Clips from the AV/AR: Brownie Ledbetter and Race Relations

If you were lucky enough to attend Legacies and Lunch this month, you were able to listen to Brownie Ledbetter share some of her experiences with race relations over the years. For those of you unable to make it or just wanting to hear more, Sara Thompson, the Butler Center's Audio-Visual Archivist, has uploaded and clipped an oral history interview with Ledbetter into the Butler Center's AV/AR audio video collection. Click here to listen to the interview in its entirety or to browse the clips available. Or listen to some clips Sara picked out below:

Clip 20
Ledbetter talks about how she was treated by the white community while she was involved in activist efforts during integration efforts as well as her work to promote understanding and acceptance. She also noted her access into the white community for these efforts.

Clip 21
Ledbetter shares her memories of people accepting the ideas of the activist efforts and even offering encouragement, yet not willing to participate in the movement and work. Those people were comfortable staying with the status quo.

Clip 26
Ledbetter talks about how she was naïve about how the school integration problem would be solved once the Little Rock Nine made it into Central High School. She discusses the main accomplishment of the Central High School Desegregation Crisis as well as the increase of denied racism.

Clip 33
Ledbetter talks about a program in which she and Senator Irma Brown Hunter asked junior high students to describe the differences between them . . and one student finally suggests the racial difference only to be labeled by her teacher as the problem child of the class.

Still want more? Why not visit the Butler Center and look at the Brownie Ledbetter Papers, MSS 99-36.