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Oral history interview with Laurie Pritchett, April 23, 1976 interview B-0027, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007). Cover Image E-book

Oral history interview with Laurie Pritchett, April 23, 1976 interview B-0027, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

Interview B-0027, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) (other title)
Interview with Laurie Pritchett, April 23, 1976 (portion title)
Pritchett, Laurie 1926-2000 (Author). Reston, James Jr 1941-2023 (interviewer). Southern Oral History Program. (Added Author). University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project) (Added Author). University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. (Added Author).

Summary: Laurie Pritchett describes his involvement with the Albany, Georgia, civil rights movement. In this interview, Pritchett attempts to alter his public image as a racist police chief, expressing his profound compassion for blacks. He explains his complicated friendship with Martin Luther King, Jr., and discusses his efforts to place blacks on the police force in Albany in the mid-1960s. After he left the Albany force, Pritchett helped African American causes as High Point, North Carolina, police chief. Much of the interview, however, explores Pritchett's use of King's non-violence strategy. His innovative application of passive law enforcement allowed Albany to stand as a site where the national civil rights movement failed. In December 1961, Pritchett trained his police officers to resist civil rights demonstrators non-violently. This training often frustrated King's passive resistance tactics in Albany by preventing the negative publicity brought about by brutal police reaction to marches in other towns in the Deep South. Refusing to use the violent tactics of Alabama law enforcement officials such as Jim Clark (Selma) and T. Eugene "Bull" Connor (Birmingham), Pritchett discusses how his peaceful strategy effectively eliminated bargaining abilities for King and other civil rights activists. Unlike Pritchett, Clark and Connor frequently helped civil rights activists achieve their goals. Pritchett explains that his problem with the protesters was not their interest in integration, but with their massive public demonstrations. He remarks on the incredible power his role as police chief afforded him. He believes sheriffs should be politically elected, exposing tensions between sheriffs and police chiefs.

Electronic resources

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Record details

  • Physical Description: electronic resource
    remote
    1 online resource
  • Edition: Electronic edition
  • Publisher: [Chapel Hill, N.C.] : University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill, 2007.

Content descriptions

General Note:
Duration: 01:00:35.
Interview participants: Laurie Pritchett, interviewee; James Reston, Jr., interviewer.
Text encoded by Mike Millner. Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers.
This electronic edition is part of the UNC-CH 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 June 24, 2008).
Type of Computer File or Data Note:
Text (HTML and XML/TEI source file) and audio (MP3); 2 files: ca. 102 kilobytes, 110 megabytes.
Original Version Note:
Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series B, Individual biographies, interview B-0027, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Transcribed by Patricia Crowley. Original transcript: 28 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.

Search for related items by subject

Subject:
Pritchett, Laurie 1926-2000 Interviews
African Americans Civil rights Georgia Albany
Civil rights demonstrations Georgia Albany
Civil rights movements Georgia Albany
Law enforcement Georgia Albany
Police chiefs Georgia Albany Interviews
Segregation Georgia Albany
Albany (Ga.) Race relations
Genre:
Oral histories.
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