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Kitty Oliver Collection, Circa 1969-2016

 

Summary

Extent:
39 Hollinger Boxes
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

Kitty Oliver Collection (AARLCC-2004.1), AALRCC Special Collections, Broward County Library.

Background

Scope and content:

The Kitty Oliver Collection consists of correspondence, personal and professional papers, photographs, newspaper clippings, printed materials, and awards of South Florida journalist and educator Kitty Oliver.

The collection also contains the Race and Change Project, a group of multiple oral history interviews with African-Americans, European-Americans, and immigrants regarding their memories growing up in Broward County, the United States, and other countries. Subjects include family and community lifestyle, race relations and societal change from the late 1920's through the aftermath of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and desegregation. The collection contains audio and visual content of participants from the Race and Change Project including research composed by students taught by Kitty Oliver, and an essay written by Deborah Works entitled "Historical Sketches and Rare Glimpses of the North Fork of the New River: a history of its natural and human environment" (2001). The majority of Dr. Oliver's questionnaires, transcripts and interviews consist of ongoing research study of race and ethnic relations, geographical history and social change through the collection of oral histories of Whites, Blacks/African-Americans and immigrants of various Hispanic/Latinx, Caribbean and Asian backgrounds. Research sites include the South Florida cities of Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Miami, Opa-locka, Delray Beach and Boca Raton; North Fork and Liberia – historically significant Black/African-American communities; towns along Florida's landmark Lake Okeechobee; Stranahan High School in Fort Lauderdale; and Ghana, West Africa – where women who have experienced America's racial climate shared their stories.

Biographical / historical:

Dr. Eloise "Kitty" Oliver is a veteran South Florida journalist, professor of creative nonfiction, memoir writing, oral history, and ethnic communication, and a professional jazz singer. Since the 1980s, she has produced landmark work as a cultural diversity researcher, documenting growing sociocultural conversions and multiculturalism that has become a reflection of contemporary American society.

Dr. Oliver was born on December 16, 1947 in Jacksonville, Florida. In 1965, Kitty Oliver was one of the first five Black freshmen to enroll at the University of Florida and live on campus after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1965. She graduated in 1969 with a Bachelor of Arts in English. During college, she met her Richard "Ricky" C. Oliver, Jr., who she married in 1969, and together they started a folk-rock musical group.

In 1971, Kitty Oliver started working one of the first Black reporters and columnists for the Miami Herald, covering Broward and Miami-Dade County. She chronicled the history of the Black community in South Florida, including Provident Hospital, Dr. Von Mizell and Dr. James Sistrunk, Eula Johnson, and Samuel Morrison.

Oliver left the Miami Herald in 1990 to pursue a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing at Florida International University and graduated in 1994. This led to her writing "Multicolored Memories of a Black Southern Girl," a collection autobiographical essays about coming of age with integration and cultural diversity in Jacksonville and attending the University of Florida, working in South Florida, and her international travel.

After earning her M.A., she began the Race and Change Oral History Project, collecting oral histories of minority groups in Hollywood, Florida. She worked as a fulltime professor of Creative Writing and Multicultural Literature, Oral History Writing, and Ethnic Communication at Florida International University from 1994 to 1996 and at Florida Atlantic University's Broward Campuses from 1996 to 2006. During that time, she developed the Race and Change oral history methodology for cross-cultural research by students and communities. The work includes the Race and Change Project, the Kitty Oliver Oral Histories Archive, and the multimedia audio, webcast radio and television Race and Change Initiative with intergenerational stories. She donated her collection of 125 interviews to the African American Research Library and Cultural Center Special collections in 2004.

Oliver completed a Ph.D. in Comparative Studies from Florida Atlantic University in 2009, focusing on race and ethnic communication. Her degree included the creation of the 10-part public television documentary series "Crossing Cultures, Changing Lives" featuring archival Race and Change Oral Histories narrators.

Dr. Kitty Oliver also specializes in books, television documentaries and literary performances which explore race and ethnic issues. Dr. Oliver conducts community oral history field work and is a member of the Oral History Association (OHA). Additionally, she serves as president of Kitty O. Enterprises, Inc. – which aids as a cultural diversity consulting firm located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida (Broward County).

Her major public television and video productions include the PBS documentary series "Celebrate...the Cultural Connections" and a 10-part series, "Crossing Cultures/Changing Lives", which premiered in Florida, Spring, 2008 on WBEC-TV (Beacon-TV). Dr. Oliver's contemporary work includes ongoing lecture series detailing her Race and Change project. Additionally, she produced a book entitled "Race and Change in Hollywood, Florida (Voices of America)" in 2000.

Dr. Kitty Oliver married Ricky Oliver in 1969, and they had two children, Kali and Brian Oliver. They divorced in 1989. Kitty Oliver married Arthur I. Musson, Jr. in 2018.

The Kitty Oliver Collection is open for research.

Acquisition information:
Dr. Kitty Oliver donated the materials to AARLCC Special Collections on January 29, 2004 (Accession AARLCC-2004.1). Accruals were made in 2005 (Accession AARLCC-2005.1) and on July 29, 2021 (Accession AARLCC-2021.13). An additional accrual was transferred from the Broward County Historical Archives to AARLCC Special Collections on August 28, 2024 (Accession AARLCC-2024.10).
Processing information:

This collection received file level processing. This finding-aid may be updated to reflect new descriptions as well as acquisitions to the collection.

Arrangement:

The Kitty Oliver Collection contains eight series including: Series I. Correspondence, Series II: Personal Papers, Series III: Professional Papers, Series IV: Photographs, Series V. Printed Materials, Series VI. Awards, Series VII. Audio-Visual Materials, and Series VIII: Race and Change Project, 1999-2005.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

The Kitty Oliver Collection is open for research.

Preferred citation:

Kitty Oliver Collection (AARLCC-2004.1), AALRCC Special Collections, Broward County Library.

Location of this collection:
African American Research Library and Cultural Center, Broward County Library
2650 Sistrunk Boulevard
Fort Lauderdale
FL
33311
USA