Civil rights demonstrations

Adlene Howard Abstain (b. 1943 in Montgomery, Alabama, d. 2015, in Louisville, Kentucky) describes her involvement in the Civil Rights Movement through voter registration efforts, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Freedom Rides, fair housing efforts, work as a pastor at The Fountain of Life Word and Worship Center, and community organization in Louisville.

Mervin Aubespin (b. 1937 in Louisiana), a reporter for the Courier-Journal, talks about his path to the Civil Rights movement starting in Alabama and then in Louisville; Louisville during segregation; housing discrimination; and white flight. As an activist, Aubespin participated in marches, sit-ins, voter registration and organization for public accommodation, open housing, and to integrate Fontaine Ferry. Aubespin was originally hired by the Courier-Journal an artist, one of the first Black employees there. He covered the Parkland Uprising but did not get a byline or credit for his work. He then attended an intensive program at Columbia University to produce Black journalists and had a successful career as a reporter for the Courier-Journal, specializing in covering topics of interest to the Black community. Regarded as an expert on racism and the media, Aubespin is a past president of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) and was given the Ida B. Wells Award for his efforts to bring minorities into the field of journalism. Aubespin was also the founder of the Louisville Association of Black Communicators.

Bryant discusses her childhood in Detroit, Michigan, where her father was involved in fair housing work. The interview also includes recollections of her education at a private girls' school in Washington, D.C. and at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, where she received an AB in history; her move to Louisville with her husband, a physician; her work with the West End Community Council; and involvement with the Black Six conspiracy trial.

UofL student Nathan Jones interviews his fellow National Guardsmen about their deployment to Ferguson, Missouri during the public unrest after the murder of Michael Brown in August 2014. Index available.

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.

Cheri Bryant Hamilton, born and raised in the West End of Louisville, attended Fisk University for her undergraduate degree and went on to get a law degree at North Carolina Central University. In this interview, Hamilton discusses getting involved in the Civil Rights Movement at a young age, following behind her mother's activism. She talks about her involvement in open housing during her high school years, the experiences of attending rallies in the city, her involvement in SCLC, the NAACP, and the Youth NAACP. She also discusses the riot that occurred in Louisville when Stokley Carmichael was coming to town as well as her memories of the Black Six trial, briefly. Following law school, she returned to Louisville and worked for the city on labor type issues. In this part of her interview, Hamilton discusses her work on the city's first affirmative action plan, her work in the NAACP as the political action chari, and her work with Martha Layne Collins and the KY Commision on Women. She continued to work for the city and be involved in various ways including serving on the Jefferson County Democratic Executive Committee and the Metro Louisville Women's Political Caucus.

Eighty-years-old Hawkins, a native of Kuttawa, KY., discusses his childhood and youth in Louisville’s California neighborhood in the 1950s, his travel in freight cars as a youth, and how racism in the U. S. prompted his resignation from the Marines. He then describes his enlistment in the local Open Housing movement, his work as a VISTA (Volunteer In Service To America) community organizer in both Louisville and Philadelphia, and his involvement as President of the Black Unity League of Kentucky in the local Police brutality protests in May, 1968, the Police provocation that led to days of civil unrest in the Parkland neighborhood, and the bogus charges and litigation that followed against himself and five others as the “Black Six.” Mr. Hawkins frequently focuses less on legal actions and more on what happened to those involved, including his friend, Robert Kyyu Sims, both at the time and subsequently.

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.