Black Disability Oral History Project

The history of disability has been developing over the last two decades, but narratives of Black disabled people remain scarce. Disabled people are similarly marginalized within the existing scholarship on African American history. This oral history project advances African American and disability history by centering the lived experiences of disabled African Americans living in the Jim Crow South.

The Black Disability Oral History Project seeks to interview disabled African Americans who lived in the South at any point before 1975. I am particularly interested in interviewing those who attended residential schools for blind and/or Deaf children, though I am also excited to hear the stories of those who did not attend specialized schools. While this project is primarily interested in the recollections of disabled African Americans themselves, I am also interested in interviewing family members, educators, and specialists connected to disabled people.

Interviews for this project will be made available to the public through William & Mary Libraries so that future scholars and interested individuals will have access to the important perspectives of interviewees.

If you would like to be interviewed as a part of this project, please click the link below to fill out an interest form. I am happy to talk about details and can chat with you in ASL if that works best for you.