Ellen Dionna Oral History
Object number2015.001.0023
Date01/28/2015
ClassificationsOral Histories
Oral history interview subject
Ellen Dionna
Oral history interviewer
Stephen Fagin
ObjectOral history
Credit LineOral History Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
MediumBorn digital (.wav file)
DimensionsDuration: 65 Minutes
Terms
- Oral histories
- Kennedy supporter
- 1960 presidential election
- 1960s
- Civil rights
- Peace
- Protests
- Communism
- Kennedy campaign
- Presidential campaign
- March on Washington
- McCarthy, Joseph
- National Archives and Records Administration
- Washington, D.C.
- 1960 Campaign (OHC)
- Dallas and 1960s History and Culture (OHC)
- Civil Rights and Social Activism (OHC)
- White House and State Officials (OHC)
- Cold War and Communism (OHC)
- Vietnam (OHC)
DescriptionAudio oral history interview with Ellen Dionna. A 1960 Kennedy campaign volunteer, Dionna was an early civil rights and peace movement activist. She participated in the March on Washington on August 28, 1963. Her late father, Sherrod E. East, was a longtime archivist and administrator at the National Archives and was wrongfully accused of being a Communist in the 1950s during the Joseph McCarthy era.
Interview conducted by telephone on January 28, 2015 by Stephen Fagin. The interview is one hour and five minutes long.
Curatorial CommentaryEllen Dionna's late father, Sherrod E. East (1910-1999), retired in 1966 from the National Archives as the assistant archivist of the United States for military archives. In 1976, he participated in the National Archives Oral History Project. A thirteen-page transcript of his interview may be found here: Sherrod East Statement (archives.gov). -- Stephen Fagin, Curator
