Working Definition of Oral History
1. Oral History is about memory. It is about the moment when she says, “I don’t think I’ve ever told this story before,” and you can see through her eyes that she is finding her way back to that moment.
Sheila: I was alone in that house. I think we still had electricity, but we only had one light or two lights, you know. And I was alone in that house that night, and I had pajamas, which my mother had given me. They were baby doll pajamas. So not really a whole lot of protection or anything to make you feel confident. And about two o’clock in the morning this guy, who had been in the field and who had had to earn some money for school, came in. He had been a bartender at some club in Jackson, so he had had a few drinks before he left the club. He came in and he didn’t know I was there. And I didn’t know anyone else was there. I open the door. He sees this white woman in baby doll pajamas outlined against the light, and he starts screaming because he thought he had been set up, and the White Citizen’s Council was waiting outside. When he started screaming, I started screaming too. Ahhh! [Laughs] But we got it all straightened out, which was kind of a miracle that we were able to talk to each other. |
| Sheila Michaels |
2. Oral History is about social history. It is about locating where peoples' memories intersect with each other in the larger historical narrative. Oral history values personal experiences and personal conflict (both as stories that need to be told and as ways to reclaim voices that have previously been silenced).
Sheila: And I’m sure we [Hattiesburg, Mississippi] didn’t get publicity during the Freedom Summer because Sandy was gay. And maybe because I was there, but I think they just had this macho image. |
| Sandy Leigh |
3. Oral History is about the way we tell stories. What is left out? How is the story told? How can we recreate the inflection, volume, and other characteristics that enhance the story that is being told?
Sheila: But everybody had a terrible crush on her. Dave Dennis had a terrible crush on her. Martin Luther King had a terrible crush on her. And he used to call her Red. And she was maybe a little darker than I am. A lot of people thought she was Mexican. She was part everything. We were very close friends for years, and then I caught her husband out with a woman. It was just the way they were walking, I knew they were together. I wrapped on the window.And he said, “You’re not going to tell Mary are you?”
And I said, “I have to think about this, you know.”
And I talked to my former husband (we were separated). I talked to the man I was seeing at that point. I talked to the woman I was having coffee with at that point. And everybody said don’t tell Mary.
Don’t tell Mary!
 |
| Mary Hamilton |
I talked to my mother who had Aphasia and couldn’t talk anymore, and I said, "Do you think I should tell her?"
And she said, “Mmmm-mmm” [sounding like no].
I said, “Okay.” And Mary didn’t talk to me for fourteen years.
