For this brief assignment (300-400 words), you will become acquainted with an oral history collection, including, but not limited to, the Library of Congress Civil Rights History Project (Links to an external site.), the Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writer’s Project (Links to an external site.), or another oral history archive that in any way pertains to African American history.

At either of these sites, you will find dozens of interviews with individuals. Many of these interviews are long, and I do not expect you to read an entire interview for this assignment (although you should watch an interview in its entirety if it’s been edited to less than an hour.) Instead, I want you to choose any interview, and then skim through the interview until you find the individual’s recollections of their time or when you find a period of time in the person’s life which you find particularly compelling.

For your assignment, I want you put into context the section of the interview that you chose, by consulting outside sources which can tell you more about the specific events described in the recollection. You don’t have to discuss the entire interview, but just choose one particularly intriguing passage and tell us more about the specific history behind that passage. This could involve a particular battle, a particular town, a particular technology, a particular march, a particular event — whatever you want.

I would prefer that you conduct your research primarily in the library, or in the online resources provided by the Santa Monica College library. Internet resources are OK, but try to avoid just performing a Google search and then using the first website that pops up. Academic websites typically have more reliable information.