Collections : [Center for Documentary Research and Practice]

Interviews include discussion of the Equal Rights Amendment, the women's movement, politics, civic affairs, and the Nineteenth Amendment. Most interviewees were born during the 1930s and discussed their involvement in Bloomington, Indiana from the 1940s-1970s.

In this project, four former professionals in the roller skating business recount their experiences as well as their hopes for the future of roller skating. All four men discuss the relationship beteen skating and music. In particular, these men seem to be nostalgic for organ music and the disco era. They also discuss different inventions that revolutionized the skating business, such as floor waxes and in line skates.

Interviewees discuss working at the Bloomington RCA plant from the 1940s until the plant's closing in 1978. They describe the unions, family life, immigration, Brown County farming, and work life.

The interviews in this collection primarily discuss civil rights issues in Claiborne County, Mississippi. Some topics discussed are Black voter registration, school integration, and freedom of choice. The interviewees' childhoods, including the Great Depression and World War II, are also talked about in the interviews. The interviews were conducted as research for the Ph.D. dissertation Common Courtesy: The Civil Rights Movement in Claiborne County, Mississippi by the interviewer.

In this project, James P. White, the American Bar Association consultant on legal education, discusses the history, changes, goals, conflicts, and mission of that institution. He describes his involvement in legal education activities and the occasionally rocky relations between the association and the Section of Legal Education and Admission to the Bar. Law schools, legal specialization, and the commercialization of the legal profession are also major topics within this interview.

Interviewees discuss the Black community of Bloomington, Indiana. They also talk about the West Side Community Center as an important gathering place for the community.

This collection of interviews presents a sampling of life in Burma over the last quarter of the 20th century and into the 21st century. The interviewees, who are all now living in the United States, share their experiences of growing up in a time of transition and political upheaval within their home country. Many of them were involved with the 1988 demonstrations that took place in Rangoon and nearby villages. Almost all spent some time living in fear of arrest, surviving in refugee camps, and hoping for better opportunity. They express varying opinions of their hope for a future democratic Burma and express their appreciation for the lives they have now. This project was co-directed by Professor M. Gail Hickey of the School of Education at Indiana University-Purdue University at Fort Wayne.

"Bloomington Cares" Oral History Project was a class project used to study voluntary organizations that focus on historical and cultural activities in the Bloomington community.

This project contains interviews with attorneys in Indiana. Among the topics discussed are the Indiana Judiciary System, the Indiana General Assembly, the United States Legislature, the United States Supreme Court, the Monroe County judiciary system and Monroe County politics. All interviewees reflect upon the public's perception of the legal profession and how is has changed over the years.

This collection of interviews examines the experiences of Japanese Americans in the Indianapolis area. The interviewees, many of whom were born in Japan prior to World War II, focus on what compelled them to move to Indiana and their impressions of a Japanese American community. In particular, the interviewees detail the work of political and social organizations like the Japan America Society and Japanese American Citizens League. These groups' activities combined the fostering of traditional Japanese cultural forms like art, language, and dancing in the United States with political work like the Redress Movement to confront the experience of internment for many Japanese Americans during World War II.