Alexander, Margaret G. A., 1924-

Desmarais, Melinda H.

Charlotte, North Carolina

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

2001-04-30

1 audio file (2:17:52) : digital, MP3 + 1 transcript (64 pages : PDF)

sound recording-nonmusical

spoken word

eng

Margaret Alexander was a 76-year-old woman at the time of interview, which took place at her home in Charlotte, North Carolina. She was born in Charlotte in 1924. She was educated at Second Ward High School and N.C. College for Negroes (now N.C. Central University); and was employed as a volunteer with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg branch of the NAACP and with the North Carolina State Conference of NAACP Branches for 43 years.

Margaret Alexander, civil rights activist and wife of civil rights pioneer Kelly Alexander Sr., discusses her involvement in Charlotte's civil rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s as a member of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg branch of the NAACP. She describes her experiences growing up in the First Ward neighborhood and living in a segregated city. After her marriage to Kelly Alexander in 1946 Mrs. Alexander took on the role of his personal assistant, usually working behind the scenes to push out mailings, make arrangements for civil rights leaders to visit Charlotte, and organize voter drives, among other activities. She reflects on the tireless efforts of the NAACP to support school integration after the Brown v. Topeka Board of Education decision in 1954, and on the frustration felt over the intransigence of the local school board to approve assignments of black children to white schools. Mrs. Alexander also describes the horrific bomb attack on the Alexander home in 1965 when it was targeted along with the homes of three other civil rights activists, and she notes the outpouring of sympathy that followed. Although she was aware of more militant civil rights activism in Charlotte, Mrs. Alexander sees the NAACP as the major player in bringing about social change in the city over the long term. She describes Kelly Alexander Sr.'s central role in this achievement, depicting him as a leader who consistently challenged segregation and inequality in areas including education, politics, recreation, and public accommodations, and who worked through civil discourse to attain his goals.

MP3 access copy created on ingest from WAV production master. Interview originally recorded on two minidiscs and reformatted using a Digidesign 003 rack.

Homemakers
Volunteers

Alexander, Margaret G. A., 1924-
Alexander, Kelly M.

African Americans--Segregation
Civil rights movements
African American women civil rights workers
African American women political activists
Segregation in education
School integration
Bombings
Discrimination in public accommodations
Race relations

North Carolina--Charlotte
North Carolina--Charlotte--Second Ward
North Carolina--Charlotte--Brooklyn
North Carolina--Charlotte--First Ward

Interviews
Oral histories

1940-2010

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

Margaret Alexander oral history interview 2, 2004 April 27, J. Murrey Atkins Library Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Charlotte; Margaret Alexander oral history interview 3, 2007 April 2, J. Murrey Atkins Library Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Kelly Alexander, Sr. Family papers, J. Murrey Atkins Library Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, https://findingaids.uncc.edu/repositories/4/resources/583 ; Kelly Alexander, Sr. papers concerning the NAACP, J. Murrey Atkins Library Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, https://findingaids.uncc.edu/repositories/4/resources/701

OH-AL0005