Oral history interview with Paul Hardin, Jr., December 8, 1989
Subtitle: interview C-0071, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Mathews, Donald G., interviewer; Southern Oral History Program; 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: 2006
Place of publication: [Chapel Hill, N.C.]
Language: eng
Subjects: Interviews; Race relations; Methodist Church; Clergy; Students; Christianity; Civil rights; Emory University
Other titles: Interview C-0071, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Paul Hardin, Jr., December 8, 1989; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: Bishop Paul Hardin presided over the Council of Methodist Bishops during the 1960s and started the process of integrating the denomination. In this interview, he recalls how he got involved in Methodist ministry and became one of the first theology students at Emory University. He also describes some of the issues unique to leading a Southern congregation, especially controversy over racial integration. Hardin served as pastor for the First Methodist Church of Birmingham throughout the early 1960s and remembers welcoming black attendees while excluding the White Citizen's Council against the wishes of his congregation. He used humor and personal conviction to oppose Governor George Wallace's segregationist stance and push white and black pastors past their reservations about working together. His commitment to interracial cooperation stemmed from his support of the reunification of the Southern and Northern Methodists in 1939 and from his father's early support for integration. He feels his life work contrasts with Martin Luther King's criticism of him and other progressive ministers in the "Letter from Birmingham Jail."
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on Dec. 21, 2007).

Interview participants: Paul Hardin, Jr., interviewee; Donald Mathews, interviewer.

Duration: 01:23:00.

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.

Text (HTML and XML/TEI source file) and audio (MP3); 2 files: ca. 140.3 kilobytes, 152 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series C, Notable North Carolinians, interview C-0071, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Transcribed by Donald Mathews and Jovita Flynn. Original transcript: 42 p.

Funding from the Institute for 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.