doi:10.7916/d8-2a95-tf72Oral history interview with Patricia Smith, 1999Smith, Patricia (Nelson)oral historiesmixed materialCivil rights movements--History--20th century.--United StatesCivil rights demonstrations--LouisianaSegregation in transportation--History.--Southern StatesImprisonment--United StatesUnited States Race relations 20th centurySmith, Patricia (Nelson)Congress of Racial EqualityCongress of Racial Equality. New York (Harlem) ChapterIn this interview with Sheila Michaels, Patricia Smith discusses her family background and her involvement in the civil rights movement, especially with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Smith reminisces about the women who influenced her growing up, including her career-woman mother, her grandmother, and her older sister Carlene, who was her primary caregiver. Smith describes how her sister instilled in her a sense of mission, and helped her recognize the inequality in their hometown of New Orleans. She recounts an early childhood encounter with a white grocer. Smith reflects on the support she received from her high school, enabling her to miss classes and participate in protest activity while she was still a student. Smith discusses her attendance at the Louisiana Military Political Camp during her sophomore year. The camp, focused on government and organizing, admitted Black and white students but housed and trained them separately. Smith recalls her picket activity at Woolworth's and McCrory's, and details her rank and file role in this action. She discusses New Orleans' role as a stopping point for CORE activists and her role in coordinating housing for movement volunteers. Smith also discusses an incident in 1961 where she, Frank Nelson, and Alice Thompson were arrested, tried, and nearly lynched in Poplarville, Mississippi. They were there testing the Southern states' compliance with a ruling from the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) that banned discrimination on buses. Smith also discusses her father's arrest and ninety-day prison sentence because of her and her sister's protest activity. Smith also speaks about her former husband Frank Nelson: the details of their wedding and his hunger strike after his arrest for testing Howard Johnson's and Holiday Inn's along the interstate highway