- Collection:
- Southern Journey Oral History Collection
- Title:
- North Carolina - Greensboro: George Simkins Interviewee
- Contributor to Resource:
- Dent, Thomas C.
- Date of Original:
- 1991-01-24
- Subject:
- African Americans
Civil rights demonstrations
Segregation
Voter registration
Education
Civil rights - Location:
- United States, North Carolina, Guilford County, Greensboro, 36.07264, -79.79198
- Medium:
- sound recordings
- Type:
- Sound
- Format:
- audio/mpeg
- Description:
- Tom Dent interviews George Simkins in Greensboro, North Carolina. He talks about how he became involved in the civil rights movement. He played a round of golf on a Whites only city owned golf course in 1955 and was arrested with five others. He talks about his legal defense. When the course was closed, Simkins and others sent a group to swim in the local pool. The city closed the pool too. The group then moved into voter registration. His legal case was lost in the State Supreme Court and they appealed to the Federal Supreme Court, where they also lost on a technicality. As the city opened more recreational facilities, they starting suing and were able to open up some of the golf courses. They also fought to desegregate Cone Hospital and Wesley Long Hospital. They won at the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. They also filed a case with the Greensboro School Board to integrate the schools. He talks about his involvement with Greensboro Sit-ins. The NAACP gave their support. He called CORE in Chicago to ask for help. Simkins gives his impressions of the current state of race relations in Greensboro. He thinks the schools are in bad shape and blames President Ronald Reagan. He gives his impressions of Greensboro as a conservative town and talks about the struggle the African American community faced when trying to get the all-White City Council to implement a district system. Dent and Simkins are joined by attorney Walter Johnson, a member of the school board, who also weighs in on Greensboro as a conservative city. They discuss Greensboro's reputation for activism. Johnson gives his impressions of former North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University [A&T] president Warmoth T. Gibbs.
- Metadata URL:
- https://digitallibrary.tulane.edu/islandora/object/tulane:53902
- Contributing Institution:
- Amistad Research Center
- Rights:
-
