You use oral histories, or interviews, as primary sources for Southern history, especially for 20th century topics. Sometimes, oral histories have been transcribed by other historians, and we can search for and read their transcriptions. Some resources to find transcipts as well as recordings of interviews with Southerners are:
American Slave Narratives: An Online Anthology
Documenting the American South
You can sometimes pinpoint oral histories on the internet or in general collections by using search terms like "oral history" in quotation marks, or the keyword interview. Narrow your search to interviews on a specific topic with search statements like interview and "civil rights". Or, focus your search on interviews with people from a specific region with search statements like interview and Alabama.