T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History Collection

ABSTRACT

INTERVIEWEE NAME:    Charles Vincent                            COLLECTION:    4700.1609

IDENTIFICATION:    Southern University history professor

INTERVIEWERS:    Nita Clark and Courtney Grimes

PROJECT:     McKinley Oral History Project: African American Businesses

INTERVIEW DATES:     June 27, 2002    

FOCUS DATES:     1950s-1970s

ABSTRACT:

Tape 3192, Side A

Born in Hazlehurst, Mississippi, October 19, 1945; currently lives in Baker, Louisiana; has lived in Baton Rouge area since 1966; South Baton Rouge is a very dynamic, diverse, progressive community; Vincent teaches history at Southern University; blessed with wonderful family; death of Emmett Till made him face raw racism; educational background; has three children with wife Delores; treating whites with deference while growing up in Southwest Mississippi; witnessing a policeman kill an African American man in 1957; more on Emmett Till murder; desegregation efforts of 1967; whites not understanding why he was dissatisfied with the way they treated him; his family tried to stay away from whites when possible; Vincent is currently more optimistic about the integrity of police than he was in 1960s; incidents with police on Southern University campus in late 1960s; North Street incident of 1972; has always favored nonviolence as more Christ-like; mourns violent deaths of African American leaders in fifties and sixties; everyday racism while Vincent was an LSU student; 1972 incident at Southern where two students were killed by police; police force exonerated; faculty support of students at Southern; turbulent era from 1968 to 1972; birth of a faculty senate at Southern that had a say in the administration at the university; Southern president Jesse Stone more aware of students’ concerns than his predecessors; after such a tragic incident, people think of how to prevent future tragedies.

TAPES:    1 (T3192)                                      TOTAL PLAYING TIME:    26 minutes

# PAGES TRANSCRIPT:    12 pages

OTHER MATERIALS:    Correspondence

RESTRICTIONS:    Contact interviewee for permission to publish or use audio recording