| Click here to view the item | |
| Creator: | Rivera, Alex |
| Creator: | Taylor, Kieran Walsh |
| Title: | Oral history interview with Alexander M. Rivera, November 30, 2001 |
| Date: | 2001 Nov. 30 |
| Description: | This is the first of two interviews with African American photojournalist Alexander M. Rivera. Rivera was born in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1913. His family settled there after fleeing Wilmington following the race riot of 1898. Rivera recalls his father's involvement in the NAACP during the 1920s and 1930s and the influence of his progressive racial views. Following in his father's footsteps, Rivera became a student at Howard University in the early 1930s but had to leave school to work during the Great Depression. It was during these years that Rivera first began to work as a photojournalist in Washington, D.C. His coverage of Marian Anderson's concert at the Lincoln Memorial was the first major event he covered. In the late 1930s, Rivera returned to North Carolina and finished his education at North Carolina Central College. During World War II, Rivera worked for Naval Intelligence in Norfolk, Virginia. Shortly thereafter, he began to work for the Pittsburgh Courier, covering events in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. As a photojournalist for the Courier, Rivera covered such events as the Willie Earle lynching in South Carolina, the Isaiah Nixon lynching in Georgia, and the school desegregation cases of the 1950s. In recalling these events, Rivera illuminates the nature of race relations and racial violence that characterized Jim Crow segregation; the impact of the Brown v. Board of Education decision and the role of key players such as Thurgood Marshall; and the changing social landscape. Finally, he recalls his travels to Africa with Richard Nixon in 1957. 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: | Rivera, Alex | Anderson, Marian, 1897-1993 | Howard University--Students--History--20th century | National Association for the Advancement of Colored People | African American journalists | Riots--North Carolina--Wilmington--History--19th century | Military intelligence--United States--History--20th century | Segregation in education--Law and legislation--United States | Civil rights movements--North Carolina--Durham | Ghana--Foreign relations--United States | Photojournalists--Southern States--Interviews | African Americans--Civil rights--Southern States | African Americans--Segregation | Southern States--Race relations | Crime and the press--Southern States | Lynching--Southern State | Wilmington (N.C.) | New Hanover County (N.C.) | Durham (N.C.) | Durham County (N.C.) |
| 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. 29, 2008). Interview participants: Alexander M. Rivera, interviewee; Kieran Taylor, interviewer. Duration: 01:58:12. 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/C-0297/menu.html |
