Oral history interview with Calvin Kytle, January 19, 1991 interview A-0365, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

Summary: Calvin and Elizabeth Kytle were both born and raised in the South. Calvin spent his childhood in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia, and Elizabeth grew up in Charleston, South Carolina. After graduating from Emory University and Valdosta State University, respectively, Calvin and Elizabeth met while working for the National Youth Administration. The two were married shortly thereafter, just before Calvin entered the military and served in World War II. While he was abroad, Elizabeth continued to work for the National Youth Administration, followed by brief stints with the Citizens Fact Finding Movement and then at the Bell Bomber Plant in public relations. In 1945, the two were reunited in Atlanta, where they remained. Calvin taught at Emory University until 1949, when they moved to Ohio. Politically liberal, the Kytles were deeply interested in issues of civil rights during the immediate post-World War II years. Here, they describe in detail their perception of various leaders and politicians, ranging from pro-segregationists to racial moderates to civil rights activists, including Ellis Arnall, Eugene Talmadge, Melvin Thompson, Ralph McGill, Virginius Dabney, and Lillian Smith.

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