This forced them to go outside during the darkest months of the year, when the sun barely sets on the horizon and people go to their homes. For the women who curled, quitting was not an option because the team depended on them.

“They know they have to get out,” Ms Mayr said. “When they stay at home, they feel bad.”

The communities of the Northwest Territories, whose populations are descended from First Nations and white settler families, stand out for their mental health struggles, which in many cases are linked to Canada’s destructive colonial history.

This is the familiar story of Miss Lenny, the daughter of an Inuvialuit man and a white woman who moved to the Far North as a nurse. At the age of 7, she said, Ms. Lenny’s father was sent to a boarding school to “westernize” him, where he was taught by priests and nuns who punished him for using his native language.

There he learned silence, and it stayed with him into adulthood.

“You didn’t talk, you didn’t cry, you didn’t have emotions,” she said. “You grew up in a system that taught you this.”

She doesn’t remember anyone talking about mental health when she was growing up, even after her uncle and later her cousin committed suicide. The story has extended to a third generation of children who grew up with addiction and abuse, paying the price for what happened to their parents, she said. She wears images of dog tags her uncle and grandmother were supposed to wear, “Eskimo ID cards”.

However, when Ms. Lenny tried to live in the south, she was itching to return. She hated traffic jams and pollution. She is used to being near water bodies. Her husband from Tuktoyaktuk, on the Arctic Ocean, does not belong in the city.

Legal uncertainty has created new and unexpected financial hardship for black farmers, many of whom have been unable to invest in their businesses due to continued uncertainty about their debt burden. It also poses a political challenge for Mr. Biden, who was brought to power by black voters and now must keep promises to improve his fortune.

The law was intended to help correct years of discrimination suffered by non-white farmers, including land theft and rejection of loan applications by banks and the federal government. The program was designed to help approximately 15,000 borrowers who receive loans directly from the federal government or who have USDA-guaranteed bank loans. Alaska Native, Asian American, Pacific Islander, or Hispanic.

After the initiative was launched last year, it met with rapid resistance.

Banks were unhappy that loans will be repaid ahead of schedule, depriving them of interest payments. White farmer groups in Wisconsin, North Dakota, Oregon, and Illinois are suing the USDA alleging that debt relief based on skin color is discriminatory, suggesting that a successful black farmer can pay off his debts while a struggling white farmer may disappear. from business. America First Legal, led by former Trump administration official Steven Miller, filed a similar lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

Last June, before the money even flowed in, a federal judge in Florida blocked the program on the grounds that it was applied “strongly racially motivated” regardless of any other factor.

The delays angered black farmers, whom the Biden administration and Congressional Democrats were trying to help. They argue that the law was poorly written and that the White House was not strong enough to defend it in court for fear that a legal defeat could undermine other race-based policies.

Those fears became even more pronounced late last year when the government sent thousands of letters to minority farmers who were in arrears on loans, warning they were at risk of foreclosure. Letters were automatically sent to all borrowers who defaulted on their loans, according to the Agriculture Ministry, including about a third of the 15,000 disadvantaged farmers who applied for debt forgiveness.

Leonard Jackson, a farmer in Muskogee, Oklahoma, received such a letter despite the USDA telling him he did not have to pay the loan because his $235,000 debt would be paid by the government. The letter irritated Mr. Jackson, whose father, a wheat and soybean farmer, forfeited the government’s foreclosure of farm equipment several years ago. The prospect of losing his 33 cows, house and trailer was unfathomable.

Not all Republicans welcome potential MAGA-certified candidates. On Tuesday, a state Senate committee approved legislation barring anyone who has not lived in Tennessee for three years from running for either the House of Representatives or the US Senate. This would obviously not include either Miss Ortagus or Mr. Starbuck.

This time, Democrats and Republicans kind of agreed. The bill’s sponsor, State Senator Frank S. Nicely, said the bill would deter wealthy “people flying over Tennessee saying, ‘Look, there’s an open area.’ not to find a honky-tonk with a flashlight and a map of Broadway.

Nor is it clear that the city wants a Republican convention.

Mayor John Cooper — the congressman’s brother — was studiously evasive, saying in a statement that the area welcomes any interest in the convention as long as it “makes business sense for the city and is in line with Nashville values.”

How exactly this happens in the long run remains unclear.

Republicans are betting that their machinations will hold back Nashville’s Democratic energy for at least the next decade. While the city added nearly 90,000 residents at the latest census, its suburban counties added over 220,000. Republicans hope these new residents will choose them over Democrats.

But this is not a sure bet.

“It could backfire on them,” Professor Siler said. “These counties are now safely Republican, but they are starting to lean towards Democratic,” a trend that gained momentum in the 2020 presidential election.

Others fear that the dominance of the far-right legislature could deter potential newcomers.

“I hope partitioning Nashville doesn’t cause people and firms to consider moving here,” said Frank M. Garrison, a former investment firm executive and Nashville civic leader.

The former police officer who shot Daunte Wright at a bus stop was sentenced to two years in prison. on Friday, far less than the standard seven years for manslaughter, after a judge said the leniency was justified because the officer intended to fire her stun gun, not her gun.

Jury condemned former officer, Kimberly Potter, on two counts of manslaughter in December. They discovered that she had acted recklessly when she fired a bullet into Mr. Wright’s chest, warning that she was going to stun him, and yelling “Taser! Taser!” Taser! Taser!

Ms. Potter, a 49-year-old white woman who served as a police officer in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, resigned two days after the April shooting, during chaotic protests over the killing of Mr. Wright, a 20-year-old black man. . She has been in detention since her conviction on 23 December.

Judge Regina M. Chu sentenced Ms. Potter only on the most serious count, first-degree manslaughter, under Minnesota law. The state’s sentencing guidelines state that the expected penalty for a felony is just over seven years in prison, although the maximum penalty is 15 years. Judge Chu said the case was very different from most manslaughter cases, as well as other high-profile police killings.

“This is not a police officer found guilty of murder for kneeling a man for nine and a half minutes while he was gasping for air,” the judge said, referring to Derek Chauvin, a Minneapolis officer who was convicted of killing George Floyd. She added, “This is a police officer who made a tragic mistake. She pulled out a firearm, thinking it was a stun gun, and ended up killing the young man.”

Judge Chu handed down the verdict shortly after Ms Potter sobbed while apologizing to Mr Wright’s family in court on Friday.

“I’m sorry I caused your son’s death,” said Miss Potter. Addressing Mr. Wright’s mother directly, she said, “Kathy, I understand motherly love and I’m sorry I broke your heart. My heart is broken for all of you.”

Mr. Wright’s relatives said they were outraged by the lenientness of the two-year sentence handed down to Ms. Potter.

Daunte Wright’s father, Arboui Wright, fought back tears as he described feeling betrayed and hurt. He said the judge seemed to care more about Ms. Potter than Mr. Wright and his family.

“They were so absorbed in her feelings and what was happening to her that they forgot about the murder of my son,” he said. “We actually thought we were going to get justice.”

Ben Crump, a lawyer representing Mr Wright’s family, said many people have been sentenced to longer prison terms for selling marijuana.

One of Ms. Potter’s lawyers, Paul Eng, said he was grateful that Ms. Potter was “showed mercy.”

It is rare that police officers are convicted and sentenced to prison for killing people. And prosecutions are unusual in the few situations in which officers have claimed to have thought they were firing stun guns.

In the 15 previous cases over the past two decades, when officers claimed to have mixed up their weapons, three were convicted of the crime, including the two officers who fired the fatal shots. Johannes Mehserle, the traffic officer who shot and killed Oscar Grant III at a train station in Oakland, California in 2009, was sentenced to two years in prison. Robert Bates, Volunteer Deputy Sheriff in Tulsa, Oklahoma sentenced to four years in prison after he shot a man, intending to fire a stun gun.

Prosecutors in the office of Keith Ellison, Attorney General of Minnesota, have proposed asking Judge Choo to sentence Ms. Potter to prison in excess of the standard sentence range of 6.2 to 8.6 years, but in a new court filing this week, they instead said that an offer within this range would be appropriate.

Ms. Potter’s lawyers asked the judge to sentence Ms. Potter to probation, arguing that she would be a “walking target” in prison and that the prosecution’s demand for a sentencing was a “political statement.”

Mr Eng said at Friday’s sentencing hearing that Ms Potter had experienced a “deterioration in mental and physical health” for almost two months, that she had been placed in solitary confinement for fear she would be attacked.

More on the murder of Daunte Wright

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Accusations. Miss Potter encountered two felony charges: first-degree manslaughter and second-degree manslaughter. None of the allegations suggested that she intended to kill Mr. Wright. Subsequently, she was sentenced to two years in prisonwhich is far less than the standard sentence of seven years for manslaughter.

Filming. When Mr. Wright escaped from the hands of another officer who was trying to handcuff him, Miss Potter shouted a warning: assuming she used her stun gunand fired a single shot, killing Mr. Wright.

Taser vs Pistol. How could Miss Potter, a 26-year veteran of the Force, to confuse a pistol with a taser? There were such cases, although not often. IN 15 other cases over the past 20 years, according to The Times, three officers have been convicted.

Mr. Wright’s parents and siblings asked Judge Chu to sentence Ms. Potter to the maximum possible prison term.

“Daunte meant the world to me,” Arboui Wright said in court before sentencing. “He was handsome, he was my son, he was my prince. Daunte was my reason. He was my reason to be a better person.”

China Whitaker, the mother of Daunte Wright’s two-year-old son Daunte Jr., said she became a single mother “not by choice but by force” and that Ms. Potter took Daunte Jr.’s “best friends away from him”.

It is likely that Ms. Potter will be released from prison in about 14 months, in April 2023. Under Minnesota law, prisoners are generally released under supervised release after two-thirds of their sentence, with Ms. Potter counting the 58 days she has spent in custody since her conviction.

Prosecutors in Ms Potter’s case admitted that the April 11 shooting was a mistake, and moments after she fired, body-camera footage showed her screaming that she had grabbed the wrong weapon and falling to the ground in tears.

Mr. Wright was driving with a friend to a car wash in suburban Minneapolis when Officer Anthony Luckey, who was trained by Ms. Potter, noticed that Mr. Wright was using the wrong turn signal. Officer Lucky followed Mr. Wright’s white Buick and noticed that an air freshener was hanging from the rearview mirror of the car. which is against the law in many statesand that his license plate had an expired registration sticker.

Officers checked Mr. Wright’s name in the police database and determined that a judge had recently issued a warrant for his arrest because he missed a trial date on charges of illegal possession of a weapon and running away from police officers. He got out of the car at the request of Officer Lucky, but when the officer tried to handcuff him, Mr. Wright wriggled out of his grip and got back behind the wheel.

As Officer Lucky wrestled with Mr. Wright, trying to keep him from leaving, Miss Potter yelled, “I’m groping you!” instead drawing a Glock issued by her department. Moments later, she fatally shot Mr. Wright, whose car soon drove down the street before crashing into an oncoming car.

Daunt Demetrius Wright played basketball in high school and later worked at Taco Bell and a shoe store with his father. His mother testified at Ms. Potter’s trial that Mr. Wright had recently entered vocational school and was about to become a carpenter.

WASHINGTON. President Biden said Friday that the United States has intelligence evidence that Russian President Vladimir V. Putin has made the final decision to refuse diplomatic offers and invade Ukraine, which Mr. Biden said would be “catastrophic and unnecessary.” war choice” in Eastern Europe.

Speaking from Roosevelt’s White House room, Mr. Biden said “we have reason to believe that Russian forces are planning and intending to attack Ukraine next week, in the coming days,” adding that “we believe they will target on the capital of Ukraine, Kiev, a city of 2.8 million innocent people.”

Asked if he thought Mr. Putin was still hesitant about the invasion, Mr. Biden said: “I’m convinced he’s made up his mind.” He later added that his impression of Mr. Putin’s intentions was based on “significant intelligence capacity.”

Nevertheless, Mr. Biden pleaded with Russia to “choose diplomacy.”

“It is not too late to ease tensions and return to the negotiating table,” Mr. Biden said, referring to talks scheduled for Thursday between Secretary of State Anthony J. Blinken and Russia’s foreign minister. “If Russia takes military action before that date, it will be clear that they have slammed the door on diplomacy.”

Hours before Mr. Biden’s speech this afternoon, pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine called for mass evacuations in two contested regions of the country, saying without much evidence that the Ukrainian military was about to launch a large-scale attack there. a statement that appeared to be aimed at provoking Russian military intervention.

Ominous messages from rebels in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions have been loudly picked up by Moscow, raising fears that Russia is setting the stage for an imminent invasion that could ignite Europe’s biggest conflict in decades.

The Russian-backed separatists’ call for an evacuation came as they accused Ukraine of a range of provocations, including shelling along the front line between Ukraine and separatist forces, and blowing up an empty car belonging to pro-Moscow news outlets. head of the regional security service.

Mr. Biden, who had just completed a video call with a dozen Western leaders, dismissed the allegations as lies concocted by Mr. Putin to inflame the situation on the ground and provide a pretext for war — something the United States and other European leaders have done. warned for weeks.

He called the explosion of a Ukrainian kindergarten a Russian-backed provocation. And he pointed to accusations by Russian separatists that Ukraine planned to launch a major offensive as evidence of Russia’s attempts to justify the military action with disinformation.

“There is simply no evidence for these claims, and it defies elementary logic to believe that Ukrainians would choose this moment, with more than 150,000 troops stationed at its borders, to escalate a year-long conflict,” Mr. Biden said.

The president’s comments are the clearest indication of how close the world could be to the biggest conflict in Europe since World War II. He chose a highly unusual course, deliberately predicting the timing and parameters of the invasion despite the risk that he might be wrong.

“We shout loudly and repeatedly about Russia’s plans,” Mr. Biden said. “Not because we want conflict, but because we are doing everything in our power to remove any reason Russia can give to justify invading Ukraine and prevent them from moving.”

The president did not say how the administration became aware of Mr. Putin’s decision, but two U.S. officials said the president’s assessment was partly based on new intelligence showing that nearly half of Russia’s 150,000 troops have moved from beachheads to battle lines and could launch a full-scale invasion. within a few days.

The forces include between 120 and 125 battalion tactical groups, down from the mid-80s at the beginning of the month. Some of these forces are Russian reservists that will make up the occupation force after the invasion, officials say. Officials requested anonymity to discuss government estimates.

Mr. Biden promised that the United States and its allies are united in imposing tough economic sanctions if Russian troops cross the Ukrainian border. He said he also had a phone call with Democratic and Republican lawmakers, who expressed united support for the administration during a visit to Munich for a security conference.

In Ukraine, the head of the country’s defense ministry said the allegation of an impending attack by its military was categorically false and was intended to stoke tensions. But the ministry issued a stern warning to residents of the disputed regions “not to leave their homes and not use public transport.” It provided “information that the Russian special services mined a number of social infrastructure facilities in Donetsk” in order to “destabilize the situation” there.

Updated

February 20, 2022 9:18 pm ET

The warning reflected how Russia seemed to be doing everything it could to put pressure on the Ukrainians, short of sending its troops across the border.

Concerns about a brewing conflict have intensified after US officials said there were up to 190,000 troops and associated militias stationed in and near Ukraine, including separatists. The assessment was given in a statement by the US mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which called it “the most significant military mobilization in Europe since World War II.”

However, in line with Russia’s controversial statements throughout the crisis, Mr. Putin said on Friday that he was open to further diplomacy. The announcement of a meeting between Mr. Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov calmed nervous markets and signaled that there was still hope for a resolution of the crisis without a war.

But Mr. Putin stressed that Russia will continue to push for far-reaching demands for “security guarantees” in Eastern Europe that have been rejected by the West, such as stopping NATO’s eastward expansion and withdrawing alliance forces from the region. .

“We are ready to enter the negotiation track, provided that all issues are considered together, without breaking away from the main proposals of Russia,” Putin said at a press conference along with his closest associate President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko. who was visiting Moscow.

Friday’s drumming of separatist concerns over Ukrainian provocations coincided with Western officials warning that the “false flag” incident could be used to start a military conflict.

Calling on residents of the contested territories to evacuate to Russia, pro-Moscow leader of the Donetsk People’s Republic Denis Pushilin offered a harsh version of what could happen, citing alleged Ukrainian provocations.

“Very soon, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky will order the military to go on the offensive to implement the plan to invade the territory of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics,” he said in a video posted online, without any evidence.

Kiev categorically denied Moscow’s accusations. And in his Friday speech, Mr. Biden said there was “no evidence” behind them.

While Moscow insists it has no plans to invade, it has promised a “tough response” if the United States and its NATO partners do not scale back their presence in Eastern Europe.

In a show of force, Russia is planning a major exercise this weekend that includes launching ballistic and cruise missiles, the country’s defense ministry has said, according to the Interfax news agency.

Russia’s exercises will test its strategic nuclear forces, including ground launchers, bombers and warships used to deliver nuclear weapons. The Black Sea Fleet, which is conducting large-scale exercises in the region bordering Ukraine, will take part in them. Putin will preside over them from a “situational centre,” the Kremlin said.

The Defense Ministry said the exercises were pre-planned, while Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied that they were aimed at heightening tensions with the West. But they will appear at a critical moment in the confrontation around Ukraine.

Near the front in Ukraine, explosions of munitions fired by the Ukrainian military and return fire from pro-Russian separatists were heard.

There are 12 houses in total. hit by shelling Friday morning, the local branch said United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

In a speech to Ukraine’s parliament, Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov urged Ukrainians living in separatist-held territory not to believe Russian propaganda that the Ukrainian government was going to attack them.

“Don’t be afraid,” he said. “Ukraine is not your enemy.”

The two breakaway regions and breakaway republics are estimated to be home to 3.5 million people, and since the war started there, Russia has granted citizenship to more than 700,000 people living in the Donbass. In his message on Ukraine, Mr. Putin warned of the plight of ethnic Russians in the country, saying events in eastern Ukraine “resemble genocide.”

Highlighting the growing risk of military conflict, Britain announced on Friday evening that it had followed the United States’ lead and evacuated its embassy from Kiev to the western city of Lvov.

Fearing that Russian troops in Belarus could invade Ukraine from the northern border with Belarus, just 140 miles from the capital, Ukrainian authorities have ordered the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster to be closed to tourists.

Valerie Hopkins and Mark Santora reported from Kiev, Ukraine, and Ivan Nechepurenko from Moscow. Eric Schmitt provided coverage from Washington.

And here’s Hank’s penchant for breaking into houses, which was reported by the broadcaster KRNV in Reno, Nevada, didn’t slow down in the winter, leading state wildlife officials to believe it never hibernated, Mr. Thira said. Bears sometimes don’t hibernate if they have year-round access to food, he says.

Hank didn’t fall into the trap set for him this month, so authorities are considering a new approach, with euthanasia being their “last option,” Mr. Thira said.

If officials move the bear elsewhere, it could just move the problem, he said, adding that all the shelters are too full to take Hank.

And this is a point of contention between the California wildlife authorities and the people of the Tahoe Keys. According to Ms. Bryant, many residents want Hank to be taken to an orphanage rather than euthanized.

Black bears have roamed the area for generations. They coexisted with residents who learned leave no food and seal your trash in bear-proof containers. However, bears have occasionally caused trouble in the area. In 2007, The New York Times described the animals as “household pests“.

The situation with bears has changed during the coronavirus pandemic, with some people moving to the area to work remotely. Not all of the new residents were “as knowledgeable about bears as they should have been,” Mr. Thir said. And after the people fled South Lake Tahoe during the fire of Kaldor in SeptemberBears have taken the place of humans, he said, walking the streets and checking houses.

While the neighbors don’t want Hank to destroy their homes, Ms Bryant said they want him to be treated with respect. State officials removed a bear trap in the area after someone spray-painted it. “The Bear Killer” in topic.

“We believe President Putin has made the decision,” Mr. Blinken said Sunday, “but until the tanks actually roll and the planes fly, we will use every opportunity and every minute to see can diplomacy still dissuade the president. Putin from further promotion.

Information passed to Mr. Biden from the intelligence services left it unclear whether Mr. Putin’s orders would lead to a massive invasion or a more gradual approach that would give the Russian leader more opportunity to exploit cracks beneath the surface in the Western alliance opposing him. He could, for example, test the assumption that Germany or Italy, the two Western European countries most dependent on Russian gas supplies, may waver in their resolve.

It is these scenarios that were discussed most intensely this weekend at the Munich Security Conference, an annual meeting of government ministers, corporate executives and strategists in which participants play Mr. Putin’s choice.

“If it’s set to escalate, I don’t think it’s a sudden blitzkrieg to Kiev and the overthrow of the Zelensky government,” said Jan Bremmer, president of Eurasia Group, a geopolitical consulting firm. “It is much more likely that this will look like a recognition of the independence of the breakaway territory” around Lugansk, in the east.

“You are hoping that if you are Putin, then this will lead to more fearfulness of some NATO allies, less rapprochement with NATO, more opportunities for Russia to get what it wants without the need for a full-scale intervention in Ukraine,” Mr. Bremmer. .

Updated

February 20, 2022 6:57 pm ET

A few weeks ago, some US officials shared this view. They noted that Mr. Putin appeared to want to achieve his goal of regime change and halting Ukraine’s drift toward the West as cheaply and with as little casualties as possible. All he wanted was a friendly, pliable government like the one he has in Belarus, said one senior US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to ongoing diplomacy. President of Belarus Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko linked the security of his country with the presence of the Russian military. (“They will be here for as long as it takes,” said Mr. Lukashenko, who is considering inviting Russia to once again deploy its nuclear weapons on Belarusian territory.)

Many suspect that this will be an improvement on Russia’s hybrid warfare strategy. “Putin has designed and demonstrated over a decade of aggressive action that he knows how to fine-tune a half-tone war that is hard to attribute,” said Sen. Chris Koons, a Delaware Democrat close to Mr. Biden.

The oral historians camera turned on. Vivian Washington Filer lifted her head and looked into the lens. After decades of waiting, she had a chance to set a record in Gainesville, Florida by sharing what it took her and her friend to consolidate the Alachua County doctor’s office in 1964.

“Today is April 4th, 2019” University of Florida historian he began, and when Ms. Filer, then 80 years old, heard her name, looked straight ahead and smiled.

The people who marched and organized in their teens and 20s during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s, when segregation was legal and disenfranchisement was widespread, are now in their 70s and 80s.

Every year fewer activists of that era, a monumental period of activity burst, survive. It was one of the most important periods in American history, mired in bloody beatings and deaths and remembered for the epoch-making laws passed after it.

While the experiences of the most prominent civil rights activists are well documented, the views of many of the tens of thousands of people who stood beside them were shared in a much more limited way or were not recorded at all. Eventually, the movement spread across the country, historians say, to thousands of locations such as Gainesville.

Attempts to record the oral histories of these activists have been made in parts of the country for decades. But the coronavirus pandemic has forced historians to act. Many see the coming years as their last chance to collect testimony from those who have never been quoted in articles or mentioned in the history books, despite devoting their youth to seeking justice.

“Many people my age who fought for freedom know so much that others don’t know because our stories die with us,” Ms Filer said on a recent afternoon. “Therefore, there is an urgent need to tell our story here and now.”

This urgency was felt by David Kline, professor of history at San Diego State University and one of the oral historians, who was asked to be interviewed in 2013 for Civil Rights History Project. A joint initiative of the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture collects testimonies from members of the civil rights movement.

Professor Kline said he knew what he was dealing with: time.

He packed his light brown suit, donned a collared shirt, and traveled the country looking for local activists.

Professor Kline went to Chester, Virginia, he said, where Wyatt T Walker, a key strategist in the civil rights protests, was waiting for him at the nursing home, looking “wonderfully present and strong” as he sat in his wheelchair telling stories. Mr Walker died four years later in 2018.

In 2016, Mr. Kline traveled to Santa Rosa, California to interview Elbert Howard, whose wife warned the historian: “He is unwell.” According to her, this is their last chance to record his story for posterity. Mr. Howard, known as the Big Man and founder of the Black Panther party in Oakland, California, died two years after the interview at the age of 80.

“There are so many people dying in the wider civil rights movement,” said Guha Shankar, who helped Professor Kline and other historians interview and coordinated the project.

According to him, a fifth of the 178 people interviewed by the project have died in recent years.

“There will always be too many people to count, but the best thing we can do is find as many as we can now, before it’s too late,” said Cortland Cox, 81, former field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. . a civil rights group that drew its power from youth and grassroots organizations in the 1960s.

Mr. Cox and historians at Duke University helped start SNCC Digital Gatewayan oral history project to gather testimonies from as many SNCC activists as possible.

Of course, he said, people know about President Lyndon B. Johnson and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. But what about black children who were pointed with a white fire hose? Or teenagers thrown into hot prison cells?

Now oral historians are focused on finding activists in undocumented rural areas and small towns.

“After all, these are important people,” Mr. Cox said. “After all, if they didn’t exist and activate, we couldn’t exist.”

Briana Salas, Ph.D. a Texas Christian University student and oral historian, said the pandemic has complicated her efforts over the past two years to recruit activists of that generation.

“We want to be able to protect them,” she said. “This is a serious problem.”

These stories not only acknowledge and capture the role of activists in history, but also give educators and their students a new way to discuss that era in the classroom,” said John Gartrell, director of the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture. at Duke University.

“Activists share the goal of spreading the word,” Mr. Gartrell said.

Seth Kotch, director Southern Oral History Programa project at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which has collected evidence from the civil rights movement for decades, said it saw “disturbing evidence all around us” that people were unfamiliar with this period of American history.

He listened to President Biden Speech on voting rights in Atlantaduring which the president asked elected officials, “Do you want to side with John Lewis or Bull Connor?”

Professor Kotch said that for the issue to have weight, people need to know how black Americans were influenced by Connor, the segregationist commissioner of the brutal police department in Birmingham, Alabama, in the early 1960s.

“Who do we ask to know what it’s like to be in one of his cellars?” said Professor Kotch. “These stories go away.”

Activists of that era are well aware of this. After Pauline Gasca Valenciano finished sharing her oral history in 2015, while she was a civil rights activist in Fort Worth, Texas, she got off her couch and chased a departing historian down a hallway and into a parking lot.

Wait, she called Max Krochmal, professor of history at Texas Christian University.

“I have something to share,” she said, lashing out. Professor Krokhmal took out a voice recorder and listened. Miss Valenciano died in 2018 at the age of 82.

“It gave her a release, a release from her history that she carried with her for a long time,” said her daughter, Jodi Valenciano Gonzalez.

It was the same liberation that Ms. Filer felt in Florida in 2019, impetuously sharing her memories: an isolated doctor’s office where whites had flower pots and coffee; a waist-high window in the back room for black patients who arched their backs to check in.

Finally, she spoke about the anger and nervousness that made her and Mabel Dorsey once enter the front door, take a magazine and sit next to the white patients.

“It is our turn to integrate,” Ms. Filer told historians. “And if anyone was going to do it, it’s us.

Ms Filer is currently Chairman of the Board of Directors Cotton Club Museum and Cultural Center in Gainesville, which will release Granny Stories in March, the oral history of women during the Jim Crow era.

Miss Filer will read the role of Miss Dorsey, her character who died in 1996.

“There were so many of us,” she said. “That’s why the few of us who are left have to tell their story.”