Dr. James Cross is an engineer and professor who graduated from Hopkins in 1960 with a degree in electrical engineering. Cross details his experiences as one of the first Black students at Hopkins. He mentions befriending one Black student who was also living on campus at the time, Ernie Bates, and attending a sit-in at a local restaurant with another Black student, Victor Dates. During his undergraduate years, Cross was a member of ROTC, he ran track, and strongly committed to his studies and education as a form of civil rights activism. In the interview, Cross touches on his early life growing up in rural Virginia, his experiences abroad while in the Army, and the various educational and professional paths his life took in his post-Hopkins years. He remains an active member of his community and speaks fondly of his family's endeavors and accomplishments. Dr. Cross was nominated for the Indispensable Role of Blacks at Hopkins Exhibit and has spoken about his life and career at the Fred Scott Brigade Annual Dinner. This oral history is part of the Hopkins Retrospective oral history series.

Dr. James McPartland earned his B.A. and M.A. from Cornell before coming to Johns Hopkins, where he worked with Hopkins sociologist James Coleman and wrote his dissertation on the resegregation of schools. For years he served as Executive Director of the Center for Social Organization of Schools at Hopkins. He describes working on the 1966 Coleman Report ("Equality of Educational Opportunity"), extending its findings into CSOS projects with Baltimore city schools, and controversies surrounding race and integration. He concludes with thoughts about the CSOS's first 50 years and the future of it and other programs. This oral history is part of the Hopkins Retrospective oral histories series.

Donald Perry, a 1961 graduate of Johns Hopkins University, talks about his life, career, and his experience as one of the few African-American undergraduate students at Hopkins.

Dr. Karl Alexander is the John Dewey Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Founder and Director of the Thurgood Marshall Alliance. Before joining Johns Hopkins in 1971, he earned his B.A. from Temple University (1968) and Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (1972). In this interview, Alexander discusses his dissertation work at UNC and contributions to Hopkins' new Center for Social Organization of Schools in the 1970s. He goes on to detail his work in the sociology of education, which drew from field research in Baltimore, as well as his founding of the Thurgood Marshall Alliance, which aims to improve economic and racial diversity in Baltimore schools. This oral history is part of the Hopkins Retrospective oral histories series.