Tom Dent interviews Senator Herbert U. Fielding in Charleston, South Carolina. He talks about time he spent in at Camp Plauche outside of New Orleans while in the military, and his memories of Dillard (or possibly Xavier) University. He was made company clerk. Dent had also been company clerk. He marched from Camp Plauche to Slidell, Louisiana after getting out of the hospital with pneumonia. He recalls an insurrection he was involved in in Biloxi, Mississippi over segregated seating at a theater. He discusses his education at Avery AMA School and Lincoln Academy in Kings Mountain, North Carolina. He then attended West Virginia State College. They talk about Thurgood Marshall. Fielding discusses the caste system in Charleston, comparing it to New Orleans. This system was largely broken down in Charleston during the demonstrations of the 1960s. He talks about the work of I. DeQuincey Newman and tells an anecdote about being sent to Columbia to raise money for bail for Newman and receiving help from a Mr. Johnson and his network. They discuss NAACP student leadership and Harvey Gantt. Fielding says he is one of the oldest ones left from that era. He talks about being shaped by the influence of Esau Jenkins. They started the Citizens Committee of Charleston County. He talks about the work he did on the Voter Education Project, led by John Lewis and Jim Felder. The limitations of that organization, which was unable to endorse candidates, led to the Fielding's founding of the Political Action Committee of Charleston County. He talks about Highlander Folk School, where Jenkins had first taken him. He sent his son there the next year, who became active in the 1963 demonstrations in Charleston, lying about his age. He gives his impressions of Septima Clark and they talk about Old Bethel United Methodist Church. Fielding talks about where the black community used to live in Charleston. Housing was integrated.
