The Duluth African American Oral History Project was initiated by the board of Clayton, Jackson, McGhie Memorial, Inc. to aid in the documentation of the history of Duluth’s African American community. The funding came from a Legacy Grant from the Minnesota Historical Society. The African American Oral History Project includes interviews designed to document particular aspects of Duluth’s history and/or important local institutions, such as the Institute for Afro-American Awareness, the local branch of NAACP, St. Mark’s African Methodist Episcopal Church, Calvary Baptist Church and the Juneteenth Celebration committee, as well as document African American life more generally. The interviews were conducted between November 2016 and February 2017.
Taken as a group, these interviews were conducted in order to document the many aspects of life in Duluth, particularly as experienced by African Americans. Business people, educators, laborers, commercial seamen, fire fighters, military veterans, civil employees, community activists and other civic leaders of various kinds, as well as regular folks, were interviewed. Some interviews are brief, lasting 60 minutes or less; others are more extensive, lasting up to three or more hours. The interviewees talk about their parents, their upbringing (often outside Duluth), their experiences in school, their careers, and their achievements. They discuss everyday life as well as the big events in the history they lived. The interviewees offer their own perspective on events, and while there are many areas of agreement, there are events that they each remember in their own ways.

This collection consists of 110 oral history interviews documenting life under the COVID-19 pandemic in Northeastern Minnesota. Interviews were conducted between July and December of 2020. A broad spectrum of interviewees are included. Interviews include a variety of ages of interviewees, ranging from a recently-graduated high school student to several elders; a spectrum of gender identities and sexual orientations; diverse economic classes and professions; people who have believed that COVID-19 was a political hoax and people who are recovering from the disease; interviews from members of Asian-heritage, African-heritage, and indigenous-heritage communities, as well as the majority white population that makes up more than 90% of the residents of the region; members of diverse religious communities; recent immigrants and lifelong residents of towns as small as Finland, MN (population 195) and as large as the major metropolitan area of our region, Duluth, MN. The collection includes artwork, photographs, music, and videos contributed by interviewees that support and provide context to their interviews, as well as creative projects conceptualized and created by the ten interviewers that participated in this project. This project made possible by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this project, do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This project has a narrow scope and two precise goals. The scope is limited to identifying facts about the origin and development of two laws. The first goal is to record the facts about the conception and writing of two initial Minnesota environmental laws by questioning nine important participants who were central to the laws’ construction and passage. The second goal is making the interviews readily available. The two foundational laws protecting the environment in Minnesota are the Minnesota Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) and the Minnesota Environmental Rights Act (MERA). Both passed the legislature with bipartisan support in the early 1970s, a time when problems of pollution and environmental degradation were capturing attention nationwide.

The collection contains video interviews and transcripts, scenic video footage, and dramatic re-enactment video footage for production of a six-part public television documentary about the history and culture of Anishinaabe Ojibwe people titled Waasa Inaabida: We Look In All Directions that aired in 2001. One topic is featured in each of the six parts. Each part is structured on interviews with tribal elders, historians, entrepreneurs, scholars, and leaders from the nineteen Great Lakes Ojibwe Bands of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. The documentary was directed and produced by Lorraine Norrgard, written by James M. Fortier, edited by Chris Bacigalupo, with assistant direction/post-production supervision by Thomas Selinski, and primary research by Lyz Jaakola, narrated by Winona LaDuke, soundtrack by composer Peter Buffett, artistic design by Nick and Charlotte Hockings. The documentary was a production of PBS eight, WDSE-TV, Duluth, Minnesota, and produced in association with The Aboriginal People’s Television Network.

The interviews in this project document the history of commercial fishing on Lake Superior's North Shore. The ten participants, interviewed by Barbara Sommer, were individuals who themselves, or whose families, engaged in commercial fishing.
Topics of the interviews included fishing industry finance, women in the industry, fishing equipment, boat building, weather's effect on Great Lakes fishing, clothing, health care, the Great Depression, children, and the history of individual fishing businesses.
The collection contains audiorecordings of the interviews, transcripts, and a subject guide to the transcripts. There is also a brief biographical statement for each participant.