Description: Established in 1971, The Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage preserves the history of Mississippians from all walks of life. Our collection of over 4,000 interviews covers a wide range of topics including Civil Rights and Veterans issues.
history (7595) veterans (1777) heritage (1706) mississippi (1229) cultural (790) hurricane (415) civil rights (355) katrina (62)
In 1999, the Center became the repository for the Mississippi Oral History Project : “a ground-breaking initiative, funded by the Mississippi State Legislature, to document the collective memory of Mississippi's culture, heritage, and institutions.
The oral histories are accessible via either Special Collections in USM’s McCain Library and Archives, and in the COHCH’s offices at USM’s Hattiesburg campus. The Center also provides access to an increasing number of its oral histories online .
While the COHCH has collected oral histories related to a variety of historical and cultural topics in Mississippi, the Center has a major strength in the documentation of the history and memory of the civil rights movement and its veterans.