Interview+Chloe

Topic: March on Selma

Interview Subject: Uncle Gary Johnson

1.) What were you doing in this period of time 1965 during the march, where did you live? Were you in the march itself? I was in the military service, the navy In Rhode Island. Normally i lived in Wisconsin though with my family. I was not in the march but heard about it from everywhere, it was just everywhere.

2.) What do you remember about the March on Selma? A lot of violence. Police were shooting hoses at the marchers they had vicious dogs, lots of hostility in the march. Although what the marchers did was very courageous and it was just great overall, really showed the american public and the government that they weren't going to step down.

3.) If you did not participate in the March itself can you remember if it had a negative or a positive impact on where you lived? Not a huge impact on WI, because there weren't a lot of African Americans in Wisconsin at that time, especially where we lived. It wasn't a huge deal in military school either because there weren't a lot of African American people there either.

4.) What was the impact of the march on your daily life? Was there a big change? Not really, civil awareness, the fact that the marches were going on made the people more aware of what was happening. Some of the people were scared some were enlightened by their messages.

5.) What do remember about after the march? Alot of people were forming opinions about what these people marching about. Was it a good thing or a bad thing? changes in some aspects of life, people became slightly more racist in some places and not so much in other places.

6.) Depending on where you were and how old you were what was the effect of the Voting Rights Act? How did your parents react to this? They didn't react real favorably, the previous generations were more prejudiced. They thought what are they complaining about their situation, that they should be grateful. Which really is just horrible.

7.) What was the reaction of the white people in your neighborhood and the African Americans? There were no African Americans in our neighborhoods, there were people in college that thought it was a good idea. Minority of people didn't like it but majority of people were

REFLECTION!

I think that it was great talking to my Uncle, i never get to see him since he lives in Colorado. I never really knew much on the Selma Marches and it was great researching it and learning about the great stories and the sadness of the innocents that were killed. Gary tried to get the point across to me that it wasn't a big deal in Wisconsin, i was completely surprised to find out that there were very few African Americans actually living in Wisconsin at this time. Also i wasn't really prepared for the answer that the older genereation of whites were like you shouldnt be complaining we gave you some freedoms you should be happy with them.