The Civil Rights History Project: Survey of Collections and Repositories

Baltimore '68: riots & rebirth collection

Repository: University of Baltimore. Langsdale Library. Special Collections

Collection Description (Extant): In the fall of 2006 undergraduate students in Dr. Elizabeth Nix's history class, "The New South and Civil Rights" began conducting interviews about the urban disturbances of April 1968. Students were able to talk to a racially diverse group of informants whose 1968 situations ranged from a family that lost their home and business in the upheaval, to an African-American physician who defended his fledgling private practice, to people who participated in the looting.

The interviews also captured the experiences of several National Guardsmen, both black and white, as well as those of teachers, ministers, teenagers and housewives. Students made audio and video recordings and transcribed the interviews. Students in "Exploring the Past" in the fall of 2007 conducted additional interviews and researched the context of the times. Their work can be found on the site as well. This was the first time any of these students had attempted the demanding job of transcription, and they were working under a deadline. Readers may find spelling errors and inconsistencies. We are in the process of reviewing the transcripts to make them as accurate and as useful as possible.

Student interns including Nyasha Chikowore, Maria Paoletti and Duane Howard and Nora Feinstein continued the project in 2007 and 2008. UB staff member John Schwallenberg has been instrumental in the ongoing process of completing interviews, making transcriptions and editing.

In the spring of 2007, WYPR, Baltimore's NPR affiliate and a media sponsor of Baltimore 68: Riots and Rebirth, joined UB in a partnership that added a new dimension to the oral history project. WYPR provided equipment, studio time and the interviewing expertise of senior news professionals, Fraser Smith and Sunni Khalid, in an effort to capture the memories of Baltimoreans who held public office or represented distinct constituencies during the disturbances. Transcripts of WYPR's interviews are available here together with the work of UB's student oral historians.

Access Copy Note: Transcripts and selected audio files are available online.

Collection URL: http://archives.ubalt.edu/bsr/oral-histories/index.html

Date(s): 2006-2007

Digital Status: Yes

Extent: Typescript
Audio
Video

Language: English

Interviewees: Barbara Alfriend, Hunter Alfriend, Marion Bascom, Dorothy Bascom, Donna Baust, Lee Baylin, Robert Birt, Alan Bloom, Elsbeth Levy Bothe, Jack Bowden, Susan White-Bowden, Frank Bressler, Tom Brown, Tom Carney, Theodore Cavacos, Jewell Chambers, Art Cohen, Theodore Cornblatt, Ned Cosby, Suann Cosby, William Costello, Juanita Crider, Thomas D'Alesandro, John J. Darlington, Kenny Dennis, Joseph DiBlasi, Thomas J. Donellan, Robert Embry, David Ettlin, Bill Evitts, Carole Evitts, Homer Favor, Ed Fishel, Rashida Foreman-Bey, Richard Friedman, Barbara D. Gaines, John Raymond Getzel, Bernard Gibson, Frieda Halderon, Herbert Hardrick, Yvonne Hardy-Phillips, Dorothy Hurst, Lillie Hyman, Herman Katkow, Ethel Katkow, Harold L. Knight, Francis J. Knott, Richard Lawrence, Ted Lewis, Jane Lewis, Marvin Mandel, Suann Myers, Lee Parsons, Sharon Pats Singer, Ida Pats, Betty Katzenelson, Anne Perkins, Louis Randall, Esther Reaves, Nia Redmon, Lois Fishbaugh Rebetsky, William Donald Schaefer, Stuart Silberg, Charles "Bud" Stevens, Ruth Stewart, Jane Swope, Lynnwood Taylor, Rosalind Terrell, Wilson Thornton, Jr., Thomas Ward, Terry A. White, Chester Wickwire, Devon Wilford-Said, Melvin Douglas Williams, Larry Alexander Wilson, John Yost

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

Subjects:

Businesspeople
Civil rights movements--Maryland
Clergy
Lawyers
Politicians
Riots--Maryland--Baltimore
Violence

Genres:

Interviews
Sound recordings