Students in the Texas Communities Oral History Project class presented their semester-long research and launched their websites last night at a community dinner at TCU. Their small-group projects focused on the International Association of Machinists (IAM) District Lodge 776 at the Fort Worth “bomber plant” and surrounding communities; mass incarceration in Fort Worth and its effects on individuals and neighborhoods including Stop Six; and the personal and collective struggles of Fort Worth’s LGBT residents.
The websites are now live and available to the public (click the titles to visit):
The Plant and the Playground: Labor and Community in the Fort Worth Aerospace Industry
Fort Worth Mass Incarceration: An Oral History
The History of LGBT Rights in Fort Worth
Many of the people who were interviewed for the project attended the community dinner and offered their own comments and suggestions after the student presentations. It was thrilling just to see such a diverse mix of people in the same room: union activists, community advocates for incarcerated people, and many of the city’s LGBT leaders. Thanks to everyone who contributed to these projects!
And thanks to our sponsors: the Department of History, Center for Urban Studies, John V. Roach Honors College, Inclusiveness and Intercultural Services, and Women and Gender Studies.
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