Oral history interview with Frederick Douglas Alexander, April 1, 1975
Subtitle: interview B-0065, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Moye, William T., 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 politicians; City council members; Metropolitan government; Politics and government; Race relations; Political aspects
Other titles: Interview B-0065, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Frederick Douglas Alexander, April 1, 1975; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: Frederick Douglas Alexander was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1910. In 1965, he became the first African American elected to the Charlotte City Council and the first to hold elected public office in Mecklenburg County in the twentieth century. As an active member of the city council, Alexander participated in the Charter Commission formed by the North Carolina General Assembly in 1969. The Commission worked to consolidate the governments for Charlotte, its neighboring towns, and the county of Mecklenburg. In this interview, Alexander explains his role in and support of consolidation efforts. He believes consolidation broadened the representative base, opening up city political offices and services to minority groups and low-income citizens. Some Charlotte politicians felt threatened by the attempts to merge the city and county governments and thwarted consolidation with hot-button topics such as school desegregation and school busing. Alexander credits local white politicians' fear of lost power, Mecklenburg's reluctance to pay more taxes, and a national upsurge of conservatism with the defeat of consolidation. He also compares Charlotte's merger efforts to those of Jacksonville, Florida. Alexander contends that because Charlotte was not politically corrupt, there was little need to alter the system. As a result, Charlotte's consolidation failed in 1971.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on Aug. 28, 2008).

Interview participants: Frederick Douglas Alexander, interviewee; Bill Moye, interviewer.

Duration: 00:31:45.

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. 56.4 kilobytes, 58.2 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series B, Individual biographies, interview B-0065, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Original transcript: 11 p.

Funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this interview.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

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