Oral history interviews with Ken Wibecan

Oral history interviews with Ken Wibecan

In his first interview on 7 January 2016, Ken Wibecan speaks of growing up in Brooklyn, New York in a multicultural neighborhood, and the influence of his family, particularly his grandfather, and of the Jewish community, on his political development. He talks of his experience in the Korean War and the various jobs he held in New York, particularly working for George McKibben and Sons in Brooklyn and Harper & Row. He also speaks of his work at WBAI dudring the 1960s, and the interviews he did during the Civil Rights Movement, with Bayard Rustin, James Farmer, Fanny Lou Hamer, and Malcolm X. In the bulk of the interview he describes moving to Vermont, writing a column for the Brattleboro Reformer, and his experience at Goddard College where, as an undergraduate, he was invited to start the Third World Studies Program. Throughout the interview, Ken speaks of his life as an African American in the United States, and in Vermont in particular.

In his second interview on 5 February 2016, Ken Wibecan continues speaking of his experience at Goddard College and the Third World Studies Program, some of the tensions that arose around the Black Power movement and disagreements about the direction of the program. He also speaks of the influence of Professor Larry McCrorey, a charter member of the Vermont Civil Rights Commission and a jazz musician, on Vermont and on Ken personally. He ends the interview by describing the black community in Vermont and the influence of the counterculture on it.

2016

AudioFile1970s-35-36

MP3

Audio Files

Brattleboro (Vt.)

Plainfield (Vt.)

Permission to publish material from the Vermont 1970s Counterculture Project must be obtained from the Vermont Historical Society.

Blofson, Kate

Wibecan, Ken, 1931-

Peru (N.Y.)

3 hrs., 31 min., 13 sec.

Vermont Historical Society Library, 60 Washington Street, Barre, VT 05641-4209