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Bob Gilliam Oral History

Object number2022.001.0070
Date09/22/2022
ClassificationsOral Histories
Oral history interview subject
Oral history interviewer
ObjectOral history
Credit LineOral History Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
MediumBorn digital (.mp3 file)
DimensionsDuration: 52 Minutes
Collections
  • All Online Objects
  • Oral History Collection
DescriptionAudio oral history interview with Bob Gilliam. An early critic of the Vietnam War, Gilliam ultimately served nineteen months in prison for resisting the draft. As a civil rights worker, he was involved in voter registration in Mississippi and participated in the last two days of the 1965 Selma to Montgomery march. Gilliam was also active in the Catholic Worker Movement. Interview conducted by telephone on September 22, 2022 by Stephen Fagin. The interview is fifty-two minutes long.
Curatorial Commentary

More information on the Catholic Worker Movement, discussed during this interview, may be found here: History of the Catholic Worker Movement – Catholic Worker Movement. In the collected writings of Catholic Worker Movement co-founder Dorothy Day, available online at catholicworker.org, Day made three references to Bob Gilliam between 1968 and 1978. Those references may be found here: Search Results for “gilliam” – Catholic Worker Movement.

In 2004, a previously unpublished manuscript by the late Dorothy Day (who passed away in 1980) was released. Bob Gilliam authored a book review of that work which was published in the October 2005 edition of The Catholic Worker (Vol. LXX11, No. 6). That piece may be accessed here via the Catholic News Archive: The Catholic Worker 1 October 2005 — The Catholic News Archive. - Stephen Fagin, Curator

Bob Gilliam's contemporary account of the Selma to Montgomery march was published in the June 1965 edition of the Catholic Peace Fellowship Bulletin, which is available here via the Notre Dame Archives: Catholic Peace Fellowship Bulletin.

The September 1967 edition of The Catholic Worker, where Bob Gilliam served as an associated editor in the 1960s, includes a contemporary article about Gilliam's sentencing for resisting the Vietnam War draft. It may be accessed here via Bellarmine University: 37f77df58f39ca7893ee87aecd49405120c7a8a0.pdf. - Stephen Fagin, Curator

In addition to Bob Gilliam, the Museum has recorded interviews with a number of people who took part in or were involved in some way with the 1965 Selma to Montgomery march, including Ruth Gramolini (Ruth Gramolini Oral History – Works – The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza), Bruce Hartford (Bruce Hartford Oral History – Works – The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza), and the Rev. Marvin Lare (Rev. Marvin Lare Oral History – Works – The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza). - Stephen Fagin, Curator