Oral history interview with Peter Nemenyi, 2000

Biographical Note

Peter Nemenyi (1927-2002) was an American statistician, mathematician, and civil rights activist. Born in Berlin to Hungarian refugees, Nemenyi spent his adolescence in Germany, Denmark, and Britain, traveling as a student with Internationaler Sozialistischer Kampfbund (International Socialist Militant League), a socialist organization founded by Leonard Nelson in resistance to the Social Democratic Party. In the summer of 1945, Nemenyi arrived in the United States. He attended Washington College before being drafted to serve with the 88th Infantry Division in Tar-Gento, Italy. After his fifteen months of service, Nemenyi attended Black Mountain College in North Carolina for the remainder of his undergraduate career. He went on to receive his PhD in Mathematical Statistics from Princeton University in 1963. In the early 1960s, Nemenyi became involved in Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) demonstrations in New York City. In the summer of 1962, Nemenyi traveled to the new offices of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Atlanta, Georgia, and Jackson, Mississippi, where he helped set the groundwork for future SNCC programs. Nemenyi participated in many civil rights campaigns, including the Selma to Montgomery March and organizing demonstrations in Jackson, Mississippi. During his career as a professor, he taught at University of Wisconsin-Madison, Oberlin College, Tougaloo College, and others. Nemenyi also travelled across Latin America, lived in Nicaragua for three and a half years, and worked with Witness for Peace, an organization against the Contra War. He died in May of 2002

Scope and Contents

Nemenyi describes the circumstances of his birth and early childhood in Berlin, Germany and recalls the teachings, objectives, and atmosphere of the International Socialist Militant League's traveling school. He describes being driven out of Germany to Denmark and Switzerland in the early 1930s, and his eventual immigration to the United States in 1945. Nemenyi describes his enrollment at Black Mountain College in North Carolina in 1947, after his one semester at Washington College, and his service with the 88th Infantry Division, describing the college as a safe haven for German intellectuals. Nemenyi discusses his involvement in New York City politics in the early 1960s, through organizations like the Village Democrats, NAACP, and CORE. He recalls his experiences with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the summer of 1962, and the life and death of co-worker Medgar Evers. He describes the Freedom Information Center, founded by Jesse Morris, and his efforts in Laurel, Mississippi from the fall of 1963 to April of 1964. Nemenyi recalls the events leading up to the passage of the Civil Rights Act, including a police standoff at the Brown Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Selma, Alabama. Nemenyi describes his experience living in Nicaragua for three years, and discusses the Nicaraguan Revolution of 1979, the Sandinista National Liberation Front, and the Contra War, which he worked against with Witness for Peace. Nemenyi concludes the interview with reflections on poll watching in Mississippi, Bloody Sunday, the March to Montgomery, and the character of the Alabama police

Subjects

• Civil rights movements--United States--History--20th century.
• Civil rights workers--Alabama--History--20th century.
• Civil rights workers--Mississippi--History--20th century.
• Congress of Racial Equality.
• Evers, Medgar Wiley, 1925-1963.
• Internationaler Sozialistischer Kampfbund.
• Interviews.
• Michaels, Sheila, 1939-2017, interviewer.
• Nemenyi, Peter--Interviews.
• Nicaragua--History--Revolution, 1979.
• Oral histories.
• Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (U.S.)
• United States--Race relations--History--20th century.
• Witness for Peace (Organization)