Oral History Interview with Salter and Doris Cochran, April 12, 1997. Interview R-0014. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007).
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Abstract
Dr. Salter Cochran and his wife, Doris Cochran, discuss their activism in the Weldon-Roanoke Rapids area of North Carolina. Extremely well-educated, worldly, and, in Salter's case, with military experience, the Cochrans arrived in North Carolina with progressive views on race and a determination to push for racial justice. They were distressed to find entrenched racism among white residents and a reluctance to challenge it among African Americans. Additionally, the Cochrans' activism inhibited friendships and even inspired threats of violence. But it also succeeded in desegregating some of the area's institutions, including a school (which their children were the first to integrate) and a hospital. Outsiders though they were, they continued to agitate for racial justice in forums ranging from PTA meetings to medical society conventions. As they recall their decades of activism, they reflect on racism and justice, and they evaluate the successes and failures of the movement to which they contributed. This interview will provide readers with a great deal of information about race, desegregation, poverty, and health in North Carolina.
Excerpts
Segregation in Washington, D.C., and a safe haven at Howard University
Discrimination in the army during World War II
Discrimination motivates black medical students to work hard
Finding a "slave mentality" in Weldon, North Carolina
Activism leads to threats
Scheming to exclude blacks from hospital jobs
Forcing desegregation on resistant hospital personnel
A confrontational style of integrationism
Anti-unionism among doctors on mill owners' payrolls
Lobbying against race-based gerrymandering
African Americans internalize whites' degrading treatment
Segregated medical education in North Carolina
Remembering one racist organization and one anti-poverty organization
Reflections on the future of racism
Some positive changes in medical profession, but not enough African Americans in supervisory positions
Lack of communication, exacerbated by racism, causes problems in the health profession
Reflections on race, integration, and child-rearing
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