Barbara Campbell oral history interview, 1998 November 13

Longtime Charlotte resident Barbara Campbell discusses her life, career, and opinion on current political issues at the time of the interview. She talks about growing up in Long Island, New York, and attending an all girls' boarding school in Rhode Island, followed by an all-girls' college, Hollins College (now Hollins University). Mrs. Campbell describes studying for a year abroad in France and visiting the Soviet Union in 1963, and how that influenced her perspective on history and politics. She married and moved to Charlotte with her husband in 1967, and began working for Red Clay Press, which published the Red Clay Reader literary magazine. Mrs. Campbell's family moved to London for a year, then returned to Charlotte. She discusses working as an editor for East Woods Press in the 1970s, then for Planned Parenthood, where she began in the public relations department and worked her way up to acting director during the 1980s and 1990s. Mrs. Campbell then describes her work for Mecklenburg County Solid Waste Department as a public information specialist in the mid to late 1990s. Throughout the interview, Mrs. Campbell, a self-identified Democrat, discusses local and national politics with the student interviewer, touching on topics including race relations; school integration; health care and abortion; Charlotte in relation to the rest of the South; Bill and Hillary Clinton; and the media's influence on public opinion.