The Civil Rights History Project: Survey of Collections and Repositories

South Dakota oral history project

Repository: University of South Dakota. South Dakota Oral History Center

Collection Description (CRHP): The South Dakota Oral History Project contains a number of interviews about black history in South Dakota that were conducted primarily by three researchers, Freda Hosen, Robert F. Eggers, and Sara Bernson in the mid-1970s.

Interviewees resided in areas that include Sioux Falls, Ellis, Rapid City, Pierre, Huron, Yankton, and the Black Hills region; some talked at length about Ellsworth Air Force Base, the Sully County Colored Colony, and the Onida Colored Colony. Other topics include Ku Klux Klan activities in South Dakota; black churches, recreation, and fraternal/civic organizations (Masons, Boy/Girl Scouts, NAACP, etc.,); discrimination/prejudice experienced in employment, the military, housing, entertainment, athletics, law enforcement, and schools; and the challenges and rewards of interracial marriage/friendship.

Collection Description (Extant): The South Dakota Oral History Project aimed to collect recordings from every county in South Dakota. Currently containing about 3200 recordings, this large collection covers a broad range of topics. In 1970, the South Dakota State Legislature allocated funds to establish the SDOHP. For the SDOHP, interviews were recorded in every county in South Dakota, specifically with South Dakotans who recalled events before and around 1900.

Access Copy Note: Transcripts are not available on the Web. Almost all of the Center's 5000 transcripts were typed on paper using manual typewriters. These transcripts are accessible only on-site, though researchers can pay photocopying costs and have specific interviews sent by mail. In the future, transcripts may be scanned and converted to text files as a preservation measure.

When listening is preferred to reading transcripts, duplicate copies of the aging tapes are reproduced for use on-site.

Collection URL: http://www.usd.edu/arts-and-sciences/native-studies/oral-history-center.cfm

Date(s): 1974-1977

Digital Status: No

Extent: tapes (apparently reel-to-reel); most interviews have been transcribed.

Language: English

Interviewees: William Bailey, Emily Banks, Fern Spencer Barber, W. S. Barber, Ernest Barger, Harvey Bentley, Theodore (Ted) Blakey, Mary Lovie Blakey, Grady Bluford, James A. (Jimmy) Brooks, Fred A. Brown, Lillie M. Brown, Bessie Burgi, Maurice Henry Coakley, Lenora Sykes Foster, Thelma E. Hawkins, Arthur Hayes, Rev. Audie Hayes, Kathryn Hughes, Earldean Hayes Hunter, Beatrice and Roland Kercherval, Georgia Lee, Ernie Lewis, Evelyn Lewis, Frances Lofton, Hazel A. Mahone, Benjamin Margulies, Dr. Sidney E. Milburn, Fred L. Nash, Mrs. Chester E. Nuemann, Kyle W. Royster, Marcene Royster, Regina Sager, Leonard Smith, Mr. and Mrs. Adrian L. Talbert, Cornelius Teer, Catherine Teer, Raymond Turner, Bessie Vaughn, Lillian Wheeler, Hugh R. Williams III, Leonard (Bud) Williams, Stan Zakinsky

Rights (CRHP): Contact the repository which holds the collection for information on rights

Subjects:

African Americans--Civil rights--South Dakota
African Americans--Social life and customs
African Americans--South Dakota
Discrimination in employment
Discrimination in housing
Discrimination in the military
Fraternal organizations
Interracial friendship
Interracial marriage
Ku Klux Klan (1915- )
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Race discrimination--South Dakota
Racism in education

Genres:

Interviews
Sound recordings
Transcripts