in the early 1800's, course the Shoshone and the Crow were diehard enemies, so they had one of thetr little neighborhood wars going on and both sides were losing a lot of the young men and neither one seemed to be winning any ground; so the two chiefs decided to fight, they'ed fight ~nd the winner would decide the war and the land that was in dispute would go to the winning chief. So they got up on top of this butte so the tribes could see and the chi ef of ite Shoshone .gnd the chief of the Crow, and uh, the chief of the Shoshone won and killed the Cro~ chief and legend has it he cut out his heart, held it in his hand, lifted it to the sky to show the Crow that he had won and they named the butte Crow Heart Butte, that's what it's called today. The Home of the Little People In uh, down south of Grillyerville, Wyoming in Utah, there's a mountainous region around., there's a hole in the ground it's a canyon but there's no entrance and no exit, the walls are vertical, it's aboout 350 feet to the bottom and it's at a high altitude, it's above the timberline and. uh, of course at that 10 altitude there's prevailing winds and uh, according to legend and uh, people I've talked to who've been UP there, it's uh, kind of misty .and foggy and of course there's a lot of dust just blowing in the top, but you can see in to the bottom and in this bottom of this hole or canyon whatever you want to call it, there's mounds of dirt, small mounds of dirt you can see with the naked eye and then in the walls there's holes that resemble caves or entrances to the walls ,'3nd uh, men have tried to go down in here in tllis canyon, its so far down that it's hard to get in to and uh, guys have tried to land helicopters in it but a helicopter won't ~o down into it because of the wind currents, but uh, one guy did go down in i.t and never C8me out and legend hap it, well the old Indian leg;ends of the Shoe'hone and the people who inhabit that area say that that's the home of the little people and uh there uh, interpretation of little people 8re people three foot tall or shorter, and the things that substantiate this is that there has been a mummy found about five miles from this hole in the ground or canyon whatever you want to call it and it W" S about three foot high and t his one fe11a di.d go down in the~e never came out, nobody's ever been down in it and come out to tell, so whether or not there's little people down there and whether this mummy substantiates this fact nobody kno'A's "lnd until somebody goes down in this hole and comes out no one will know. The Suffering of One Mormon Of course everybody knows of the plight of the Mormans, they were persecuted i.n Illinois and driven down into Kansas and in Kansas they lITere persecuted again and thei leader, Brigham young, led them from K"lnsas into what is now kn01m as the Mormon state, Utah. course ','hen they left Kancas they t:>ok the Oregon Trail that 11 led through Wyoming into Utah, it didn't lead into Utah, but it led into ~Jyoming then ran down into S,Sllt Lake, in IJtah. In uh, during one of the treks, one of the last groups to COllle out,they uh, got caught in a real bad snow storm at Independence Rock, which is located south west of uh, Casper, and the temperature dropped way below zero, down into the twenties and thirties below zero, course these people weren't equipped for this sort of weather, cause they were corning from KanS8S and it was in the Fa.ll and they were hoping to get to Salt Lake to the other settlers before Winter caught thelll; and this one ~JOman TtJas about, at the time, was about fourteen ye.q.rs old and she got frostbitten, frostbite, and it \~as so bad that the men in charge of the wagon train decided in order to save her life that they'd have to amput~te, so they strapped her to a board and took butcher knives and haCks('Js and cut her legs off just below the knees and she raised a family of fpurteen children and back in, I believe it was about 1954, a prominent surgeon in Salt Lake, she was still alive, she was an old woman, told her that he would ooerate on her for nothing, of course finish amputating her legs, because they had cut 'em off below the knees, and fix it so sl9.e wouldn't have so much pain, because the 41r way they amputated then was just like a butch slaughtering a hog, and she told this surgeon that, no, she had raised fourteen children this way walking around on her knees and she could spend the rest of her days WIlking like thls, and she says she can remember them starting to cut on her legs, course she paRsed out from the oaln; that's some of the plights the Mormons went through trying to get to Utah, ,Just one of the tales, the sufferlngs they had to suffer. 12 The Mystery Medicine Wheel North of Medicine Bowl, Wyoming, there's an area oalled the Shirly Basin. course in that region it's very flat, good mostly , for raisin!,: sheep, ora'rie dogs and rabbits and a fe,.! antelope, - . ~ but anyway , oh thirty yeArs ago. they found what they oall the medioine ~Iheel, which 1"9 s a !I.rheel outlined with rooks on the ground and it had hrelve spokes and so arohaeologists decided this wa~ something that was left by a ancient culture, probably part of their religion or something and they deoided that the twelve spokes stood for a twelve month year, like our calendar today; so I guess uh, I don't know when they first found it; until about eight years ago they just deoided that this was left by an anoient culture and they tied it in with the Azteos, and the Mayas due to their wheel calendar, if you've ever seen one you know it's a wheel and it's disected into twelve equal parts; but it seems that somebody did a little more research and they don't know for sure but they believe an old, old sheepherder built this in his spare time, just to have something to do; so Nhether or not it was left by an <'3ncient culture or whether or not a sher,pherder built it they haven' t determined yet, but anyway that's the fam0us medicine wheel, they don't know if it's myth or if it's the real thing. The Jackalope We have an animal out there in Wyoming, it's called a Jackalope, this is a mean critter, and to get a lioense, it's pretty hard to get a license to hunt one of these critters, but you can only hunt em certain times of the year; well, you can hunt em year round but 1t'R a certain time of the month, it's aotta be a full moon when you've gotta hunt these things; and they bark like a dog and howl like a wolf and they're pretty vic10us, but Headless Lady--Invisible Cart-- Float ing Bi ble-- Dancing Statue-- Golden Arm------ Mo'rlYs Stith 'rhompson s Motif Index F 511.0.1 2: 535.2 F 990 F 855.2 E 235.4.1 Note; The bulk of my tales ''1ere fact and local legflDd and therefore were not traoeable through the index. A PDF transcript exists for this recording. Please contact an archivist for access. Professor John Burrison founded the Atlanta Folklore Archive Project in 1967 at Georgia State University. He trained undergraduates and graduate students enrolled in his folklore curriculum to conduct oral history interviews. Students interviewed men, women, and children of various demographics in Georgia and across the southeast on crafts, storytelling, music, religion, rural life, and traditions. As archivists, we acknowledge our role as stewards of information, which places us in a position to choose how individuals and organizations are represented and described in our archives. We are not neutral, and bias is reflected in our descriptions, which may not convey the racist or offensive aspects of collection materials accurately. Archivists make mistakes and might use poor judgment. We often re-use language used by the former owners and creators, which provides context but also includes bias and prejudices of the time it was created. Additionally, our work to use reparative language where Library of Congress subject terms are inaccurate and obsolete is ongoing. 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