Summer 2009, Volume 1 One Community. Number 2 Many Voices.

History Speaks: S P OHP News Dear SPOHP Supporter, On behalf of our program, I would like to thank the Gainesville community for the incredible support that we received for our public program on March 17: “Florida Black History: Where We Stand in the Age of Barack Obama.”

This event was well covered by The Gainesville Sun in its article titled “Early Black Grad, Current UF Leaders Reflect on State of Race.” The program was attended by more than 250 people and featured inspirational music, dance, and spoken word performances.

President Bernie Machen presented Joel Buchanan with an achievement award in honor of his work to preserve and promote African American history for future generations. During the 1980s, Joel Buchanan documented the lives of many residents in the Fifth Avenue community, and SPOHP is proud to have these interviews as part of its collection.

UF Veterans Memorial Dedication Ceremony, Our panelists urged us to remember the complex April 30, 2009. The inscription on the monu- historical road that we have traveled on the way to electing ment reads: “This memorial is in honor of our nation’s first African American president. We were Gator veterans and those who have fallen charged with renewing our commitment to preserve our while answering the nation’s call to protect histories in order to educate younger people about our our freedom.” (photo by Ira Fischler) struggles to build a more democratic society.

This program was made possible through the generous Visit us online to learn more support of UF campus units, as well as numerous Gainesville about SPOHP and to subscribe to the community organizations. We look forward to continuing Proctor Podcast. Recent episodes our work with Alachua County residents in documenting our include Florida water management region’s rich history! district experts Victoria Tschinkel and recently deceased Stanley Hole. Paul Ortiz, Director

www.history.ufl.edu/oral 1 of 20 History Speaks: S P OHP News History Speaks: SPOHP News Roberta Peacock Wins The Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Connection: Paul Ortiz, SPOHP Director Distinguished Award Returning to the “River of Grass” Roberta Peacock, Administrative Assistant On April 22, 2009, Roberta Peacock, By Roberta Y. Peacock

Danielle Navarrete, Administrative Assistant at the Samuel Proctor Co-Editor & Designer Oral History Program, was one of the recipients of Diane Fischler, Co-Editor & Writer UF’s prestigious Superior Accomplishment Awards (in the Administrative/Supervisory category). The award recognizes “those who contribute Website: outstanding and meritorious service, efficiency www.history.ufl.edu/oral Email: and/or economy, or to the quality of life provided [email protected] to students and employees.” SPOHP congratulates Phone: Colorful roadside billboards point the way to Big Cypress Reservation. (photos by Roberta Peacock) (352) 392-7168 Roberta and salutes her many accomplishments Fax: (352) 846-1983 that enhance UF’s Oral History Program. As a native of South Florida, I fondly remember will find yourself on the Big Cypress Reservation of visiting the Indian villages and driving on Alligator the Seminole Tribe of Florida. The Everglades seem Alley and the Tamiami Trail (U.S. Highway 41, which desolate and empty, but as you notice the foliage runs through the Miccosukee Indian Reservation). of the swamp, palm trees, and wildlife, you realize In This Issue Not much has changed. Indian villages with thatched how beautiful this “River of Grass”—as Marjory chickees still line the roadside and alligators roam Stoneman Douglas referred to it—really is. free. You can see and hear swamp buggies and airboats, and can gaze upon Tribe members in Turning a bend in the road, the Reservation Letter from the Director 1 their colorful dress. I have taken my children to proper comes to life. Modern houses, chickees, Sojourn to Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki 3 several villages on both the Miccosukee and Big a school, gymnasium, rodeo arena, gas stations, History Detectives on the Case 6 Cypress reservations. They continue to talk about restaurants, and public buildings line the narrow their airboat ride to a remote Indian village in the two-lane road. Red, yellow, and black signs indicate POW-MIA Recognition Day 8 Everglades. Sharing a portion of Florida’s rich history that this is part of the Seminole Tribe of Florida. French Legion of Honor Medal 10 is exciting and educational.

Personalizing the WW II Home Front 11 Upon arriving at the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum When visiting South Florida, you must see (Miccosukee word meaning “to learn”), you walk Remembering Florida Black History 14 the Big Cypress Indian Reservation in the Florida over a bridge and gaze down on alligators sunning History in the Making 16 Everglades. If you take the stretch of I-75—better on the water’s edge. A scent of sweet smoke—from Color Guard at UF Veterans Memorial Dedication known as “Alligator Alley”—from either coast and a fire under a ceremonial chickee—fills the air at the Ceremony, April 30, 2009. (photo by Deborah Hendrix) Julian Pleasants Travel Award 19 get off on Exit 49 (Snake Road) and head north, you entrance of the museum’s main building, effectively Podcast Update 20 2 of 20 www.history.ufl.edu/oral www.history.ufl.edu/oral 3 of 20 History Speaks: S P OHP News drawing the visitor into listening to the music and I visited Big Cypress Reservation in March 2009. smelling the aroma. The museum exhibits include A collaborative project with the Seminole Tribe several life-size dioramas showing village camps and of Florida was started by the Samuel Proctor Oral depicting the Tribe’s culture. Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki displays History Program in 1970. This project was initiated make the Seminole culture come alive. The museum under the Doris Duke Foundation Grant given to has two outer buildings. One houses maintenance the University of Florida’s Department of History. and building services, and the other contains the During the first phase of the Seminole Project, Collections Department, the director’s offices, and a more than 190 interviews were collected, primarily viewing area of museum projects and productions. by a graduate student, Tom King, who lived on the reservation [Dr. R.T. King, Director Emeritus, Behind the main building is a boardwalk nature University of Nevada, Reno, 1983-2008]. trail, approximately two miles long, which takes guests into the swamp. Along the way are signs on In the late 1990s, SPOHP was awarded a grant plant life to let visitors know what they are viewing. from the Florida Humanities Council to conduct Some other stops on this trail include a native additional interviews with Seminole Tribe members. village and ceremonial grounds. The day I toured the We now house 265 Seminole Indian oral history museum was “Kattle Kids Day.” Museum staff, Tribal interviews. A comparison was made between the members, and re-enactors were on the trail, as well original interviews and the 1990s interviews, which as in the arts and crafts and livestock areas. Visitors will be reflected in a forthcoming book published were able to watch demonstrations on branding, by the University of Nebraska Press. This book will Cross over into the Seminole culture on the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum’s bridge. roping and riding, and making Indian art and jewelry. include several of the oral history interviews in the Seminole Tribe of Florida Project, as well as a narrative by Dr. Julian I visited Elizabeth at Big Cypress Reservation’s for the Tribe to house a collection of photographs, Pleasants, former SPOHP director, Museum, and we discussed the Seminole Tribe of slides, and glass plate-photos in the Tribe’s archives. and Dr. Harry Kersey, Jr., of Florida Florida and Samuel Proctor Oral History Program’s UF Smathers Libraries archivists will work out the Atlantic University. collaboration. I brought Elizabeth a copy of our final details for this acquisition. in-depth summaries of our Seminole oral history Since the 1990s, SPOHP has collection. For more information on SPOHP’s collection of continued to work closely with Seminole Indian interviews, log into our digital members of the Seminole Tribe SPOHP has numerous photographs and slides collection at www.uflib.ufl.edu/UFDC/UFDC. of Florida. Elizabeth Lowman from the 1970s, which have been digitized. These aspx?g=oral&m=hhh. If you are planning a trip to was recently hired by the Tribe were given to us by Tribal members and historians. South Florida and would like more information on as an oral historian to conduct I delivered a CD to the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum the Big Cypress Indian Reservation, visit the Tribe’s interviews with Tribal members. during my visit. The UF Smathers Libraries Special website at www.seminoletribe.com These interviews are being added Collections also archive photographs, slides, and to the Tribe’s current archives glass plate-photos, many of which are of the at the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum. Seminoles. Elizabeth made a verbal commitment Yellow jacaranda in bloom on Big Cypress Reservation. 4 of 20 www.history.ufl.edu/oral www.history.ufl.edu/oral 5 of 20 History Speaks: S P OHP News Paul Ortiz on the Case with “History Detectives” By Diane Fischler

Sweat streamed down Tukufu Zuberi’s face as the afternoon sun intensified in the Florida scrub. One of then declined drastically, only to be revived after the four hosts of PBS’s popular “History Detectives,” Zuberi was clearly enjoying the challenge of solving one Reconstruction came to an end. of history’s mysteries. Despite the heat, the “History Detectives” production crew filmed take after take of Zuberi’s interview with Paul Ortiz, SPOHP director and a scholar knowledgeable about Florida black history. After interviewing Paul Ortiz, Phil Denton of the Archer Historical Society, and Jim Powell, Tukufu Zuberi and Paul Ortiz confer at photo shoot. The show’s format involves the hosts trying to learn the story behind historical artifacts possessed by the Ancient Records Coordinator for the Alachua viewers across the country. Ortiz was providing Zuberi with new leads about a former slave, Harvey McLeod, County Clerk of Courts, Zuberi put together a who had settled in Florida after the Civil War. Ortiz, author of Emancipation Betrayed: The Hidden History clearer picture of Harvey McLeod—who never did of Black Organizing and White Violence in Florida from Reconstruction to the Bloody Election of 1920 (2006) fulfill his wish to go back to Africa. Instead, McLeod Center east of Gainesville. The city-operated park and Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Tell about Life in the Segregated South (co-editor, 2001), was remained in Alachua County, farming a 40-acre tract provided an authentic setting for an 1870s Alachua an obvious choice for Zuberi’s probing questions about McLeod. of land and raising a large family. Around the turn County scenario—including crowing roosters and of the century, he donated some of this land to the gnats hovering in the production crew’s faces. When Zuberi’s inquiry focused on letters that McLeod, living in Alachua County, had written to his sister community for a school for black children—a highly the interview ended late in the afternoon, the in South Carolina in the late 1870s. The letters urged his sister, Mary Ballad Vance, to move with him to unusual act for a black man at that time. historic letters were carefully put away, and it was Africa—specifically, Liberia. Vernetia Jenkins of South Carolina, Vance’s great-great-granddaughter, was time to return to the present. interested in learning more about the author of those yellowed letters. At Jenkins’s request, “History Paul Ortiz contributed to Zuberi’s investigation Detectives” accepted on several levels: He discussed the revival of the But were Vernetia Jenkins’s questions answered? the challenge to uncover Back to Africa Movement after Reconstruction, Perhaps Harvey McLeod was involved in the Back more information about related how Florida temporarily offered a post-Civil to Africa Movement; he certainly was aware of Vance’s distant relative, War haven to former slaves, and directed Zuberi to the undertaking. But as a result of the detectives’ and to determine if he was courthouse property deed records. Commenting historical research, Jenkins learned how McLeod involved in the Back to on the former slave living in Florida’s immediate had impacted this corner of North Central Florida Africa Movement. post-Reconstruction period and beyond, Ortiz through his generosity and community involvement. said, “Harvey McLeod would have seen the whole She even met some of McLeod’s descendants who By the 1850s, more spectrum of racial conflict firsthand.” It was no still reside in this area. Tukufu Zuberi, Paul Ortiz, than 13,000 free blacks surprise that McLeod wanted to go back to his roots and others made it possible for Vernetia Jenkins to had journeyed back to in Africa at this particular time because the 1876 illuminate her past. the west coast of Africa presidential election had ended Reconstruction. under the sponsorship of Federal troops left the state and white supremacists More information will appear on this program the American Colonization regained power. Jim Crow laws now reigned. after it airs on PBS this summer. To read about Society. The movement this particular investigation at that time, go to the Production crew film “History Detective” Tukufu Zuberi and Paul Ortiz at The shooting locale for Ortiz’s segment of “History Detectives” website, www.pbs.org/opb/ Morningside Nature Center on March 13. (Photos by Diane Fischler) Zuberi’s investigation was Morningside Nature historydetectives, and click “Investigations.” 6 of 20 www.history.ufl.edu/oral www.history.ufl.edu/oral 7 of 20 History Speaks: S P OHP News National POW-MIA Recognition Day Herbert E. Pepper September 18, 2009 Herbert turned 90 on March 12 in Lake By Diane Fischler City. His key to survival: “You just have to have the determination to live.”

Every year on the third Friday of September the United States officially remembers prisoners of war (Photo by Diane Fischler) and those missing in action. As part of that commemoration, the black POW-MIA “You are not forgotten” flag will fly on the grounds of the Malcolm Randall VA Medical Center in Gainesville on September 18. During the VA’s annual observance of POWs and MIAs, the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program will have an exhibit table showcasing its World War II, Korean, and Vietnam oral history collections. The SPOHP- produced documentary, I Just Wanted to Live!, featuring the accounts of four prisoners of war held by the Japanese, will be on display and available for ordering. Victor H. Cote

Four ex-POWs were featured in this film. They all survived the Battle of Bataan, the Bataan Death Victor turned 89 on April 7. His key to survival: March, the internment camps in the Philippines, the Japanese Hell Ships, and the slave labor camps in “My commanding officer [on the Bataan peninsula] Japan. The following quotations, taken from their SPOHP oral histories, tell how these former prisoners of said, ‘You’ll never live to see your 21st birthday.’” war survived the darker and little known side of war. Victor added, “I built a shield. I had a [an emotional] shield that protected me.” Victor is holding the mess kit that he carried as a POW throughout World War II. John R. Bumgarner (Photo by Ira Fischler)

Dr. Bumgarner passed away in 2006 at age 94. His key to sur- vival while tending the starving and disease-ridden POWs with no available medicine: “You were just a morale officer.” He added, “Well, Damon Conrad Alberty if you’re subject to shock every day, you become a little immune to it, Conrad will turn 85 on August 28. His key to survival: but not entirely.” He concluded: “If “You become hard. Listen, you serve one year in you weren’t tough mentally, you there [POW camp] and you become hard. You have didn’t survive.” no emotions, no feelings, no nothing. The only thing

(Photo courtesy Bumgarner family) you’ve got in the back of your mind is one little key word. It’s survival, survival, survival.”

(Photo courtesy Alberty family)

8 of 20 www.history.ufl.edu/oral www.history.ufl.edu/oral 9 of 20 History Speaks: S P OHP News WW II Oral History Interviewee What Was It Like on the Home Front? To Receive French Legion of Honor Medal By Diane Fischler Frank Towers, who participated Frank was an eyewitness to the horrors Aurelia “Chick” Wallace takes an active in the “Testimony of War” panel of war both on the battlefront and on a interest in SPOHP’s World War II Oral discussion last November, will be more personal level with camp survivors. History Collection and veterans events receiving France’s highest tribute in with her husband, Col. Phil Newman—a June. The president of France, Nicolas Frank attends reunions of the former B-17 bomber pilot. They both enjoy Sarkozy, will present Frank with 30th Infantry Division veterans every sharing their war experiences with high the Legion of Honor Medal. French year, and recently some survivors of the school students—the kind of stories not Ambassador Pierre Vimont notified him: camp, which the Old Hickory Division found in history textbooks.

“This award testifies to the President of liberated, have attended those reunions. (photo by Ira Fischler) the French Republic’s high esteem for your merits In 2000, he started a program called “Les and accomplishments. In particular, it is a sign Fleurs de la Mémoire” (“The Flowers of Memory”) of France’s true and unforgettable gratitude and in which more than 9,100 graves in the Normandy appreciation for your personal, precious contribution and Brittany cemeteries have been adopted by to the United States’ decisive role in the liberation individuals and families living in Normandy and By Aurelia D. Wallace of our country during World War II.” Presentation other places in France. It is an honor to have Frank of the medal will be on June 6, 2009—the 65th Towers’s war recollections in SPOHP’s World War II Since Ken Burns’s World War II documentary meatless recipes. Between 1942 and 1945, sugar, anniversary of the Normandy Invasion—at Utah Oral History Collection. titled The War premiered in 2007, millions of lard, butter, gasoline, tires, clothing, and shoes were Beach near Sainte-Mère-Église, Normandy. Americans now know as much about that conflict as rationed. For my wartime wedding, I wore a hand- if they, too, had been there. But what was it like on sewn long white gown with cardboard sandals that As a regimental—then division—liaison officer, the home front? Who remembers today what it was would not have survived a rain shower. I cut the Frank took part in one of the later landings upon the like more than 65 years ago? sandals out of a cardboard box and fastened them beaches of Normandy on June 13—his 26th birthday. up with my daddy’s shoelaces—all painted white He was part of the famed 30th Infantry Division, Sixteen million wives, mothers, sweethearts, with shoe polish. affectionately called the “Old Hickory Division.” This and sisters wrote letters to their loved ones—and division played major roles in Operation Cobra (the received replies from—on a special new form called But it was a great time for women—not just for “breakout” at Saint-Lô), the Battle of the Bulge, “V-mail,” which was shrunk to the size of a postage the adventurous WAC (Women’s Army Corps) and and the successful attack on the Siegfried Line in stamp. V-mails were delivered to parts of the world WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Germany. The 743rd Tank Battalion, assigned to the its writers had never heard of—Peleliu, Burma, Service). The heroines of the home front took over 30th Infantry Division, liberated a train load of 2,500 Bastogne, Tarawa—and they learned the geography men’s jobs in factories, farms, garages, and offices. Jewish concentration camp survivors from Bergen- of the planet. If not working in these important positions, women Belsen, at Magdeburg, Germany, in mid-April 1945. were delivering doughnuts to thousands of troop Then came the ration books—Friday was trains, manning canteens, dancing with strangers, Frank Towers’s Legion of Honor medal is in the “Meatless Day.” Millions of women invented weird and driving Army vehicles. I “drove” a seasoned old “Chevalier” or “Knight” class. (photo by Diane Fischler) 10 of 20 www.history.ufl.edu/oral www.history.ufl.edu/oral 11 of 20 History Speaks: S P OHP News

5th Cavalry horse that had served in World falsies as a pin cushion, causing considerable shock motherhood, independence, and self-hood and with middle-aged children went to college free on their War I more than 20 years earlier! The Horse Cavalry to our dates who were greeted by the housemother all their concomitant prejudices—were washing father’s Navy service. “Change” was the operant metamorphosed into the Tank Corps in 1944, and in as they picked us up to go to the movies! away. Posters of “Rosie the Riveter” urged us on, word. “Technology” became a philosophy. those days women could not yet drive tanks. as did posters of Uncle Sam who pointed a stern Millions of us learned to change tires, repair forefinger at us: “We Want You!” Half of my college My first husband, Dr. Alvin T. Wallace, was the Disposable diapers were invented, along with motors, and drive gigantic trucks. We left our classmates married at 18 or 19, as I did, and then put very first recipient of the GI Bill. After being honored SPAM® and instant coffee. In the absence of silk children and war babies in nurseries so we could— our 16 million returning husbands through college in Congress, this once-barefoot Georgia Cracker farm stockings, we painted our legs with Max Factor for the first time in our lives—work outside the home on the GI Bill of Rights, most of whom would never boy went all the way through college and obtained a pancake makeup—the same makeup that we put on and live the lives our men had left behind. We could have gone to college at all. What a recipe for change! Ph.D. to become the youngest dean in the history of our faces today. We drew a black line up the back of do a job, run a home, and take care of children for the University of Florida (1950-1971). Buildings and our legs with a Maybelline eyebrow pencil. Rubber the first time in the history of the Western world. I strongly believe the GI Bill was the most scholarships are named for him. In his memory, war, “falsies” were invented so we’d all look like Betty powerful and influential nudge to excellence this victory, peace, and progress come together in ways Grable’s sweater front, not our flat-chested teen Women’s independence leaped forward like a country had ever experienced. Its unending effects he would have never dreamed about in the prism of selves. My sorority housemother used her rubber relentless tide. All the old stereotypes of marriage— are fully visible in every facet of life today. Both my his World War II years. . . . _ . . . _ The “V” in “V-mail” stood for While attending the University of Georgia “Victory” followed by three dots during the war years, Chick Dunstan and a dash. These dots and dash served with the U.S. Army’s Horse Cavalry, are Morse Code for the letter a unit attached to the school’s ROTC “V.” The senders—on either the program. She was the only female in this home front or overseas—wrote unit, achieving the rank of first lieutenant. their letters on forms to be This cavalry unit’s duties encompassed photographed and then reduced 30-mile-long treks, being responsible for and put on microfilm. At the the care of each horse, and performing receiving stations, the messages ceremonial duties. In this photo, Chick is were enlarged, printed on photo holding a trophy for a first-place jumping paper, and then delivered to contest. Her duties with the Horse Cavalry the addressees. The messages ended upon graduation at age 19 in 1945. from servicemen underwent an She is the last surviving member of the additional step: they were heavily U.S. Horse Cavalry. censored. (photo by Ira Fischler) (photo courtesy Aurelia D. Wallace)

12 of 20 www.history.ufl.edu/oral www.history.ufl.edu/oral 13 of 20 History Speaks: S P OHP News Florida Black History: Where We Stand in the Age of Barack Obama By Marna Weston

On the evening of March 17, 2009, UF President plaque read: “The Samuel Proctor Oral History Dr. J. Bernard Machen and First Lady, Chris Machen, Program Recognizes Joel Buchanan. In honor of your joined SPOHP for a three-hour program titled work to preserve and promote African American “Florida Black History: Where We Stand in the Age History for Future Generations. March 17, 2009.” UF junior Khambria Clarke inspired the audi- of Barack Obama.” The program acknowledged ence with reading selected passages from James Weldon Johnson’s “50 Years.” the presence and contributions of revered, living SPOHP also held an afternoon seminar on persons whose sacrifices in the past—as students— March 24, 2009, titled “Leadership, History, and played key roles in the development of UF as a place Civil Rights in the Age of Barack Obama.” This co- honoring diversity and inclusion. curricular panel featured interested students, UF history professor emeritus, Dr. Robert Zieger, and Several of “The Firsts” (original African- IFAS professor, Dr. Paul Monaghan. The audience UF President J. Bernard Machen presents an award to Joel Buchanan for his contribu- American graduates of UF’s various colleges) were included history professor Dr. Jack Davis, history tion to preserving and promoting African present and recognized by President Machen: professor emeritus and Civil Rights activist Dr. David American history for future generations. Federal Judge Stephan Mickle, his wife, Evelyn Marie Chalmers, and Gainesville community activist, Kali (photos by Ira Fischler) Moore Mickle, and Dr. Reuben Brigety. Professor Blount. Due to illness, Rosewood historian, Lizzie Sherry DuPree, Dr. Gwendolyn Zohara Simmons, and P.R.B. Jenkins, and UF AFSCME president, Alberta Mr. Dan Harmeling joined Mrs. Mickle as panelists, Hopkins Walls, could not attend, but they will be UF’s First Lady, Chris Machen, and folklorist rounding out the discussion group, with each featured in a future program. Special thanks to Vivian Filer share a laugh. contributor bringing unique offerings of personal UF’s George A. Smathers Libraries and the North experience with past racism and its implications in Star Leadership Council Alumni for their roles in today’s world. coordinating the two events.

SPOHP Director Dr. Paul Ortiz invited Gainesville

historian Professor Joel Buchanan to moderate the evening’s panel. Professor Buchanan (who in 1964 The conceptual developer of this public event was Marna University of Florida Gospel Choir performed was one of the original three African-American Weston, a third-year doctoral student in Agricultural Education at the event under the direction of Professor students to desegregate Gainesville High School) and Communication at the University of Florida. Mr. Weston’s David Richardson. was presented with a plaque by President Machen academic interests include recruitment and retention of acknowledging his lifetime contributions to the minority faculty, Civil Rights, and the historic land use of African Left to right: Shayla Ellis, SPOHP videogra- collection and preservation of oral history. The Americans in Florida. pher Deborah Hendrix, SPOHP Director Paul Ortiz, and Justin Bauford confer at podium prior to the program. 14 of 20 www.history.ufl.edu/oral www.history.ufl.edu/oral 15 of 20 History Speaks: S P OHP News History in the Making: SPOHP’s News & Events History in the Making: SPOHP’s News & Events

May 25: SPOHP will have a table setup at Forest Sept. 18: SPOHP will have a table setup at the Meadows Cemetery on Hawthorne Road in Malcolm Randall VA Medical Center in Gainesville as Gainesville as part of Veterans Memorial Day events. part of the National POW-MIA Day program. We will This year’s program pays tribute to the WASP answer questions about conducting WW II, Korean, (Women Airforce Service Pilots). and Vietnam oral histories, as well as discussing the SPOHP-produced documentary titled I Just Wanted May 29: Paul Ortiz, Director, will chair and to Live! about four POWs held by the Japanese. The participate on a panel titled “Mentors at the movie was based on four oral histories in SPOHP’s Crossroads: Studs Turkel, Herbert Gutman, Staunton WW II Collection. (See pages 8-9.) Lynd, and Archie Green,” at the Labor and Working Class Association and the Fund for Labor and Oct. 14-18: SPOHP will participate in the annual Working Class History Association and the Fund for meeting of the Oral History Association Conference Labor, Culture and History in Chicago. in Louisville, Kentucky. The panel will consist of SPOHP Director Emeritus Julian Pleasants June 6: SPOHP will have a table setup at Camp (moderator) and staff members Diane Fischler, Blanding in Starke, as part of the Army’s tribute to Deborah Hendrix, Roberta Peacock, and Dan Simone. the 65th anniversary of the D-Day Invasion, which took place on June 6, 1944. Nov. 11: SPOHP will have a table setup at the Pugh Hall, located in the heart of UF’s historic district, is home to the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program. (photo by Danielle Navarrete) Veterans Day commemoration at Kanapaha Veterans Oral History Seminar at UF Memorial Park. Dr. Paul Ortiz will be teaching a new course SPOHP Updates in Summer A at UF, AMH 3931, titled “American --List of DVDs continued Communities: An Oral History Approach.” Stu- dents will learn the craft of oral history and how The following DVDs are archived at SPOHP Growth, Growth Management and Sustainability Florida and the Next President (speakers: Adam to conduct interviews in Florida’s African Ameri- and can be purchased for $20 each. Contact in a Distressed Economy (speaker: Bob Graham, Putnam, Allen Boyd, moderated by Brendan can communities. Roberta Peacock at (352) 392-7168. Programs 74 min.) McLaughlin, 75 min.) were presented in 2008 and early 2009. All The seminar will focus on black history in the U.S. from the end of Reconstruction to present- programs were recorded and finalized by SPOHP Ponce de Leon & the Discovery of Florida (speaker: The Averaged American (speaker: Sarah Igo, 68 min.) day. Participants will have the opportunity to use videographer Deborah Hendrix. Please note that Michael Gannon, 55 min.) the oral record to reexamine existing preconcep- some of these DVDs are still in production, hence The Long Horse Race: A View from the National tions about African American life in the South. Students will gain experience in interviewing “in progress” has been indicated. The Path to the White House (speakers: Terry Annenberg Election Survey (speaker: Richard techniques and using primary sources. McAuliffe, Frank Fahrenkopf, moderated by Johnston, 100 min.) Building on Sam Proctor’s Legacy: Race, Politics, and Michael Putney, 84 min.) continued on next page-- Freedom in Florida (speaker: Paul Ortiz, 66 min.)

16 of 20 www.history.ufl.edu/oral www.history.ufl.edu/oral 17 of 20 History Speaks: S P OHP News History in the Making: SPOHP’s News & Events History in the Making: SPOHP’s News & Events --continued from previous page --continued from previous page Winner of the Julian Pleasants Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 Rosewood Traveling Exhibit Presentations The History of the State University System (speaker: Scholar Award Robin Gibson, 62 min.) (speaker: Rick Atkinson, 75 min.) (speaker: Sherry DuPree, 84 min.)

Who We Are, How We Began: The History of the Water and Land Management in Florida: Old Aging, Healthcare, and the New Congress Samuel Proctor Oral History Program (speakers: Challenges in the New Economy (speaker: (speaker: Kristine Blackwood, in progress) Samuel Proctor, Paul Ortiz, Julian Pleasants, Mark Nathaniel Reed, 69 min.) Greenberg, 28 min.) When Bob Graham Became a Gator (speaker: Trip to Iran (speakers: Bernie and Chris Machen, Bob Graham, in progress) Testimony of War: Panel Discussion (WW II veterans 57 min.) Derrick E. White is the first recipient of the 2009 Julian Pleasants Visiting Scholar Award. speakers: Clif Cormier, Victor Cote, Frank Towers, African Creative Expressions: Mother Tongue Dr. White will receive $1,000 to travel to UF to Clair Chaffin, moderated by Julian Pleasants, 55 min.) Celebration of the Firsts: 50 Years of Integration of and Other Tongues (Conference, 220 min.) conduct research using SPOHP’s resources or the University of Florida (dinner, 140 min.) Special Collections at the George A. Smathers Gainesville Women for Equal Rights Oral History I Just Wanted to Live! (ex-POWs: Victor Cote, Libraries. This grant has been created in honor of (Group Oral History, in progress) Conrad Alberty, John Bumgarner, Herbert Pepper, The Blackness of Barack Obama (speaker: Dr. Julian Pleasants in recognition of his contribu- 55 min. & 35 min.) Diane Roberts, 71 min.) tions during his tenure as director of the Samuel Need for a New National Labor Policy (speaker: Proctor Oral History Program (1996-2007). Everglades Providence: Marjory Stoneman Donald Fehr, in progress) Douglas and the American Environmental Dr. White is an assistant professor of history Century (speaker: Jack Davis, 61 min.) Leadership in the Age of Obama (Forum, at Florida Atlantic University and will be conduct- in progress) ing research on the desegregation of UF football. In the Age of Barack Obama (Public Program, in progress)

Florida Waterways in Crisis (speakers: BECOME A MEMBER OF THE PROCTOR CIRCLE OF FRIENDS…….. Support the UF Samuel Proctor Oral History Program [SPOHP]! Cynthia Barnett, Craig Pittman, Matt Waite, in Name ______progress) Address ______City ______State ______Zip ______Phone # ______

Transition to Power: Diplomacy in Transition € Enclosed is a gift to SPOHP of $ ______in the form of a check made payable to UFRF, (speakers: Ray Mabus, Douglas McElhaney, Samuel Proctor Oral History Program. Confederate jasmine covers almost every garden and Frank McNeil, 65 min.) cascades down every wall of the University of Florida € Please have a representative from the UF Foundation office contact me for a donation. in April and May. The white pinwheel flowers exude a € Please send me email updates about SPOHP. Email: ______beautiful fragrance that leaves no doubt that this is the South. (Photo by Ira Fischler) MAIL TO : SPOHP, PO BOX 115215, GAINESVILLE, FL 32611-5215.

continued on next page-- 18 of 20 www.history.ufl.edu/oral www.history.ufl.edu/oral 19 of 20 History Speaks: S P OHP News A New Generation of History By Danielle Navarrete At SPOHP, we are making progress on our your computer. The audio links look like speaker Proctor Podcast venture and now have six epi- buttons and are to the left of the title of each sodes posted at http://proctorpodcast.libsyn.com. podcast episode; or 2) use a podcatcher, such as The first four episodes feature Florida black his- iTunes, to subscribe to the podcast feed, which will tory, and Episodes 5 and 6 are part of a new series download the audio files to your computer—and on Florida water management. Our goal this sum- any mobile device you transfer them to—every mer is to post one new episode every two weeks. time we post a new episode. Using this method, we can entertain and inform you even when you Here is the basic idea of SPOHP podcasts. are on the go. Since 1967, SPOHP has been archiving interviews. For the past two months, we have been selecting We are in the process of submitting our pod- segments from these interviews to share digitally cast feed to iTunes, the most popular venue for with the public. (We are not creating video pod- podcasts, so you will soon be able to search for casts at this time.) In this way, we hope to gener- Proctor Podcast there. In the meantime, if you ate more interest in SPOHP and in the notion of right-click on the orange RSS feed link (see below) community. Our motto is: “One community. on our podcast page, you can copy the link loca- Many voices.” tion and paste it into your podcatcher. On iTunes, in the Advanced dropdown menu, select Subscribe To access these audio segments: 1) visit the to Podcast and paste the URL. You are now sub- URL listed above in the first paragraph and click scribed to the Proctor Podcast where you will hear on the audio links to listen to the interviews at the voices of people making history.

20 of 20 www.history.ufl.edu/oral