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[Excerpt from Testimony of Dr. Clara L.  Small, Department of History,   Salisbury  State  University]
I teach African American History, American History,  Racism and Discrimination, Civil Rights, and Oral History at Salisbury State University.     Since   1977  I have been visiting schools,  churches, senior citizen  centers  and holding  meetings  with  civic  organizations  to discuss African American History.     I also conduct oral history seminars  in order to teach people how to record their history because most of it is not written.    African American history has been neglected  in  many  respects.
For example, as a project this summer, I identified 320 slaves who were free in Worchester County who were able serve in the civil war; who their owners were; what dates they were freed;  and what infantry and units they served in.    This is just one of the projects I've worked on.    This is research and work that I do on my own with no funding.     Even when we compete for funding most people believe that African Americans on the Eastern Shore have no history worthy of being preserved. That is a sentiment.    It is also a sentiment that