Hear interviews with Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Orval Faubus, John Hope Franklin, Eva Clayton, and others, drawn from the SOHP archives.

Southern Historical Collection

Southern Oral History Program Collection




SOHP Home > The SOHP Archives

The SOHP Archives

The Southern Oral History Program performs the vital task of recording
and preserving research interviews for future generations. Our ever-expanding
collection, which includes some 4,000 interviews recorded since 1973, is
maintained in the University's Southern Historical Collection, the country's
foremost repository for research materials on the American South.

The Southern Historical Collection also provides a complete finding
aid
for the Southern Oral History Program Collection and a new online finding aid allows for targeted searching. Component subsections of the SOHP Collection include:

Series A. Southern Politics
Series B. Individual Biographies
Series C. Notable North Carolinians
Series D. Rural Electrification
Series E. Labor
Series F. Fellowship of Southern Churchmen
Series G. Southern Women
Series H. Piedmont Industrialization
Series I. Business History
Series J. Legal Professions
Series K. Southern Communities
Series L. University of North Carolina
Series M. Black High School Principals
Series O. Foundation History
Series P. The Press and the Civil Rights Movement (in process)
Series Q. African American Life and Culture
Series R. Special Research Projects
Series S. Center for Creative Leadership
Series U. The Long Civil Rights Movement: The South Since the 1960s
Series V. The Hayti Spectrum: Documenting Negro Life of the 1920s, '30s, and '40s in Durham, N.C.


 Selections from the SOHP Archives (audio and transcripts)
Key Name Date Length
  =  Audio file,
real format
  =  Audio file,
mp3 format
  =  Transcript,
Word format
  =  Transcript,
PDF format
  =  Related Images,
gif and jpg
Blue, Daniel T.       
1/19/96
72 mins
Daniel T. Blue, Jr., one of North Carolina's most significant political leaders of recent decades, was the General Assembly's first-ever African American Speaker, gaining that office during the 1991-92 and 1993-94 legislative terms. Here he discusses the evolution of black political activity in NC during the late 1960s and early 1970s, his later political victories, the GOP's resurgence, and other issues. (Interviewed by Joseph Mosnier. Part 1: 46 mins. Part 2: 26 mins.)

Carter, Jimmy         
undated '73
80 mins
Carter shares his views on race in southern politics and two-party politics in the South. He also discusses a variety of other subjects including integration, national defense, party fundraising and religious conservatism. (Interviewed by Jack Bass and Walter DeVries. Part 1: 49 mins. Part 2: 31 mins.)

Clayton, Eva         
5/30/95
79 mins
Eva M. Clayton, elected to Congress in Nov. 1992, was one of two African-Americans elected to the U.S. House from North Carolina in that year, a first for the state in the twentieth century. Long active in the civil rights struggle, Clayton had run for Congress as far back as 1968. Here she discusses the evolution of black political activity in North Carolina since the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act of 1965. (Interviewed by Joseph Mosnier. Part 1: 46 mins. Part 2: 33 mins.)

Clinton, Bill         
6/15/74
60 mins
The then twenty-seven year-old University of Arkansas law professor and Congressional candidate discusses his run for Congress and his recent work on the McGovern campaign. He also shares his views on how to get Arkansas votes and his analyses of Arkansas politicians such as Orval Faubus, Dale Bumpers, and William Fulbright. (Interviewed by Jack Bass and Walter DeVries. Part 1: 46 mins. Part 2: 14 mins.)

Gore, Albert Sr.    
10/24/76
14 mins
The Tennessee senator recalls the Dixiecrat movement of 1948 and its after effects on Southern Democratic politics in general and Tennessee in particular. (Interviewed by Dewey Grantham. 14 mins.)

Faubus, Orval         
6/14/74
94 mins
Faubus discusses his and his father's political philosophies, gives his own account of the Little Rock integration crisis and the state of race relations in Arkansas in the 1950s, and recounts changes in Arkansas politics in the previous twenty-five years. (Interviewed by Jack Bass and Walter DeVries. Part 1: 47 mins. Part 2: 47 mins.)

Hawke, John Russell               
12/3/96
139 mins
John Russell ("Jack") Hawke, has been a key player in North Carolina Republican Party politics for thirty years. Here Hawke discusses the complex, shifting relationship between the NC GOP and the Congressional Club; his ties to Gov. Jim Martin; his service from 1987 to 1995 as state GOP chair; political redistricting; and factors explaining the broad political realignment in favor of the GOP across the last several decades. (Interviewed by Joseph Mosnier. Part 1: 46 mins. Part 2: 47 mins. Part 3: 46 mins.)

Henry, Aaron         
4/2/74
87 mins
The Mississippi Civil Rights activist provides a historical perspective on race and racism in Mississippi, and discusses events such as voter registration drives, school desegregation, and the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. He also shares his thoughts on political figures ranging from Charles Evers to Richard Nixon and Strom Thurmond. (Interview by Jack Bass. Part 1: 47 mins. Part 2: 40 mins.)

Franklin, John Hope         
7/27/90
59 mins
Franklin recalls his undergraduate days and the early years of his career at Fisk University, and Nashville's racial climate at the time. The prominent African-American historian also reminisces about his relationships with white Southern moderates and liberals of the pre-Civil Rights period; and recounts specific professional breakthroughs, such as his election as the first African-American president of the Southern Historical Association. (Interviewed by John Egerton. Part 1: 46 mins. Part 2: 13 mins.)

Faircloth, Lauch         
3/2/99
95 mins
Sen. Duncan MacLauchlan "Lauch" Faircloth, once a conservative Democrat who served Gov. Jim Hunt as state commerce secretary, abandoned the Democratic Party in 1991 and the following year defeated incumbent U.S. Senator Terry Sanford. Here Faircloth reviews his public activities from the 1950s through the early 1980s, focusing particularly on his tenure on the state highway commission and as state Secretary of Commerce. (Interviewed by Joseph Mosnier. Part 1: 48 mins. Part 2: 47 mins.)




The Southern Oral History Program
Center for the Study of the American South
Love House and Hutchins Forum
410 East Franklin St., CB# 9127, UNC-CH
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-9127
(919) 962-0455
info@sohp.org