- Collection:
- Oral Histories of the American South: The Civil Rights Movement
- Title:
- Oral history interview with Daniel H. Pollitt, April 17, 1991
- Creator:
- Pollitt, Daniel H.
- Contributor to Resource:
- McColl, Ann
Southern Oral History Program - Date of Original:
- 1991-04-17
- Subject:
- Public interest lawyers--United States
Social movements--United States
Coal Miners' Strike, Harlan County, Ky., 1973
Public interest lawyers--United States--Political activity
Public interest law--United States
Rural Advancement Fund - People:
- Pollitt, Daniel H.
- Location:
- United States, Kentucky, Harlan County, 36.85697, -83.21795
- Medium:
- transcripts
sound recordings
oral histories (literary works) - Type:
- Text
Sound - Format:
- text/html
text/xml
audio/mpeg - Description:
- This is the final interview in a nine-part series with civil liberties lawyer Daniel H. Pollitt. In this interview, Pollitt focuses on his work with various organizations over the course of his career. He begins by describing his work with the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), both of which he discusses throughout the entire interview series. For Pollitt, the AAUP and the ACLU were particularly important organizations, and they were both significant in his career from the 1950s to the time of the interview in 1991. Pollitt also describes his work with the National Sharecroppers' Fund -- which was later known as the Rural Advancement Fund -- and Southerners for Economic Justice. Pollitt notes their interest in helping organize southern workers and in providing them with legal assistance. A particularly vivid portion of the interview outlines Pollitt's work on the Citizens' Inquiry into the 1973 strike of Duke Power workers at the Brookside Mine in Harlan County, Kentucky. As a member of the inquiry committee, Pollitt witnessed firsthand the violent consequences of the strike, the deplorable conditions Brookside Mine workers and their families lived in, and the eventual outcome of the strike. While Pollitt notes that Duke Power eventually submitted to most of the requests of the inquiry committee, he maintains that they should have done more to alleviate the situation for Brookside workers. Pollitt also discusses his experiences as a member of President Lyndon Johnson's "Think Tank" Committee during the mid-1960s, emphasizing the committee's work toward eradicating poverty. The interview concludes with Pollitt's plans to establish a public interest law school.
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/L-0064-9/menu.html
- Language:
- eng
- Extent:
- Title from menu page (viewed on Nov. 12, 2008).
Interview participants: Daniel H. Pollitt, interviewee; Ann McColl, interviewer.
Duration: 01:21:41.
This electronic edition is part of the UNC-Chapel Hill digital library, Documenting the American South. It is a part of the collection Oral histories of the American South.
Text encoded by Jennifer Joyner. Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers. - Contributing Institution:
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project)
- Rights:
-
