Oral history interview with Suzanne Post, June 23, 2006
Subtitle: interview U-0178, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Thuesen, Sarah Caroline, 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: 2008
Place of publication: [Chapel Hill, N.C.]
Language: eng
Subjects: Interviews; Women political activists; Feminists; Feminism; Women's rights; Sex discrimination in education; Housing
Other titles: Interview U-0178, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Suzanne Post, June 23, 2006; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: Though she is best known for her work in helping eliminate race-based segregated education in Louisville and launching Louisville's Metropolitan Housing Coalition, Suzanne Post insists that her most important work centered on women's rights. After the 1975 court-ordered busing that merged and desegregated Jefferson County and Louisville City schools (she was president of the ACLU in Kentucky, which filed the desegregation suit), Post realized how much gender inequality still existed in these same newly desegrated districts. She organized volunteers to monitor Louisville's Title IX violations. Eventually, the federal government sent an outside monitor, which caused administrators to make a few concessions. Post reflects on how class issues divided the women's movement and ultimately prevented it from being as effective as it could have been. One of her biggest struggles, she says, was to get the ACLU to recognize a feminist agenda. After leaving the ACLU, she became the director of the Metropolitan Housing Coalition, and she found that her agenda balanced well with the concerns of the housing advocates. Post reflects on what she sees as economic and racial injustices brought about by urban renewal programs. Along with the resegregation of downtowns, Post worries about the destruction of community structures that provide support to poorer income families. Post retired when she developed lung cancer. Though she acknowledges the progress that has been made in civil rights, Post laments that much work remains to be done. She hopes that people remember her commitment to eradicating injustice and credits the women who surrounded and supported her.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on November 6, 2008).

Interview participants: Suzanne Post, interviewee; Sarah Thuesen, interviewer.

Duration: 01:47:27.

This electronic edition is part of the UNC-Chapel Hill 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. 147 kilobytes, 196 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series U, The long civil rights movement: the South since the 1960s, interview U-0178, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Transcribed by Emily Baran. 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.