Documenting the American South Logo
Collections >> Oral Histories of the American South >> Document Menu
Oral History Interview with Virginia Foster Durr, February 6, 1991. Interview A-0337. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007).
Audio with Transcript
  • Listen Online with Text Transcript (Requires QuickTime and JavaScript)
  • Transcript Only (41 p.)
  • HTML file
  • XML/TEI source file
  • Download Complete Audio File (MP3 format / ca. 169 MB, 01:32:35)
  • MP3
  • Abstract
    Civil rights activist Virginia Foster Durr describes her involvement in the nascent civil rights movement of the 1940s and 1950s. Durr was among those white elites, like Eleanor Roosevelt and Durr's husband Clifford, who supported black activists as they began organizing what would become the familiar civil rights movement of the 1960s. In this interview, she describes some of her experiences with the movement. Interested researchers will find here a snapshot of some of the activism that was taking place in the American South before the 1960s.
    Excerpts
  • Eleanor Roosevelt supports civil rights
  • Mary McLeod Bethune as "an African lioness"
  • Endurance of southern racism despite charismatic black leadership
  • Red-baiting in the 1950s
  • Civil rights movement attracts only elite whites
  • Learn More
  • Finding aid to the Southern Oral History Program Collection
  • Database of all Southern Oral History Program Collection interviews
  • Subjects
  • Civil rights--Alabama
  • Parks, Rosa, 1913-2005
  • The Southern Oral History Program transcripts presented here on Documenting the American South undergo an editorial process to remove transcription errors. Texts may differ from the original transcripts held by the Southern Historical Collection.

    Funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this title.