Two-time mayor and newspaper publisher Floyd Adams Jr. describes urban renewal past and present in Savannah, GA, and its impact on the black community.

Granville County, North Carolina, resident Floyd Alston and his mother, Ethel Thorpe Austin, remember their lives in the area in an interview that touches on, among other topics, racial identity and the struggles of post-emancipation African Americans to find economic and social security.

Grace Aycock briefly describes her childhood and her education in North Carolina during the 1920s and 1930s. Most of the interview is dedicated to a discussion of Aycock's life with her husband, William Aycock, Chancellor of the University of North Carolina (1957-1964). She also discusses her husband's decision to return to teaching, her pursuit of a Master's degree in social work, and her battle with multiple sclerosis.

Raleigh Bailey describes his work with Southeast Asian immigrant groups in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Leroy Beavers despairs of the effects of integration on Savannah, Georgia.

Physician Andrew Best recalls his encounters with racial segregation inside and outside Pitt County Memorial Hospital in civil rights-era North Carolina.

Economist David Breneman discusses his brief tenure with the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in 1977. In this interview, Breneman describes his role in the establishment of federal criteria for school desegregation, focusing particularly on HEW's interactions with education officials in North Carolina.

Dorothy Royster Burwell describes her family history and remembers the devastating effect of "the water," in the form of a government-built lake, that wiped away her community of Sudan, Virginia.

Salter and Doris Cochran reflect on the many challenges that faced them in their efforts to desegregate medical care and public education in Weldon, North Carolina.

Clyda Coward, joined by her daughter Debra and other family members, reflects on her childhood in rural North Carolina and the state of the small community of Tick Bite in the aftermath of Hurricane Floyd.

Former Vice-President of Academic Affairs at the University of North Carolina, Raymond Dawson, discusses tensions surrounding federal desegregation orders in North Carolina during the 1970s. Because of North Carolina's comparatively large number of historically black colleges, the state became a testing ground for the federal government to explore ways to integrate public education while preserving historically black colleges.

Virginia Foster Durr discusses her early life and how she became aware of the social justice problems plaguing twentieth-century America. In this part of a multi-part interview, Durr describes her life on the plantation when she was a child; race issues in Birmingham, where she grew up; and how her views began to change when she left Birmingham to attend Wellesley College.

In this fast-paced 1975 interview, Virginia Foster Durr and her husband Clifford banter back and forth as Clifford reminds Virginia of stories, names and significant events throughout the conversation. The interview begins where the previous one had left off, with Virginia's growing awareness of social problems in the South, and continues through 1948. The couple recount their move to Washington, D.C., and Virginia's disaffection with social society and her transition to political action.

Former president of the University of North Carolina System William Friday describes his relationship with and perception of his predecessors Frank Porter Graham and Gordon Gray. In addition, he describes various aspects of his own presidency, including his approach to desegregation and his relationships with a variety of individuals and organizations.

President of the University of North Carolina System, William Friday, discusses the Speaker Ban Controversy at the University of North Carolina. The ban was enforced from 1963 to 1968 and forbade any communist—or anyone who refused during a formal hearing to disavow allegiance to communism—to speak on campus. Throughout the interview, Friday focuses on issues of academic freedom, his efforts to have the law overturned, and the broader social unrest that characterized campus politics during that era.

Martin Gerry recalls his efforts, as the director of the Office of Civil Rights, to accelerate desegregation in North Carolina.

John Harris, longtime cab driver and businessman in Greensboro, NC, describes his community in the context of race and redevelopment.

L. Worth Harris discusses the trucking company he started in Charlotte, North Carolina, in the early 1930s.

Peter Holmes served as the Director of the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) from 1973 to 1975. In this interview, he discusses the challenges the OCR faced in developing and enforcing guidelines for the desegregation of higher education in southern states.

John Lewis served as the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) from 1963 to 1966. In this interview, rich with vivid detail, Lewis outlines his role within the civil rights movement through his participation in the sit-in movement of 1960 in Nashville, the Freedom Rides through Alabama and Mississippi in 1961, the Mississippi Freedom Summer of 1964, the voter registration drive (primarily in Selma, Alabama) in 1965, and the shift towards the politics of black power within SNCC by 1966. Throughout the interview, he situates the activities of SNCC within the civil rights movement more broadly, focusing on issues of leadership, religion, and politics.

Kenneth Norton remembers being a student at segregated Ada Jenkins School in Davidson, NC, in the 1930s.

Katushka Olave describes her activism on behalf of the Latino community in Durham, North Carolina.

Pharmacist Robert Sampson describes how urban renewal efforts dispersed a thriving black business community in Greensboro, NC.

Former Governor of North Carolina Terry Sanford lauds the leadership of Anne Queen, director of the YMCA/YWCA at University of North Carolina. In addition, Sanford discusses his advocacy of the civil rights movement and argues that the University of North Carolina was a particularly powerful force for social change during the mid-twentieth century.

Former Governor Robert W. Scott discusses the consolidation of the University system during his administration, focusing on the leadership of William Friday and Cameron Scott and the political maneuvering that characterized the process. In addition, he reflects on his accomplishments as governor, expressing pride in his ability to significantly reduce racial unrest during a tumultuous era.

Dentist George Simkins describes his efforts to desegregate hospitals and other facilities in Greensboro, NC.

Pediatrician James Slade and his wife, Catherine, discuss their experience of race and medicine in Edenton, NC.

Clyde Smith recalls the tensions that integration introduced to athletics at North Carolina's Lincolnton High School.

Charles D. Thompson describes his career as a small farmer in North Carolina. Though he found financial success in farming, he was not able to recapture the feel of the farming community of his youth.

Lifelong Chatham County, North Carolina, resident Nancy Brown Tysor describes the changes she has witnessed in Siler City.

Laura Waddell describes her successful career as a tailor as well as her civic activities in Savannah, Georgia.

State congresswoman Edith Warren describes the aftermath of Hurricane Floyd in Pitt County, North Carolina.

Ruth Dial Woods describes growing up as a Lumbee Indian in Robeson County, North Carolina, in the 1930s and 1940s. During the 1960s, Woods participated in the civil rights and women's liberation movements. In 1985, she was appointed to the University of North Carolina Board of Governors, where she worked to promote equality for minority students.