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Congratulations to Falana McDaniel and the Samuel Proctor Program

October 10, 2013 by Admin in Events, Featured

OHAWe extend a big congratulations to McComb Legacies teacher (2012-2013) Falana McDaniel and to McComb Legacies partner the Samuel Proctor Program for the awards they received at the 2013 Oral History Association annual meeting. Learn more in the press release (excerpts) from the Samuel Proctor Program.

IMG_3555The Oral History Association awarded its 2013 Stetson Kennedy Vox Populi (“Voice of the People”) Award to the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program for achievements in using oral histories as a means of furthering social justice. As OHA President Dr. Mary Larson noted, the awarding committee congratulated SPOHP on its multi-faceted achievements in scholarship and outreach, saying, “The breadth of the program is astounding.”

Falana McDaniel listens to students at the voting rights conference.

Falana McDaniel listens to students at the voting rights conference. Photo by Lisa Serrano.

The Association also recognized Ms. Falana McDaniel with the Martha Ross Teaching Award for her direction of the teaching oral history to the McComb Legacies Project, a partner educator of SPOHP. (The McComb Legacies Project is funded by a W.K. Kellogg Foundation grant to Teaching for Change.)

The Stetson Kennedy Vox Populi (“Voice of the People”) annual award honors individuals or organizations who have accomplished outstanding achievement in using oral history to create a more humane and just world and is named in honor of Floridian Stetson Kennedy, a pioneer oral historian whose work has been an important tool for advocacy on behalf of human rights.

SPOHP sends a group of graduate and undergraduate students to the Mississippi Delta every September to expand its Mississippi Freedom Project collection, which focuses on recording the histories of civil rights movement veterans as well as current community organizers, catfish plant workers, union members, educators, and students. [This year the program also visited McComb twice, in February for a historic student led voting rights conference and for a full day of tours and interviews en route to the Delta in September.]

Falana McDaniel (right) and McComb Legacies students joined the Proctor Program for its annual program in the Delta in 2012.

The Martha Ross Teaching Award was awarded to 2012-2013 McComb High School Digital Media Technology teacher Falana McDaniel, who coordinated the after-school history research group, the McComb Legacies Project. The Martha Ross Award recognizes an educator involved in using oral history as a medium to enhance learning, focusing on civic and community components. Ms. McDaniel attended an intensive two-day oral history workshop with SPOHP in 2011 at the University of Florida which covered oral history methodology and practice. The workshop focused on how to conduct an interview, document it, and publish it in various forms of media: techniques Ms. McDaniel uses to great success in teaching her students about the flexibility of oral history as a research tool.

Students show their film, with interview with veteran CC Bryant, at the African American Civil War Museum.

Students show their film at the African American Civil War Museum. On the screen is movement veteran C.C. Bryant.

In the last school year, Ms. McDaniel facilitated multiple research and leadership development opportunities for her students, culminating in the premiere of their local history documentary, “The Voting Rights Struggle,” based on their own oral history research in McComb. The documentary won first place in Mississippi state’s National History Day competition. McComb Legacies students also attended SPOHP’s 2012 Mississippi Freedom Project research trip and later organized a two-day event at their high school in February 2013, which they designed to share the experiences of Civil Rights Movement activists with their classmates. McComb Legacies students were inspired, instructed, and empowered by their teacher, Falana McDaniel, to actively seek engagement with oral history research and education, and SPOHP congratulates Ms. McDaniel on her award.

Proctor Program with McComb Legacies students.

The Vox Populi and Martha Ross awards were presented at the Oral History Association’s Annual Meeting in October 2013 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

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