Tom Dent interviews Robert Ford in Charleston, South Carolina. He talks about coming to Charleston in 1969 for the Hospital Workers Strike with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with James Orange. He stayed in the city to try to do organizing on his own. He talks about the founding of the Black Community Developers Program and how the program works. He was hired as a black community developer by Seminary United Methodist Church in Charleston. He talks about the lack of civil rights development in Charleston. He stayed because he thought he was needed and considers himself "still on the case." He was elected to City Council at age 21, opposing the annex of a white area into the district. Ford advocated for twelve single-member districts. He represents district 7, which is half black and half white. He explains how he became involved with SCLC while he was in New Orleans, through his involvement with SNCC in Grambling, Louisiana and Selma, Alabama. He participated in the Cicero Movement in Chicago and voter registration throughout the country. He helped organize the Midwestern caravan during the Poor People's Campaign in Detroit and was in Memphis during the Sanitation Workers Strike and King's assassination. He returned to Mississippi with Orange to organize, and then met him in Charleston to work on the Hospital Workers' Strike. He talks about the work he did with high school students during the strike. Ford had considered himself a moderate until he moved to Charleston, where he was considered a black militant. He discusses the divisions within the Charleston black community bases on skin color. Ford never noticed a division between the people from Johns Island and the rest of the Charleston black community. He talks about the development on Kiawah Island and the fact that the black community received no benefit from it. The black businesses did not have the vision to step up and demand to be included. He discusses the results of the Hospital Workers' Strike and suggests that Dent speak to Naomi White. Dent asks about the contributions of the people from the islands. Ford says he does not see a contribution. He was not impressed by Esau Jenkins or Septima Clark, who did not support his run for City Council. He also gives his impression of Bill Saunders, who he conflicted with. Dent asks him to compare Charleston and New Orleans, which he finds difficult. He says the basic problem in Charleston is the lackadaisical attitude. He does not think the Orangeburg Massacre accomplished anything. He says that there are not very many progressive black in South Carolina, and most of them are in Charleston.
