The Duke University Oral History Program Collection contains 238 oral history interviews conducted by project participants in the years 1973-1978 and 1992. The majority of the oral history interviews deal with the civil rights movement in North Carolina, especially Durham, Chapel Hill, and Greensboro. Additionally, thirteen interviews deal with the Tulsa Race Riots, and fourteen interviews cover miscellaneous North Carolina topics. The collection also includes transcripts and research files related to the civil rights movement in North Carolina.

The collection is arranged in three series: Audiotapes, Transcripts, and Research Files. The Audiotapes Series consists of two identical sets of audiocassettes, one closed for preservation purposes and one open for researchers. The North Carolina Civil Rights Movement tapes, which make up the bulk of the series, include extensive interviews with Ella Baker, as well as hundreds of interviews with lesser-known but nonetheless important figures from the local movements in Greensboro, Durham, Chapel Hill, Weldon, and Monroe, N.C. The Tulsa Race Riots tapes include interviews conducted by Scott Ellsworth for his study Death in the Promised Land: The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. The North Carolina Miscellaneous tapes include an interview with Alex Haley about his critically-acclaimed book, Roots, as well as conversations about such topics as the state's agricultural history and mountain culture in Western North Carolina. The Transcripts Series includes eighty transcripts, as well as some interview notes, corresponding to tapes dealing with the North Carolina civil rights movement. The Research Files Series contains six files of background material related to the civil rights movement in North Carolina, including articles and speeches by Governor Terry Sanford and a bibliography of material dealing with the Durham sit-ins, and one file listing tapes and transcripts in the collection.

African-American family based in Greensboro (Guildford Co.), North Carolina. Waldo C. Falkener served on the Greensboro City Council from 1959-1963. His wife, Margaret, was also politically active. The collection primarily documents the political career of Waldo C. Falkener, and comprises minutes and reports from Greensboro City Council meetings. There are also materials from his campaigns for office and items that document his successes as a council member. In addition, there are documents relating to other family members, including photographs, news articles, correspondence, and deeds. Later accessions include clippings, correspondence, and other materials documenting the political careers of the Falkeners. Acquired as part of the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture.

The collection primarily documents the political career of Waldo C. Falkener and comprises minutes and reports from Greensboro City Council meetings. The council minutes include committee reports (finance, public works, transportation, and real estate committees), as well as ordinances, laws, memoranda, and letters. Meeting notes are arranged by date, spanning 1959-1966. There are also materials from his campaigns for office and items that document his successes as a council member. Some correspondence relates to the life of Falkener's father, Henry Hall Falkener, also an active politician and public school teacher. Documents span beyond Falkener's death in 1992 up until 2001, including obituaries and memorial material. In addition, there are documents relating to other family members, George H. Falkener, Henry Hall Falkener, Madge Z. Mitchell Falkener, and Margaret E. Falkener. Materials include photographs, news articles, correspondence, and deeds. Printed materials consist largely of those published by the Greensboro City Council, including annual budget reports, personel reviews, and handbooks. The collection includes newspaper articles about Falkener's civic services and letters of appreciation (1972, 1979), as well as materials related to the successful campaign to name a Greensboro elementary school after Falkener and his father (2001).

Acquired as part of the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture.

The William Henry Chafe Oral History Collection spans the years 1933 through 1988, with most of the materials dated between 1972 and 1978. The collection consists mainly of oral history interview tapes and transcripts, but also includes interview notes and research files related to Chafe's book Civilities and Civil Rights: Greensboro, North Carolina, and the Black Struggle for Freedom.

The William Henry Chafe Oral History Collection spans the years 1933 through 1988, with most of the materials dated between 1972 and 1978. The collection consists mainly of oral history interview tapes and transcripts, but also includes interview notes and research files related to Chafe's book Civilities and Civil Rights: Greensboro, North Carolina, and the Black Struggle for Freedom.

The interview tapes and transcripts (1972-1978, undated), which comprise the bulk of the collection, include interviews with government officials, participants in the North Carolina civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, and opponents of the movement, including members of the Ku Klux Klan. The few research files in the collection include statistical data related to Greensboro elections (1930s-1950s), notes from the Joan Bluethenthal papers and a report by the North Carolina State Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights on civil disturbances at Dudley High School and North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1969.

The Audiotapes Series consists of two identical sets (one for preservation, one for use by researchers) of twenty-eight tapes containing oral history interviews. The Printed Material Series includes transcripts and/or notes on 67 oral history interviews, and three research files related to the civil rights movement and local politics in Greensboro.

Beyond the direct oral history materials, there is also a Writings and Research Series. It includes research notes for several chapters of Chafe's book in addition to newspaper clippings addressing topics such as Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination and the return of black veterans from the Vietnam War; an assortment of documents regarding the Black Panther Party collected by the Federal Bureau of Investigations' Counter Intelligence Program, and a number of publications produced by other authors. While the materials predominately relate to Greensboro, this series also includes information on civil rights activity in Durham, Chapel Hill, and the Research Triangle at large. The Photographs Series includes fourteen undated photographs.

William H. Chafe's book, Civilities and Civil Rights: Greensboro, North Carolina, and the Black Struggle for Freedom, chronicles the continuing conflict over desegregation in Greensboro in the 1950s and 1960s. Chafe explores the "progressive mystique" that defined the terms of culturally-sanctioned behavior, looking at how civility served to preserve the South's racial order. Within this context, he discusses the city's reaction to the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, the Greensboro sit-in movement begun by four college students at North Carolina A&T College in 1960, and the emergence of the Black Power Movement in the late 1960s.