/internal/media/dispatcher/72338/fullAlphonse C. Matthews Oral History09/25/2002Duration: 46 MinutesHi-8 videotapeOral History Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza2002.001.00360Videotaped oral history interview with Alphonse C. Matthews -- A thirty-two-year veteran of Southwestern Bell Telephone, Mr. Matthews recalled the communications chaos that occurred on November 22, 1963. As an African American living in Dallas, he also provided impressions of segregated life and race relations in the 1960s.Oral Histories6433621503Oral historyVideotaped oral history interview with Alphonse C. Matthews. An employee of Southwestern Bell Telephone Company in Dallas from 1955 to 1986, Matthews was a switchman at the time of the assassination and recalled communications chaos following the president's death. He also described local segregation and race relations in the 1960s.
Interview conducted at The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza on September 25, 2002 by Arlinda Abbott and Stephen Fagin. The interview is forty-seven minutes long.SegregationCivil rightsOral historiesMatthews, AlphonseSouthwestern Bell Telephone CompanyThe Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey PlazaCivil Rights and Social Activism (OHC)Dallas and 1960s History and Culture (OHC)Some fifteen years after retiring from Southwestern Bell, Matthews came to work in the security department of The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. This interview was recorded around the one-year anniversary of his employment. I enjoyed working with Al for several years and remember him as a very kind and exceedingly generous gentleman. In this interview, he describes working at the Museum as "really exciting... because it's such an interesting place to work. You meet people from all over the world." Al often chatted with visitors and shared his personal memories of November 22, 1963. We were all very sorry to see Al retire from the Museum in the mid-2000s. He passed away several years later on January 26, 2019. -- Stephen Fagin, Curator