Oral history interview with Anne Barnes, January 30, 1989
Subtitle: interview C-0049, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Nasstrom, Kathryn L., 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; Women political activists; Women's rights; Women political candidates; Sex role; Women; Political activity; Democratic Party (N.C.); National Women's Political Caucus (U.S.); North Carolina. General Assembly. House of Representatives; North Carolina
Other titles: Interview C-0049, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Anne Barnes, January 30, 1989; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: From 1981 to 1996, Anne Barnes sat in the North Carolina House of Representatives for Orange County. While there, she focused on issues of social justice, especially poverty, education, prison reform, civil rights and women's rights. In this 1989 interview, she gives an overview of her childhood and early adulthood before explaining how those experiences motivated her to become involved in the political arena. Before running for election herself, she worked on a variety of campaigns, including Howard Lee's Chapel Hill mayoral bid, in which he became the first African American mayor in the United States elected by a predominantly white municipality. After exploring how her various campaign positions led to her eventual candidacy, she explains the reasons for her particular political foci and how she has seen the issues change over the past several decades. Much of the second half of the interview is devoted to the position of women in politics and the reasons Barnes believes women have struggled to find equality in that arena. After listing the sociological, psychological, economic and political reasons for the gender imbalance, she proposes ways to level the playing field for a new generation of women.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on August 24, 2007).

Interview participants: Anne Barnes, interviewee; Kathy Nasstrom, interviewer.

Duration: 01:28:45.

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. 75.7 kilobytes, 81 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series C, notable North Carolinians, interview C-0049, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Transcribed by Kelly Bruce. Original transcript: 38 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.