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Oral history interview with Igal Roodenko, April 11, 1974 interview B-0010, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007). Cover Image E-book

Oral history interview with Igal Roodenko, April 11, 1974 interview B-0010, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

Interview with Igal Roodenko, April 11, 1974 (portion title)
Interview B-0010, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) (other title)
Roodenko, Igal. (interviewee). Adams, Charlotte, 1903-1903?-2005. (interviewee). Felmet, Joseph 1921-1994 (interviewee). Hall, Jacquelyn Dowd (interviewer). Wingate, Jerry (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: Igal Roodenko was born to first-generation immigrants in New York City in 1917. Throughout the 1930s, Roodenko was drawn to leftist politics and pacifism. He describes the internal dilemma that he and other pacifists faced as they sought to reconcile their ideals of non-violence with their belief that Hitler's regime warranted opposition. Ultimately, Roodenko became a conscientious objector during the conflict. Rather than facing a prison sentence for his refusal to bear arms, Roodenko spent most of World War II in a camp for conscientious objectors. Increasingly involved in leftist politics during the war, Roodenko participated in hunger strikes while at the camp and eventually did serve time in prison. Following the war, he utilized his experiences with peace groups and Ghandian non-violence to become a leader in the burgeoning civil rights movement. Roodenko speaks at length about his participation in the Journey of Reconciliation (1947). Already a member of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), Roodenko helped to organize the Journey, an interracial endeavor to test the Supreme Court's ruling in the Irene Morgan case (1946) as it applied to public transportation in the South. Roodenko describes the strategies CORE employed as they tested segregation policies on buses for Trailways and Greyhound. In Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Roodenko and fellow activists were arrested for refusing to abide by the bus driver's demand that black and white passengers not sit together. He recalls the threat of mob violence against the activists and the role of Chapel Hill minister Charles Jones in helping them escape town safely. Roodenko and the other CORE activists lost their court appeal and he spent 30 days working on a segregated chain gang in North Carolina. His recollections in this interview help to illuminate activist strategies, interracial cooperation, and reasons for limited success as the civil rights movement began to build momentum in the late 1940s.

Electronic resources

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Record details

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

Content descriptions

General Note:
Duration: 02:13:59.
Interview participants: Igal Roodenko, interviewee; Joe Felmet, interviewee; Charlotte Adams, interviewee; Unidentified speaker; Jacquelyn Hall, interviewer; Jerry Wingate, 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 July 30, 2008).
Type of Computer File or Data Note:
Text (HTML and XML/TEI source file) and audio (MP3); 2 files: ca. 183.4 kilobytes, 245.3 megabytes.
Original Version Note:
Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series B, Individual biographies, interview B-0010, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Transcribed by Gerry Cohen. Original transcript: 72 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:
Adams, Charlotte 1903?-2005 Interviews
Felmet, Joseph 1921-1994 Interviews
Roodenko, Igal Interviews
Congress of Racial Equality.
African Americans Civil rights Southern States
African Americans Segregation Southern States
Chain gangs North Carolina
Civil rights demonstrations North Carolina Chapel Hill
Civil rights movements Southern States
Civil rights workers Southern States Interviews
Conscientious objectors United States Interviews
Peace movements United States
Political activists Southern States Interviews
Segregation in transportation Southern States
Service, Compulsory non-military United States
World War, 1939-1945 Protest movements United States
Southern States Race relations
Genre:
Oral histories.
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