Who Tells Your Story If You Don't?

Have you ever wondered what stories about your family, your community, or yourself might be lost forever if not written down? I tackle this profound question head-on in a deeply personal exploration of why documentation matters.

I share my journey from taking legislative notes to founding the first NAACP chapter at North Carolina State University—an achievement I almost forgot until recently. I observe how women's accomplishments often go undocumented because we're culturally conditioned to avoid "boasting," while men's achievements are celebrated and recorded without hesitation. This systematic silence has created massive historical blind spots.

Through my research for the Woman of Substance event, I discovered a remarkable 19th-century entrepreneur—a Black washerwoman who not only took in laundry but also rented rooms to boarders, including a future Wake County legislator. This revelation demonstrates how proper documentation can transform our understanding of historical contributions, particularly from marginalized communities. As I powerfully stated, "The history of America is not the history of white men," yet without deliberate documentation efforts, diverse experiences continue to be erased from our collective memory.

Drawing parallels to the invaluable Works Progress Administration interviews with formerly enslaved people, I emphasize that documentation creates permanence. I urge listeners to record family stories, preserve artifacts, and share their experiences on platforms they control. In an age where information can be deleted with an executive order, taking ownership of our narratives becomes an act of resistance.

Take out your phone the next time you're with elders, record their stories, and write down your experiences—because this is not a time to be quiet. Your history matters—your family's journey matters. Together, these documented stories create a more complete picture of America.

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Carmen Wimberley Cauthen is an author, speaker, and lover of history, Black history in particular. As a truth teller, she delights in finding the hidden truths about the lives of people who made a difference - whether they were unknown icons or regular everyday people.

To Learn more of Carmen:
www.carmencauthen.com
www.researchandresource.com

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Unseen, unheard.
We've lived like that far toolong.
I'm Carmen Coffin and this isQuiet, no More.
Today I want to talk aboutwriting.
I have always liked to read.

(00:24):
I don't know that I alwaysliked to write, but that was
part of my job when I worked atthe legislature.
The first writing part was whenI was running the voting
equipment because I would takenotes.
I didn't realize at first thatthere were backup notes for the
lady who was writing the journalat the time, but they were and

(00:46):
I created my own sort ofshorthand and I'm writing
cursive because it's easier andquicker for me.
Although I know a lot, Ijournaled when I was a child.

(01:09):
I remember having diaries.
I don't know what we did withthem.
I remember having the littleone with the lock.
I don't know who I thought wasever going to open up my stuff
and read it.
I don't know if my brother everthought that that was something
that he should do as a littlebrother.
But writing is important Intoday's society.

(01:35):
I really realize how importantwriting and documenting things
is.
I am trying to document Blackhistory, not just on a Raleigh

(01:57):
city level, but of course that'svery important to me because
that's home.
But documenting what Blackpeople have done was written by
people who could read and writeand people who were doing that
to keep up with their economicstatus, and that was white men.
And so everybody else needs tobe writing and documenting their
own history and, starting withyourself, write your history.

(02:28):
Realized, as I've been planningthe Woman of Substance event is
how many women's activities werenot documented and we have to
kind of guess at what they did.
And part of that is because, aswomen, we are told that it's
kind of boastful to talk aboutwhat we do, to talk about who we
are and who we've been and ourexperiences.
It's not boastful for menunless they do it in a boastful

(02:49):
manner, but it's expected thatmen will share what they do.
That used to be the questionwhen you would meet a gentleman
and what do you do?
Well, I do lots of things.
I can't necessarily think totell you all of the things that
I do or that I've done, um, butthey're important.

(03:12):
Things Like I forgot for a longtime that I started the first
NAACP chapter at North CarolinaState University.
I don't know how manyiterations they've had of it,
but they had not had one when Iwas a student there in the late
70s and I started one Um and um,I started, uh, lots of things.

(03:38):
In fact, one of my friends fromcollege, when I said that I was
doing a podcast called quiet nomore, he said you were never
quiet.
Well, I'm being less quietbecause I have things to talk
about and things to share,things that I've done and things
that I want to encourage you todo, because you don't need to

(04:03):
be quiet when you're spreadinggood news.
That's what the gospel is.
Good news.
When you're spreading importantinformation, when you're
telling the truth of your life,your history, your people's
lives and history.
Those are not things we need tobe quiet about, and so for many
communities, the history istold in an oral fashion.

(04:26):
When it's told orally andthere's no documentation behind
it, people can come along, asthey're doing today, and wipe it
out and say, well, that's notimportant, that's not true,
that's, there's nothing to backthat up.
When that is not true, there isinformation, there are

(04:46):
documentations for so manythings, and they're in places
that we don't always think tolook.
We don't always think to look.
So when I was researching, whenI read in a census document that
a woman that I was researchingher occupation in 1870 was a

(05:08):
washerwoman, but she had bordersat her house.
So it wasn't just that she wasmaking money taking in washing,
she was also making money byrenting space out, renting rooms
to other people to live in herhome.
I don't know if she was cookingfor them, it doesn't say

(05:30):
anything about that.
But from most of the thingsthat I've read about stories
from the 1800s, when people wererenting rooms, it was room and
board.
There were not fast foodrestaurants for people to go and
eat at, so you would rent aroom and you would board there,

(05:51):
and so the board meant that youwere eating what was on their
table.
And it was interesting to mewhen I was researching this
young lady for the Woman ofSubstance event that not only
did she I don't know if sheowned the house, I don't
remember that, but I'm sure thatwas in the census record but

(06:13):
she took in washing, she rentedrooms and no doubt boarded, you
know, fixed the food for peopleto eat.
But one of her boarders was agentleman who became a Wake
County legislator during theReconstruction period.
Now you know, you would justassume that people who were in

(06:35):
the legislature, they had theirown place.
They were people of means, butnot necessarily so.
Maybe he had means after this,but Stuart Ellison rented a room
from a lady who was awasherwoman and that was how she
made her money, so that madeher an entrepreneur.

(06:56):
Who would consider that thatwas entrepreneurial at that time
?
But it was.
She was a businesswoman, and soI'm writing that down because
that's important.
That changes my wholeperception of what women did.
Searching and writing andresearching changed my

(07:17):
perception about a lot of things.
Writing down the history andwriting down where you got it
from that changes.
That changes all the thingsthat you know.
Sometimes the things you getare from people's oral history
interviews.
Sometimes the things that youget are from websites that you

(07:39):
didn't expect.
Sometimes the things that youget are pictures that you didn't
know existed.
Writing information down andmaking sure it's documented is
important.
I am so frustrated every time Ihear that there was another

(08:00):
executive order written wipingsomething out or making sure
that something is buried or lostor forgotten.
I'm not going to have that onmy watch Now.
I can't fix things that arehappening on a federal level,
but I can fix things that I knowabout.
I can record things after Iwrite them down and I can put

(08:24):
them places where other peoplecan see them.
I have a YouTube channel andI've never really publicized
that, but I'm going to startdoing that.
I'm going to start puttinginformation that is important
somewhere where I own it, whereit can be documented, where it
can be uploaded and other peoplecan see it.

(08:45):
You have information like thatabout your family.
You might not think it'simportant.
Like that about your family,you might not think it's
important, but consider thisMost of what we know about how
people who were enslaved weretreated in America comes from 17
volumes of information that waswritten during the 1930s as

(09:08):
part of the Works ProgressAdministration Act to hire
people who wrote, and there were17 states where people who had
been enslaved were interviewedand their pictures were taken
and they are in books and theyare in the Library of Congress

(09:29):
and nobody's going to go inthere and wipe out those books.
But those books have also beenprinted.
They're in all types ofdifferent spaces libraries and
bookstores and you might have afamily member in there that you
don't know anything about.
It is so, so very importantthat you document who you are,

(09:55):
who your parents were, what youdid what they did as far back as
you can.
You have some memories and youhave some people still around
who remember them.
You have some memories and youneed to go back and dig some
stuff up that you've done.
This is not a time to be quiet.

(10:15):
This is not a time to justboycott a store.
This is time to make sure thatyou document your part of
America's history, whetherthat's your personal part, your
immediate family part or goingback even further.
So those things that you thinkare not important, when you're

(10:38):
going through grandma's closetor the stuff that your mom left
you before you put them in thetrash, go through, record them,
write it down.
If you're with some elders,take your phone out, record what
they have to say and write itdown.
It's just important.

(10:59):
Our history is a combinedhistory of all people black,
white, male, female, asianimmigrant, male, female, asian
immigrant, whatever but thehistory of America is not the
history of white men and wecannot be quiet about that

(11:21):
anymore.
You've been listening to Quietno More, where I share my
journey.
So you can be quiet.
Let's connect at.