The Civil Rights History Project: Survey of Collections and Repositories

Oral history center at the University of Louisville

Repository: University of Louisville. University Archives & Records Center

Collection Description (CRHP): This record includes interviews that are not a part of the online subseries called the African American Oral History Collection.

Many of these interviewees discuss the civil rights movement, school desegregation and involvement in organizations such as the Urban League. Several of the interviewees were journalists, judges, lawyers, teachers and clergy. Many of the interviews were conducted by historian Tracy K'Meyer.

Collection Description (Extant): The Oral History Center at the University of Louisville is housed within the University Archive and Record Center and is one of the two active programs in Kentucky. With over thirteen thousand interviews already conducted, the process of interviewing and transcribing is ongoing and is divided into nine subject areas. Approximately 135 tapes cover arts-related oral histories including Actors Theatre of Louisville, the Louisville Orchestra, photographers, and the performing arts. Recent projects include documentation of early blues musicians in Louisville and ten interviews with noted naturalist, author, and artist Harlan Hubbard. Included in the business interviews are about 340 tapes relating to the Louisville Courier-Journal, the distilling industry in Kentucky, the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, and miscellaneous business topics. Also present is a recent project on de-industrialization in Louisville. Education is represented with 375 interviews concerning the University of Louisville's history, public schools, Jefferson County school integration, and the Art Therapy Association. The ethnic communities in Louisville oral history group includes interviews about the history of the African American community, with a specific focus on the civil rights movement; interviews with activist Anne Braden; a series relating to racism in Kentucky; and numerous interviews documenting the Louisville Jewish community. This group is composed of approximately 440 tapes. This Kentucky oral history group encompasses 120 taped interviews relating to state history, landmarks, politics, the Prohibition era, the Great Depression, the horse industry, religion, mountain life, farm life, and Big Sing Day in Benton in western Kentucky. A Louisville group includes about 465 tapes of interviews covering politics, the Housing Authority of Louisville, Senior House, the telephone industry, labor, floods and natural disasters, immigration, and the history of Louisville's many neighborhoods. A large number of local organizations including the League of Women Voters, the Bernheim Foundation, Family and Children's Agency, the Louisville Free Public Library, male social organizations, and the Kentucky Federation of Women's Clubs are included in a group of approximately 225 tapes. Women and public life interviews include about eighty-five tapes of prominent women politicians, attorneys, judges, and a wide range of other occupations. Recent accessions include a series of interviews with early women lawyers in Kentucky. A final group of eighty tapes comprises a war oral history group of tapes with interviews with veterans. Most of the interviews concern the Vietnam War, but a few relate to World War II, the Korean War, and World War I.

Collection URL: http://louisville.libguides.com/Oral_History_List

Date(s): 1968-present (bulk: 1978-present)

Digital Status: Partial

Extent: circa 2,000 interviews

Finding Aid URL: http://special.library.louisville.edu/display-collection.asp?ID=459

Language: English

Related Archival Items: The Documenting African American Life in Louisville subject guide provides information on related primary sources at the University of Louisville, including papers of those whose oral histories are in this collection; it also specifies African American oral histories in this collection. See: http://louisville.libguides.com/content.php?pid=43047&sid=317395.

Papers of Anne Braden are also located at the University of Louisville; see the database record on this collection. The database record provides extensive information about other archival sources on Anne Braden.

Interviewees: Adlene Abstain, Bill Allison, Felix Anderson, Joey Ansback, Mervin Aubespin, Delores White Baker, Henlee H. Barnette, Robert Benson, Norbert Blume, Mickey Carroll, Van Cavett, Ken Clay, Louis Coleman, Sister Rose Colley, Bert T. Combs, Laker Cosby, Jr., James Crumlin, Bob Cunningham, Raoul Cunningham, Delores Delahanty, Pat Delahanty, Bobby Dockery, Robert Douglas, Benitha Ellis, Rev. A. J. Elmore, Alexander Erlin, John Filiatreau, Eleanor Foreman, Nancy Gall-Clayton, Cris Gastinger, David Gittleman, Evelyn Glass, James F. Gordon, Jesse Grider, Ira Grupper, Carol Haddad, Elmer Hall, Cheri Bryant Hamilton, Tony Heitzman, Frederic Hicks, Ted Hightower, Bob Hill, Carl Hines, Phillip Hodge, W.J. Hodge, Todd Hollenbach, J. Blaine Hudson, Lillian Hudson, William Hunter, Jerome Hutchinson, Jr., Jerome Hutchinson, Sr., Carolyn Hutto, Jessye Irvin, James Kiphart, Arthur Kling, Shelby Lanier, Jr., Edna M. Lee, Norbert Logsdon, Shirley Logsdon, S. Arnold Lynch, Bishop C. Gresham Marmion, Galen Martin, Joe McMillan, Susan St. Clair Minor, Tom Moffett, Frank Moorman, Louis Mudd, Millie Neal, Sterling Neal, Jr., W. K. Niman, Howard Owens, Papailler family, John W. Peck, Martin Perley, William H. Perry, Nancy Pollock, Woodford Porter, Suzy Post, Georgia Davis Powers, Sam Robinson, Jean Ruffra, Caroll Schemp, Robert Sedler, Ben Shobe, Bill Summers, IV, Charles Tachau, Eric Tachau, Henry A. Triplett, Neville Tucker, Sandra Wainwright, Henry Wallace, Arthur Walters, Hal Warheim, Gerald White, Larry F. White, Sr., Owen White, Aubrey Williams, Bob Winlock

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

Subjects:

African Americans--Civil rights--Kentucky
African Americans--Kentucky
Busing for school integration
Civil rights movements--Kentucky
Civil rights--Cases
Clergy
Educators
Judges
Kentucky
Lawyers
Louisville (Ky.)
School integration--Kentucky--Louisville
Segregation in education--Kentucky

Genres:

Interviews
Sound recordings
Transcripts