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The Past is the Quarry for Cal State Northridge Mother-Daughter Research Team

(NORTHRIDGE, Calif., April 20, 2007) — That Debra White Hayes and daughter Charity Hayes have a life in common is evident. One begins a sentence; the other finishes it.

Spend a few minutes in their company and something else becomes evident: their shared passion for shedding light on the present by digging into fading records and sorting through the dusty remnants of the past.

On March 28, the unusual mother-daughter team traveled to Natchez, Miss.—with ten other Cal State Northridge students and history professors Ron Davis and Joyce Broussard—to continue research in a region where the Forks of the Road, the South’s second largest enslavement market, thrived from about 1830 to 1863.

"This study of our roots has been a project of mine for more than 40 years," said White Hayes, whose family lines go back to Natchez. In 1991, she read a newspaper article about the Natchez Project, the Department of History’s research effort that focuses on antebellum courthouse records in Natchez. "I got my nerve together, picked up the phone and called Dr. Davis."

"Debra had come up against a brick wall," recalled Davis. "On her own, she’d been able to trace her family back to 1900, but then a great mystery began to appear in the records. When she said ‘mystery,’ my ears pricked up, because in our classes, we solve mysteries."

He offered some ideas, and neither forgot the exchange.

By 2000, White Hayes had retired and become antsy. Charity, then an art history major at Valley College, persuaded her mother to follow her lead and finish at Valley the associate arts degree she’d begun in the ‘60s.

In the meantime, Charity transferred to CSUN and became a history major. The birth of her son, Jacob, interrupted her studies for a year and a half, but by 2005 she was back.

Likewise, Debra—also an art history major—entered CSUN in spring 2003. She walked into one of Davis’ classes and the professor instantly remembered her story. Before long, she also was a history major. A bout with breast cancer sidetracked her, also for a year and a half, but she, too, battled back.

The close relationship between mother and daughter—they constantly spark each other with ideas, historical dates and factoids—inevitably set them on the road to Natchez. Invited to join the 2006 research trip, Charity enlisted White Hayes, who paid her own expenses for the opportunity.

"When we got there, it was like a needle in a haystack at first; there was so much information in the courthouse," said Charity.

Together, the pair ventured into old graveyards, tramped through woods looking for markers, visited aged relatives with long memories, and stood mesmerized at the site where the Dunbarton Plantation—which burned to the ground and permanently scarred its owner, possibly an ancestor—once stood. They spent hours, side by side, working among the yellowing records in the courthouse and the Natchez Historical Society.

During the March 2007 trip, White Hayes conducted vital research on Natchez College. Charity, who graduates in May, probed more deeply into her Natchez family roots. Both plan to pursue master’s degrees at CSUN.

"Charity has decided it’s all about the research, finding and culling out information, trying to help others," said Broussard, who is "transitioning" into full Natchez Project leadership now that Davis, in the second year of the Faculty Early Retirement Program, has plans for full retirement in 2009. "In Debra’s case, she now has the capacity to realize her passion. In that respect, this is a phenomenal experience for her and her daughter."

California State University, Northridge has 34,500 full- and part-time students and offers 62 bachelor’s and 50 master’s degrees as well as 28 teaching credential programs. Founded in 1958, CSUN is among the largest single-campus universities in the nation and the only four-year public university in the San Fernando Valley. The university serves as the intellectual, economic and cultural heart of the Valley and beyond.