Museum collects storm, civil rights oral histories projects

TUSCALOOSA — Visitors to the Mildred Westervelt Warner Transportation Museum know its space offers sounds in addition to sights. Interactive exhibits offer videos with sound illuminating the museum’s various displays showcasing the area’s history.
Soon more voices will be heard in the former Queen City Bathhouse, now converted to the museum on Jack Warner Parkway, adjacent to the Tuscaloosa Public Library.
Shaina Strom, director of the MWWTM, is leading a team collecting oral histories on two projects.

The first to go up will be stories about the April 27, 2011, storm. Plans call for it to be ready by the tornado’s second anniversary this spring.
The second project is longer-term and involves gathering stories about Tuscaloosa’s part in the civil rights movement. Plans call for it to open in January 2014.
“We want to paint word pictures, find those compelling memories,” Strom said. For the earlier deadline of the storm, “We’re looking for stories of people like first responders, people who organized efforts to help out, to recover.”
There’s a concern that some people may be too modest to report on themselves, so she’s looking not only for people who have firsthand tales to tell, but for suggestions about others. The oral history project will be assisted by personnel from the library, the University of Alabama’s Creative Campus and some of the news team from Alabama Public Radio.
Pat Duggins, APR news director, said he and his staff, which includes UA students and interns, are “chomping at the bit to get to work on this.”
“As soon as I heard about it, I said, ‘Good lord, of course we’re going to help on this, it’s great,’ ” Duggins said.

Although the search for stories and subjects is in its early stages, Duggins said APR might find some leads in its one-year anniversary documentary “Winds of Change,” which recorded the stories of people hit hard by the storm as they recovered a year later, some still rebuilding homes or businesses, some dealing with mental-health issues as a result of their experiences.

“But all the material for the (museum) is going to be fresh,” he said. “It’s going to be interesting to see how people’s feelings have evolved.”
From his experience covering the Exxon Valdez oil spill, Duggins recalls hearing from experts that a traumatic event can have effects that won’t have even fully hit yet.
“It could take from three to five years for all the mental stress to set in,” he said.
As far as who they’d like to talk to, the philosophy is everyone has a story, even those who weren’t directly hit by the storm. The museum is setting up a room for interviews and has purchased quality recording equipment to begin the process.
Duggins is aware many people may not be comfortable talking into a recorder, especially where the results will be used for public display and as a record. But he’s trained many interviewers in how to ease reluctant interviewees into a story.
“I tell them to think of yourself like the dentist: ‘I’m not gonna hurt ya; I haven’t lost anybody yet.’ Start with the jokes and get them used to talking with the microphone out, and eventually the unease can drop away,” he said. “It’s those conversational kinds of interviews that I think are very effecting, where it’s just people talking. If I had my druthers, I would prefer that the people being interviewed carry the show. I almost hate to ask the next question, when I hear someone doing so well, talking so much, being so eloquent, I’m afraid my next question will just break the spell, be an imposition.”
Both the storm and civil rights oral histories plan to begin recording in early February, but the storm stories are under a tighter deadline. Those who feel they have a story, or a suggestion, should contact Strom at 205-248-4931, or by email at sstrom@tuscaloosa.com.
“We’re hoping to have all those (storm stories) collected by March 7, so we can get them edited and have them on display by April 27,” she said.

Written by: Mark Hughes Cobb
The Tuscaloosa News