AUTOBIOGRAPHY AS A SOURCE
Autobiography was not considered a "normal" historical source by any means. It was generally confined to literary uses and thus, was ignored when historians spoke of sources. Autobiography is now considered an extremely important historical source and many useful insights can be gleaned from them. The nature of autobiography is that they reveal far more than a set of staid media reports can. The nature of autobiography has been explored in this website through an examination of Melba Beals' autobiography. Autobiography brings immediacy to events that have been simply narrated by secondary accounts. Autobiography gives special insight into the minds of the writer, something that is often ignored. The importance of the particular source that is at the heart of this website is that Beals contributes an account written 40 years after the events in Little Rock and allows historians to read an account imbued with detail and written with an immediacy that allows historians to grapple with the issues that surround this period. For instance the most vivid parts of her autobiography are when she is confused within the school. Her encounters with racist students are highlighted by the vivid language she employs and the endearing nature of her literary style proves useful in understanding an African American child-like perspective of the Little Rock integration, albeit written 40 years afterwards. It can be tempting at times to concentrate on sources like media reports from the Arkansas Gazette and the like, but Beals' autobiography shows the extremely valuable and intimate nature of autobiography from a participant's point of view.
There are some problems with autobiography, and particularly with the issue of memory. Autobiography relies on personal reflection and there are times when the emotive nature of the events may overshadow judgment. However, the reliability of the autobiography as a historical source does not diminish the usefulness of the source. In analysing these memories of events that occurred 40 years ago, a surprisingly vivid construction of the events comes down.
Although only a small part of the autobiography is provided, it is hoped that readers will gain a sense of why autobiographical recollection is so important in understanding and writing history. Melba Beals has given an interview which can be found here. The autobiography is worth reading in its entirety, hopefully with the historical context provided by the essays.