The Civil Rights History Project: Survey of Collections and Repositories

Center for Columbia River History oral histories

Repository: Oregon Historical Society. Research Library

Collection Description (CRHP): These interviews include civil rights activists and those who talk about issues dealing with racial discrimination, civil rights, and race relations. The Columbia Slough Oral History Archive includes an oral history of Richard Brown of the Black United Front, a group that pressed for school desegregation in Oregon. It also includes oral histories of Ed Washington, a former Vanport resident and African American Portland Metro Councilman. Vanport was a major housing complex that experienced, to a degree, integration before most of the rest of the United States. The Camas (Washington) Oral History Archive includes interviews with Richard Kingsberry and Crystal Odum, two African Americans who address employment discrimination.

Collection Description (Extant): This collection documents social, political, economic, scientific, and technological changes in the Columbia River Basin since the building of large federal hydroelectric dams began in the 1930s. The collection adds significantly to Columbia Basin history through its focus on dissent regarding Columbia River dams, and the varied impacts of dam building to communities in the basin. It is composed of one large project, Columbia River Dissenters, conducted by the Oregon Historical Society in partnership with the Center for Columbia River History, and five smaller projects conducted from Center for Columbia River History offices and through Portland State University. The smaller projects document changes in representative communities within the basin: Camas, Washington; Cottage Grove, Oregon; Columbia Slough, Oregon; Umatilla, Oregon; Sandpoint, Idaho. The community histories were part of a web exhibit project using the collected oral histories, primary documents and photographs. Biographical and subject specific interviews were collected on audio cassette tape between 1998 and 2000, and all have been transcribed save some of the interviews from the Cottage Grove and Camas projects.

Access Copy Note: Service copies of audio-cassette tapes and transcripts are available in the Oregon Historical Society Research Library, where the originals are held. Some transcripts, or partial transcripts, as well as audio excerpts are available on the Center for Columbia River History website. Portions of the Columbia Slough Oral History Archive are available online at http://www.ccrh.org/comm/slough/oralhis.php, and portions of the Camas (Washington) Oral History Archive are available at http://www.ccrh.org/comm/camas/oralhist.php.

Date(s): 1998-2000

Digital Status: Partial

Extent: 289 audio-cassette tapes, analog; transcripts

Finding Aid URL: http://nwda-db.orbiscascade.org/findaid/ark:/80444/xv99870

Language: English

Interviewees: Richard Brown, Ed Washington, Richard Kingsberry, Crystal Odum

Rights (Extant): The Oregon Historical Society owns copyright to the interviews conducted in this project. Some restrictions may apply to individual interviews.

Subjects:

African American politicians--Oregon
African Americans--Civil rights--Washington (State)
African Americans--Employment
African Americans--Oregon
Discrimination in employment
School integration--Oregon
Vanport (Or.)

Genres:

Interviews
Sound recordings
Transcripts