The Civil Rights History Project: Survey of Collections and Repositories

Individual biographies

Repository: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Southern Oral History Program

Collection Description (CRHP): See the subseries B.2.2. Racial Violence in Wilmington Project, B.2.3. African Americans in Durham Project and B.2.5. Hosea Hudson Project.

Collection Description (Extant): This series contains recordings of biographical interviews conducted by the staff of the SOHP and others, intended to address the contemporary dearth of personal letters and diaries written by notable citizens. Interviews with educators, business leaders, political activists, professional workers, authors, and artists, as well as with homemakers, tobacco workers, and domestic servants, are included. Although biographical in nature, the interviews may also concentrate on specific events or periods in which the respondent was involved. In some cases there is more than one interview with a given individual, each relating to a different aspect of his or her career. Included is a series of interviews relating to African-American communist Hosea Hudson.

SCOPE AND CONTENT: The collection of biographical interviews is an ongoing project of the Southern Oral History Program. This project seeks to restore the balance personal letters and diaries, which are becoming increasingly scarce, once brought to the public record, by interviewing notable men and women in North Carolina and the southern region. Interviews with educators, business leaders, political activists, professional workers, and authors and artists are included in this series.

The interviews have been conducted by the program staff and by students and faculty whose research in southern history utilized oral sources. The interviews are biographical in nature, although they may concentrate on specific events or periods within the lifetime of the respondent. In some cases there is more than one interview with an individual, each covering a different aspect of his or her career. A biographical sketch is often filed with each interview, or with the first interview if there are several for one individual.

Because this is an open-ended series and additions are added as they are transferred, there is no uniform arrangement for the entire series.

Access Copy Note: Some interviews are restricted or closed as noted in the finding aid.
Interview transcripts are CLOSED while they are being digitized. Please contact the The Southern Historical Collection for more information.
If an interview has been transcribed, researchers should quote from the transcript. If no transcript is available, reference to material in the interview should be taken from the audio recording. Some interviews have restrictions imposed by the interviewees or interviewers; restricted interviews are clearly marked. Researchers may, for example, be required to obtain written permission from the interviewee or interviewer to quote from the interview.
Use of audiotapes or videotapes may require production of listening or viewing copies.

Collection URL: http://www.lib.unc.edu/dc/sohp/projects.html

Digital Status: Yes

Existing IDs: Collection Number: 04007 B

Extent: 117 items

Finding Aid URL: http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/s/Southern_Oral_History_Program_Collection.html

Language: English

Interviewees: Clark Foreman, Frank Porter Graham, Guy Benton Johnson, Howard Kester, Holt McPherson, Arthur Franklin Raper, Igal Roodenko, Jim Clark, Clifford Durr, Laurie Pritchett, Lawrence Rainey, Marion Wright, Ruth Vick, W. Horace Carter, Charles Jones, William P. Murphy, Kojo Nantambu (Roderick Kirby), Elijah Richardson, Donna Templeton, Moselle Cameron, Janie Cameron Riley, Lottie Phillips, Janie Cameron Riley, Frederick Douglas Alexander, William T. Moye, James D. McDuffie, Hosea Hudson, Herbert Aptheker, Sally Davis, Reuben Farr, William Claude

Rights (Extant): When the copyright has not been assigned to the University of North Carolina, copyright is retained by the interviewers/interviewees, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Subjects:

African Americans--North Carolina
African Americans--Social life and customs
Civil rights movements--North Carolina
Civil rights movements--Southern States
Communism
Police
Politicians
Violence

Genres:

Interviews
Sound recordings
Transcripts