Edgar Cahn Oral History Interview
- Created by
- National Museum of African American History and Culture, American, founded 2003
- Interview of
- Cahn, Edgar, American, born 1934
- Interviewed by
- Navies, Kelly Elaine, American
- Recorded by
- Moir, Kim, American
- Subject of
- Poor People's Campaign, American, 1967 - 1968
- Camper Cahn, Jean, American, 1935 - 1991
- Swarthmore Collge, American, founded 1864
- Senator Kennedy, Robert F., American, 1925 - 1968
- Shriver, Sargent, American, 1915 - 2011
- Date
- August 24, 2017
- Medium
- digital
- Dimensions
- Duration: 01:50:15
- 22.75 GB
- Description
- An oral history consisting of a single digital video recording (2018.78.3.1). It was collected as part of the Poor People’s Campaign Interviews.
- In this interview, Edgar Cahn, a lifelong social justice advocate, discusses his upbringing in New York City and education at Swarthmore College; his work providing legal services to the poor throughout the 1960s; the research and writing of report, Hunger USA; his involvement with the Poor People’s Campaign; and his continued social justice work since then.
- Cahn begins the interview by discussing his early life and the development of his relationship with his late wife, Jean Camper Cahn, whom he met at Swarthmore. Cahn then talks about attending Yale Law School and recalls how he and his wife began their careers providing legal services to the poor in New Haven, CT. Cahn then turns to a discussion of his legal work combatting poverty throughout the 1960s through both the government and government watchdog organizations. Cahn discusses his work around the publication of Hunger U.S.A, and he recalls his experience at Resurrection City in 1968. Cahn then connects the Poor People’s Campaign to what he sees as a broader shift toward the empowerment and participatory engagement of disenfranchised and marginalized people in the US. Cahn concludes the interview by discussing the role of women, such as Jean Camper Cahn, in his life and work, and by discussing a system for community engagement called TimeBanking that he developed in 1980.
- Place collected
- Washington, District of Columbia, United States, North and Central America
- Place depicted
- New Haven, New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, North and Central America
- Washington, District of Columbia, United States, North and Central America
- Collection title
- Poor People’s Campaign Oral Histories
- Classification
- Time-based Media - Moving Images
- Movement
- Civil Rights Movement
- African American - Latinx Solidarity
- Poor People's Campaign
- Type
- video recordings
- oral histories
- digital media - born digital
- Topic
- Activism
- Civil rights
- Humanitarianism
- Justice
- Labor
- Politics
- Poverty
- Race relations
- Segregation
- U.S. History, 1961-1969
- Credit Line
- Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
- Object number
- 2018.78.3.1
- Restrictions & Rights
- © Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
- Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.