Showing 161 - 170 of 388 Items

Date: 2014-08-21

Creator: Andrew Mead

Access: Open access

Date: 2009-09-29

Creator: Paul Sarbanes

Access: Open access

Biographial Note

Paul Sarbanes was born on February 3, 1933 in Salisbury, Maryland. He attended Princeton University and continued his studies at Balliol College of the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, then attended Harvard Law School. He served as a Democrat from Maryland in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1971 to 1977 and in the U.S. Senate from 1977 to 2007. He was the first Greek American senator and notably co-sponsored the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002, which strengthened corporate governance and created a federal oversight board for the accounting industry.

Summary

Interview includes discussion of: George Mitchell’s personality; winning back the Senate majority in 1986; the Senate Majority Leader race of 1989; George Mitchell’s departure from the Senate; partisanship; and an anecdote about George Mitchell and Senator John Warner during an “old-style” filibuster.

Date: 2010-04-27

Creator: James 'Jim' R Sasser

Access: Open access

Biographial Note

James R. “Jim” Sasser was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on September 30, 1936. A graduate of Vanderbilt University, he was awarded a law degree in 1961, admitted to the Tennessee bar, and became active in the Democratic Party; he managed Albert Gore Sr.’s unsuccessful 1970 campaign. In 1976 he sought election and won a seat in the U.S. Senate; he was reelected to two further terms, serving until 1995. He first met George Mitchell in 1972 when they were both working on Ed Muskie’s presidential primary campaign. He worked with Senator Mitchell on the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) and the Senate Budget Committee, which Sasser chaired. In 1995, President Clinton appointed him ambassador to China, where he served until 1999.

Summary

The interview includes discussion of: Budget Committee work; 1990 budget summit; DSCC 1986 (Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee); Democratic National Committee; and the 1972 Muskie presidential primary campaign.

Between 2008 and 2011, the Bowdoin College Library conducted an oral history project to create a collection of spoken recollections and personal impressions from individuals who have known George J. Mitchell in a variety of ways. These oral histories document his life and career from early childhood onward, with particular emphasis on his public service to Maine and to the nation, and they complement his personal papers, which are also held by Bowdoin College. Interviewees include Senator Mitchell's Waterville (Maine) friends and acquaintances; family members; college classmates; Maine legislators; political associates and competitors; campaign supporters; U.S. Senate colleagues and staff members; public agency officials; foreign policy specialists; law practice associates; public policy advocates; board members of various affiliations; and friends. Because oral history recordings are intrinsically informal, spontaneous, and candid, they characterize events and personalities in ways that are otherwise silent in the historical record. In particular, they capture personal knowledge and institutional memory about people, occasions, and processes that are rarely documented elsewhere. Thus, these oral histories provide an invaluable resource in understanding both the recent past and how individuals have played essential roles in shaping the present. TRANSCRIPT GUIDELINES Every attempt has been made to create transcripts that reflect the recorded interviews accurately. Interviewees were given the opportunity to edit their transcripts to correct errors of transcription and fact (often, for example, a recollection might have included a misremembered date or place), or to enhance clarity of expression. Additions and minor deletions or changes are indicated in the transcript by closed brackets ([ ]); more substantive omissions are noted as: [p/o] (i.e. “[phrase omitted]”). ATTRIBUTION These recordings and transcripts are provided for educational use, private study, and research. Brief quotations for academic purposes and other uses that fall within “fair use” (Title 17, United States Code) require proper attribution customary to the discipline or community. All other uses not protected by “fair use,” including derivation, publication, and reproduction, require written permission from Bowdoin College. In citing these interviews, specify the interviewee, interviewer, and interview date following the style found in the example below: George J. Mitchell, interview by Andrea L’Hommedieu, 10 May 2011, George J. Mitchell Oral History Project, Bowdoin College Library, Brunswick, Maine.

Date: 2019-11-09

Creator: David Dickson

Access: Open access

David Dickson '76 shares some remarks on his father, David W. D. Dickson, who graduated from Bowdoin in 1941, and his uncle who graduated in 1935. He talks about how the Bowdoin of their era had segregated fraternities that did not allow black students or Jewish students, and details his father’s experience with the emotional tax that such a reality posed. Dickson also talks about the importance of having the safe space of the African-American society that behaved as an “island on a lily-white campus.” He also talks about the former student organization, All Races United (ARU) and how students of marginalized backgrounds as well as “independent mainstream” students could come together in activism. Finally, Dickson shares how his experiences at Bowdoin affected the development of his racial identity.

Date: 2019-11-10

Creator: Sandra Martinez

Access: Open access

Sandra Martinez ('13) recounts life at Bowdoin as a Latina woman. She describes Bowdoin as a space where she came more into her cultural identity, while also being where she felt the limitations and challenges of being a minority on campus. Additionally, Martinez discusses the simultaneous division and alliance between the African American Society and the Latin American Student Organization, and the various means students went to in bridging or instating this distance. As a math major, Martinez confronted the realities of a faculty lacking in diversity, and explored how this impacted her academic career and confidence in the classroom. Finally she speaks to the way that she learned to command her opinions, against at times people’s wishes, and gives advice to future Bowdoin women of color for how they can make space for themselves.

Date: 2019-11-09

Creator: Carroy Ferguson

Access: Open access

Carroy Cuf Ferguson ‘68 talks about being offered a free ride to Bowdoin and deciding between Bowdoin and Morehouse College. He shares stories about growing up in the segregated South and having near zero contact with whites, having to be bussed across town to attend high school despite living a block away from an all-white high school. He talks about being the first student of color to be admitted into the fraternity Sigma Nu, which had a discriminatory clause in it forbidding students of color from joining, and what it was like to fight that clause with his fraternity brothers. Ferguson shares stories about how it felt to have the “weight of [his] race on his shoulders), navigating Bowdoin in the mid- to late- sixties, and the pressures that came with that.

Date: 2019-11-09

Creator: Osakhare Fasehun

Access: Open access

Osakhare Fasehun '18 recounts his first introduction to Bowdoin through the ‘Bowdoin Experience’ weekend, and the ways that this both excited him, but ultimately led to disappointment in realizing the lacking diversity on campus. Fasehun goes on to share how his passion for academics landed him at Bowdoin, and how ultimately he was able to fully nurture his intellectual engagement during his four years. Beyond academics, he shares how the Gangster Party influenced his time at Bowdoin, and how this act of virtual blackface pushed him to interact more heavily with AfAm. He described the difficulties he found in navigating campus as one of very few men of color in his class. Finally, Fasehun shares the biggest lessons he learned from Bowdoin, largely being the necessity to advocate for oneself amidst a system that may not always advocate for you.

Date: 2019-11-10

Creator: Terranicia Holmes

Access: Open access

Terranicia Holmes ‘13 talks about moving to New England from Atlanta, Georgia, and navigating the subtle cultural shock of living among tremendous wealth at Bowdoin, and recognizing the covert way that racism behaves in the Northeast in comparison to the South. She shares stories about encouraging and participating in conversations about race on campus, and how time change her perspective on how difficult and meaningful her experiences were. She details some of her most important relationships, like with Professor Tess Chakkalakal, and the importance of leaning into those who championed her and who thought highly of her. She also talks about Shelley Roseboro, who introduced her to loving kindness and helped her to process and grow emotionally during her time at Bowdoin. Finally, Homes reflects on how Bowdoin shaped her into who she is today, helped her develop direction, and how even now when she arrives in Maine, she feels like she is home.

Date: 2016-01-01

Creator: Hugh Cipparone

Access: Open access