Oral history interview with Gordon Carey, 1999

Biographical Note

Gordon R. Carey was born in Michigan in 1932. His father, a pacifist Methodist minister, was the founder of a Michigan chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Carey spent a year in the mid-1950s in Mexico at an American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Work Camp, and the following year in Federal prison on a draft dodging charge. Carey became involved in CORE when he succeeded his father as Chair of the Pasadena CORE chapter. The impetus for his CORE involvement was his desire to use nonviolent techniques in a social setting. Carey served as a Field Secretary and later Field Director for CORE with the national office. After leaving CORE, Carey worked for the Institution of Educational Research (IER), an organization that later became the training arm of a for profit company Corn Products Company International (CPC), as a Research Coordinator. While still employed with CPC, Carey was assigned to work with Floyd McKissick on his Soul City project, one of thirteen Model City projects funded under the Urban Growth and New Community Development Act in the 1970s. Outside of his CORE work, Carey has consulted nationally and internationally; at the time of the interview, he ran Cost Management Associates, a North Carolina based consulting firm

Scope and Contents

In this interview with Sheila B. Michaels, Gordon Carey describes his upbringing in a pacifist family and his experience with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). He covers his introduction to, and work with CORE between 1957 and 1964 as a chapter chair, Field Secretary, and later Field Director. He discusses time spent working in Mexico with the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Work Camp and time served in Federal prison. Carey recalls how pacifism led him to CORE because of his interest in using nonviolent direct action in a social setting. He describes the changes in CORE's membership and its shift from chapter development to tactical training in nonviolent direct action techniques. Carey also discusses CORE's fundraising strategy, and financial support of local CORE chapters. He recounts the challenges of administering and monitoring field staff activity, planning for national conferences; and his duties as Field Director. Carey explains the grassroots nature of CORE, how its work centered around the community's needs and wants; as well as CORE's collaboration with other Movement organizations, including the NAACP and SNCC. He discusses the differential support given to CORE and other movement organizations from liberals and conservatives. Carey also discusses major movement events and campaigns organized by CORE, which included teaching nonviolent direct action techniques that improved the effectiveness of the student-led 1960 sit-ins; 1961 Freedom Rides that went into the Deep South; the 1962 Freedom Highways project; and the 1963 voter registration campaigns across the south. Carey discusses the influence of Gandhi on the conceptualization of CORE's Freedom Ride in 1961; his work with Floyd McKissick, James Farmer, and Marvin Rich; as well as his belief that Martin Luther King's preaching and speaking did more to ensure non-violence than any other single factor during the years of the Civil Rights Movement

Subjects

• American Friends Service Committee.
• Carey, Gordon--Interviews.
• Civil rights--Religious aspects--Christianity--History--20th century.
• Civil rights demonstrations--United States.
• Civil rights movements--United States--History--20th century.
• Congress of Racial Equality.
• Interviews.
• King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968.
• Michaels, Sheila, 1939-2017, interviewer.
• Oral histories (literary works)
• Pacifism.
• United States--Race relations--History--20th century.