In 2010, Robert Korstad, historian and HLP professor, conducted on oral history of civil rights Ann Atwater, quotations from which gave life to an article published last week in the Washington Post. In “Ann Atwater’s amazing rise from advocate for the poor to ‘Best of Enemies’ stardom,” the Post’s Deena L. Brown utilizes the anecdotes Atwater shared with Korstad about the experience of moving to Durham, her motivation for getting involved with civil rights work, and the relationship with C.P. Ellis to be depicted in a movie coming out this month.
Korstad conducted this extended oral history with Ann Atwater when he was researching the North Carolina Fund for his book To Right These Wrongs: The North Carolina Fund and the Battle to End Poverty and Inequality in 1960s America (University of North Carolina Press, 2010).
Read Korstad’s full oral history interview of Atwater here.