Documenting the American South: Oral Histories of the American South

Collections >> Oral Histories of the American South >> Interview >> Excerpt

Excerpt from

Oral History Interview with George Simkins, April 6, 1997. Interview R-0018. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

See Entire Interview >>

Black lawyers fear civil rights cases

Simkins explains why it could be difficult to get black lawyers to handle civil rights cases: they feared discrimination in the courtroom and worried about protecting their reputations.

About this Excerpt • Citing this Excerpt • Full Text of the Excerpt

About this Excerpt

Interviewer	Karen Kruse Thomas
Interviewee	George Simkins
Excerpt Length	0:00:57
Start Time	00:12:41
Stop Time	00:13:38
Subjects	Race and Civil Rights > BLACK RESPONSES TO CHANGE > Resistance: Individual Race and Civil Rights > BLACK SELF-ASSERTION > Activism and Protest Disagreements

Citing this Excerpt

Oral History Interview with George Simkins, April 6, 1997. Interview R-0018. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Full Text of the Excerpt

KAREN KRUSE THOMAS:: That's interesting that the first lawyer was so intimidated. I wonder why he accepted the case at all?
GEORGE SIMKINS:: I did too. But I guess the more he thought about it, he just didn't want to take any chance. At that particular time, it was hard to get any black lawyers to do anything in civil rights.
KAREN KRUSE THOMAS:: Was there fear of violence, or professional problems?
GEORGE SIMKINS:: They feared that the courts would not look favorably upon them, and they just didn't want to risk their profession on cases that were not popular.