This May 5, 1973, oral history interview with Randolph Blackwell, conducted by William Chafe, primarily documents Blackwell's recollections of the NAACP Youth Council and city council elections in Greensboro, North Carolina. Blackwell discusses his childhood influences, including Garveyism and Dudley High School teachers teachers Nell Coley and Vance Chavis. He describes in detail his experience with the Greensboro NAACP in the late 1940s and early 1950s, including the connection of the NAACP Youth Council to high school students, the opinion of Dudley High School faculty and administration, issues discussed, notable NAACP members; and the fear surrounding being a member. Blackwell also describes in detail the way the NAACP strategized to get a black person elected to the Greensboro city council. He discusses people paid to sway voters, disrupting rallies, organizing voter registration drives, the campaigns of African Americans F. A. Mayfield, and Brody McCauley, and how those campaigns set the stage for William Hampton's election. Blackwell describes his own race for the North Carolina General Assembly as an A&T student, and a meeting he had with Dr. Ferdinand Bluford, which showed him Bluford's real feelings on racial activism.
