Who Speaks for the Negro Exhibit at Vanderbilt

The Nunn Center has been working with Vanderbilt to provide with access to interview conducted by Robert Penn Warren with Martin Luther King. The Vanderbilt online exhibit is now available at http://whospeaks.library.vanderbilt.edu/

Here’s an excerpt from the message that Vanderbilt library director, Paul Gherman, sent to the ARL Directors:

"The Robert Penn Warren Center at Vanderbilt is commemorating the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s death by focusing a conference on Warren’s book “Who Speaks for the Negro” for which he interviewed many of the civil rights leaders of the time. The reel to reel tapes of the interviews are held by the University of Kentucky and Yale University. These interviews are now digitized and available via the web at the following URL;

The interviews are wonderfully candid and captivating to listen to, as Warren talks with King, Malcolm X and many other African American leaders of the Civil Rights movement. Please enjoy them.

I would like to thank Carol Diedrichs, Alice Prochaska and Ann Okerson and their staff for their generosity and support in providing the recordings. This is a wonderful example of cooperation and sharing within our community."