Summary:
Hal Warheim, born in 1931 in Hanover, Pennsylvania, moved to Louisville during the Civil Rights Movement to work at Louisville Presbyterian Seminary as the chair of Christianity and Society. Prior to that, Warheim had been living in New York, Providence, Rhode Island, and many other places as he got his education in religion and sociology. Upon arriving in Louisville, he became involved in the open accommodations movement on the periphery, as it had mostly finished by the time he was here, but continued to stay involved with open housing in the city. The location of the seminary allowed him the opportunity to attend meetings of the NAACP or the Urban League downtown before it moved out to Cherokee Park. He served on the board of the Kentucky Civil Liberties Union as their Minority Relations Chair. He began to get involved with the marches and demonstrations that took place downtown, where he'd either be leading them or walking with them depending on the night. While he was working at the seminary, he was able to start a hunger task force as well as teach, which he did until he retired in 1994. Topics in the interview include: growing up in Hanover, his time in Europe, his education from high school to a law degree, his move to Louisville, his understandings of race relations in Louisville when he moved here, discussion of the KCLU and the board including strategy meetings, the open housing marches and demonstrations, his memories of people such as A.D. King, Anne Braden, and Hosea Williams among others, the influence that him being white had on his participation and the reaction it garnered, his students reaction at seminary to the activism that he did, and his involvements outside of the open housing movement.
