Michael Powell oral history interview transcript

Boston (Mass.). Art Commission · April 19, 2018

Transcript of an interview with longtime Boston resident Michael Powell. The interview was part of the We are Boston: Stories of Hope, Struggle, and Resilience oral history project created in 2018 by poet and Boston artist-in-residence Daniel Johnson. Powell was born during World War II in France and raised in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston and Atlanta, Georgia. He discusses the neighborhood he lived in, his time at Catholic school, his encounters with Civil Rights activists Martin Luther King Jr., Stokely Carmichael, and others; his work at the Freedom House and Third World Jobs Clearinghouse running a job training program for minorities; his work with unions and as a contractor; experiences of racism; and aging in Boston.