A B C  D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U Y W X Y Z

A

ALEXANDER, Elizabeth Pat (n.d.)
O.H. 179
Interviewer:  R. Donald Brown
Date:            April 8, 1967
Status:          Transcribed, 20 pp.
Tape length:  60 min.

Editor since 1953 of the Los Angeles Herald-Dispatch, a sensationalistic black weekly, discusses black journalism in the Los Angeles area, condition of blacks in Los Angeles, and events from 1953 to 1966.

B

BAILEY, A. Peter (1938-  )
O.H. 1685
Interviewer:  Joan V. Feeney
Date:            July 27, 1976
Status:          Not transcribed
Tape length: 1 hr. 10 min.

Head of Black Theater Alliance, and associate editor of Ebony in 1976. As editor of The Black Lash for Malcolm X’s Organization of Afro-American Unity, Mr. Bailey discusses how and why he became linked up with this organization, the death by assassination of its leader, the on-going black movement’s dedication to Malcolm X’s goals.

BARAKA, Amiri
O.H. 1691

      See JONES, LeRoi

BEAVERS, George., Jr. (1891-   )
O.H.   133
Interviewer:  R. Donald Brown
Date:            October 15 and November 12, 1966
Status:          Transcribed, 32 pp.
Tape length:  1 hr. 30 min.

African American businessman who is a former member of the Los Angeles Housing Authority discusses the history of the Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company in the 1930s and 1940s, and public housing in Los Angeles from World War II to the 1960s.

BRADLEY, Thomas A. (1917-    )
O.H.    178
Interviewer:  R. Donald Brown
Date:            April 18, 1967
Status:          Transcribed, 15 pp.
Tape length:  45 min.

A former police lieutenant and Los Angeles city councilman discusses conditions of the black community and the police force in Los Angeles to the early 1960s. Mr. Bradley was elected mayor of Los Angles in 1973.

BRAZIER, Wesley R. (1917-   )
O.H.       136
Interviewer:  R. Donald Brown
Date:            November 29, 1966
Status:          Not transcribed
Tape length:  60 min.

Head of the Los Angeles Urban League from 1948 to 1968 discusses the activities of the league and economic conditions in the African American community.

BREITMAN, George (1916-   )                                                  
O.H.      1686
Interviewer:  Joan V. Feeney
Date:            August 20, 1978
Status:          Not transcribed
Tape length:  1 hr. 15 min.

Officer in the Socialist Workers Party, and for many years editor of its party organ, the Socialist Appeal/Militant, Mr. Breitman reminisces about C. L. R. James, Marxism, black nationalism, and how he came to possess and edit for publication the tapes and writings of Malcolm X.

BROWN, James (n.d.)
O.H.       180
Interviewer:  R. Donald Brown
Date:            April 8, 1967
Status:          Transcribed, 30 pp.
Tape length:  1 hr. 15 min.

Head of Willowbrook Job Corporation since 1966 comments on the Watts riot and ghetto conditions in the 1960s.

C

CARMICHAEL, Anngeral (1920-  )
O.H. 2134
Interviewer:             Arlen Gaynor and Terry Kirker
Date:                       October 28, 1974
Status:                     Completed 1975, 11 pp.
Tape length:             60 min.
Bound in Harvest, 1975, xiii, 381 pp.

A self-employed caterer and first woman chef at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station describes her childhood with ten siblings and a close relationship with her father. She recalls combating discrimination against blacks that she encountered at her new home in Anaheim, California, and her early employment in military and institutional kitchens.

 

CHEETAM, Earnie (n.d.)
O.H. 2135
Interviewer:             Darlene Barnes and Ruth Preiss
Date:                        October 24, 1974
Status:                     Completed 1975, 8 pp.
Tape length:           45 nun.
Bound in Harvest, 1975, xiii, 381 pp.

Resident of Anaheim, California, since 1973 recalls the difficulty of raising three children as a single parent and sending them to an exclusive private school, her involvement in social work in the black community of Los Angeles, and her early childhood in Texas.

CONVINGTON, Floyd (1901-  )
O.H.        181
Interviewer:  R. Donald Brown
Date:            November 3 and December 15, 1967
Status:          Not transcribed
Tape length:  2  hrs. 30 min.

Executive Director of Los Angeles Urban League from 1931-1948 discusses his early life, formation and activities of blacks in Los Angeles in the 1920s and 1930s. Contains information on Sentinel campaigns of 1930s, public agency and private employer policies toward blacks, race relations in Los Angeles, and the film industry. Last section deals with World War II migration, wartime employment of blacks, and racial organizations in Los Angeles.

G

GAYNOR, Arlen (n.d.)
O.H. 2136
Interviewer:             Terry Kirker
Date:                        November 12, 1974
Status:                     Transcribed, 31 pp.
Tape length:            1 hr. 30 min.

Interviewee recalls childhood experiences in southern California, role of his parents in his formative years, and his education at California State University, Fullerton.

GETHAIGA, Wacira (ca. 1935-     )
O.H. 2151
Interviewer:             Darlene Barnes and Ruth Priess
Date:                       November 5, 1974
Status:                     Completed 1975, 15 pp., photo
Tape length:             60 min.
Bound in Harvest, 1975, xiii, 381 pp.

Black instructor at California State University, Fullerton, recalls childhood in Kenya, his immigration and formal education in the United States, and work with black students at that institution. Comments on the different attitudes toward education in Kenya and neighboring countries.

GLABERMAN, Martin (n.d.)
O.H.        1687
Interviewer:  Joan V. Feeney
Date:            August 20, 1978
Status:          Not transcribed
Tape length:  2 hrs.

Marxist pamphleteer, editor, polemicist, and supporter of C. L. R. James. Mr. Glaberman recalls his time spent as an early follower of James in the Johnson/Forest Tendency–a political faction within the Socialist Workers Party and Workers’ Party in the 1940s and 1950s; also as official in the Committees of Correspondence, 1954 and early 1960s; leader of “Facing Reality,” C. L. R. James’s final organization in 1960s.

GOLDWATER, Walter (1907-   )
O.H.       1688
Interviewer:  Joan V. Feeney
Date:            July 29, 1976
Status:          Not transcribed
Tape length:  40 min.

A bookman, dealer in rare African and Afro-American materials, owner of The University Place Bookshop in New York, compiler of Radical Periodicals, member of Socialist Workers Party and an early friend of C. L. R. James, Mr. Goldwater narrates anecdotes concerned with James, George Padmore in London, Constance Webb, Richard and Ellen Wright, Selma James, James’s deportation proceedings and stay on Ellis Island, and political career with Eric Williams’s government in Trinidad.

GORMAN, William (n.d.)
O.H.       1689
Interviewer:  Joan V. Feeney
Date:            August 23, 1978
Status:          Not transcribed
Tape length:  60 min.

A Polish-American follower of C. L. R.  James, his name is probably a pseudonym, is considered as the “historian” of the group. Mr. Gorman recounts details of his first meeting with James as “J.R. Johnson,” describing his peculiarities of platform presence, Constance Webb’s marriage to C. L. R. James, and the couple’s close friendship with the Richard Wrights. Discusses other members in their associations and the divisions which occurred.

GRANT, M.  Earl (1891-1981)
O.H.          135
Interviewer: R. Donald Brown
Date:           November 12, 1966
Status:         Transcribed, 30 pp.
Tape length: 1 hr. 15 min.

An African American executive in the savings and loan business in Los Angeles in the 1940s reminisces about his business career in Pasadena and Los Angeles, California especially in savings and loans. Comments on Watts riot.

H

HOUSTON, Norman O. (1893-1981)
O.H.          134              
Interviewer: R. Donald Brown
Date:           October 27, 1966
Status:         Transcribed, 19 pp.
Tape length: 60 min. 

Founder and former president of the Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company since 1924 discusses the history of the company.

HUDSON, H. Claude (1896-  )
O.H.            6a
Interviewer:  R. Donald Brown
Date:            November 29, 1966; October 12, 1967
Status:          Not transcribed
Tape length:  3 hrs.

Dentist and president of Broadway Savings and Loan provides biographical information on the growth and involvement of the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People with eradication of discrimination in jobs, housing and business, especially saving and loan companies; black leaders in Los Angeles; the Watts riots; violence versus nonviolence as a means for achieving goals.

HUDSON, H. Claude (1896-   )
O.H.           6b
Interviewer:  Lawrence B. de Graaf
Date:            January 10, and April 18, 1967
Status:          Transcribed
Tape length:  1 hr. 30 min.

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People involvement in civil rights activities in parks and on beaches, in housing and in schools; the Garvey Movement; African American aviators in the 1930s; the Lynch Law of 1932. 

J

JAMES, Cyril Lionel Robert “CLR” (1901-  )
O.H.        1690
Interviewer:  Joan V. Feeney
Date:            August 4, 1976
Status:          Not transcribed
Tape length:  60 min.

Pan-African statesman, black nationalist leader, cricket reporter for The Manchester Guardian, socialist reformer, revolutionary, and educator from the West Indies, Mr. James reflects upon his exploits, and elaborates upon some of principle people, who, at one time or another, were his devoted followers in the United States.

JOHNSON, Clarence (n.d.)
O.H.          139
Interviewer:  R. Donald Brown
Date:            Fall 1967
Status:          Transcribed, 32 pp.
Tape length:  1 hr. 15 min.

A West Coast African American leader in the Dining Car Porter’s Union from the 1930s to the 1950s reminisces about Los Angeles, San Francisco, history of the union, black workers in the labor movement, and labor-management relations.

JONES, LeRoi (1934-  )
O. H.       1691
Interviewer:  Joan V. Feeney
Date:            July 28, 1976
Status:          Not transcribed
Tape length:  65 min.

Poet, playwright, father of the Black Arts Movement–[BART], polemicist for black nationalism in America, and activist, Baraka identifies himself as a supporter of Robert F. Williams and “Direct Action,” as advocated by Malcolm X. Describes his move to Newark, New Jersey, after the sudden death of Malcolm X, where he became involved in state politics and every phase of the on-going black struggle during the later 1960s and 1970s.

K

KARENGA, Ron Everett “Maulana,” (1941-   )
O.H.        1692
Interviewer:  Joan V. Feeney
Date:            May 30, 1976
Status:          Not transcribed
Tape length:  1 hr. 40 min.

Black militant West Coast leader of a group called “US.” The Maulana recounts his experiences as a copartner to Amiri Baraka, in the spreading of black cultural and political nationalism, through “KAWAIDA,” as a life-style for Afro-Americans. Karenga reveals his role in the “Black Power” politics of the mid-1960s, and his subsequent “frame-up” by the FBI and Los Angeles police.

L

LINDSAY, Gilbert (ca. 1900-  )
O.H.          177
Interviewer:  R. Donald Brown
Date:            November 13, 1967
Status:          Not transcribed
Tape length:  30 min.

First African American elected to the Los Angeles City Council in 1963 from the Ninth District, and the third black elected official in California, explains his active participation in the 1934 campaign of Frederick Roberts and August Hawkins; his philosophy and ideology toward California politics and national apathy of blacks toward voting; programs developed to educate black communities on controversial issues such as public housing and fair employment.

LOMAX, Almena Davis (1915-  )
O.H.          137
Interviewer:  R. Donald Brown
Date:            December 27 and 28, 1966; January 12, 1967
Status:          Transcribed, 79 pp.
Tape length:  3 hrs.

Former editor of the Los Angeles Tribune, a black weekly newspaper published from 1940 to 1960, describes background of the African American newspaper Eagle; education and experience writing news articles; refusals of many major experiences and policies during twenty years on the Tribune especially those opposed by the Sentinel; prejudice and discrimination toward African American newspapers; personal philosophy and theology on racial issues, general African American psyche, political views, civil rights, activism and publishing activity in Tuskegee, Alabama during the 1950s.

M   

MC CARTHY, Mary Margaret (n.d.)
O.H.    1367
Interviewer:  Betty E. Mitson
Date:             July 13, 1973
Status:           Not transcribed
Tape length:   60 min.  

Race relations in the schools of Topeka, Kansas at the time of the 1954 Supreme Court desegregation case, Brown   v. Topeka. Personal experiences of a girl living in an ethically mixed neighborhood.

MATTHEWS, Charles (1906-     )
O.H.    175
Interviewer:  R. Donald Brown
Date:            January 5, 1967
Status:          Transcribed, 19 pp.
Tape length:  60 min.

Reminiscence of a African American attorney and former district attorney of Los Angles on changing conditions of blacks in Los Angeles from 1930 to 1960s, especially in public employment and police.

MATTHEWS, Miriam (1905-       )
O.H.             7
Interviewer:   R. Donald Brown
Date:             November 29, 1966
Status:           Transcribed, 35 pp.
Tape Length:  2 hrs.

African American Art Association of 1937; organization of the Los Angeles Public Library in the 1930s and 1940s; African American writers, musicians, and businesses in the Los Angeles area.

MAYS, Darthulia (1909-       )
O.H.        1649
Interviewer:  Edison Mays
Date:            April 18, 1974
Status:          Completed 1884, 22 pp., index, photos
Tape Length: 2 hrs. 10 min.

Personal recollections of life as a sharecropper in the southern states of Mississippi and Arkansas. Comments on various family members, problems of growing up in a large family, difficulties of owning property, racially mixed marriage, and treatment of black soldiers during World War I.

MAY, Ruth (ca. 1930-  )
O.H. 2137
Interviewer:             Eddie Gaines and Cathy Ridge
Date:                       October 31, 1974
Status:                     Completed 1975, 26 pp.
Tape length:            60 min.
Bound in Harvest, 1975, xiii, 381 pp.

California State University, Fullerton, professor and niece of the well-known author W.E.B. DuBois recalls discrimination against blacks in her hometown of Hampton, Virginia, her efforts to succeed at Vassar College, her marriage, and move to California. Comments on the difficulty of getting established in Los Angeles and Fullerton, California, as a reading skills instructor on the 1970s.

MILLER, Loren (ca. 1903-1967)
O.H.          174
Interviewer:   Lawrence B. de Graaf
Date:             March 3 and April 29, 1967
Status:           Transcribed, 66 pp.
Tape Length:  2 hrs. 45 min.

Los Angeles judge reminisces about his early life, newspaper career, black journalists in Los Angeles, blacks in the communist party, and Los Angeles blacks in the communist party, and Los Angeles black organizations. Second interview deals with blacks in Los Angeles in 1930s and World War II, including school segregation, black politics, civil rights activities, Fair Employment Practices Committee cases, wartime riots, and protest movements.

N

NAMASAKA, Boaz (n.d.)
O.H. 2153
Interviewer:             Ray Williams and Louise Wainwright
Date:                       October 31, 1974
Status:                     Completed 1975, 14 pp.
Tape length:            60 min.
Bound in Harvest, 1975, xiii, 381 pp.

Black African from Kenya who teaches at California State University, Fullerton, describes life in Kenya, his immigration to the United States, formal education, and the difficulties of finding a teaching position. Comments on the racial situation in Orange County, California, and sociopolitical conditions in Kenya and Uganda.

P

PERRY, Tyrone L. (ca. 1945-   )
O.H. 2138
Interviewer:             Spring Anderson
Date:                        October 20, 1974
Status:                     Completed 1975, 6 pp.
Tape length:           30 min.
Bound in Harvest, 1975, xiii, 381 pp.

A financial aid counselor and graduate of California State University, Fullerton, recalls his childhood experiences, early education, and his work as a counselor and work study coordinator.

PUGH, James M. (ca. 1945-    )
O.H. 2139
Interviewer:             Jody Wallick and Murphy Holmes
Dates:                      October 8, 10, and 18, 1974
Status:                     Completed 1975, 55 pp. photos
Tape length:             3 hrs.
Bound in Harvest, 1975, xiii, 381 pp.

An educational psychologist recalls his childhood in the Harlem section of New York City, drugs and racketeering in the black community, and the lack of positive black role models in Harlem. Comments on his college life, his move to Orange County, California, and the social conflicts in his life caused by living in a predominantly affluent area of the United States.

S

SMITH, Jimmie (1892-1981)
O.H.        1747
Interviewer:  Lawrence B. de Graaf
Date:            July 18, 1974
Status:          Transcribed, 68 pp.
Tape length:  2 hrs.

Early black resident of Los Angeles, journalist, Hollywood film worker, discusses early black community in Los Angeles, prominent residents, blacks in films, film casting in 1920s to 1940s, and black sports reporting. Includes comments on social life and various clubs in the black community.

SOMERVILLE, J. Alexander (1881-1973)
O.H.             1
Interviewer:  R. Donald Brown
Date:            Not recorded, c. 1966.
Status:          Transcribed, 18 pp.
Tape length:  60 min.

African American dentist in Los Angeles reflects on national politics from 1902-1930s; black migration, employment for the Advancement of Colored People in Los Angeles, California.

SOMERVILLE, J. Alexander (1881-1973) and Vada (1885-1972)
O.H.         138
Interviewer:  Lawrence B. de Graff
Date:            June 10, 1967
Status:          Transcribed, 37 pp.
Tape length:  2 hr. 15 min.

Pioneer African American dentists in Los Angeles since 1904, founders of the Los Angeles Branch of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and civic leaders, reminisce about blacks in California and Los Angeles in the period from 1900s to 1950. A discussion of West Indians in Los Angeles; and race restrictive covenants.

STILL, William Grant (1895-1980)
O.H.        176*
Interviewer:   R. Donald Brown
Date:             November 13 and December 4, 1967
Status:           Completed 1984, 76 pp., index, photos, documents
Tape length:   1 hr. 45 min.

Black musician and composer of nearly one hundred fifty compositions discusses African American classical music. Still, born in Woodville, Mississippi, was the first African American to conduct a major symphony orchestra in the United States. In 1936 he directed the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in the Hollywood Bowl using his own compositions. Includes biographical notes, and a dedication written by Miriam Matthews.

W

WARREN, Joseph L. (n.d.)
O.H. 2140
Interviewer:      LeRoy DuBois and Esther Teele
Date:                November 11, 1974
Status:              Completed 1975, 19 pp.
Tape length:      60 min.
Bound in Harvest, 1975, xiii, 381 pp.

Recollections of his childhood, early psychic experiences, and his belief in witchcraft.

WHITE, Joshua (Ca. 1930-   )
O.H. 2141
Interviewer:         Lillie King and Chris Kirby
Date:                   October 31, 1975
Status:                 Completed 1975, 29 pp., photo
Tape length:         2 hrs.
Bound in Harvest, 1975, xiii, 381 pp.

A political activist in Orange County, California, describes his early childhood and education in Oklahoma, his decision to become active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), his successful efforts to integrate his local junior college in Oklahoma, and membership in the Young Democratic Club at Oklahoma State University. Comments on the difficulties of establishing himself in Orange County, California, in 1961 because of racial prejudice; his determination to succeed; and his political activism among the black and white communities of Orange County.

WINTERS, Everett (n.d.)
O.H. 1684a
Interviewer:           Glen Ford and Maria Gutierrez
Date:                     November 12, 1974
Status:                   Completed 1975, 22 pp.
Tape length:           1 hr. 30 min.
Bound in Harvest, 1975, xiii, 381 pp. 

A university administrator at California State University, Fullerton, in charge of affirmative action remembers the difficulty of finding work in Orange County, California, in the early 1960s, his work for North American Rockwell, and his association with Orange County’s National Association for the Advancement of Colored People chapter. Comments on the forms of racial discrimination against blacks in housing, employment, and educational opportunities in southern California.
See also Everett Winters, O.H. 1648b, University History Project

WEBB, Constance Pearlstien (n.d.)
O.H.       1693
Interviewer:  Joan V. Feeney
Date:            June 14, 1980
Status:          Not transcribed
Tape length:  60 min.

An intellectual and celebrated cover girl of the 1940s, who became the second wife of C. L. R. James, and mother of C. L. R. James, Jr., describes her early Marxist associations; her introduction to C. L. R. on a West Coast speaking tour; his correspondence with her;  her modeling career. Discusses the police harassment encountered in their partnership, their decision to separate, C. L. R.’s being jailed in Los Angeles prior to his deportation to England, and her new career as a journalist for Correspondence.

WILLIAMS, Mabel (n.d.)
O.H.    1694
Interviewer:  Joan V. Feeney
Date:            August 19, 1978
Status:          Not transcribed
Tape length:  40 min. 

The wife of Robert F. Williams (see next entry), living in the black community of Baldwin, Michigan, expresses her feelings toward continuing segregation for black Americans in the South, day-to-day frustrations and hardships along with a mother’s fears for the well-being of her children under these circumstances; discusses her new career as a radio announcer in Cuba for “Radio Free Dixie,” and her experiences in China, North Korea, and Africa.

WILLIAMS, Robert F. (n.d.)
O.H.    1695
Interviewer:  Joan V. Feeney
Date:             August 19, 1978
Status:           Not transcribed
Tape length:   1 hr. 40 min. 

One of the first black intellectuals to turn into a militant in the South in the late 1950s. Poet, journalist, and editor of a local news sheet called The Crusader, which supported “Direct Action” against violence, Williams elaborates on a rifle club formed with his neighbors in the town of Monroe, North Carolina to combat a reactivated Ku-Klux Klan. Comments on his flight from persecutors in North Carolina, along with experiences he ha while a refugee in Cuba, China, North Korea, and Africa.

 Related material: 

OAKS, Priscilla and Wacira Gethaiga, eds. Harvest: Compilation of taped interviews of minority peoples in Orange County. California. Fullerton: California State University, Bicultural Communications Project, 1975, xiii, 381 pp.

The following interviews are included in the above publication: Shala Ahmadi, Anngeral Carmichael, Earnie Cheetam, Bill Coffer, Christoper Colorado, Wacira Gethaiga, Hector Godinez, Pascaual Gomez, Ruth May, Boaz Namasaka, Mr. and Mrs. Joe Naritoku, Priscilla Oaks, Tyrone Perry, James M. Pugh, Rudy A. Pulido, Jose D. Vargas, Joseph Warren, Joshua White, Chester Whitten, and Everett Winters.

Back to Featured Collections