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Object Description
Interview no. | U-1058 |
Restrictions |
No restrictions. Open to research. |
Project | U.16. Long Civil Rights Movement: The Women's Movement in the South |
Project description | Interviews, 2013 and onward, conducted as part of the Moxie Project women's leadership program for undergraduate students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill under the direction of Dr. Rachel Seidman. Student interviewers were interns at Triangle area women's organizations, and conducted interviews with women activists and leaders in the region as part of their service. The interviews are part of the Women's Movement in the South series, containing interviews recorded 2010 onward, that focus on women's activism and gender dynamics that were central to the freedom movement and the backlash against it. Topics include reproductive activism, both anti-abortion and pro-choice; the emergence of second-wave feminism in the mountain South and its links to the civil rights movement; the War on Poverty and challenges to job discrimination inspired by Title VII; and the entry of women into the University of North Carolina. |
Date | 18 July 2014 |
Interviewee | Messersmith, Elizabeth Dotson. |
Interviewee occupation | Directors, NGOs and institutes |
Interviewee DOB | 1977 |
Interviewee ethnicity | Whites |
Interviewer | Jones, Elizabeth P. |
Abstract | Beth Messersmith is a Durham, NC resident and a native of Tennessee. She is also the North Carolina Campaign Director of MomsRising, a nationwide nonprofit organization of over 1 million members that seeks to amplify women's voices on state and federal policy issues that affect women their families. Messersmith attended Furman University in South Carolina where she met her husband. After she attended graduate school in Indiana, Messersmith moved to North Carolina with her husband so that he could also complete graduate school. Before helping to set up a MomsRising chapter in North Carolina, Messersmith worked as a community organizer and nonprofit consultant. She also worked with voting rights and campaign financing initiatives with Democracy NC. Messersmith is also the mother of two children, and is well known for using childhood games and toys in her lobbying and political outreach efforts. She recently received a Defenders of Justice award from the North Carolina Justice Center for her work in public policy advocacy, grassroots empowerment, and community engagement. This interview was conducted, to be deposited in the Southern Oral History Program’s archives, as part of the 2014 Moxie Project at UNC-Chapel Hill. |
Citation | Interview with Elizabeth Dotson Messersmith by Elizabeth P. Jones, 18 July 2014 U-1058, in the Southern Oral History Program Collection#4007, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
Description
Interview no. | U1058_Audio |