- Collection:
- Georgia Political Papers and Oral History Program
- Title:
- Oral history interview with Cecil Alexander, 2009 July 8
- Creator:
- Alexander, Cecil
- Contributor to Resource:
- Steely, Mel
University of West Georgia. Georgia Political Papers and Oral History Program - Publisher:
- Carrollton, Ga. : University of West Georgia Special Collections in association with the Digital Library of Georgia
- Date of Original:
- 2009-07-08
- Subject:
- Georgia--Politics and government--1865-1950
Georgia--Politics and government--1951-
Governors--Georgia
Legislators--Georgia
Affirmative action programs
America Civil War
American Jewish Committee
Atlanta Black Jewish Coalition
Atlanta Constitution
Atlanta History Center
Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium (Atlanta, Ga.)
Bauhaus architecture
Bombing of the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation Temple (1958)
Bozar architecture
Capital City Club
Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP)
Civil rights
Clark Atlanta University
Commerce Club Atlanta
Confederate States Army
Episcopal Church
Flag of Georgia
Games of the XXVI Olympiad
Georgia Power
Gone with the Wind
Jaluit Atoll
Kiwanis International
Ku Klux Klan
Lies (And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them): A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right
Martial Islands
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Midway Atoll
N3N-3 "Yellow Peril"
Forrest, Nathan Bedford
North American B-25 Mitchell
Pan American World Airways
Pearl Harbor
Pennsylvania Central Airlines
Rotary International
Spanish-American War
United Services Automobile Association (USAA)
USS Gambier Bay (CVE 73)
Whitney M. Young Jr. Award
World War I (WWI)
World War II (WWII)
Wright brothers
Yale University
American Institute of Architects, Atlanta Chapter
American Legion, the
Bass Junior High School, Atlanta, GA
Boy's High School, Atlanta, GA
Carnegie Institute of Technology
Georgia Institute of Technology
Depressions--1929
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
LaGuardia Airport, New York
Little White House, Warm Springs, GA
Lovett School, the
Marist School, GA
Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point
Montgomery Fairgrounds, AL
Pierson College, Yale University
Smith College
Temple, the, Atlanta, GA
Tuskegee Airmen
Wesleyan College - People:
- Allen, Ivan, 1911-2003
Aaron, Hank, 1934-2021
King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968
Young, Andrew, 1932-
Alexander, Cecil
Alexander, Doug (son)
Alexander, Hermione (wife)
Barnes, Roy Eugene
Beck, Joseph (Joe)
Bloomingdale, Louise
Breuer, Marcel Lajos
Bundy, McGeorge (Mac)
Callaway, Howard Hollis (Bo)
Coleman, Norman Bertram, Jr. (Norm)
Connolly, Christopher Powell
Cook, Homer E.
Coulter, Ann Hart
Cullman, Edgar, Sr.
Dorsey, Hugh
Farrakhan, Louis
Finch, Alexander, Barnes, Rothschild, and Pascal, FABRAP
Finch, James H. (Bill)
Ford, Gerald R., 1913-2006
Ford, Henry
Frank, Leo Max
Franken, Alan Stuart (Al)
Glidden, Elmer
Groover, Denmark, 1922-2001
Gropius, Walter Adolph Georg
Hartsfield, William Berry
Jackson, Maynard, 1938-2003
Johnson, Conrad A., Jr.
King, Coretta Scott, 1927-2006
Lane, Mills Bee, III
Lewis, John Robert
Maddox, Lester, 1915-2003
Marx, David, Rabbi
Massell, Ben
Massell, Sam
McDougall, Duncan C.
Miller, Zell Bryan
Mitchell, Margaret
Murphy, Thomas Bailey (Tom)
Neely, Frank H.
Nimitz, Chester William
Patterson, Eugene C.
Perdue, George Ervin, III (Sonny)
Rothschild, Rocky
Sherman, William
Sullenberger, Chelsey Burnett, III (Sully)
Toombs, Henry J.
Williams, Hosea Lorenzo
Williams, Samuel W.
Woodruff, Robert Winship - Location:
- Japan, 35.68536, 139.75309
United States, Alabama, Montgomery County, Montgomery, 32.36681, -86.29997
United States, California, San Diego County, San Diego, 32.71571, -117.16472
United States, Florida, Duval County, Jacksonville, 30.33218, -81.65565
United States, Florida, Escambia County, Pensacola, 30.42131, -87.21691
United States, Georgia, 32.75042, -83.50018
United States, Georgia, DeKalb County, Little Five Points, 33.76511, -84.34909
United States, Georgia, Fulton County, Atlanta, 33.749, -84.38798
United States, Georgia, Fulton County, Virginia Highlands, 33.78233, 33.78233
United States, Hawaii, 20.78785, -156.38612
United States, Massachusetts, Hampshire County, Northampton, 42.32509, -72.6412
United States, New York, 43.00035, -75.4999
United States, New York, Garden City, Roosevelt Field
United States, South Carolina, Charleston County, Charleston, 32.77657, -79.93092 - Medium:
- oral histories (literary works)
moving images - Type:
- Moving Image
- Format:
- video/mp4
- Description:
- Cecil Abraham Alexander Jr. (b. 1918) is a prominent architect and former partner of the Atlanta architectural firm, FABRAP. As Alexander's practice prospered during the 1950s, he was motivated to become active in Atlanta's civic and political scene. Atlanta Mayor William B. Hartsfield appointed him chair of the Citizen's Advisory Committee for Urban Renewal, and Mayor Ivan Allen Jr. chose Alexander to lead a number of programs intended to guide Atlanta toward racial equality. Alexander helped to direct the Committee to Mediate Racial Unrest and, with John Lewis, formed the Atlanta Black Jewish Coalition. In 2001, the Georgia General Assembly approved a new state flag that Alexander designed to replace Georgia's 1956 state flag.; Interviewed by Dr. Mel Steely on July 8, 2009 at Alexander's home in Atlanta, Georgia.; Alexander begins by discussing his background, recounting bits and pieces of his family history from family members who had fought in the Revolutionary War, to his father, who had fought in the Civil War under William Sherman. His father, Cecil A. Alexander, Sr., was in the hardware business by the Great Depression and his mother, Julia, was a principal of a school in Montgomery, AL. He describes his youth as growing up with Atlanta and talks about his education. He attended Georgia Institute of Technology initially intending to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering; he soon turned to architecture, realizing that he had no talent for chemistry. Alexander talks about his time at Yale University where he majored in architecture and the classmates he had there. With WWII building momentum, Alexander took part in the Civilian Pilot Training Program, and joined the Navy in 1941 and eventually becoming a Marine Corps pilot. He served in the Central Pacific during WWII, flying sixty combat missions. After the war, Alexander stayed active as a Reserve Marine for a brief period and went to pursue his MA at Harvard. He describes his eventual relocation to Atlanta, his early employment in architecture, and speaks of his appointment as chair to the Citizen's Advisory Committee for Urban Renewal by Mayor William B. Hartsfield, describing his success as "doing well by doing good." Alexander describes his political leanings and the period in which he had considered running for mayor of Atlanta, discussing Ivan Allen, Jr. and Sam Massell. Alexander speaks at length about his involvement with civil rights activism in Atlanta in the 1950s and 1960s, and the people with whom he worked, including Martin Luther King, Jr. and Hosea L. Williams. He then addresses the matter of the Georgia state flag and the controversy that existed around it for a number of years and involved Governors Barnes and Perdue. Alexander speaks of his acquaintance with Denmark Groover, and how a wreck with a drunk driver in 1983 that killed his late wife Hermione, eventually brought the two men together. He ends the discussion by commenting on the Leo Frank case and his experiences growing up as a Jew in Atlanta.
- External Identifiers:
- Metadata URL:
- https://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/id:uwg_phc_alexander20090708
- Digital Object URL:
- https://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/uwg/phc/do:alexander20090708
- Language:
- eng
- Bibliographic Citation (Cite As):
- Cite as: [interview title], Georgia Political Papers and Oral History Program oral history interviews. Annie Belle Weaver Special Collections, Irvine Sullivan Ingram Library, University of West Georgia
- Extent:
- 1 interview (circa 175 mins.)
- Original Collection:
- Georgia Political Papers and Oral History Program oral history interviews. Annie Belle Weaver Special Collections, Irvine Sullivan Ingram Library, State University of West Georgia
- Holding Institution:
- University of West Georgia. Special Collections
- Rights:
-
