Interview with Robert Parris Moses, February 11, 1964

Interview Summary

Robert Parris Moses, educator and civil rights leader, was born in 1935 in New York City. He won a scholarship to Hamilton College in Clinton, New York and earned a Master of Arts degree in philosophy from Harvard in 1957. In 1958, Moses worked with Bayard Rustin on the Second Youth March for Integrated Schools and worked with Martin Luther King, Jr. with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1960. Moses became the head of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Mississippi project in 1961 and soon after became the director for the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) and organizer of the Freedom Summer project. In this interview, Moses discusses the African American sentiment of embarrassment for lack of education and knowledge. He talks about how he began his political activism and his involvement with organizations such as SNCC and SCLC. He discusses Martin Luther King Jr.'s philosophy of nonviolence, King's influence, and the difference between SNCC's "tactical" nonviolence and King's nonviolence. He discusses segregation in housing and education, and discusses violence within the civil rights movement and against civil rights workers.

Interview Keyword

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Sit-ins Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) Martin Luther King, Jr. Integration Housing segregation Busing United States Commission on Civil Rights Malcolm X W.E.B. Dubois U.S. Communist movement World War II Brown vs. Board of Education, Topeka, Kansas National Council of Churches March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom Freedom Now (slogan) Howard University Mississippi Freedom Summer Mississippi Democratic Party

Interview LC Subject

African Americans--Civil rights Race relations United States--Race relations African Americans--Education Preparatory schools Universities and colleges Civil rights movements--United States Civil rights demonstrations Civil rights workers African Americans--Conduct of life Segregation African American families Childrearing Nonviolence Passive resistance African American leadership Black Muslims Black universities and colleges Voter registration--Mississippi Neighborliness African Americans--Societies, etc. Social movements Segregation--United States Discrimination in housing Extrajudicial executions Philosophy Terrorism African American arts African American experience Middle class Beat generation African Americans--Race identity Communism Communism--United States--History Political science--Philosophy Race, class, and social structure Boycotts Picketing National monuments African American--History Race relations--United States Law enforcement

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Interview Usage

Interviews may be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, Special Collections, University of Kentucky Libraries.