Volume 3, No. 1 (Spring 1999) -- Brown v. Board 45th Anniversary Issue

Orally-communicated history that vividly details information that is brought to light when people speak from memory of times past is increasingly recognized as a valuable research tool. As historians investigate their subjects and move from the documentary to the physical evidence, they still may be faced with gaps in the record. It is at this time that oral history, the living memory of the past, becomes important and useful.

The vast amount of this information never gets recorded and the documentary record is left incomplete. Human beings simply never take the time or have the opportunity to record their feelings and preserve the memory of their role in history. Historians such as Alex Haley and Studs Turkel have shown that oral history techniques can and should be used to complement the documentary evidence. Indeed, oral history provides another view of history by preserving the memory, emotions, and feelings of the participants of the history event in question.

This technique is extremely important in preserving and recording the memory of the modern Civil Rights movement as illustrated by Jean Van Delinder's article. As a result of these efforts, the stories of the people who lived the events associated with the Brown v. Board of Education cases will be preserved and remembered by subsequent generations of Americans.