Oral Histories: Berea College, in the Berea Sound Archives

Berea College Celebration of Traditional Music Oral History Collection 2014

Twelve video recorded interviews that include event founder Loyal Jones, members of the Traditional Music Committee, and performers.

Berea College Christmas Country Dance School Oral History Collection 2013

Thirty eight video and and audio recorded interviews with Country Dance School participants, instructors, and musicians who have been associated with the dance school over many years’ time.

Berea College Country Dancers Oral History Collection 2013

Seventeen video recorded interviews with Berea alumni who were members of the Country Dancers at various times 1940s - 1990s. John Ramsay also served as the group's director from

Berea College Men's Basketball Oral History Collection, 1998-1999

This collection is comprised of audio recorded interviews with written transcripts (1998-1999) by Tom Chase documenting the history of the Berea College men's basketball program. Chase examines the relationship between sports and academic life throughout the interviews, pointing to Berea's emphasis on academic excellence.

Berea College Women’s Basketball Oral History Collection, 2008

Audio compact disc recordings and transcripts of sixteen interviews recorded by Tom Chase in 2008. Interviews are mostly with women who played varsity (intercollegiate) basketball at Berea College during the program's first three decades (early 1960s to 2008). The exceptions are three Berea College faculty members who coached and taught physical education (Martha Beagle, Mark Tobin and Martha Joyce May Hager and an Eastern Kentucky University faculty member with many years of experience coaching, officiating, and writing about women's collegiate athletics (Peggy Stanaland).

Berea College Selma To Montgomery Oral History Project

This Collection consists of recorded interviews with former Berea College students and faculty who participated in the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights march led by Dr.Martin Luther King, Jr. The interviews were recorded by Berea College assistant professor of history, Dr. Dwayne Mack, and student assistant, Brittney Westbrook.

Berea College Theatre Oral History Collection

Twenty one interviews with Berea College faculty and staff, some of whom were also Berea College alumni. (Follow links in box list to hear recordings and read transcripts.) The interviews document the development of the college's theatre activities including both the curricular program and the co-curricular Theatre Laboratory labor program. The time span of the interviewee's involvement with Berea's theatre program range from the 1930s to the then present, 1988. 

Lincoln Institute Oral History Collection, 2003-2008

Video-recorded interviews of eighty-six individuals who were students at Lincoln Institute in Simpsonville, Kentucky at various times from the 1930s through 1966 when the all-black boarding high school closed.

Poverty Warriors Oral History Project (Appalachian Studies 286)

Nine interviews recorded by Berea College students in a course taught by Chris Green during the Summer of 2015. The interviews were conducted to supplement existing material on the Council of the Southern Mountains and the War on Poverty in eastern Kentucky. Participating students were Emily Carter, Raychel McKinney, Britney Napier, Alexandria Gaston, and Kayla (Kyle) Rector.