Oral history interview with Frances Pauley, July 18, 1974
Subtitle: interview G-0046, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Hall, Jacquelyn Dowd, 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; Women civil rights workers; Women political activists; Civil rights movements; African Americans; Civil rights; Race relations; Segregation; Public welfare; Georgia Council on Human Relations
Other titles: Interview G-0046, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Frances Pauley, July 18, 1974; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: Frances Pauley was born in Decatur, Georgia, in 1905, and grew up there. Pauley attended Agnes Scott College during the 1920s and graduated with a degree in mathematics in 1927. During the Depression, Pauley helped to establish a free medical clinic in Dekalb County, Georgia. Her work with the poor during these years foreshadowed her later work in the civil rights movement. During this time, Pauley also became increasingly involved with and interested in issues of public education and school integration. In 1945, she became the president of the League of Women Voters in Dekalb County before becoming the organization's state president. During the 1940s and 1950s, Pauley and the League battled against former governor Eugene Talmadge's efforts to abolish public schools in an effort to uphold segregation in education. In 1960, Pauley became director of the Georgia Council on Human Relations, an offshoot of the Southern Regional Council. Increasingly advocating the importance of African American leadership and interracial organization in the civil rights movement, Pauley worked closely with local civil rights groups, including the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). In particular, she describes her involvement in civil rights activism in Newton, Georgia, and in Albany, Georgia.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on July 18, 2008).

Interview participants: Frances Pauley, interviewee; Jacquelyn Hall, interviewer.

Duration: 01:56:44.

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. 116 kilobytes,  213 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series G, Southern women, interview G-0046, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Original transcript: 53 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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