Oral Histories

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101. Interview of Marnesba Tackett

Topic:
African American History
Length:
7 hrs.
Language:
English
Audio:
Series Statement:
Interviews in this series were made possible by support from the UCLA Center for African American Studies, Institute of American Cultures. This is the first of several Oral History Program series focusing on social, cultural, economic, and political aspects of African American citizens in the Lo...
Biographical Note:
Executive director of the Los Angeles chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Director of Project AHEAD (Accelerating Home Education and Development). Chair of the board of directors of the Los Angeles branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

102. Interview of Horace Tapscott

Topic:
African American History
Music
Length:
12.6 hrs.
Language:
English
Audio:
Series Statement:
Interviews in this series preserve the spoken memories of individuals, mainly musicians, who were raised near and/or performed on Los Angeles's Central Avenue from the late 1920s to the mid-1950s.
Biographical Note:
Jazz trombone player and bandleader. Leader of the Pan-Afrikan People's Arkestra.

103. Interview of Gail Valentine Taylor

Topic:
Business
African American History
Length:
7.25 hrs.
Language:
English
Audio:
Series Statement:
This series documents long-term and multigenerational business ownership in the black community through oral history interviews with owners of businesses located in Los Angeles County. The title is inspired by Martin Luther King, Jr.'s last book, Where Do We Go From Here? Chaos or Community, whic...
Biographical Note:
Third-generation owner of Woods-Valentine Mortuary in Pasadena, California.

104. Interview of James Taylor

Topic:
African American History
Education
Length:
3.3 hrs.
Language:
English
Audio:
Series Statement:
This series documents efforts to secure quality education for Black students in the Los Angeles area in the years 1950-2000. This includes the issues of integration/desegregation, increasing the numbers of Black teachers and administrators and the struggle against discriminatory hiring practice...
Biographical Note:
Deputy superintendent for the Los Angeles Unified School District and first principal of Locke High School in South Central Los Angeles. Architect and a founder of the Young Black Scholars Program.

105. Interview of William J. Taylor

Topic:
Business
African American History
Length:
5 hrs.
Language:
English
Audio:
Series Statement:
This series documents long-term and multigenerational business ownership in the black community through oral history interviews with owners of businesses located in Los Angeles County. The title is inspired by Martin Luther King, Jr.'s last book, Where Do We Go From Here? Chaos or Community, whic...
Biographical Note:
Owner of A+ Moving and former owner of Robert Taylor Furniture in Los Angeles.

106. Interview of Sidney Thompson

Topic:
African American History
Education
Length:
9.75 hrs.
Language:
English
Audio:
Series Statement:
This series documents efforts to secure quality education for Black students in the Los Angeles area in the years 1950-2000. This includes the issues of integration/desegregation, increasing the numbers of Black teachers and administrators and the struggle against discriminatory hiring practice...
Biographical Note:
First African-American superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District. University of California, Los Angeles coordinator of education-related research.

107. Interview of Lawrence Tolliver

Topic:
Business
African American History
Length:
3 hrs.
Language:
English
Audio:
Series Statement:
This series documents long-term and multigenerational business ownership in the black community through oral history interviews with owners of businesses located in Los Angeles County. The title is inspired by Martin Luther King, Jr.'s last book, Where Do We Go From Here? Chaos or Community, whic...
Biographical Note:
Owner of Tolliver’s Barber Shop in Los Angeles.

108. Interview of Raymond M. Turner

Topic:
African American History
Sports
Length:
1.75 hrs.
Language:
English
Audio:
Series Statement:
Purpose Served: An Oral History of the Exemplary Life of Arthur Ashe, 1943-1993 is an initiative of the Arthur Ashe Legacy Fund (AALF) at UCLA and is funded by AALF and by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. By launching an oral history project to document and capture the firsthand recollections of ...
Biographical Note:
Interviewed because of connection to tennis player Arthur Ashe. Teammate of Ashe on the Charles Sumner High School boys team.

109. Interview of Ruth G. Waddy

Topic:
African American History
Art
Length:
6.35 hrs.
Language:
English
Audio:
Series Statement:
The interviews in the series African American Artists of Los Angeles document significant African American Artists and others in the Los Angeles metropolitan area who have worked to expand exhibition opportunities and public support for African American visual culture. The series was made possibl...
Biographical Note:
African American artist. Founder of the organization Art West Associated.

110. Interview of Rita Walters

Topic:
Politics and Government
African American History
Length:
8.5 hrs.
Language:
English
Audio:
Series Statement:
This series includes interviews with African Americans who were involved in Los Angeles politics from the 1940s to the present day. In addition to African American politicians, it includes individuals who could speak to the political history and influence of the black community in Los Angeles. Th...
Biographical Note:
Member of the Los Angeles City Council from 1991 to 2001.

111. Interview of Don Lee White

Topic:
African American History
Music
Length:
7.5 hrs.
Language:
English
Audio:
Series Statement:
These interviews with African American musicians provide details about the narrators' background, training, influences, and musical choices and discuss their contributions, and connections to the music of black Los Angeles. The series was a collaborative project of the UCLA Center for Oral Histor...
Biographical Note:
Prairie View A. & M and California State University, Los Angeles professor of music. Organist of African American hymnal music.

112. Interview of Craig Whited

Topic:
African American History
Sports
Length:
1.75 hrs
Language:
English
Audio:
Series Statement:
Purpose Served: An Oral History of the Exemplary Life of Arthur Ashe, 1943-1993 is an initiative of the Arthur Ashe Legacy Fund (AALF) at UCLA and is funded by AALF and by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. By launching an oral history project to document and capture the firsthand recollections of ...
Biographical Note:
Interviewed because of connection to tennis player Arthur Ashe. Participated with Ashe in the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) at UCLA from 1963 to 1967.

113. Interview of Winsor Williams

Topic:
Business
African American History
Length:
4.5 hrs.
Language:
English
Audio:
Series Statement:
This series documents long-term and multigenerational business ownership in the black community through oral history interviews with owners of businesses located in Los Angeles County. The title is inspired by Martin Luther King, Jr.'s last book, Where Do We Go From Here? Chaos or Community, whic...
Biographical Note:
Owner of Antique Stove Heaven, a Los Angeles antique stove repair business that opened in the late 1970s.

114. Interview of Josephine Yelder

Topic:
African American History
Length:
7.5 hrs.
Language:
English
Audio:
Series Statement:
This series documents black women’s activism in Los Angeles from 1950 to the present, showing how women’s roles in the professions and in religious, civic, and social organizations translated into community activism to address disparities in education, healthcare, housing and political rights and...
Biographical Note:
Pepperdine University professor of sociology and social caseworker. Researcher in gerontology with a focus on aging black elderly populations.

115. Interview of Renee Blount

Topic:
African American History
Sports
Length:
4 hrs
Language:
English
Audio:
Series Statement:
Purpose Served: An Oral History of the Exemplary Life of Arthur Ashe, 1943-1993 is an initiative of the Arthur Ashe Legacy Fund (AALF) at UCLA and is funded by AALF and by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. By launching an oral history project to document and capture the firsthand recollections of ...
Biographical Note:
Renee Blount was interviewed about her connection to tennis player Arthur Ashe. Blount grew up in St. Louis, Missouri and was coached by Richard Hudlin and [Earl Henry] "Butch" Buchholz Sr., who both coached Arthur Ashe when he lived in St. Louis from 1961 to 1962. As a junior, Blount received fe...

116. Interview of Ken Chenault

Topic:
African American History
Sports
Length:
1 hr
Language:
English
Audio:
Series Statement:
Purpose Served: An Oral History of the Exemplary Life of Arthur Ashe, 1943-1993 is an initiative of the Arthur Ashe Legacy Fund (AALF) at UCLA and is funded by AALF and by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. By launching an oral history project to document and capture the firsthand recollections of ...
Biographical Note:
Chenault was a friend of Arthur Ashe and was a foundational board member of the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health, for which he served many years.

117. Interview of Charles Brown

Topic:
African American History
Sports
Length:
1 hr
Language:
English
Audio:
Series Statement:
Purpose Served: An Oral History of the Exemplary Life of Arthur Ashe, 1943-1993 is an initiative of the Arthur Ashe Legacy Fund (AALF) at UCLA and is funded by AALF and by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. By launching an oral history project to document and capture the firsthand recollections of ...
Biographical Note:
Brown was a childhood friend of Arthur Ashe.

118. Interview of Mark Mathabane

Topic:
African American History
Sports
Length:
.75 hr
Language:
English
Audio:
Series Statement:
Purpose Served: An Oral History of the Exemplary Life of Arthur Ashe, 1943-1993 is an initiative of the Arthur Ashe Legacy Fund (AALF) at UCLA and is funded by AALF and by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. By launching an oral history project to document and capture the firsthand recollections of ...
Biographical Note:
Mathabane met Ashe during his 1973 trip to South Africa.

119. Interview of Kay Radtke

Topic:
African American History
Sports
Length:
1 hr
Language:
English
Audio:
Series Statement:
Purpose Served: An Oral History of the Exemplary Life of Arthur Ashe, 1943-1993 is an initiative of the Arthur Ashe Legacy Fund (AALF) at UCLA and is funded by AALF and by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. By launching an oral history project to document and capture the firsthand recollections of ...
Biographical Note:
Kay Radtke was interviewed about her connection to the tennis player Arthur Ashe. Radtke worked for Dodd, Mead, & Company and Amistad Press to do publicity for the first (1988) and second (1993) editions of Ashe’s three volume series A Hard Road to Glory: A History of the African-American Athlete.

120. Interview of Art Carrington

Topic:
African American History
Sports
Length:
1.25 hrs
Language:
English
Audio:
Series Statement:
Purpose Served: An Oral History of the Exemplary Life of Arthur Ashe, 1943-1993 is an initiative of the Arthur Ashe Legacy Fund (AALF) at UCLA and is funded by AALF and by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. By launching an oral history project to document and capture the firsthand recollections of ...
Biographical Note:
Carrington was a longtime friend of Ashe and knew him during their childhoods. Carrington was also a rising tennis player in his youth.