What is the South Phoenix Oral History Project?

“The South Phoenix Oral History Project has given South Mountain Community College a sense of place.”
~ Faculty Feedback, 2020

“Until now, I had no idea South Phoenix even mattered.”
~ Student Feedback, 2018

South Phoenix Oral History Project is a student-founded, student-led initiative to capture and preserve the untold stories of innovation, education, and equity* in South Phoenix, Arizona.

It is a collaboration of The Storytelling Institute and the History Department at South Mountain Community College in Phoenix, Arizona.

South Phoenix is a sacred and relevant place with little academic attention afforded to its history. Long before farmers and miners made Phoenix their home, the Hohokam carved irrigation ditches and developed an agricultural empire at the base of Greasy Mountain (South Mountain). Centuries later, newcomers to the area siphoned off the South Phoenix area by redirecting water and transportation to the more attractive Central and North Phoenix districts by using the ancient canal system left behind by the Hohokam. Over the course of the young city’s history, South Phoenix was left behind. As Tom Sheridan writes in his definitive Arizona, “Phoenix developed into a geographically segregated city with ever-widening economic disparities between its north and south halves.” These widening disparities are evident even in the historical record. Very few academic or popular records exist detailing the history of South Phoenix, its role in the evolution of the largest metropolis in the Southwest outside of California, or its traditionally underserved population of Black, Hispanic, and Asian residents. Our project seeks to right this wrong. Oral history holds space for those whose stories have not been told. Storytelling ensures that their memories are readily accessible.

South Mountain Community College itself is a testament to historic movements for social justice and equity in response to community and structural opposition. Our collections seek to reclaim the stories of people in our community who refused to be ignored or left behind without access to higher education.

*We have also used the terminology “racial uplift” in the past, in the context of DuBois’ use of the phrase.

What is Oral History?

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Let’s tell together.

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