Interview with F. Palmer Weber

Copy the text below to embed this resource

Trouble with playback? Let us know.
Date
2006 (Creation date: 1985-01-21)
Main contributor
Elwood, William A
Summary
Part one. Civil rights activist Palmer Weber asserts that there were three prongs to the attack on systemic segregation in the South: jobs, education, and suffrage. He speaks of his association with A. Philip Randolph and how Randolph set about conquering segregation in labor. He credits Charles Houston with the strategy of attacking segregation in education, via court cases. Weber talks about his election to the national board of the NAACP. He mentions the work of Mary McCleod Bethune, Ralph Bunche, and Mordecai Johnson. Part two. Mr. Weber discusses lawyer Oliver Hill, writer Nancy Cunard, Jack Graveley of the NAACP, Dr. J.M. Tinsley, and Professor Duncan Clark Hyde. Weber elaborates on his work for the Fair Employment Practices Commission. He credits World War II for advancing the NAACP's attack on the segregation system and swelling its membership. In terms of civil rights progress, the NAACP’s struggle to get the Armed Forces desegregated was as great as Charles Houston’s endeavors in education. He also says that Philip Randolph's accomplishments in labor are as important as Houston's for education; and Martin Luther King Jr. built on the work of all of these men, but transcended them by urging African American clergy to action. Weber also talks about Walter White and his rifts with Paul Robeson and W.E.B. Dubois. Part three. Mr. Weber discusses Walter White and his impact on the civil rights struggle, especially White’s study of lynchings in the South. Other people discussed are Mary McCleod Bethune, Ralph Bunche, Lucy Randolph Mason, Eleanor Roosevelt, Tom Clark, Thurgood Marshall, and Earl Warren.
Contributors
Weber, F. Palmer, 1914-1986 (Interviewee); Elwood, William A
Subjects
African Americans -- Civil rights -- History; African Americans -- Education -- History; Discrimination in education -- Law and legislation -- United States; School integration -- United States -- History; Segregation in education -- United States -- History
Collection
William A. Elwood Civil Rights Lawyers Project
Unit
Robertson Media Center
Language
English
Related Items
Road to Brown : the untold story of "the man who killed Jim Crow."; William A. Elwood Civil Rights Lawyers Project
Notes
Source footage for the documentary, The road to Brown : the untold story of “the man who killed Jim Crow” (California Newsreel, 1990), about the life of Charles Hamilton Houston, his crusade for civil rights, and the events that led to Brown v. the Board of Education, the 1954 Supreme Court decision that declared the doctrine of separate but equal to be illegal.
Title supplied by cataloger.
Recorded at Charlottesville, Virginia.

Creation/Production Credits

Digitized by: Cincinnati, Ohio : The PPS Group, 2006.

Access Restrictions

This item is accessible by: the public.