Explore the Strategy
Apply the Strategy
You will now have the opportunity to explore the oral history strategy as it relates to Brown v. Board of Education by listening to an oral history interview, and then conducting your own oral history interview with a colleague.
- Step 1:
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Begin by listening to a 2004 interview with school principal Dale Cushinberry on National Public Radio -- Dale Cushinberry: School Life Before and After 'Brown' . Mr. Cushinberry -- a Topeka, Kansas student during the Brown era -- talks about school life before and after the 1954 desegregation ruling.
Think about the focus of the interview. Mr. Cushinberry did not just talk about the Brown case in general terms. He answered questions that directed him to offer an opinion about the benefits and drawbacks of integrated and segregated schools. In speaking about his own experiences, Mr. Cushinberry mentioned many of the benefits of attending all-black schools. This information might conflict with much of what students would read in textbooks about segregated schools in the 1950s. And, an interview with another former student might reveal something very different. Discuss the following questions with your colleagues or reflect on them in your journal:
- How does Mr. Cushinberry's expertise and background inform the discussion and lend legitimacy to his opinions? Why is he a good interview subject for this topic?
- How did the interviewer's choice of questions reflect his preparation for the interview?
- What conditions or circumstances affect the kinds of information one gets in oral history? Did you have evidence of the way in which the interviewer's point of view or personal opinions may have shaped the interview? Did the interviewer's perspective provide a misleading sense of events? If so, how? How would one test for the impact of bias or prejudice? How might interviewees be affected by the process of the interview?
- Step 2:
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You will now conduct your own interview with a colleague, friend, or family or community member who was in school in the U.S. during the early or mid-1950s. Begin by developing an interview script that will allow your discussion to stay on topic, but still allow the interviewee to talk about his or her specific experiences. Was their school made up of only one race or integrated? If integrated, was their own racial group in the minority or majority in the school? Was Brown a factor in their school experience? Were they aware of the case at the time?
Remember to use your questions just as a guide in the actual interview. Be flexible and allow the interviewee to expand on things you may not have considered in advance.
After you have completed the interview, discuss the experience with colleagues or reflect on it in your journal. Did you feel you successfully elicited the interviewee's story? What was surprising about the interview? What was hard for you as an interviewer? What, if anything, might you do differently next time?
Optional
If time allows, you can examine a series of interviews collected by the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute's Oral History Project that focus on the experiences of local movement participants, particularly in relation to Birmingham's labor history. Go to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute: Online Resource Gallery and select 2-3 interviews to analyze.