Series: Tape Recordings

Subseries: Interviews Conducted by Amzie Moore

Interview with a Rev. Buell of Shaw, Mississippi, 1958 March 30
Scope and Content Note: Buell was accused of arson after the local school burned. Moore implies that Buell was accused as a means of discrediting him as a black leader, even though Buell professes no interest in integration. On Side 2, continuing on Side 1. (3 3/4 ips)

Interview, undated and virtually unintelligible, with a black woman who was abducted (and raped?) by a white man
Note: The tape is in very poor condition.

Accounts by Curtis Hayes and Hollis Watkins, field secretaries for SNCC, 1963 February
Scope and Content Note: Both men were arrested during a lunch counter sit-in at McComb, Mississippi in August 1961, and subsequently spent 35 or 37 days in jail, were released, then jailed again for 35 days after participating in a school walkout only three days later. The students were protesting the expulsion of another student. They then worked on a voter registration project at Hattiesburg. Watkins describes poor prison conditions, attempts at retaliation against his father, and a threat of lynching. (7 1/2 ips)

Interview with Mr. and Mrs. Palmer, who lost their jobs after registering to vote, 1963 July 10
Scope and Content Note: Mr. Palmer lost his job on the plantation where he had worked since 1945, only 4 1/2 days after he registered. Mrs. Palmer, who cleaned a doctor's office, lost her job the day after registering. Contains information on working conditions. Mr. Palmer was paid $5 per day despite working 12-14 hours daily, and was in debt to the plantation owner for an undisclosed sum. On Side 1.

Interviews conducted by Moore and Bob Moses, with relatives of persons jailed in Itta Bena, Mississippi, on June 18, 1963, undated
Note: Several persons interviewed were also interviewed on July 20, 1963 (see tape No. 4). Poor sound.

Series of interviews with relatives of persons arrested at Itta Bena on June 18, 1963, 1963 July 20
Scope and Content Note: Conducted by Amzie Moore at the Hopewell Baptist Church in Itta Bena. On June 18, a voter registration meeting at the Hopewell Baptist Church was broken up by a tear gas bomb thrown into the Church. Many of those interviewed believed that several young black men were hired by whites to throw the bombs. Afterwards, those at the meeting marched towards town to demand protection from the sheriff, whereupon 45 or 49 of the demonstrators were arrested and jailed. Most of those interviewed had sons, brothers, or husbands arrested. The interviews also contain information concerning conditions of life and work. Interviews begin on the left track, side 1, and continue on the right track. (3 3/4 ips)

Three interviews conducted at Cleveland, Mississippi, 1964 April 17
Scope and Content Note: Two are with women who had not worked since the cotton-picking season of the previous December. They describe the difficulties of finding employment, and life on relief. The third interview is with a young child who asked for clothes and shoes. Apparently, Amzie Moore outfitted many residents in Cleveland with shoes.

Gospel music and preaching by two men
Note: A narrator identifies preachers. Poor quality recording.

Brief interview with a sharecropper who was in debt, undated
Note: Entire tape is in poor condition. (3 3/4 ips)

Brief interview with a Mr. Johnson in Cleveland, Mississippi, undated
Scope and Content Note: Johnson, a sharecropper and plantation laborer, was requesting shoes for his 7 children and “any kind of help a man can get.” He and his family lived on $17 per week. The previous year he had produced 16 bales of cotton and earned $200. The interviewer (Moore?) says that his “reason for asking questions...,” is because, “we want the world to know that our people aren't lazy and shiftless...but it's just that they can't find sufficient work....” Side 2 is blank.

Interview with Linda Brown of Cleveland, Mississippi, undated
Scope and Content Note: Brown's 1-year-old child died after receiving a measles shot, and Brown blamed the mishandling of the inoculation for the death.

Brief discussion with unidentified speakers on political conditions and the Linda Brown case, undated
Note: Side 2 is blank. (3 3/4 ips)

Brief conversation with an unidentified female musician (Interviewer not identified), undated
Note: Gospel music, with some of the groups identified on tape by Moore, is on Side 2. (3 3/4 ips)

Subseries: Gospel Music Recordings

Recording of music, including a radio broadcast of the Foregate Harmonizers, undated
Note: Poor quality sound. (1 7/8 ips)

Singing convention at Rosedale, Mississippi
Scope and Content Note: A festival of church groups performing gospel music. Performers were from Rosedale, Beulah, and other communities. A commentator, speaking between the songs, describes and introduces the performers and songs. He remarks: “It's customary that people in the Delta area...sing a lot...it gives them courage and strength to live another day under the adverse circumstances under which they live.” Tape in poor condition.

Recording of a group of male singers (accompanied on guitar by a Rev. Pinson) singing gospel music
Note: (Side 1 is 7 1/2 ips, Side 2 is 3 3/4 ips.)

Subseries: Other Tapes

Testimony before a body, identified by Amzie Moore as the “Investigative Educational Conference,” on Communist activity within the NAACP in Arkansas, circa 1958
Scope and Content Note: Many civil rights leaders and groups are implicated, including the Highlander Folk School and Martin Luther King. Moore occasionally interjects comments. (3 3/4 ips)

Undated recording of Arkansas State Legislature committee hearings on Communist activity in Arkansas, circa 1958
Note: Sound is very poor. (3 3/4 ips)