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Moe FonerMoe Foner
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Session:         Page of 592

“How is Moe? Give him my love.” We haven't seen each other, but we're very fond of each other.

Q:

What kind of man was he?

Foner:

Andy Young was one of the most unusual men I ever met. Andy had, first of all, great gifts of intellect and intelligence, and he was so socially committed to the civil rights movement. Stanley Levison brought him to SCLC from the church, and Andy would be able to charm everybody. You know, he would meet with the president of the hospital, William McCord, and come out and say, “You know, you're not really such a bad guy,” because there was a spark between them that was opened up.

At one time he wanted entree to the nurses because we had a settlement that was overturned because the nurses said that the twelve people who had been fired, the leaders were returned, they would not work with them. So it became a question of convincing the nurses. Andy arranged with McCord --

[END TAPE ONE, SIDE ONE; BEGIN TAPE ONE, SIDE TWO]

Q:

On side two of March 9th.

You were in the middle of telling about Andrew Young at the Charleston hospital strike.

Foner:

Right. The word was out that the nurses would not go back, would not work if there was a settlement in which the twelve strikers who initiated the strike were fired, were returned. The question was how to convince them. And Andy arranged, through the president of the hospital, McCord, he asked him if he could speak to the nurses privately, which he did.

The way I know about it is because I had a contact, which I've described, in Charleston with the head of the Charleston Nurses Association, who was supportive and would talk to me at night about what was happening. She called me after that and she said to me, “Moe, how many Andy Youngs do you have around?”

I said, “Why?”

She said, “You know, at the end of the meeting they were singing ‘We Shall Overcome.’”

Q:

These were the white nurses.

Foner:

These are white nurses.





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