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The National Visionary Leadership Project is in the forefront of the Legacy Initiative movement. NVLP urges communities to create video and sound recordings with local elders in your community that tell the story of the African American struggle to realize the dreams of equality and dignity. The Legacy Guide shows you how to do it. The Guide provides step-by-step instructions in researching, conducting, and archiving the interviews you capture with the extraordinary elders in your community. NVLP has the resources to support local groups and individuals through every step of a Legacy Initiative. We offer advice, practical tips, and supporting materials to make every recording as fruitful as possible.
The centerpiece of the Legacy Initiative is the National Registry of African American Oral Histories, an unprecedented, accessible, online database, this registry serves as a searchable catalogue of all oral histories collected by individuals using the Legacy Guide, as well as previously completed interviews of African American elders. The interviews you capture will become part of this extraordinary database and your elder’s stories will become part of the permanent record of American history.
The fabric of African American history in the 20th century is made up of many strands. The well-known achievers contribute their own threads, but there are still many missing patches. The elders in our communities can fill in those gaps. They have lived through the most tumultuous times imaginable. They’ve seen America change in ways that no one could have imagined, and their stories and insights are a precious resource waiting to be tapped. History books contain only part of the amazing story of the African American experience in the 20th century.
