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Film, Video Betty Garman Robinson oral history interview conducted by Emilye Crosby in Baltimore, Maryland, 2015 December 08

Betty Garman Robinson oral history interview conducted by Emilye Crosby in Baltimore, Maryland, 2015 December 08

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About this Item

Title

  • Betty Garman Robinson oral history interview conducted by Emilye Crosby in Baltimore, Maryland, 2015 December 08

Summary

  • Betty Garman Robinson shares her experience in the Civil Rights Movement. She discusses her early involvement with the National Student Association (NSA) and the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), before joining the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1963. Of her many roles, she recalls serving as a Northern Coordinator in Greenwood, Mississippi during Freedom Summer 1964 and her later efforts that focused on bringing federal programs into southern communities. She discusses the role of women in SNCC and emphasizes the openness the organization had to women taking initiative and the impact it had on her activism. Shedding light on the on the inner organizational tensions of interracial relationships, the attitudes of white communities, and her navigation of "white privilege" she offers a unique perspective on the experience of role of white women in the Civil Rights Movement.

Names

  • Robinson, Betty Garman, interviewee
  • Crosby, Emilye, interviewer
  • Bishop, John Melville, videographer
  • Civil Rights History Project (U.S.)

Created / Published

  • 2015.

Headings

  • -  Robinson, Betty Garman--Interviews
  • -  Barry, Marion,--1936-2014
  • -  Forman, James,--1928-2005
  • -  Hayden, Casey
  • -  Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
  • -  Students for a Democratic Society (U.S.)
  • -  Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (U.S.)
  • -  United States National Student Association
  • -  Civil rights demonstrations--Washington (D.C.)
  • -  Civil rights movements--Mississippi
  • -  Civil rights movements--United States
  • -  Mississippi Freedom Project
  • -  Women civil rights workers--United States--Interviews

Genre

  • Personal narratives
  • Filmed interviews
  • Interviews
  • Oral histories
  • Video recordings

Notes

  • -  Recorded in Baltimore, Maryland, on December 8, 2015.
  • -  Civil Rights History Project collection (AFC 2010/039: 0124), Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
  • -  Copies of items are also held at the National Museum of African American History and Culture (U.S.).
  • -  Betty Garman Robinson was born on January 8, 1939 in New York City. She enrolled in Skidmore College in 1956 and became involved with NSA and attending National Student Congress meetings. In 1960 she became the assistant vice-president of the NSA, organizing the National Student Congress for the following summer where she first met members from the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). In the fall of 1961 she attended graduate school to study Political Science in Berkeley, California. In November of 1963 she attended the Howard Conference in Washington, DC and was recruited to join SNCC, leaving graduate school for a position with the organization. Robinson then went to Mississippi for Freedom Summer in 1964 and became the Northern Coordinator in the Greenwood Office. In 1965, she moved to Washington, DC was involved in the Free DC Movement and the Bus Boycotts, and later the anti-war movement and women's movement of the 1970's. She is currently involved in Showing Up For Racial Justice (SURJ), an organization in Baltimore that is committed to fighting structural inequity and racial injustice.
  • -  The Civil Rights History Project is a joint project of the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African American History and Culture to collect video and audio recordings of personal histories and testimonials of individuals who participated in the Civil Rights movement.
  • -  In English.
  • -  Finding aid http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/eadafc.af013005

Medium

  • 10 video files (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (2:44:05) : digital, sound, color.
  • transcript 1 item (.pdf) : text files.

Source Collection

  • Civil Rights History Project collection AFC 2010/039: 0124

Repository

  • Library of Congress Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, DC USA 20540 to 4610 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/folklife.home

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 2016655415

Rights Advisory

  • Duplication of collection materials may be governed by copyright and other restrictions.

Access Advisory

Online Format

  • image
  • pdf
  • video

Additional Metadata Formats

Rights & Access

The individuals documented in these collection items retain copyright and related rights to the use of their recorded and written testimonies and memories.  They have granted the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution permission to provide access to their interviews and related materials for purposes that are consistent with each agency’s educational mission, such as publication and transmission, in whole or in part, on the Web. Their written permission is required for commercial, profit-making distribution, reproduction, or other use beyond that allowed by fair use or other statutory exemptions. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item. See our Legal Notices and Privacy and Publicity Rights for additional information and restrictions.

The American Folklife Center, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture and the professional fieldworkers who carry out these projects feel a strong ethical responsibility to the people they have visited and who have consented to have their lives documented for the historical record. The Center asks that researchers approach the materials in this collection with respect for the culture and sensibilities of the people whose lives, ideas, and creativity are documented here. Researchers are also reminded that privacy and publicity rights may pertain to certain uses of this material.

Researchers or others who would like to make further use of these collection materials should contact the Folklife Reading Room for assistance. 

Credit Line

Civil Rights History Project collection (AFC 2010/039), American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Robinson, Betty Garman, Interviewee, Emilye Crosby, John Melville Bishop, and U.S Civil Rights History Project. Betty Garman Robinson oral history interview conducted by Emilye Crosby in Baltimore, Maryland. 2015. Pdf. https://www.loc.gov/item/2016655415/.

APA citation style:

Robinson, B. G., Crosby, E., Bishop, J. M. & Civil Rights History Project, U. S. (2015) Betty Garman Robinson oral history interview conducted by Emilye Crosby in Baltimore, Maryland. [Pdf] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2016655415/.

MLA citation style:

Robinson, Betty Garman, Interviewee, et al. Betty Garman Robinson oral history interview conducted by Emilye Crosby in Baltimore, Maryland. 2015. Pdf. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2016655415/>.