Claiborne, Jack

Desmarais, Melinda H.

Charlotte, North Carolina

J. Murrey Atkins Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

2003-06-05

1 audio file (1:46:59) : digital, MP3

sound recording-nonmusical

spoken word

eng

Jack Claiborne was a 72-year-old man at the time of interview, which took place in his home in Charlotte, North Carolina. He was born in Newell, North Carolina, on October 19, 1931. He was educated at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Chicago; and was employed as a journalist, newspaper editor, and director of public relations.

Jack Claiborne, former editor at the Charlotte Observer and former director of public relations at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNC Charlotte), reflects on his life, work, and the city of Charlotte. Mr. Claiborne talks about his childhood growing up on a farm in rural Mecklenburg County, his experiences as a teenager during World War II, and how his interest in baseball and the Charlotte Hornets led him to sports writing and eventually other branches of journalism. Mr. Claiborne discusses his forty year career at the Charlotte Observer, where he is best remembered for his weekly editorial column This Time and Place which ran from 1970-1990. He recounts the difficulties faced by the Observer's first African American journalists and how the paper and newsroom culture transformed during Pete McKnight's tenure as editor-in-chief. As both city editor and Carolinas editor during the turbulent 1960s, Claiborne remembers how the paper's opinions on race, racism, and desegregation were often seen as controversial and provoked angry responses from certain parts of the community. Claiborne eventually went on to become the director of public relations at UNC Charlotte. Here he discusses the growth and development of the university, his time working there, and his beliefs on the importance of the University for the future of Charlotte. Throughout the interview he shares his reflections on the growth of Charlotte as a city, people who promoted change within Charlotte, and some of the major challenges facing the city today.

MP3 access copy created on ingest from WAV preservation master file. Interview originally recorded on minidisc and digitized using Digidesign 003 rack.

Journalists
Newspaper editors
Public relations personnel

Claiborne, Jack
McKnight, C. A.
Cone, Bonnie E., 1907-2003

Charlotte Hornets (Baseball team)
University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Editorials
Sports journalism
Newspapers
Journalists
Newspaper editors
Segregation
Race discrimination
Race relations

North Carolina--Charlotte
Illinois--Chicago

Interviews
Oral histories

Charlotte observer (Charlotte, N.C. : 1916)

1940-2010

Charlotte regional oral history

Living Charlotte : the postwar development of a New South city

Jack Claiborne papers, J. Murrey Atkins Library Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Charlotte (https://findingaids.uncc.edu/repositories/4/resources/476)

The materials included on this web site are freely available for private study, scholarship or non-commercial research under the fair use provisions of the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, United States Code). Any use beyond the provisions of fair use, including but not limited to commercial or scholarly publication, broadcast, redistribution or mounting on another web site always require prior written permission and may also be subject to additional restrictions and fees. UNC Charlotte does not hold literary rights to all materials in its collections and the researcher is responsible for securing those rights when needed. Copyright information for specific collections is available upon request.

Digitization made possible by funding from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by the State Library of North Carolina, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources.

audio/mpeg

Jack Claiborne oral history interview 2, 2012 March 28, J. Murrey Atkins Library Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Charlotte. (https://goldmine.uncc.edu/islandora/object/uncc%3A2557 )

Jack Claiborne Papers (MS0377), J. Murrey Atkins Library Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Charlotte (https://findingaids.uncc.edu/repositories/4/resources/476); Public Relations Records (RG 56), J. Murrey Atkins Library Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

OH-CL0294