Oral History with Charles M. George

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Interviewer: Ambrose Webster II
Interviewee: Charles M. George
Date: June 21, 2001
AW: We are interviewing for the Civil Rights World History Project Mr. Charlie M. George.
Uh… we are at Sumner, Mississippi in the west Tallahachie Superintendents office. And uh… Mr.
George if you will, lay some groundwork for us if you will tell us your full name and um
education and where you were born and everything and then we’ll go from there.
CG: Okay, my name is Charles Marx, M- A- R- X, and George. I was born August 15, 1929 at
Yazoo City, Mississippi. I received my formal education in Greenwood, Mississippi. I graduated
from Stone Street High School in Greenwood, Mississippi. After high school graduation, I went
to Tougaloo College in Tougaloo, Mississippi. And, at the end of the first semester in 1953 I
went into the Armed Services for the, during the Korean conflict. I was, after basic training in
Augusta, Georgia at Fort Gordon I was shipped overseas to Germany. Uh… I was stationed in
Germany and I was a part of the Military Police Corps. Uh, our basic function was to escort
soldiers, act as couriers for documents, escort services for dignitaries. I did have an opportunity
to go into Berlin, Berlin, Germany during the time that the Berlin Wall was there. I went there
several times. My duty required me to travel to all parts of Germany, also into Austria. I was
there for twenty- seven months. I extended a year; the reason why I was there for twenty- seven
months is because I extended a year of my enlistment for officer’s’ candidates’ school. During
the course of my waiting to go into to the officer candidates’ school the Korean Truce was
declared. So, they didn’t need anymore second lieutenants. So, I was fortunate to go to Germany
because in college I took German as a foreign language. So, my going there and perform the
duties I had to perform in the Army with the German National. My knowledge of German and
also to being able to speak German helped a lot in a lot of situations. After I was discharged from
the Army in January 1956 I returned to school. The second semester had started about two weeks
after I had been discharged. I graduated from Tougaloo College in 1957 with a Bachelor of Arts
Degree in English with a Minor in Psychology. I came to, after graduation, oh well before
graduation let me say, uh… in our education department our education teacher tried to find places
for Tougaloo graduates to work or do their practice teaching. At that time, there weren’t too
many school districts in the Delta that hired Tougaloo graduates. Simply because of the liberal,
they say, attitude that Tougaloo had. We had an integrated faculty and we had a few white
students. And we were right there, you might say, at the capitals doorstep with an integrated
situation a few miles from Jackson. With the liberal thinking that we had with the white
instructors and the white professors who came out of the east and the north they thought that