Abolitionist Oral History Project (AOHP) :

This project involves conducting interviews with a wide variety of American activists in an effort to build an oral history of the mid-20th century and post- Furman v. Georgia (1972) movement to end capital punishment in America . The project involves interviewing individuals on topics including: (1) their own work in the abolition movement, the successes and failures of abolitionist work, prospects for abolition in the future; (2) particular aspects of abolitionist work, such as the moratorium movement; and (3) related events, such as attempts to prevent executions in various states.

The interviews will be preserved as a collection of indexed audio and videotapes, housed in the National Death Penalty Archives (NDPA) . Transcripts that have been read and approved by AOHP subjects, as well as personal papers in some cases, will accompany the actual taped interviews in the library. Such a compilation will be useful to all those seeking information on the abolitionist movement in America , on social movements in general, on individuals involved in the effort to abolish the death penalty, and on the specific events mentioned in the interviews.

Preparations for these interviews involve constructing biographical sketches of the abolitionists and their death penalty work. Such reviews necessitate collecting and reading their published works, media articles, and other representations about them. The review and analysis of this material serve as a guide for the interview. It also forms the introductory biographical content for the abolitionist's actual oral history in the library. Participants are provided an opportunity to donate personal items ( e.g ., photographs, letters, unpublished writings, notes of meetings and other related documents, etc.) to accompany their oral history contributions.