Oral history interview with Salter and Doris Cochran, April 12, 1997
Subtitle: interview R-0014, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Thomas, Karen Kruse, interviewer; Cochran, Doris, 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 civil rights workers; African American physicians; Civil rights movements; African Americans; Civil rights; Segregation; Race relations; African Americans in medicine; Discrimination in medical care
Other titles: Interview R-0014, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Salter and Doris Cochran, April 12, 1997; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: Dr. Salter Cochran and his wife, Doris Cochran, discuss their activism in the Weldon-Roanoke Rapids area of North Carolina. Extremely well-educated, worldly, and, in Salter's case, with military experience, the Cochrans arrived in North Carolina with progressive views on race and a determination to push for racial justice. They were distressed to find entrenched racism among white residents and a reluctance to challenge it among African Americans. Additionally, the Cochrans' activism inhibited friendships and even inspired threats of violence. But it also succeeded in desegregating some of the area's institutions, including a school (which their children were the first to integrate) and a hospital. Outsiders though they were, they continued to agitate for racial justice in forums ranging from PTA meetings to medical society conventions. As they recall their decades of activism, they reflect on racism and justice, and they evaluate the successes and failures of the movement to which they contributed. This interview will provide readers with a great deal of information about race, desegregation, poverty, and health in North Carolina.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on November 13, 2008).

Interview participants: Salter Cochran, interviewee; Doris Cochran, interviewee; Karen Kruse Thomas, interviewer.

Duration: 03:01:22.

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. 260.2 kilobytes, 332 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series R, Special research projects, interview R-0014, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Transcribed by Karen Kruse Thomas. Original transcript: 41 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.