Oral history interview with Helen Stafford by Helen I. Gilmore conducted 02/06/1993. Community leader Helen Stafford shares her life story, describing her childhood in Kansas and her experiences as a young African-American woman in Depression-era Tacoma. Reflecting back on over sixty years of civic involvement, Stafford comments on her work with the Matron's Club, the NAACP, the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, and the Washington Public Employees Association labor union. She also provides numerous insights into the changing face of Tacoma after World War II.

Oral history interview with Gloria Stancich by Marcie C. Pierson conducted 05/06/2011. Includes highlights from the personal story of Gloria Stancich, longtime civil rights activist and community leader, are discussed and placed in historical context. An active participant in numerous LGBTQ organizations, Stancich describes her path to civic involvement and personal acceptance, which includes a marriage, divorce, and eventual coming out to her son and family.

Oral history interview with Thomas Shoji Takemura by Susan Stout conducted 05/09/1991. The interview recounts Thomas Shoji Takemura's early childhood and family life on a truck gardening farm in Fife, Washington before the start of the Second World War, as well as their forced evacuation to the Assembly Center in Puyallup, Washington. Takemura's experience of camp life is recalled in some detail. During this time, neighbors agreed to take care of the family's property. Takemura eventually obtained a release to work at a U & I factory processing sugar beets in Chinook, Montana, where he met his future wife. He also discusses his involvement in the national redress movement and related lecturing at local area schools.

Oral history interview with Bruce Arneklev by Alyssa Urish conducted 05/11/2017,05/21/2017. Born in rural, eastern Montana, Bruce Arneklev, 79, can be seen as an unlikely match to have led the Tacoma School District's desegregation program evaluation in the 1970s. Arneklev earned his bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Oregon and his Educational Doctorate in educational psychology at Utah State University before moving out with his family of five for an evaluation role with the Tacoma School District. Arneklev was hired to evaluate the district's Emergency School Aid Act for its first four years, 1973-1977. ESAA was a federal program that funded school desegregation efforts. Tacoma began voluntarily desegregating its schools in 1966 with a limited school choice enrollment for its segregated central-area schools and expanding to district-wide enrollment policies to reduce effects of de facto segregation over the next three years. Arneklev worked for an additional twelve years in the district's evaluation department before working as a school psychologist for ten years, retiring in 2000. He lives in the North End of Tacoma with his wife, Dixie, dog, Charlie and has several children and grandchildren in the Tacoma area.

Oral history interview with Rosa Franklin by Elizabeth Walter conducted 02/02/1995. Washington State Senator Rosa Franklin talks about her nursing career and her political involvement at the local and state levels. She touches on her work with the Hilltop Children's Clinic and other outreach healthcare programs and addresses issues relating to health care reform and the nursing profession. Throughout both interviews, she emphasizes the importance of maintaining healthy communities and encouraging citizens to take a more active role in the political process.

Oral history interview with Dale Standley by Constance Standley conducted 05/01/2007. Dale Standley discusses his U.S. Naval career and describes life aboard the USS Hatfield, a destroyer that patrolled the North American west coast during World War II.

Oral history interview with Richard Scharick by Kevin Wallace conducted April-May 2007. Richard Scharick recounts some of the major legislative events that took place during his time as Assistant Sergeant-at-Arms for the Washington State House of Representatives. Areas of focus include the 1989 Omnibus Drug Bill and Scharicks own political philosophy.