/internal/media/dispatcher/73403/fullRalph Bennett Oral History04/21/2021Duration: 63 MinutesBorn digital (.wav file)Oral History Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza2021.001.00220Audiotaped oral history interview with Ralph Bennett. Bennett was president of the Young Democrats at the University of Montana in 1963. As a civil rights worker with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), he took part in the Summer Community Organization and Political Education (SCOPE) project and spent the summer of 1965 promoting voter registration and participating in multiple demonstrations in Mobile, Alabama. He was later a civil rights and peace movement activist in Chicago.
Interview conducted over the phone on April 21, 2021 by Curator Stephen Fagin. The interview is 1 hour and 3 minutes long.
The audio attached to this record is an excerpt. The entire interview is available in our Reading Room to on-site researchers or by submitting a Rights & Reproductions Request Form.Oral Histories657060E-100E-1070959Oral history0E-10Audio oral history interview with Ralph Bennett. Bennett was president of the Young Democrats at the University of Montana in 1963. As a civil rights worker with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), he took part in the Summer Community Organization and Political Education (SCOPE) project and spent the summer of 1965 promoting voter registration and participating in multiple demonstrations in Mobile, Alabama. He was later a civil rights and peace movement activist in Chicago.
Interview conducted by telephone on April 21, 2021 by Stephen Fagin. The interview is one hour and three minutes long.Oral historiesCivil rightsVotingPeaceSouthern Christian Leadership ConferenceMobileChicagoMontanaDallas and 1960s History and Culture (OHC)Civil Rights and Social Activism (OHC)The Summer Community Organizing and Political Education (SCOPE) project of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was an ambitious undertaking in the summer of 1965 in preparation of passage of the Voting Rights Act in August 1965. Hundreds of predominantly white college students were recruited to travel to six southern states to coordinate with community groups, promote voter registration, and document voter suppression. An extensive digitized collection of primary source materials, including orientation brochures, reading lists and press materials may be found here: Civil Rights Movement -- SCLC/SCOPE Project (crmvet.org). The Museum has been honored to record oral histories with several activists who took part in the 1965 SCOPE project. -- Stephen Fagin, Curator