Ruth Scarbrough transcript, 2022-06-09
Scope and Contents
D.C. Oral History Collaborative (DCOHC) is a citywide initiative to train community members in oral history skills, fund new and ongoing oral history projects, connect volunteers with oral history projects, and publicize existing oral history collections. DCOHC is a project of DC Public Library, HumanitiesDC, and the Historical Society of Washington, D.C. This collection contains oral history interviews, transcripts, and indexes produced by DCOHC grantees.
Dates
- Creation: 2022-06-09
Creator
- Wright, Pandit (Person)
Biographical / Historical
Born in 1948, Ruth Scarbrough is a native Washingtonian who attended D.C. public schools until moving with her family to Prince George’s County, Maryland, after a year at Dunbar High School in northwest Washington. Starting out with the federal government at the level of GS-2 (employed as a dictating machine transcriber), she retired in 2003 as a GS-14, having developed a career in employee relations. Ms. Scarbrough then pursued her dream of nurturing others in the field of health care, joining a pediatric practice, not as the nurse she had hoped to be but still fulfilling her dream. As a military spouse, she lived in Texas and Oklahoma in the late 1960s until returning to the Washington area, ultimately becoming a single mom who raised two successful men in Prince George’s County. She can be found on Asbury’s YouTube Channel as Miss Ruth, Asbury’s iconic children’s messenger.
Extent
From the Collection: 1.13 Terabytes
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Ruth Scarbrough discusses her life as a native Washingtonian transplanted as a teenager in Prince George’s County, Maryland. She reflects on growing up in pre-gentrified northwest and northeast Washington, D.C., the 1968 riots, living in non-diverse communities in Oklahoma, transcribing the Cassius Clay v. United States court case, pursuing career goals without the prerequisite education, and rising to career success in the federal government. She also speaks about raising boys as a single mom, being a servant leader in Asbury United Methodist Church in D.C., COVID experiences, reactions to the George Floyd slaying, the Proud Boys, the Black Lives Matter movement in Washington, D.C., and the challenges faced by the Black urban church particularly in relation to youth.
Topical
Repository Details
Part of the The People's Archive, Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library Repository