Preservation of Material

The Pontiac Oral Histories collection documents life in Pontiac’s Black community in the decades between the Great Migration and the aftermath of World War II. It consists of oral histories of 25 longtime Black Pontiac residents conducted between 1975 and 1979, and recordings of 16 conferences, lectures, and other events related to Black studies, Black genealogy, and Black politics in Michigan from 1977 to 1982. The recordings are all on audiocassettes, and are in the process of being digitized. Transcripts for some recordings are already available.

Among the interviewees were T. C. Holland, father of then Pontiac mayor Wallace Holland, and Nellie Ryder, who was the first black student to graduate from Pontiac High School and was active in the Newman Methodist Church, the first black church in Pontiac.