Oral history interview with Mimi Feingold Real, 2002

Biographical Note

Mimi Feingold Real was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1941. Real attended Erasmus High School and led a delegation of her peers to Washington D.C. to celebrate the Brown v. Board of Education ruling. At Swarthmore, Real joined Swarthmore Political Action Club and participated in civil rights demonstrations. Real participated in the 1961 Mississippi Freedom Ride, and was subsequently held in Hinds County Jail Parchman Farm (Mississippi State Penitentiary). Upon graduation, Real worked in Louisiana's 6th Congressional District with CORE's voter registration initiative for several years. Feingold-Real holds a Ph.D in American History and has worked at the Oral History Center of University of California, Berkeley and the Lisa Kampner Hebrew Academy

Scope and Contents

Real begins by describing the politics her parents, who were fired from their positions in New York City schools during the Red Scare. Real recalls attending May Day rallies and supporting 1952 Progressive Party presidential candidate Vincent Hallinan. Real's father founded one of the first schools for developmentally disabled children. Her mother was a librarian at the Brooklyn Public Library. Both of Real's parents were members of the American Labor Party. Real explains her high school activism and her decision to attend Swarthmore College. Real joined the Swarthmore Political Action Club, which she describes in detail. Real recalls news of the first Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) meeting and attending NAACP's pickets against Woolworth's. Real describes SNCC's involvement with civil rights demonstrations in Chester, Pennsylvania and Swarthmore's student body. The next portion of the interview is spent discussing the 1961 Mississippi Freedom Rides. Real describes her travel from New York to Atlanta. She describes nonviolent training at Ebenezer Baptist Church, after which the group continued to Montgomery, Alabama. Real describes a white mob in Alabama. She recalls her time in Hinds County Jail and Parchman Farm (Mississippi State Penitentiary), and she reads the letter a that local journalist wrote her while there. Real remembers the sacrifices made by Black Alabamians and Mississippians and describes the maltreatment of Freedom Riders. She describes working in CORE's Manhattan office following her release. In the summer of her junior year, Real worked with the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) in Memphis, Tennessee. In the summer of 1963, Real traveled to Louisiana's 6th congressional district with CORE to register black voters. Real describes the systems constructed in Louisiana to disenfranchise Black citizens. She recalls marches to downtown Plaquemine, Louisiana and an event known as the Plaquemine Riot of September 1, 1963. Real describes her work in Feliciana Parishes with Mike Lesser, Ed Vickery, Danny Mitchell, and Alice Thompson. Real describes the successful registration of Reverend David Carter and the living conditions in Black communities. Real discusses her experience as a white Jewish volunteer. She describes the impact of the Black Power movement in West Feliciana and urban areas of Louisiana and the development of Black political autonomy. Real describes her work with the Wisconsin Historical Society and her brief involvement in Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in Hoboken, New Jersey. She goes on to recall her move to San Francisco and the women's movement there. Feinberg-Real describes her job as a mail carrier and a position at the Oral History Center at University of California, Berkeley. Real concludes with a description of her religious lifestyle and the work of Rabbi Pinchas Lipner

Subjects

• African Americans--Suffrage--Louisiana.
• Civil rights demonstrations--United States.
• Civil rights movements--United States--History--20th century.
• Civil rights workers--Mississippi--History--20th century.
• Congress of Racial Equality.
• Interviews.
• Michaels, Sheila, 1939-2017, interviewer.
• Mississippi State Penitentiary.
• Oral histories.
• Real, Mimi Feingold--Interviews.
• Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (U.S.)
• Swarthmore College.
• United States--Race relations--History--20th century.