NVLP's Oral History Archive
Video Interviews A-C
Click on the name of a visionary below to go to his or her page.
* Local Visionary
Selected and Interviewed by NVLP Fellow
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Joe Adams Entertainment Manager/Actor and long-time manager of Ray Charles |
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Lucy Allen Plaintiff in the landmark case to restore the rights and status of African American Freedman recently expelled from the Cherokee Nation |
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Clifford Alexander First African American Secretary of the Army; attorney; businessman; presidential advisor and counsel; former Chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission |
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Maya Angelou Renowned poet, educator, historian, best-selling author, actress, playwright, producer, and director |
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Lee Archer Member of the distinguished Tuskegee Airmen; First African American “ Ace.” |
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Ernie Banks Major League ballplayer known as "Mr. Cub"first National Leaguer to win the MVP Award in consecutive years (1958 to 1959) |
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Rev. Willie T. Barrow Minister, Activist, Chairman Emeritus of Rainbow PUSH Coalition |
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Rudolph Belisle* Entrepreneur and Warden of Orleans Parish Prison |
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Derrick Bell Civil Rights lawyer, author, and first African American professor tenured at Harvard Law School |
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Lerone Bennett Jr. Executive editor of Ebony magazine and author of Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America |
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William Betts* Jazz Bassist |
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Adolpho Birch* Former Tennessee Supreme Court Justice |
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David Harold Blackwell Mathematician in the fields of applied mathematics and statistics |
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Lillie Bowman* Educator |
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J. Robert Bradley* Gospel Singer |
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William E. Brantley* Educator |
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Randolph W. Bromery Geologist and geophysicist, former chancellor of University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Tuskegee Airman |
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Edward Brooke First African American member of the US Senate since Reconstruction |
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Calvin Brown Pioneering Hollywood stunt performer, who doubled for Bill Cosby in the network series “I Spy” |
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Chuck Brown Enduring soul and jazz artist, known as the "Godfather of Go-Go" for pioneering this unique and popular urban dance music |
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Eleanor Brown* Guidance Counselor, Principal & Former President of Jack and Jill of America |
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Oscar Brown, Jr. Singer, Poet, Playwright, Activist |
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Willie Brown Former Mayor of San Francisco CA; the California Assembly’s longest serving Speaker and the first AfricanAmerican to represent San Francisco in the state legislature. |
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Roscoe Lee Browne Internationally renowned actor on both stage and screen |
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C.C. Bryant Social activist and civil rights leader; instrumental in desegregating Mississippi facilities, as well as the "Freedom Summer" Mississippi black voter education and registration drives |
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Yvonne Burke First African American congresswoman and assemblywoman elected from California; first African American member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors |
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Earl Caldwell* Ground-breaking journalist whose refusal to disclose confidential information involving his sources in the Black Panther party led him to become a central figure in one of the century's most celebrated cases involving reporters' rights |
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James Cameron Founder of America's Black Holocaust Museum; recognized in 2005 by the U.S. Senate as the nation's oldest known survivor of a lynching |
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Diahann Carroll Pioneering stage, television and film actress; first black woman to star in a network television series, Julia |
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Robert Lee Carter Judge; one of the lead attorneys for Brown v. Board of Education |
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Elizabeth Catlett Internationally acclaimed artist, known for her extraordinary sculptures and lithographs |
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Ray Charles Legendary recording artist, singer, songwriter and musician |
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Leah Chase Executive Chef of Dooky Chase's Restaurant, a New Orleans Creole Landmark; Civil Rights Activis |
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Mary Alice Chineworth Member and former director of the Oblate Sisters of Providence |
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Shirley Chisholm First African American woman to serve in the US Congress, and to actively run for the presidency of the United States under a major party |
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Robert Churchwell* Retired Journalist |
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Margaret Washington Clifford* Educator, Granddaughter of Booker T. Washington |
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Alice Coachman 1st African American woman Olympic Gold medal winner |
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William T. Coleman, Jr. First African American Secretary of Transportation; First African American Supreme Court Clerk; Coauthor of Brown v. Board Brief |
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Cardiss Collins Politician, Longest-serving African American Congresswoman |
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John Conyers, Jr. Chairman of House Judiciary Committee, co-founder of the Congressional Black Caucus and the second-longest-serving member of the U.S. House of Representatives |
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Evelyn Cunningham Reporter, editor and columnist for the Pittsburgh Courier, one of the foremost dailies of the “Negro Press;”served as special assistant to NY Governor and U.S Vice President Nelson Rockefeller. |