Jerry Von Korff Oral History
Object number2022.001.0059
Date08/23/2022
ClassificationsOral Histories
Oral history interview subject
Jerry Von Korff
Oral history interviewer
Stephen Fagin
ObjectOral history
Credit LineOral History Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
MediumBorn digital (.m4a file), Born digital (.mp4 file), Born digital (.vtt file)
DimensionsDuration: 58 Minutes
Collections
DescriptionVideotaped oral history interview with Jerry Von Korff. A student at Oberlin College in Ohio at the time of the assassination, Von Korff became active with the NAACP, traveled to Mississippi on several occasions, and led a group of Oberlin students in the 1964 “Carpenters for Christmas” program, rebuilding a Mississippi church that had recently been bombed. He later became an anti-Vietnam War activist.
Interview conducted via Zoom on August 23, 2022 by Stephen Fagin. The interview is fifty-eight minutes long.
Curatorial CommentaryAn illustrated autobiographical account of Jerry Von Korff's experiences as a civil rights activist in the 1960s may be accessed via the Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement archive: Information about my experience as a Civil Rights worker in the 1960's.
More information on the 1964 "Carpenters for Christmas" program organized by Oberlin College to rebuild the Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in Ripley, Mississippi, may be found here on the Oberlin College Library website: Carpenters for Christmas: Civil Rights in Mississippi. - Stephen Fagin, Curator
