The Digital Library of Georgia remembers Clifford M. Kuhn, associate professor of history at Georgia State University and executive director of the Oral History Association. Kuhn passed away on Sunday, November 8.
Kuhn was a principal staff member of the Living Atlanta radio series, which aired on radio station WRFG, and was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Kuhn interviewed hundreds of Atlantans for this project, which documented the city’s history between World War I and World War II, and covered a wide range of topics such as the history of Atlanta neighborhoods, education, transportation, commerce, the Depression and New Deal, religion, politics, health, and leisure. The project focused intently on confronting Atlanta’s history as a segregated city, and representing the voices of Atlanta’s working-class people. Kuhn then developed the content from these interviews into a book, Living Atlanta: An Oral History of the City, 1914-1948, which he co-authored with Harlon E. Joye and E. Bernard West. The book was published in 1990. More than 150 Living Atlanta interviews conducted by Kuhn are available in the Digital Library of Georgia as part of the Living Atlanta collection.
In 2001, Kuhn published the book Contesting The New South Order: The 1914-1915 Strike at Atlanta’s Fulton Mills. He played a prominent role in the centennial remembrance of the 1906 Atlanta Race Riot, and continued to lead monthly tours of sites in downtown Atlanta that were associated with the riot. In 2008, he served as co-chairperson of the Content Council for the National Center for Civil and Human Rights. Most recently, he was working on a book about sociologist and anti-lynching activist Arthur Raper. Four parts of an interview that Kuhn conducted with Arthur Raper are available as part of Living Atlanta; you can access them here:
Oral history interview with Arthur Raper, 1979 June 10, part 1
Oral history interview with Arthur Raper, 1979 June 10, part 2
Oral history interview with Arthur Raper, 1979 June 10, part 3
Oral history interview with Arthur Raper, 1979 June 10, part 4
Our thoughts are with Dr. Kuhn’s family, friends, and colleagues.
