Voices from the Civil Rights Movement

To commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. Day and celebrate Black History Month, The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza is pleased to present Voices from the Civil Rights Movement, a special showcase of oral history interviews conducted in 2021 and 2022 with civil rights and social justice activists. These powerful storytellers, representing multiple groups and organizations, share memories from several key moments of the Civil Rights Movement, including the Montgomery bus boycott, Freedom Rides, the March on Washington, Mississippi Freedom Summer, the Selma to Montgomery March and the SCOPE voter registration project of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The Museum hopes that these remarkable, relevant stories will spark conversations and build bridges of understanding and communication between generations.

All interviews featured in the Voices from the Civil Rights Movement series are part of the ongoing Oral History Project at the Museum. More than 2,000 interviews have been recorded to date, exploring the history and culture of the 1960s as well as the life, death and legacy of President John F. Kennedy. If you are interested in researching or participating in the Oral History Project, please contact oralhistory@jfk.org. To see related films, photos, documents and oral histories from The Sixth Floor Museum’s collection, visit our online collections database.

Rodney L. Hurst

Rodney L. Hurst organized sit-in demonstrations in the early 1960s as president of the Jacksonville, Florida NAACP Youth Council. He is the author of an award-winning account of his civil rights activism, It Was Never About a Hot Dog and a Coke (2008).

Dr. Mimi Real

After being arrested in Jacksonville, Mississippi, Dr. Real spent one month in a state penitentiary. She remained active in the Civil Rights Movement and later worked on voter registration in Louisiana.

Cheryl Janice Johnson

Cheryl Janice Johnson was one of the first African Americans in her Mississippi community to attend a newly integrated high school. She graduated in 1969 after experiencing racism, being denied entry to her senior prom and having gunshots fired into her home.

Dr. Raphael Cassimere Jr.

Professor emeritus of history and the first African American instructor hired at the University of New Orleans, Dr. Raphael Cassimere Jr. was president of the New Orleans NAACP Youth Council from 1960 to 1966. He led voter registration drives as well as a successful two-year boycott of thirty-five local businesses.

Premieres February 24