Part II – Section One
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one of the only collections focused on this experience in Washington. Oral history projects focused on the Great Migration in Washington, such as the 1993 oral history project at Potomac Gardens, have recorded the stories of the First Great Migration.53 The Real World History collection is the only oral history project focused on the later years of the Migration in Washington. Stories that Emerge from the Collection While student oral history is often widely appreciated as a valuable educational activity, the work produced is rarely taken seriously for its contributions to the historical record.54 In this section, I will highlight some examples of how the Real World History archive contributes to scholarship of the Great Migration and DC history. The interviews in the collection are rich, and I encourage researchers to take this archive of student oral history interviews seriously as primary source material. Even a researcher who might be inclined to discount the intellectual contributions of young people can appreciate the historical value of the narrators’ thoughts and reflections. While it must be noted that these interviews represent the student interviewers’ first foray into oral history interviewing, the recollections and reminiscences facilitated by students add to our knowledge of the period and provide valuable material for historians. Yes, sometimes students are bad at getting names and dates, or neglect an important follow-up question, or fail to ask a narrator to elaborate on a thought, but all oral history interviewing contains missed opportunities. Anyone who takes the time to listen to the student interviews will be impressed by
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This community-based oral history project in Potomac Gardens was sponsored by the DC Community Humanities Council’s City Lights program and was the basic of both the documentary, In Search for Common Ground (1993), and the exhibition, “In Search of Common Ground: Senior Citizens and Community Life at Potomac Gardens” (1994-1995), at the Anacostia Community Museum. 54 Levin, “Authentic Doing,” 8.
