Minnesota's Human Rights Stories Oral History Project

Oral History Interviews

To access the MHRO interviews, visit the University Libraries page. Each interview includes the video(s) complete with closed captions, an annotated transcript, a screen-reader compatible transcript, an interview description with timestamps, interactive topic tags, and other identifying information about the interview. Some interviews may not have their video(s) publicly posted on this website due to a narrator placing use restrictions on their materials. Individuals interested in accessing audiovisual materials for research purposes can contact the University Archives.

What is the Minnesota's Human Rights Stories Oral History Project (MHRO)?

The Minnesota's Human Rights Stories Oral History Project (MHRO) was founded in 2023 by human rights activist and Human Rights Program Director Emerita, Barbara Frey. The MHRO records interviews with Minnesota-based human rights advocates. The topics covered in interviews include narrators’ early influences and catalysts for engaging in human rights work, origins of their campaigns or organizations, biggest achievements and setbacks, strategic decision-making, advocacy campaigns and tactics, funding opportunities and challenges, global partnerships, impacts, long-term legacy, and more.

The MHRO’s oral histories offer insights into the mechanics of doing human rights work, providing meaningful data for researchers, community members, and human rights defenders. Audiences will learn from MHRO narrators’ experiences, recognize their failings, and be inspired by their struggles. Oral histories are an important resource for preserving the past, helping us understand the present, and encouraging us to imagine possible futures.

The MHRO is part of the larger Minnesota Human Rights Archive (MHRA), an umbrella archive of materials related to Minnesota's human rights history, which includes the papers and materials of various Minnesota-based human rights activists and non-profits. Both the MHRO and MHRA are housed in the Archives and Special Collections (ASC) in Elmer L. Andersen Library.

The first collection (2023-25), focused on activists working to prevent torture, domestic violence and racism, was funded with grant support from the Office of the Vice President for Research at the University of Minnesota and the University of Minnesota Retirees Association (UMRA). The second collection (2025-26), supported by a Minnesota Historical & Cultural Heritage Grant from the Minnesota Historical Society, provides in-depth interviews with founders of Minnesota-based human rights organizations.

Using Oral Histories to Preserve Minnesota’s Contributions to Human Rights

Jim Dorsey and Barbara Frey meet on Dorsey’s backyard deck.

A main goal of the MHRO is to preserve the memories of Minnesotans, and individuals who have conducted a significant portion of their activism in Minnesota, who are recognized as leaders in the field of international human rights from the 1970s until today. We highlight the outsized role this state has played in the international human rights movement, as well as acknowledge the places where the state has fallen short in upholding human rights standards.

Dr. Samuel Myers, Jr., points out the “Minnesota Paradox,” referring to the overall high quality of life in the state while simultaneously having some of the worst racial disparities in the country in income, employment, education and incarceration. Minnesota has been the site of forced displacement and acts of cultural genocide targeting its Indigenous inhabitants; of antisemitic and anti-Muslim exclusion and stigma; and of a century of racial discrimination that presaged the murder of George Floyd at the hands of state actors. At the same time, Minnesota has also resettled a large number of refugees; produced the Minnesota Procotol, an internationally recognized document that has set the standard for trustworthy investigations into killings perpetrated by state actors; is the home of the largest torture rehabilitation organization in the world; the birthplace of the American Indian Movement; a key hub in the global fight against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance; and the launchpad for nonviolent and nonpartisan unarmed civilian protection in global conflicts. It is this history and context that makes the preservation of Minnesota’s human rights stories so important, as to understand the present moment, it is vital to understand how we got here.

Collection I (2023-2025)

The first collection of the MHRO primarily highlights narrators with Minnesota connections who have worked as activists on racial justice, women’s human rights, and anti-torture campaigns. The stories recorded in these interviews were used to support the creation and curation of the exhibition “Global Reach of Local Activism: Minnesota’s Human Rights Stories”, which was displayed in Elmer L. Andersen Library in February 2024.

Barbara Frey – Human Rights Lawyer, Educator, Activist, and Non-profit Founder

MHRO Interview Number 001, Barbara Frey

Barbara Frey is a lawyer, educator, and human rights activist based in the Twin Cities. She is the creator of the Minnesota’s Human Rights Stories Oral History Project (MHRO). In this interview, Frey discusses the purpose and scope of the MHRO Project, her experiences in the human rights community in Minnesota and with the Minnesota Lawyers International Human Rights Committee, now known as The Advocates for Human Rights, an organization which she helped to found.

Aviva Breen – Lawyer and Women's Rights Activist

MHRO Interview Number 002, Aviva Breen

Aviva Breen is a Chicago-born, Minnesota-based human rights activist and lawyer whose work centers on women’s rights, domestic violence, and issues of poverty. In this interview, Breen talks about her path into law and public service, including her work with the Legal Services Advocacy Project and her long tenure with the Minnesota Legislative Commission on the Economic Status of Women. She highlights her work through The Advocates for Human Rights, where she engaged in global efforts to combat domestic violence and promote women’s rights.

Sonia Rosen – Lawyer and Labor Rights Activist

MHRO Interview Number 003, Sonia Rosen

Sonia Rosen was a lawyer and human rights activist based in Arlington, Virginia, who spent a significant portion of her career in Minnesota. She passed away on May 5, 2025 after a three year battle with pancreatic cancer and is dearly missed by the human rights community. Rosen's interview consists of two parts. In the first part of her interview, Rosen talks about her path into human rights work, including her move to Minnesota to study under David Weissbrodt and her early involvement with The Advocates for Human Rights. In the second part of her interview, she highlights her later career in national and international advocacy, particularly her work on child labor and human rights policy through roles with Amnesty International and the United States Department of Labor, among other organizations.

Cheryl Thomas – Lawyer, Women's Rights Activist, and Non-profit Founder

MHRO Interview Number 004, Cheryl Thomas

Cheryl Thomas is a Minneapolis-based lawyer and human rights activist whose work centers on women’s rights and domestic violence. In this interview, Thomas talks about her path into law and human rights, including her work with The Advocates for Human Rights and her leadership in advancing women’s rights initiatives. She highlights her role in expanding global efforts to combat domestic violence and her founding of the non-profit organization Global Rights for Women.

Robin Phillips – Lawyer, Women's Rights Activist, and Non-profit Executive Director

MHRO Interview Number 005, Robin Phillips

Robin Phillips is a Minneapolis-based human rights activist, lawyer, and non-profit professional. In this interview, Phillips talks about her college years and transition from private legal practice work into human rights advocacy with The Advocates for Human Rights. She details activities she engaged in related to women's rights, such as attending the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. She also discusses the roles she has held at The Advocates for Human Rights, namely Director of the Women's Human Rights Program and Executive Director.

Samuel Heins – Lawyer, Human Rights Activist, and Non-profit Founder

MHRO Interview Number 006, Samuel Heins

Samuel Heins is a lawyer, human rights activist, and former United States Ambassador to Norway currently based in the Greater Minneapolis area. In this interview, Heins discusses his time as both an undergraduate and law student at the University of Minnesota, his experience clerking for a district court judge in Minnesota, and his time working in private legal practices. He also details his experiences as a founding member of both the Minnesota Lawyers International Human Rights Committee, now The Advocates for Human Rights, and the Center for Victims of Torture (CVT).

James Dorsey – Lawyer and Human Rights Activist

MHRO Interview Number 007, James Dorsey

James "Jim" Dorsey is a lawyer and human rights activist based in the Greater Minneapolis area. In this interview, Dorsey explains his involvement in the founding of the Minnesota Lawyers International Human Rights Committee, now known as The Advocates for Human Rights. He details subsequent activities he was involved in through the organization, including observing trials in Apartheid South Africa, working with the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, contributing to the Mock Trial of the Khmer Rouge and the Khmer Oral History Project, and more. He also discusses his experience representing a detainee at Guantanamo Bay in the early 2000s.

Pete Dross – Human Rights Non-profit Professional

MHRO Interview Number 008, Pete Dross

Pete Dross is Vice President of External Relations at the Center for Victims of Torture (CVT) which is headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota. Dross’s interview consists of two parts. In the first part of his interview, Dross discusses his time as a student and activist at Carleton College, his career as a community organizer, and the beginning of his time with the CVT. In the second part of his interview, he talks extensively about his career with the CVT, delving into the CVT's programs, funding, and changes in leadership throughout the years.

Bret Thiele and Mayra Gomez – Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights Activists

MHRO Interview Number 009, Bret Thiele and Mayra Gomez

Bret Thiele is an international human rights lawyer who holds a JD from the University of Minnesota. Mayra Gomez is a human rights professional who holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Minnesota. The couple are based in Duluth, Minnesota. Thiele and Gomez co-founded and directed the Global Initiative of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Global Initiative). In this interview, Thiele and Gomez discuss their early human rights work as University of Minnesota students under David Weissbrodt, their work with The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), their advocacy within the realm of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESC), and the process of founding and developing the Global Initiative organization.

Loretta Frederick – Lawyer and Activist Against Domestic Violence

MHRO Interview Number 010, Loretta Frederick

Loretta Frederick is a lawyer, women's rights activist, and an advocate for survivors of domestic violence, based in Winona, Minnesota. In this interview, Frederick details her experiences as an undergraduate student at Macalester College and law student at William Mitchell College of Law, as well as her early work in mental health law with regional legal aid organizations in Minnesota. She also discusses her transition into working on women's rights issues, specifically domestic violence, in both legal and community organizing roles.

Karina Ansolabehere, Barbara Frey, and Leigh Payne – Researchers on Disappearances in Mexico

MHRO Interview Number 011, The Observatory on Disappearances and Impunity in Mexico

Karina Ansolabehere, Barbara Frey, and Leigh Payne are human rights scholars who served as the co-Principal Investigators for the Observatory on Disappearances and Impunity in Mexico, from 2015 until 2023. In this conversation, Ansolabehere, Frey, and Payne engage in an in-depth discussion about the Observatory. They discuss the issues that prompted its creation, project funding, partnerships with Mexican human rights organizations working on disappearances, the Observatory's findings as shared through reports and conferences, the Mexican social and political climate around disappearances, and much more.

Nancy Pearson – Human Rights Advocacy Tactics Trainer

MHRO Interview Number 013, Nancy Pearson

Nancy Pearson is a human rights activist, trained social worker, and trainer of human rights advocacy tactics currently based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In this interview, Pearson talks about her time working in community and faith-based organizations in the United States and the Philippines. She also discusses her career at the Center for Victims of Torture (CVT), specifically her work in the organization's New Tactics in Human Rights program.

Collection II (2025-2026)

The second collection of the MHRO highlights the stories of individuals who founded and grew Minnesota-based organizations and advocacy campaigns to defend a variety of human rights. The interviews from this collection are yet to be published online.

Project Contributors

Barbara Frey, Project Founder and Principal Investigator
Isabella Minahan, Research Assistant
Carrie Booth Walling, Human Rights Program Director
Erik Moore, University Digital Conservancy Director
Theresa Berger, Digital Library Services Head
Arnavaz Adenwalla
Daisy Larson
Hunter Johnson
Kaia Ludtke
Kathleen Zhang
Maria Ignacia Terra
Maria Kim

More About the Minnesota's Human Rights Stories Oral History Project

Barbara Frey, Bella Minahan, and Kathryn Sikkink

Minnesota's Human Rights Stories Oral History Project Preserves Minnesota’s Legacy of Human Rights Activism

The Minnesota's Human Rights Stories Oral History Project (MHRO) archives the complex and informative histories of Minnesota-based human rights advocates.