/internal/media/dispatcher/73403/fullRev. Asriel McLain Oral History06/14/2018Duration: 49 MinutesBorn digital (.wav file)Oral History Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza2018.001.00670Audio oral history interview with Rev. Asriel McLain. Ten years old in 1963, McLain attended a segregated school in Shreveport, Louisiana, and was later among the first in his community to attend an integrated high school. While attending Bishop College in Dallas, McLain became acquainted with George de Mohrenschildt, an associate of Lee Harvey Oswald.
Interview conducted by telephone on June 14, 2018 by Curator Stephen Fagin. The interview is forty-nine minutes long.
Oral Histories719220E-100E-1058817Oral history0E-10Audio oral history interview with Rev. Asriel McLain. Ten years old in 1963, McLain attended a segregated school in Shreveport, Louisiana, and was later among the first in his community to attend an integrated high school. While attending Bishop College in Dallas, McLain became acquainted with George de Mohrenschildt, an associate of Lee Harvey Oswald.
Interview conducted by telephone on June 14, 2018 by Curator Stephen Fagin. The interview is forty-nine minutes long.
Oral historiesCivil rightsStudentSegregationIntegrationVotingDesegregationProtestsYouthRacismRace relations1960sde Mohrenschildt, GeorgeOswald, Lee HarveyBishop CollegeDallasShreveportChildhood Recollections (OHC)Civil Rights and Social Activism (OHC)Dallas and 1960s History and Culture (OHC)Lee Harvey Oswald (OHC)In July 2019, Rev. McLain served as a guest chaplain for the U.S. House of Representatives. Four years later, on June 13, 2023, Rev. McLain gave the opening prayer for the U.S. Senate.
In this oral history, Rev. McLain discussed a 1963 beating by local police officers that took place inside his late father's sanctuary at Little Union Baptist Church in Shreveport. In 2022, the Shreveport City Council unanimously passed resolutions offering formal apologies for the actions taken that night and the following day when eighteen protesting high school students were arrested. - Stephen Fagin, Curator