Oral History and History of Civil Rights Movements

Oral History and the History of the Civil Rights Movement Author(s): Kim Lacy Rogers Source: The
Journal of American History, Vol. 75, No. 2 (Sep., 1988), pp. 567-576 Published by: Organization of American Historians Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1887873 . Accessed: 06/03/2014 04:43
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of the and the History Oral History CivilRights Movement
Kim Lacy Rogers ofour framework intothenarrative to incorporate are difficult movements Protest people enquiescent of formerly thousands Theyare disruptive: nationalhistory. nachallenge publicly polarizeas insurgents positions Ideological gagein protest. The shock of violence-of death and political tional beliefsand traditions. and politicalleaders historians American theirhistory. assassination-punctuates devel-an understandable ofsocialchange interpretation an elitist settle for often bythemasses generated records historical oftraditional thepaucity given opment, Mass in theAmerican tradition. politics ofelectoral ofinsurgents and thecentrality leaders of the and leadership, charismatic great or to is attributed mobilization pantheonof GreatMen. The disruptions intoa sanitized are drafted movements visionas the historical recedefrom of themovements implications and subversive and comweekends by three-day is memorialized producedby protest progress coins. memorative King, Jr., Luther Martin oftheReverend veneration thenational In recent years, the imageof the civilrights and has perhapsdistorted thispattern has followed H. Cone, James Carson, As Clayborne himto prominence. thatbrought movement of King igcanonization the recent GordonHardinghave asserted, and Vincent thelocalorigins in themiddle1960s.It also obscures radicalism his evolving nores King'sradicalcriitself. By separating of the civilrights movement and strengths activists from amongtheyounger paralleldevelopments society tique ofAmerican at locallevels, ofmobilization theprocess oftheblackstruggle, and byoverlooking and populist origins theradical oftheKinglegenddiminish theliberal interpreters real themovement's also obscure ofthecivilrights movement. Suchinterpretations theincreased political consciousness, blackpolitical -a transformed consequences and expanded opportuand participants, ofmovement leaders ofthousands efficacy forall blackAmericans.1 nitiesand possibilities
would The author Pennsylvania. College,Carlisle, Kim LacyRogers is assistant at Dickinson of history professor of thisarticle. in the preparation valuableassistance liketo thankthe archivists who provided
1 ofAmerican in a MassStruggle,"Journal Leadership Charismatic King, Jr.: "Martin Luther Carson, Clayborne ibid.,455-67; and theThirdWorld," King,Jr., Luther H. Cone, "Martin History, 74 (Sept. 1987),448-54;James ofAmerica," ibid.,468-76. and theFuture Jr., Luther King, Amnesia:Martin "Beyond GordonHarding, Vincent
567
568
TheJournal ofAmerican History
is a critical source for scholars to understand thecivilrights Oralhistory attempting in general. In oralhistory and socialmovements a researcher can movement sources, findabundantevidenceof the local genesisof the civil rights the movement, rural in individual ofthegrass-roots radicalism and collective base,and thechanges thatmovement can yieldeviconsciousness participation produced.Oral history in available contemporary For example,interviews dence rarely written records. thecomplexity oforganizational The narratives ofparoften reveal decision making. in negotiations, or face-to-face ticipants encounters can docuplanningsessions, ment thearray ofoptions thatactors perceived as available and thusbring intofocus in the conflicts and difficulties of decisionmaking the movement.2 Of greatest is thecontribution thatoralhistory can maketo ourunimportance ofthegenesis ofsocialmovements. derstanding and sustenance Oral history documentsmassmobilization at an individual level.Narratives frequently revealthe of heartand mindthatmovement changes participation produces. Narrators dethe changing scribe consciousness rethataccompanies movement activity as they counttheirown journeys fromalienationto resistance, froma passiveangeror fatalism to political action.Often, thatled themto reinthey describe experiences in ways socialreality terpret thataffirmed their ownhistories and perceptions rather thanthoseofthedominant political culture. Finally, interviews reveal thepsychoin activists logicalgrowth -a redefining of humanpossibilities and capacities. As a leaderin the Congress in RudyLombard, of Racial Equality(CORE), asserted 1988,themovement "gaveus a vehicle forconfronting thethings we weresupposin mylife.I don'thavemany edlyto fearthe most.And it has been a hallmark fears, and haven't had anysincethe 1960s." The process an ofgrowth gives activists enhanced senseofpolitical as they critique theculture thathas oppressed efficacy, them and challengeit politically.3Such personaland political developments generate and sustain massmovements at localand national levels. Thusoralhistory connects the individual to the collective experience of a social movement. Likeother historical documents, oralnarratives require scrutiny and analysis. Researchers need to be aware oftheplace thatmovement participation often playsin theretrospective accounts ofactivists. Socialmovement memories, focusing on momentswhenpeople feltthemselves participants in History itself, oftenevokeextraordinarily powerful narratives. need to be attuned to thepropensity Researchers
2 Forworks thatuse oral narratives thatrevealthe complexity of movement decisionmaking, see David J. Garrow, Bearing theCross: Martin LutherKing, Christian Leadership Conference (New York, Jr.,andthe Southern 1986); Clayborne Carson,In Struggle: SNCC and theBlackAwakening of the 1960s(Cambridge, Mass., 1981); WilliamH. Chafe,Civilities and CivilRights: Greensboro, NorthCarolina, and theBlackStruggle forFreedom (New York,1980); and Aldon D. Morris, The Originsof the CivilRights Movement: Black Communities Organizing for Change(New York,1984). 3 Dr. Rudy Lombard, interview byKimLacyRogers, June6, 1988.Thisinterview willbe available toresearchers in theKim LacyRogers-Glenda B. Stevens Collection (Amistad Research Center, TulaneUniversity, New Orleans, La.) bythefallof 1990.See Daniel A. Fossand RalphLarkin, A New Theory Beyond Revolution: ofSocialMovements (SouthHadley,1986),28-107;and Doug McAdam, Political Process and theDevelopment ofBlackInsurgency,1930-1970(Chicago,1982), 36-64.
OralHistory
569
to retain morevividmemories ofhumanmemory ofdramatic events thanofmore mundaneexperiences.4 Actors also possessa tendency to movethemselves to the center of a politicaleventor conflict evenwhenotherindividuals or a collectivity mayhavebeenmoreimportant in generating theevent. Researchers needto be sensitive to thevalueofa multiplicity ofperspectives whenattempting to reconstruct events and decision-making processes.5 alsoneedto be aware Scholars ofthefunction oftheinterview for itself theformer In recent activists. writers years, haveexamined narratives as texts thatreveal both socialand individual change,and as psychological constructs thatreconcile actors to thedailiness ofpostmovement life.Historians interested in thefunction oforal fornarrators, and in thechanging autobiography ofretrospective nature accounts, can consult in psychology, a growing literature anthropology, and oral history.6 in the reconstruction researchers are interested Whether of specific events or in inpolitical and collective in existing individual changes oralhistories consciousness, offer them a rich documentation ofthecivil collections rights movement. Oralhistories ofactivists' provide dramatic retrospective accounts changing consciousness. The In a 1968interview, starting pointwasoften anger. leaderUnitaBlackMississippi of ruralblacksin thesegregated wellrevealed the alienation South.Recalling her in the Deep South,she statedthat"you're as an agricultural experiences laborer reminded ... thatyouwasblackand youjustdidn'thavetheprivileges, always you know, [of] thewhitepeople. And, I've just been mad a long,longtime." Despite therisks ofactivism, theStudent she welcomed from Coororganizers Nonviolent Committee dinating (SNCC) whentheyappearedin her community.7 A senseofawakening in many and growing possibility personal strength emerges narratives. of In a 1984interview O'Neal described theimpact SNCC activistJohn the 1955-1956 to blackslikehimself. as "galvanizing" bus boycott Montgomery It wasjustPOOM!Youknow.... Itwasan ideajustplugged into where people were Itwas a shock Itwas alloveremotionally. justabsolutely right. just poom, I'msure thecountry ithappened all over thesame That's way, justwham! right, Stand youknow. up. an effective as electrifying becauseitoffered O'Neal sawtheboycott wayto "do what is right." Blackswereliberated becausethey could act morally and bythe boycott
4 Kim LacyRogers, and Power: Oral History Review, On Interviewing Political Activists," "Memory, Struggle, in the CivilRights The Wary Out MustLead In: LifeHistories 15 (Spring1987), 165-84; WilliamR. Beardslee, in Memory Remembering "Snapshots or Benchmarks?" Observed: Movement (Westport, 1983); UlrichNeisser, ed. UlrichNeisser(San Francisco, 1982),43-48. in NaturalContexts, 5 Ulrich A Case Study," Cognition, 9 (Feb. 1981),1-.22. Neisser, "John Dean's Memory: 6 Alessandro and Possible paperdelivered at the Dreams:Working-Class Memory Worlds," Portelli, "Uchronic Oral History possession); Conference, Oxford, Eng., Sept. 11-13,1987(in Kim LacyRogers's SixthInternational and Adoptees," ofOral Birthparents Judith ofTalk:Interviewing Modell,"The Performance InternationalJournal and ItsGenres," "Forms ofSelfReport: paper Bruner, Autobiography History, 9 (Feb. 1988),6-26. See alsoJerome and Literacy, possession). delivered at the Conference on Orality Toronto, June 19-21,1987 (in Rogers's 7 Mrs. p. 3, CivilRights Documentation interview Wright, Aug. 10,1968,transcript, UnitaBlackwell byRobert HowardUniversity, Center, Washington, D.C.). Project (Moorland-Spingarn Research
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OralHistory
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effectively. "Itwasso simple. Don'tgeton thebus.Boom!Youknow? It wasso right, in its simplicity."8 and so brilliant CharlesSherrod SNCC activist his decisionto go to jail in described Similarly, RockHill, SouthCarolina,as a "turning point"in his life.
I had never likethatbefore.... I guessthere experienced anything wasnothing forme to do thandeath. . . I cameout withthistheory, based elsemoreradical
on my ifI accept can philosophy, as,well, death, there is nothing that anybody do tome.Whatelsecanthey do besides-well, nowthere is a sense that there's - to me - besides a lotofthings that peoplecando to you killing me.Butthat wasmy then. IfI coulddealwith theory, anyway, death, theever-present threat then ofdeath, house.9 jail is justanother alsodocument Oralnarratives theemergence ofracial, and ideological diviclass, sions within thecivilrights middle-class movement. Classdivisions openedbetween who wereoriented toward nationalelectoral and ruraland blackleaders, politics, wereto themovement's base. working-class activists, whoseallegiances grass-roots In Mississippi, forthe Advancetensions between thestate's NationalAssociation mentofColoredPeople(NAACP) leadership and therural masses surfaced during theMississippi Freedom Democratic tothelily-white state Party's (MFDP) challenge inAtlantic convention As Blackwell recalled at the1964Democratic delegation City. it,the"big fish" ofthemovement urgedthegrass-roots activists to accepttheconoffer instead of to unvention's "compromise" oftwoat-large delegates attempting herconviction seatthewhite Blackwell's narrative illustrates Mississippi delegation. themiddle-class were that themselves blackleaders beingmanipulated bytheforces B. Johnson. The "big fish," she said, did not "seemto undersupporting Lyndon ownpeople."Blackstandthetrick be putin,for them to comein and use their they offer welland hercolleagues the Democrats' because rejected butourlives tocompromise and wedidn't have anything with, you know, nothing iswe in Mississippi know. so on.Folks andeverywhere What beendying else, you
for?10 got to compromise
to The danger facedchangedtheir commitments and deaththatmanyactivists Dr. narratives. is amplyillustrated their radicalization nonviolence; byoralhistory blacks and policeattacks ofCORE witnessed white terrorism Rudy Lombard against In 1979 he recalledthat in Louisianaand Mississippi. as he worked on projects I thought that wewere in theyear on Washington, oftheMarch up too giving I felt what little wewere killed for toomany were much; people getting getting. Too risked so much. that with sensitive involved about many very being something
-and thatwasthewayit wasgoingto be. I didn't brutalized people had gotten
want to do that anymore.
8JohnO'Neal interview ofthe 1960s(Oral Movements p. 22, Student byRonGrele,Oct. 26, 1984,transcript, N.Y.). New York, ColumbiaUniversity, ButlerLibrary, Collection, History 9 CharlesSherrod p. 41, ibid. byBretEynon,May 12, 1985,transcript, interview 10 Blackwell interview, 16, 18.
572
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A 1965 Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party poster invokes Courtesy John O'Neal Papers, AmistadResearch Center at TulaneUniversity.
three civil rights workers murdered theyear before.
Youloseyour Youloseyour naivete. innocence after awhile that ... Yourealize not. .. youdon't you're have what Martin Luther You Kingwants youtohave. don't wantto fight all theadversity andstill love to ask."1 people.It'stoo much oralhistory Finally, narratives document thereinterpretation ofsocialreality that in the day-to-day evolved of the movement struggles and reveal actors' enhanced senseof political to SNCC veteran efficacy. Bernice According Reagon,the movement,"beingBlackat thebottom, offered ofa thorough up thepossibility analysis ofsociety." Collective action"gaveparticipants a glaring ofwhoand where analysis theywerein society." oftenexpress a profound Thoughactivists disappointment with thepolitics and culture ofcontemporary and a cynicism aboutpolitAmerica, icalchange thatis at oddswith thegreat ofthemovement's hopefulness early years,
11 Dr.Rudy interview Lombard by Rogers, May 9, 1979, transcript, pp.8-9,KimLacy B. Stevens Rogers-Glenda Collection.
OralHistory
573
manycredit the struggle fortheir as politicalactors, and their identities ongoing and action commitment to socialchange.Formanyindividuals, politicalanalysis and theendingoflegalsegregadid notend withthepassageoffederal legislation tion. Movement said activists, Reagon, cameaway from their Civil Rights Movement experiences with a greater facility for ofquestions. For seeing a wide range many, there isnoendnor rest. TheCivil a beginning. Movement was Rights only Itsdispersion continues tobemanifested in ever-widening circles ofevaluation ofcivil andhuman rights afforded bythis
society.12
of the civilrights Boththelocal genesis movement and the impactof activism on the livesof movement in oralhistory participants are documented collections housedin archives and research institutions. Not all collections aretranscribed; refrom The focuses searchers can benefit an exposure to theoriginal tape recordings. of collections some are nationally vary: oriented and includeinterviews withparfrom a variety of communities others ticipants and politicalaffiliations; are more regionally and locallyoriented.Other,more specializedarchives are organized ofa specific or group.Yetothers on aroundthelifeorwork arefocused individual in theroleofa specific institution orgroup generating socialchange. Someavailable in existing materials cannot be easily recent Direcfound finding aids.AllenSmith's toryof Oral History Collections listsonlyfivecollections devotedto civilrights As historians issues.13 do in searching for other kinds ofdocumentary evidence, they in identifying mustcheckavailablefinding aids, use ingenuity repositories that housecollections might containing oralhistory materials, and contact suchinstitutions.The listing in thisessayis byno meanscomplete. of collections Of the nationally oriented civilrights oral history the largest and collections, is the CivilRights mostdiverse Documentation Project(also called the RalphJ. Bunche Oral History Collection)at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Centerat in Washington, somesevenhunHoward contains University D.C. The collection movement oflocations dredinterviews with from a variety and ideologparticipants is an active, ical perspectives. theproject Although ongoing concern, manyof the interviews weretaped between includemembers of the 1967and 1971.Narrators SouthernChristianLeadershipConference (SCLC), SNCC, CORE, and the EducationalFund (SCEF). Attorneys affiliated SouthernConference with the NAACP LegalDefense Fund,theNationalLawyers' Guild,and theNationalConference ofBlackLawyers were as wellas movement veterans Ella Baker, interviewed, andJohnLewis,and suchwhitesouthern FannieLou Hamer,Rosa Parks, activists Durr.14 and Virginia as Anne Bradenof SCEF,and Clifford The Howard collection and that ofBlackside for generated bythestaff thesix-part
12 Dick Cluster, ed.,

13
4 Fora partial of thiscollection, see Vincent and Norma0. Leonard, eds.,Bibliography of J. Browne listing Documentation 1974). Holdingsof the CivilRights Project(Washington,
Collections 43, 68, 70. (Phoenix, 1988), 1-2,20-21, Allen Smith, Directory ofOralHistory
TheyShould Have ServedThatCup of Coffee (Boston,1979), 35-36.
574
on thePrize," areoriented towards events television documentary "Eyes significant oftheactivists. rather thanthelifehistories in thecivilrights Suchcolmovement, on local and national areoften offer butthey lections multiple perspectives events, thinin revealing thechanges in individual livesthatmovement participation prodocumentation of specific duced, and theyoffer only fragmentary community of the 165 interviews struggles. Tapesand transcripts conducted bythe Blackside willremain archive underthe staff willbe donatedto an appropriate though they Thesematerials of the CivilRights shouldbe availableto rejurisdiction Project. is currently a secondseries on thecivilrights searchers by1990.Blackside producing Thisprojected themid-1970s. series shouldbring movement through the eight-part of interviews to 450, and likethe first set of interviews, the second totalnumber will eventually becomeavailableto researchers.15 The oralhistory collections oftheMartin Luther for Center Nonviolent King, Jr., contain a more SocialChangeinAtlanta, setofnarratives. Some Georgia specialized life of arerelated to the and career Kinghimself, to SCLC associates, 500 interviews in Mississippi in 1964and 1965,and to theMFDP.The Martin to SNCC campaigns contains morethan 100 interviews with Luther Oral History Collection King,Jr., his colleagues in SCLC and otherorganizaand family King'schildhood friends, The collection interviews withYolanda includes tions,and Kingfamily members. E. D. Nixon,Dr. and Coretta Scott activist King,NAACP leaderand Montgomery Fred Shuttlesworth BenjaminMaysof Morehouse College,and the Reverend of four SCLC. The Center's OralHistory Collections include other relevant CivilRights The Donald H. SmithCollection also contains interviews withKing, collections. TheJamesForman withKingfamily and withSCLC associates. Collecmembers, tion contains withmembers of SNCC and the 291 tapes thatincludeinterviews in the Mississippi MFDP. This collection is focusedon events summer campaigns of the mid-1960s and in the Selma-to-Montgomery marchin 1965. Some of the and music fromfreedomschoolsand tapes also documentculturalactivities The Anne RomaineOral History with meetings. Collectioncontainsinterviews MFDP organizers AnnieDevine,and others. theHosea WilBaker, Hamer, Finally, liams Collection contains a diverse array of audio materials, including speeches, sermons, music,tapesof meetings, and radiointerviews. While thosecollections offer a richevidentiary in King and the SCLC, and the base forscholars interested SNCC and MFDP campaigns, seemto offer a narrower viewofthemovement they as a wholethanthe Howardand Blackside collections do. A moreregional collection is partofthe Southern Oral History Program at the of The Carolina at Hill. University North Chapel activists twenty-seven interviewed reflect thediversity ofsouthern leaders.Some interviewees wereaffiliated withthe Southern RegionalCouncil(SRC), a liberalorganization dedicatedto improving in thesegregated racerelations and postmovement South,including LeslieDunbar, AliceSpearman Marion The collection RuthVick,and others. Wright, Wright, also
15
shouldbe addressed to theCivilRights Inquiries Project, Inc.,486 Shawmut Avenue, Boston,MA 02118.
OralHistory
575
likeDaisy BatesofArkansas, and SNCC activists includes interviews withactivists AnlikeMayor likeformer BondofGeorgia, and SCLC activists state SenatorJulian The strength ofperspecofthis liesin thediversity drew ofAtlanta. collection Young in the interviews; in morelocalizedevidence scholars tives interested represented morelocally oriented shouldconsult collections. in Greensboro, as thoseat the Greensboro North Such projects PublicLibrary and at theUniversity ofAlabama,Birmingham, offer researchers diverse Carolina, perspectives on thecivilrights movement in a single community. Greensboro's collection features seventy-three interviews withstudent activists, their parents, black religious leaders and their white counterparts, and many CORE leaders, including the Reverend Elton B. Cox, GordonCarey, and LewisA. Brandon.Also in the Greensborocollectionare interviews with local educatorsand with white in negotiations in the1960s. businessmen whowere involved civil leaders with rights The University ofAlabama,Birmingham's oralhistory collection includes interviews in Alabama'scivilrights The collection witheighteen individuals active struggle. in Birmingham, of the city's features on the movement the integration material withVirginiaand schools,and Alabama politics.The tapes includeinterviews Clifford A. G. Gaston,theReverend Abraham Durr,businessman Woods,and atof Charles is housedin thehistory torney Morgan, Jr.This collection department the University of Alabama,Birmingham. The Amistad Research is strongest on Center at TulaneUniversity, New Orleans, locally oriented oralhistory materials. The ThomasC. Dent Paperscontain interviews with sometwenty-six civilrights leaders from and ArMississippi, Louisiana, The Free kansas. Dent Papersincludeinterviews with Southern Theater veterans and Mississippi leadersUnita BlackJohnO'Neal and Robert Costley, movement andAnnieDevine.The KimLacy B. Stevens Colwell,C. 0. Chinn, Rogers-Glenda lectioncontainsinterviews withforty-two civil rights and community activists leaders from New Orleans.LiketheGreensboro collection -though it is notas exin scope thiscollection tensive includesinterviews withleadersof the NAACP, UrbanLeague,CORE, SCEF,and various ad hocorganizations. Smaller oralhistory arepartofAmistad's in Metcollections oftheCommittee on CivilRights holdings In addition, and theLulaB. ReedPapers. ropolitan NewYork, Inc.,Papers Amistad collections oriented has several to blackhistory and to the black largeoralhistory undersegregation. experience A different, but equallyrelevant setofinterviews is partofthestudent movement at ColumbiaUniversity's Oral History ofthe 1960sproject Collection. The project oftheAmerican on local and national leaders is focused student movement ofthe in thecivilrights and features 1960s eighteen participants struggle amongthemore The narrators' individuals interviewed. thansixty political careers Bernice support ofpolitical in activists' claimabout thecontinuity effort lives.ManynarReagon's whatis bynowa familiar havefollowed from rators SNCC and Students trajectory: moved to women's a Democratic for draft Society (SDS), they liberation, resistance, orradical and thento community orblackpower, Theseinorganizing scholarship.
576
of Blackside takemoreof a life-history approachthando the interviews terviews thenarrators' and they reveal later ofthe assessments University, orthosein Howard effect of their earlyactivism.16 ofthecivilrights of fororalhistories movement aretheprojects source Another E at and libraries of B. John Austin, Texas, Johnson the presidential Lyndon withadcontaininterviews Those collections in Boston,Massachusetts. Kennedy moveofficials whohelpedformulate tothecivilrights policy responses ministration black The collections someinterviews with alsoinclude terrorism. ment and towhite collection includes interviews circles. The Kennedy leaders whomovedin national E Kennedy, Wofford, specialassiswithHarris former attorney general Robert with oftheSufor civilrights, and withJustice Marshall Thurgood tantto thepresident withNAACP execualso contains interviews material premeCourt.The Kennedy and Gov.John JamesFarmer, tivedirector RoyWilkins, CORE nationaldirector and other southern Patterson of Alabama, Gov. Ross Barnettof Mississippi, materials document the institutional, Oral history community, organizational, a basisforinofthecivilrights movement. Theyprovide and psychological history and the sustenance of oftenthe genesisof movement mobilization terpreting thefissures and conflicts thataccomactivity. Theyalso reveal dangerous political and failure. oralnarratives perhaps, success Mostimportant, panysocialmovement of activists movefrom alienation consciousness as they to document thechanging of If used with care efficacy. a sense collective and individual political resistance to oralnarratives can restore and collective thelocal,individual, and discrimination, of the civilrights movement. dimensions to our historical interpretations theindividual allowresearchers to discover actors ofa massmoveOralnarratives oflocalinstitutions thevitality and strength thatprovided and to appreciate ment, Interviews reveal the genesis of the the base forthe nationalcivilrights struggle. ofsocialmovement and document thetransformative activism. blackrevolt impact ofourpolitical culture thealmost reflexive mythologizing Thisrecord undermines ofhumanactionthata social becausethevoiceofprotest speaksofthepossibilities ofthecivilrights makesreal.The oralhistory movement indicates that movement a matter of GreatMen and legislation, but a farmore socialchangeis notsimply in a revolutionary transformation individuals thatengages ordinary complex process of their own lives.
officials.17
i6 See Sara M. Evans, Politics:The Rootsof the Women's Personal Liberation Movement in the CivilRights Movement and theNew Left(New York, 1980);Jack Whalenand Richard "EchoesofRebellion: theLiberFlacks, ated Generation and Military 12 (Spring1984),61-78. Grows Up,"JournalofPolitical Sociology, 17 National Archives and Records Historical Materials in the JohnP Kennedy Administration, Library (Boston, 1986),44-83.

Oral History and History of Civil Rights Movements

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Oral History and History of Civil Rights Movements

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Oral History and the History of the Civil Rights Movement Author(s): Kim Lacy Rogers Source: The

of the and the History Oral History CivilRights Movement

TheJournal ofAmerican History

of American The Journal History

want to do that anymore.

TheJournal ofAmerican History

three civil rights workers murdered theyear before.

12 Dick Cluster, ed.,

TheyShould Have ServedThatCup of Coffee (Boston,1979), 35-36.

TheJournal ofAmerican History

TheJournal ofAmerican History

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