NEWS RELEASE

Contact: David West (west@nsula.edu )
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466

5/17/2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NATCHITOCHES ­A group of history students at Northwestern State University tapped into living history by completing a semester-long oral history projects. The students, led by Dr. Susan Dollar, an assistant professor of history at NSU, recently donated their work to the Cammie G. Henry Research Center in Northwestern's Watson Library.

Fifteen students completed projects which covered aspects of local history, the Great Depression, World War II, the Civil Rights Era and more. The students chose their own subjects which were approved by Dollar.

According to Dollar, oral history is remembered experiences captured on tape. Ideally, they are transcribed and housed in a public archives where the public has access to them, she said.

"The historian tries to capture events as remembered by the people who experienced them," said Dollar. "Early oral history dealt with 'big names,' but now the field is more about every day people. You get information on big events by interviewing a number of people not by interviewing well-known individuals."

Many of the students talked with family members about important events in their parent's or grandparent's lives.

Ansonia Means, a hospitality management and tourism major from Fort Worth,
talked to her father about growing up in Teague, Texas, during the 1960's and 70's during the Civil Rights movement.

"Nothing too extreme happened to him," said Means. "I did learn a lot by getting his perspective as opposed to what I have seen on TV. My father didn't experience the level of racism or the violence in other places. He grew up in a caring environment."

Means occasionally travels with her family to Teague and has a different view of the community since her discussions with her father.

"I look at the community differently because I know more about it," she said.

Amanda Burke, a senior anthropology major from Natchitoches, talked to grandmother, who grew up in London during World War II.

"I knew my grandmother had grown up in London during the war and had lost friends but I didn't ask her a lot of questions about it before," said Burke. "I didn't know how to go about approaching her, but this opened up a channel that wasn't there before.

"She talked about the kids who were put on trains leaving London and were gone for a couple of days. Parents pulled them out of school and they didn't come back."

Burke was glad to participate in a project, which relates to her major.

"The class was great," she said. "I am interested in cultural anthropology and this gave me a chance to talk to people about things which happened to them. It helped me learn to interview and do research."

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