Series I: Audio-Visual Items, 1978-1980

Concerned that the recent history of Rochester’s Black citizens would be lost if it were not preserved, Dr. James Wright, manager of the Rochester Public Library’s Phillis Wheatley branch, commissioned a project to record the oral histories of African American Rochesterians in the 1970s and early 1980s. The project was designed to highlight the public contributions of African Americans in the greater Rochester area and to make that information available to the community. Several dozen oral interviews were conducted between 1978 and 1981 with Blacks who were either born in Rochester, or who were long-time residents. The interviewees represent a wide range of occupations, attitudes, and roles in the community, and they discuss a variety of topics from housing discrimination, segregation, and barriers to employment to the importance of community involvement and advances in civil rights.

The Phillis Wheatley Public Library Oral History Collection consists of 113 audio tapes, approximately 70 hours of which have been digitized and are available on Rochester Voices.