Our three track program -- Local and Community History, History and Public Policy, and Media and History -- necessarily addressed issues of race and ethnicity from the beginning. Although each track had a distinctive literature and, we initially thought, distinctive career implications, the program has tended to draw upon the theoretical and methodological features of each track in interpreting most significant historical problems. In 1981, the constriction of professional careers and job placements in history were on our mind and, like other concerned historians, the Program looked to expand the non-academic job possibilities for graduates. But more compelling to us were the pedagogical possibilities of historical instruction that professional training programs often slighted. The centrifugal force of America's Bicentennial celebration and the enormous popularity of Alex Haley's Roots, to mention only two examples, seemed to flourish apart from professional historians and their organizations. Did professional historical training actually impede historians' engagement with popular historical interests? On a local level, we