Interview with Felton G. Clark,

Interview Summary

This interview is available in transcript only.

Felton Clark was the President of Southern University from 1938 until 1969 and served during a substantial part of the civil rights movement. His presidency saw the expansion of Southern University to include new campuses in Shreveport and New Orleans, Louisiana. Clark may be best known for his expulsion of students who were active in the sit-ins of 1962.

In this interview, Clark describes his opinions of integration in public education, especially at the university level. Clark feels that the integration of colleges in Louisiana will not occur as rapidly as it did in some of the border states, but that it will happen. Clark describes the catalyst for the civil rights movement of the mid-twentieth century. He provides his opinions of the historic black leader, W.E.B. Dubois, who he feels could have been even more successful if he was not an African American. Clark discusses what it will take to stop racism, and states that people must move past race to see others as human beings. Clark also describes the role of segregation in the North and the meaning of the emergence of independent African nations to black Americans.

Interview Keyword

Who Speaks for the Negro? (Book)

Interview LC Subject

African Americans--Civil rights Race relations

Interview Rights

All rights to the interviews, including but not restricted to legal title, copyrights and literary property rights, have been transferred to the University of Kentucky Libraries.

Interview Usage

Interviews may be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, Special Collections, University of Kentucky Libraries.