- Collection:
- Greensboro Voices: Voicing Observations in Civil Rights and Equality struggles
- Title:
- Oral History Interview with Joe Flora by William Chafe
- Creator:
- Flora, Joe
- Contributor to Resource:
- Chafe, William H., 1942-
- Publisher:
- Greensboro, N.C. : The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. University Libraries
- Date of Original:
- 1974-09-26
- Subject:
- Greensboro (N.C.)--History--20th century
Race relations
Civil rights workers--North Carolina--Greensboro - Location:
- United States, North Carolina, Guilford County, Greensboro, 36.07264, -79.79198
- Medium:
- interviews
- Type:
- Text
- Format:
- image/jpeg
- Description:
- This September 26, 1974, oral history interview conducted by William Chafe with Joe Flora primarily documents Flora's experiences while a pastor at the First Presbyterian Church of Greensboro in the 1950s and 1960s. Flora discusses many of the prominent members of the church and their opinions on racial issues, including John and Betsey Taylor, Spencer Love, Mike Weaver, Howard Holderness, Charles Myers Jr., and Boyd Morris. Flora deplores the lack of pro-desegregation leadership from church-going business leaders, pastor John Redhead, and prominent white churches in general, including the lack of collaboration between First Presbyterian, First Baptist and Market Street United Methodist churches, and he suggests some reasons for their relative inactivity. He also discusses the integration of the church choir, starting an integrated coffee shop in the basement of the church, inviting a Catholic priest to speak, hosting an integrated celebration for St. James Presbyterian Church, and other controversial issues in the church. Flora also discusses the historical connections between Greensboro's Christian and Jewish communities and recalls A. W. McAlister's funeral conducted by a Catholic, a rabbi, black minister, and a Presbyterian minister. He recalls attending a interracial social event and its transforming effect on his life. Other topics include holding small discussion groups at a black prep school in Laurinburg, North Carolina, the Poor People's Campaign, his interactions with Reverend Tony Stanley and Cleo McCoy, the change in communication between races from the sixties to the seventies, black students need to connect to their identity as black, and the Neo-Black Society controversy at UNCG.
- Metadata URL:
- http://libcdm1.uncg.edu/cdm/ref/collection/CivilRights/id/731
- Language:
- eng
- Additional Rights Information:
- IN COPYRIGHT. This item is subject to copyright. Contact the contributing institution for permission to reuse.
- Original Collection:
- http://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/findingaids/chafe/
RL.00207 William Henry Chafe Oral History Collection
CRG - Contributing Institution:
- University of North Carolina at Greensboro. University Libraries
- Rights:
-
