The WorkStory and The Family History--Two Tools

The younger generations of today have grown up in a world

that is vastly different from the world in which today's elder

generation grew up.

Starting with the “me generation” and the “greed is good” mantra

of the 1980s, and proceeding non-stop through today, the American

culture has been re-engineered to strip the younger generations of

their historical identity and their connections to their larger

communities in which they live their lives.

The ethos of the land is no longer Dr. Martin Luther King

Jr.'s “I am my brother's keeper,” but is now, “I got mine. You gotta

get yours...or not.”

Within each family, the stories of the elder generation's lives can
provide a source of enrichment to the members of the younger generations within that family.

The stories of the families' migration from the South

to Long Beach in the 1940s, 1950s, or 1960s can provide them with

an historical identity, with roots.

This can lead to the empowerment of the younger generations

to begin moving together towards the betterment of themselves,

their families, and their communities.

The WorkStory is the starting point in the process. It is the foundation.

Just as the elder generation naturally passed on the story of the past

to their juniors throughout history and throughout the world--to

keep them grounded--now it is just as critical for this most basic of

survival and development processes to continue.

To resume, actually, since it has pretty much ceased

with this generation of elders...and in this post-Migration, “me”

generation era.

Our stories must be told.

They must be recorded.

Not only for the sake of ourselves and our families,

but for the sake of history.

If we don't record the story of our lives--as individuals, as families,

as communities--the specifics of our place in history will be lost.

Future historians will recount the story of our times without our
presence in it. That will result in a distorted history. And that will be to the detriment of each of our families' future generations: our grandchildren, and their children, and their children's children, on and on.

Our future generations will find it that much more difficult to

understand and navigate through the society in which they will be

living their lives.

They will all be people without a history. And a people without

a history is no different than a person without a memory.

Or, as the historian George Santayana put it, "A country without a

memory is a country of madmen.” 

Each workstory starts with graduation from high school.

That event is, for many people (certainly not all), the first choice

point that will mark the trajectory of--if not their entire lives--

certainly the first few years of their adult lives.

Each story narrates the specific experiences the person encounters

in the environment that their first choice takes them to—whether it

is their first job, their college career, their first term in the armed

forces, their years of drifting...or whatever.

The workstory describes the alternatives from which the

individual made his or her particular choice, and the individual’s

considerations that led to making that particular choice.

It details the work or the studies, the objective requirements

and experiences of that first choice point’s selection.

It also depicts the human interactions encountered

in the experience, and their effects on the individual.

Subsequent choice points emerge naturally in the course of

each individual’s workstory, even for those who stay on one

job all of their work lives, or otherwise stay in the trajectory

initially chosen upon high school graduation.

The workstory traces each of these choice points, describing

the conditions, experiences or thought processes that led

the individual to the choice point; that led to the abandonment

from the prior choice that had been made.

For instance, why after working for several years at the job

that you first chose after graduating from high school, did you

leave that job for another one.

What were your experiences; or what were the changed conditions;

or what were the changes in your thought processes; that brought

you to this new choice point.

And what were the alternatives from which you could then make a

new choice?

The workstory answers these questions.

In reading each workstory, the choice points throughout the

story become evident.

More significantly, they become revealing. They may reveal

patterns that convey much about the hierarchy of the person’s

values.

They have the capacity to invoke studied musings about the

readers' own choice points-- past choices made, and projected

future choices to be made.

In this way, the workstory enriches its readers—the family and

friends and associates of the subject of the workstory.

Just as significantly, they have the capacity to invoke newly-

discovered perspectives of self-reflection to the person who is the

subject of the workstory.

In reading their own workstory, they may reach new understandings

about their own motivations and values that drove their past

choices.

Collectively, these stories tell a story of patterns of interaction

in work places--patterns of how negative or hostile interactions,

treatments or conditions, are managed by victims of these

interactions, treatments or conditions.

They tell a story of how positive or friendly interactions,

treatments or conditions, may benefit the recipients, advance

their careers, or empower them to aspire to higher goals.

The collection is confined to individuals who are

in retirement or nearing retirement. So their workstories are

completed or nearly completed stories.

Finally, after the workstory is presented, the individual's family

history is presented. The purpose of presenting the family history is

to document the story of the individual family's migration to Long

Beach.

Each individual in this collection is the child of a family of

Black people who migrated to Long Beach in the Great Migration

of Black people from the southern states in the 1940s, 1950s, and

1960s.

Thus, these individuals comprise a unique group. They are

the first generation of children of these migrating families and

individuals who left the southern states at that time to:

(1) escape the harsh and hostile living conditions of the

     Jim Crow South;

(2) seek employment in the growing defense and

    
     manufacturing industries in California; and

(3) provide a better future for their children.

The combination of the WorkStory and the Family History of

“
their children” presented in this Choice Points project is a tribute to

the legacy of those migrating ancestors.

The collection is also an acknowledgment that “their children” are

now the elder generation of their living family line. “They” are thus

the bridge generation in their family line between the past and the

future of their families.

The workstories and family histories were obtained by first

interviewing each individual and transcribing the interview

into a written narrative.

The written narrative was then edited by the interviewee, and

was not included in the collection without the interviewee's

approval.

The CHOICE POINTS project originated with the Davis family in

Long Beach.

The parents of this family migrated to Long Beach in July, 1945

from Bernice, Louisiana. Ten of the twelve children and two of the

cousins grew up in Long Beach, graduating from Poly High School

as early as 1957 and as late as 1977.

Their family history and individual workstories were the first to

be developed in the collection.

We are now in the process of seeking friends, associates,

and ex-classmates of the Davis family

     
     who wish to record their individual workstories and their

     
     family history of migrating to Long Beach;

      who wish to use the workstories of their family's elder

     
      generation as a tool in enrich the younger generations in

     
      their families;

      who wish to use the workstory project as a way to

     
      connect to other projects that affect and that concern the

     
      Black Elders of Long Beach community.

To learn more about this project, or to arrange to be interviewed to

record your WorkStory and Family History, contact us at 


Phone: 404-207-8701

Email: voice5689@hotmail.com