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Series 2: Interviews (continued)
Charles McLaurin oral history interview conducted by Emilye Crosby in Indianola, Mississippi, December 5, 2015
Digital content available
Biographical History: Charles McLaurin is a civil rights advocate, born in Jackson, Mississippi in 1939. He joined the Army Reserves in about 1955. He joined the civil rights movement in 1960, helped register voters, and served as Fannie Lou Hamer's campaign manager when she ran for Congress in 1964.
Summary: Charles McLaurin discusses his work as a Civil Rights activist in the 1950's and 60's. He begins by discussing the racism he experienced growing up and how this shaped his personal and political values. McLaurin mainly describes working with African American voter registration rights issues, SNCC, and the Freedom Riders. He describes how he became a congressional officer for a number of years in Mississippi, working closely with Fannie Lou Hamer as her congressional campaign manager. McLaurin describes his involvement in a range of Mississippi-based protests, as well as his experiences with the judicial system and his personal arrests.
Moving Images
14 video files (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (4:36:56) : digital, sound, color
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0121_mv01-14
Manuscripts
1 transcript (.pdf) : text file
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0121_ms01
Worth W. Long oral history interview conducted by Emilye Crosby in Jackson, Mississippi, December 6, 2015
Digital content available
Biographical History: Worth W. Long was born in 1936 in Durham, North Carolina. He joined the Air Force around 1953. In 1959, he was a student at Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Arkansas, he worked as a medic at the Little Rock Air Force base, served on the executive board of the Arkansas Council on Human Relations, and worked at Duke University Bale Research Lab in Durham, North Carolina. He became involved with organizing events in the civil rights movement as early as 1956, continuing through the 1960s, including participation in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). After the height of the civil rights movement, he was involved in folk music programming through the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Delta Blues Festival, Louisiana Zydeco Festival in South Carolina, Penn Center Heritage Festival in Florida, and Zora Neale Hurston Festival. In 1977 he was funded by the Ford Foundation Leadership and Development program to study folklife and community empowerment with Alan Lomax at Columbia University. He joined the Mississippi Cultural Crossroads Board in 1980.
Summary: Worth W. Long largely discusses experiences growing up in a household strongly connected to the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. Long discusses churches as important aspects of community building and as meeting spaces for the African American civil rights activists. He recalls personal experiences participating in protest and other forms of activism during the 1950's and 60's, including his participation with Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and other organizations involved in the Civil Rights Movement. He discusses some of his community-based political philosophies, and ends with a discussion of a powerful experience in the Kilby prison in Alabama.
Moving Images
15 video files (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (2:42:13) : digital, sound, color
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0122_mv01-15
Manuscripts
1 transcript (.pdf) : text file
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0122_ms01
Frankye Adams Johnson oral history interview conducted by Emilye Crosby in Jackson, Mississippi, December 6, 2015
Digital content available
Biographical History: Frankye Adams-Johnson was born in Pocahontas, Mississippi to a family of sharecroppers. As a teenager in Jackson, Mississippi, she participated in the NAACP, COFO, and SNCC as a youth organizer and was heavily involved in the Jackson civil rights movement in 1963. In 1964, she enrolled at Tougaloo College where she continued to be involved in civil rights demonstrations. After moving to New York in 1967, she co-organized the White Plains branch of the Black Panther Party. Adams-Johnson became a college professor in the 1980s, and returned to Jackson from New York in the late 1990s.
Summary: Frankye Adams-Johnson recalls her involvement as a Civil Rights activist in the Jackson Movement. While a student at Tougaloo College she became involved with SNCC, the Freedom Riders and the March on Washington. Placing emphasis on the themes of racial consciousness, gender and violence, she traces the evolution of her political role, concluding with her involvement in the Black Panther Party.
Moving Images
4 video files (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (1:27:28) : digital, sound, color
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0123_mv01-04
Manuscripts
1 transcript (.pdf) : text file
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0123_ms01
Betty Garman Robinson oral history interview conducted by Emilye Crosby in Baltimore, Maryland, December 8, 2015
Digital content available
Biographical History: Betty Garman Robinson was born on January 8, 1939 in New York City. She enrolled in Skidmore College in 1956 and became involved with NSA and attending National Student Congress meetings. In 1960 she became the assistant vice-president of the NSA, organizing the National Student Congress for the following summer where she first met members from the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). In the fall of 1961 she attended graduate school to study Political Science in Berkeley, California. In November of 1963 she attended the Howard Conference in Washington, DC and was recruited to join SNCC, leaving graduate school for a position with the organization. Robinson then went to Mississippi for Freedom Summer in 1964 and became the Northern Coordinator in the Greenwood Office. In 1965, she moved to Washington, DC was involved in the Free DC Movement and the Bus Boycotts, and later the anti-war movement and women's movement of the 1970's. She is currently involved in Showing Up For Racial Justice (SURJ), an organization in Baltimore that is committed to fighting structural inequity and racial injustice.
Summary: Betty Garman Robinson shares her experience in the Civil Rights Movement. She discusses her early involvement with the National Student Association (NSA) and the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), before joining the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1963. Of her many roles, she recalls serving as a Northern Coordinator in Greenwood, Mississippi during Freedom Summer 1964 and her later efforts that focused on bringing federal programs into southern communities. She discusses the role of women in SNCC and emphasizes the openness the organization had to women taking initiative and the impact it had on her activism. Shedding light on the on the inner organizational tensions of interracial relationships, the attitudes of white communities, and her navigation of "white privilege" she offers a unique perspective on the experience of role of white women in the Civil Rights Movement.
Moving Images
10 video files (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (2:44:05) : digital, sound, color
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0124_mv01-10
Manuscripts
1 transcript (.pdf) : text file
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0124_ms01
Dorothy Zellner oral history interview conducted by Emilye Crosby in Baltimore, Maryland, December 8, 2015
Digital content available
Biographical History: Dorothy "Dottie" Zellner was born on January 14th, 1938 in New York City. She joined the NAACP in high school, and later went to Miami, Florida to enroll in a CORE workshop, training in non-violent organizing. Under CORE, she moved to New Orleans and was involved with "casing" sites for sit-ins and outreach to the white community. Dotty left CORE and was hired by the Southern Regional Council and moved to Atlanta in June of 1961. Later that year, she became involved with SNCC, organizing a Civil Liberties Workshop in the spring of 1963, and later marrying her husband Bob Zellner the following August. In 1964 she moved to Boston with her husband forming a Northeast Regional Office of SNCC while recruiting and interviewing prospective volunteers for the Freedom Summer Project. In 1965, Dottie had a daughter, and moved back to Atlanta with her new child and husband. She and her husband wrote a Grassroots Organizing Work (GROW) proposal to SNCC, to stay a part of the organization. She later moved to New Orleans to work with Anne and Carl Braden of the Southern Conference Education Fund (SCEF) for five years. Zellner worked as a nurse for several years before joining the Center for Constitutional Rights in 1984. In 1998, she became director of publications and development for the Queens College School of Law. She lectures and writes frequently about the civil rights movement and co-edited Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC. As of 2014, she is involved in advocacy work on behalf of Palestinians
Summary: Dorothy Zellner reflects on her experience as one of the early organizers in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Offering a unique perspective as a white woman in a black-led organization, she sheds light on the dynamics of race and gender in the Civil Rights Movement. Detailing the efforts of her and her then husband Bob Zellner, she discusses her involvement in organizing civil liberties workshops, forming a Northeast Regional Office of SNCC, and her role in recruiting Northern volunteers for the 1964 Freedom Summer Project. She discusses SNCC's decision to exclude white workers by the late 1960s and reflects on the complexities of this consensus. Emphasizing how SNCC was dynamic in its ability to function as a non-racial community, she considers its deterioration an endured loss for American society. She continues to pride SNCC as her life's work, to this day.
Moving Images
21 video files (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (3:03:01) : digital, sound, color
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0125_mv01-21
Manuscripts
1 transcript (.pdf) : text file
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0125_ms01
Timothy Jenkins oral history interview conducted by Emilye Crosby in Washington, DC, District of Columbia, December 9, 2015
Digital content available
Biographical History: Timothy Jenkins was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on December 30, 1938, and was raised in a family invested in education. He received full tuition funding from a scholarship to Howard University in 1956. He stayed connected to the university after he graduated through his position as the National Affairs Vice President for the United States National Student Association. This position is also how he got involved with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He later went to law school at Yale, which was integral to his contributions to the Civil Rights Movement. Jenkins' role in the SNCC summer meeting of 1961 was particularly important in deciding to create Freedom Schools. He also attended and helped organize the Greenwood Folk Festival, and other folk festivals. He continues his involvement with law and racial justice.
Summary: Timothy Jones discusses his personal experiences growing up in Philadelphia and in particular his experiences in integrated school. He describes at length his experience attending Howard University, and why Howard was so important to the Civil Rights Movement. He describes how he became a lawyer, and his political involvement with the Civil Rights Movement as an African American lawyer. Jenkins discusses some of the nuances of the political climate of the 1960s, and how that influenced SNCC's decision-making process. Jenkins concludes the interview by recalling the three events that he felt he directly affected the course of history.
Moving Images
6 video files (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (02:20:40) : digital, sound, color
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0126_mv01-06
Manuscripts
1 transcript (.pdf) : text file
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0126_ms01
Judy Richardson oral history interview conducted by Emilye Crosby in Silver Spring, Maryland, December 9, 2015
Digital content available
Biographical History: Judy Richardson was born on March 10, 1944, in Tarrytown, New York. In 1962 she was one of eight black students accepted into Swarthmore College and was involved with the Students for Democratic Society's (SDS) chapter named the Swarthmore Political Action Committee (SPAC). From 1963 to 1965, she held various positions with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), including moving around the country for demonstrations, executive secretarial duties, and proposing Residential Freedom Schools. She left work to attend Columbia University in New York City, and eventually worked with Drum and Spear Bookstore in Washington, DC. She was involved in the production of the documentary Eyes on the Prize and works with the SNCC Legacy Project at Duke University.
Summary: Judy Richardson was born on March 10, 1944. As one of eight black students accepted into Swarthmore College in 1962, she recalls her initial involvement in the Civil Rights Movement, attending mass meetings and participating in freedom rides in the Cambridge, Maryland Movement. She discusses her decision to join the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), where she served as a secretary for then executive secretary, Jim Forman. She recalls her involvement with Freedom Summer 1964 and her proposal to organize a SNCC Residential Freedom School in 1965. After leaving SNCC, she discusses her involvement with Julian Bond's all-black political party in Lowndes County where she served as a temporary head of communications. She discusses her later community organizing efforts in Washington, DC and her current involvement with the SNCC Legacy Project at Duke University.
Moving Images
13 video files (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (03:37:49) : digital, sound, color
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0127_mv01-13
Manuscripts
1 transcript (.pdf) : text file
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0127_ms01
Juadine Henderson oral history interview conducted by Emilye Crosby in Washington, DC, District of Columbia, December 3, 2015
Digital content available
Biographical History: Juadine Henderson was born in Batesville, Mississippi and attended church regularly growing up. She learned about the NAACP, SNCC, and the Freedom Songs through her church. In June of 1963 she went to Greenwood, Mississippi with John Smith of SNCC to attend a one week voter registration workshop, and shortly after decided to join the movement and began work with voter registration programs. Henderson was arrested on multiple occasions because of her involvement with the Civil Rights Movement. She attended Bishop College, George Washington University, and Columbia University at different points in her life. She eventually moved to Washington DC, first working with Drum and Spear bookstore, and then became a journalist; a career she held for twenty eight years.
Summary: Juadine Henderson recalls her initial interaction with Frank Smith, a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1963, and his influence on her decision to attend a voter registration workshop in Greenswood, Mississippi. She discusses how exposure to the movement was instrumental to her later decisions to become involved with the Freedom Labor Union, work on voter registration projects on plantations throughout Mississippi and attend the Poor People's Campaign in Washington, DC. She discusses her multiple arrests, participation in movement activities, and how the role of the church, freedom songs, and "black beauty" served as empowering symbols to affirming her identity as a black woman in the movement.
Moving Images
8 video files (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (02:29:28) : digital, sound, color
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0128_mv01-08
Manuscripts
1 transcript (.pdf) : text file
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0128_ms01
Freddie Greene Biddle oral history interview conducted by Emilye Crosby in Washington, DC, District of Columbia, December 10, 2015
Digital content available
Biographical History: Freddie Greene was born in was born in Greenwood, Mississippi on February 15, 1945 where she experienced firsthand segregation. She attended mass meetings in 1962 when SNCC came to Greenwood, Mississippi and was involved with the organizing efforts for the discontinuation of food being sent to Leflore County. Later on, Greene went to Dillard University in New Orleans where she became involved with Tulane University's Student Group and met Cathy Cage. Greene went to McComb, Mississippi during Freedom Summer 1964 and attended the National Democratic Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey. She left Dillard University to continue her work with voter registration for African Americans. She was arrested for her demonstration efforts. She later moved to Atlanta, Georgia to work in the SNCC office and was involved with the switchboard and financing. In the summer of 1968, Freddie left SNCC and moved to Washington, D.C, where she started working with the United Neighborhood Youth Program.
Summary: Freddie Greene was born in Greenwood, Mississippi on February 15, 1945. She discusses how living in a segregated community exposed her to the early efforts of the Civil Rights Movement. She reflects on her decision to leave Greenwood and attend Dillard University in New Orleans in 1962. Feeling disconnected with the movement, she became a participant in the McComb project during Freedom Summer 1964. After returning to school post-Freedom Summer, she decided to leave and joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in 1965. She discusses her involvement working on voting registration and canvassing, as well as her role of working on the switchboard and in finance in SNCC's Atlanta Office.
Moving Images
6 video files (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (01:36:06) : digital, sound, color
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0129_mv01-06
Manuscripts
1 transcript (.pdf) : text file
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0129_ms01
Reginald Robinson oral history interview conducted by Emilye Crosby in Washington, District of Columbia, December 11, 2015
Digital content available
Biographical History: Reginald Robinson was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1939. After leaving high school during the eleventh grade to work, he eventually attended Cortez Peters Business College, where he first got involved in civil rights through the student organization, Civic Interest Group. He quickly became involved with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1961. Working for SNCC as a field secretary, his duties focused on supporting voter registration in McComb, Mississippi and Cambridge, Maryland. After SNCC, he worked multiple jobs around the country before finally settling in Washington, DC, where he eventually retired in 2001.
Summary: Reginald "Reg" Robinson shares his experience of working for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and how he became known as an "advance man" throughout the Civil Rights Movement. Beginning with his involvement with the student-led Civic Interest Group in Baltimore, Maryland, he discusses how his involvement with the Cambridge Movement led him to becoming a field secretary for SNCC. He recalls how Voter Education Programs and various recruitment activities of SNCC epitomized the rule of "building and growing" and prides himself for remaining committed to ensuring civil rights today.
Moving Images
10 video files (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (03:26:30) : digital, sound, color
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0130_mv01-10
Manuscripts
1 transcript (.pdf) : text file
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0130_ms01
Jennifer Lawson oral history interview conducted by Emilye Crosby in Washington, DC, District of Columbia, December 11, 2015
Digital content available
Biographical History: Jennifer Lawson was born in June of 1946, in Fairfield, Alabama and encountered racial segregation as a young child. Lawson later attended Tuskegee College. In the summer of 1963 she moved to New York City to pursue an internship at Sloan Kettering Center and in the summer of 1964 pursued a Research Aide role, meanwhile attending demonstrations to protest Martin Luther King in Birmingham Jail. While at Tuskegee she was involved with the student group that worked on desegregating Macon County and mobilizing voting registration. After Freedom Summer 1964, she went to Jackson, Mississippi to work on voter registration, and later left school in the Spring of 1966 to join SNCC and work in Wilcox County. After she left SNCC, she worked at the National Council of Negro Women and worked with Dorothy Height and Fanny Lou Hamer. She was involved with designing the symbol of the Black Panther for the Lowndes County Party, and created political education material through art. Lawson was elected to the central coordinating committee of SNCC, and then moved to Atlanta. At the time when SNCC began to adopt racial separatism, she left the organization. She attended Columbia University to pursue art in formal education, and studied film, working in public television for the last thirty years. Lawson is active in volunteering with the SNCC Legacy Project today.
Summary: Jennifer Lawson shares her experience throughout the Civil Rights Movement. She discusses her decision to leave college to join the movement, and her involvement with voter registration activities in Mississippi. She joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1966 and was elected to the organization's central coordinating committee. She shares her role in designing the Black Panther symbol and campaign materials for the Lowndes Country Freedom Organization (later the Black Panther Party). She reflects on the issues surrounding racial separatism and her decision to leave organizational efforts in search of other activist work, including joining the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW). She recalls going to Cuba and being involved with art programs that celebrated African and Cuban heritage and moved to Tanzania from 1970-1972 and became part of a writer's group with Walter Rodney. She later attended Columbia University to merge her interest in civil rights activism and art, and pursued a film degree.
Moving Images
17 video files (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (4:09:19) : digital, sound, color
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0131_mv01-17
Manuscripts
1 transcript (.pdf) : text file
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0131_ms01
Dion Diamond oral history interview conducted by David Cline in Washington, District of Columbia, December 13, 2015
Digital content available
Biographical History: Dion Diamond was born in Petersburg, Virginia in 1941. Growing up in the segregated community of Petersburg, he began doing sit-ins, often by himself. He enrolled in Howard University in 1959, where he was a founding member of Nonviolent Action Group, staging protests at Glen Echo, Maryland and Arlington, Virginia. He also was a part of the Freedom Riders and was a field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Mississippi and Louisiana from 1961 to 1963. During this time, he was arrested over 30 times. He later attended the University of Wisconsin and earned a graduate degree from Harvard University.
Summary: Dion Diamond discusses his activism and experiences during the Civil Rights Movement. He remembers growing up in segregated Petersburg, Virginia, and attending Howard University, where he began organizing for civil rights. He also recalls his work in Mississippi and Louisiana as a Freedom Rider and activist, his studies at University of Wisconsin and Harvard University, and his later career. Finally, he speaks about contemporary activism and rights issues.
Moving Images
7 video files (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (1:34:38) : digital, sound, color
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0132_mv01-07
Manuscripts
1 transcript (.pdf) : text file
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0132_ms01
Joseph Howell and Embry Howell oral history interview conducted by David Cline in Washington, District of Columbia, December 13, 2015
Digital content available
Biographical History: Embry Howell was born in 1945 in Bethesda, Maryland. She grew up in Davidson, North Carolina and attended Davidson College before transferring to Barnard College. She later attended graduate school at the University of North Carolina. She earned a Ph.D. in Public Policy from George Washington University. She has had a long career as a health policy researcher, primarily at the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C. She worked for SNCC in Southwest Georgia during the summer of 1966.
Biographical History: Joseph Howell was born in 1942 in the suburb of Belle Meade in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1964 while a student Davidson College, he organized a civil rights march in Charlotte. He went on to attend Union Theological Seminary and the University of North Carolina where he earned a planning degree. He worked for SNCC in Southwest Georgia during the summer of 1966. He is the author of Civil Rights Journey : The Story of a White Southerner Coming of Age during the Civil Rights Revolution (2011) which details his experience working with the civil rights movement.
Summary: Joseph and Embry Howell recall the summer of 1966 in Southern Georgia. Recruited by Charlie Sherrod of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) they discuss the complexities they encountered from embodying a white identity, most significantly through their experience of living with a black family in the South. They emphasize how changing racial perception and power influenced a shift in SNCC's tactic of nonviolence, ultimately leading to greater forms of militancy under ideologies of Black Power. In spite of the complicated nature of navigating racial tension, they remained committed to working with voting registration activities, organizing efforts, and the Head Start program and were guided by the belief of helping others.
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