A Multi-sensory Approach to Oral History
Our new issue features Wesley Hogan, Geri Augusto, & Danita Mason-Hogans’s “Adapting Critical Oral History Methodology to Freedom Movement Studies,” discussing the use of critical oral history methodology in examining freedom movements. Here the authors offer a way for oral historians to draw on their senses before entering a critical oral history session.
By Wesley Hogan, Geri Augusto, & Danita Mason-Hogans,
As oral historians, we often hear from narrators about their senses: smells they remember, or how it felt when someone touched them, a meal they’ll never forget, how they felt the first time they saw a particular person or event. We hear what went through their mind the first time they listened to an impactful person’s voice. Oral history, in this way, is a record of a multi-sensory experience. So when we set out to adopt the Critical Oral History (COH) methodology in 2016 with civil rights veterans, tone and ambience were central to the success of our three-day oral history sessions. We tried to transform a university setting into space soaked in the Black-led freedom movement’s cultural norms. Kristina Williams, a Duke history graduate student, created a 50+ song Spotify playlist. Oral history for our team started with Motown and Sam Cooke, the music that greeted everyone upon entry to the three-day conferences. The soundtrack kept us energized during the lunch hours, and perked us up as we left the afternoon sessions each day. Songs not only made our collective space familiar, but encouraged people to share memories prompted by the soundtrack.
Project Manager Danita Mason-Hogans made sure to have food typical in the South adapted to COH participants’ dietary restrictions, of which she made careful note. In one extraordinary moment, her family brought in four fresh pies and cakes at the conclusion of the last day’s dinner in 2016, invoking a long history of shared meals after church on Sundays across the region. You’ll see the poundcake recipe below. As the delicious aroma of apple and berry pies and sugary fresh poundcake filled the space, feasting together built a different level of community among us. Finally, slideshow of images from SNCC’s movement activities played in the background in the morning and during lunch of every COH day. Photographers were on hand to make pictures of artifacts and documents that participants brought with them from personal archives; participants often invited others to touch and examine these artifacts, thumbing through mimeographed position papers, weighing the heft of treasured objects like a Kodak Brownie camera, and hearing the first-hand stories of people in treasured photographs. This brought all of one’s senses to the construction of knowledge.
Pat Mason’s Cream Cheese Pound Cake
8oz cream cheese
3 sticks butter
3 cups sugar
6 eggs
3 cups sifted cake flour
2 teaspoons vanilla flavoring
- Preheat oven to 325. Blend cream cheese and butter. Add sugar and blend until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time. Add flour and vanilla. Pour into a greased and floured 10 inch tube pan at 325 for 1 hour to an hour 10 minutes.
- Optional – Before pouring batter in the pan, Sprinkle 1/2 cups pecans in a greased and floured 10-inch tube pan; then add batter.
Wesley Hogan is Research Professor at the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute. In June 2021, she concluded an 8-year tenure as Director of the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke. Between 2003-2013, she taught at Virginia State University, where she worked with the Algebra Project and the Young People’s Project. She writes and teaches the history of youth social movements, human rights, documentary, and oral history.
Geri Augusto is a longtime scholar and former activist at the intersection between the politics of knowledge, knowledge practices, creative expression, and struggles for equality and justice in unequal, highly diverse societies and communities. She is the Director of the Undergraduate Development Studies program, a faculty associate at Brown’s Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice (CSSJ), an affiliate in the Africana Studies Department and at the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS), and a former visiting associate professor of International and Public Affairs and Africana Studies.
Danita Mason-Hogans, MA is an award-winning civil rights historian, educator, speaker, writer and activist. Danita is a native of Chapel Hill, NC from seven generations on both sides of her family. The daughter of Dave Mason of the Chapel Hill Nine, who began the first sit-in of Chapel Hill’s civil rights’ movement, igniting decade of protests against segregation.Danita’s acclaimed TEDx Talk “Why the Way We Tell Stories is A Social Justice Issue” was featured on TED where she describes the Critical Oral History methodology, which she uses for her podcast RE/Collecting Chapel Hill.
Featured image from Flickr user Wolftracker used with CC BY 2.0 license.
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