This oral history interview conducted by William Chafe circa 1978 with Susie Williams Jones primarily documents Ms. Jones' memories of Bennett College, desegregation, and Greensboro, North Carolina, during the forties and fifties. Jones recalls her first experience with discrimination when Berea College was segregated; moving to Greensboro; her husband's appointment to the school board; the lack of racial violence in Greensboro; the election of Dr. William Hampton to city council and its effects; the role of the Greensboro Community Fellowship; community education initiatives preceding school desegregation; the formation of the Susie B. Dudley YWCA; the YWCA's missed opportunities; reasons why she left the board; and competition between the Dudley and Davie Street YWCAs. Jones also recalls her husband, David Jones, hiring only black bricklayers to construct a dormitory, educating them in bricklaying techniques instead of laying them off; his encouraging Bennett students to only spend their money where they were treated well; Eleanor Roosevelt's visit to Bennett and the controversy of inviting black and white school children to attend; Bennett's voter registration drive through Operation Door Knock; the roles of faculty members Edwin Edmonds, Hobart Jarret, and Elizabeth Laizner; Bennett students' protest of films which portrayed only black stereotypes; and the arrest of students during the sit-ins. Other topics include: unification of the Methodist church; Methodist women's involvement in school desegregation; the Cone family; School Board Superintendent Ben Smith; John and Betsy Taylor; the South's ability to change compared to the North's; the Quakers' presence in Greensboro; and Henry Wallace's visit to Durham.
