Oral History Projects
FEATURED NEW PROJECTS
Among many other notable accomplishments, Hon. Stephan Mickle was the second African American to graduate from the UF College of Law (1970). In his long and storied career, Judge Mickle served in a variety of capacities: He worked as an attorney for the Office of Equal Opportunity, conducted a private practice in Fort Lauderdale, taught at the Levin College of Law, and sat on the bench in a variety of courts. In his capacity as a judge, he has decided a number of important cases on topics ranging from electioneering and affirmative action to campaign finance laws. As evidenced by his long list of decisions, he is a path breaker in any number of fields of law, and he continues to serve as a federal court judge -- a position that makes him an important role model for future lawyers, judges and scholars. Judge Mickle was recently appointed to be the Chief Justice of the United States District Court, Northern District of Florida.
Chesterfield Smith was a giant in the history of the legal profession in Florida, as well as around the nation. Although his career began at a small firm in his hometown of Arcadia, he tried his first major cases as a junior lawyer at the predecessor to the renowned Holland & Knight firm. He made partner in record time and was elected president of the Florida Bar Association. A long list of important cases followed during in the next five decades, but cases alone do not describe the breadth of his achievements, as he was also instrumental in the transformation of the legal profession. Mr. Smith was a vigorous ally of women and minorities seeking entrance into what was then a cloistered fraternity of lawyers. His acolytes include Martha Barnett, the lead prosecutor of the Rosewood case. He was a close associate of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginzburg, as well as former Attorney General Janet Reno. But he is most notable for his principled stand as president of the American Bar Association. In 1973, Smith was the first major lawyer to call for the investigation of President Richard Nixon. In no uncertain terms, Smith denounced the president's involvement in the Watergate scandal by stating that "no man is above the law." This was a stunning rebuke to President Nixon who later famously claimed that "when the president does it, that means it is not illegal." Many widely attribute Smith's condemnation as the catalyst that initiated the Watergate investigation.
Our interviews will document the professional and personal legacy of these important legal practitioners and honorable citizens. In the upcoming months, these interviews will be featured as a series of podcasts on legal history in Florida.
Current Projects
- Sunflower County Civil Rights Organization in Indianola, Mississippi: Project documents the Civil Rights Movement in the Mississippi Delta. In September, 2008, a team from UF and FSU conducted oral histories at the Mississippi Freedom Summer Reunion in Indianola as part of a collaborative research project. The reunion focused on experiences of Civil Rights Movement veterans in the Mississippi Delta before, during, and after the famous Mississippi for Freedom Summer in 1964. LEARN MORE
- The Hon. Stephan Mickle: A prominent figure in the Florida legal profession, from his earlier achievement of being the second African American to graduate from the UF College of Law to his recent appointment as the Chief Justice of the United States District Court, Northern District of Florida.
- Chesterfield Smith: Honored as a "Great Floridian," Smith has been recognized across the nation for his contribution to the legal profession, including advocacy of women and minorities and a 1973 denouncement of President Nixon's involvement with Watergate.
- Labor, Work, and Social Justice in the Gulf South: This wide-ranging project builds on an original research interest pioneered by Samuel Proctor at UF. We will begin by conducting oral histories with first-generation immigrants, labor union members, retiring professors, women in professional health occupations, as well as service workers at the University of Florida.
- Oral History Public Program Series: This project is in cooperation with the UF Department of History, the Matheson Museum, Inc., and the UF Special Collections Library. In 2009, exhibits and programs will focus on World War II veterans' experiences, African American history, women in the professional health occupations, and Everglades history.
- Lake City Historical Society: This undertaking is a collaboration to develop an oral history project on the history of the downtown area, veterans, and Lake City itself.
- History of Ocala-Marion County. This oral history project will be in collaboration with Ocala Storytellers, the Marion County School Board, and the Ocala-Marion Public Library.
- First volunteers of the Peace Corps: This project will focus on the Peace Corps's 50th anniversary in 2011.
- Middle District Courts of Florida Video Collection: Dr. Pleasants completed 12 videotaped oral history interviews with judges from the Middle District Courts of Florida.
- Digitization Project A generous grant from Caleb and Michelle Grimes allowed SPOHP to begin its Digitization Project. It is an ongoing project with the Digital Library to download the remainder of our interviews. See below.
- Andersonville National Historic Site POW Interviews: The National Park Service employees at the National POW Museum have conducted more than 900 interviews with POWs from many wars (World War I to present).
- St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD) Oral Histories: This project focuses on ranching families in the greater Orlando area.
Ongoing Projects
- We are continuing work on oral histories of SJRWMD in Florida, World War II veterans, Florida business leaders, and Florida medical and nursing schools.
- Processing interviews on the history of the University of North Florida conducted by Dr. James Crooks, a faculty member at UNF. Dr. Crooks is a faculty member at UNF.
- Alan Bliss, a UF graduate student, is compiling a history of the Bayfront Medical Center in the Tampa area. Mr. Bliss received funding to conduct and process these interviews.
- SPOHP is continuing its last year in a three-year contract with the SJRWMD to conduct oral history interviews relating to the history of Florida's water management districts. Daniel Simone (UF Ph.D. student) and Dr. Pleasants have conducted research and interviews for this project. Mr. Simone has also conducted a series of interviews relating to the Jet Port.
- Diane Fischler continues compiling summaries of interviews. She has summarized interviews from the Florida Water Management Project and all the Florida Seminole interviews, which are being used in an upcoming publication by Dr. Pleasants and Dr. Harry Kersey, titled And My Values Are Still There: Seminole Reflections on Their Changing Society, 1970-2000. Diane continues to summarize our World War II Collection, which includes collaboration with Ken Samuelson in North Carolina.
- Ann Smith is also compiling summaries. She has completed the Federal Judges of the Middle District Courts Project and is currently summarizing Vietnam veterans' interviews.
Digitization
SPOHP is working with the UF Digital Library Center and the Florida Center for Library Automation to produce a digital catalog of its archive. The project has three motives:
- Allow interviews to be catalogued online, making the collection accessible and searchable from anywhere in the world.
- Preserve irreplaceable interviews, previously recorded on degrading, outmoded media.
- Permit interviews to be linked with complementary archival holdings at the University of Florida, resulting in unique and mutually reinforcing sets of primary sources on a broad range of historical topics.
This project will rescue historical materials available nowhere else, while providing a wider audience with vastly improved access to these resources. This new technology will also allow the UF Libraries to include audio and video clips in our collection.
Caleb and Michele Grimes, UF graduates, have generously provided $25,000 to support our digitization project. We are grateful for their gift.
Although we have scanned more than 30,000 pages of interview transcripts, the Digital Library staff continues to work on this time-consuming project, including Lourdes FinoSanchez, who edits them through "text mark-up" in the Digital Library office. We went "live" in Fall 2006 with a majority of our interviews, but will continue to work with the Digital Library to complete this online collection.
This is an important step forward for our program. Read The Importance of Digitizing Oral Histories (PDF) by Deborah Hendrix.
