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Series 2: Interviews (continued)
Clarence B. Jones oral history interview conducted by David P. Cline in Palo Alto, California, April 15, 2013
Digital content available
Biographical History: Dr. Clarence B. Jones attended Columbia University and Boston University school of Law. He was a former personal counsel, advisor, draft speech writer, and close friend of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He also worked as an entertainment lawyer and investment banker.
Summary: Dr. Clarence B. Jones shares memories from his work as a legal advisor and speechwriter for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In particular, he describes his significant contributions to the "I Have a Dream" speech, which King delivered at the March on Washington in 1963. Jones also describes his early life living in a Philadelphia home for indigent black orphans and foster children, because his parents, who were both domestic workers, could not afford to provide for him. Jones talks about his education at Columbia University, his training as a classical clarinetist, and some of his early encounters with leftist politics while in New York. Jones discusses the death of his mother and the profound effect it had on him. He describes his time spent in the military during the Korean War. Other topics discussed in the interview include Jones's marriage to Anne Norton, his studies at Boston University Law School, and his move to California to become an entertainment lawyer.
Moving Images
12 video files of 12 (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (163 min.) : digital, sound, color
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0084_mv01-12
Manuscripts
1 transcript (62 pages)
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0084_Jones_transcript
Samuel Berry McKinney oral history interview conducted by David P. Cline in Seattle, Washington, April 17, 2013
Digital content available
Biographical History: The Reverend Dr. Samuel McKinney attended Morehouse College and became the minister of the Mount Zion Baptist Church in Seattle, Washington. He was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement in Seattle and founded the Central Area Civil Rights Committee.
Summary: The Reverend Dr. Samuel Berry McKinney recalls growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, and attending Morehouse College, where he got to know fellow freshman Martin Luther King, Jr. After service in the Army Flight Corps during World War II and finishing his college education, McKinney became a minister at a church in Seattle, Washington, where he contributed to the creation of the Liberty Bank. He discusses his role in founding the Central Area Civil Rights Committee in Seattle.
Moving Images
7 video files of 7 (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (109 min.) : digital, sound, color
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0085_mv01-07
Manuscripts
1 transcript (39 pages)
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0085_McKinney_transcript
Charles Siler oral history interview conducted by David P. Cline in Dallas, Texas, May 10, 2013
Digital content available
Biographical History: Charles Siler attended Southern University in Louisiana and became a civil rights activist. He also was a Vietnam veteran, museum curator, and cartoonist.
Summary: Charles Siler remembers his early life in Louisiana, including a penchant for drawing that began before the age of two, quitting the Boy Scouts when his troop made black Scouts walk behind the horses in a local parade, and picketing Louisiana's segregated State Library as a senior in high school. He was eventually expelled from Southern University because of his activism. He joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He was drafted in 1967 and served in the military in the Vietnam War. He continued his civil rights advocacy as he took a variety of positions at cultural institutions and began a career as a cartoonist. The interview closes with Siler's reflections on identity and the process of learning from those who are ideologically different.
Moving Images
4 video files of 4 (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (102 min.) : digital, sound, color
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0086_mv01-04
Manuscripts
1 transcript (46 pages)
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0086_Siler_transcript
Aaron Dixon oral history interview conducted by David P. Cline in Seattle, Washington, May 11, 2013
Digital content available
Biographical History: Aaron Dixon was a co-founder of the Black Panther Party in Seattle, Washington. He later worked for many non-profits, founded Central House, and ran for U.S. Senator as a Green Party candidate in Washington State.
Summary: Aaron Dixon describes his childhood in the Midwest and in Seattle and how he became a leader in the Black Panther Party, helping to found the Seattle chapter of the Party. Dixon describes in detail his family history and the influence of oral tradition on his racial consciousness. He discusses the role of the Black Student Union at the University of Washington and details how the murder of Little Bobby Hutton influenced him profoundly and led him to join the Black Panther Party. He describes the Party's influence in Seattle and Oakland, his role in the Party, tensions with the police, tensions among members, and how the goals of the Black Panther Party shifted over the 1960s and 1970s.
Moving Images
11 video files of 11 (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (148 min.) : digital, sound, color
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0087_mv01-11
Manuscripts
1 transcript (70 pages)
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0087_Dixon_transcript
Bill Russell oral history interview conducted by Taylor Branch in Seattle, Washington, May 12, 2013
Digital content available
Biographical History: Bill Russell was a leader in the sports arena as an advocate for justice and equality, both as a member of the basketball teams for the University of San Francisco and the Boston Celtics.
Summary: Basketball player Bill Russell remembers his childhood in Louisiana and Oakland, California, in the 1940s. After winning two Final Fours with the University of San Francisco, he won an Olympic gold medal and an NBA championship playing for the Boston Celtics, one of thirteen Russell would win, including eight in a row. Russell had a difficult relationship with the sports media in Boston, but a better one with his Celtics teammates. He defends the organization as progressive on racial matters (as opposed to the Red Sox) and describes a post-retirement reconciliation with Boston that resulted in considerable Red Sox support for his mentoring organization and a statue of him, erected in 2013.
Moving Images
11 video files of 11 (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (187 min.) : digital, sound, color
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0088_mv01-11
Manuscripts
1 transcript (60 pages)
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0088_Russell_transcript
Linda Fuller Degelmann interview conducted by Emilye Crosby in Americus, Georgia, May 28, 2013
Digital content available
Biographical History: Linda Fuller moved to the cooperative Koinonia Farm with her husband Millard in the 1960s. The Fullers founded Habitat for Humanity in 1976.
Summary: Linda Fuller Degelmann discusses her experiences at Koinonia Farm in Americus, Georgia, and how she and her husband Millard Fuller were inspired to start Habitat for Humanity. She describes her childhood in Birmingham, Alabama, and her memories of racial segregation from childhood through young adulthood when she became aware of the Freedom Rides and the Civil Rights Movement. She and Millard decided to move to Koinonia Farm in 1968, where they worked on cooperative industries, helped to establish a child development center, and built homes, which provided the seeds for Habitat for Humanity. She goes on to describe the growth of Habitat for Humanity in the United States and internationally, and she explains the religious principles of the organization as well as linking it to the Civil Rights Movement.
Moving Images
6 video files of 6 (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (128 min.) : digital, sound, color
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0089_mv01-06
Manuscripts
1 transcript (53 pages)
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0089_Degelmann_transcript
Lonnie C. King oral history interview conducted by Emilye Crosby in Atlanta, Georgia, May 29, 2013
Digital content available
Biographical History: Lonnie C. King was a civil rights activist with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and a leader of the Committee on the Appeal for Human Rights (COAHR)
Summary: Lonnie C. King shares his memories of growing up in Atlanta, where he attended Ebenezer Baptist Church and was close with Martin Luther King, Jr.'s family. He recalls his stint in the U.S. Navy, his years as a student at Morehouse College, and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Atlanta in the 1960s. He also remembers his relationships with older African American leaders in Atlanta, including Martin Luther King, Sr., Benjamin Mays, and Rufus Clement, and the various boycotts and protests staged by the Atlanta Student Movement while he was its director.
Moving Images
11 video files of 11 (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (154 min.) : digital, sound, color
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0090_mv01-11
Manuscripts
1 transcript (68 pages)
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0090_King_transcript
Scott Bates oral history interview conducted by David P. Cline in Sewanee, Tennessee, June 20, 2013
Digital content available
Biographical History: Scott Bates was a World War II Army veteran and a professor of French at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. He was deeply involved with the Highlander Folk School.
Summary: Professor Scott Bates describes his career as an educator and civil rights supporter in Sewanee, Tennessee. He discusses his memories of race relations on U.S. Army bases during World War II, and he describes how he moved from the Midwest to Sewanee, Tennessee to become a college instructor of French. Once in Sewanee, Bates soon learned about the Highlander Folk School, where he attended civil rights meetings, spent time with Myles Horton, and served on the board.
Moving Images
6 video files of 6 (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (97 min.) : digital, sound, color
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0091_mv01-06
Manuscripts
1 transcript (55 pages)
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0091_Bates_transcript
Walter Tillow oral history interview conducted by David P. Cline in Louisville, Kentucky, June 21, 2013
Digital content available
Biographical History: Walter Tillow was a civil rights activist with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He was also a labor organizer for the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), an anti-war activist, and member of the Communist Party.
Summary: Walter Tillow discusses how he joined the Civil Rights Movement as a college student and how that led him into labor and leftist movements. He describes his childhood in New York City and the leftist politics of his parents, as well as how he learned about the Movement as a college student at Harpur College and as a graduate student at Cornell University. In 1963 he joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and moved to Fayette County, Georgia where he worked on voter registration drives. He later worked in the SNCC communication office in Atlanta. He describes in detail the movement for the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. In 1965 he left the Movement to work for the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) and he later worked for the Communist Party.
Moving Images
7 video files of 7 (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (108 min.) : digital, sound, color
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0092_mv01-07
Manuscripts
1 transcript (59 pages)
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0092_TillowW_transcript
Lisa Anderson Todd oral history interview conducted by Emilye Crosby in Washington, D.C., June 24, 2013
Digital content available
Biographical History: Lisa Anderson Todd was a civil rights activist with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). She later became a lawyer and judge.
Summary: Lisa Anderson Todd shares memories from when she was a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) volunteer in Mississippi in 1963 and her recollections of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party at the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City. Todd describes how she was introduced to the Movement during her participation in a work camp at Tougaloo College and how she went on to do voter registration work, first with the American Friends Service Committee in Greensboro, North Carolina, and then with SNCC in Greenville, Mississippi. Todd shares her memories as well as her book research on the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. She also describes her college years at Cornell University; her decision to attend law school at Stanford; her interest in civil rights law; and her work as a lawyer and later as an administrative judge.
Moving Images
8 video files of 8 (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (169 min.) : digital, sound, color
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0093_mv01-08
Manuscripts
1 transcript (67 pages)
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0093_Todd_transcript
William Lucy oral history interview conducted by Emilye Crosby in Washington, D.C., June 25, 2013
Digital content available
Biographical History: William Lucy was a civil rights activist and labor leader with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).
Summary: William Lucy discusses his role in the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) in the 1960s, especially how he and the union supported the 1968 sanitation workers' strike in Memphis, Tennessee. In 1966 Lucy started to work for AFSCME in Washington, D.C., as the Associate Director of the Department of Legislation and Community Affairs. Lucy explains AFSCME's support of the Civil Rights Movement, especially the push to expose the economic exploitation of African Americans. Lucy narrates the events of the 1968 sanitation workers strike in Memphis, discusses the involvement of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and describes the union's strategies. Lucy also discusses his involvement in the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists and the Free South Africa Movement.
Moving Images
5 video files of 5 (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (78 min.) : digital, sound, color
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0094_mv01-05
Manuscripts
1 transcript (36 pages)
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0094_Lucy_transcript
Luis Zapata oral history interview conducted by Emilye Crosby in Silver Spring, Maryland, June 27, 2013
Digital content available
Biographical History: Luis Zapata was an civil rights activist and labor organizer. He worked for the United Farm Workers, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Mississippi Freedom Labor Union, and many other organizations.
Summary: Luis Zapata describes his childhood in Orange County, California, and how he came to join the labor movement as a college student at San Jose State University. He discusses the organizing work he did with the United Farm Workers and how he ended up moving to Cleveland, Mississippi, for four years where he organized for the Mississippi Freedom Labor Union and helped to register voters with the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Zapata also discusses his later involvement in the congressional campaign of Mike Espy as well as his participation in international movements for human rights.
Moving Images
6 video files of 6 (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (122 min.) : digital, sound, color
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0095_mv01-06
Manuscripts
1 transcript (71 pages)
Digital ID: afc2010039_crhp0095_Zapata_transcript
John Dudley, Eleanor Stewart, Charles Jarmon, Frances Suggs, Harold Suggs, and Samuel Dove oral history interview conducted by Emilye Crosby in Hyattsville, Maryland, June 28, 2013
Digital content available
Biographical History: Charles Jarmon participated in the Adkin High School walkout of 1951 in Kinston, North Carolina. He later became a professor of sociology and associate dean at Howard University
Biographical History: Eleanor Stewart participated in the Adkin High School walkout of 1951 in Kinston, North Carolina. She later became a vocalist, conductor, and music teacher in Washington, D.C.
Biographical History: Frances Suggs participated in the Adkin High School walkout of 1951 in Kinston, North Carolina. She later became a music teacher and manager in Washington, D.C.
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