Al McSurely Oral History
Object number2022.001.0007
Date02/22/2022
ClassificationsOral Histories
Oral history interview subject
Al McSurely
Oral history interviewer
Stephen Fagin
ObjectOral history
Credit LineOral History Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
MediumBorn digital (.m4a file), Born digital (.mp4 file), Born digital (.vtt file)
DimensionsDuration: 100 Minutes
DescriptionVideotaped oral history interview with Al McSurely. A longtime civil rights attorney and anti-poverty activist, McSurely attended the March on Washington in 1963 and was an organizer with the War on Poverty program. Arrested for sedition in Kentucky, McSurely and his family barely escaped a home bombing in 1967. The following year, he recruited a group of Appalachians to join the Poor People’s Campaign in Washington, D.C.
Interview conducted over Zoom on February 22, 2022 by Curator Stephen Fagin. The interview is 1 hour and 40 minutes long.
Curatorial CommentaryThis 100-minute interview with attorney Al McSurely covers only a portion of his decades-long social rights activism. In recent years, McSurely was the subject of a feature-length documentary, Al: My Brother (2018), produced and directed by journalist Cash Michaels. Featuring interviews with several civil rights icons, including John Lewis, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, the film premiered at The Cary Theater in Cary, North Carolina, in October 2018. It is now available on DVD. -- Stephen Fagin, Curator
