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"Hear My Story" Presents Women's Side of the
Civil Rights Movement. Women share their stories at Oglethorpe
Symposium; Video Available.
"I was drenched with ketchup at lunch in the cafeteria; I
still won't eat ketchup."
Jo Bradley, who integrated Greensboro High School
"The bad smell in my car was a dead rattlesnake in the glove
compartment."
Mae Kendall, the first African-American professor at the
University of Georgia
"The loud thud on the porch was followed by an explosion. I
rushed into the children's room to make sure they were okay."
Coretta Scott King, wife of Martin Luther King Jr.
"Two weeks in jail for integrating a lunch counter in Atlanta
… my mother and I never reconciled over my role in the Civil Rights
Movement."
Lydia Tucker Douglas, student activist in Atlanta
Atlanta – "We're here to thwart those who want to
sanitize history and keep it in cellophane."
These words from panel moderator Sally Sears drew loud applause from
the audience of nearly 500 who attended the Thursday night session
of "Hear My Story: The Untold Stories of Women in the Civil Rights
Movement," sponsored by the Oglethorpe Women's Network at Oglethorpe
University in mid-September. Women presented their views, and shared
many previously untold stories, of the sacrifices and risks they
took to help bring about equality in the turbulent 60s and 70s, at
the height of the Civil Rights Movement.
Mrs. Coretta Scott King was keynote speaker. A panel of women then
shared their stories, at times showing emotion at coming forward
with feelings and incidents many had put behind them or chalked up
to the "necessities of living" - rifts between parents and children,
struggles to leave the comfort of the neighborhood high school to
integrate the all-white school in town and fear as bombs exploded
and death threats loomed large.
Following the program, a video archive produced by Sally Sears and
WSB-TV was shown, capturing for posterity on videotape the stories
of many women of the Civil Rights Movement. The documentary/video
archive will make its way into libraries and history centers across
the United States.
"Hear My Story" was a two-day symposium at Oglethorpe University. It
was the inaugural event for the Oglethorpe Women's Network.
Oglethorpe University is an independent, highly selective,
co-educational liberal arts institution located in Atlanta at 4484
Peachtree Road. Founded in 1835, the university is dedicated to
producing graduates who are broadly educated in the fundamental
fields of knowledge and the basic concepts and principals of their
disciplines. The Oglethorpe student body consists of approximately
1,230 students representing 32 states and more than 30 nations.
For more information, please call Oglethorpe University at
404/261-1441.
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