Oral history interview with Ruth Vick, 1973
Subtitle: interview B-0057, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Hall, Jacquelyn Dowd, interviewer; Hall, Bob, 1944- interviewer; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project); University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library
Edition: Electronic ed.
Publisher: University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill
Published: 2007
Place of publication: [Chapel Hill, N.C.]
Language: eng
Subjects: Interviews; African American women civil rights workers; Civil rights movements; Race relations; African Americans; Civil rights; Social life and customs; Southern Regional Council
Other titles: Interview B-0057, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Ruth Vick, 1973; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: Ruth Vick joined the Southern Regional Council (SRC) in the 1940s, becoming its only black employee at the time, and rising through the ranks to become a board member at the time of the interview. In her lengthy conversation with two interviewers, Vick discusses decades of SRC history, describing its leadership, organizational details, internal politics, and the SRC's place in the growing civil rights movement. The SRC supported the direct action civil rights movement that emerged in force in the 1950s and 1960s but chose study over sit-ins as a means of change. Vick devotes a great deal of time to discussing the role of African Americans within the organization. The SRC was not immune to the pervasive racism of the segregated South, and African Americans struggled for recognition and equal treatment within the organization. This interview will be most useful to researchers interested in some of the organizational details of the Southern Regional Council.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on July 3, 2008).

Interview participants: Ruth Vick, interviewee; Jacquelyn Hall, interviewer; Bob Hall, interviewer.

Duration: 06:33:17.

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 Jennifer Joyner.  Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers.

Text (HTML and XML/TEI source file) and audio (MP3); 2 files: ca. 626 kilobytes, 721.1 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series B, Individual biographies, interview B-0057, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Transcribed by Jean Houston. Original transcript: 180 p.

Funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this interview.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

System requirements:  Web browser with Javascript enabled and multimedia player.