Lane Berk, 1976 July 18
Abstract
Lane K. Berk (1928-2017) was a civil rights and social justice activist. She graduated from Western High School in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1946 and received a bachelor’s degree from Bryn Mawr College. In 1962, she was appointed to the Maryland Advisory Committee to the United States Civil Rights Commission, and the following year named an arbitrator for the Maryland Commission on Interracial Problems and Relations. In this oral history interview, Berk discusses her involvement in the Maryland civil rights movement during the 1960s, including Freedom Rides to protest discrimination by restaurants along Route 40 and the riots in Cambridge, Maryland. She also describes the relation between the women's movement and the civil rights movement.
Dates
- 1976 July 18
Creator
- Berk, Lane K., 1928-2017 (Narrator, Person)
Conditions Governing Access
The collection is open for research use.
Extent
96 Minutes (Audio recording)
62 Pages (Transcript)
Language of Materials
From the Collection: English
Processing Information
There are an additional 3 pages of supplementary material (biographical data and interview evaluation) included after the transcript.
Scope and Contents
This collection is comprised of 87 oral history interviews and 4 other related items. Materials available for the interviews include audio recordings, transcripts, tape indexes, newspaper clippings, biographical information, and interview evaluations. Each item record indicates whether a complete transcript or an uncorrected transcript is available for an oral history.
All recordings within the collection are digitized and continue to be added to MCHC's Digital Collections portal.
Interviews were conducted from 1975-1977, with some earlier recordings made prior to the project added to the collection. Narrators range from leaders in the Maryland civil rights movement and local activists, to people opposed to the movement. Narrators include Lillie May Carroll Jackson’s children: Juanita Jackson Mitchell, Virginia Jackson Kiah, and Bowen Keiffer Jackson; Parren Mitchell, U.S. Congressman, 1971-1987; Donald G. Murray, the first African American admitted to the University of Maryland Law School; Verda Welcome, one of the first Black women to be elected to a state Senate; Thomas J. D’Alesandro III, mayor of Baltimore, 1967-1971; Clarence Mitchell, Jr., chief lobbyist to the NAACP; Vernon Naimaster, Great Titan of the Maryland Ku Klux Klan; and Dr. J.E.T. Camper, a prominent physician who also devoted his career to seeking racial justice and equality.
In addition to these oral history interviews, there are four items related to the project that are included with the collection. There is an audio recording of a radio program on which narrators David Glenn and Judge Robert Watts appeared to discuss the McKeldin-Jackson project with host Alan Christian. There is an audio recording as well as textual materials from the colloquium and exhibition held at the Maryland Historical Society to commemorate the McKeldin-Jackson project on November 16, 1976. There is also a research paper written by a Goucher College student on Theodore R. McKeldin and the civil rights movement in Maryland and a binder containing information on the development and progress of the McKeldin-Jackson project.
Creator
- Berk, Lane K., 1928-2017 (Narrator, Person)
- Paul, Ellen, 1955- (Interviewer, Person)
Repository Details
Part of the H. Furlong Baldwin Library Repository
H. Furlong Baldwin Library
Maryland Center for History and Culture
610 Park Avenue
Baltimore MD 21201 United States
4106853750
specialcollections@mdhistory.org