The Civil Rights History Project: Survey of Collections and Repositories

Appalachian oral history project

Repository: Hazard Community and Technical College. Lees College Campus Library

Collection Description (CRHP): This collection covers all aspects of life of eleven counties in Kentucky in the Appalachian region. Within the collection are 7 interviews of African Americans. Of these 7 interviews most discuss day-to-day life in Appalachia and address the hard lives that they dealt with under the Jim Crow system. They talk about their endurance in the face of difficult social conditions as well as the Great Depression and World War II. Some descendants of slave holding families were interviewed. The interviews of African Americans also talk about their education, including Rosenwald Schools. The one interview that most systematically addresses African American education is the interview of Ms. Lena Lightfoot, an African American. She was the first African American to teach in a county's school system as part of the Head Start program. She was not involved in civil rights organizations or movement; the interview is the story of her role in education. She also discusses a re-creation of Uncle Tom's cabin for a parade in a community that was demographically 99% white. All the interviews are transcribed in this collection. There are 1255 audio cassettes that are part of the master file for this project along with some 100 that are transcribed but not, as of October 2010, integrated into the master file. There also are more than 500 photographs and more than 400 color slides. In addition, there are at least 21 films, on 18-inch reels, that cover life in the community, featuring church meetings, landscapes of pasture lands and coal mining areas, and other aspects of the places where people interviewed for this project lived.

Access Copy Note: As of October 2010, the Appalachian Oral History Project is undergoing reorganization and preservation.

Digital Status: No

Extent: circa 1355 audio cassettes; circa 1355 transcripts; circa 500 photographs; circa 21 video recordings; circa 400 color slides

Language: English

Interviewees: Lena Lightfoot

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

Subjects:

African American educators--Kentucky
African American schools
African Americans--Appalachian Region
African Americans--Civil rights--Kentucky
African Americans--Kentucky
Appalachian Region
Civil rights movements--Kentucky
Kentucky
School integration--Kentucky
Segregation in education--Kentucky
Segregation--Kentucky

Genres:

Interviews
Photographs
Sound recordings
Transcripts
Videorecordings