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Between 1936 and 1938, the federal government collected the narratives of over 2,300 formerly enslaved people. I tracked down the descendants of people who were interviewed and wrote about what these stories mean to them, and what they mean to our country. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/03/federal-writers-project/617790/
I argue that we need a new Federal Writer’s Project, a large-scale iniative that would collect the stories of those who lived through Jim Crow apartheid, Japanese American internment, and other important periods of American life that are important to have first-hand testimony of.
This piece is part of @TheAtlantic’s INHERITANCE, an ongoing project committed to collecting, preserving, and unearthing the stories of Black life in America. We’ll have many more stories coming through this series in the days, weeks, and months to come. https://www.theatlantic.com/inheritance/
Some have asked where they can read more of these narratives from formerly enslaved people. Fortunately, the Library of Congress has digitized them all. It’s really a remarkable resource. https://www.loc.gov/collections/slave-narratives-from-the-federal-writers-project-1936-to-1938/about-this-collection/
