KZSU Project South Interviews
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf7489n969 Online items available Guide to the KZSU Project South Interviews Daniel Hartwig Stanford University. Libraries.Department of Special Collections and University Archives Stanford, California 2000 Copyright © 2015 The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved. Note This encoded finding aid is compliant with Stanford EAD Best Practice Guidelines, Version 1.0. Guide to the KZSU Project South SC0066 1 Interviews Overview Call Number: SC0066 Creator: Becker, Mary Kay. Creator: Dalrymple, Mark David Creator: Dankert, Roger. Creator: Gillam, Richard Arthur. Creator: KZSU (Radio station: Stanford, Calif.) Creator: McRae, James Dean. Creator: Niland, Penelope. Creator: Roise, Jonathan Harold., 1945-2012 Creator: Stanford University. Institute of American History Creator: Wells, Judith Lee. Title: KZSU Project South interviews Dates: 1965-1976 Physical Description: 7 Linear feet Language(s): The materials are in English. Repository: Department of Special Collections and University Archives Green Library 557 Escondido Mall Stanford, CA 94305-6064 Email: [email protected] Phone: (650) 725-1022 URL: http://library.stanford.edu/spc Custodial History Gift of Richard Gillam and KZSU, 1969. Information about Access The materials are open for research use. Ownership & Copyright Property rights reside with the repository. Literary rights reside with the creators of the documents or their heirs. To obtain permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the Public Services Librarian of the Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives. Cite As KZSU Project South Interviews (SC0066). Department of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif. Alternative Formats The transcripts and audio recordings have been digitized and are available for online review by clicking on the hyperlinks under each interview. Location of Originals Original audiotapes are held in the Stanford Archive of Recorded Sound. Historical Note During the summer of 1965, eight students from Stanford University spent ten weeks in the southern states tape-recording information on the civil rights movement. The eight interviewers -- Mary Kay Becker, Mark Dalrymple, Roger Dankert, Richard Gillam, James McRae, Penny Niland, Jon Roise, and Julie Wells -- were sponsored by KZSU, Stanford's student radio station, and their original intent was to gather material suitable for rebroadcasting in the form of radio programs. Much attention was focused on white civil rights workers, although a great deal of other documentation relevant to black history was also obtained: the interviewers visited over fifty civil rights projects in six states (see appendix) and secured three hundred and thirty hours of recordings, including over two hundred hours of personal interviews. In addition to interviewing members of various, well-known civil rights groups -- the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Southern Christian Guide to the KZSU Project South SC0066 2 Interviews Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC or `Snick') -- the student interviewers also recorded the formal and the informal remarks of those working with smaller, independent civil rights projects, of local blacks associated with the civil rights movement, and of many others including Ku Klux Klansmen and Southerners connected with the Sheriff's Department of Clay County, Mississippi. The interviewers, in addition, spoke with many white volunteers who participated in Snick's `Washington Lobby' (aimed at unseating the all-white Mississippi Congressional Delegation) but who did not actually go south. Several of the two-man interview teams recorded parts of the Jackson, Bougalusa, Greensboro, Crawfordsville, and West Point demonstrations, and also gathered various other action tapes of civil rights workers canvassing voters, conducting freedom schools, or participating in demonstrations. Finally, the interviewers recorded many mass meetings and gathered much material on the orientation sessions of MFDP in Hattiesburg, Mississippi and of SCLC in Atlanta, Georgia. All of these original tape recordings are now housed in the Library of Recorded Sound, Stanford, California. The following pages contain transcripts of the majority of recordings mentioned above. It is hoped that these volumes will rescue from obscurity a body of information which we believe can be of great use both to scholars and to laymen interested in the dramatic history of the civil rights movement during the past decade. This material may prove to be especially valuable because it concerns a transitional period between the first `freedom summer' of 1964, the high tide of civil rights, and the `Meredith March of 1966 during which Stokely Carmichael first voiced the compelling cry of `Black Power'. In fact, at least one essay and a documentary history based on these recordings are already in progress, and it is expected that more will soon follow. Many of the interviewees are identified by name on the first page of the transcripts which follow. Because of the long time which has already elapsed since the interviews were recorded, however, it is requested that these names not be used in print unless the written consent of the interviewees concerned is first obtained. In closing, we would like to express our thanks to the Stanford Institute of American History and to the Stanford Library for financial support which made possible the transcription of the original recordings. We would also like to thank Mrs. Betty Eldon of the Institute of American History who accepted the added burden of paperwork connected with this transcription project with tolerance and good humor. Finally, we acknowledge a particular debt to Professor George Knoles for his unfailing encouragement and support. Richard Gillam James D. McRae Palo Alto January 1969 Scope and Content This collection contains transcribed meetings and interviews with Civil Rights workers in the South recorded by several Stanford students affiliated with the campus radio station KZSU during the summer of 1965. The project was sponsored by the Institute of American History at Stanford. The collection includes information relating to black history; interviews of members of the Congress of Racial Equality, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, the NAACP, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee; transcripts of formal and informal remarks of persons working with smaller, independent civil rights projects, of local blacks associated with the civil rights movement, and other people, including Ku Klux Klansmen; transcribed action tapes of civil rights workers canvassing voters, conducting freedom schools, or participating in demonstration; speeches by and/or interviews with Ralph David Abernathy, Charles Evers, James Farmer, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Hosea Williams; and a Ku Klux Klan meeting and speech made by Robert Sheldon, its Imperial Wizard. Access Terms Abernathy, Ralph David, 1926-1990 Congress of Racial Equality. Evers, Charles, 1922- Farmer, James. King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968. Ku Klux Klan (1915- ) KZSU (Radio station: Stanford, Calif.) McDaniel, Edward L., 1934-2011. Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Guide to the KZSU Project South SC0066 3 Interviews Shelton, Robert M., 1929-2003. Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (U.S.). Williams, Hosea. African Americans--Civil rights--United States. Audiotapes. Civil rights movements--United States. Civil rights--United States. Interviews. Appendix: Projects Visited Alabama - Southern Christian Leadership Conference Demopolis Greensboro Greenville Luverne Marion Midway Montgomery Selma (also the SNCC project located there) Arkansas - Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Little Rock - state headquarters Georgia - Southern Christian Leadership Conference Atlanta - Southern headquarters of SCLC & SNCC Crawfordville Macon Louisiana - Congress of Racial Equality Baton Rouge - state headquarters Bogalusa Clinton Ferriday Greensburg Homer Jonesboro Minden Monroe New Orleans project New Roads Plaquemine - evaluation session Shreveport Southern Regional CORE office St. Francisville Tallulah Waveland, Miss. - orientation Mississippi - Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party Batesville Beasley Belzoni Biloxi Guide to the KZSU Project South SC0066 4 Interviews Canton Clarksdale Cleveland Greenville Greenwood Hattiesburg - orientation Holly Springs Indianola Jackson - state headquarters Laurel McComb Mileston Mt. Beulah Natchez Phela Philadelphia Quitman Ruleville Shaw Vicksburg West Point Whites South Carolina - Southern Christian Leadership Conference Columbia Orangeburg Interviews 1965 White CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) Volunteers Box 1, Folder 1 Meldon, Acheson, white, male, CORE student summer volunteer, 0290, Ferriday, Louisiana Box 1, Folder 2 Danbert, ?, white, male, CORE Staff member, 0037 Box 1, Folder 3 Anonymous, white, male, CORE volunteer, 0028, Bogalusa, Louisiana Box 1, Folder 4 Charles [UNK], white, male, CORE student volunteer, 0044 - 1 (side 2), Bogalusa, Louisiana. Box 1, Folder 5 Michael Clurman, white, male, CORE volunteer, 0287 (sides 1 and 2), Ferriday, Louisiana