The Civil Rights History Project: Survey of Collections and Repositories

Remembering lynching: Strategies of resistance and visions of justice

Repository: Baylor University. Institute for Oral History

Collection Description (Extant): Lynching narratives by African Americans provide a unique perspective about life in the United States and display a variety of faith traditions in which the black church has been shaped by a long-term culture of lynching, both literal and figurative. For this project, Dr. Sims has interviewed more than seventy people who recount how they narrowly escaped lynching, witnessed it, or lived in fear of it. The interview project has been supported in part by a 2009 general grant from the Louisville Institute and by the Baylor University Institute for Oral History. A book, provisionally titled "Conversations with Elders: African Americans Remember Lynching," is forthcoming from the Baylor University Press.

Language: English

Interviewees: Hannah White Allen, Albert D. Anderson, Leola Arnold, Elwood B. Ball, Myrtle E. Ballard, Lillian J. Blunt, Leroy Bowman, David Briggs, Margie K. Campbell, Odell Carr, Dorothy Clark, Debra T. Coleman, Martin O. Collins, Freddie E. Cudjoe, Donald W. Davis, Margaret W. Davis, Nancy R. Davis, Jessie E. Dean, James W. Drakeford Sr., Arthur Dunn, Rodger Fitzgerald, Fannie W. Fitzgerald, Katherine L. Fletcher, Olive Lee Franklin, Nims E. Gay Jr., Theresa J. Gilliam, Josephine Green, George M. Hampton, Sarah L. Hardimon, Artie L. Harris, Wallace Hartsfield Sr., Gwendolyn Hill, Ireland Hill, Lettie Ruth Hunter, Vivian L. Jefferson, Katherine G. Johnson, Leon Johnson, Doris M. Jones, Lucille Jones, Rosalie Joseph, Lillian Marigny, Solon Marshall, Benjamin F. Martin, Godfrey McCray, Willie McLean, Simon Morgan, Ora Morgan, Junius Nottingham, Ellie W. Palmer, Ollie Roberta Pearson, Lillie Phenix, Helen Swazer Pollard, Joseph Purvis, William S. Randolph, Maggie Renfro, Claretha Robinson, Catherine T. Sidney, John A. Sims, Betty Spencer, King Swazer Jr., Dorothy Thomas, Willie Matthew Thomas, Hazel L. Thompson, Mary G. Thompson, Sadie L. Todd, Bozie Mae Walker, Earl Williams Sr., Ulysses S. Williams

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

Subjects:

Lynching
Violence

Genres:

Interviews
Sound recordings