Moultrie, Mary, July 28, 1982
Scope and Contents
The Jean-Claude Bouffard Civil Rights Interviews collection, 1982, contains oral history interviews with Septima Clark, Mary Moultrie, and Bernice Robinson as well as recordings of lectures that Septima Clark and Thomas R. Waring, Jr. gave to Bouffard's College of Charleston class in the summer of 1982. Participants discuss a wide range of topics including their family history and upbringing, their involvement in the Civil Rights Movement and organizing with the Charleston Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Highlander Folk School, Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), African American leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr., Kwame Ture (Stokley Carmichael), Ralph Abernathy, and Jesse Jackson, segregation in Charleston and, more broadly, in education, and the 1969 Hospital Workers Strike.
More information about the contents of each oral history or lecture can be found within the abstract at the file-level of each recording.
Dates
- Creation: July 28, 1982
Creator
- From the Collection: Bouffard, Jean Claude (Person)
Access Restrictions
No restrictions. A cassette player will be made available to researchers in the Avery Research Center's Reading Room to listen to the audiocassettes.
Full Extent
From the Collection: .209 linear feet (1 narrow document box and 5 audiocassettes)
Language of Materials
From the Collection: English
Abstract
In this interview, Mary Moultrie (1943-2015) talks about her involvement in the 113-day Charleston Hospital Workers' Strike at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in March 1969. After graduating from Burke High School in 1960, Moultrie went to Goldwater Memorial Hospital, New York to become a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN). In 1967, she returned to Charleston and was hired at MUSC only as a nurse’s assistant since her LPN was not accepted. She speaks in detail about the working conditions and employee relationships at MUSC prior to and after the strike. Ms. Moultrie explains the various types of nursing titles and the unequal pay between Black and white nurses. She retells in detail how the racial tensions that led up to the strike at MUSC increased due to the harassing treatment toward Black nurses. In the interview, Moultrie details the first informal meetings and get-togethers that were held, until the Black nurses joined forces with the 1199 union and Bill Saunders. Moultrie elaborates, in particular, on the lack of support from the white community under the Gaillard administration, as well as the hesitation of the Black community to join them in their efforts for equal pay and treatment. She then refers to support from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Septima Poinsette Clark, and various leaders such as Andrew Young and Ralph Abernathy. Moultrie mentions the difficult and hostile negotiation process with MUSC’s president Dr. William McCord and the memorandum of agreement that was ultimately reached. The interview closes with the interviewer inquiring about the current workforce diversity at MUSC and Moultrie’s feelings regarding the strike’s accomplishments.
The oral history is conducted by Jean-Claude Bouffard.
Repository Details
Part of the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture Repository
125 Bull Street
Charleston South Carolina 29424 United States
843-953-7608
averyresearchcenter@cofc.edu