This collection consists of twenty-two oral history interviews conducted in 2018 as part of a project titled Housing Our Story: Towards Archival Justice for Black Baltimore, a grant-funded project led by Johns Hopkins University faculty members Dr. Jennifer Kingsley, Dr. Shani Mott, and Dr. N.D.B. Connolly who worked with undergraduate students to collect oral histories of Black staff and contract workers employed at the university. The aim of the project was to preserve individual histories of Black workers at Johns Hopkins in an effort to make the archival record more representative of the people who "weave Hopkins into the social and political fabric of Baltimore," yet whose stories remain largely absent from institutional memory.

Recent Submissions

  • Oral history of Calvin Smith 

    Smith, Calvin (Johns Hopkins University Sheridan Libraries, 2018-10-25)
    Calvin Smith is the Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life at Johns Hopkins University at the time of recording. In this interview, he shares how being a Division I athlete and participating in a Greek-letter organization ...
  • Oral history of Marie Wilson 

    Wilson, Marie (Johns Hopkins University Sheridan Libraries, 2018-10-30)
    Marie Wilson is a food service worker at Johns Hopkins University. Wilson discusses growing up in the Edmonson Village neighborhood of Baltimore in the 1960s. She also talks about her 35-year career at Hopkins, working ...
  • Oral history of Kanita Tavares 

    Tavares, Kanita (Johns Hopkins University Sheridan Libraries, 2018-05-11)
    Kanita Tavares is Academic Program Coordinator for Africana Studies and International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. Tavares discusses growing up in Prince George’s County and Savage, Maryland in Howard County. Tavares ...
  • Oral history of Regine Laforest-Sharif 

    Laforest-Sharif, Regine (Johns Hopkins University Sheridan Libraries, 2018-11-02)
    Regine Laforest-Sharif is Associate Director of Community Living at Johns Hopkins University, a position she had held for 23 years at the time of this recording. In addition to her position, Laforest-Sharif has served in ...
  • Oral history of Myeshia Reynolds 

    Reynolds, Myeshia (Johns Hopkins University Sheridan Libraries, 2018-11-02)
    Myeshia Reynolds is Campus Operations Coordinator at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Education. Prior to this role, she served as a security officer at Johns Hopkins University’s Homewood campus. Reynolds discusses ...
  • Oral history of Kenneth Ray 

    Ray, Kenneth (Johns Hopkins University Sheridan Libraries, 2018-11-26)
    Kenneth Ray is a member of the custodial staff at the Mattin Center on the Homewood campus. In this interview, he discusses growing up in Northeast Baltimore with his grandmother and his experience in school in the 1970s. ...
  • Oral history of Lynnise Norris 

    Norris, Lynnise (Johns Hopkins University Sheridan Libraries, 2018-10-26)
    Lynnise Norris is the Supervisor of Sponsored Projects in the Finance Division of Johns Hopkins University and an active member of the Black Faculty and Staff Association (BFSA), elected President of the organization in ...
  • Oral history of Sharon Morris 

    Morris, Sharon (Johns Hopkins University Sheridan Libraries, 2018-11-30)
    Sharon Morris is the Director of the D.C. Regional Libraries at the Johns Hopkins Sheridan Libraries and Museums. In this interview, Morris describes growing up in West Baltimore in the 1960s. She also describes her initial ...
  • Oral history of Marcus Hudgins 

    Hudgins, Marcus (Johns Hopkins University Sheridan Libraries, 2018-10-26)
    Marcus Hudgins is a Public Safety Officer based on the Homewood Campus, specifically at the Nine East 33rd building. In this interview, Hudgins describes differences between students at Johns Hopkins and students from ...
  • Oral history of Shedrick Elliott III 

    Elliott, Shedrick III (Johns Hopkins University Sheridan Libraries, 2018-10-15)
    Shedrick Elliot III is an Assistant Track and Field Coach at Johns Hopkins. In this interview, Elliot shares about his life prior to working at the university, particularly about growing up in the Baltimore area and his ...
  • Oral history of Nyesha Dixon 

    Dixon, Nyesha (Johns Hopkins University Sheridan Libraries, 2018-11-07)
    Nyesha Dixon is a Public Safety Officer on the Homewood campus. In this interview, Dixon shares her thoughts about growing up in West Baltimore and how she came to work at Johns Hopkins. She describes her best experiences ...
  • Oral history of Joseph Colón 

    Colón, Joseph (Johns Hopkins University Sheridan Libraries, 2018-11-19)
    Joseph Colón is the Director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) at Johns Hopkins University. In this interview, he discusses growing up in Brooklyn, New York during the 1980s and key moments in his early life and ...
  • Oral history of Zizwe Allette 

    Allette, Zizwe (Johns Hopkins University Sheridan Libraries, 2018-10-26)
    Zizwe Allette is an instructor at the Historic East Baltimore Community Action Coalition Youth Opportunity Center, known as YO! Baltimore Eastside, a non-profit organization operated by the City of Baltimore and Johns ...