JLFC 001C John L. LeFlore 12-15-1970

Acc #: 270; JLFC 001C In this recording, John L. LeFlore is interviewed by Margaret Lavorne and Melton McLaurin to discuss the Civil Rights Movement and the history of Mobile, Alabama. The interview begins with Mr. LeFlore observing that African Americans could not take city and county civil service examinations in Mobile County, unconstitutionally limiting their employment options. He relates the work that he and other activists undertook to establish more equitable hiring practices and access to training opportunities, particularly in Mobile. Mr. LeFlore also discusses his work with the Mobile Housing Board, and describes what he views as the benefits of urban renewal to the Black community as well as some negative impacts, and the challenges of attempting to improve Black people’s access to better housing in the face of white flight. He offers some observations on the food stamp program, and some ruminations on the effects of the gubernatorial administration of George Wallace in Alabama

JLFC 001A John L LeFlore 7-3-1970

Acc #: 270; JLFC 001A In this recording, John L. LeFlore is interviewed by Margaret Lavorne and Melton McLaurin to discuss the Civil Rights Movement and the history of Mobile, Alabama. The interview begins with Mr. LeFlore’s reflections on the racism and racial violence that he grew up with in the US South, motivating him to co-found the Mobile branch of the NAACP in 1925. He also offers some thoughts on the importance of allyship to the success of the Movement, and the changes he has observed—and worked for—over the years

JLFC 002 John LeFlore & Wiley Bolden 8-7-1970

Acc #: 270; JLFC 002 In this recording, John L. LeFlore and Wiley Bolden are interviewed by Melton McLaurin to discuss the Civil Rights Movement and the history of Mobile, Alabama. The interview begins with a focus on NAACP voting rights efforts in Mobile in 1944, and the fight against the Boswell Amendment. They also offer comparisons and contrasts in terms of voter registration for Black Alabamians in the 1940s, under the Folsom administration, versus the 1950s and 1960s. Mr. LeFlore also discusses the role of Joseph Langan, who served both as a state senator and as a longtime mayor of Mobile, in shaping the landscape for Black voting rights in Mobile. He also discusses the impact that the closing of Brookley Field had on Mobile and especially the Black community, and some of the dispossessing impacts of urban renewal and the construction of highway I-10

Race, Slavery, and the Expression of Sexual Violence in Louisa Picquet, The Octoroon

Historically, victims of sexual violence have rarely left written accounts of their abuse, so while sexual violence has long been associated with slavery in the United States, historians have few accounts from formerly enslaved people who experienced it first-hand. Through a close reading of the narrative of Louisa Picquet, a survivor of sexual violence in Georgia and Louisiana, this article reflects on the recovery of evidence of sexual violence under slavery through amanuensis-recorded testimony, the unintended evidence of survival within the violent archive of female slavery, and the expression of “race” as an authorial device through which to demonstrate the multigenerational nature of sexual victimhood