The Civil Rights History Project: Survey of Collections and Repositories

African American oral history collection

Repository: University of Louisville. University Archives & Records Center

Collection Description (Extant): The Oral History Center at the University of Louisville has long sought to aid in the documentation of the history of Louisville's African American community. This effort was bolstered in the 1970s by funding from the Kentucky Oral History Commission, which supported a number of the interviews included in this first online offering. The African American Oral History Collection includes interviews conducted as part of projects designed to document particular aspects of Louisville's history and/or important local institutions, such as the Red Cross (Community) Hospital and the Louisville Municipal College, as well as projects that sought to document African American life more generally. Most of the interviews were conducted in the late 1970s.

Taken as a group, these interviews were conducted in order to document the many aspects of life in Louisville, particularly as experienced by African Americans. Businessmen, educators, politicians, doctors, historians, musicians, and other civic leaders of various kinds, as well as regular folks, were interviewed. There are interviews with a small number of white people who connected with the black community in important ways. Some interviews are brief, lasting 30 minutes or less; others are more extensive, covering several interview sessions and lasting four or more hours. The interviewees talk about their parents, their upbringing (often outside Louisville), their experiences in school, their careers, and their achievements. They discuss everyday life as well as the big events in the history they lived. The interviewees offer their own perspective on events, and while there are many areas of agreement, there are events that they each remember in their own ways.

Access Copy Note: Audio and transcripts are available online.

Collection URL: http://digital.library.louisville.edu/collections/afamoh/

Date(s): 1976-1985

Digital Status: Yes

Language: English

Interviewees: D.W. Beard, Goldie Winstead Beckett, Jesse Bell, Ruth Bryant, Lattimore Cole, William J. Ealy, Nelson Goodwin, Joseph Hammond, Helen Humes, Lyman T. Johnson, Waverley Johnson, Robert Key, Mae Street Kidd, Eleanor Young Love, Frank Moorman, Sr., Charles H. Parrish, Jr., Steward Pickett, Maurice Rabb, Amelia Ray, Louise Reynolds, James Shively, Frances Smith, Vivian Clark Stanley, James Stewart, Murray Atkins Walls, John Walls

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

Subjects:

African American businesspeople
African American doctors
African American journalists
African American politicians--Kentucky
African Americans--Kentucky
Civil rights movements--Kentucky
School integration--Kentucky
Segregation--Kentucky

Genres:

Interviews
Sound recordings
Transcripts