Charles Hammonds Oral History
Object number2021.001.0099
Date10/26/2021
ClassificationsOral Histories
Oral history interview subject
Charles Hammonds
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: 41 Minutes
Terms
- Interviews
- Oral histories
- Childhood
- Speeches
- Arrest
- Protests
- Vietnam
- Civil rights
- Voting
- Segregation
- Desegregation
- Youth
- Racism
- Race relations
- 1960s
- King, Martin Luther, Jr.
- Southern Christian Leadership Conference
- University of California Los Angeles
- Dallas
- Los Angeles
- Americus
- Childhood Recollections (OHC)
- Dallas and 1960s History and Culture (OHC)
- Civil Rights and Social Activism (OHC)
- Vietnam (OHC)
Collections
DescriptionVideotaped oral history interview with Charles Hammonds. Inspired by a speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1965, Hammonds volunteered for the Summer Community Organizing and Political Education (SCOPE) project of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. During that experience, he was arrested and jailed for a week in Americus, Georgia. Hammonds later became an anti-Vietnam War activist.
Interview conducted via Zoom on October 26, 2021 by Stephen Fagin. The interview is forty-one minutes long.
Curatorial CommentaryThe 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
