Neal, Sterling, Jr.

Date:
2000-04-21
Length:
150 minutes
Interviewer:
K'Meyer, Tracy
Transcription available:
yes
Series:
Civil Rights Movement in Louisville
Series ID:
2002_001
Interview Number(s):
2002_1_100
2002_1_101
2002_1_102
Summary:
Sterling Neal Jr., born and raised in Louisville, provides not only his experience during the civil rights movement, but his family history prior to his birth. Beginning with a detailed history of his family, he then moves into his life as a student in Louisville. Topics include: his father's involvement in the labor unions, his time at Kentucky State for college, involvement in CORE with his sister Beverly and his experience in CORE and picketing with them, his involvement beginning in 1966 while he was at the Kent School of Social Work, involvement in the Kent School Student Association including being involved in anti-war, free speech, women's rights, welfare rights, etc., the Yearlings Club and the organization called Our Black Thing, the Black Student Union at the University of Louisville, the riot that happened when Stokley Carmichael came to Louisville, the Black Power ideology and movement, Enterprises Unlimited and their program the Stop Dope Now in the late 1960s, in 1969 the establishment of Masters of Reality, a youth center on Twenty-Eighth and Greenwood. He then talks about his work as a PhD student at the University of Michigan in social work and sociology and then he became the director of Enterprises Unlimited and then became the adjunct lecturer at Kent School. He then quit his program and went up to Indiana University and obtained a law degree and came back to Louisville to practice law. He then goes into more detail about the groups such as Our Black Thing, Black United Brothers, and BULK, including the make up of these organizations, their activism, and ways in which they tried to influence the community.
Topic(s):
Civil rights--Kentucky--Louisville, African Americans--Kentucky--Louisville, 1968 Parkland Uprising