Robinson, Bernice, July 28, 1982

In the first part of the conducted interview, Bernice Robinson (1914-1994), a native of Charleston, starts by talking about her early involvement with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1947. She refers to her first encounters with the Civil Rights Movement through teaching at Highlander Folk Schools on the Sea Islands, and her interaction with Septima Poinsette Clark and Esau Jenkins. Robinson then talks about her first interaction with Dr. Martin Luther King in 1957. The interviewer inquires in detail about Dr. King’s personal life, the development of his character over time, implications of national and international fame, his stance on U.S. foreign policies such as the Vietnam War, as well as his iconic status among his devoted followers. Robinson also elaborates on the disputes between Dr. King and Ruby Hurley and the NAACP’s reluctance to support SCLC, as well as Ella Baker’s accusation of SCLC being exclusively one-person centered.

In the second part of the interview, Robinson refers to tensions within SCLC arising over disputes of weighing demonstration activities and educational efforts. Robinson specifically mentions the Selma Voting Rights Campaign, the Poor People’s Campaign, the Chicago Freedom Movement, and the Prayer Pilgrimage. She talks in detail about the struggles of enabling African Americans to register to vote through these campaigns, which remained hidden from mainstream media attention. She provides numerous insights into the conduction of voter registration workshops and the laborious process to educate people and get them involved, as well as accounts of dangerous and sometimes violent, racial incidents that occurred. Robinson also discusses SNCC’s and CORE’s contribution to spear-heading the voter registration movement, referring to individuals such as Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture), John Lewis, and Julian Bond.

Later, Robinson recalls the fading away of the movement after Dr. King’s assassination and the inability to provide strong SCLC leadership after his demise. The interview discusses various quarrels among the different civil rights groups and the lack of support from a younger generation of Black people for Dr. King, in particular the difficulty of SCLC’s relationship with SNCC concerning ideological discrepancies regarding radicalism as well as the promise and limits of the non-violence philosophy. The last part of the interview focuses on the difficulty of providing a neutral assessment of Dr. King’s achievements today. Robinson concludes by revealing her feelings toward the voter registration campaign and Civil Rights Movement, elaborating on the achievements, shortcomings, and personal rewards, specifically referring to upward social mobility, education, employment, and the election of Black officials. The oral history is conducted by Jean-Claude Bouffard.