Description

Tom Dent interviews Rose Sanders in Selma, Alabama. She talks about her family background. Her mother's family is from Wilcox County and her father's family is from Mobile, Alabama. They traveled throughout the southeast due to her father's work as a Methodist minister. She was born in Salisbury, North Carolina. They lived there and Kentucky, and she graduated from high school in Greeneville, Tennessee. She attended went on to university while her parents moved to Dynamite Hill in Birmingham, Alabama. She spent her first summer there in 1962, amid the violence. A young Black man was killed on her street and Reverend Shuttlesworth was there. Her parents' home was threatened with violence. They discuss a book on the subject, part of which she wrote. She was only in Birmingham that summer. She spent the rest of her time in Harlem, where she became involved in the arts. She moved without knowing anyone. A friend introduced her to the Adair family from North Carolina she did not know, and they took her in. She started working with children on the block, some of whom she is still in touch with, and formed a youth theater. Reverend Adair (whom she calls "Rev") was able to find her a job in youth theater. She graduated from Harvard Law School, graduating in 1969. She spent a year in New York working for National Welfare Rights and married Hank Sanders. They then spent a year in Africa before returning to Alabama. They lived in Ibadan,...

From Collection

Southern Journey Oral History Collection

Record Contributed By

Amistad Research Center