News

Crossroads Rocks. And Gets Soul! (5-April-2010)

On April 1, 2010, Crossroads launched our new partnership with the Memphis Rock 'n' Soul Museum with an inaugural event. "Liner Notes: the Words Behind the Music" included a reception, live music by Blind Mississippi Morris and simultaneous interviews with our guests of honor, including Mike Curb, Al Bell and John Fry. The goal of this collaboration is to create a comprehensive archive of Memphis music that documents the important role that music played in Memphis history and that Memphis continues to play in music history. Many thanks to Rock 'n' Soul Executive Director John Doyle ('81) for his visionary role in making this event come to life. And for being a wonderful host too! Rhodes students (and one alum) who participated in the interviews were Bradley Bledsoe, Courtney Eskew, Emma Fiandt, Daniel Jacobs, Holly McGlown, Treshain Norfleet and LaKevia Perry.

Ingestion of Memphis World Newspaper - the end is in sight! (2-April-2010)

We've been very busy this year in Crossroads. In lieu of updating this page, we've focused on our Facebook page, but it's time for some news here as well! The archive is approaching 40,000 objects, many of which are articles from the The Memphis World, an African-American newspaper that was published from 1931-1973. Ingestion of 20 years of the newspaper (1950-1970) is on track for completion by mid-May. Over 1,000 new articles are appearing every day, so keep checking back and searching for historical Memphis people, places and events. In addition to article transcripts, you can view the page of the newspaper that contains the article, with tools for zooming and navigating in the page image.

Summer 2010 Preview (29-March-2010)

In summer 2010, we will have the largest Crossroads team yet, with students from Rhodes, University of Memphis, Vanderbilt, TN State and more. This will be our 5th year of Crossroads summer student teams. Plans include a reunion of the 1st Crossroads summer team from 2006, historical map projects that will be viewable in Google maps, neighoborhood profiles that Crossroads team members collaborate with community members to create, and continued work with our partners to digitize and present new materials online. Partners this summer include the Memphis Public Library and Information Center, the Center for Southern Folklore, the Memphis Rock 'n' Soul Museum and the Southern Oral History Program at the University of North Carlina Chapel Hill. Stay tuned for some great new materials, and the Memphis trivia contest on Facebook!

Crossroads now on Facebook and YouTube (18-Jun-2009)

Now you can become a fan of the Crossroads to Freedom Digital Archive on Facebook. Interact with the Crossroads team through discussions and blog post as well as post feedback on the site and materials from the archive. You can access the page here:
Crossroads Facebook

The Crossroads Archive has also joined YouTube. Subscribe to the page, and watch clips of interesting and thought provoking interviews. Also, add your comments on the videos and send us your feedback on the site. Visit our YouTube channel:
Crossroads Youtube

New Interviews, Including StoryCorps Audio (14-July-2008)

We have reached our 50-interview milestone, with more interviews being added by student fellows each week. Please see our Newly Added Interviews collection to view the latest. We have also added 8 audio interviews conducted last November by Story Corps, now available in our StoryCorps Audio Interviews collection.

Crossroads in Rhodes Magazine (15-April-2008)

Crossroads is featured in the Spring 2008 Rhodes magazine! To read about the history and goals of the Crossroads project and interviews with project particpants, please see An Archive of Understanding.

Crossroads Students Deliver Papers at National Conference (26-March-2008)

On March 26, 2008, Courtney Eskew (10), Daniel Jacobs (09), Avery Pribila (09), and Crystal Windless (08) presented papers at the annual meeting of The Society for Applied Anthropology in Memphis. Their session was titled, "Crossroads: Engaging Students, Scholars, and the Memphis Community in Civil Rights History."

Crossroads MLK Week Events (22-January-2008)

On Tuesday, January 22, 2008, at 7 PM in the Bryan Campus Life Center Ballroom, Crystal Windless (08) and Francesca Davis (08) moderated a video tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This tribute comprised excerpts from Crossroads interviews, including Johnnie Turner, Rev. Brooks Ramsey, Henry Turley, Mike Cody, Eddie Mae Hawkins and Rev. Billy Kyles. Current Crossroads Fellows created the tribute, which is now featured on our About Us page.

On Thursday, Jan. 24, 2008, Crossroads hosted a luncheon on campus that featured conversations with long-time Rhodes staff members about their experiences growing up in Memphis. These staff members were interviewed last November for the StoryCorps Griot initiative, and their interviews are now available here on the Crossroads site. Crossroads Fellows Daniel Jacobs (09) and Courtney Eskew (09) moderated.

Updated Searching (1-December-2007)

Now when you search Crossroads, you will be able to see your search term highlighted in the context of the objects your search returns, and move from one instance of the search term to the next. For example, try searching on "Daisy" to see each reference to Daisy Bates in Crossroads objects, without paging through long multi-page documents or transcripts. We hope you find this new feature useful, and please send feedback about other ways you’d like to be able to find materials on our site.

Former Summer Interns in the News (8-November-2007)

Our summer 2007 interns continue to focus on civil and human rights following their Crossroads experience. For example, Khadija Hassan was a featured speaker at the annual Facing History and Ourselves gala in November. Denzel Young was interviewed for the Summer 2007 MIFA newsletter about his internship and is now engaged in working on a website for the Hill Foundation.

Crossroads Fellows work with Local Middle School (15-September-2007)

Crossroads Fellow Crystal Windless has been working with 7th and 8th grade students at our partner Snowden School to prepare them to collect interviews with people in our local Memphis neighborhood as part of their "Connecting Generations" project with the National Civil Rights Museum. Windless has taught the students both videography and interviewing skills, and practiced with them as they begin to conduct their first interviews this winter.