Oral History

Our first week on the job, Larissa and I met with Amy Evans Streeters, a local artist and oral historian for the Southern Foodways Alliance, to receive guidance on our own oral history project.  The Southern Food Alliance (SFA) 'documents, studies, and celebrates the diverse food cultures of the changing American South'.   You may be familiar with Cornbread Nation - the irresistible collections of Southern food writing at its best, which just came out with issue #5.  Streeter, a lover of fresh oysters and a well prepared lemon meringue, has traveled far and wide to collect and document the stories behind southern food traditions.  On the SFA website you can find comprehensive transcriptions of this ongoing oral history documentation project.  

The goal of our initial meeting with Streeter was to simply get the basics for how an oral history is done.  Interviewing, recording, transcribing - the nuts and bolts of the process.  Reason being? Ben let us know that one of our tasks this summer would be to craft an oral history project of our own ambition.  Of course, our subject matter (the Mississippi Teacher Corps) isn't exactly in line with that of the hot delta tamale or gumbo trails, nor Southern BBQ or Kentucky bacon.  So the subject may be a little dry in comparison, and the work, well, altogether tedious, but I'll confess, I enjoy it and I've certainly learned a thing or two about MTC since its creation in 1990.  

One thing that frustrates me is that we have no real 'end product' in mind.  We were given the assignment without clear instructions for what it might look like upon completion or what goal it might achieve.  Today I was assured that it was an ongoing project and that Larissa and I are just laying the foundations for some time to come.  This I found reassuring as one thirty minute interview can take up to four hours to transcribe (Ben would argue otherwise but I am a fast typer and stand by my estimate).  So, I have let go of my own expectations that we will perfectly and comprehensively document the last twenty years of MTC in the little time we have left.  We are simply doing our best and enjoying the chance to talk with perfect strangers from all corners of the United States.  

Here's the gist of the project: Larissa and I are interviewing MTC alumni, program founders, past and current directors, program managers, and anyone else who might give us the time of day.  I have enjoyed the interview process so far, especially learning about how the idea for MTC evolved from a conversation between a Harvard journalism student and an Ole Miss graduate.  Neither of whom had any background in teaching in the Mississippi Delta.

I learned that the program did not originally offer the free masters degree in Education as it does today, this was an added incentive in 1994 and sets MTC apart from other teaching fellowships such as Teach for America.   

I have also learned that interviewing isn't actually all that easy.  I always suspected that the person on the 'asking' side had the easy job - just ask and wait.  But, as it turns out, I get uncomfortable with a pause of period of silence, I want to re-explain my question, rephrase it, ask it again until I am certain that I have communicated clearly.  This is an entirely ineffective way to conduct an interview and I am working hard to refine my technique: be clear, be concise, and be patient.  

We have only completed five interviews to date.  Three more are scheduled for this week, and one the following week.  

We've had some funny exchanges, some deeply insightful, and others altogether awkward.  One piece of advice: if you know you are being recorded, do not bad mouth your co-workers, past or present.  This just doesn't reflect well.  That being said... here are some exchanges I found interesting, inspiring, or just mildly entertaining:

BC - Betsy Critchfield
LD - Larissa Davis
HG - Harry Gaston

BC: Mr. Gaston, could we ask you to introduce yourself and what your position was at MTC?

HG: Yeah, I was the Program Coordinator for the Mississippi Teacher Corps from nineteen ninety-seven through two thousand, if memory serves correctly. I've been in Indianapolis with my wife, Maria, for the last ten years.  Both of us work for Eli Lilly Pharmaceutical Company.  I [currently] work, as a business analyst/business integrator with information technology systems.  

LD: Can you quickly describe some of your job duties while you were Program Manager at MTC?

HG:  Um, you-, you said the recorder is on, right?

BC & LD: Yes [both respond together and laugh]

HG: Ha...ha...ahhh... [still laughing] Ha...ha... no, the first thing that jumps to mind was getting Diet Cokes for Dean Chambless. 

I guess some of the duties of the interns never go away.  Not that I have ever been asked to buy diet coke for the boss!  Peanut M&M's, perhaps, trail mix, I wouldn't doubt it.  But, there was substance in that interview, too...

LD: Has the Mississippi Teacher Corps, working here and being a teacher, impacted your professional life in anyway?

HG: Well, most of the people I work with never did anything like this. I now work in the major pharmaceutical company and most of the people I'm working with are very career focused and never took time to pursue something like the Teacher Corps.  I think that it was just the most incredible experience.  I know that everyday, the relationships that I have, particularly with me African American co-workers is greatly benefitted from the time I spent in the Teacher Corps and the understanding I have, racially and economically. The experiences I had in Teacher Corps were just incredible.  The two years that I spent teaching in Tunica and experiencing what it's like to be a minority as a white person gave me a perspective that I most certainly couldn't get any other way.  Getting your hands dirty and getting in there and being apart of, really being apart of the failure -being apart of the system that's not working that well, understanding it, attaching yourself to it. The kids become your love and your interest and everything that you you talk about.  I am a native Mississippian so I wasn't unfamiliar with our education problems, but all of the problems that were academic and philosophical before became associated with these are people that I really care about and it hurts me personally to think that their opportunities are limited and that their choices are limited.  

I'll add one more thing, just the, the experience.... I always thought it was amusing when would be apart of the Teacher Corps and even just after and people always talked about how wonderful it was what you were doing, you know.  And most people, they have no clue how much you gain as a participant, how it changes your entire life, how it changes the way you see people.  

Most of us, and by "us" I specifically mean white middle-class people - my perspective as a white male southern person - we don't even like to talk about race, it's a discomfort.  And, the reason that we don't it that we don't really understand our place in all of it.  And, this program gives a perspective you just couldn't get any other way. 

The program also gave me the opportunity, gave all of us as participants the opportunity to meet some of the people who were making incredible difference in education, in Mississippi society.  Governor William Winter, Andy Mullins, and then Governor Ronny Musgrove.  We got to meet those guys and not just talk to them.  They had so much respect for what we were doing.  They gave us insight into their own work and we were really apart of helping to change the face of education in the state. I've never done anything in my life more fulfilling than than the five years that I spent with the Mississippi Teacher Corps, and I wonder if I ever will.  I'm making an awful lot more money now but I don't have anywhere near the sense of fulfillment that I had when I was working with that program.

This is just a very brief clip of one of our shortest interviews. So, as you can tell, there is a great deal of praise to be given. Still, I am interested to learn more about the program's faults and the areas in which it can improve. I think it may take a bit more probing to uncover as people generally don't like to point out their own weaknesses, but I am certain that if we ask the right questions, we may uncover some equally interesting material. Until next time....