The Marian Cheek Jackson Center for Saving and Making History hosts an oral history collection on its community history website, From the Rock Wall. Nearly 400 oral histories, recorded with current and former residents of Chapel Hill/Carrboro’s historically Black neighborhoods, allow listeners to learn about local Black history from the people who lived it. The stories collected on From the Rock Wall inform the Jackson Center’s work in housing justice, food justice, student engagement, and education as the Center strives to honor, renew, and build community in and beyond the neighborhoods of Black Chapel Hill/Carrboro. Most critically, these oral histories are used in K-12 classrooms in Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools and beyond, passing on the collective wisdom of community to the next generations.
How to participate
This year, Chapel Hill-Carrboro Juneteenth Celebration attendees can be a part of preserving this history by participating in a transcribe-a-thon, a crowdsourced mass transcription event.
- Use laptops and headphones provided at the event to listen to and transcribe short interview clips.
- Transcriptions will accompany audio files on From the Rock Wall and provide a text version of the oral history excerpt.
- This process makes the clips accessible to a wider audience and provides valuable written materials to accompany the clips in classroom instruction.
The Marian Cheek Jackson Center is excited to involve community members in the process of making and saving Black history.
