Oral history interview with Dorothy Baker
Object Details
- General
- Associated documentation, including partial transcripts, for this interview is available in the Anacostia Community Museum Archives. The textual transcripts are not verbatim of the audio recordings.
- Title created by ACMA staff using text written on sound cassette, contents of audio recording, textual transcript, and/or associated archival documentation.
- Names
- Baker, Dorothy
- Collection Creator
- Smithsonian Institution. Anacostia Community Museum
- Place
- Jamaica
- Washington (D.C.)
- United States
- Topic
- African Americans
- African American women
- Rastafarians
- Rastafari movement
- Interviews
- 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
- 2 Digital files
- 1 Sound cassette
- Date
- 1994 March 07
- 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 55 minutes.
- Scope and Contents
- Dorothy Baker spoke extensively about Rastafari, including her introduction to Rastafari, her locked hair, and raising her children with the Rastafari way of life. She explained how Rastafari is a way of life, not a religion or a cult; how Rastafari is based on Ethiopian Orthodox Church and the different sects of Rastafari; the differences between Rastafari in Jamaica and Rastafari in the United States; how Jamaicans and Americans view Rasta men and women; her family's reaction to Rastafari; and her children's challenges in school. Baker briefly spoke about her parents, growing up in Virginia and New Jersey, her work with Africare House, her husband who was born in Jamaica and grew up in the Bronx, New York City, and her desire to document Rastafari through film, which she studied at Howard University. Dorothy Baker was interviewed at the Africare House in northwest Washington, DC. Interview is in English. Carrington Lloyd Buddoo's interview follows the conclusion of Baker's interview on ACMA_AV002379_B. Digital audio files include white noise and static, and some background noise; interviewee can be heard clearly for the most part.
- Collection Restrictions
- Use of the materials requires an appointment. Please contact the archivist to make an appointment: ACMarchives@si.edu.
- Record ID
- ebl-1712088000981-1712088003354-1
- Metadata Usage
- CC0