Othertype Oral History

Scope and Contents note Interviewed by Amanda Brown: Babcock begins by describing her loving yet turbulent childhood in Atlanta, Georgia. The child of an alcoholic father, she spent her teenage years in foster care which, she recounts, was a very positive experience. Babcock says that she took her first job (at an insurance company) straight out of high school, went on to marry and have children, and that it wasn't until her youngest child was a teenager that she began to consider her role as a woman. She recounts...

Scope and Contents Interviewed by Dana Von Tilborg: Jeanne Cahill's oral history provides great insight into the life of a young girl in post-war America. She describes her childhood in South Georgia, and discusses her own and her parents' expectations for her life. She recalls how she became involved in the women's movement and what the women's movement meant to her. Cahill also discusses many other important social issues such as rape, hiring quotas, reproductive freedom and equal pay. Cahill was very active...

Scope and Contents Interviewed by Joyce Jenkins Durand: Bruce Callner's oral history provides an interesting and rare male perspective of the Women's Movement. In describing his childhood, Callner recounts the importance of the gender-neutral environment created by his mother. He discusses his experience at college in Michigan, and then at Notre Dame, where he studied law, and where he began to understand the importance of the Equal Rights Amendment as a way to protect all citizens equally under the law. When...

Scope and Contents Interviewed by Tristan Slade: Cormack discusses with vivid clarity what it was like growing up in a socially progressive, middle-class, multi-ethnic New York neighborhood and how that early experience resonated with her throughout her life. She also describes her experiences traveling in Australia as an "independent, young, American woman from New York City," who was faced with blatant sex discrimination. Cormack moved to Atlanta in 1968 and she describes her involvement with the local...

Scope and Contents Interviewed by Janet Paulk: Cukor describes her childhood, and recounts that before her marriage and subsequent move to Canada, her earliest political experiences were working on Martha Griffiths’ political campaigns. Moving to Atlanta in 1965, she recalls that she took an interest in political and governmental issues, and in 1975 was appointed to the Board of Directors for DeKalb County’ Equal Opportunity Authority. Cukor says that she met Eleanor Richardson through her daughter, who was...

Scope and Contents note Interviewed by Dana Van Tilborg: Curtis describes her childhood in Florida and ascribes her strong feminist activism to her mother, whom she characterizes as a woman, "who had a hard life, but she's always conquered every obstacle." Curtis won the Lewis (teaching) scholarship and went to college at Florida State University, where she became involved with the campus newspaper and her features won a national prize. Curtis recalls moving to Georgia in 1973, and becoming involved with the...

Scope and Contents note Interviewed by Janet Paulk: Anne Deeley describes herself as a "typical Midwesterner," growing up in Indiana with a homemaker mother who was very involved in the church and volunteer activities, and a father who worked for a newspaper. During her junior year in high school, Deeley was selected to travel to Peru as an exchange student -- an experience she describes as "absolutely wonderful and exciting," and which "opened my eyes in terms of travel, adventure, experiences." As a college...

Scope and Contents note Interviewed by Janet Paulk: Duke describes her childhood in a small mill village outside of Rome, Georgia and recalls the time when she first started to notice that, "working women had a different set of problems and priorities’ than other women." She discusses her interests and her personal life, and explains how she became involved in social activism. By 1970 Duke was working for her PTA and with Georgia State Senator Lamar Plunkett to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment. She recounts her...

Scope and Contents Interviewed by Janet Paulk: Duncanson begins by discussing her childhood in postwar Michigan and how, at a young age, she became interested in politics. She discusses her early political activities with the Democratic Party in Michigan, and what led her to Atlanta in 1971. She explains that by 1975 she had turned her attention to the Equal Rights Amendment, attending the meetings of the Atlanta chapter of NOW, and going on to serve as chapter treasurer for two years. Duncanson describes the...

Scope and Contents Interviewed by Janet Paulk: Durand discusses her rural childhood, growing up with religious parents who had come through the Depression. She states that her early aspirations included getting a “good education” and attending college, both of which she achieved. Although Durand never formally became involved with the Civil Rights Movement, she was deeply affected by it: She describes her first encounter with the Movement, which took place during her tenure as teacher at James L. Key...

Scope and Contents Interviewed by Dana Von Tilborg: Fowlkes recounts her childhood, her education, and the events that triggered her interest in the Women’s Movement. She describes the Civil Rights Movement as the model for the Women’s Rights Movement and discusses how it influenced women to work toward changing laws in order to further integrate society. Fowlkes was involved in the Strike for Women’s Equality, the Feminist Action Alliance, the socialist-feminist movement, as well as the schism within the...

Scope and Contents note Interviewed by Joyce Durand. Gibson begins her oral history by discussing her experiences growing up in the South during the post-war years and her complex relationship with her parents. She describes how after leaving graduate school at Auburn University she was ready to move to New York City but ended up getting a job and staying in Atlanta. Gibson articulates the women's movement as the natural outgrowth of the civil rights movement. She became involved in the movement in Baton Rouge...

Scope and Contents note Interviewed by Dana Van Tilborg. Dorothy Wiggins Gibson-Ferry begins her oral history with a fascinating account of life in interwar New England. Her father was a painter, her mother an early English Suffragette, and her family interacted actors, artists, and writers. Gibson-Ferry says that she became politically active in 1973: After volunteering for the Georgia Department of Family and Children Services for a number of years, she was asked to serve as the first chairperson for the...

Scope and Contents note Interviewed by Janet Paulk. Graves describes her childhood and college education, as well as her work as an activist for the ERA Georgia campaign. She articulates what it was like going back to school 1967, "during the hippie era," and how up until that point she had spent her life as a daughter, a wife and involved in church activities. Graves says that she feared that her affiliation with the ERA campaign could potentially threaten her career as a professional CPA. She not only discusses...

Scope and Contents note Interviewed by Vicky Graves. Hannon states that from an early age, she knew that she wanted to be a writer, and was editor of her school newspapers from the fourth grade through University. A college student during the Vietnam War era, she recalls writing about contentious issues, and subsequently being threatened with closure by the campus administration. After stints in Chicago and New York, and after the birth of her second child, Hannon describes her and her husband’s decision to move to...

Scope and Contents Interviewed by Joyce Durand. Hlass describes her childhood in great detail, including her parents’ expectations for her. She talks about attending Northwestern University for two years, and then training to be an airline attendant with Trans World (TWA). Hlass eventually received a degree in sociology and psychology from Mercer University in Atlanta in 1977. She discusses her personal life, her children, her parents, and interestingly weaves that in with a discussion about her parents’...

Scope and Contents note Interviewed by Janet Paulk. The daughter of a grocery store owner, Holmes talks about her childhood and education in New Orleans, Louisiana. She describes her mother as “a feminist long before the word became popular.” After marrying and eventually moving to Atlanta, Holmes says that she became aware of sexual discrimination when she and her husband bought a house, and she was informed that “in Georgia the husbands own the houses.” She joined the Atlanta chapter of the League of Women...

Scope and Contents note Interviewed by Joyce Durand and Charlene Ball. In the first of two interviews, Jones begins by describing her childhood on a farm in Woodcliff, Georgia. Her father died when she was four years old, and she remembers the strength of her mother as she continued to run the family farm. She believes that it was through observing this strength that she first began to see herself as a feminist. She considers a two-year visit to Germany as a teenager pivotal, as she experienced blatant sexual...

Scope and Contents note Interviewed by Janet Paulk. Jordan describes her experiences and aspirations as a young girl growing up in Buffalo, New York during the Second World War, and how her childhood was complicated by her mother’s dedication to Christian Scientists. As an adult, Jordan married and traveled with her husband, moving to various cities and working a variety of jobs. And as a young housewife with three daughters, Jordan recalls reading Betty Freidan’s, The Feminine Mystique for the first time, and how...

Scope and Contents Interviewed by Charlene Ball and Diane Fowlkes. Knowlton discusses her personal, academic and professional background, including how she became involved in the Women’s Liberation Movement in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. She also provides a basic history of the Women’s Liberation Movement as an outcropping of socialism and feminism and how it separated from the socialist movement because of their interest in issues of personal politics. Knowlton describes her involvement in a number of...