Rochester Black Freedom Struggle Oral History Collection

Title: Rochester Black Freedom Struggle Oral History Collection.
Date range: 2008 - present
Location: D.383
Size: 4 boxes

This set of oral history interviews was conducted beginning in 2008, by historian Laura Warren Hill in conjunction with her research project, "'Strike the Hammer While the Iron is Hot:' The Black Freedom Struggle in Rochester, NY, 1945-1975." Statements in these interviews are those of the interviewees alone, and in no way speak for the University of Rochester as a whole, or for individual members of the University community. The University accepts no responsibility for the content of these interviews.

Visitors to this site will be able to read and listen to the stories of community activists such as Dr. Walter Cooper, Constance Mitchell and Loma Allen, businessmen Horace Becker and Clarence Ingram, and minister Raymond Scott. Charles Price, the first African American police officer in Rochester, describes his arrest by state police during riot patrol as a plainclothes officer. Darryl Porter, formerly Assistant to Rochester Mayor Robert Duffy, recalls his former leadership of a local youth gang, the Matadors.

This project serves as a permanent resource for continuing conversation, learning, and research around Rochester's role in this critical chapter of civil rights history. In addition to interviews, the Department seeks collections of personal or organizational papers, images, and ephemera related to Rochester's black freedom experience in the 1960s and '70s – especially materials related to the riots and the city's recovery.

For further information about the Rochester Black Freedom Struggle Oral History Project, contact rbscp@library.rochester.edu.