- Collection:
- Oral Histories of the American South: The Civil Rights Movement
- Title:
- Oral history interview with Alexander M. Rivera, November 30, 2001
- Creator:
- Rivera, Alex
- Contributor to Resource:
- Taylor, Kieran Walsh
Southern Oral History Program - Date of Original:
- 2001-11-30
- Subject:
- Howard University--Students--History--20th century
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
African American journalists
Riots--North Carolina--Wilmington--History--19th century
Military intelligence--United States--History--20th century
Segregation in education--Law and legislation--United States
Civil rights movements--North Carolina--Durham
Ghana--Foreign relations--United States
Photojournalists--Southern States--Interviews
African Americans--Civil rights--Southern States
African Americans--Segregation
Southern States--Race relations
Crime and the press--Southern States
Lynching--Southern State - People:
- Rivera, Alex
Anderson, Marian, 1897-1993 - Location:
- United States, North Carolina, Durham County, Durham, 35.99403, -78.89862
United States, North Carolina, New Hanover County, 34.18141, -77.86561
United States, North Carolina, New Hanover County, Wilmington, 34.22573, -77.94471 - Medium:
- transcripts
sound recordings
oral histories (literary works) - Type:
- Text
Sound - Format:
- text/html
text/xml
audio/mpeg - Description:
- This is the first of two interviews with African American photojournalist Alexander M. Rivera. Rivera was born in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1913. His family settled there after fleeing Wilmington following the race riot of 1898. Rivera recalls his father's involvement in the NAACP during the 1920s and 1930s and the influence of his progressive racial views. Following in his father's footsteps, Rivera became a student at Howard University in the early 1930s but had to leave school to work during the Great Depression. It was during these years that Rivera first began to work as a photojournalist in Washington, D.C. His coverage of Marian Anderson's concert at the Lincoln Memorial was the first major event he covered. In the late 1930s, Rivera returned to North Carolina and finished his education at North Carolina Central College. During World War II, Rivera worked for Naval Intelligence in Norfolk, Virginia. Shortly thereafter, he began to work for the Pittsburgh Courier, covering events in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. As a photojournalist for the Courier, Rivera covered such events as the Willie Earle lynching in South Carolina, the Isaiah Nixon lynching in Georgia, and the school desegregation cases of the 1950s. In recalling these events, Rivera illuminates the nature of race relations and racial violence that characterized Jim Crow segregation; the impact of the Brown v. Board of Education decision and the role of key players such as Thurgood Marshall; and the changing social landscape. Finally, he recalls his travels to Africa with Richard Nixon in 1957.
The Civil Rights Digital Library received support from a National Leadership Grant for Libraries awarded to the University of Georgia by the Institute of Museum and Library Services for the aggregation and enhancement of partner metadata. - Metadata URL:
- http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/C-0297/menu.html
- Language:
- eng
- Extent:
- Title from menu page (viewed on Oct. 29, 2008).
Interview participants: Alexander M. Rivera, interviewee; Kieran Taylor, interviewer.
Duration: 01:58:12.
This electronic edition is part of the UNC-Chapel Hill digital library, Documenting the American South. It is a part of the collection Oral histories of the American South.
Text encoded by Jennifer Joyner. Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers. - Contributing Institution:
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project)
- Rights:
-
