Louisville Municipal College for Negroes (Louisville, Ky.)

Reverend Bottoms recollects his early life; his education at Simmons University; the transition of Simmons University to Simmons Bible College and the relations of this to the origin of the Louisville Municipal College of the University of Louisville; and his work as pastor of Green Street Baptist Church.

Remembrance of the Louisville Municipal College.

In this interview, Mr. Cole discusses his early education in Louisville, working for his father�s newspaper the Louisville Leader and describes what it was like to be the child of a prominent figure in the community. He describes his father physically and tempramentally and reflects on attendance at the Louisville Municipal College and urban renewal.

The president of Simmons Bible College (born 1913 in Orville, Alabama) discusses his childhood and efforts to obtain an education. After running away from home at age eighteen, Holmes attended the Louisville Municipal College and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. After receiving the B.D. in 1954 Holmes taught at Simmons Bible College and later became president of the school. He discusses his efforts to obtain a formal education; the role of Simmons and its relationship to the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; and the current offerings of Simmons Bible College.

Mr. Johnson, a civil rights activist and educator focuses on Johnson's involvement in the effort to integrate the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky for blacks in Kentucky. Johnson contradicts the University of Louisville administrators by asserting that they did not voluntarily integrate as they have stated. He discusses the disparities between Louisville Municipal College and the University of Louisville. Johnson also discusses the efforts to integrate the Louisville parks system, the library system and the stores in downtown Louisville. Johnson describes his role in the defeat of Male High School principal William S. Milburn's mayoral bid against William Cowger in 1961.

Lane talks about his job as Dean of Louisville Municipal College from 1937 to 1942.

Dr. Parrish was the only black professor employed by the University of Louisville after integration. A professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Louisville, he discusses his academic journey and the history of Black education in Louisville, Kentucky. Born and raised in Louisville, Parrish attended Howard University and Columbia University before earning his doctorate from the University of Chicago. He spent most of his academic career in Louisville, with brief stints at Lincoln University in Missouri and the University of New Orleans. Parrish also discusses the merger of the Louisville Municipal College (LMC) and the University of Louisville, which he argues was not a token gesture but a significant step towards desegregation. He also touches on the Garvey movement and its limited impact on the Louisville community, and the importance of studying race and ethnic relations in the current global context.

Dr. Parrish discusses his father, Charles H. Parrish, Sr., who was a Baptist minister and president of Simmons University, a black Baptist college in Louisville. Parrish also discusses his own life and work, including his time teaching at Simmons, at Louisville Municipal College (University of Louisville's college for African Americans under segregation), and finally at the University of Louisville after the Municipal College closed and UofL integrated. Dr. Parrish was the only member of Municipal's faculty who was offered an appointment at UofL following LMC's closure, becoming UofL's first African American faculty member. He describes this experience as well as his ongoing research interests.

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.

Mrs. Ray discusses her early life and upbringing in Tennessee as well as her life in Louisville. Mrs. Ray moved to Louisville in 1934 and attended Louisville Municipal College (LMC). She discusses her education both at LMC and at the University of Louisville. She describes many "inconsistencies" as she calls them -- situations where African Americans were not treated the same as whites. She also discusses the civil rights movement, which she says she was not a direct part of.