The Elk Grove Unified School District is committed to documenting and honoring the individual stories of those who have contributed to the history of the community. As a district, we recognize that history is not something that simply happens in textbooks. History happens here in our own communities, one impactful story at a time.
Through the first-hand accounts of ordinary citizens, the EGUSD Time of Remembrance Oral Histories Project provides a window into two separate, yet related, historic events.
Explore through oral histories the mass removal of Japanese-Americans from the West Coast following the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the onset of World War II..
Listen to heroic stories of the exodus of Hmong and Mien from Laos following the withdrawal of U.S. troops at the close of the “Secret War”.
It is the hope of the Elk Grove Unified School District that our growing collection of Time of Remembrance oral history interviews will help bring two separate, yet connected, chapters in history alive for our students and deepen their understanding of the impact of war on individuals, targeted groups, and entire communities.
Our first-hand account interviews help bring history alive for our students and deepen their understanding of the impact of war on individuals, targeted groups, and entire communities…
The resources listed on the World War II and Vietnam War pages are geared for students in upper elementary school through high school…
The lessons posted to both the World War II and Vietnam War of sections are designed to complement and enrich the Interview Archives…
We warmly invite students, teachers, and community members to share first-hand accounts of tough, timely topics, such as immigration and displacement…
TOR Talks builds on the resources posted to the TOR Website by inviting educators and the community to contribute to conversations and to share resources…
For information or questions regarding the EGUSD Time of Remembrance website, please contact the EGUSD project coordinators.
History is dynamic, with new chapters being created as new events – local, national, and global – occur and impact the lives of ordinary citizens. Accordingly, this website is the second iteration of the Time of Remembrance Oral Histories Project.
WORLD WAR II
The original project focused solely on a World War II event: the mass removal of Japanese-Americans from the West Coast following the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the onset of War War II. Literally overnight, an entire population was denied the rights guaranteed to all citizens under the U.S. Constitution, and the history of the Elk Grove-Florin community was forever changed. Few would return to reclaim their farms, businesses, or former lives. The 16-minute documentary below provides a window into a time in our nation’s history when justice failed – and, more importantly, a reminder of the need to constantly strive for a “more perfect union.”
VIETNAM WAR
Seventy years after WWII, in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, the district recognizes the need to actively respond to AB 78 by documenting and honoring individuals who have witnessed first-hand and/or whose lives have been directly impacted by what has come to be known as the Secret War in Laos. During the Vietnam War and amid fears that Communism was spreading from North Vietnam into Laos, The United States sent the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) into Laos to disrupt the spread. Over 40,000 Hmong and Mien were covertly recruited to fight in the Secret War. It was the largest CIA operation ever undertaken. Hundreds of thousands of Laotian civilians were killed in the fighting or in retaliation for their support of American troops.
The 4-minute introduction video below provides a glimpse of the depth and breadth of a chapter of the Vietnam War still widely under told. Clips used in the video were drawn mainly from the first and second rounds of our Vietnam War Oral Histories interviews.
This wonderful collection of photos from the Manzanar War Relocation Center – National Historic Site were shared with our TOR project by photographer Brian Bates, professor in the Humanities Department at American River College.
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Elk Grove Unified School District
Technology Services
9510 Elk Grove Florin Rd
Elk Grove, CA 95624
(916) 686-7710