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Gloria Pillow and Thomas Pillow

From the Collection: Pain and Promise: Remembering the Fight for School Integration


In this recording, husband and wife Thomas and Gloria Pillow discuss their early years and experiences during school desegregation. Gloria, who is a professor of literature, describes her segregated education in Nashville and the fine line between “tough love” and encouragement that was enforced by her parents and teachers. Gloria connects this strict upbringing to the racist environment in which she lived, and the discipline needed in order to survive there.

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