You don't have to be famous for your life to be history. These words, spoken by Nell Sigmon when she was interviewed by the Southern Oral History Program in 1979, now emblazon a statue of a textile worker in Charlotte's Spirit Square. The comment serves as our unofficial motto, reminding us of the extraordinary significance of ordinary lives and guiding our efforts to seek out and record memories of the southern past.
Human beings make sense of their lives in story.
Oral history allows us to use those stories to explore the private dimension of public careers, add new voices to the historical record, track the creation and re-creation of historical memory, and present history to the public in creative new forms. The South is especially rich in storytellers, yet many great storytellers leave no written record, and modern forms of communication have rendered personal letters and diaries virtually obsolete. A sense of urgency therefore informs our work, for the memories we preserve in tape and transcript might otherwise be lost. Founded in 1973, the Southern Oral History Program seeks to foster a critical yet democratic understanding of the South - its history, culture, problems, and prospects. We have recorded more than 2,500 interviews with men and women from all walks of life, and currently maintain an active research and teaching program.