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JM: Um, the -

TG: May I interrupt a moment here?

JM: Please, please.

TG: Uh, sometimes I, I think the important thing is not perhaps what you do, but the context that you do it in and, uh, I would never detract one iota from the significance of what happened to this CORE group in Tallahassee, Pat [Patricia] Stephens, Priscilla Stephens, and, and, and, uh, those people, but outside of CORE echelons, I’m not sure how well that particular protest was known.

JM: Exactly.

TG: But I think we had had hundreds of students arrested, uh, in the early, in the early 1960s, uh, after the, the sit-in movement started up in, uh, Greensboro. And we, we had a context for the Friendship Nine, and I think it was being in the strategic place at the strategic time and it still merits a significant note historically because there were certainly other groups that could have done the same thing, but ours was the group that did the critical thing.

JM: I’m, I’m absolutely of that view, absolutely. [1:05:00] I’m, I’m trying to trace kind of how you, because you go to Miami in August of ‘60 and earlier in recounting that arrest there, you made it seem and, and I want to, I want to make sure I’m, I’m clear on this, the arrest there was intentional or kind of surprised you in a -

TG: Well, it, this was an Action Institute.

JM: Yeah.
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About this Item

Title
Thomas Walter Gaither oral history interview conducted by Joseph Mosnier in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 2011-09-12.
Summary
Thomas Gaither recalls growing up in Great Falls, South Carolina, attending Claflin College, and leading the college's National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) chapter. He remembers the student sit-ins in Orangeburg, South Carolina, joining the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and being arrested for protesting in Hollywood, Florida. He discusses organizing the Freedom Rides, his belief in nonviolence, and earning his PhD in biology at the University of Iowa.
Contributor Names
Civil Rights History Project (U.S.) (Creator)
Mosnier, Joseph (Interviewer)
Gaither, Thomas Walter, 1938- (Interviewee)
Created / Published
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, December 2011, 9
Subject Headings
-  Civil rights movements--United States
-  African American civil rights workers--Interviews
-  National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
-  Congress of Racial Equality
-  Freedom Rides, 1961
-  African American college students--Interviews
-  Nonviolence--Southern States--History--20th century
-  Civil rights demonstrations--Florida--Hollywood
-  Civil rights demonstrations--South Carolina--Orangeburg
-  Claflin College (Orangeburg, S.C.)
-  Interviews
-  Filmed interviews
-  Oral histories
-  United States -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
Genre
Interviews
Filmed interviews
Oral histories
Notes
-  Summary: Thomas Gaither recalls growing up in Great Falls, South Carolina, attending Claflin College, and leading the college's National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) chapter. He remembers the student sit-ins in Orangeburg, South Carolina, joining the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and being arrested for protesting in Hollywood, Florida. He discusses organizing the Freedom Rides, his belief in nonviolence, and earning his PhD in biology at the University of Iowa.
-  Biographical History: Thomas Gaither was born in 1938 in Great Falls, South Carolina, married Diane Jenner in 1968 and had two children. He attended Claflin University, Atlanta University, and the University of Iowa. He worked as a construction laborer, civil rights activist, forester, and biology professor at Slippery Rock University.
-  Acquisition Note: 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.
-  Existence and Location of Copies: Copies of items are also held at the National Museum of African American History and Culture (U.S.).
-  Conditions Governing Access: Collection is open for research. Access to recordings may be restricted. To request materials, please contact the Folklife Reading Room at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/folklife.contact
-  Related Archival Materials: Artifacts associated with the interview are at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Medium
9 video files of 9 (HD, Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (131 min.) : digital, sound, color. 1 transcript (63 pages)
Call Number/Physical Location
afc2010039_crhp0043_gaither_transcript.docx
afc2010039_crhp0043_mv01.mov
afc2010039_crhp0043_mv02.mov
afc2010039_crhp0043_mv03.mov
afc2010039_crhp0043_mv04.mov
afc2010039_crhp0043_mv05.mov
afc2010039_crhp0043_mv06.mov
afc2010039_crhp0043_mv07.mov
afc2010039_crhp0043_mv08.mov
afc2010039_crhp0043_mv09.mov
Source Collection
Civil Rights History Project, (U.S.) (AFC 2010/039)
Repository
American Folklife Center
Access Advisory
Collection is open for research. Access to recordings may be restricted. To request materials, please contact the Folklife Reading Room at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/folklife.contact
Language
English
Online Format
image
online text
video
Description
Thomas Gaither recalls growing up in Great Falls, South Carolina, attending Claflin College, and leading the college's National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) chapter. He remembers the student sit-ins in Orangeburg, South Carolina, joining the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and being arrested for protesting in Hollywood, Florida. He discusses organizing the Freedom Rides, his belief in nonviolence, and earning his PhD in biology at the University of Iowa.
IIIF Presentation Manifest
Manifest (JSON/LD)

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.

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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:

Civil Rights History Project, U.S, Joseph Mosnier, and Thomas Walter Gaither. Thomas Walter Gaither oral history interview conducted by Joseph Mosnier in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, -09-12. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, December , 9, 2011. Video. https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2010039_crhp0043/.

APA citation style:

Civil Rights History Project, U. S., Mosnier, J. & Gaither, T. W. (2011) Thomas Walter Gaither oral history interview conducted by Joseph Mosnier in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, -09-12. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, December , 9. [Video] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2010039_crhp0043/.

MLA citation style:

Civil Rights History Project, U.S, Joseph Mosnier, and Thomas Walter Gaither. Thomas Walter Gaither oral history interview conducted by Joseph Mosnier in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, -09-12. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, December , 9, 2011. Video. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/afc2010039_crhp0043/>.

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