Born in New York City and educated at Oberlin College and Union Theological Seminary, David Burgess spent his life living his religious convictions through a devotion to economic and racial justice. In this interview, he recalls his involvement with some vanguard rights organizations, such as the Fellowship of Southern Churchmen, and early rights activists like Buck Kester. Burgess argues that groups like the Fellowship not only helped put the civil rights struggle in a religious context, but set the stage for the dramatic movement that would dominate the South in the 1950s and 1960s. This interview is useful for, among others, students of the early civil rights movement as well as researchers interested in the contribution of white Christian southerners.

NOTE: Please also refer to another interview with David Burgess in this collection, E-0001. Poor transcription can make this a difficult interview to read. Listening recommended.

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.

Title from menu page (viewed on Oct. 30, 2008).

Interview participants: David Burgess, interviewee; Dallas A. Blanchard, interviewer.

Duration: 01:11:26.

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.

Forms part of Oral histories of the American South collection.