- Collection:
- Oral Histories of the American South: The Civil Rights Movement
- Title:
- Oral history interview with Guy B. Johnson, December 16, 1974
- Creator:
- Johnson, Guy Benton, 1901-1991
- Contributor to Resource:
- Hall, Jacquelyn Dowd
Johnson, Guion Griffis, 1900-1989
Southern Oral History Program - Date of Original:
- 1974-12-16
- Subject:
- Southern Regional Council
North Carolina Committee for Interracial Cooperation
Civil rights workers--North Carolina
African Americans--Civil rights--North Carolina
Women civil rights workers--North Carolina
North Carolina--Race relations
Civil rights movements--North Carolina - People:
- Johnson, Guy Benton, 1901-1991
Johnson, Guion Griffis, 1900-1989
Ames, Jessie Daniel, 1883-1972 - Location:
- United States, North Carolina, 35.50069, -80.00032
- Medium:
- transcripts
sound recordings
oral histories (literary works) - Type:
- Text
Sound - Format:
- text/html
text/xml
audio/mpeg - Description:
- Dr. Guy Johnson was an author, a professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the first executive director of the Southern Regional Council (SRC). This interview focuses on his work with that organization and with the North Carolina Committee for Interracial Cooperation in the 1920s and 1930s. Johnson also promoted the education of blacks in the 1920s with Dr. N. C. Newbold, and he discusses other colleagues in that endeavor. Johnson describes the annual meetings of the Interracial Commission and the role of women and church groups in the organization, especially Gertrude Weil, Mrs. W. H. Newell, and Charlotte Hawkins Brown. Johnson's growing dissatisfaction with the Interracial Commission led him to accept the leading role at the SRC in 1943. He describes the forced resignation of one of its key members, Mrs. Jessie Daniel Ames, and some of the work she did in the early days of the SRC. As the new director, Johnson dealt with the difficulties in staffing and financing the SRC. He also witnessed controversy among the people with board membership in the SRC and the Committee on Interracial Cooperation. The issue of segregation proved highly contentious for the SRC, leading to disagreements among black and white members. Among the activities of the SRC during the first year were attempts at mass membership and the creation of publications. These activities also fueled conflicts between the SRC and the Southern Conference for Human Welfare, a more radical organization. The interview concludes with Johnson's analysis of the influence of foreign politics in the Southern Conference and the attempts of the SRC to emphasize and deal with post-war economic problems of the South as well as the racial issue. His wife, historian Dr. Guion Johnson, also contributed to this interview.
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/B-0006/menu.html
- Language:
- eng
- Extent:
- Title from menu page (viewed on August 10, 2007).
Interview participants: Guy B. Johnson, interviewee; Guion Johnson, interviewee; Jacquelyn Hall, interviewer.
Duration: 03:09:14.
This electronic edition is part of the UNC-CH digital library, Documenting the American South. It is a part of the collection Oral histories of the American South.
Text encoded by Mike Millner. Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers. - Contributing Institution:
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project)
- Rights:
-
