Oral history interview with Howell Heflin, July 9, 1974
Subtitle: interview A-0010, 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: 2006
Place of publication: [Chapel Hill, N.C.]
Language: eng
Subjects: Interviews; Politics and government; Racism; Race relations; Political questions and judicial power; Judges; Election; Alabama. Supreme Court; Alabama
Other titles: Interview A-0010, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Howell Heflin, July 9, 1974; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: Howell Heflin, who sat on the Alabama State Supreme Court in the 1970s before a two-decade tenure in the US Senate, discusses the post-segregation Alabama judiciary. The story is a familiar one: the persistent influence of race in a slowly changing environment. In the first half of the interview, Heflin describes some recent judicial reforms and his discomfort with the fact that judges must campaign for their seats. He worries that judges might be tempted to rule in favor of contributors. In the second half, Heflin turns to racial politics and comments on George Wallace and Barry Goldwater, as well as observing the arrival of a new generation of so-called activist judges taking the bench across the country.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on May 24, 2007).

Interview participants: Howell Heflin, interviewee; Jack Bass, interviewer; Walter DeVries, interviewer.

Duration: 01:11:49.

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. 105.5 kilobytes, 131.5 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series A, Southern politics, interview A-0010, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Transcribed by Linda Killen. Original transcript: 28 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.