Listen to a Central State University alum share her story of celebrating graduation despite the 1974 tornado tearing through Xenia and Wilberforce just weeks prior. She recalled proudly marching in graduation, and how her father was an architect who designed some of the rebuilt structures.

Richard Austin, formerly general counsel for Central State University, shared his story as part of a collection of oral histories being gathered about the 1974 tornado.

Alumnus Jerome Haney is proud of Wilberforce's resilience after the tornado. He was recently on campus and thought of the Diana Ross song "It's My Turn" as he saw the new students ready for their turn at the school.

Lloyd Edwin was a freshman at Central State from Brooklyn when the tornado hit in 1974.

John Gudgel, a high schooler in Yellow Springs when the tornado hit, waited for his mom to return home from work in Wilberforce for hours on April 3, 1974.

The disaster dubbed "the 1974 Xenia tornado" claimed more than 30 lives. The impact in next-door Wilberforce has often gone ignored.

The photos come from the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center in Wilberforce community scanning day event, where staff digitized images of the area from before, during, and after the disaster.