Summary and Video of Constance Chapman (1932-)
Interviewer: Project historian Anntrell Sylvia-Brown
Recorded March 16, 2016
Remembering her great grandmother, Addie Bell (ca. 1889-1960)
Introduction
Dr. Constance Chapman is a professor at Atlanta Metropolitan State College. She originates from Detroit, Michigan. Her educational background includes Michigan State University, where she attended and received her bachelor’s degree in elementary education. After graduation, she taught at a numerous amount of elementary schools for 10+ years. Eventually, she went back to school to pursue her Masters at Columbia State. She loved the surrounding area so much that she moved permanently. Right after receiving her Masters, she went on to complete a doctorate program with her alma mater (Columbia State). She left New York City in 1990 after receiving her doctorate looking for a change of environment (due to weather and opportunities). She looked for a more “cosmopolitan” way of living which led her to Atlanta, Georgia by a recommendation from her group of friends. Immediately after she settled into her new environment, she begin to look for job opportunities in the surrounding area. A job offer, as a professor, at Georgia State started her collegiate experience. She worked for 7+ years and applied for tenure at the school but was denied. She eventually left and taught at Clark Atlantafor a few more years and applied for tenure. She mentions her determination and sassy attitude may have prevented her with tenure opportunities at previous schools. She was denied and it led her to Atlanta Metropolitan State College where she now has tenure.
Transcript
“Of course I wasn’t a slave—my mother wasn’t a slave nor my father. But my grandmother’s mother, I think she said, was a slave. She said that the slave master was so very mean and one day he [slave master] put them on the back board of a truck. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen an old pickup truck but it was only a plank across. The slaves had to sit on the floor and my mother’s mother said that she was so angry that he treated them so badly. So she grabbed him by the balls, not letting go, and squeezed as hard as she could. She said that he never was any nicer then. There was another incident where her great-great grandfather went to town to the market to pick up supplies. She begged to come along with him and was finally allowed to go. She knew that something was going on because he would go into market to get tools and be gone all day and night so she believed she was up to no good. She tagged along one Saturday and got all the groceries needed. On the way home, the mule stopped in front of a particular house. Mules are very stubborn and if they do a certain routine they’ll do it all the time. Her mother got so upset that she beat him over the head. She didn’t understand why her mother was attacking her father.
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