t the beginning of 1998, the Southern Oral History Program (SOHP) took on a big task—to document the many changes across North Carolina since World War II. The project, Listening for a Change: North Carolina Communities in Transition, would explore the experiences of North Carolinians involved in such changes as the decline of tobacco farming and the desegregation of schools. Jill Hemming and Alicia Rouverol signed on to codirect one study—how immigration can change a community.

A big assignment. Where to start? Durham was a good bet. Between the years of 1990 and 2000, the number of Latino residents in Durham county grew 900 percent, to 16,000. Hemming heard from a Latino friend, Katushka Olavé, that northeast central Durham, a formerly all-black neighborhood where Olavé was working as a bilingual educator, had seen a huge influx of Latinos. Olavé and Jacqueline Wagstaff, a Durham city council member, agreed to work as community liaisons for "New Immigrants in Northeast Central Durham."

One more research project wasn’t necessarily welcome in this community. As a low-income neighborhood within a 30-minute drive of three research universities, northeast central Durham is "a burned-over district for social scientists coming in and writing grants and making money off of looking at the problems that are there," Hemming says. "So the bottom line was, there had to be an agenda to do something for the community, not just come in, take what people have, and then say thanks."

That bottom line fit perfectly with this project, which was inspired by and named after the book Listening for a Change: Oral History and Community Development, written by oral historians Paul Thompson and Hugo Slim. In Thompson and Slim’s view, oral historians shouldn’t merely record the words of their subjects but should involve community members from the beginning of their projects and should use what they learn to help bring about change.

Researchers began by conducting more than 25 interviews tracing the interactions between African American and Latino neighbors as well as stories of the Latinos’ migrations. In the project’s second year, the researchers hosted a "Community Voices" dinner during which they read interview excerpts and residents proposed ways to share the oral histories. Using the suggestions, researchers have funded and helped produce a community mural, a dance performance, and a video exposing substandard housing in the area. Olavé says the outreach projects helped Latino and African-American residents see their similarities as well as their differences. "If you watch the housing video, you will see that there are the same concerns for everybody," she says.

Angela Hornsby, a Ph.D. student in history and one of the interviewers, has cowritten with Rouverol and Hemming a bilingual booklet on northeast central Durham’s history. The booklet and an accompanying CD are being distributed to schools, libraries, and the community. Hemming says, "Even though the community is low on economic capital, there are other things that you can leverage into community well-being and growth. You can consider the people’s stories as a kind of cultural and social capital."

Olavé says, "If I don’t have someone to show me about his culture, I always will go my own way." While she was working with the residents of northeast central Durham, she says, "they helped me to see their reality."

Excerpted below is an interview that Hornsby conducted with William Thomas, president of northeast central Durham’s Albright Neighborhood Association. The association has invited some of its Latino neighbors to participate in a community garden, and African American and Latino residents have participated in two community cleanups. Here Thomas talks about an upcoming neighborhood dinner.

We’re going to have an Easter egg hunt for the children…a cookout for people in general in the community. …We have fliers out in the community in English and…Spanish. So we’re looking for a good turnout of Hispanics. …I wouldn’t be surprised if we end up with a couple hundred people next Saturday. …The community will mingle and have a conversation. …And once you get to know each other through an open line of communication, …[that] should bring people a little closer together. ...

This is the third time we’ve done this. …We are doing all we can to build a good relationship, to bridge that racial gap that we are no better than you. And you are no better than us. We’re just people trying to live in a community together.

Thomas also discusses the distrust between Latinos and their African American neighbors.

There were…problems whereby [Latinos’] houses were being invaded. The policemen did an excellent job of tracking down…[who] was involved in this. …My understanding is…a lot of people were aware of the fact that they [Latinos] keep money in the house, don’t trust the banks. …I can imagine a certain amount of distrust.

When you come in a strange country, and you’re working and trying to do something to better your condition, and then the news gets out that somebody broke in your house, and someone kicked your door in and came in with guns, and took your money…then you do begin wondering, "who do I trust?"…But…I don’t hear of these things now like I did at one time. So I think it’s gone down quite a bit.…

I see it coming to pass whereby we will be able to live in the same community. …What I’m saying is, everyone has their culture, everyone has their thing. …Everybody has their set agenda. …Mine is open. I accept people as people.

Jacquelyn Hall, director of the SOHP, was the principal investigator of Listening for a Change, which was funded by the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation. Publication of the history booklet and the "Neighborhood Voices" gathering was funded by the North Carolina Humanities Council. Part of Hornsby’s work was funded by the SOHP’s Conrad Oral History Research Fellowship.