Mr. Mitchell was born and raised in Stamps, Arkansas. Mitchell traveled to the Cleveland area after the saw mill in Arkansas was shut down. Mr. Mitchell received his barber's license and started his own barbershop in the 1960s. Mr. Mitchell worked in other industries while sustaining his barber shop. Mr. Mitchell and other members of the Cleveland Black community organized in efforts to integrate Cleveland. They attended several government meetings and negotiated with officials. Mr. Mitchell once showed up at a meeting of the local white citizen council and received death threats after revealing his opinion about the council's proposal of halting integration by providing more funding for the Cleveland Black school. Following the meeting, Mitchell received a death threat by a local pastor. Mitchell ultimately served for decades on the Cleveland school board after being elected in the 1960s.

Mr. Wright was born and raised in Liberty, Texas in the 1930s. HE grew up on a farm and went to segregated schools. After his graduation in 1954, he went to Prairieview A&M for a brief period of time before joining the army, where he was stationed in Germany. He returned to Texas in 1960 and began working as a medical technologist. Later, he worked for NASA on the Apollo 11 mission, the EEOC, and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. In his interview, Mr. Wright describes Liberty in the 1940s and 1950s, his experience in the army, discrimination on the job in the 1960s and 1970s, community activism, his experiences as city councilman in Ames, and his hopes for hte area's future.