Profiles: Amelia Jackson

Saturday, December 24th, 2011

Photo by Bob Spencer

Amelia Jackson

Born 1927
Deland, Fla.

Lived in Rich Springs, S.C., and moved to Washington, D.C., in the late 1930s.

We didn’t have to worry about food or anything because everybody down South was neighborly like and everybody shared. When they killed hogs, they shared the meat. The white people down there, we didn’t know anything about that down there because their children played with us down there.

The women did beautiful sewing for children. They shared meats when they killed hogs and different things. We all shared like it was a big family.

I couldn’t have things like some of the children had, like Girl Scout things and all. Mother had to get the older ones, and I had to be last. I just thank God that I made it so far.

Interview by Michael Lawson

What Went Wrong

Donald Barlett and James Steele are revisiting America: What Went Wrong, their landmark 1991 newspaper series, in a new project with the Investigative Reporting Workshop. Over the next year, the project team will examine how four decades of public policy has shaped America's ongoing economic crisis.

Issues

Back Story

The authors talk about What Went Wrong

Donald Barlett and James Steele talk about the project, and why they decided to revisit a book they wrote two decades ago, in a series of video clips produced by the Workshop.

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Who pays the taxes?

We feature charts, maps, photos and other visualizations that reflect the state of the economy as part of our What Went Wrong project. This column chart shows the growing disparity between what individuals and corporations pay in taxes. In the 1950s, the difference was 22 percent. Recent figures show the difference is 62 percent.

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Read an Excerpt

America: What Went Wrong on Google Books

Check out the first chapter of Barlett and Steele's 1992 book here.