Mary Frances Berry

"Historian and civil rights activist proves how progressive movements can flourish even in conservative times." -- From Amazon summary.

This book is the first history in forty years of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. The author, who has been member of the commission for more than twenty years and chairperson for more than a decade, describes its founding in 1957 by President Eisenhower in response to the burgeoning civil rights protest. She makes clear that, from the outset, the commission was designed to be an independent bipartisan federal agency, beholden to no government body,...

Scope and content: Oral history interview with Nashville Civil Rights Movement participant Mary Frances Berry, conducted on 5 September 2003 by John Egerton as part of the Nashville Public Library's Civil Rights Oral History Project. During the 1 hour and 11 minute interview, Berry discusses such topics as her childhood and education, including her experiences in a Nashville orphanage called Buva College; Nashville neighborhoods and businesses; segregation...