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Series 2: Interviews (continued)
Johnnie Ruth McCullar oral history interview conducted by Hasan Kwame Jeffries in Albany, Georgia, March 9, 2013
Digital content available
Biographical History: Johnnie Ruth McCullar was a civil rights activist with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Terrell County, Georgia. She also worked as a certified nursing assistant and paraprofessional teacher.
Summary: Johnnie Ruth Browner McCullar describes growing up in southwest Georgia, attending segregated schools in Sasser, Georgia, and her work in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. She was a secretary of the Terrell County Movement and she also participated in sit-ins and helped to register voters. McCullar reflects on the legacy of the movement, noting the changes in social and political life that she has witnessed during her life, but also recognizing present-day challenges.
Moving Images
2 video files of 2 (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (62 min.) : digital, sound, color
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0065_mv01-02
Manuscripts
1 transcript (36 pages)
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0065_McCullar_transcript
Sam Young, Jr., oral history interview conducted by Will Griffin in Albany, Georgia, March 9, 2013
Digital content available
Biographical History: Sam Young, Jr., worked as a civil rights activist with the Southwest Georgia Project and also as a printer and farmer.
Summary: Samuel J. Young, Jr., describes his childhood in Worth County, Georgia, during the 1950s. He recalls the racial violence that he witnessed and heard stories about as a child. After graduating high school he joined the Southwest Georgia Project. He helped to start a newspaper for the project and was also involved in the group's initiative to develop a self-sufficient farm to counteract discrimination against black farmers.
Moving Images
2 video files of 2 (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (42 min.) : digital, sound, color
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0066_mv01-02
Manuscripts
1 transcript (25 pages)
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0066_Young_transcript
Grace Miller oral history interview conducted by Will Griffin in Albany, Georgia, March 9, 2013
Digital content available
Biographical History: Grace Hall Miller was a homemaker in Baker County, Georgia. She was a civil rights activist and became a member of the Baker County Board of Education.
Summary: Grace Hall Miller (mother of activist Shirley Sherrod) describes her childhood in Baker County, Georgia, her education in segregated schools, her marriage to Hosie Miller, and their early involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. Grace Hall Miller's commitment to the Baker County Movement grew following the murder of her husband by a white neighbor in 1965. She describes how her house became headquarters for the local movement and how the community rallied to support her and her children. Miller's children were among the black students who integrated white schools, and because of their experience, she dedicated much of her life to improving education.
Moving Images
5 video files of 5 (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (54 min.) : digital, sound, color
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0067_mv01-05
Manuscripts
1 transcript (38 pages)
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0067_Miller_transcript
Louise Broadway oral history interview conducted by Will Griffin in Albany, Georgia, March 9, 2013
Digital content available
Biographical History: Louise Broadway was a civil rights activist in Baker County, Georgia, and also worked as a doctor's assistant.
Summary: Louise Willingham Broadway shares her experiences of segregated education in Baker County, Georgia, and she discusses the lessons that her parents taught her when she was a child. Broadway describes her experiences as a mother sending her daughter to an all-white school. She also describes her involvement in the Baker County Movement, especially her work for a doctor who treated Freedom Riders.
Moving Images
2 video files of 2 (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (34 min.) : digital, sound, color
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0068_mv01-02
Manuscripts
1 transcript (21 pages)
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0068_Broadway_transcript
Mary Jenkins oral history interview conducted by Will Griffin in Albany, Georgia, March 9, 2013
Digital content available
Biographical History: Mary Jenkins was a civil rights activist in Albany, Georgia. She attended Fisk University and Georgia State University and worked as a teacher. She is the author of Open Dem Cells: A Pictoral History of the Albany Movement.
Summary: Mary Jenkins describes Albany, Georgia, during her childhood and discusses moments when she encountered racial prejudice. She describes her education in all-black schools, her decision to attend Fisk University, and her longing to become a teacher. Around the time of Brown v. Board of Education, she began teaching in Georgia and witnessed negative reactions of white administrators to the decision. Jenkins describes her decision to join the Albany Movement, and she shares memories of working with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Moving Images
5 video files of 5 (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (41 min.) : digital, sound, color
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0069_mv01-05
Manuscripts
1 transcript (24 pages)
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0069_Jenkins_transcript
Mary Jones oral history interview conducted by Will Griffin in Albany, Georgia, March 9, 2013
Digital content available
Biographical History: Mary Jones was a civil rights activist in Albany, Georgia, and also worked as a teacher.
Summary: Mary Jones describes her childhood in Albany, Georgia, including the work she did as a child and her memories of school. Jones discusses learning about the Civil Rights Movement by reading the newspaper, and she describes her children's experiences as they entered white schools. After she joined the Albany Movement, she helped to register voters, participated in marches and boycotts, and joined the police committee to recruit African American police officers. She closes the interview by discussing the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement.
Moving Images
2 video files of 2 (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (52 min.) : digital, sound, color
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0070_mv01-02
Manuscripts
1 transcript (34 pages)
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0070_Jones_transcript
Walter Bruce oral history interview conducted by John Dittmer in Durant, Mississippi, March 11, 2013
Digital content available
Biographical History: Walter Bruce was a civil rights activist in Mississippi. He also worked as a carpenter and gospel singer with the Soul Travelers.
Summary: Walter Bruce shares memories of his childhood in Durant, Mississippi, where his family sharecropped. As a young man he became a carpenter and also a gospel singer. He describes his early involvement in the Civil Rights Movement, including his participation in Mississippi Freedom Summer. Bruce was involved in community and political organizing throughout the 1960s, from helping to start health clinics and participating in the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to his involvement in sit-ins and marches. Bruce also discusses the process of choosing and running black candidates for political office in the 1960s.
Moving Images
9 video files of 9 (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (85 min.) : digital, sound, color
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0071_mv01-09
Manuscripts
1 transcript (50 pages)
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0071_Bruce_transcript
Euvester Simpson oral history interview conducted by John Dittmer in Jackson, Mississippi, March 12, 2013
Digital content available
Biographical History: Euvester Simpson attended Tougaloo College and Millsaps College and was a civil rights activist in Mississippi with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). She later worked as a legal secretary, program administrator and business owner.
Summary: Euvester Simpson discusses her childhood in Itta Bena, Mississippi, and she describes her parents' decision to send her to Racine, Wisconsin, to attend high school because they were fed up with segregated public schools in Mississippi. For her last year of high school, Simpson returned to Mississippi, and she became active in the Civil Rights Movement. She describes attending a citizenship school in Charleston, South Carolina, going to mass meetings, and being arrested with a group of women, including Fannie Lou Hamer. She also discusses her involvement in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Council of Federated Organizations, and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Simpson ends the interview by discussing the legacy of the movement.
Moving Images
7 video files of 7 (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (95 min.) : digital, sound, color
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0072_mv01-07
Manuscripts
1 transcript (49 pages)
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0072_Simpson_transcript
Julia Matilda Burns oral history interview conducted by John Dittmer in Tchula, Mississippi, March 13, 2013
Digital content available
Biographical History: Matilda Julia Burns was a school teacher and civil rights activist in Mississippi.
Summary: Julia Matilda Burns describes her experience in segregated schools in Humphreys County, Mississippi, where she grew up. After becoming a teacher at Marshall High School in Belzoni, Mississippi, she began to take notice of the Civil Rights Movement, but her involvement was limited because she did not want to lose her job. Burns describes protests by whites against school desegregation in Tchula, Mississippi, and her experiences as a teacher in Tchula. She also discusses her successful election for a position on the school board and the work she accomplished during her tenure.
Moving Images
2 video files of 2 (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (55 min.) : digital, sound, color
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0073_mv01-02
Manuscripts
1 transcript (40 pages)
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0073_Burns_transcript
Rosie Head oral history interview conducted by John Dittmer in Tchula, Mississippi, March 13, 2013
Digital content available
Biographical History: Rosie Head Howze was a civil rights activist in Mississippi. She worked in many different roles providing community services for children.
Summary: Rosie Head describes her early life in Greenwood, Mississippi, where her family lived and worked on a plantation. She discusses how her parents faced racial discrimination in their work and how they were cheated by the plantation owner and then blacklisted. In 1964, Head joined the Civil Rights Movement in Tchula, Mississippi, where her family had relocated. Head recounts the various ways she was involved in the movement: registering voters, working with Freedom Summer volunteers, helping to establish the Child Development Group of Mississippi, and campaigning for black candidates for political office.
Moving Images
7 video files of 7 (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (79 min.) : digital, sound, color
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0074_mv01-07
Manuscripts
1 transcript (43 pages)
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0074_Head_transcript
Robert G. Clark, Jr., oral history interview conducted by John Dittmer in Pickens, Mississippi, March 13, 2013
Digital content available
Biographical History: The Honorable Robert G. Clark, Jr., is one of the many African American politicians who were elected to state legislatures following the Voting Rights Act of 1964. He was the first black representative elected to the Mississippi State House since the late 19th century, the first African American to serve as a committee chair in the Mississippi House and in 2004, the became the first African American to have a Mississippi state building named in his honor. He served as Speaker Pro Tempore from 1992 to 2003, when he retired as the longest serving representative.
Summary: Robert G. Clark, Jr., describes the early life experiences that led up to his successful campaign for political office in the Mississippi Legislature, where he became the first African American elected since Reconstruction. He discusses his childhood in Pickens, Mississippi, and he describes the family farm that he now owns, his relationship to his family, and the expectations that they had of him to receive an education. Clark discusses his career as an educator, and he describes how the Civil Rights Movement influenced him. After a failed campaign for school superintendent he volunteered to run for state office. Clark describes his experiences in the Mississippi Legislature, focusing on how he helped to pass the Education Reform Act.
Moving Images
8 video files of 8 (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (118 min.) : digital, sound, color
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0075_mv01-08
Manuscripts
1 transcript (53 pages)
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0075_Clark_transcript
H. Jack Geiger oral history interview conducted by John Dittmer in New York, New York, March 16, 2013
Digital content available
Biographical History: Dr. Jack Geiger became active in the civil rights movement in the 1950s. He helped black medical students obtain admission to the University of Chicago. He also established the first Office of Economic Opportunity health centers in Mound Bayou and Boston.
Summary: Dr. Jack Geiger discusses his early life experiences and how he came to be a leading figure in the Medical Committee for Human Rights. He describes his childhood in New York City, where he found a mentor in actor Canada Lee, his college experience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his time as a U.S. Merchant Marine. He discusses his involvement in the Commission for Racial Equality and the American Veterans Committee in Chicago during the late 1940s. While attending medical school at Case Western Reserve University, Geiger's interest in community-centered health grew, especially after a trip to South Africa. He eventually volunteered as a medical professional in Mississippi, where he helped to establish the Tufts-Delta Health Center in 1965.
Moving Images
10 video files of 10 (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (212 min.) : digital, sound, color
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0076_mv01-10
Manuscripts
1 transcript (73 pages)
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0076_Geiger_transcript
Ben Caldwell oral history interview conducted by David P. Cline in Los Angeles, California, April 11, 2013
Digital content available
Biographical History: Ben Caldwell was a Vietnam veteran, artist and filmmaker. He was a member of the L.A. Rebellion and the founder of the KAOS Network, a community arts center, in Los Angeles, California.
Summary: Ben Caldwell shares his family's history in the Southwest and his childhood experience in New Mexico. Caldwell describes his military service during the Vietnam War and how his experiences made him reflect on racial prejudices in the United States. He began studying art, and he eventually moved to Los Angeles, where he has been part of a black arts movement since the 1970s. He discusses the L.A. Rebellion, a collective of black filmmakers from UCLA, as well as various art projects in which he has been involved and documentary films he has produced.
Moving Images
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