Oral history interview with Leroy Beavers, August 8, 2002 [electronic resource] : interview R-0170, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007).
Leroy Beavers Jr., recalls segregation and integration in Savannah, Georgia. Beavers walks the reader through a history of the city, from its golden years in the 1950s, when African Americans thrived in a self-contained community, to the decay of the 1960s and the damage he sees as having been brought about by integration. Beavers condemns integration, calling it "a genocide of a social life ... where people had just a pure natural respect for each other." Beavers maintains that the closely-knit black community unraveled because new opportunities tempted African Americans and the spirit of self-reliance faded. A proud community slumped as drugs and crime infested black neighborhoods, and African Americans began to discriminate against one another. This crowd of social pathologies gathers on Martin Luther King Street, a name choice Beavers bitterly condemns. A bristling attack on integration, this interview provides an interesting perspective on the legacy of integration in a southern city.
Electronic resources
Record details
- Physical Description: 1 online resource
- Edition: Electronic edition
- Publisher: [Chapel Hill, N.C.] : University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill, 2007.
Content descriptions
- General Note:
- Duration: 00:45:55.Interview participants: Leroy Beavers, interviewee; Leroy Beavers Sr., interviewee; Kieran Taylor, interviewer.Text encoded by Jennifer Joyner. Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers.This electronic edition is part of the UNC-Chapel Hill digital library, Documenting the American South. It is a part of the collection Oral histories of the American South.Title from menu page (viewed on Nov. 28, 2008).
- Type of Computer File or Data Note:
- Text (HTML and XML/TEI source file) and audio (MP3); 2 files: ca. 104 kilobytes, 84.0 megabytes.
- Original Version Note:
- Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series R, Special research projects, interview R-0170, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Transcribed by T. Altizer. Original transcript: 19 p.
- Funding Information Note:
- Funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this interview.
- System Details Note:
- Mode of access: World Wide Web.System requirements: Web browser with Javascript enabled and multimedia player.
