Oral history interview with Clark Foreman, November 16, 1974
Subtitle: interview B-0003, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Hall, Jacquelyn Dowd, interviewer; Finger, William R., interviewer; Foreman, Mairi, interviewee; 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; Civil rights workers; Attitudes; Officials and employees; Economic conditions; Civil rights; Race relations; New Deal, 1933-1939; Politics and government; Social conditions; Commission on Interracial Cooperation; Southern Conference for Human Welfare; Phelps-Stokes Fund; Julius Rosenwald Fund; Southern Regional Council; Black Mountain College (Black Mountain, N.C.); National Citizens Political Action Committee
Other titles: Interview B-0003, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Clark Foreman, November 16, 1974; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: This interview covers three separate conversations with Clark Foreman regarding his career in race relations, public service, and politics. His childhood in Georgia and his travels in Europe led to his work for the Commission on Interracial Cooperation in Atlanta with Will Alexander. His enduring reputation as a radical and rumored communist began during his tenure with the Phelps-Stokes and Julius Rosenwald Funds. He acted out his growing commitment to integration and political equality while supervising New Deal projects for the Department of the Interior, the state parks, the interdepartmental committee on Negro affairs, and the power division of the Public Works Authority. This interview also addresses his attempts to provide more public housing for African Americans, and his opinion of leadership styles within the Interracial Commission and the Southern Conference for Human Welfare. He explains why the Southern Conference needed to endorse the Henry Wallace 1948 campaign, even though it was unsuccessful. He also compares the contributions of socialists and communists to the Southern Conference at state and national levels. Foreman lost jobs over false reports that he endorsed communism or was too aggressive in his work. The interview concludes with comments by Clark and Mairi Foreman about his work with Black Mountain College, the Navy, and the National Citizens PAC, especially focusing on how his children developed radical views during those years.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on March 14, 2008).

Interview participants: Clark Foreman, interviewee; Mairi Foreman, interviewee; Jacquelyn Hall, interviewer; Bill Finger, interviewer.

Duration: 04:55:32.

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. 328 kilobytes, 541 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series B, Individual biographies, interview B-0003, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Transcribed by Linda Killen. Original transcript: 94 p.

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

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

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