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Oral history interview with William Patrick Murphy, January 17, 1978

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Creator:Murphy, William P. (William Patrick), 1919-2007
Creator:Devereux, Sean
Title:Oral history interview with William Patrick Murphy, January 17, 1978
Date:1978 Jan. 17
Description:

In the 1950s, lawyer William Patrick Murphy fought what he describes as a relatively understated battle against segregation. In letters, law journal articles, and in his constitutional law class at the University of Mississippi, Murphy argued for the wisdom of the Brown decision and against the states' rights rationale that many white Mississippians were using to delay integration. His support for integration put him under tremendous pressure from segregationist Mississippians, and after a four-year struggle to keep his job, he left the University. He describes that struggle in this interview, all the while downplaying his contributions to racial justice in Mississippi. This reflective interview will be useful for, among others, researchers interested in white southerners who sought to undo segregation.

The Civil Rights Digital Library received support from a National Leadership Grant for Libraries awarded to the University of Georgia by the Institute of Museum and Library Services for the aggregation and enhancement of partner metadata.

Types:Transcripts | Sound recordings | Oral histories
Subjects:Murphy, William P. (William Patrick), 1919-2007 | Mississippi--Race relations | School integration--Mississippi | Lawyers--Mississippi | College teachers--Mississippi--Oxford | African Americans--Civil rights--Mississippi | Academic freedom--Mississippi | University of Mississippi | Oxford (Miss.) | Lafayette County (Miss.)
Collection:Oral Histories of the American South: The Civil Rights Movement
Institution:Documenting the American South (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
Contributors:Southern Oral History Program | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project) | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library | Oral histories of the American South (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project))
Online Publisher:[Chapel Hill, N.C.] : University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill. | 2007
Original Material:

Title from menu page (viewed on Oct. 24, 2008).

Interview participants: William Patrick Murphy, interviewee; Sean Devereux, interviewer.

Duration: 01:01:48.

This electronic edition is part of the UNC-Chapel Hill digital library, Documenting the American South. It is a part of the collection Oral histories of the American South.

Text encoded by Jennifer Joyner. Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers.

Related Materials:

Forms part of Oral histories of the American South collection.

Persistent Link to Item:http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/B-0043/menu.html