Local Students Discover Boston's Civil Rights Story

Frances Dodson, a student at New Mission High School in Boston, knew little about civil rights activism in 1960s Boston. "I wasn't sure that there was a civil rights movement in Boston," she said, "I just thought it was in the south."

Through an oral history project with Primary Source and the Museum of African American History, Frances discovered a few of the hidden stories of Boston's civil rights era. As an intern at the Museum, she and other students interviewed local citizens who recalled their involvement in the movement.

"That's what I love about oral history projects--because it's not from the book, you get the emotional aspect, you get how they feel, and you capture the emotion even if they don't tell you," says Dodson. Students at Wellesley High School and Concord-Carlisle Regional High School also used Primary Source's Discovering Boston's Civil Rights Story curriculum to conduct oral history interviews. Concord-Carlisle junior Chiuba Obele, who interviewed his mother, Cheryl Obele, was inspired by her stories of activism as a young woman in Boston. "If social change was overdue for our fathers and mothers forty years ago," he reflected, "then it's long overdue for all of us today."

Copies of the curriculum and an accompanying film featuring participating students and teachers are available at Primary Source. Contact Julie Newport 617-923-9933 x 18) for more information.