Larry Rubin

Segment Synopsis: Rubin introduces himself and Bryan explains what the purpose of the interview will focus on.

Partial Transcript: "So you were born in philadelphia, tell me something about who you were born to and what your early days were like"

Segment Synopsis: Rubin discusses how his Jewish heritage influenced his life and his desire to fight for a better world. He also discusses the difficulty of growing up in a communist family during the McCarthy period and how he made his way to Antioch College in 1959.

Keywords: Antioch College; Communist party; Jewish heritage; McCarthyism; Toni Murdock; Young Americans For Freedom

Subjects: Anti-communist movements--United States--History--20th century

Partial Transcript: "Tell me about some of your first memories of campus"

Segment Synopsis: Rubin discusses classes, how he came to be a history major, and friendships he cultivated during his first year at Antioch. He also discusses anti-communism he experienced during this time period. Rubin then goes into details of his trip to Cuba––following the Cuban communist revolution in 1959––with other Antioch students in an attempt to form a relationship with the newly communist state.

Keywords: Cuba; Dayton Daily News; Fair Play for Cuba Committee; Lew M. Show; Liberal Arts; journalism

Subjects: Anti-communist movements--United States; Communism--Cuba--History; anti-communism

Partial Transcript: "About 60 you say one of the first things it seems you got involved with was the fair play for cuba, can you tell me something about sixty, sixty one. What were town-gown relationships like and what were sort of the dominant issues that were starting to arise in public discourse?"

Segment Synopsis: In this section Rubin discusses Antioch College's relation with Yellow Springs and many of the issues that were being discussed at the time, namely race relations and the Cuban Revolution.

Keywords: Antioch NAACP; Arthur Morgan; Cuba; Town-Gown; William Buckley; Young Americans For Freedom; activism; liberal; sit-ins

Subjects: social

Partial Transcript: "So at some point you started to take a different path. Tell me about your first organizing experience."

Segment Synopsis: Rubin talks about how he became involved with the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and community governance at Antioch. He also discusses his co-op job and how it made him more vocal.

Keywords: Charles 'Chuck' McDew; Comcil; Community governance; Southwest Georgia; Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee; co-op

Subjects: Civil rights movements--United States

Partial Transcript: "In southwest Georgia..southwest Georgia in sixty, sixty one. I was there i guess till mid sixty two or early sixty three. This was a period where the student nonviolent coordinating committee would not let whites organize anywhere else..."

Segment Synopsis: Rubin discusses race relations, identity politics, and organizing efforts with SNCC in Southwest Georgia. He also discusses about different organizing tactics that were developed in Albany, GA. Rubin then talks about voter registration organizing and the dangers associated with voter registration. Rubin also discusses in great detail identity politics, color blindness, and individualism.

Keywords: Albany; Charles Sherrod; Color Blindness; Martin Luther King, Jr.; Southwest Georgia Project for Community Education; boycotts; demonstrations; individual; integration; sit-ins; voter registration

Subjects: Civil rights movements--United States

Partial Transcript: "When I came back [to Antioch] and I cant remember whether it was that first quarter when I spent most of it in in that infirmary, not all of it, or the quarter after. It was probably the quarter after when I was whole again. I became the chairman of ACRE, the Antioch Committee for Racial Equality..."

Segment Synopsis: Rubin gives an in-depth account of what eventually lead up to the riot at Gegner's Barbershop in Yellow Springs. Gegner was a barber who refused to cut the hair of black people. Rubin discusses how the Antioch Committee for Racial Equality organized daily pickets at Gegner's and how they were eventually counter picketed by a white supremacist group called the National Association for the Advancement of White People.

Keywords: A.C.R.E.; Arthur Morgan; Gegner's barbershop; Greene county; National Association for the Advancement of White People; injunction; picketing

Subjects: Civil rights movements--United States

Partial Transcript: "The following year when I went back to Mississippi, actually first from here I was a community organizer at a public housing project in D.C., as a co-op job, and from there I went back working for SNCC..."

Segment Synopsis: Rubin begins by discussing his experience being arrested in Mississippi while organizing with SNCC, once on suspicion of possessing literature advocating the overthrow of the Mississippi government. He then talks about the murders of civil rights workers Chaney, Goodman, and Schwener. Afterwards he discusses how he was accused of being a communist by Mississippi Senator James Eastland and how that affected his relations with others in Mississippi.

Keywords: Civil Rights Movement; Communist; Episcopal Church; Freedom Summer; June 24; Mississippi; Oxford; Senator Eastland

Subjects: Anti-communist movements--United States; Civil rights movements--United States

Partial Transcript: "Before I went back to Mississippi, In the spring of sixty three I guess this was before the incident that I was telling you about at Gegner's, which was September. We heard that there was going to be a big march on Washington..."

Segment Synopsis: Rubin describes his experience of going to the 1963 march on Washington for Job's and Freedom and King's famous "I have a dream" speech. He remembers that it was the first time that he felt like an American.

Keywords: "I had a dream..."; 1963; Martin Luther King, Jr.; Washington, D.C.; march on Washington

Subjects: Civil rights movements--United States

Partial Transcript: There is something else I want to say, and this has to do with town-gown relations too. During, this is, we're talking about the latter part of sixty three, during the Gegner demonstrations that I was describing.

Segment Synopsis: Rubin discusses the complications the Yellow Springs Police Chief had with student demonstrations occurring at this time. Rubin describes how he was Accused of misleading black students and black youth about the dangers of demonstrating by chief of police.

Keywords: Antioch; Central State; Gegner; J.D. Dawson; Jim McKee; black bourgeoisies; demonstrations

Subjects: Civil rights movements--United States

Partial Transcript: "What I was saying before, Antioch as an institution was never liberal or anything political. It was an institution of higher learning that had a philosophy of education that was based on having students question everything basically.."

Segment Synopsis: Rubin describes the philosophy of Antioch College. He says that Antioch is not a partisan institution and that it embraced civil libertarianism and free speech, which is what attracted him to the college. Rubin then discusses the college's motto "be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity."

Keywords: Antioch; Arthur Morgan; McCarran Act; McCarthyism; The Third Way; capitalism; entrepreneurism; socialism

Partial Transcript: I have spent most of my life organizing for unions, and you know that's a very partisan thing. And I have spent most of my life as a negotiator trying to win more for people, taking something away from the owners and giving it to the workers.

Segment Synopsis: Rubin discusses how he helped to establish a workers union at Antioch. Rubin describes how he met opposition from many others at Antioch who argued that a union would be anti-community.The union was eventually established and hourly staff workers started receiving pay for attending community meeting and were able to run for community government.

Keywords: Antioch union; Comcil; J.D. Dawson; Staff; Unions; community; work projects

Partial Transcript: Would you like to talk a little more about unionization and the strike ten years later?

Segment Synopsis: Rubin discusses the strike of 1965 and the difficulties that were encountered between student strikers and workers who were striking. Rubin talks about how he was sent to settle the issues between the college and student and worker strikers.

Keywords: Rockefeller Program; Strike of 1965; Unions

Segment Synopsis: Rubin discusses the cultural difficulties that were experienced between working class students, who were primarily black, brought in through the Rockefeller Program and middle and upper class students at Antioch who were primarily white. Rubin describes the tensions on campus and the failures of the college to properly prepare for and support Rockefeller students. Ruben then talks about the student strikes on campus and why they occurred.

Keywords: Community; Culture; Diversity; Race; Rockefeller Program; Socioeconomic Class; Student Strike

Partial Transcript: I think that we have definitely found pieces where we brought in students, for instance first years with third years on campus, and realized that everyone didn't have the same language. People came from such different background and were at such different developmental phases that it was really hard to create community...

Segment Synopsis: Rubin describes what believes were the root causes that created a rift in the Antioch community in the sixties. He believes that there was a lack of recognition and understanding between different groups of students on campus. Specifically, there was a lack of recognition of the different processes of thinking amongst students.

Keywords: Antioch students; activism; community; pedagogy; religion

Partial Transcript: And also there's a recognition that Antioch will never be for everybody. This has always been a niche school. From the 1853 when it was founded [sic], it was a school that was based on principals that were not the generally accepted principals of society...

Segment Synopsis: Rubin develops on his claim that Antioch is a unique college that entices and dissuades perspective students and staff.

Rubin describes his belief that Antioch is a unique college that only appeals to a niche group of students. He says that Antioch President Bob Divine failed to see that Antioch was different than other institutions when he began marketing the school to everybody. Rubin then discusses Antioch's pedagogy and how it is different from other schools.

Keywords: Antioch; Civil Rights Movement; learning through experience; marketing; pedagogy; principles of education; self-responsibility

Partial Transcript: How do we know if we are doing this thing you speak of, building this community with texture, teaching in this way, creating this kind of a learning community. How do we know when we are doing it?

Segment Synopsis: Rubin compares the past Antioch to the present and describes what is necessary to build Antioch's community. He also discusses the purported toxic culture that permeated campus before the college's closure in 2008,

Keywords: Antioch; Great Lakes College Association; accreditation; diversity; empathy; toxic culture