Hawkins, Reginald Armistice, 1923-2007

Desmarais, Melinda H.

Charlotte, North Carolina

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

2001-06-11

1 audio file (1:58:24) : digital, MP3 + 1 transcript (54 pages : PDF)

sound recording-nonmusical

spoken word

eng

Reginald A. Hawkins was a 77-year-old man at the time of interview, which took place in his home in Tega Cay, South Carolina. He was born in Beaufort, North Carolina on November 11, 1923. He was educated at Johnson C. Smith University and Howard University, and was employed as a dentist.

In this interview, Dr. Reginald Armistice Hawkins discusses his significant involvement in the African American Civil Rights Movement nationally, within the state of North Carolina, and in Mecklenburg County. Mr. Hawkins candidly describes his experiences during the era of segregation, as well as his activities as a political activist when he was a student at Johnson C. Smith University during the early 1940s, and after his return to Charlotte to practice dentistry in 1948. As a member of the local NAACP, and as the organizer of the Mecklenburg Organization on Political Affairs (MOPA), Mr. Hawkins was closely involved with local political protests for many years. He discusses his role in advocating for school integration during the period following Brown v. Board of Education. He also highlights his involvement in the landmark Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education case, which introduced integration through busing in Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools. Mr. Hawkins also describes the reprisals he experienced in response to his activism. Of particular note were bomb attacks on his and other local black leaders' homes in 1965. Mr. Hawkins describes his involvement with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the local response to Dr. King's tragic assassination in 1968. He closes the interview by stressing the impact that black women had on the civil rights movement, and the significance of his local political action group, MOPA.

MP3 access copy created on ingest from optimized production master file. Interview originally recorded on two minidiscs and digitized using Digidesign 003 rack.

Dentists

Hawkins, Reginald Armistice, 1923-2007
King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968
Chambers, Julius L. (Julius LeVonne), 1936-2013
Swann, James E.

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Mecklenburg Organization on Political Affairs (Charlotte, N.C.)
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education

African American political activists
African Americans--Social conditions
Civil rights movements
Civil rights demonstrations
African Americans--Segregation
Political participation
Segregation in education
School integration
Trials, litigation, etc.

North Carolina--Charlotte

Interviews
Oral histories

1920-2010

Civil rights and desegregation in Charlotte

Living Charlotte : the postwar development of a New South city

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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

Reginald A. Hawkins oral history interview 2, August 30, 2004, J. Murrey Atkins Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Reginald A. Hawkins papers, 1954-1995, J. Murrey Atkins Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Charlotte (https://findingaids.uncc.edu/repositories/4/resources/218)

OH-HA0077