Check out a selection of our projects!
Mississippi Oral History Project
The Mississippi Oral History Project is a statewide initiative to record Mississippians talking about their experiences, from daily life to extraordinary events, with family, work, politics, churches, community. Over the past ten years the Mississippi Humanities Council (MHC) has awarded over half a million dollars in grants to collect over 3500 of these histories.
Project Highlights
Hurricane Katrina
Over 400 interviews with storm victims, first responders, relief workers, political leaders, and healthcare professionals.
Audubon Society's Strawberry Plains Preserve
Oral histories of folk healing and traditional plant use.
Civil Rights Documentation Project
Collaborative project with USM Libraries to offer materials on the civil rights movement.
Veterans
Ongoing interviews with veterans from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the First Gulf War, and the Global War on Terror.
McComb Railroad History
Interviews with railroad workers from the Illinois Central shops in McComb, Mississippi.
Vietnamese Americans of the Gulf Coast
Ongoing interviews with Vietnamese Americans living in the Gulf South.
Ongoing Projects Archived
in the McCain Library
This list is a representative sample of Mississippi interview collections available in transcript form and in digital audio format in the McCain Library.
Agriculture
Arts and literature
Theodore Bilbo
Business and industry
Hurricane Camille
Civil rights movement
Clark County history
Courts and law rulings
Education
Ethnic groups
Mississippi River Flood of 1927
Gay and lesbian life
Turn-of-the-century Mississippi
Gulf Coast history
Hattiesburg history
Paul B. Johnson Jr.
Journalism and journalists
Labor
Local government
Medicine and health
Pearl River Flood of 1979
Prisoners of war
Religion
Republican Party
Sports
State government
Stennis Space Center
World War II
University of Southern Mississippi
Notable Digitized Oral History Collections
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Civil Rights Documentation Project
USM Libraries cooperated with the USM Center for Oral History to offer more than 60 oral history transcripts on the civil rights movement, such as those by civil rights leaders Charles Cobb, Charles Evers, Aaron Henry, and Hollis Watkins. This collection also includes oral histories of race-baiting governor Ross Barnett, national White Citizens Council leader William J. Simmons, and State Sovereignty head Erle Johnston. Audio excerpts are added to several of these transcripts.
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Mississippi Oral History Project
The Mississippi Oral History Project, funded by the Mississippi State Legislature, documents Mississippi's culture and heritage from a variety of the state’s citizens. The oral history projects within the MOHP are partnerships between the Mississippi Humanities Council, the Center for Oral History, and local communities and organizations to document their own past, capturing and preserving their local history and culture.
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Biloxi Beach wade-ins
The Biloxi Beach Wade-In movement was a pioneering 1959 effort to integrate the beaches through non-violent protest led by Dr. Gilbert R. Mason, Sr. These oral histories offer insight into the wade-ins and the community involved in the planning, carrying out, and aftermath of these protests.
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Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, 2005 and became one of the areas most devastating hurricanes to date. These oral histories show insight into people’s personal experiences with the storm and the aftermath of the damage left.
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Mississippi Politicians and Judges
Various branches of government are represented in this collection of oral histories from Mississippians, including interviews with members of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party as well as past governors and state senators.
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All Digitized Oral Histories
Click here to browse all digitized oral histories. Topics include civil rights, politics, agriculture and farming, journalism, religion, veterans, and more. This collection holds over 700 digitized oral histories that document the life and culture of Mississippians.