Oral history interview with Ruth Vick, 1973

Ruth Vick joined the Southern Regional Council (SRC) in the 1940s, becoming its only black employee at the time, and rising through the ranks to become a board member at the time of the interview. In her lengthy conversation with two interviewers, Vick discusses decades of SRC history, describing its leadership, organizational details, internal politics, and the SRC's place in the growing civil rights movement. The SRC supported the direct action civil rights movement that emerged in force in the 1950s and 1960s but chose study over sit-ins as a means of change. Vick devotes a great deal of time to discussing the role of African Americans within the organization. The SRC was not immune to the pervasive racism of the segregated South, and African Americans struggled for recognition and equal treatment within the organization. This interview will be most useful to researchers interested in some of the organizational details of the Southern Regional Council.