The Civil Rights History Project: Survey of Collections and Repositories

Alabama Center for Higher Education statewide oral history project [Miles College]

Repository: Miles College

Collection Description (CRHP): Interviewees discuss the Civil Rights Movement in Jefferson County, Alabama.

Collection Description (Extant): The Alabama Center for Higher Education (ACHE) is composed of the eight predominately black senior colleges in Alabama and is incorporated under the laws of the State of Alabama as an agency to promote cooperation among the institutions. During the past five years, ACHE and the participating institutions have made significant progress in developing and implementing programs for interinstitutional cooperation. One of the many ACHE cooperating programs is the "Collection and Evaluation of Materials on Black Americans" CEMBA). Under this program, each institution has further developed its library and archives with emphasis on the collection and evaluation of documents relating to black Americans.

The Statewide Oral History Project was conceived and implemented to supplement the CEMBA work by conducting and collecting tape-recorded interviews. It is the first oral history program in Alabama primarily concerned with gathering information in the black community. The first purpose was the record the experiences of black Alabamians in their attempts to cope with racial discrimination and in their struggle to achieve equality of opportunity. The data collected is needed so that the perspectives, experiences, and contributions of Afro-Americans may be incorporated into the writing and teaching of history. The second purpose of the project was thus to make the data available for instructional and research use and to demonstrate methods for its utilization. The third purpose was to train faculty associates, archivists, staff employees, and students in the methodology and procedures associated with oral history.

Date(s): 1972-1974

Finding Aid: Finding Aid available in published report by the Alabama Center for Higher Education (1974).

Language: English

Interviewees: William Boyd, Sarah Coleman, Perry E. Dickens, Willie Gregory, Emory O. Johnson, Jonathan MacPherson, S. J. McShaw, Olivia E. Montgomery, W. F. Montgomery, John Nixon, E. J. Oliver, James E. Reaser, Noah Wills, Odessa Woolfolk, Tommy Wrenn

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

Subjects:

African Americans--Alabama
Civil rights movements--Alabama
Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Genres:

Interviews
Sound recordings