Among the many legacies of The New Deal’s WPA, the Slave Narratives of the Federal Writers’ Project hold an unprecedented place in our history. Capturing more than 2,300 first-person accounts of formerly enslaved people that were taken between 1936 and 1938, this collection of life histories, testimonies, and reminiscences constitutes the single most important documentation of a complex and fundamental chapter in America’s past. For historians, the significance of this collection is profound. For descendants of formerly enslaved people seeking to fill in stories of their ancestors, it provides dramatic evidence. And for everyone of any racial or ethnic background, these firsthand accounts of American slavery paint a vivid picture of a facet of our history that is otherwise largely erased.

The Center for Brooklyn History hosted panelist Clint Smith, staff writer at The Atlantic and author of the recent, widely acclaimed book How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America; historian John Edgar Tidwell who has written extensively on Sterling A. Brown, FWP’s national editor of Negro Affairs; and historian Catherine Stewart, author of the 2016 book Long Past Slavery: Representing Race in the Federal Writers’ Project, for this conversation about the impact and import of the Federal Writers’ Project and Its Ex-Slave Narrative Collection. As Congress continues to debate a proposal for a 21st century Federal Writers’ Project Act, the panelists explored the urgency of continued efforts to archive the lived experiences and underrepresented stories of our diverse country. The program was moderated by Peabody Award-winning journalist and documentarian Brian Palmer.

This program was made possible through funding by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, in connection with the NEH Summer Institute on the New Deal Era’s Federal Writers’ Project presented by Long Island University and Texas A&M University - Commerce. It is also part of the Center for Brooklyn History’s major public history initiative, “Brooklyn Resists.”

Recorded July 26, 2021.

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