Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Oral histories of low income and minority women #4608, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Gift of the Southwest Institute for Research on Women, University of Arizona, in February 1992 (Acc. 92032).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• African American women--Social conditions.
• Asian American women--Social conditions.
• Buss, Fran Leeper, 1942-
• Community life.
• Family--United States--Social life and customs.
• Hispanic women--Social conditions--20th century.
• Indian women--North America--History--20th century.
• Indians of North America--Social conditions--20th century.
• Minority women--United States--Social conditions--20th century.
• Oral history.
• Poor women--United States--Social conditions--20th century.
• Poverty--United States--History--20th century.
• Southwest Institute for Research on Women (U.S.)
• Women--Appalachian Region--Social conditions.
• Women--Middle West--Social conditions.
• Women--Southern States--Social conditions.
• Women--West (U.S.)--Social conditions.

Transcriptions of interviews in the Oral Histories of Low Income and Minority Women project of the Southwest Institute for Research on Women at the University of Arizona in collaboration with the Schlesinger Library on the History of American Women at Radcliffe College with funding from the Ford Foundation. The fifty-six interviews, with transcriptions ranging in length from 17 to over 2,000 pages, were conducted by Fran Leeper Buss during the 1970s and 1980s. Interviewees, some of whom chose to remain anonymous, include three Asian-Americans, twelve African-Americans, and six Native-Americans. The women resided in fourteen states: Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and Texas in the South; Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Wyoming in the West; Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin in the Midwest. Appalachia is represented by women from Kentucky and Tennessee. The subjects covered document all aspects of these women's lives--their personal lives, their attitudes and interactions with members of their families and others in their communities, and their feelings about their status at the time of the interview and about their prospects for the future. An extensive subject index is provided. The Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is one of seven depositories for this material; the original tapes and other materials are housed at the Schlesinger Library.