About
Why should I consider this collection?
The Race and Reconciliation Initiative was charged in 2020 by the TCU Chancellor and Board of Trustees to study the university’s ties with slavery, racism, and the Confederacy. This academic endeavor draws upon a number of signature RRI programs to raise awareness of racism and inequality, helping TCU work toward a campus culture where everyone is respected and valued. Starting with the fall 2020 semester, the RRI has committed its research focusing primarily, but not exclusively, on Black Americans. Most of the research was “triangulated” into three windows in time: EARLY PERIOD (Founding Years, 1861 – 1891), MIDDLE PERIOD (Transition to Integration, 1941 – 1971), and MODERN PERIOD (Recent but Related Histories, 1998 – present).
While numerous records were found from archival research, the RRI found it important to capture the live voices of the people who were impacted by slavery, racism, and the Confederacy, both within and outside the aforementioned time periods. The Oral History Project aims at capturing and memorializing these voices. While the community has already lost the voices of prominent “firsts” at our institution (e.g., Allene Jones, Mildred Sims, Linzy Cole), the RRI prioritized the testimonies of the integration decades (1960’s and 1970’s), which make up 38% of all interviews.
This collection is designed to be accessible for research, information, and education purposes. We hope that these interviews will encourage additional members of the TCU community to participate. We are particularly looking for potential interviewees who witnessed key, history-making moments regarding our institution.
What is in these records?
The collection presently contains 22 video interviews, with a total of 24 interviewees. Nevertheless, this is an on-going project; additional interviews are scheduled and added regularly.
Interviewees were selected based on their affiliation with the university and its history:
- Descendants of enslaved individuals
- Past and present students
- Past and present staff
- Past and present faculty
- Discipline-specific experts
- TCU community members and stakeholders
Video audibility and visibility
Interviews in this collection underwent little to no editing. Thus, the videos are a reflection of the real time recording which may include technology malfunction, human error, and incidental interruptions. Additionally, some interviews may feature background noise, image and sound blurs, image instability, and sudden cuts. Therefore, we have provided written transcripts of all the recordings. The transcripts can be used as complements to the videos, or as quotable items of reference.
Meet the Team
Citing the interviews
APA example
Interviewee last name, Interviewee first name initial. (Year). Interview with the Race and Reconciliation Initiative. [Name of collection]. Special Collections, Mary Couts Burnett Library, Texas Christian University.