Dartmouth Black Lives (DBL) is a new teaching, learning, and community-building initiative at Dartmouth College. Designed and led by faculty in the departments of History and African and African American Studies, DBL is a multi-year project to record and preserve the oral history testimony of Dartmouth Black alumni.
Students who enroll in Dartmouth Black Lives in the fall term complete an interview and transcript. They also embed their interview in a digital exhibit based on themes in their narrator’s life. Students select the themes, find sources to contextualize them, and design the exhibit. They draw on a range of sources, including the archives of Dartmouth College, visual media, other oral history collections, the records of student organizations, memoirs, and secondary literature.