Universities and colleges

Interview with Dr. Billy James Taylor. Taylor discusses his family and early life in Chattanooga, Tennessee, enlisting in the Army Special Forces, attending Tennessee State University and the University of Minnesota, returning to Tennessee to enroll in Meharry Medical College, working as a restaurant inspector, and coming to Kansas City in 1972. He also discusses seeing Black and white patients, race-based assumptions in medical care, varying economic conditions and neighborhoods in Kansas City and throughout the country,

Interview with Henry Warren Sewing, founder of Douglass State Bank. Sewing discusses his family and early life in Texas, his experience at Fisk and Tillotson universities, teaching in Austin, moving to Kansas City circa 1920, working at and rising in multiple life insurance companies, and his work founding and operating Douglass State Bank.

Interview with Lounneer Pemberton, executive director of the Kansas City Urban League. Pemberton discusses his family and early life in Iowa, attending predominantly white schools, attending the University of Minnesota, coming to Kansas City to work for the National Urban League, and actively considering race for the first time as an adult. He also shares memories of the Depression, seeing notable musicians, and thoughts about local activists and politicians, labor unions, local government, Freedom Inc., the passage of the public accommodations laws, and the upcoming national elections.

Interview with Missouri state representative candidate Mickle D. Hughes. Hughes discusses his early life and family background, violence faced by Black people moving into areas north of 27th Street, attending the integrated De La Salle High School, then attending Central Missouri State and Lincoln University before enlisting in the air force to avoid the Vietnam draft. He also discusses racism in higher education, being stationed in Mississippi and Thailand and encountering racism in each, developing an interest in leadership and community service while in Thailand and after his return to the United States, and working as an aide to Missouri State Representative Phillip Curls. He also shares his thoughts about voter cynicism, his hopes for the community engagement and education, housing policy, crime, employment, and other issues.

Interview with UMKC English professor Robert Farnsworth. Farnsworth discusses his family background, his early life in Detroit, attending high school as a white student and athlete in an integrated school in the early 1940s, studying English at the University of Michigan (later getting graduate degrees from the University of Connecticut and Tulane University), developing his sense of politics and racial justice, his involvement with CORE (Congress of Racial Equality), his experiences with other activists including A. Cecil Williams, Bruce Watkins and Leon Jordan, and the friction around white participation in CORE. He also discusses shifting away from CORE involvement, the importance of teaching Black literature, covering Black culture in his published work, obtaining the papers of the poet and academic Melvin Tolson, and hosting the 1973 African and Caribbean Writers Conference at UMKC.

Two-part interview with Jackson County circuit court judge Lewis Clymer. Clymer discusses his early life in Neosho, Missouri, historically Black colleges and universities, including, his attendance at Lincoln and Howard universities and Howard's law school, his work with the war production board during World War II, the Lloyd Gaines and Lucile Bluford legal cases, and his work as a Jackson County prosecutor, Kansas City municipal court judge, and the first Black man nominated to the Jackson County Circuit Court. He also discusses his views on crime in Black communities, as well as his involvement in state politics (including working on Harry Truman's Senate campaign), his memories of Carl Johnson, Kansas City NAACP leader and first local Black municipal court judge, as well as other community leaders.

Interview with educator and community leader Dr. Jeremiah Cameron. Cameron discusses his early life, attending school with Charlie Parker and other notable classmates, his experience as a student and educator at Lincoln High School, earning his bachelors degree at Indiana University and graduate degrees at the University of Chicago and Michigan State University, serving in the Air Force, and experiences of racism and segregation in those settings. He also shares opinions on the state of Kansas City schools and colleges, past and present, Black arts and literature, and discusses his experience as the public relations director of the local NAACP.

Interview with educator and community leader Dr. Girard T. Bryant. Bryant discusses his childhood and early education in St. Louis, his career as an educator at Western Baptist College, Kansas City Junior College, several Kansas City high schools, and in Thailand, before becoming the president of Penn Valley Community College. Bryant also discusses his involvement in organizations including the YMCA, the Urban League, the Beau Brummell Club, and various church and hospital boards, as well as his travels and his assessments of contemporary politics and religious issues. Bryant's wife Louise also offers thoughts and recollections.

Interview with Marvin Robinson. Robinson discusses his family background, memories of his childhood community, attending Sumner High School and Emporia State University, his experience within his church, enlisting in the navy, and his service in Asia.

Interview with UMKC chemistry professor Dr. Antonio Sandoval about his life. Born in 1931, he recalls his early childhood on a New Mexico ranch in a Mexican American community, moving to Colorado to be able to attend high school, doing agricultural work, and notes that of his graduating class of 100, he was the only one to go on to earn a PhD. He discusses his mother's hope that he would become a priest but instead majoring in chemistry, enlisting in the army where he worked to support nuclear testing at locations including Los Alamos, going on to earn his PhD from Kansas State University where he almost met his microbiologist wife, and coming to Kansas City where he was on faculty at UMKC and his wife taught at Avila, Rockhurst, and Donnelly colleges. He also discusses his participation in United Mexican American Students (UMAS) and working with his wife in the Catholic church's Marriage Encounter program.