Oral history interview with Igal Roodenko, April 11, 1974
Subtitle: interview B-0010, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Hall, Jacquelyn Dowd, interviewer; Adams, Charlotte, 1903?-2005, interviewee; Felmet, Joseph, 1921-1994, interviewee; Wingate, Jerry, 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; Civil rights workers; Political activists; Conscientious objectors; Civil rights demonstrations; Segregation in transportation; Civil rights movements; African Americans; Civil rights; Race relations; Segregation; World War, 1939-1945; Protest movements; Service, Compulsory non-military; Peace movements; Chain gangs; Congress of Racial Equality
Other titles: Interview B-0010, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Igal Roodenko, April 11, 1974; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: Igal Roodenko was born to first-generation immigrants in New York City in 1917. Throughout the 1930s, Roodenko was drawn to leftist politics and pacifism. He describes the internal dilemma that he and other pacifists faced as they sought to reconcile their ideals of non-violence with their belief that Hitler's regime warranted opposition. Ultimately, Roodenko became a conscientious objector during the conflict. Rather than facing a prison sentence for his refusal to bear arms, Roodenko spent most of World War II in a camp for conscientious objectors. Increasingly involved in leftist politics during the war, Roodenko participated in hunger strikes while at the camp and eventually did serve time in prison. Following the war, he utilized his experiences with peace groups and Ghandian non-violence to become a leader in the burgeoning civil rights movement. Roodenko speaks at length about his participation in the Journey of Reconciliation (1947). Already a member of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), Roodenko helped to organize the Journey, an interracial endeavor to test the Supreme Court's ruling in the Irene Morgan case (1946) as it applied to public transportation in the South. Roodenko describes the strategies CORE employed as they tested segregation policies on buses for Trailways and Greyhound. In Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Roodenko and fellow activists were arrested for refusing to abide by the bus driver's demand that black and white passengers not sit together. He recalls the threat of mob violence against the activists and the role of Chapel Hill minister Charles Jones in helping them escape town safely. Roodenko and the other CORE activists lost their court appeal and he spent 30 days working on a segregated chain gang in North Carolina. His recollections in this interview help to illuminate activist strategies, interracial cooperation, and reasons for limited success as the civil rights movement began to build momentum in the late 1940s.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on July 30, 2008).

Interview participants: Igal Roodenko, interviewee; Joe Felmet, interviewee; Charlotte Adams, interviewee; Unidentified speaker; Jacquelyn Hall, interviewer; Jerry Wingate, interviewer.

Duration: 02:13:59.

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. 183.4 kilobytes, 245.3 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series B, Individual biographies, interview B-0010, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Transcribed by Gerry Cohen. Original transcript: 72 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.