Oral History Center at UC Berkeley

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Oral History Center at UC Berkeley

Browse our collection: https://www.lib.berkeley.edu/libraries/bancroft-library/oral-history-center

Video: http://www.youtube.com/user/ROHOucb

The Oral History Center (OHC), a division of The Bancroft Library, documents the history of California, the nation, and the interconnected global arena. OHC produces carefully researched, audio/video-recorded and transcribed oral histories and interpretative historical materials for the widest possible use.

09/29/2026

The Oral History Center is excited to announce the release of the oral history of former California Governor Gray Davis, now available in the Bancroft Library’s online catalog. Spanning seventeen sessions, the oral history details the Governor’s experience in California politics, from his time as chief of staff to Governor Jerry Brown to his own terms of Governor two decades later. Visit our website to read Governor Davis’s extensive oral history, which joins those of Governor Edmund “Pat” Brown, Governor Jerry Brown, and over four hundred oral histories with other leaders in California politics.

02/20/2025

Today is the 83rd anniversary of Executive Order 9066, which forced the incarceration and displacement of over 125,000 people, majority of whom were Japanese American or of Japanese descent. On this Day of Remembrance, we are highlighting the voice of child survivors and descendants of WWII-era Japanese American incarceration camps through our Japanese American Intergenerational Narratives project.
Visit our website to hear these narrators talk about their lives and the lasting impact of Japanese American incarceration.

12/20/2024

There are few places as iconic as the California coast. In this documentary, OHC historian Todd Holmes documents the 1972 grassroots campaign that took on the most powerful interests in the state to preserve the coast for all people.

Watch: https://youtu.be/KQNo5-CZuHQ

12/03/2024

Please consider making a tax deductible donation to support the OHC’s work at the link in our bio. We are grateful for you!

11/08/2024

Webinar announcement! Our project partners, Legacy Genetics, is hosting a training from 12-1:30pm PT on Friday, November 8.

10/29/2024

Heading to Cincinnati for the conference? Come say to the OHC!
is moderating on Thursday morning, and then he, , and Amanda Tewes are presenting on our Japanese American Intergenerational Narratives Project that afternoon.

See you soon!

09/30/2024

“I remember doing this paper where I said that the thing I’ve learned about being Chicano is that there is no one definition. One could be Chicano and be working class; one could also be a college graduate, one could choose to be an artist, you know? And essentially, the subtext was that I was saying one could be gay or q***r, and I was coming to that conclusion.”
-Artist Joey Terrill

Happy Latinx/Hispanic Heritage Month! We have many interviews about Latinx heritage and identity in our collection. Today we are featuring a narrator from our work with the Getty Trust with artist Joey Terrill.
Visit our website for more from Terrill and many others!

09/09/2024

As summer draws to a close, student editor Sophia Faaland reflects on the local impact of Freedom Summer. Over the past 60 years, the political activism of Freedom Summer has directly impacted and even shaped the political freedoms on the Berkeley campus. OHC narrators who experienced this event in 1964, and faced brutal violence to ensure voting rights throughout the US, are featured in a new blog post “Freedom Summer and Its Legacy: Berkeley Sixty Years Later.” Celebrate the 60th anniversary of this landmark moment in the Civil Rights Movement.

https://update.lib.berkeley.edu/2024/08/28/freedom-summer-and-its-legacy-berkeley-sixty-years-later/

08/12/2024

Freedom Summer: A California Retrospective is out now on our channel!

In celebration of the 60th anniversary of Mississippi Freedom Summer, this video takes a look at that historic event in 1964 using oral histories of Californian who participated.

A collaboration of the OHC, the California Secretary of State’s Office, and the CA State Archives:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hoex5L_4HEc

Credits:
Todd Holmes: Creator, Producer
Sydney Sloan: Photographic Research
Heidi Holmes: Editing Assistance

06/30/2024

Happy Pride! Check out our newest piece, “Celebrating the Work of Freedom to Marry, Through Oral History,” by student editor Katie Gonzales!

Address

Oral History Center, University Of California, The Bancroft Library #6000
Berkeley, CA
94720

Website

https://www.lib.berkeley.edu/libraries/bancroft-library/oral-history-center

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