"The Other Suburbanites" discusses the history of African American neighborhoods as they developed in the early part of the twentieth century. In particular, it looks at a neighborhood neighborhood near Cleveland known as Chagrin Falls Park. Settled for the most part by rural immigrants from the South, Cahgrin Falls is used as an example for how many other African American suburbs developed alongside their more well known predominately white counterparts. The main thrust of the article is to prove that although the overall look of these neighborhoods may have differed from stereotypical views of suburbia, that did not mean the residents did not maintain the same mindset of what suburban living meant.
The ways the oral history interviews were worked in was very well done, working with the narration as opposed to being presented as a separate artifact. However, having said that, I personally appreciate it when one is presented with a clip of the actual oral history interview, where one is able to see the interaction between the interviewer and the interviewee take place. I think this provides more of a feeling of connection with the work and reminds the reader how close the process of oral history can be. I also thought some of the interviews were spaced wide apart, with some jammed next to each other and whole sections of the article not even referencing them. While the ones close together were for the most part important in regards to their relation to one another, the article may have included more in other areas.
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I think you bring up an interesting point on the presentation of these oral history interviews by the author. I agree that by not including the interaction that occurs on these interviews, Wiese does a diservice to the reader on the unique and often informative exachange that occurs between the interviewer and interviewee. I also agree with your point that the interviews were referenced in what seemed to be a hap-hazard way, both clumped in areas where they were not used to their best and then in places that I thought they would be best used were absent all together.
While I agree that the interview and interviewee interactions would be interesting to read and would possibly add to the article, I do not think anything was lost by not including them. Weise still made strong points and integrated these first hand accounts in an effective manner. However, I agree that the quotes come in clumps in the article, and detract a bit from the writing. Still, this use of quotes was better then using long block quotes which tend to lose the interest of the reader.
I agree that the article on suburbia could contain more “live” material, quoting certain interviewees, rather than generalizing their thoughts. Also, we should note that these interviews were performed some time afterwards, when human’s memory slowly fades, as person ages. Nonetheless, this article is a good example of how historians use oral history – sure, it won’t present a big scale picture of the African-American suburban community, but will show methods of such presentation – preliminary research, historical background, actual integral analysis of interviews and logical conclusion on the subject matter.
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