On July 25, 2011 the Georgia Humanities Council awarded the CCBA a grant of $2000 for the Augusta Chinese American Oral History Project. The project dates were 8/1/2011 to 5/31/2012. In 2018 the Digital Library of Georgia awarded ARCPLS a grant to have the collection of interviews digitized and made available through the DLG website.

The Augusta Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA) was chartered in 1927 to support Augusta’s Chinese community. The CCBA is the oldest Chinese organization in Georgia and remains active in the community. The interviews were gathered in 2011 and 2012 by members of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association of Augusta (CCBA), with Augusta-Richmond County Public Library System (ARCPLS) serving as a partner institution. The DVD recordings contain both audio and visual components. The visual component consists of a slide show of personal photographs documenting life in Augusta, immigration to America, and family life.

Because of the variety of topics discussed by those interviewed, the oral histories appeal to a broad number of researchers, social historians, those tracing family histories, and students. Anyone interested in the study of immigration, minority cultures, economic history, race relations, or the establishment of Chinese-American organizations in the south will find the interviews informative. Many of the interviewees discuss family-owned business that opened in predominantly African-American neighborhoods in Augusta during the Jim Crow era. Whites in Augusta refused to provide services to African-Americans, thereby opening a window of opportunity, which Augusta’s Chinese-Americans took advantage of by opening successful groceries, restaurants, and laundry establishments, a few of which were damaged or destroyed during the 1970 Augusta Riot.

In addition to the twenty-six (26) audiovisual recordings, the collection includes the Georgia Humanities Grant written by the CCBA, which provides a list of project participants, with brief profiles, as well as a complete list of all participants interviewed during the oral history project. Also included are folders for each interviewee containing a narrator’s questionnaire with biographical information, a family tree, and a brief sketch of what the person discusses in the interview, with pictures.