The Civil Rights History Project: Survey of Collections and Repositories

Rochester black freedom struggle oral history project

Repository: University of Rochester. Library. Dept. of Rare Books and Special Collections

Collection Description (Extant): This set of oral history interviews was conducted beginning in 2008, by historian Laura Warren Hill in conjunction with her research project, " 'Strike the Hammer While the Iron is Hot:' The Black Freedom Struggle in Rochester, NY, 1945-1975."

To date, twenty interviews have been completed, and transcriptions are in progress. As the project continues and a Web site is developed over the next several months, visitors to this site will be able to read and listen to the stories of community activists such as Dr. Walter Cooper, Constance Mitchell and Loma Allen, businessmen Horace Becker and Clarence Ingram, and ministers Raymond Scott, Herb White, and Robert Kreckel. Charles Price, the first African-American police officer in Rochester, describes his arrest by state police during riot patrol as a plainclothes officer. Darryl Porter, currently Assistant to Rochester Mayor Robert Duffy, recalls his former leadership of a local youth gang, the Matadors.

Access Copy Note: Some transcripts and photographs are available online.

Date(s): 2008

Digital Status: Partial

Existing IDs: D.383

Extent: 4 boxes

Finding Aid URL: http://www.lib.rochester.edu/index.cfm?page=4489

Language: English

Interviewees: Marcus Alexis Loma Allen, Barbara Ames, Matthew Augustine, Horace Becker, Paul Brennan, Edward Chambers, Marvin Chandler, Glenn Claytor, John Concannon, Walter Cooper, Larry Coppard, Reuben Davis, Rhona Genzel, Charles Granston, Millicent Hartzog, Germaine Knapp, Robert Kreckel, Christopher Lindley, Clarence Ingram, Constance Mitchell, John Mitchell, Jesse Moore, Gus Newport, Darryl Porter, Charles Price, Pauline Price, Raymond Scott, Sanford Segal, Peter Tolliver, Herb White

Rights (CRHP): Contact the repository which holds the collection for information on rights

Subjects:

African American businesspeople
African American clergy--New York (State)
African Americans--Civil rights--New York
Civil rights movements--New York (State)
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Riots--New York--Rochester

Genres:

Interviews
Transcripts