/internal/media/dispatcher/75872/fullStephen Bingham Oral History07/13/2021Duration: 102 MinutesBorn digital (.m2ts file), Born digital (.m4a file), Born digital (.mp4 file)Oral History Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza2021.001.00560Videotaped oral history interview with Stephen Bingham. As a student at Yale University, Bingham was a member of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee at the time of the Kennedy assassination. While attending Yale, he also became active with the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee. Bingham set up a SNCC recruitment office on campus, met Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and worked on voter registration in Mississippi in the summer of 1964. There he was once beaten by white supremacists.
Interview conducted via Zoom on July 13, 2021 by Stephen Fagin. The interview is one hour and forty-two minutes long.
Oral Histories722930E-100E-1071137Oral history0E-10Videotaped oral history interview with Stephen Bingham. As a student at Yale University, Bingham was a member of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee at the time of the Kennedy assassination. While attending Yale, he also became active with the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee. Bingham set up a SNCC recruitment office on campus, met Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and worked on voter registration in Mississippi in the summer of 1964. There he was once beaten by white supremacists.
Interview conducted via Zoom on July 13, 2021 by Stephen Fagin. The interview is one hour and forty-two minutes long.
Oral historiesCubaStudentVotingRacismCivil rightsProtestsSocial and political climate1960sKing, Martin Luther, Jr.Fair Play for Cuba CommitteeStudent Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)New HavenCubaMississippiCivil Rights and Social Activism (OHC)Dallas and 1960s History and Culture (OHC)Cuba (OHC)Stephen Bingham had a remarkable 1960s experience. After graduating from Yale University and becoming active with SNCC during the 1964 Freedom Summer voter registration project, Bingham and his wife, Gretchen Spreckels, joined the Peace Corps and spent two years in West Africa. Upon their return in 1967, Bingham marched with activist Cesar Chavez and worked on Robert Kennedy's 1968 presidential campaign. Then, in the early 1970s, Bingham fled the country and lived in Europe for thirteen years after being accused of smuggling a gun to incarcerated Black Panther member George Jackson, which was used during a 1971 failed escape attempt where six people were killed. Bingham surrendered to authorities in 1984 and was acquitted of all charges by a Marin County, California jury in 1986.
We were only able to cover a portion of his extraordinary life story in our one hour and forty-minute oral history in 2021. Fortunately, Mr. Bingham has given a number of interviews over the years. He is the subject of a feature-length documentary, A Double Life (2024), which is available for streaming online. A 2024 interview with Bingham on Truthout.org may be accessed here: Once a Fugitive, Attorney for Black Panther Member Recounts His Life Underground | Truthout. A transcript of a U.C. Berkeley panel discussion, which also features Museum oral history participants Dr. James Garrett and Miriam Cohen alongside Bingham, may be accessed here: Civil Rights Movement -- Stephen Bingham: A WASP in the Movement. - Stephen Fagin, Curator