Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr interview

Description

Clarence Maurice Mitchell Jr. (1911-1984) served as the chief lobbyist to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for nearly 30 years after earlier positions as NAACP Labor Secretary and Director of the NAACP Washington Bureau. Mitchell begins his oral history interview with a discussion about consciousness of racial discrimination in his youth and recollections about his early education in Baltimore, Maryland. Mitchell describes his post-college work as a reporter for the Afro-American newspaper, including covering the 1933 lynching of George Armwood in Princess Anne, Maryland, as well as the trial of the Scottsboro Boys, which began in 1931 in Scottsboro, Alabama. He speaks to his work with the National Youth Administration, National Urban League, and full-time entry into civil right works. Mitchell comments on the impacts of churches, the Afro-American, and the NAACP on the civil rights movement in Baltimore, discusses segregation, and the influence of freedom fighter Lillie May Carroll Jackson, among other topics.


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