Oral history interview with Dera Tompkins
Object Details
- General
- Associated documentation for this interview is available in the Anacostia Community Museum Archives.
- Title created by ACMA staff using text written on sound cassette, contents of audio recording, textual transcript, and/or associated archival documentation.
- Names
- District of Columbia. Police Department
- Howard University
- Carmichael, Stokely, 1941-1998
- Garvey, Marcus, 1887-1940
- Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia, 1892-1975
- King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968
- Marley, Bob
- Mutabaruka, 1952-
- Tompkins, Dera
- X, Malcolm, 1925-1965
- Collection Creator
- Smithsonian Institution. Anacostia Community Museum
- Place
- Boston (Mass.)
- Jamaica
- Washington (D.C.)
- Topic
- African Americans
- African American women
- Caribbeans
- Rastafarians
- Manners and customs
- Rastafari movement
- Reggae music
- Dancehall (Music)
- Dreadlocks
- marijuana
- Civil rights movements
- Racism
- Pan-Africanism
- Police
- Drug control
- Interviews
- Culture
- Jamaicans
- Trinidadians
- See more items in
- Black Mosaic: Community, Race, and Ethnicity among Black Immigrants in Washington, D. C. Exhibition Records
- Black Mosaic: Community, Race, and Ethnicity among Black Immigrants in Washington, D. C. Exhibition Records / Series 3: Oral History Interviews
- Sponsor
- Funding for partial processing of the collection was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund (CCPF).
- Extent
- 3 Digital files
- 2 Sound cassettes
- Date
- 1992 December 09
- Archival Repository
- Anacostia Community Museum Archives
- Type
- Archival materials
- Digital files
- Sound cassettes
- Citation
- Black Mosaic: Community, Race, and Ethnicity among Black Immigrants in Washington, D. C. exhibition records, Anacostia Community Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
- Collection Rights
- Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
- Note
- The total playing time of interview recording is approximately 2 hours.
- Scope and Contents
- Dera Tompkins spoke about her parents, including their work, role in the home, and political life; her childhood, growing up in Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, with her own personality and vision; her siblings; the disciplinarian in her family; her elementary and high school experience; her religious background; family history, including the origin of her family name, Carrington; racism in Boston, Massachusetts; and growing up in a community of activists and her involvement in the Civil Rights movement. Tompkins explained her progression from civil rights to the Rastafarian movement. She spoke about her educational experience at Howard University, including studying parenting and the roots of Black English, specifics about her professors, her ignorance at the time, and learning about the Trinidadian community. Tompkins also spoke about learning about Jamaica from Stokely Carmichael; visits to Jamaica, including conversations with Mutabaruka and visiting Mutabaruka's house; learning about Rastafarianism from Mutabaruka and how to balance Rastafarianism with her Black US experience; and looking at the bible through African eyes. She explained parts of the Rastafarian doctrine, her family's and friends' reaction to her transition to Rastafarianism, the positives and negatives of Rastafarianism, the impact of Rastafarianism on the hip hop movement, her adjustments to food as a Rasta, and fighting stereotypes about Rastafarians. Tompkins also spoke about the legacy of Marcus Garvey, Bob Marley, socialism, Pan-Africanism, dreadlocks, Haile Selassie, marijuana, reggae music, dancehall music, and her role after the Washington, DC police department executed Operation Caribbean Cruise in 1986. Interview is in English. Digital audio files include loud white noise and static, some sound distortions / voices distorted, and a few instances of background noise. Interviewee can be heard and voices are intelligible for most of the interview.
- Collection Restrictions
- Use of the materials requires an appointment. Please contact the archivist to make an appointment: ACMarchives@si.edu.
- Record ID
- ebl-1712088000981-1712088003352-1
- Metadata Usage
- CC0