The Southside is south of the railroad tracks and Route 66. The area has a rich history. It\u2019s one of Flagstaff\u2019s oldest neighborhoods, settled by diverse groups, including African American lumber mill workers, Basque sheepherders, and Italian and Mexican immigrants. \u201cThe Southside is very interesting to me. It\u2019s wedged between downtown and the NAU campus,\u201d Holliday says. \u201cIt has a fascinating history with people who have done a lot for Flagstaff in general. So, for me, I want to tell these stories, and the Southside has not had a voice for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Holliday will talk about his project at NAU\u2019s Undergraduate Symposium<\/a> on April 28.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Working under the direction of Dr. Ricardo Guthrie, who developed the Historic Southside Project at the Murdoch Center during the early 2010s, Holliday reviewed historical records, images, and files in NAU’s Cline Library Special Collections<\/a>. Holliday used data to post on Dr. Guthrie’s website<\/a> in an interactive, engaging format for viewers. The project builds on over two decades of materials culled and curated by Dr. Guthrie and other student interns working at the Murdoch Community Center to uncover the stories about Cleo Wilson Murdoch, Wilson Riles, and many others whose records are housed in Cline Library and in Arizona State Archives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The collaboration and internship has been fruitful and rewarding. Holliday first met Dr. Guthrie in spring 2022, after he learned Dr. Guthrie was a longtime colleague of his aunt, Gail Holliday\u2014when both had worked at the Harvard School of Public Health in the 1990s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The project is also funded by the City of Flagstaff and the Route 66 Road Ahead Foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Under the direction of Dr. Guthrie, Holliday used the library data to update the website focusing on the Southside\u2019s African American history. \u201cI have been building a website<\/a> where people can go and look at these past people, past buildings, and past places,\u201d he says. \u201cI pieced together data of residents\u2019 knowledge of what the Southside was and what it is today. We\u2019re hoping that the website can be a tool for visitors to learn about the community\u2019s history.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Holliday was provided oral histories of unheard voices of the Southside community, the \u201cheroes and sheroes\u201d that were collected by Dr. Guthrie and Cline Library staff. Cleo Wilson Murdoch was one such voice. She was a teacher and principal at Dunbar School, a segregated school in the Southside neighborhood. \u201cWhile she didn\u2019t get to live that long\u2014she died at age 39\u2014she played a huge role in lifting up the voices in the community and doing so much for the kids of the Southside\u201d who lived in segregated neighborhoods, Holliday says. Dunbar School was converted into a community center and renamed the Murdoch Community Center in her honor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Holliday also updated historical information about Wilson Riles on the website. Like Murdoch, Riles was a principal at Dunbar School. Before that, he was one of the first Black students to enroll at NAU, known as Arizona State Teachers College at the time. In 1953, Riles worked with Flagstaff Superintendent Sturgeon Cromer to desegregate Flagstaff\u2019s public schools\u2014a year before the US Supreme Court decision banning segregation. The Riles building on north campus in Flagstaff is named after him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Undergraduate](\"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/179\/2023\/02\/7252_ugrads_special_collections_20230210-1024x683.jpg\")
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