Civil rights movements--Kentucky

Mr. Coleman is a employee of the Louisville Urban League. This interview concerns his involvement with the Urban League and the Louisville Civil Rights movement.

Civil Rights Movement in Louisville interview

Discussion with Judge Combs, governor of Kentucky, 1959-1963, about Frank L. Stanley, Sr. and the Civil Rights movement in Kentucky; includes legislation passed in Kentucky concerning civil rights during Combs' administration and the part Stanley played as advisor to the governor.

Civil Rights Movement in Louisville interview; no tape, no transcript

Mrs. Davis briefly described growing up in Louisville. The major part of the interview concerned her years at UofL. She described her relationship with other, primarily white, students, and with faculty. She discussed her two mentors, Charles Parrish and Harvey C. Webster at length. She told the story of how she and her friends picketed restaurants in the neighborhood surrounding the university and succeeded in getting them open to African Americans. She also discussed meeting with Dr. Philip Davidson, president of the university, and getting his support to accomplish other changes to equalize treatment for black students. At the end of the interview she briefly described her post-UofL career.

Civil Rights Movement in Louisville interview

Jane Grady is a Civil Rights activist who grew up in the Parkland neighborhood. She also lived in Beecher Terrace for a while. She remembered Little Africa, the Walnut Street Business District, and working for tenants’ rights in public housing.

The Reverend Hodge discusses his early family life in Texas, his experiences in Civilian Conservation Corps, college, a brief history of the Fifth Street Baptist Church in Louisville, the Civil Rights movement in Louisville and and his position on the Louisville Board of Realtors.

The interview began with Mrs. Holloway’s family history. She is descendant from Dr. J. C. Whitlock, a white professor of medicine in 19th century Louisville. Her more immediate family included her grandfather, the first licensed black florist in Louisville, and mother, the first black graduate of a music school in Indiana. She discussed her family’s history under segregation and lessons she learned from them about how to respond to segregation. She also told the story of her own education. The majority of the interview covered her participation in the 1961 sit-in demonstrations in downtown Louisville, the March on Frankfort, and the March on Washington. Much of the interview also concerns specific biographical information on people Holloway knew in her youth.

Holmes described his childhood through high school years living in various rental properties in the area of Louisville around Brook and Kentucky streets. The purpose of the interview was to record his memories of living in an area that was disrupted by the construction of interstate 65. He described the homes, residents, and businesses before construction. The second part of the interview concerned the integration of Male High School. Holmes (white) was part of the third class at Male to include African Americans. He describes the white perspective on integration and on the participation of his black classmates in sit-in demonstrations downtown. Holmes then went on to describe how he has worked with an interracial group of alumni to address the tensions and concerns about what happened to black students in the newly integrated schools.