Oral history interview with Floyd McKissick, December 6, 1973
Subtitle: interview A-0134, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Bass, Jack, interviewer; De Vries, Walter, 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 lawyers; African American civil rights workers; African American political activists; Race relations; African Americans; Civil rights; Segregation in transportation; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. School of Law; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Other titles: Interview A-0134, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Floyd McKissick, December 6, 1973; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: Floyd McKissick discusses a lifetime of politics and activism in this interview. McKissick was a devoted civil rights activist before and after World War II, integrating the law school of the University of North Carolina and aiding students in sit-ins in the 1960s. In 1966, he took over leadership of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), one of the nation's most prominent civil rights organizations. Shortly thereafter, he left CORE to contribute to the development of Soul City, a town in rural North Carolina intended to showcase the economic potential of a new kind of community. In this 1973 interview, McKissick reflects on the civil rights movement and its legacies. McKissick held that African American leaders needed to find pragmatic solutions for solidifying the gains won with legal battles and public protests in the 1960s. One such solution, he believed, was to demonstrate the economic and social viability of a town free from racism: Soul City. In addition to considering broad themes of the civil rights movement and Soul City, McKissick moves through the interviewer's list of questions about race and rights, answering queries about busing, averring his support for the legacy of former governor Terry Sanford, and offering one civil rights leader's evaluation of the movement and hopes for the future of economic and racial justice.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on March 13, 2008).

Interview participants: Floyd McKissick, interviewee; Jack Bass, interviewer; Walter DeVries, interviewer.

Duration: 00:56:55.

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. 93.6 kilobytes, 104 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series A, Southern politics, interview A-0134, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Original transcript: 29 p.

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

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

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