Start Over Main contributor Kulish, Mykola Date 1987

21. Interview with James Duren (1:33:19)

Date:
2006
Main contributors:
Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
Summary:
Part one. James Duren explains how he became an activist for education in Clarendon County, South Carolina, by uncovering corruption in Clarendon School District One. He formed a parents group that grew into 200 members to fight the misuse of money by the district. Other parents describe how they became involved and actions they took to try to change the situation. Summmerton in Clarendon County, South Carolina, was the district involved in Briggs v. Elliott, one of the cases in Brown v. Board of Education. Part two. Clarendon County business people and parents of students in Clarendon School District One describe the fraud, mismanagement and extremely low educational standards of the district. Part three. Similar content to Disc 204. Part four. Clarendon County business people and parents of students in Clarendon School District One discuss race relations in South Carolina in the 1980s, as well as the many problems with Clarendon School District 1. Part five. Similar content to Disc 206.

22. Interview with Jeff Brown (2:31:48)

Date:
2006
Main contributors:
Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
Summary:
Part one. Footage of Chester High School band and football team, Chester, South Carolina. Part two and three. Principal Jeff Brown gives a tour of Chester High School, Chester, South Carolina. Part four. At 19:20, Mr. Brown attends a Chester Rotary Club meeting. Then more footage at high school. Part five. Footage of students at Chester High School. At 7:20, interview with Principal Jeff Brown. Mr. Brown recalls what schools were like when he began his career in education. Part six. Principal Jeff Brown recounts the early days of his education career in Chester, South Carolina. He describes the separate but equal doctrine and how the community imposed certain strictures on black teachers. He also talks about the changes brought by integration. Part eight. Interview with Principal Jeff Brown of Chester High School continues. At 8:38, footage of high school activities and students. At 14:20 interview with Mr. Brown recommences.

23. Interview with John Lewis (1:29:37)

Date:
2006
Main contributors:
Elwood, William A, Morgan, Charles, 1930-2009, Kulish, Mykola
Summary:
Part one. Attorney Charles Morgan and US Congressman John Lewis discuss many topics, including: Alabama legally disenfranchising African Americans with voting registration requirements like the poll tax and literacy tests; Reynolds v. Sims, the one-man, one-vote case; Bull Connor; Lewis being jailed because he was with an interracial group using public transportation; Lewis being beaten in Montgomery; Freedom Rides; the voter registration drive; Brown v. Board of Education; the importance of the Christian Church, the one place where African Americans could have control; Lewis meeting Dr. King and Rev. Abernathy. Part two. Morgan and Lewis continue their conversation, agreeing that in spite of symbols like the Confederate Flag flying over the Alabama Capitol, things are better because African Americans are allowed into positions of power. They discuss the racism deeply embedded in American society, as well as the most important aspect of the civil rights movement, its law-based nonviolence. Lewis recalls his involvement in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the difficulties he had meeting with white activists like Morgan because it was against the law. Part three. Morgan and Lewis describe the 1960s civil rights movement as a family, especially on the inside, and its informal, organic progress. They say that historians ignore Charles Hamilton Houston because they are ignorant of much of history. They review Sweatt v. Painter. Part four. Morgan and Lewis remark upon Charles Houston and suggest that integration is still, in the 1980s, in the embryonic stage. Lewis reminisces about the Sears and Roebuck catalog being his wish book as a child; he wanted to buy incubator to have chickens because he used to preach to the family's chickens. The two men talk about the Voter Education Project and the vote as a tool of liberation. They say that voter registration really did work because white politicians started speaking to African Americans and, at low levels of government, African Americans were starting to get elected. Part five. The relationship between Lewis and Morgan is discussed. Footage of Lewis walking to Capitol building to cast vote, then exiting the Capitol building after vote. Footage of Congressional office building.h

24. Interview with John Norton (59:34)

Date:
2006
Main contributors:
Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
Summary:
Part one. Footage of classes at Scott's Branch High School in Clarendon County, South Carolina, and some rural housing. At 13:41, Journalist John Norton, an education reporter for a Southern newspaper, talks about how Clarendon County has changed, as well as how it hasn't, since the Briggs v. Elliott case. Part two. Norton recounts some of the history of the school districts in Clarendon County, South Carolina. He outlines how the schools have been neglected, and therefore how the whole community is failing. Part three. Norton describes the education situation in Clarendon County, South Carolina. At 7:18, footage of Clarendon County, South Carolina, including rural roads, Liberty Hill Church, cotton gin.

25. Interview with Joseph C. Watson (40:39)

Date:
2006
Main contributors:
Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
Summary:
Part one. Footage of Summerton, Clarendon County, South Carolina, the origin of the Briggs v. Elliott case, which was part of Brown v. Board of Education. At 5:10, interview with Clarendon School District One Superintendent Joseph C. Watson begins. Mr. Watson describes how the Summerton school district is not yet integrated, as it consists of only African American students despite the fact that the community is 40% white. He explains why he thinks the school district is so bad and defends the school's poor performance. Part two. Watson continues to explain the policies of the district school board, especially concerning budget restrictions. He reflects on his performance as superintendent. At 8:07, footage of Clarendon School District One.

26. Interview with Joseph L. Rauh (1:17:46)

Date:
2006
Main contributors:
Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
Summary:
Part one. Civil rights attorney Joseph Rauh talks about his clerkships to the US Supreme Court for both Justices Cardozo and Frankfurter. He discusses the 1941 Executive Order by President Franklin Roosevelt, called the Fair Employment Act, which Rauh wrote. During World War II, he worked as Gen. MacArthur's secretary and in the Lend-Lease Administration. He recalls the founding of the Americans for Democratic Action in 1947. He tells anecdotes about working with A. Philip Randolph. Part two. Mr. Rauh remembers, during the 1940s, African Americans and whites could not eat together in a restaurant in Washington DC. The District was a segregated city until the Supreme Court ruled otherwise. Mr. Rauh talks about his acquaintance with Charles Hamilton Houston. Mr. Rauh describes Houston's work in the Steele case. He explains the new civil rights platform adopted at the 1948 Democratic Convention. Part three. Mr. Rauh comments on President Truman's civil rights record. He states that the best US President for civil rights is Lyndon Johnson and the worst is Ronald Reagan. Mr. Rauh credits Charles Houston with the first use of the argument of state action in discrimination cases. He recounts his dealings with NAACP lobbyist Clarence Mitchell, especially their efforts in passing the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Mr. Rauh recalls President John Kennedy, when proposing what would become the Civil Rights Act of 1964, pointing out the irony that Alabama Sheriff Bull Connor did more for civil rights than anybody else. Mr. Rauh tell stories about civil rights champion President Johnson working to pass legislation. Part four. Mr. Rauh describes the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and its effects on the nation's history using the example of the defeat of Robert Bork's nomination to the Supreme Court in 1987 primarily by Senators elected by African American constituents from the South. The first meaningful civil rights legislation since Reconstruction was the Act of 1964. Mr. Rauh suggests reasons for why Charles Houston is not well known.

27. Interview with Juanita Kidd Stout (1:04:10)

Date:
2006
Main contributors:
Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
Summary:
Part one. Judge Juanita Kidd Stout remembers hearing Charles Houston speak in 1937 in the Gaines case in Missouri and describes what it was like in the courtroom. She talks about becoming a lawyer, being an African American woman; she declares she never felt discrimination in the field of law. She tells the story of how she came to work for Houston when she was young. Stout recalls what Houston was like, his belief in the Constitution and the rule of law, and his plans for challenges to US law decades into the future. Part two. Judge Stout wants to know why Houston is not well-known, as most lawyers consider him to be one of the best legal minds ever. It is tragic that he is not taught in civil rights courses. Judge Stout declares that people now don't realize the deprivations that African Americans suffered before the civil rights movement. She recalls that everyone was aware then that it was Houston who did all the groundwork for Brown v. Board of Education. Stout discusses how Houston prepared for the case. She also talks about Judge William Henry Hastie and his appointment to the Third Circuit appeals court. Judge Stout's advice to young people: we will always need more lawyers because we always have new laws to handle changes in society. Part three. Judge Stout describes how she became a judge and remembers cases that stood out for her and her career. She declares that law is not passive; it must grow, change and be discarded. Also, many laws have been wrong and unjust. Stout recalls that Houston died at age 54 just before the the Brown decision. At 11:40 to end, footage of Judge Stout in her office, working. Part four. Footage of Stout's office.

28. Interview with Julius L. Chambers (1:00:27)

Date:
2006
Main contributors:
Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
Summary:
Part one. Footage of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund offices including that of civil rights attorney, professor, and NAACP director counsel Julius L. Chambers. Part two. Mr. Chambers discusses the origins of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Charles Hamilton Houston, Thurgood Marshall, Jack Greenberg, important cases in fund history, the Keyes principle, and employment cases like Duke Power. Part three. Chambers recalls the most important civil rights case that grew out of his practice, Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education in the US Supreme Court, which became known as the busing case. He talks about current concerns of the fund, responding to Reagan administration challenges to civil rights, developing protection for the poor. Part four. Some 1987 fund work in cases dealing with discrimination against the poor. More footage of fund offices.

29. Interview with Leone Lane (40:31)

Date:
2006
Main contributors:
Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
Summary:
Part one. Mrs. Leone Lane describes her career as a teacher in Chester, South Carolina. J.W. Greene joins the interview at 7:26. Part two. Mrs. Leone Lane and J.W. Greene discuss the effects of integration on schools in Chester, South Carolina. At 5:55 footage of rural South Carolina and Brainerd Institute.

30. Interview with Louis T. Rader (40:51)

Date:
2006
Main contributors:
Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
Summary:
Part one. Historian William H. Harbaugh describes the irony of John W. Davis defending the separate but equal doctrine in Brown v. the Board of Education and explains why Davis took the case as its appellate lawyer. Harbaugh also comments on Thurgood Marshall's opinion of Davis. At 9:20 interview with engineer and business professor Louis T. Rader begins. Mr. Rader talks about his life and career, as well as his support of public education in the promotion of a successful business climate. During Massive Resistance, he protested closing Virginia public schools using the argument that businesses don't want to operate in a community with poor schooling. Part two. Mr. Rader recalls his support of public schooling in Virginia during Massive Resistance in order to sustain economic development within the commonwealth. At 5:30, interview with George R. Ferguson begins. Mr. Ferguson recounts the lawsuit brought by the Charlottesville NAACP to desegregate schools immediately following the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954. Court proceedings continued into 1958, when the judge assigned several black children to attend otherwise white schools in Charlottesville. The commonwealth then closed schools in Charlottesville under the policy of Massive Resistance. Mr. Ferguson describes how the Boatwright committee of the Virginia General Assembly harassed Charlottesville NAACP members.