Civil Rights Movement

Follow

• 

  Interview with Modjeska Monteith Simkins - OH 78

  Modjeska Monteith Simkins

  This interview was conducted with Modejeska Monteith Simkins (1899-1992) who was a Civil Rights leader in South Carolina and an advocate of public and social reform. The interview began again with the questions of Mrs. Simkins family life. Her mother was a house slave until the Emancipation Proclamation and Mrs. Simkins relates stories of her childhood, parents, education, race relations, health services, nutrition and blacks in S.C. and S.C. politicians. This tape gives deep insight into the conditions, opinions, beliefs and attitudes of a black family from slavery through Reconstruction. The interview is interrupted and continued with questions from Margaret Eppehimer of the Winthrop College Public Affairs Office. Also the interview ends abruptly.

• 

  Interview with Jules Hall

  Jules Hall

  In his May 10, 1979 interview with Kenneth M. Nelson, Jules “Butch” Hall recounts his time in service and the role he played in Rock Hill’s Black Panther Party. Hall also compares Friendship College to Winthrop College and shares efforts to educate the black community. This interview was conducted for inclusion into the Louise Pettus Archives and Special Collections Oral History Program.

• 

  Interview with Cynthia Plair Roddey - OH 62

  Cynthia Plair Roddey and Integration

  In her interview with Cynthia Wilson January 22, 1979, Cynthia Roddey shares her experiences at Winthrop from 1964-1967 as the first African American student admitted to Winthrop College. Roddey details the process of applying to Winthrop, the reaction she received from the Winthrop and Rock Hill community, and her participation in student life. Roddey includes her insight on race relations today and her hopes for the future. This interview was conducted for an article for The Johnsonian, which is the student newspaper for Winthrop University.

• 

  Interview with Marion Allan Wright and Alice Spearman Wright

  Marion Allan Wright and Alice Norwood Spearman Wright

  This interview was conducted with Marion Allan Wright (1894-1983) who was a civil rights advocate and served as a member of the American Civil Liberties Union. Also interviewed was his wife Alice Buck Norwood Spearman Wright (1902-1989) who was a Civil Rights advocate and was an ardent supporter of racial equality and desegregation policies. She presided over the first integrated South Carolina Council on Human Relations. The interview with both Marion and Alice discusses their upbringing and influences and delve into the flowing topics: the Civil rights movement, interracial marriage, abolition of death penalty by Supreme Court, the ERA (commented on by Alice Wright also), and interest in education (Alice Wright).*

• 

  Interview with Arnetta Gladden Mackey - OH 17

  Arnetta Gladden Mackey

  This collection includes an interview with Arnetta Gladden Mackey (1948-2009) who, along with Delores Johnson Hurt, was one of the first two undergraduate students admitted to Winthrop in 1964. She graduated from Winthrop in 1967. Mrs. Mackey discusses her childhood and family, her feelings about attending college, receiving her scholarship to Winthrop, and her feelings about attending an all-white school. She also describes her experience living in the dorm, Rat Week, her social life, her experience with her white peers, and her experience with academics. Mrs. Mackey discusses her experience with the lack of Black churches in the area, the white church she initially attended (Oakland Baptist), and the Black church (Mt. Prospect Baptist Church) she attended once Oakland Baptist refused to let her in for worship. Mrs. Mackey also discusses the reaction she received from students, faculty, and members of the Rock Hill community, as well as her life and family after her graduation.