Speakers Bureau Speaker
Geta LeSeur, Tucson
Geta LeSeur extends the "Great Migration/Exoduster" story of the Black Okie experience. Most of her presentations are based on her award-wining book Not all Okies are White: The Lives of Black Cotton Pickers in Arizona, which was selected as one of the best books of the Southwest for 2000. LeSeur is a distinguished professor who specializes in African, Caribbean, and African American Literature. She holds a doctorate in English and Comparative Literature. So often history is presented as a litany of dates, battles, and politicians, but Not all Okies are White touches on the lives of local people. LeSeur helps us see this history through the lives of some ordinary Arizonans.
Presentations are suitable for high school as well as adult audiences.
Beyond the Cotton Fields: Black Migrant Women Building Communities
This presentation is based on the stories of five women from the Casa Grande Valley towns (Eloy, Randolph, Coolidge, Casa Grande, the Gila Reservation), who despite their busy and oppressive lives of work, family, poor housing, etc., managed to become politicized, self-educated activists. They would then go on to rebuild their lives and create lively communities even after "the cotton machine" took away their job opportunities. This presentation is a tribute to these resilient women, and can feature a visit from at least one of the women or their "daughters"/"relatives" to add further depth to the discussion.
• Host organization provides slide projector and screen.
Eloy's Gun and Cotton Stories: Romanticizing the Real
This presentation will focus on the lively and lawless days of Eloy, Arizona. It has been said that Eloy had a reputation that rivaled that of Tombstone, with its killings, graft, good time houses, and mysterious murders. Explore this turbulent time in Territorial Eloy, when the influx of seasonal cotton pickers "raised hell" on the weekends.
• Host organization provides slide projector and screen.
Not All Okies Are White: Randolph, Arizona, 1930s—1950s
Based primarily on LeSeur's book, Not All Okies Are White: The Lives of Black Cotton Pickers in Arizona (2000), this presentation focuses on the oral histories from the town's formation, the changes from white to Black, and the arrival of black cotton pickers from the Dust Bowl states in the 1940s.
• Host organization provides slide projector and screen.
