Oral history interview with Leroy Magness, March 27, 1999
Subtitle: interview K-0438, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Markey, Michelle, 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: 2007
Place of publication: [Chapel Hill, N.C.]
Language: eng
Subjects: Interviews; African American men; African Americans; Segregation; Attitudes; Race relations; Social life and customs
Other titles: Interview K-0438, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Leroy Magness, March 27, 1999; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: Leroy Magness spent most of his life in Lincolnton, NC, about thirty-five miles from Charlotte. A poet, and a man who "didn't want to be a troublemaker," Magness has an easy relationship with his past as an African American in a segregated southern town. He did not participate in the civil rights movement, nor approve of those that did, believing that good behavior was a better catalyst for change than activism. This determination to avoid conflict lies at the heart of this interview, and, it seems, at the heart of Magness's character. He will not place blame for segregation, and his principal memory of desegregation was some trouble between white and black students.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on Dec. 2, 2008).

Interview participants: Leroy Magness, interviewee; Michelle Markey, interviewer.

Duration: 01:21:45.

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.

Text (HTML and XML/TEI source file) and audio (MP3); 2 files: ca. 92 kilobytes, 149 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series K, Southern communities, interview K-0438, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Transcribed by Michelle Markey. Original transcript: 34 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.