South of U Oral History Project - Life, Riots, and Renewal in Shaw

Digital Collection

Identifier: dcpl_ohp25

Staff Only

Digital Object (mixed_materials)

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Dates

Creation: 2012

Creator

District of Columbia. Public Library (Organization)

Summary

The South of U Collection Oral History Project gathers first-hand accounts of Washington D.C.’s Shaw neighborhood from individuals who lived there during and after the historic 1968 riots.

The collection consists of video interviews with ten people who discuss their experiences of the effects of the riots on the neighborhood and community and the culture of U Street and Shaw, both past and present. Individual experiences of living in Shaw range from Yvonne Baskerville, a student at segregated Dunbar High School who describes the shock of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, to Ibrahim Mumin, who attended Howard in 1965 as a student activist and has stayed involved with Shaw’s community development over time.

Conditions Governing Access

There are no restrictions to accessing this digital collection.

Conditions Governing Use

The DC Public Library holds the copyright for all of the South of U Oral History Project audio and documents.

Biographical / Historical

The South of U Project was created by Shaw Neighborhood Library staff members Casey Danielson, Nicolas Hirsch, and Eric Riley who began conducting the interviews in 2012. They initially intended to create a documentary from the footage, but a film was not completed.