Sociologist Guy B. Johnson recalls the string of lucky breaks that brought him to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a career as a sociologist. Johnson had more than a scholarly interest in race, and soon became active in the brewing civil rights agitation of the World War II era. Although he was a founding member of the Southern Regional Council (SRC), Johnson was wary of radicalism and believed that the court system was best equipped to dismantle segregation. In this interview he describes the creation of the SRC and his response to some of the legal victories for civil rights in the 1940s. Researchers interested in biographical details should look to the first half of this interview for unexcerpted information of interest.