Funding
for this project
provided by

The Mississippi State Legislature

The Mississippi 
Humanites Council

The Mississippi 
Department 
of Archives 
and History 

The Center
for Oral History
and Cultural Heritage
at  The University of Southern 
Mississippi

How to Get Involved

GROUPS

Any educational, civic, or other nonprofit organization —  towns, community groups, churches, historical societies, libraries, schools, and other groups — can apply to be part of the Mississippi Oral History Project.  

Groups apply for funds through the Mississippi Humanities Council. The process isn’t difficult and MHC staff can help you with any questions you have. We encourage all groups to first apply for a grant for a six-month planning process and then apply for a grant to actually carry out their oral history project.  For more information or to see the grant applications, you can go the MHC Web site at http://www.ihl.state.ms.us/mhc/index.html.  Or you can contact Barbara Carpenter, Executive Director at barbara@mhc.state.ms.us. Or Donald Simmons, Assistant Director at donald@mhc.state.ms.us and

Mississippi Humanities Council
3825 Ridgewood Road, Suite 311
Jackson, MS 39211
(601) 432-6752

INDIVIDUALS

Most of the interviews collected as part of the Mississippi Oral History Project are recorded as part of a community-based project. However, we recognize that there are many other deserving people to interview.

If you know of someone whose oral history would make a valuable contribution to our collection, the we encourage you to contact us and let us know.  We will try to interview as many people as we can. Unfortunately, we don’t have a full-time interviewer on staff.  We do, however, offer training in oral history techniques so that you can become an interviewer. This can help ensure that valuable voices are recorded for future generations.

Individuals interested in nominating a person to be interviewed or becoming a volunteer interviewer should use the contact information at the bottom of the page.

SCHOOLS

We are in the process of developing lesson plans that will offer classes the ability to participate in this project in a more structured way. In the meanwhile, any interested teachers can contact us and we will discuss how we can help shape your classroom project. Oral history projects can be incorporated into English (storytelling, grammar in transcribing), social studies (culture, traditions, social structure) and history classes (particular events such as World War II, the Great Depression or the Civil Rights Movement, the history of particular locales, or overall patterns in history). We highly recommend oral history as a content-based approach for learning technology (such as Web design).

For more information contact:

Curtis Austin, Co-Director
Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage
The University of Southern Mississippi
Hattiesburg, MS 39406-5175
(601) 266-4574
curtis.austin@usm.edu