Africa

Mr. Pickett, a retired assistant Boy Scout executive and board member of Senior House, talks about his family, growing up in an integrated neighborhood in the early 20th century in Louisville, his work with the Boy Scouts of America and his work for the elderly citizens of Louisville. The final interview provides information on his parents’ families and the educational and professional achievements of several family members.

African American History Survey. The purpose of these tapes was to identify neighborhoods in the predominately Black sections of Western Louisville. Student teams attempted to gather random information from a group of elderly black citizens. From interviews with these citizens information on the history of the neighborhoods, their boundaries, and prominent citizens was gathered. Only the Frazier tape is audible, but there are transcripts to all four interviews.

Nancy Pollock, born in Springfield, Kentucky, moved to the city of Louisville at the age of 2 and began to get involved in the civil rights movement at the age of 14. She talks about her first experience with racism and segregation when she was 9 years old and the owner of an ice cream parlor physically threw her out of his shop while she was eating an ice cream cone. Following that she began to get involved at age 14 with the demonstrations happening in Louisville, as the youngest person there oftentimes. Pollock discusses her entire time in the movement, her various involvements in different groups, violence that she experienced and saw, her experiences in Louisville and outside of Louisville in Atlanta, Chicago, and Cincinnati, Ohio, and her involvement in the 1970s with the Black Panther Party. Topics include: her relationship with Anne Braden, Stokeley Carmichael, John Lewis, and various other figures, demonstrations (those that she led and those that she participated in) during the accommodations campaigns, the makeup of those within the accommodation demonstrations, involvement with Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and CORE, the time that she was arrested for leading a demonstration at Hasenour's, the hunger strike that she participated in in Frankfort, the 1986 riot that happened in Louisville and her understanding of what happened and why, her involvement in the Black Panther Party in Louisville, Chicago, and Cincinnati, the differences between the west coast and east coast Black Panther Party chapters, the changes in the movement and within the various organizations over time, her work after she left the Black Panther Party in 1974, the changes in Louisville over the years that she was involved in the civil rights movement and her thoughts on who the leaders of the movement were in Louisville.

Mr. Porter is the chairman of the board of trustees of the University of Louisville. He discusses his family's business, A.D. Porter Funeral Home, his father's involvement in politics and his years on the Louisville Board of Education. His life and family history are also included in this interview.

Powers discusses her education at Louisville Central High School and the Louisville Municipal College; early involvement in politics with Wilson Wyatt, Sr.; United States Senate campaign; Edward T. Breathitt's gubernatorial campaign; Norbert Bloom's career in the Kentucky General Assembly; and her own successful race for the state senate in 1966. Powers also discusses her support of a state open housing bill and the Poor People's March on Washington, D.C., in 1968, which she attended as an observer for the Kentucky Chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Veterans History Project

Price is the president of Mammoth Life Insurance Company in Louisville. He discusses his family history, founding of the company by his grandfather and the development of his insurance company. He also reminiscences about his years with the company.

Veterans History Project

Veterans History Project