Feb. 3: Hanford History Project to celebrate Black History Month through kick-off of civil rights project

Maegan Murray — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 00:23:32 +0000

By Maegan Murray, �� Tri-Cities

RICHLAND, Wash. – Washington State University Tri-Cities’ Hanford History Project will celebrate Black History Month on Saturday, Feb. 3, through a kick-off event for a project that will document African American History at the Hanford Site.

The event, which runs 5 p.m. – 7 p.m. at the , will feature a 45-minute presentation by speakers from the National Park Service, the African American Community Cultural and Education Society, the Hanford History Project and more.

Speakers will discuss the goals of the �� and National Parks Service civil rights oral history project, the work being done in the community regarding the documentation of African American history in the area, as well as make an announcement of a new survey project taking place in East Pasco regarding African American History. Individuals will also be invited to participate in the oral history project documenting African American life at the Hanford Site.

Individuals will then be invited to mingle, enjoy refreshments and learn more about the civil rights oral history project, as well as set up interviews for the project. Posters displaying life for African American workers at the Hanford Site will also be on display.

The Hanford History Project received a grant from the National Park Service recently to analyze the experience of African Americans at Hanford, as well as research and document African American migration, immigration and settlement before and after coming to Hanford. Hanford History Project staff are looking to interview African American individuals who had some experience of the Hanford Site at the time of the Manhattan Project or in the years after.

“We hope to talk to anyone who worked at Hanford or resided in the Tri-Cities from 1943 up through the late 1960s,” said Michael Mays, director of the Hanford History Project. “We want to understand, in better detail and scope, what the experiences were of these individuals from a personal angle.”

Appointment times will be available for those who wish to schedule oral history interviews and information will be provided regarding scheduling interviews with friends or families not able to attend.

For more information on the event, and to participate in the oral history project, contact Jillian Gardner-Andrews at j.gardner-andrews@wsu.edu, or visit /hanfordhistory/.

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March 15-18: �� Tri-Cities to host conference on legacies of Manhattan Project

Maegan Murray — Thu, 02 Mar 2017 18:56:21 +0000

RICHLAND, Wash. – The Hanford History Project at Washington State University Tri-Cities will host a conference detailing the global impact of the Manhattan Project over the last 75 years March 15-18 at the Red Lion Hanford House in Richland.

The conference, titled “Legacies of the Manhattan Project: Reflections on 75 Years of a Nuclear World,” will welcome a range of guest speakers from across the country, including individuals from the National Park Service, historians and community activists from each of the three Manhattan Project National Historical Park sites (Hanford, Wash., Los Alamos, N.M., and Oak Ridge, Tenn.), as well as historians, scientists, engineers and other experts who have been instrumental to the site’s study, production efforts, clean-up and nuclear research.

Many events are free and open to the public. For more information, including the full conference schedule, or to register, contact Jillian at 509-372-7447 or visit /hanfordhistory.

“After Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the world would never be, could never be, the same again,”said Michael Mays, �� Tri-Cities Hanford History Project director. “Yet only now, nearly 75 years later, are we really beginning to understand the cataclysmic impacts of that seminal event.”

“With the ongoing declassification of governmental records, increased access to historical archives, and the recent creation of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, it is an opportune time for a historical reconsideration of the key roles, decisions, outcomes and effects of this critical moment in history,” he said.

Some major themes of the conference include:

Environmental legacies of nuclear materials production
The politics of science, national security and the state
Atomic diplomacy and the Cold War
The Manhattan Project National Historical Park: Memory, commemoration and the challenges of public history
The Manhattan Project in popular culture
Diversity and difference: The contested spaces of the Manhattan Project and Cold War

Keynote speakers for the conference include author and filmmaker Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation, Command and Control); Kathleen Flenniken, Washington State Poet Laureate and one-time Hanford engineer; and Una Gilmartin, structural engineer and historical preservationist whose projects include the restoration of the Washington Monument and Hanford’s White Bluffs Bank.

In addition to panel presentations, keynote addresses and a Saturday evening screening of Schlosser’s documentary film “Command and Control” at the Hanford Reach Interpretive Center, the conference will also offer tours of the Hanford site and of the Hanford History Project repository — home to the U.S. Department of Energy’s “Hanford Collection,” which includes primary documents, photos, films and digital materials.

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Cold War Archives - ������ Tri-Cities

Feb. 3: Hanford History Project to celebrate Black History Month through kick-off of civil rights project

March 15-18: ������ Tri-Cities to host conference on legacies of Manhattan Project

Cold War Archives - �� Tri-Cities

March 15-18: �� Tri-Cities to host conference on legacies of Manhattan Project