Our mission is to collect, preserve, and make available through recorded interviews, unique and valuable information about Louisiana history and culture.
Oral history lends itself well to documenting those who have been underrepresented in or absent from the written record: African Americans, Native Americans and other minorities, immigrants, members of the working class, women, and groups outside of the mainstream of American life. The aggregate of their stories and voices provide a deeper, more inclusive understanding of our past. Oral history is a method well-suited to the study of the state of Louisiana, which is renowned for its diversity.
Founded in 1991, the Williams Center’s mission is to collect, preserve, and make available through recorded interviews and transcriptions, unique and valuable information about Louisiana history and culture that exists in people's memories and would otherwise be lost.
The Center sponsors and directs several ongoing in-house projects and supports faculty members, students, and researchers from LSU’s Baton Rouge campus, as well as from other colleges and universities. As one of the only programs in the state devoted strictly to oral history, we are the main source of assistance and information on using oral history in Louisiana.
The scope of the Williams Center’s mission goes beyond campus. We partner with schools, community groups, and other like-minded organizations throughout Louisiana, working with them to establish their own oral history projects. We accomplish this by conducting workshops, offering consultations, meeting with classes to discuss oral history, and advising and assisting groups in conducting, processing, curating, and disseminating their interviews.
A final mission of the Center is to publish and disseminate oral history materials and information through online sites and publications like the Louisiana Digital Library, our blog and podcast, and through gallery and online exhibitions.
