A question on how to transcribe an oral history [View all]

Several days ago I interviewed a local man who is ninety years old about his experiences with discrimination prior to the passage of the Fair Housing Act and about his activism as a member of the NAACP during the 1960's. (This is for a program which will mark the 50th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act's passage.)

Now I am transcribing the recording, and I'm not sure if I should retain speech patterns which aren't grammatically correct but which are true to his voice. Specifically, he almost always says "they was" or "we was." I'm a white woman, and I want to honor him--but I'm not sure if that means staying true to the exact words he spoke, or editing grammatical errors that sound fine when spoken but leap out on the written page.

He generously gave me his time in order to contribute to this project, and I like and admire him. I don't want him to read his transcript and feel like I changed his words because I didn't think his real words were good enough; nor do I want him to read a word-for-word transcription and feel as if I've presented him as uneducated.

If you have any thoughts or guidance to offer, I'd be grateful.