- Collection:
- Oral Histories of the American South: The Civil Rights Movement
- Title:
- Oral history interview with Asa T. Spaulding, April 14, 1979
- Creator:
- Spaulding, Asa T. (Asa Timothy), 1902-1990
- Contributor to Resource:
- Weare, Walter B.
Southern Oral History Program - Date of Original:
- 1979-04-14
- Subject:
- African American executives--North Carolina--Durham
Durham (N.C.)--Race relations
African Americans--Civil rights--North Carolina--Durham
Segregation--North Carolina--Durham
Durham (N.C.)--Politics and government
North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company
African American business enterprises--North Carolina--Durham
Lowry family - People:
- Spaulding, Asa T. (Asa Timothy), 1902-1990
- Location:
- United States, North Carolina, Durham County, Durham, 35.99403, -78.89862
- Medium:
- transcripts
sound recordings
oral histories (literary works) - Type:
- Text
Sound - Format:
- text/html
text/xml
audio/mpeg - Description:
- Asa T. Spaulding, longtime actuary at the historically black North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company and its president from 1959 to 1968, recalls his efforts to prepare Durham, North Carolina, for desegregation. Spaulding grew up in an environment relatively free from discrimination, so after his education at New York University and the University of Michigan, he brought to Durham a determination that racial barriers were artificial and needed to be dismantled. He did so not with overt activism, but by using his influence to bring together white and black business leaders at North Carolina Mutual. These business meetings not only brought together creative thinkers, they also modeled successful integration before the civil rights movement had scored its victories in the early 1960s. In this interview, Spaulding reflects on how his growing influence as a business leader allowed him to make unique contributions to dismantling segregation in Durham.
Researchers and students might also consult the two other interviews with Spaulding in this collection, C-0013-1 and C-0013-3. Those interested in learning more about the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company and black business in the South might turn to the interviewer's book, Black Business in the New South: A Social History of the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company.
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-0013-2/menu.html
- Language:
- eng
- Extent:
- Title from menu page (viewed on June 2, 2008).
Interview participants: Asa T. Spaulding, interviewee; Walter Weare, interviewer.
Duration: 02:01:39.
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 Kristin Shaffer. Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers. - Contributing Institution:
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project)
- Rights:
-
