The Kathryn A. Martin Library is glad to announce that the Duluth African American Oral History Project is now available! The project was initiated by the board of Clayton, Jackson, McGhie Memorial, Inc. to aid in the documentation of the history of Duluth’s African American community. Funding for the project came from a Legacy Grant from the Minnesota Historical Society.
The African American Oral History Project includes interviews designed to document particular aspects of Duluth’s history and/or important local institutions, such as the Institute for Afro-American Awareness, the local branch of NAACP, St. Mark’s African Methodist Episcopal Church, Calvary Baptist Church, and the Juneteenth Celebration committee, as well as document African American life more generally. The interviews were conducted between November 2016 and February 2017.
Additional oral stories will be added to this digital collection in the future. Stay tuned for a more in-depth news story in 2020 about this important project.