Ocean State Libraries

Live recordings and dramatic readings of interviews with former slaves. The original recordings were made by interviewers from the Federal Writers' Project in the early 1930s and placed in the Library of Congress. They have now been re-mastered and made available to the American public.

Gates travels to the east coast, the deep South, inner city Chicago, and Hollywood to investigate modern black America and interview influential Americans including Colin Powell, Quincy Jones, Samuel L. Jackson, Alicia Keys, Maya Angelou, Willie Herenton and others.

Contains a collection of interviews with fourteen Black women authors.

"THE BLACK POWER MIXTAPE 1967-1975 mobilizes a treasure trove of 16mm material shot by Swedish journalists who came to the US drawn by stories of urban unrest and revolution. Gaining access to many of the leaders of the Black Power Movement, Stokely Carmichael, Bobby Seale, Angela Davis and Eldridge Cleaver among them, the filmmakers captured them in intimate moments and remarkably unguarded interviews. Thirty years later, this lush collection was...

"Those Who Saw the Sun is a collection of oral histories told by Black people who grew up in the South during the time of Jim Crow"--

"Presenting interviews with more than fifty members of the oldest generation of Black Americans, including civil rights activists, hometown heroes, celebrities and many others, this testament to the strength and stories behind these individuals reveals their lives, experiences, and wisdom."--

"When Chad Sanders landed his first job in lily-white Silicon Valley, he quickly concluded that to be successful at work meant playing a certain social game. Each meeting was drenched in white slang and the privileged talk of international travel or folk concerts in San Francisco, which led Chad to believe he needed to emulate whiteness to be successful. So Chad changed. He changed his wardrobe, his behavior, his speech--everything that connected...

Interviews between young people and people who took part in the civil rights movement accompany essays that describe the history of efforts to make equality a reality for African Americans.