Brown v. Board of Education Oral History Project

We are working to make accessible the park's oral history collection from the 1990s to the present.

We are converting our oral history files from physical tapes to digital media. This will ensure availability and accessibility for all users around the world. Oral histories are being transcribed from the original recordings (whether audio or video). In some cases, interview subjects used words that may be shocking or disturbing to modern users.

 

B.O. Butler Sr., left, is interviewed by Oloye Adeyemon, right.

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The oral history project at Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park contains interviews dating back to 1991. The project continues collecting interviews. If you are interested in participating, please use the "contact us" link at the bottom of this page.

For more than 30 years the program has preserved important information about the Brown v. Board of Education, Briggs v. Elliott, Bolling v. Sharpe, Belton (Bulah) v. Gebhart, and Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County cases. More than 330 tapes from interviews, totaling over 230 hours, have been preserved.

The completed interviews allow the park to document the stories of plaintiffs — along with their family, friends, and neighbors — attorneys, activists, historians and other people involved with the court cases. The broad range of people interviewed helps paint a more complete picture of the impact these cases had on American society.

These interviews, previously only available physically through the park research library in Topeka, have now been digitized. Park staff and volunteers are working on finalizing the digitization process, and completed interviews will be posted as they become available.

 

ORAL HISTORIES

The Kansas State Historical Society, in cooperation with the National Park Service, conducted in the 1990s an oral history project about Brown v. Board of Education. Those interviews can be found on the Kansas Memory website. They include some participants in the South Carolina, Delaware, and Virginia cases.

 

Liberty Hill Colored School, Briggs v. Elliott (South Carolina)

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South Carolina: The National Park Service oral history project includes these related interviews:
Black, Jeffery
Briggs, Nathaniel
Briggs, Octavia
Butler, B.O. Sr.
Choice, Dorothy
Daniels, John
De Laine, Joseph A. Jr. and Brummit B.
Elliott, Joe
Gibson, Veronica Georgia and Jervine Georgia Holmes
Gibson, Harold
Harvin, Charles Alexander III
Harvin, Thomasine and Alex
Hilton, Willie
James, Frederick
Lawson, Henry
McCants, Elijah
Parks, Leola
Parson, Plummie, and Celestine Lloyd
Pearson, Jessie and Joseph A. De Laine Jr.
Pearson, Jessie, Inez Jones Pearson, and Lucy Pearson Witherspoon
Perry, Matthew
Rivers, Beatrice
Warley, Annette
Wells, Reverdy
Williams, Sarah Ellen Ragin, and Willene Ragin Dansby

 

John Philip Sousa Middle School, Bolling v. Sharpe (Washington, D.C.)

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Washington, D.C.: The National Park Service oral history project includes these related interviews:

Alexander, John Andrew; Natalie W. Rothenberg; Fred L. Dunn
Birch, JoAnne D.
Borders, William
Capurso, Judith, and Nancye T. Suggs
De Souza, Rosa R.
Dodson, Katherine Foster
Dugas, Julian
Hanes, Loretta Carter
Hanes, Wesley
Quarles, Eva B.
Suggs, Nancye T.
Walker, Barbara Dodson
Cooke, Dr. Paul P.
Johnson, Judine Bishop

 

Hockessin Colored School #107C, Belton (Bulah) v. Gebhart (Delaware)

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Delaware: The National Park Service oral history project includes these related interviews:

Carpenter, Edmond
Hoopes, Judith
Stamps, Shirley Bulah
Bacher, Margaret F.
Benson, Dr. Barbara E.
Finger, Louis
Hoffecker, Carol E.
Johnson, Joseph E.
Johnson, Joseph E. and Leonard L. Williams
McDermott, Christine M.
Mitchell, Littleton
Morris, Irving
Oates, Cynthia E.
Quinn, Thomas V.
Williams, Leonard "Lenny"

 

Monroe Elementary School, Brown v. Board of Education (Kansas)

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Kansas: The National Park Service oral history project includes these related interviews:

Scales, Vivian
Bell, Kim
Bradshaw, William
Montgomery, Leola Brown; Thompson, Linda Brown; Henderson, Cheryl Brown
Comer, Les
Douglas, Charles
Douglas, Joe
Hromada, Marjorie
Hurd, Bernard
Johnson, Diane
King, Kathryn
Napue, Ginger
Norman, Ida
Norman, Norma
Ross, Merrill and Barbara
Scrimsher, Allen; Beatch, Ted; Tehre, Bob
Alexander, Jack
Emerson, Claude
Henderson, Zelma and Donald
Jones, Richard E.
Nutter, Carol K.
Richards, William E.
Sawyer, Constance
Sawyer, Katherine L.
Scott, Dorothy E.
McFrazier, Robert R.
Campbell, Carolyn L. Wims
Davis, Maurita (Burnett)
Rogers, Richard D.
Scott, Charles S., Jr.
Wheeler, Carolyn Y., and Constance Sawyer
Wright, Douglas S.
Baggerly, Joy and Eunice
Carson, Elizabeth
Douglas, Ernie, and Connie Sawyer
Holford, Annette
Jones, Willie Frank
Lane, Harold
Leal, Barbara
Lee, Alice
Noches, Ramon
Norman, Hattie
Schroeder, Bill
Tarlton, Bill
Thompson, Joe
Todd-Noches, Nancy
Trice, James
Trice, Etta Mae
Warren, Robert
Lane, Eugene, Sr.
Smith, Curtis
Brown, Talent H.
Wright, Betty E.
Wright, Larry
Davis, Patricia and Barbara
Lassiter, Sandra
New, Beryl
Smelser, Joann
Sykes, Treva

 

Robert Russa Moton High School, Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County (Virginia)

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Virginia: The National Park Service oral history project includes these related interviews:

Allen, Edna (Dean)
Anderson, James M., Jr.
Blackmon, Margaret
Hackett, Bernice
Herndon, Ernestine
Hoffecker, Carol E.
Mayfield, Thomas
Hill, Oliver
Shepperson, Sally Katie and Patrick
Watkins, Ruth
Wilson, Samuel
Allen, Vera
Allen, Vera; Edna Allen Davis; Edwilda Allen Isaac
Cobbs, Joan Johns and Claude
Cook, Dr. Martha E.
Isaac, Edwilda Allen
Murphy, Ruth S.
Prazniak, Roxann
Reid, Armstead D. "Chuckie"
Reid, Warren A.
Shepperson, Lester H.
Shepperson, Willie
Wall, Jacqueline J.
Williams, J. Samuel, Jr.
Shepperson, Willie and Lester (historical sites of Farmville)

 

Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park, Topeka, Kansas

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In addition to the oral history interviews that have recorded memories about the communities that contributed cases decided by the US Supreme Court in 1954, the park also houses interviews recorded in the research process for the park's administrative history. Nineteen interviews with community members, NPS employees, site superintendents, and the Brown family document the creation of the park in 1992 and its evolution to the early 2020s.