Jails

Berry discusses his experiences in the politics of the Republican party and Louisville from 1910 to the present. He also discusses his tenure as jailor in the city of Louisville from the 1920s to the present. Restrictions: None. Partial transcript avail

Cunningham credits her Catholic education for her affinity to social justice issues. After a brief stint in Chicago, she returns to Louisville in 1968 and becomes involved in the “coffee house movement” and eventually begins working for the Kentucky Civil Liberties Union (KCLU). In the interview, Cunningham offers an insider’s view into the organization’s activities related to school desegregation, improving jail conditions and assisting conscientious objectors. The bulk of the interview deals with the work of the Women’s Right Committee, a new effort at the time within the KCLU that focused on the intersection of civil liberties and women’s concerns and bringing those discussion to the forefront, both in the public arena and in the priorities of the KCLU. Topics include reproductive freedom, the Anaconda Aluminum case, and the growing recognition among women and the general public that gender discrimination existed and that the KCLU sought to be involved in changing the status quo. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, raised in the city’s South End, Cunningham attended Catherine Spalding College, now Spalding University, and graduated in 1967 with a degree in English. She attended the University of Louisville Law School and graduated in 1978. Her first job after college was in Chicago in 1968 at a market research firm. From 1971 to 1976, served as the office manager for the Kentucky Civil Liberties Union (KCLU), now called the ACLU of Kentucky. Cunningham was KCLU’s only staff person for three of those five years. Archival materials at the University of Louisville indicate that Cunningham was instrumental in the daily workings of the organization, and particularly with the KCLU’s Women’s Rights Committee.