Search Interviews

David Dodson tells the story of the time he spent with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., as one of about twenty college students who got to listen to, and ask questions of, Dr. King on August 23, 1963. David remembers...

Nicholas Piediscalzi, a retired United Church of Christ minister, talks to us about his personal experience and relationship to peace, as well as his work in peace-making in larger settings. As a minister in Chicago in the 1940s and 1950’s...

Two sisters, Josette and Lilly Thomas, talk about how they first started attending First Congregational Church in Santa Cruz, California at the ages of five and eight. They share their thoughts and feelings about the church changing its name to...

Della Kostelnik Juarez (61) tells her daughter Julia Juarez-Kostelnik (22) about her experiences participating in a voluntary bussing/racial transfer program as an elementary school student in Seattle. Della describes how being the only white kid in a predominantly Black school...

Nick Piediscalzi, a retired minister, talks about what brought him to Peace United Church of Christ in Santa Cruz California. He admires the active, lively congregation here where people are not afraid to be vulnerable in church. Nick explains: “In...

Melissa and her son Nash (age 8) talk about what peace and peace-making mean to them. Melissa reminds us of the Dalai Lama quote "If you wish to have peace in the world, start with yourself." And Nash says "if...

Friends Gail Mondoux (77) and Tracy Shaughnessy (62) talk about Tracy's experience being bused to a predominantly Black school in Tacoma.

One Small Step partners James Waugh (63) and Pamela Rosa Scott Vickers (74) reflect on their experiences growing up in Oklahoma.

Mother and daughter talk about her experience with the desegregation of school going on in the 70’s

My Grandad Bob has many interesting stories. During the interview, I’ve learned that my grandad wasn’t allowed to serve in the military because of his eyes, suffered in school because of his eyes and living during the great depression and...

Friends John Rossi (65) and Patrick Nolan (58) remember their experiences growing up amidst school desegregation efforts in Seattle, Washington.

Jeannette Holland (68) speaks with her son Erik Townsend (31) about her experience transferring high schools her Junior year at the onset of integration in Nashville, Tennessee. Jeannette recalls the safety and support she felt at her all-Black high school...

"Peace" is an action verb, not just a noun. Personal transformation and relationship building are paths to peace.

Stoney Brook talks about how being a pilgrim on the Camino de Santiago in 2014 touched and changed him in unexpected ways. Among other things the pilgrimage was the gateway to his setting up the first Veteran's Treatment Court in...

Sherri Taylor (67) interviews her father, Vernon Frank Reeves (96), about what it was like being an educator in Okeechobee County, Florida during integration. They also talk about Vernon's childhood in Okeechobee and remember some characters from his hometown.

Speed Leas talks about his distinguished career as a United Church of Christ minister. Throughout his career he made significant contributions to civil rights and peace making in the communities in which he served, as well as within the many...

Curtis Reliford talks about overcoming racism and serious adversity to find and fulfill his life's purpose which is helping those who are experiencing hard times: hurricane Katrina victims and the Navajo and Hopi people. Curtis describes how he follows his...

Annette Arnold speaks about her experiences in Dougherty County schools, including attending formerly all black schools after student freedom of choice was replaced by attendance zones. She also discusses her exciting, but difficult and protracted career path for a wife...

James Weller talks about what making peace means to him.

Grant Erickson, who had his 95th birthday ten days before telling this story, talks with Beverly Brook and Christy Hightower about the highlights of his life. He was one of eleven children, and grew up on a series of farms...

Spouses Gregory Johnson (73) and Marcia Johnson (73) discuss the history of busing and desegregation in Seattle. Gregory shares his experience in the voluntary busing program.

Pamela Vickers (66) interviews her uncle, Fred Douglas Davis (79), about his history of social justice work for African Americans in Tulsa, and how he feels about the amount of progress the African American community has made in recent years.

In February of 1965 David Dodson, then an Assistant Chaplain at Colgate University, drove from New York to Atlanta, Georgia along with James Martin and another black Colgate student to attend a meeting of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)...

Grant Erickson talks with Lisa Johnson a month before his 95th birthday. He started attending First Congregational Church in 1976, and thinks that the name change to Peace United Church in 2013 was a good expression of the Church’s values....

We talked about things that happened after the Civil Rights Movement in Nashville, Tennessee.