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Film, Video Roberta Alexander oral history interview conducted by David P. Cline in San Diego, California, 2016 June 29

Roberta Alexander oral history interview conducted by David P. Cline in San Diego, California, 2016 June 29

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About this Item

Title

  • Roberta Alexander oral history interview conducted by David P. Cline in San Diego, California, 2016 June 29

Summary

  • Dr. Roberta Alexander, Professor Emeritus at San Diego City College, talks about her family background in California, her mixed-race heritage, and activist roots, including her time with the Black Panther Party.

Names

  • Alexander, Roberta, 1946- interviewee
  • Cline, David P., 1969- interviewer
  • Bishop, John Melville, videographer
  • Civil Rights History Project (U.S.)

Created / Published

  • 2016.

Headings

  • -  Alexander, Roberta,--1946---Interviews
  • -  Aptheker, Bettina
  • -  Blanco Aguinaga, Carlos
  • -  Howard, Elbert,--1938-2018
  • -  Black Panther Party
  • -  Congress of Industrial Organizations (U.S.)
  • -  Free Speech Movement (Berkeley, Calif.)
  • -  African American women civil rights workers--California--Interviews
  • -  Civil rights movements--California
  • -  Civil rights movements--United States
  • -  Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Protest movements

Genre

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

Notes

  • -  Recorded in San Diego, California, on June 29, 2016.
  • -  Civil Rights History Project collection (AFC 2010/039: 0142), 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.).
  • -  Roberta Alexander was born in 1946 in Berkeley, California. As a college student in the Bay Area, she was arrested in the Free Speech movement protests in 1964, and then kicked out of Francoist Spain for protesting the Vietnam War there in 1967. She joined the Black Panther Party and was in the party for one year in the late sixties. Among her assignments was one that called for her to go Japan in 1969 with Elbert "Big Man" Howard to speak at rallies and demonstrations in Japan by organizations protesting the Vietnam War. She took her activism into teaching and taught Reading, Composition, Literature, Chicano Studies, and Black Studies as well as English as a Second Language courses for the San Diego Community College District beginning in 1974. She is a labor activist and delegate for the AFT Guild, Local 1931. Dr. Alexander earned her BA in Spanish Literature from University of California, Berkeley and her PhD in Comparative Literature from University of California, San Diego. Her son, also an activist teacher and a Muslim, leads inter-faith workshops and initiatives in San Diego.
  • -  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

  • 9 video files (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (02:10:06) : digital, sound, color.
  • transcript 1 item (.pdf) : text files.

Source Collection

  • Civil Rights History Project collection AFC 2010/039: 0142

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

  • 2016655433

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:

Alexander, Roberta, Interviewee, David P Cline, John Melville Bishop, and U.S Civil Rights History Project. Roberta Alexander oral history interview conducted by David P. Cline in San Diego, California. 2016. Pdf. https://www.loc.gov/item/2016655433/.

APA citation style:

Alexander, R., Cline, D. P., Bishop, J. M. & Civil Rights History Project, U. S. (2016) Roberta Alexander oral history interview conducted by David P. Cline in San Diego, California. [Pdf] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2016655433/.

MLA citation style:

Alexander, Roberta, Interviewee, et al. Roberta Alexander oral history interview conducted by David P. Cline in San Diego, California. 2016. Pdf. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2016655433/>.