Edgar Cahn Oral History Interview: Museum Object and Cultural History
Edgar Cahn Oral History Interview: Date: August 24, 2017. Created by: National Museum of African American History and Culture, American, founded 2003. Interview of: Edgar Cahn, American, born 1934.
The object in the museum catalogue
An oral history consisting of a single digital video recording (2018.78.3.1). It was collected as part of the Poor People’s Campaign Interviews.
In this interview, Edgar Cahn, a lifelong social justice advocate, discusses his upbringing in New York City and education at Swarthmore College; his work providing legal services to the poor throughout the 1960s; the research and writing of report, Hunger USA; his involvement with the Poor People’s Campaign; and his continued social justice work since then.
Cahn begins the interview by discussing his early life and the development of his relationship with his late wife, Jean Camper Cahn, whom he met at Swarthmore. Cahn then talks about attending Yale Law School and recalls how he and his wife began their careers providing legal services to the poor in New Haven, CT. Cahn then turns to a discussion of his legal work combatting poverty throughout the 1960s through both the government and government watchdog organizations. Cahn discusses his work around the publication of Hunger U.S.A, and he recalls his experience at Resurrection City in 1968. Cahn then connects the Poor People’s Campaign to what he sees as a broader shift toward the empowerment and participatory engagement of disenfranchised and marginalized people in the US. Cahn concludes the interview by discussing the role of women, such as Jean Camper Cahn, in his life and work, and by discussing a system for community engagement called TimeBanking that he developed in 1980.
Materials, dates and provenance
- Date: August 24, 2017
- Created by: National Museum of African American History and Culture, American, founded 2003
- Interview of: Edgar Cahn, American, born 1934
- Interviewed by: Kelly Elaine Navies, American
- Recorded by: Kim Moir, American
- Subject of: Poor People's Campaign, American, 1967 - 1968
- Subject of: Jean Camper Cahn, American, 1935 - 1991
- Subject of: Swarthmore Collge, American, founded 1864
- Subject of: Senator Robert F. Kennedy, American, 1925 - 1968
- Type: video recordings
- Type: oral histories
- Type: digital media - born digital
- Medium: digital
- Dimensions: Duration: 01:50:15
- Dimensions: 22.75 GB
- Place collected: Washington, District of Columbia, United States, North and Central America
- Place depicted: New Haven, New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, North and Central America
- Place depicted: Washington, District of Columbia, United States, North and Central America
- Topic: African American
- Topic: Activism
- Topic: Civil Rights
- Topic: Humanitarianism
- Topic: Justice
- Topic: Labor
- Topic: Politics
- Topic: Poverty
- Object number: 2018.78.3.1
- Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
- Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture
Sources and reuse
Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: © Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
Sources
More in Music
Keep reading
