Oral history interview with Virginius Dabney, July 31, 1975
Subtitle: interview A-0311-2, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Jordan, Daniel P., interviewer; Turpin, William H. (William Howard), 1929- 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; Newspaper editors; Authors; School integration; Massive resistance movement; Politics and government; Press and politics; African Americans; Civil rights; Newspapers; Higher Education
Other titles: Interview A-0311-2, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Virginius Dabney, July 31, 1975; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: Virginius Dabney chronicles his long career as a southern journalist from the 1920s to the 1970s. As the editor of the Richmond, Virginia, Times Dispatch, Dabney penned several articles about the social and political crises of the twentieth century, often with a decidedly regional outlook. He wrote a few books concerning southern liberalism and the regional culture of Virginians. These works earned him an invitation as a guest lecturer at Cambridge and Princeton in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Though Dabney discusses his career as a novelist and lecturer, the primary focus of the interview is on his opinions on race relations in post-1954 Virginia. While many Virginia politicians crafted ways to massively resist integrating public schools, he supported gradual public school desegregation. Dabney expresses his criticism of politicians--particularly Senator Harry Byrd Sr. and Jack Kilpatrick--who chose to close public schools rather than integrate them. To Dabney, school closings culminated in backward thinking and fewer economic opportunities for the state. Even though his opinions about massive resistance emerged in his editorials, the Times Dispatch owners prevented him from a full expression of his ideas. Dabney further discusses the relationship between newspaper owners. He also recounts his connection to Virginia's aristocracy and his relational ties to George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Steeped in this background, Dabney reacts adversely to criticism of the nation's founders. He disapproved of Gore Vidal's and Fawn Brodie's work on Aaron Burr and Thomas Jefferson, respectively. Of particular interest is Dabney's vociferous objection to historian Fawn Brodie's account of a romantic relationship between Sally Hemmings and Thomas Jefferson.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on July 14, 2008).

Interview participants: Virginius Dabney, interviewee; Daniel Jordan, interviewer; William H. Turpin, interviewer.

Duration: 04:27:55.

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. 445 kilobytes, 490.6 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series A, Southern politics, interview A-0311-2, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Transcribed by Joe Jaros. Original transcript: 129 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.