Merritt, Carole

Description

In this interview, Jesse Hill discusses his involvement in organizing the registration of black voters during the 1950s in Atlanta, Georgia, and the equalization of salaries for black teachers. He also provided support for the students involved in the Atlanta Student Movement. He recalls meetings held at Friendship Baptist Church on police brutality, voter registration, and the nonviolent desegregation of Atlanta golf courses. Jeese Hill ends his interview with an assessment of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) as it evolved in the early 1960s, and with the memories of how the Atlanta University Center’s faculty was a progressive backbone to racial progress in Atlanta.Mr. Hill grew up in St. Louis, Missouri and graduated from Lincoln University of Missouri with a degree in mathematics. He earned his masters degree in actuarial science in 1949 from the University of Michigan and moved to Atlanta, Georgia the same year. He began working at the Atlanta Life Insurance Company and for a time lived at the Butler Street YMCA.

Record Contributed By

Atlanta History Center

Record Harvested From

Digital Library of Georgia