Howard Romaine oral history interview (part 1), June 6, 2017

Howard M. Romaine was born in New Iberia, La. in 1942. He earned a B.A. degree from Southwestern (now Rhodes College) at Memphis, Tenn. in 1964 and an M.A. from the University of Virginia at Charlottesville in 1967. While at UVA, Romaine became involved in the civil rights movement and the anti-Vietnam War movement. He was a member of the NAACP, Students for a Democratic Society, Southern Student Organizing Committee, Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, and Southern Conference Education Fund. In 1967, Romaine began working for the United States National Student Association (USNSA) in Charlottesville, Va., a group that studied issues such as civil rights and the Vietnam War that were important to students in higher education. Later that year, he moved to Atlanta, Ga. to direct the Southern Student Human Relations Project, part of the USNSA. By 1968 Romaine had helped begin The Great Speckled Bird, an alternative newspaper, and became involved in local Democratic Party politics. He worked for Eugene McCarthy’s 1968 presidential campaign and on Julian Bond’s successful election to the Georgia assembly. Romaine left The Great Speckled Bird and founded the Institute for Southern Studies. He worked on George McGovern’s 1972 presidential campaign and after its failure, moved to Washington, DC. Romaine was involved in a severe automobile accident on a trip back to Louisiana and spent several years recuperating. He earned a law degree at Louisiana State University in 1979, practiced law briefly in Baton Rouge, and returned to Atlanta permanently to practice law. Romaine married the former Dorothy Anne (known as Anne) Cooke in 1965 and a daughter, Rita, was born shortly afterward.