The Civil Rights History Project: Survey of Collections and Repositories

The Bland County History Archives

Repository: Rocky Gap (VA) High School

Collection Description (CRHP): Some of the approximately 700 interviews in this collection explore the African American community in Dry Fork, including race relations in the county and the South, and the school integration process at Rocky Gap.

Collection Description (Extant): The BCHA is a continuing 15 year old place-based oral history and technology project of the students of Rocky Gap High School in Rocky Gap, Virginia . . . . Our goal is to preserve the memories of those who made a life in these mountains that we hold so dear. Many were born in a log cabin and still remember the stories of the hills and hollers handed down from generation to generation.

Access Copy Note: Approximately 95% of the 700 interviews are transcribed. Most of these transcriptions are also in digital format and most of them have been checked. There are old VHS tapes, but most of the interviews were done on audio cassettes. For the last five years the program has been using digital audio and video recorders. The Mountain Home Center has a room where the transcripts are located as well as hard drives with the interviews and photos. The photos are in need of organization.

Collection URL: http://www.blandcountyhistoryarchives.org/

Condition Note: The quality of the recordings is uneven.

Digital Status: Partial

Extent: circa 665 transcripts; audio cassettes; video recordings (VHS); digital sound recordings; digital video recordings

Language: English

Physical Location: Mountain Home Center

Interviewees: Nate Charlton, Aubrey Gore, Jeanie Gore, Pete Ferguson, Mary Little, Percy Robinson, Fred Saunders, Estellia Saunders, Powell Saunders, Delores Saunders, Hazel Tynes, Lee Tynes, Marvin Tines

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

Subjects:

African Americans--Virginia
Appalachian Region
Civil rights movements--Virginia
School integration--Virginia
Segregation in education--Virginia
Segregation--Virginia

Genres:

Interviews
Photographs
Sound recordings
Transcripts
Videorecordings