Oral Histories Highlights Reel

Dublin Core

Title

Oral Histories Highlights Reel

Subject

Farmer, James, 1920-1999

Description

In this brief highlight reel, viewers can a sense of the topics and tones of the oral history interviews done to get a better understanding of his legacy at Mary Washington.

Creator

Mahoney, Eilise

Source



To see this video on Youtube please click here.

Publisher

Hist 428 Spring 2020

Date

2020-04-20

Contributor

Mahoney, Eilise
Eastridge, Kimberly
Dellinger, Mary Hellen
Davis, Pam
McClurken, Jeffery
Williams, Christopher
Special Collections and University Archives

Format

Youtube Video

Language

English

Type

Moving Image

Oral History Item Type Metadata

Interviewer

Eastridge, Kimberly

Interviewee

Davis, Pam
Dellinger, Mary Hellen
McClurken, Jeffery
Williams, Christopher

Location

Zoom

Transcription

Text: Dr. Farmer’s former students graciously allowed us to ask them questions about their experiences learning from one of the Civil Rights Movement’s most important leaders.
Text: This is what they had to say…
Mary Hellen Dellinger: It’s critically important that people know that he was one of the big four. He taught there. Um, very few people had more an impact on the Civil Rights Movement than he did.
Pam Davis: He-He really, you know, opened my mind and, you know, my knowledgebase on just how deep the Civil Rights Movement was beyond Dr. Martin Luther King, and, um, that it didn’t really start with Dr. Martin Luther King.
Dr. Jeffery McClurken: It went beyond just a class. It was more than just content. It was-this is going to sound trite, but it was an experience.
Mary Hellen Dellinger: Everything he’s been through, what people did to him solely because of the color of his skin, and yet he sits here and shares that story with a room of-we were all white students, he wouldn’t know that, but I mean there wasn’t one minority student in the room, and he just-you know-just, it was like he was telling a story.
Pam Davis: The biggest thing I remember from his class was, um, his stories. His stories were just so vivid. Um, he was such a, um, such a great storyteller. Um, he added a lot of detail, um, his memory, um, was amazing.
Christopher Williams: Dr. Farmer represented many different identities. Um, of course he was a black man but he also had disabilities.
Dr. Jeffery McClurken: There’s something fundamentally different in hearing those stories come to life, right? Come to life from someone who has been there. Come to life from someone who’s physically and emotionally suffered for the cause that you’re studying. It’s just a different experience. It’s a transformative experience.
Christopher Williams: He would often say, “you know I just hope that people don’t forget not only what I sacrificed, but the many people who were with me in C.O.R.E.”
Mary Hellen Dellinger: I sometimes-I can just hear his voice in my head talking about the injustices that he felt, and I always try to think “I’d like to do a better job, um, as a person.”
Dr. Farmer: I look forward to a great future for you. Not only in academia, but in life after academia, and, indeed, there is life after academia. Thank you.
Text: Thank you to the Special Collections and University Archives at the University of Mary Washington for providing access to these photographs of Dr. Farmer for our project.
Text: Thank you to our interviewees for taking the time to share their memories of Dr. Farmer with us.
Text: For more information about this project and these oral histories please go to farmer.umwhistory.org

Original Format

Zoom Video

Duration

3:06

Collection

Citation

Mahoney, Eilise, “Oral Histories Highlights Reel,” James Farmer at Mary Washington, accessed November 29, 2023, http://farmer.umwhistory.org/items/show/133.

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