James Kates Oral History
Object number2021.001.0101
Date11/03/2021
ClassificationsOral Histories
Oral history interview subject
James Kates
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: 98 Minutes
Terms
- Interviews
- Civil rights
- Oral histories
- Protests
- Arrest
- Student
- Race relations
- Segregation
- Integration
- Racism
- 1960s
- Inaugural address
- Cuban Missile Crisis
- Bay of Pigs
- Assassination
- Television
- Education
- Volunteers
- Travis, Jimmie
- Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
- Dallas
- Mississippi
- Connecticut
- Natchez
- Civil Rights and Social Activism (OHC)
- Dallas and 1960s History and Culture (OHC)
Collections
- Civil Rights Movement
- All Online Objects
- Oral History Collection
DescriptionVideotaped oral history interview with James Kates. Kates volunteered for the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer project after his freshman year at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. He returned as a civil rights worker the following year and was arrested in Natchez, Mississippi, in August 1965.
Interview conducted via Zoom on November 3, 2021 by Stephen Fagin. The interview is one hour and thirty-eight minutes long.
Curatorial CommentaryIn addition to being a social rights activist, James Kates is a writer, poet, and literary translator. More information about his publications may be found on his website: Home | J. Kates, writer translator. - Stephen Fagin, Curator
A remarkable 50-minute audio interview with James Kates, recorded in 1965 during his Mississippi civil rights activism, may be accessed via the Stanford Digital Repository: Oral history interview with James Kates, white, male, FDP summer volunteer, 0218, Natchez, Mississippi. 0218 | Stanford Digital Repository. Kates' interview is part of an extraordinary archive of more than 330 hours of recordings compiled by eight Stanford University students affiliated with campus radio station KZSU during the summer of 1965. The students visited with fifty civil rights projects across six states. A finding aid to the KZSU Project South Interviews may be found here at the Stanford University Archives: KZSU Project South interviews, 1965-1976 - OAC. - Stephen Fagin, Curator
The Museum's YouTube channel offers a selection of Oral History interviews featuring voices from the Civil Rights Movement. These interviews include stories from those involved in the Freedom Summer Project of 1964, like James Kates, and can be accessed on the Museum's YouTube channel here: Voices from the Civil Rights Movement - YouTube. - Riley Harris, Collections Cataloger
