Oral history interview with Glennon Threatt, June 16, 2005

Glennon Threatt describes his experiences with racial segregation in his hometown of Birmingham, Alabama. Threatt, a lawyer in Birmingham, was one of three gifted African American students who integrated an all-white elementary-school gifted class. His presence at the school both helped propel him to academic success and made him a double target for violence and intimidation. Threatt left Alabama to attend Princeton, leaving behind a city where residential and school desegregation seemed to nurture, rather than erode, racism. When he returned to Birmingham twenty years later, he found African Americans in leadership positions, but also golf courses that continued to refuse them membership. Researchers interested in the Birmingham experience with segregation, one African American's experience with racial discrimination and violence, and reflections on the life of racism in America will find this interview very useful.