Oral history interview with Anne Queen, November 22, 1976

This is the second of two interviews with Anne Queen, former industrial worker turned director of the YWCA-YMCA at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In this interview, Queen focuses on her perception of the changing political landscape of the South and of the nation during the mid-twentieth century. She discusses the role of left-wing political groups at UNC during the 1950s and 1960s, recalling the formation of the Progressive Labor Club and her decision as director of the Y not to officially sponsor that organization. She goes on to discuss the role of radical politics in the South more generally and argues that the formation of organizations such as the Fellowship of Southern Churchmen and the Southern Regional Council created for religious southerners more palatable alternatives to communism and Marxism. Queen also discusses the role of the Southern Students Organizing Committee and the activities of the Students for Democratic Society at UNC. Queen offers her thoughts on the growing apathy of students on university campuses, the Michael Paul controversy at UNC and its ramifications for academic freedom during the 1960s, and her hope for the future of national politics following the election of Jimmy Carter and Congressman Andrew Young in 1976.