- Collection:
- Oral Histories of the American South: The Civil Rights Movement
- Title:
- Oral history interview with Igal Roodenko, April 11, 1974
- Creator:
- Roodenko, Igal
- Contributor to Resource:
- Hall, Jacquelyn Dowd
Adams, Charlotte, 1903?-2005
Felmet, Joseph, 1921-
Wingate, Jerry
Southern Oral History Program - Date of Original:
- 1974-04-11
- Subject:
- Civil rights--North Carolina
Civil rights workers--Southern States
Political activists--Southern States
Conscientious objectors--United States
Civil rights demonstrations--North Carolina--Chapel Hill
Congress of Racial Equality
Journey of Reconciliation, 1947
Segregation in transportation--Southern States
Civil rights movements--Southern States
African Americans--Civil rights--Southern States
Southern States--Race relations
African Americans--Segregation--Southern States
World War, 1939-1945--Protest movements--United States
Peace movements--United States
Chain gangs--North Carolina - People:
- Roodenko, Igal
Felmet, Joseph, 1921-1994
Adams, Charlotte, 1903?-2005 - Location:
- United States, North Carolina, Orange County, 36.0613, -79.1206
United States, North Carolina, Orange County, Chapel Hill, 35.9132, -79.05584
United States, Southern States, 33.346678, -84.119434 - Medium:
- transcripts
sound recordings
oral histories (literary works) - Type:
- Text
Sound - Format:
- text/html
text/xml
audio/mpeg - Description:
- Igal Roodenko was born to first-generation immigrants in New York City in 1917. Throughout the 1930s, Roodenko was drawn to leftist politics and pacifism. He describes the internal dilemma that he and other pacifists faced as they sought to reconcile their ideals of non-violence with their belief that Hitler's regime warranted opposition. Ultimately, Roodenko became a conscientious objector during the conflict. Rather than facing a prison sentence for his refusal to bear arms, Roodenko spent most of World War II in a camp for conscientious objectors. Increasingly involved in leftist politics during the war, Roodenko participated in hunger strikes while at the camp and eventually did serve time in prison. Following the war, he utilized his experiences with peace groups and Ghandian nonviolence to become a leader in the burgeoning civil rights movement. Roodenko speaks at length about his participation in the Journey of Reconciliation in 1947. Already a member of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), Roodenko helped to organize the Journey, an interracial endeavor to test the Supreme Court's ruling in the Irene Morgan case (1946) as it applied to public transportation in the South. Roodenko describes the strategies CORE employed as they tested segregation policies on buses for Trailways and Greyhound. In Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Roodenko and fellow activists were arrested for refusing to abide by the bus driver's demand that black and white passengers not sit together. He recalls the threat of mob violence against the activists and the role of Chapel Hill minister Charles Jones in helping them escape town safely. Roodenko and the other CORE activists lost their court appeal and he spent thirty days working on a segregated chain gang in North Carolina. His recollections in this interview help to illuminate activist strategies, interracial cooperation, and reasons for limited success as the civil rights movement began to build momentum in the late 1940s.
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-0010/menu.html
- Language:
- eng
- Extent:
- Title from menu page (viewed on July 30, 2008).
Interview participants: Igal Roodenko, interviewee; Joe Felmet, interviewee; Charlotte Adams, interviewee; Unidentified speaker; Jacquelyn Hall, interviewer; Jerry Wingate, interviewer.
Duration: 02:13:59.
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:
-
