Interview with Gracie Lewis, July 15, 2011

Partial Transcript: Well, we we go ahead and get started.

Segment Synopsis: Introduction to the interviewer, interviewee, and the date and location of the interview.

Partial Transcript: Can you tell me when and where you were born?

Segment Synopsis: Ms. Lewis recounts when and where she was born and how she ended up in Louisville from Brownsville, Tennessee.

Partial Transcript: Can you talk about your educational background a little bit?

Segment Synopsis: Ms. Lewis says she graduated from the University of the District of Columbia in 1977, where she studied Urban studies.

Partial Transcript: Tell me a little bit about what you have done professionally.

Segment Synopsis: Ms. Lewis worked at the Department of Health for fifteen years. Her first job was in 1969 in D.C. as a clerk stenographer. In 1981, she worked at Capitol Hill on the Sub-Committee on Labor Standards.

Partial Transcript: Was that...in 1970...

Segment Synopsis: Ms. Lot says she first got involved with political activism in 1970 on the Angela Davis case. She was on the D.C. Committee to Free Angela Davis. Her committee and the committees around the nation met at Chicago in 1973 and formed the National Alliance against Racist and Political Repression, which is when she first met Anne Braden. She talks about how her involvement on the Committee to Free Angela Davis affected her job.

Partial Transcript: Now I know how you got involved with the National Alliance.

Segment Synopsis: Ms. Lewis says when she came back to Louisville in 1989, Dr. Gwendolyn Patton, a close friend of Anne Braden's, encouraged her to to look up Anne Braden so Ms. Lewis could continue her activism. She lists some of the activist work she did before and during her time at the Kentucky Alliance. She also talks about some of the work she did with Anne Braden in 1998 on affirmative action in Louisville.

Partial Transcript: Because we knew that a lot of our struggles was related a lot of the broader struggles.

Segment Synopsis: Ms. Lewis describes how Citizens Against Police Brutality came about and what the Alliance hoped to achieve and how they hoped to achieve their goals.

Partial Transcript: I know that I wanted you to talk a little bit about your work...

Segment Synopsis: Ms. Lewis says that as a journalist, she was searching for the truth of a situation. She talks a little bit about her process and some of the newspapers she submitted to, including the Courier Journal and the Louisville Defender.

Partial Transcript: One of the things about the Alliance I've been talking to people about...

Segment Synopsis: Ms. Lewis tells why she thinks it is important that the Alliance is multi-racial. She gives examples of how the Alliance is multi-racial in ways beyond having members of different races. She has an aside about fighting for convicts' right to vote. She ends with talking about how the issues outweigh the skin color of the person and discusses racial profiling and the fight against that.