Restrictions to Access

Access to audio materials may require production of listening copies.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Portia Crawford Collection of African American Folk Songs from North Carolina #20154, Southern Folklife Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Acquisitions information unknown (Acc. 20201207.1).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: Anne Wells and Meredith Kite, November 2020

Encoded by: Anne Wells, November 2020

Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

Archival processing of the Portia Crawford Collection was made possible through a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• African Americans--North Carolina--Music.
• Children's songs--North Carolina.
• Crawford, Portia.
• Folk music--North Carolina.
• Folk songs, English--North Carolina.
• Spirituals (Songs)--North Carolina.

• Southern Folklife Collection Field Notes #30025
• Portia Naomi Crawford, "A study of Negro folk songs from Greensboro, North Carolina and surrounding towns" (C378 UO2 1966)

Portia Naomi Jenkins Crawford, of Greensboro, N.C., was an instructor, music researcher, and musician. She received her bachelor's degree in English and Foreign Languages from Atlanta University, a second bachelor's degree in Music from Syracuse University in 1943, and her master's degree in Musicology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1965. Her master's thesis is titled "A Study of Negro Folk Songs from Greensboro, North Carolina and Surrounding Towns," copies of which can be found at UNC's University Libraries. She also studied organ and church music at the University of Colorado in Boulder. She taught at Mary Allen Jr. College in Crockett, Tex., Washington High School in Reidsville, N.C., Spelman College in Atlanta, Ga., and at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro, N.C. She also served as the organist and director of music at Union Memorial United Methodist Church.

Biographical information found in "North Carolina Folklore Journal," Volume 16, Number 2 (October 1968) and in Crawford's obituary as published in the Greensboro News & Record on 15 May 2005.

Audio recording of African American folk songs from North Carolina submitted by Portia Crawford with her 1965 master's thesis, "A Study of Negro Folk Songs from Greensboro, N.C. and Surrounding Towns." Portia Crawford, a Black instructor, music researcher, and musician of Greensboro, N.C., originally made the recordings from 1960 to 1963 on audiodisc. The collection contains copies of these recordings on 1/4" open reel audio, as well as supporting documentation. Audio recordings contain mostly unaccompanied singing by African American vocalists, including Joe Goodman of Reidsville, N.C., Harvey Reaves of Greensboro, N.C., Leon Becton, Margaret Becton, Beverly Green, Diane Holman, and Johnny Workman, among others, all from Greensboro, N.C. and surrounding towns.. The vocalists range from age 10 to 106, including a formerly enslaved person, Dory Boyd. Types of songs performed include spirituals and children's songs. The collection also contains supporting documentation, including a Southern Folklife Collection (SFC) field collection cover sheet and tape logs prepared by former SFC staff.

• Audiotape (FT-1319)
• Field Notes (Folder 570), Southern Folklife Collection Field Notes #30025