Index of University Press Releases

Jan 31, 2007

Oral history grant awarded to McGovern Center

MITCHELL – The McGovern Center for Leadership and Public Service at Dakota Wesleyan University has received a grant from the Kentucky Oral History Commission toward its oral history project documenting the 1972 presidential campaign in Kentucky.

“The goal of the project is to preserve the history of the Kentucky campaign before it is lost forever,” said Donald Simmons, director of the McGovern Center. “The receipt of the $1,365 grant also means that DWU is eligible to apply for an additional $5,000 grant for transcriptions of the interviews.”

Simmons, a trained oral historian, will travel to Kentucky in March to conduct the interviews. Ten individuals who played vital roles in the Kentucky presidential contest of 1972 have agreed to be interviewed. Included in the list are former McGovern delegates, Democratic delegates who supported other candidates, and Democratic activists, as well as Republicans who played a vital role in McGovern’s defeat in Kentucky and other states.

“Researchers in future years will benefit greatly from the project. It will fill much needed gaps in original source materials,” said Simmons.

“I am particularly excited about interviewing some of Kentucky’s most prominent Republicans, like Mike Duncan, who served in the Bush White House and has been a delegate to five Republican National Conventions. The Republican perspective is critical if scholars and researchers are to understand what really happened during the campaign.”

The McGovern Center will make copies of the interviews available to the Kentucky Oral History Commission, as well as maintain copies in the McGovern Library Oral History Collection. Additional information about the project and how the public may access the oral histories will be available later this year at the McGovern Center Web site www.mcgoverncenter.com.