{"response":{"docs":[{"id":"noa_sohpcr_f-0039","title":"Oral history interview with Elizabeth and Courtney Siceloff, July 8, 1985","collection_id":"noa_sohpcr","collection_title":"Oral Histories of the American South: The Civil Rights Movement","dcterms_contributor":["Siceloff, Courtney","Blanchard, Dallas A.","Southern Oral History Program"],"dcterms_spatial":["United States, South Carolina, Beaufort County, Saint Helena Island, 32.38686, -80.56066","United States, Southern States, 33.346678, -84.119434"],"dcterms_creator":["Siceloff, Elizabeth, 1922-2003"],"dc_date":["1985-07-08"],"dcterms_description":["Elizabeth Siceloff began working with the Fellowship of Southern Churchmen (FSC) in 1945. Courtney Siceloff joined the organization after the two were married in 1949. Elizabeth served as a secretary for the FSC, while Courtney served as a minister with the organization. Coming from the Presbyterian and Methodist faiths respectively, the FSC blurred denominational lines. The Siceloffs describe the FSC as concerned with promoting the social gospel through worker education and economic justice. In 1950, they were assigned to the Penn School on Saint Helena Island, South Carolina, where they remained until 1969. During this time, civil rights leaders utilized the Penn School's interracial facilities. The Siceloffs discuss the shortcomings of the Fellowship and the problems with activist work. Despite the social purpose of the Fellowship, few females and blacks were appointed to executive positions. Elizabeth also acknowledges the difficulty of FSC work, as members had to weigh economic stability against following their consciences. Furthermore, much of the local press and several southern states opposed the work of the FSC. The Siceloffs discuss the theological divide within the organization and note that gender and generational tensions within the FSC were also a source of tension until Nelle Morton began working to eliminate cliques. The Siceloffs have high regard for Morton, who helped bolster the organizational strength of the FSC through a focus on strengthening its financial standing. After Morton's tenure, Howard \"Buck\" Kester took over. They describe Kester as a Christian renegade who focused more on promoting work camps than on bolstering the FSC organization. The Siceloffs describe how Kester and Myles Horton established Highlander Folk School but went different ways because of ideological differences. This separation was indicative of a larger, growing divide among FSC members, who debated whether the purpose and mission of the Fellowship was to continue field work or to focus on an organizational agenda.","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."],"dc_format":["text/html","text/xml","audio/mpeg"],"dcterms_identifier":null,"dcterms_language":["eng"],"dcterms_publisher":null,"dc_relation":["Forms part of Oral histories of the American South collection."],"dc_right":["http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/"],"dcterms_is_part_of":null,"dcterms_subject":["Fellowship of Southern Churchmen","Women civil rights workers","Women civil rights workers--Southern States","Civil rights workers--Southern States","Church and social problems--Southern States","Social justice--Southern States--Religious aspects--Christianity","Civil rights movements--Southern States","Penn School (Saint Helena Island, S.C.)"],"dcterms_title":["Oral history interview with Elizabeth and Courtney Siceloff, July 8, 1985"],"dcterms_type":["Text","Sound"],"dcterms_provenance":["University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project)"],"edm_is_shown_by":null,"edm_is_shown_at":["http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/F-0039/menu.html"],"dcterms_temporal":null,"dcterms_rights_holder":null,"dcterms_bibliographic_citation":null,"dlg_local_right":null,"dcterms_medium":["transcripts","sound recordings","oral histories (literary works)"],"dcterms_extent":["Title from menu page (viewed on July 30, 2008).","Interview participants: Elizabeth Siceloff, interviewee; Courtney Siceloff, interviewee; Dallas Blanchard, interviewer.","Duration: 01:21:17.","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."],"dlg_subject_personal":["Siceloff, Elizabeth, 1922-2003","Siceloff, Courtney"],"dcterms_subject_fast":null,"fulltext":null},{"id":"noa_sohpcr_f-0013","title":"Oral history interview with Jean Fairfax, October 15, 1983","collection_id":"noa_sohpcr","collection_title":"Oral Histories of the American South: The Civil Rights Movement","dcterms_contributor":["Blanchard, Dallas A.","Southern Oral History Program"],"dcterms_spatial":["United States, North Carolina, 35.50069, -80.00032","United States, Southern States, 33.346678, -84.119434"],"dcterms_creator":["Fairfax, Jean, 1920-"],"dc_date":["1985-03-06"],"dcterms_description":["Jean Fairfax was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. Following her education in theology, Fairfax moved South where she served as the Dean of Women at both Kentucky State College and Tuskegee Institute. Fairfax resided in the South from 1942 until 1946; thereafter, she spent two years abroad doing missionary work, after which she moved to New England. Around 1957, she returned to the South, where she became actively involved in the civil rights movement. In this interview, Fairfax focuses primarily on her perceptions of the Fellowship of Southern Churchmen, paying particular attention to its goals and its leaders. According to Fairfax, the primary goal of the Fellowship was to promote universal Christian fellowship. Because of the emphasis on unity, the Fellowship was increasingly concerned with issues of race and desegregation. Fairfax recalls that challenging racism was a present theme in the activities of the Fellowship while she was associated with the organization, and she asserts that its views on gender and class were also progressive. In addition, Fairfax describes leaders within the Fellowship. While she focuses primarily on the leadership roles and styles of Nelle Morton and Reinhold Niebuhr, she also offers her thoughts on such leaders as Howard \"Buck\" Kester, Charles Jones, and Will Campbell. Fairfax concludes that her work in the civil rights movement was a natural outgrowth of her involvement in the Fellowship of Southern Churchmen and explains that the Fellowship gave her both confidence in herself and in others in the pursuit of challenging Jim Crow segregation.","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."],"dc_format":["text/html","text/xml","audio/mpeg"],"dcterms_identifier":null,"dcterms_language":["eng"],"dcterms_publisher":null,"dc_relation":["Forms part of Oral histories of the American South collection."],"dc_right":["http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/"],"dcterms_is_part_of":null,"dcterms_subject":["Southern States--Race relations","Fellowship of Southern Churchmen","African American civil rights workers--North Carolina","African American women civil rights workers--Southern States","Civil rights movements--Southern States","Civil rights workers--Southern States","Civil rights--Religious aspects--Christianity"],"dcterms_title":["Oral history interview with Jean Fairfax, October 15, 1983"],"dcterms_type":["Text","Sound"],"dcterms_provenance":["University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project)"],"edm_is_shown_by":null,"edm_is_shown_at":["http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/F-0013/menu.html"],"dcterms_temporal":null,"dcterms_rights_holder":null,"dcterms_bibliographic_citation":null,"dlg_local_right":null,"dcterms_medium":["transcripts","sound recordings","oral histories (literary works)"],"dcterms_extent":["Title from menu page (viewed on Oct. 30, 2008).","Interview participants: Jean Fairfax, interviewee; Dallas Blanchard, interviewer.","Duration: 00:52:09.","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."],"dlg_subject_personal":["Fairfax, Jean, 1920-2019"],"dcterms_subject_fast":null,"fulltext":null},{"id":"noa_sohpcr_f-0017","title":"Oral history interview with Virginia Grantham, March 6, 1985","collection_id":"noa_sohpcr","collection_title":"Oral Histories of the American South: The Civil Rights Movement","dcterms_contributor":["Blanchard, Dallas A.","Southern Oral History Program"],"dcterms_spatial":["United States, North Carolina, Guilford County, Greensboro, 36.07264, -79.79198"],"dcterms_creator":["Grantham, Virginia"],"dc_date":["1985-03-06"],"dcterms_description":["Virginia Grantham became a participant in the Fellowship of Southern Churchmen when she moved to North Carolina (probably during the late 1930s or early 1940s). Grantham's participation became more overt in the late 1940s when she and her husband settled in Greensboro, North Carolina, where he taught history at University of North Carolina at Greensboro. In this interview, Grantham discusses various leaders and figures within the Fellowship and offers her thoughts on that group's relationship to various social and political issues. After briefly discussing the role of socialism within the Fellowship, Grantham shifts her focus to the Fellowship's relationship to the civil rights movement. She explains that she was interested in the Fellowship because of her own support of desegregation. She concludes the interview by discussing the sit-in movement in Greensboro and the overlap between members of the Fellowship and civil rights activists.","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."],"dc_format":["text/html","text/xml","audio/mpeg"],"dcterms_identifier":null,"dcterms_language":["eng"],"dcterms_publisher":null,"dc_relation":["Forms part of Oral histories of the American South collection."],"dc_right":["http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/"],"dcterms_is_part_of":null,"dcterms_subject":["Southern States--Race relations","Fellowship of Southern Churchmen","Civil rights movements--Southern States","Women civil rights workers--North Carolina"],"dcterms_title":["Oral history interview with Virginia Grantham, March 6, 1985"],"dcterms_type":["Text","Sound"],"dcterms_provenance":["University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project)"],"edm_is_shown_by":null,"edm_is_shown_at":["http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/F-0017/menu.html"],"dcterms_temporal":null,"dcterms_rights_holder":null,"dcterms_bibliographic_citation":null,"dlg_local_right":null,"dcterms_medium":["transcripts","sound recordings","oral histories (literary works)"],"dcterms_extent":["Title from menu page (viewed on May 6, 2008).","Interview participants: Virginia Grantham, interviewee; Dallas Blanchard, interviewer.","Duration: 00:24:16.","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 Jennifer Joyner. Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers."],"dlg_subject_personal":["Grantham, Virginia"],"dcterms_subject_fast":null,"fulltext":null},{"id":"noa_sohpcr_f-0029","title":"Oral history interview with James Lawson, October 24, 1983","collection_id":"noa_sohpcr","collection_title":"Oral Histories of the American South: The Civil Rights Movement","dcterms_contributor":["Blanchard, Dallas A.","Southern Oral History Program"],"dcterms_spatial":["United States, Tennessee, Davidson County, Nashville, 36.16589, -86.78444"],"dcterms_creator":["Lawson, James M., 1928-"],"dc_date":["1983-10-24"],"dcterms_description":["James M. Lawson was a key ally to Martin Luther King Jr. and also an important theoretician and practitioner of nonviolent protest. After briefly summarizing his childhood in Pennsylvania, Lawson describes how he became involved with the Fellowship of Southern Churchmen through activist preacher Will D. Campbell. Lawson's activism began during his time in Nashville, Tennessee. He relates how the Fisk and Vanderbilt students learned nonviolent protest, and describes how he helped organize and execute the Nashville sit-ins. Lawson devotes much of the interview to discussions of his relationship with various civil rights activists, including Kelly Miller Smith, Nelle Morton, Myles Horton, James Dombrowski, and James Holloway. Though Lawson was expelled from Vanderbilt because of his involvement with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and his participation in the sit-ins, he remembers that several of the faculty members offered him a great amount of personal support. He also reconciled with some of his opponents later in life. Lawson closes the interview by asserting that the actions of the 1950s and 1960s emerged from the union and labor rights movements of the 1930s and 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."],"dc_format":["text/html","text/xml","audio/mpeg"],"dcterms_identifier":null,"dcterms_language":["eng"],"dcterms_publisher":null,"dc_relation":["Forms part of Oral histories of the American South collection."],"dc_right":["http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/"],"dcterms_is_part_of":null,"dcterms_subject":["Southern States--Race relations","Fellowship of Southern Churchmen","African Americans--Religion","African American civil rights workers--Tennessee--Nashville","Civil rights movements--Tennessee--Nashville","African Americans--Civil rights--Tennessee--Nashville"],"dcterms_title":["Oral history interview with James Lawson, October 24, 1983"],"dcterms_type":["Text","Sound"],"dcterms_provenance":["University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project)"],"edm_is_shown_by":null,"edm_is_shown_at":["http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/F-0029/menu.html"],"dcterms_temporal":null,"dcterms_rights_holder":null,"dcterms_bibliographic_citation":null,"dlg_local_right":null,"dcterms_medium":["transcripts","sound recordings","oral histories (literary works)"],"dcterms_extent":["Title from menu page (viewed on Nov. 19, 2008).","Interview participants: James Lawson, interviewee; Dallas A. Blanchard, interviewer.","Duration: 00:42:11.","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 Kristin Shaffer. Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers."],"dlg_subject_personal":["Lawson, James M., 1928-"],"dcterms_subject_fast":null,"fulltext":null},{"id":"noa_sohpcr_f-0006","title":"Oral history interview with David Burgess, August 12, 1983","collection_id":"noa_sohpcr","collection_title":"Oral Histories of the American South: The Civil Rights Movement","dcterms_contributor":["Blanchard, Dallas A.","Southern Oral History Program"],"dcterms_spatial":["United States, Southern States, 33.346678, -84.119434"],"dcterms_creator":["Burgess, David S., 1917-"],"dc_date":["1983-08-12"],"dcterms_description":["Born in New York City and educated at Oberlin College and Union Theological Seminary, David Burgess spent his life living his religious convictions through a devotion to economic and racial justice. In this interview, he recalls his involvement with some vanguard rights organizations, such as the Fellowship of Southern Churchmen, and early rights activists like Buck Kester. Burgess argues that groups like the Fellowship not only helped put the civil rights struggle in a religious context, but set the stage for the dramatic movement that would dominate the South in the 1950s and 1960s. This interview is useful for, among others, students of the early civil rights movement as well as researchers interested in the contribution of white Christian southerners.","NOTE: Please also refer to another interview with David Burgess in this collection, E-0001. Poor transcription can make this a difficult interview to read. Listening recommended.","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."],"dc_format":["text/html","text/xml","audio/mpeg"],"dcterms_identifier":null,"dcterms_language":["eng"],"dcterms_publisher":null,"dc_relation":["Forms part of Oral histories of the American South collection."],"dc_right":["http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/"],"dcterms_is_part_of":null,"dcterms_subject":["Southern States--Race relations","Fellowship of Southern Churchmen","Civil rights movements--Southern States","Social reformers--Southern States","Social movements--Southern States","Social justice--Religious aspects--Christianity","Social reformers--Southern States--Attitudes"],"dcterms_title":["Oral history interview with David Burgess, August 12, 1983"],"dcterms_type":["Text","Sound"],"dcterms_provenance":["University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project)"],"edm_is_shown_by":null,"edm_is_shown_at":["http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/F-0006/menu.html"],"dcterms_temporal":null,"dcterms_rights_holder":null,"dcterms_bibliographic_citation":null,"dlg_local_right":null,"dcterms_medium":["transcripts","sound recordings","oral histories (literary works)"],"dcterms_extent":["Title from menu page (viewed on Oct. 30, 2008).","Interview participants: David Burgess, interviewee; Dallas A. Blanchard, interviewer.","Duration: 01:11:26.","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."],"dlg_subject_personal":["Burgess, David S., 1917-","Kester, Howard, 1904-1977"],"dcterms_subject_fast":null,"fulltext":null},{"id":"noa_sohpcr_f-0036","title":"Oral history interview with Nancy Kester Neale, August 6, 1983","collection_id":"noa_sohpcr","collection_title":"Oral Histories of the American South: The Civil Rights Movement","dcterms_contributor":["Blanchard, Dallas A.","Southern Oral History Program"],"dcterms_spatial":["United States, Southern States, 33.346678, -84.119434"],"dcterms_creator":["Neale, Nancy Alice Kester, 1934-"],"dc_date":["1983-08-06"],"dcterms_description":["Nancy Kester Neale remembers her father, Howard \"Buck\" Kester, who founded the Southern Tenant Farmers Union and held leadership positions in the Fellowship of Southern Churchmen and the Committee on Economic and Racial Justice. According to Neale, Kester was a pioneer whose activism demonstrated the power that religious organizations could play in improving the lives of the southern underclass. This interview is at times light on specifics, but is a useful look at the role of religious organizations in the struggle for economic and racial justice in the South well before the modern civil rights movement gained strength.","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."],"dc_format":["text/html","text/xml","audio/mpeg"],"dcterms_identifier":null,"dcterms_language":["eng"],"dcterms_publisher":null,"dc_relation":["Forms part of Oral histories of the American South collection."],"dc_right":["http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/"],"dcterms_is_part_of":null,"dcterms_subject":["Fellowship of Southern Churchmen","Women civil rights workers","Women social reformers--Southern States","Social movements--Southern States--Religious aspects--Christianity","Social justice--Southern States--Religious aspects--Christianity"],"dcterms_title":["Oral history interview with Nancy Kester Neale, August 6, 1983"],"dcterms_type":["Text","Sound"],"dcterms_provenance":["University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project)"],"edm_is_shown_by":null,"edm_is_shown_at":["http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/F-0036/menu.html"],"dcterms_temporal":null,"dcterms_rights_holder":null,"dcterms_bibliographic_citation":null,"dlg_local_right":null,"dcterms_medium":["transcripts","sound recordings","oral histories (literary works)"],"dcterms_extent":["Title from menu page (viewed on July 7, 2008).","Interview participants: Nancy Kester Neale, interviewee; Dallas Blanchard, interviewer.","Duration: 01:10:33.","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 Jennifer Joyner. Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers."],"dlg_subject_personal":["Kester, Alice Harris","Kester, Howard, 1904-1977","Neale, Nancy Alice Kester, 1934-"],"dcterms_subject_fast":null,"fulltext":null},{"id":"noa_sohpcr_f-0034","title":"Oral history interview with Nelle Morton, June 29, 1983","collection_id":"noa_sohpcr","collection_title":"Oral Histories of the American South: The Civil Rights Movement","dcterms_contributor":["Blanchard, Dallas A.","Southern Oral History Program"],"dcterms_spatial":["United States, Southern States, 33.346678, -84.119434"],"dcterms_creator":["Morton, Nelle, 1905-"],"dc_date":["1983-06-29"],"dcterms_description":["Nelle Morton grew up in Kingsport, Tennessee. In 1925, she graduated from Flora MacDonald College in North Carolina and became a teacher. A few years later, Morton completed graduate work at the General Assembly Training School in Virginia and at the Biblical Seminary in New York City. By 1944, she had become the general secretary of the Fellowship of Southern Churchmen. Prior to assuming leadership within the Fellowship, Morton had worked closely with its founders. In this interview, she spends considerable time discussing her perception of various leaders within the Fellowship, including Howard \"Buck\" Kester, Thomas \"Scotty\" Cowan, Charles Johnson, and Reinhold Niebuhr. According to Morton, the Fellowship was founded in order to promote more radical ideas about race relations and integrations among southern churches. In explaining the goals and strategies of the Fellowship, Morton focuses on aspects of religion in the South, the Fellowship's efforts to ensure integration within their own organization, and its stance on other issues related to labor and rural people. Throughout the interview, she emphasizes the communal spirit of the Fellowship and stresses their pioneering work in integration. Particularly interesting examples she offers include her description of an integrated summer camp for children at her family's farm in Kingsport and efforts of the Fellowship to integrate places like community pools. In addition to describing the strategies, successes, and limitations of the Fellowship, Morton describes how her work with the Fellowship made her cognizant of other inequalities related to gender. She describes the challenges of being a woman leader in the Fellowship; these included the discrimination she faced during her tenure as the general secretary from 1944 to 1950. Morton later became actively involved in the women's movement and suggests here that it was her work with issues of race and labor that enabled her to recognize discrimination against, and oppression of, women.","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."],"dc_format":["text/html","text/xml","audio/mpeg"],"dcterms_identifier":null,"dcterms_language":["eng"],"dcterms_publisher":null,"dc_relation":["Forms part of Oral histories of the American South collection."],"dc_right":["http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/"],"dcterms_is_part_of":null,"dcterms_subject":["Fellowship of Southern Churchmen","Women civil rights workers","Women social reformers--Southern States","Social movements--Religious aspects--Christianity--Southern States","Civil rights movements--Southern States","Civil rights workers--United States","African Americans--Segregation--Southern States","Sex discrimination against women--United States"],"dcterms_title":["Oral history interview with Nelle Morton, June 29, 1983"],"dcterms_type":["Text","Sound"],"dcterms_provenance":["University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project)"],"edm_is_shown_by":null,"edm_is_shown_at":["http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/F-0034/menu.html"],"dcterms_temporal":null,"dcterms_rights_holder":null,"dcterms_bibliographic_citation":null,"dlg_local_right":null,"dcterms_medium":["transcripts","sound recordings","oral histories (literary works)"],"dcterms_extent":["Title from menu page (viewed on Dec. 5, 2008).","Interview participants: Nelle Morton, interviewee; Dallas A. Blanchard, interviewer.","Duration: 03:41:16.","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."],"dlg_subject_personal":["Morton, Nelle, 1905-1987"],"dcterms_subject_fast":null,"fulltext":null},{"id":"noa_sohpcr_e-0001","title":"Oral history interview with David Burgess, September 25, 1974","collection_id":"noa_sohpcr","collection_title":"Oral Histories of the American South: The Civil Rights Movement","dcterms_contributor":["Hall, Jacquelyn Dowd","Finger, William R.","Southern Oral History Program"],"dcterms_spatial":["United States, South Carolina, 34.00043, -81.00009"],"dcterms_creator":["Burgess, David S., 1917-"],"dc_date":["1974-09-25"],"dcterms_description":["Following his early life in China as a child of missionary parents, David Burgess returned to the United States to attend Oberlin College and Union Theological Seminary, where he cultivated a social activist worldview. His religious beliefs dovetailed with his social activism: Burgess explains how his educational background initially led him to conscientiously object to World War II. However, his ideological intimacy with Union Theological Seminary professor Reinhold Niebuhr caused Burgess to enter the military draft. For health reasons, however, he was not admitted to the military. Burgess's relationship with Niebuhr also had a profound impact on his later labor activism. Burgess and his wife, Alice Stevens, eventually moved to south Florida to focus on southern labor issues. He worked tirelessly to improve the working conditions, political options, and housing status of southern workers. Burgess discusses obstacles to labor organizing he faced in the South, including charges that he was a communist. He discusses his organizational and administrative work with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), largely in Rock Hill, South Carolina, and Atlanta, Georgia, during the late 1940s and early 1950s. During this time, Burgess began to alter his perception of larger labor groups like the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the CIO. Working as a CIO administrator placed him in a difficult position as an enemy to both black and white workers. Burgess blames the lack of organizational strength of the CIO on Walter Reuther's leadership. As the CIO and AFL merged, Reuther failed to maintain labor organizing as the central focus of the labor group. Burgess came to view the AFL-CIO merger as the beginning of further racial and inter-union frictions and a decline in idealism. In 1955, Burgess requested a labor ambassadorship to Burma. Despite being rejected because of his affiliation with communist groups, Burgess conducted international labor work until the late 1970s. Burgess assesses the racial and social changes in the South following his return in 1977.","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."],"dc_format":["text/html","text/xml","audio/mpeg"],"dcterms_identifier":null,"dcterms_language":["eng"],"dcterms_publisher":null,"dc_relation":["Forms part of Oral histories of the American South collection."],"dc_right":["http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/"],"dcterms_is_part_of":null,"dcterms_subject":["Southern States--Race relations","Trade-unions--Southern States","AFL-CIO","Fellowship of Southern Churchmen","Labor movement--South Carolina","Labor unions--Southern States--Officials and employees","Labor unions--Organizing--Southern States","Labor unions--Southern States--Political activity","Congress of Industrial Organizations (U.S.)","Labor unions--Southern States--Religious aspects","Church work with the working class--Southern States","Labor unions and communism"],"dcterms_title":["Oral history interview with David Burgess, September 25, 1974"],"dcterms_type":["Text","Sound"],"dcterms_provenance":["University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project)"],"edm_is_shown_by":null,"edm_is_shown_at":["http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/E-0001/menu.html"],"dcterms_temporal":null,"dcterms_rights_holder":null,"dcterms_bibliographic_citation":null,"dlg_local_right":null,"dcterms_medium":["transcripts","sound recordings","oral histories (literary works)"],"dcterms_extent":["Title from menu page (viewed on July 31, 2008).","Interview participants: David Burgess, interviewee; Jacquelyn Hall, interviewer; Bill Finger, interviewer.","uration: 01:32:40.","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."],"dlg_subject_personal":["Graham, Frank Porter, 1886-1972","Burgess, David S., 1917-"],"dcterms_subject_fast":null,"fulltext":null},{"id":"noa_sohpcr_b-0007-2","title":"Oral history interview with Howard Kester, August 25, 1974","collection_id":"noa_sohpcr","collection_title":"Oral Histories of the American South: The Civil Rights Movement","dcterms_contributor":["Frederickson, Mary","Southern Oral History Program"],"dcterms_spatial":["United States, South Carolina, Beaufort County, Saint Helena Island, 32.38686, -80.56066","United States, Southern States, 33.346678, -84.119434","United States, Tennessee, Davidson County, Nashville, 36.16589, -86.78444"],"dcterms_creator":["Kester, Howard, 1904-1977"],"dc_date":["1974-08-25"],"dcterms_description":["Howard Kester was a Socialist and Christian who advocated for social justice causes throughout the South from the mid-1920s through the 1960s. In this interview, he discusses his involvement with such organizations as the YMCA and YWCA, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the Fellowship of Southern Churchmen, the Committee on Economic and Racial Justice, the Penn School, the Southern Summer School for Women Workers, and the Southern Tenant Farmers Union. Throughout the interview, Kester emphasizes his radical Christian values and Socialist leanings in relationship to his beliefs regarding fundamental human equality. Kester equates the struggles of African Americans with those of workers, and views social justice issues as relevant to all Americans, regardless of their social standing. He discusses both the progress made towards these ends as well as the obstacles that remained, primarily during the 1930s and 1940s. 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