Melton McLaurin Collection - Oral Histories

Table of Contents

John L. LeFlore
First interview, undated
Second interview, August 7, 1970
Second interview, continued
Third interview, undated, with Wiley Bolden
Fourth interview, December 15, 1970
Fifth interview, October 9, 1972

Frank Thomas
August 4, 1971

Joseph Langan
October 12, 1972
 
This oral history project was conducted under the auspices of the University of South Alabama. This project was undertaken in order to supplement information contained in the John LeFlore papers and the Non-Partisan Voters League records. The two collections include various manuscripts, letters, publications from branch and national offices of the NAACP, as well as material from civil rights organizations other than the Non-Partisan Voters League. Much of the material in the league records is in the form of personal correspondence between John Leflore, who was the executive secretary of the local chapter of the NAACP and the chairman of the Southern Regional Conference of the NAACP for several years during the early 1950s, and the national NAACP and various other civil rights organizations, heads of transportation, bus companies, governmental agencies, and so forth. Leflore also served as the director of case work for the Non-Partisan Voters League from 1960 until his death in 1976. There is also some private correspondence from people writing to Leflore, sometimes as a well-known individual civil rights worker, sometimes as a member of either of the two organizations.

Participants in the interviews were Dr. Melton McLaurin and Margaret LaVorne (interviewers) and John LeFlore, Frank Thomas, and Joseph Langan (interviewees).

At the time of the interviews Dr. McLaurin was assistant professor of history at the University of South Alabama. He received his BS and MA from East Carolina College in 1962 and 1963 respectively, and his PhD in American History from University of South Carolina in 1967.