Duke University Oral History Program collection, 1973-1978, 1992 and undated

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Collection is open for research. Digital audio is available for all audio resources. Original audiocassettes are restricted due to format. Contact Research Services for further information.
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Summary

Creator:
Duke University Oral History Program
Extent:
10.3 Linear Feet (810 items)
Language:
English.
Collection ID:
RL.00338

Background

Scope and content:

The Duke University Oral History Program Collection contains approximately 153 oral history interviews recorded to audiocassette by project participants in the years 1973-1978 and 1992. The majority of the oral history interviews deal with the civil rights movement in North Carolina, especially Durham, Chapel Hill, and Greensboro. Additionally, thirteen interviews deal with the Tulsa Race Riots, and fourteen interviews cover miscellaneous North Carolina topics. The collection also includes transcripts and research files related to the civil rights movement in North Carolina.

The collection is arranged in four series: North Carolina Civil Rights Movement, North Carolina Miscellaneous, Tulsa Race Riots, and Research Files. Digital files are available for all recordings in the collection. A portion of the North Carolina Civil Rights Movement interviews include transcripts, while some of the interviews are transcript-only. The North Carolina Civil Rights Movement recordings, which make up the bulk of the interviews, include extensive interviews with Ella Baker, as well as other important figures from the local movements in Greensboro, Durham, Chapel Hill, Weldon, and Monroe, N.C. The North Carolina Miscellaneous tapes include an interview with Alex Haley about his critically-acclaimed book, Roots, as well as conversations about such topics as the state's agricultural history and mountain culture in Western North Carolina. The Tulsa Race Riots recordings include interviews conducted by Scott Ellsworth for his study, Death in the Promised Land: The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. The Research Files Series contains six files of background material related to the civil rights movement in North Carolina, including articles and speeches by Governor Terry Sanford, a bibliography of material dealing with the Durham sit-ins, and one file listing tapes and transcripts in the collection.

Biographical / historical:

Beginning in 1972, under the leadership of Lawrence Goodwyn and William Chafe, the Duke University Oral History Program (DUOHP) helped pioneer a historical scholarship that honored oral interviews, defining and using methodologies meant to enfranchise formerly voice-less -- often African American -- witnesses to and participants in historical events, particularly social justice movements. As DUOHP graduate and professor Alphine W. Jefferson has written, "Daring, liberalism, and vision created the Duke University Oral History Program; determination, skill, and a sense of purpose made it successful." The DUOHP collection documents the program's genesis, with half of the 210 audiocassettes produced during a 1974 oral history project with Black leaders and activists that successfully challenged the validity of the written record of the local civil rights movement in Chapel Hill, NC. The balance of the recordings contain oral histories and related recordings that scholars within the program created for their own research, including Scott Ellsworth's interviews on the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot, Death in the Promised Land: The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921.

Acquisition information:
The Duke University Oral History Program Collection (1973-1978, 1992, and undated) was donated to the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library in 1983, 1992 and 1993 by William H. Chafe, Oral History Program, History Department Duke University, and in 1992 and 1993 by Timothy Tyson.
Processing information:

Processed by Lisa Hazirjian, February 1998. Encoded by Don Sechler. Updated following digitization of audio, September 2023, by Craig Breaden.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Contents

Using These Materials

Using These Materials Links:

Using These Materials


Restrictions:

Collection is open for research. Digital audio is available for all audio resources. Original audiocassettes are restricted due to format. Contact Research Services for further information.

Terms of access:

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the copyright section of the Regulations and Procedures of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

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Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Duke University Oral History Program Collection, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.