Joan C. Browning Oral History
Object number2021.001.0024
Date04/27/2021
ClassificationsOral Histories
Oral history interview subject
Joan C. Browning
Oral history interviewer
Stephen Fagin
ObjectOral history
Credit LineOral History Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
MediumBorn digital (.m2ts file), Born digital (.m4a file), Born digital (.mp4 file)
DimensionsDuration: 78 Minutes
Terms
- Oral histories
- 1960s
- Civil rights
- Protests
- Space program
- Voting
- Segregation
- Desegregation
- Youth
- Racism
- Race relations
- Arrest
- Memorials
- Kennedy, John F.
- Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
- Harvard University
- Albany
- Dallas and 1960s History and Culture (OHC)
- Civil Rights and Social Activism (OHC)
- Space Program (OHC)
Collections
DescriptionVideotaped oral history interview with Joan C. Browning. As an activist with the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Browning participated in protests, sit-ins, and was a Freedom Rider in Albany, Georgia, in December 1961. Arrested following the Freedom Ride, she went on a 100-hour hunger strike in the Dougherty County Jail. Browning worked with SNCC until 1965 and continued to be involved in human rights and anti-poverty programs throughout the 1970s.
Interview conducted via Zoom on April 27, 2021 by Stephen Fagin. The interview is one hour and eighteen minutes long.
Curatorial CommentaryAs discussed during this oral history, Joan C. Browning was living in Boston at the time of the assassination. On November 22-23, 1963, she took a series of black and white photos in and around Harvard Yard in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Following this oral history, Ms. Browning donated those images to the Museum. The Museum's Joan C. Browning Collection (2023.016) consists of eleven photographs, including images of flags at half-staff and a store window display in memory of President Kennedy. - Stephen Fagin, Curator
Joan Constance Browning was nineteen years old when she became a Freedom Rider in 1961. She remained an activist throughout the 1960s and 1970s. In 2005, she was honored with the Martin Luther King Achievement Award from West Virginia University. As of early 2025, she continues to write and lecture on civil rights and women's history. Her website, which includes a blog and a number of images, may be found here: https://www.joanbrowning.com. - Stephen Fagin, Curator
