Oral history interview with Karin Berg, 1999

Biographical Note

Karin Berg was born in 1936 in St. Louis, Missouri. She moved to New York City as a young adult and became active in the Riverside Democratic Club and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). She helped form another CORE chapter in downtown Manhattan called the River Rats. Berg was an avid baseball fan and music enthusiast. She wrote reviews of the New York jazz scene before being hired by Columbia Records. Berg transitioned to working in artists and repertoire (A&R) for Elektra Records, Warner Bros. Records, and Nonesuch Records. She worked closely with many acts, including: Television and its leader Tom Verlaine, the B-52s, Dire Straits, the Roches, Tin Huey, Marshall Crenshaw, Laurie Anderson, the Cars, Hüsker Dü, and REM. Berg passed away in 2006

Scope and Contents

Berg shares anecdotes from her childhood, including her experience seeing Jackie Robinson play with the Brooklyn Dodgers; her education in a segregated high school; and evenings in Black jazz clubs. She discusses her move to New York City and the influence of James Baldwin. Berg joined the Riverside Democrats, where she worked with politician William Fitts Ryan and connected the Riverside Democrats to the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). She recalls CORE demonstrations, press coverage, her encounters with Malcolm X, Roy Innis, and how CORE broke apart. Additionally, she shares why she and others split from Harlem CORE to join East River CORE (the River Rats). Other topics of discussion include: police brutality; her activism with Students for a Democratic Society; the River Rats' Triborough Bridge demonstration; her friendship with Mickey (Michael) Schwerner and his wife Rita; Columbia University's 1965 "Gym Crow" controversy; government infiltration of the civil rights movement; the second wave feminist movement; anti-war demonstrations; and the subordination of women in the civil rights movement. Additionally, Berg discusses her career, her experience in the music industry, and the sexism she encountered. She details her position in A&R and characterizes her relationship with musicians. Berg also discusses her diagnosis with dermatomyositis, life living with the disease, and her joy in helping others

Subjects

• Berg, Karin--Interviews.
• Civil rights demonstrations--United States.
• Civil rights movements--United States--History--20th century.
• Congress of Racial Equality.
• Congress of Racial Equality. New York (Harlem) Chapter.
• Interviews.
• Michaels, Sheila, 1939-2017, interviewer.
• New York (N.Y.)--Politics and government--1951-
• Oral histories.
• Second-wave feminism.
• United States--Race relations--History--20th century.
• Women in the music trade.