From 2019 to 2021, SLS interns aided in the creation of the Coffee County Memory Project’s award-winning oral history documentary project focusing on the desegregation of the schools of Coffee County, Georgia.

Kara Vaughn Adams ’21, Brice Minix ’22, Nabil Patel ’22, Bennett Bush ’23, and Samina Patel ’24 conducted and transcribed oral history interviews, gathered material by searching through back issues of local newspapers, digitized artifacts, implemented graphic designs, and worked to configure and upload digital material used in the project’s exhibitions.

All were graduates of Coffee High School. As they worked on the project, they learned the history of their school and community. Their reactions to this information aided project leaders in crafting two virtual exhibitions, both recently added to the collection of the Civil Rights Digital Library. The first exhibition emergingVOICES of Coffee County was published in September 2020. The second exhibition Overcoming Segregation: A Journey Through Coffee County’s Forgotten Stories, won the prestigious 2023 American Association for State and Local History Award of Excellence. 

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