Integrating History

A Search and Recovery Effort in Alabama Archives

Rebekah Davis, Limestone County Archives Susanna Leberman, Huntsville-Madison County Public

Library Veronica Henderson, Alabama A&M University and

Alabama Black Archives Dana Chandler, Tuskegee University

2014 Archives * Records: Ensuring AccessAugust 15, 2014 * Washington, D.C.

Integrating History

The Problem

Trinity School, 1911Limestone County, Ala.

8th District Ag School, ca. 1911Limestone County, Ala.

Separate and Often Unequal

Historic and often well-founded mistrust

Jim Crow laws that made people illegals in their own communities

Destruction of and purposeful exclusion of minorities’ records by prior record keepers

Ongoing voluntary segregation Lack of collaboration among individuals and

organizations

More Problems

Professional Partnerships

National, state and local archives, universities, libraries, community organizations

Cooperation between historically segregated organizations and communities

Collaborative projects to preserve and share Community Outreach

Special events, education and speaking engagements

Public pleas through media and social media Word of mouth, building relationships

The Solutions

Previously hidden collections made accessible Increased use of archives and resources Increased cooperation among individuals,

organizations and communities Both positive and negative race relations

revealed Renewed knowledge and understanding of

community and state history

The Results

Limestone County Archives

Retelling the Hometown

Story

Rebekah Davis, Limestone County Archives

The Past

“Few of the old time faithful negroes are left, and this picture is taken to preserve their

memory in a day when there will be none.”

The Problem of the Past Segregated marriage, school, voter and other records

Community history from white perspective in government documents, newspapers, history books

Minorities were harassed so they flew under the radar

Factions within black history groups

Archivists excluded black families from census transcription, disposed of black family files

The Present Solution

Professional partnerships ALCA, “Holding the Fort”

and the Trinity project Collaboration with

Alabama Black Archives, other archives within the state

Compiling contacts and resources to better direct researchers to appropriate repositories

The Present Solution

Community Outreach News reports in area media Utilizing social media Public pleas in

predominately black churches and groups

Speaking to school groups, community organizations and anyone who will listen

*Most Important: Building Relationships*

*Trust is CRUCIAL*

The Present Results

Nearly 1,000 black funeral programs and counting

Trinity story and photos made public

Resource and exhibit sharing among area archives, museums and community organizations

Increased patronage of Limestone County Archives

Increased involvement of individuals in sharing community history

The Present

Challenge Money, time and staffing

What goes where: Determining appropriate repositories

Racist materials Increased donations Appropriate handling

Attitudes Older volunteers,

patrons History group factions Our own

Exhibit sharing

Alabama Black Archives exhibit Scottsboro Boys exhibit Adding exhibits in Archives Trinity museum and archives

Special programs Second Trinity book Engaging additional minority groups Continue to tell and retell the hometown story

A Plan for the Future

Huntsville Madison County Public Library

A Public Library Perspective

Susanna Leberman, Huntsville-Madison County Public Library

1. Identifying and understanding the Problem

It’s not totally white-washed Utilizing what we do have

2. What we are doing about it? Outreach Programming

3. The Future Provocative Multiculturalism

Identifying and understanding the Problem

Art

Education

Portraits

City Directories

Genealogy

Literature

Religion

Businesses

Community

Let’s Start a Conversation

Lincoln haters found my Libguide

Lincoln: The tyrannical 'hero'! by MaryAnn Crum Sunday, Lincoln's lifelong dream was for a centralized government --no 10th Amendment to stand in the way of D.C. control over states. Lincoln's war for all practical purposes brought it to pass. Lincoln's First Inaugural address makes him the consummate politician. He states things as "he" wants or as "he" sees them, not as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution state, nor the documents by Virginia and Kentucky of their right of leaving the Union. Lincoln ignored the rule of law, shredding the Constitution. Lincoln's statements are clear, he believed the Negro was inferior to whites, certainly to himself. He signed, unconstitutionally, the 13th Amendment for the South to keep their slaves perpetually. The South refused to pay the tariff demanded by Lincoln. The war was not about slavery but about the economy. Lincoln had owners of newspapers arrested and their business destroyed for printing disagreements about his war. He had a state legislature unlawfully arrested so they could not vote for secession. He had a warrant for the arrest of a Supreme Court Justice for disagreeing with him. He unconstitutionally formed a new state for his benefit. He condoned the rape, murder, pillage, destruction, and genocide of the Southern people by his generals. Most of which were women, children and the elderly, both black and white. The Proclamation Emancipation was a military directive to free slaves in the South, believing there would be an uprising by the Negro slaves against the women left at home, etc. and that Confederate men would leave the war to go home to protect their families. There was no uprising by the slaves. Let us

see ...and your exhibit will call him a hero. Sick.

Public History Exhibits

From the Comment Book

The Future:New Collections, New Stories

Bring People together

Start talkingStart listening

“Miss Sophie was my babysitter!”

In Many ways, we still are on the front lines of history…

MulticulturalNorth Alabama Catalogue Work Together

Provoke people into thinking, rather than just forcing them to remember or memorize, and

it makes you more relevant in their lives.

Alabama A&M University

Veronica Henderson, Alabama A&M University and Alabama Black Archives

2014 SAA National Meeting Washington DC August 2014

University Archives & Special Collectionsand State Black Archives, Research Center & Museum

Re-discovering our history

University Archives & Special Collections,J.F. Drake Learning Resources Center

You want WHAT back?

• Trenholm High School, was the all-black center of education in Tuscumbia, AL.

• After desegregation ended in 1969, the school closed and was torn down.

• Fred Johnson, the last principal, brought items to A&M for “safe keeping” after school closure. Any items not salvaged, were discarded.

• In Fall 2013, Trenholm grads requested to use artifacts for bi-annual reunion celebration.

• Later demanded artifacts to be returned because “they have nothing to do with A&M history.”

It is what it is…and its not replevin!

What we have, and what they want back:

• Trophies from several sporting events.

• Uniforms from football and basketball.

• Copy of a yearbook.

• Trophy case.

• Various photocopies of images.

Several unknowns existed until Fall 2013, i.e. who, what, when, where, why & how.

Alabama State Legislature decreed Acts 1985, 2nd Executive Session, No. 85-944, p. 283, §1 siting that:• State Black Archives, Research Center & Museum will serve as a

repository of “Afro-American” historic artifacts • A&M will serve as the site of the repository.• AA history and culture will be acquired, preserved, and circulated for

research, education, and cultural purposes thereby encouraging “inspiration & positive self-concepts on part of black Americans” & “provide a basis for whites to gain greater respect for the black race.”

State Black Archives, Research Center &

Museum James H. Wilson Building

What do the Buffalo Soldiers and the State of Alabama have in common? Anyone, anyone???

Are we truly collecting AA artifacts based on the Act of State Legislature?

What have we not done?

Former Exhibit:Buffalo Soldiers and the Ignoble Mission

WHAT WE HAVE DONE!

We had one key artifact that could possibly link the Buffalo Soldiers to Alabama history—the Stetson with pins and period insignia for the regiment—found on a local farmer’s property!

Through collaborative efforts, we are developing methods and building relationships to bring the history of the African Americans in the State of

Alabama to life.

Making those connections…

Saving for the Future:Keeping and Retrieving

Collections

2014 SAA National Meeting Washington DC

August 2014

Dana R. Chandler, University Archivist

Reaching out to organizations and individuals has

helped to increase our holdings Just knowing that we have:

I. Kept and maintained our collectionsII. Sought to retrieve what is oursReassured and comforted our patrons and supporters

Actively looking within and processing what we have:I. Revealed many exciting items that have remained

hiddenII. Provided scholars and researchers with new

perspectives

Outreach and “Inreach”

Tuskegee and Its Collections

The Retrieved Collection: Booker T. Washington Microfilm

The Revealed Collection: Papers of the Southern Courier

The Hidden Collection: George Washington Carver Notebooks

The Retrieved Collection: Booker T. Washington Microfilms• 1943 Library of Congress

removes the BTW collection from T.U.

• I take job at Tuskegee in 2007

• Where are the rest of the papers?

• In 2009, Contacted Library of Congress

• Found Agreement• Visited Library of Congress

during the last SAA Conference (2010)

• After 2 years, received the microfilm at a cost to the Library of Congress of approx. $69,000.00

The Retrieved Collection: Booker T. Washington Microfilm

• What does this mean to Tuskegee University Archives:

a. We are the main site to come for information

about BTW• National Negro Business

League• National Negro Health Week

Interesting side note: Employeesof the Library of Congress contendthat they maintained the copyrightbecause BTW’s granddaughter gaveit to them.

How can you give something that does not belong to you?

The Revealed Collection: Papers of the Southern Courier

•Within the archives, but not processed.•Based in Montgomery, Alabama• Civil Rights Movement from July 1965 to December 1968•Originally planned as a regional, non-profit, independent paper• Its young staffers (which ranged in age from 19 to 23) narrowed their efforts toward an almost exclusive Alabama audience.

In April, 2006, journalists who had worked on the Courier gathered in Montgomery, Alabama, for a reunion.

Where are the papers…?

•First revealed to the public in October of 2009, SALA meeting in Dothan, Alabama•Room was full

“…forced to go out and warmly and charmingly steal.”•Used $32,000.00 startup funds received primarily from “Eastern liberals”•Eventually received grants from a variety of corporations and endowments, which aided with operating expenses • Austere measures, during the entire time of publication, meant that staff members relied on “help from home” and often doubled as typesetters and printers.

“We are tired... and scared”

•Many letters pointing out the difficulties and dangers the reporters and delivery people faced

Some had to face “mad dogs”Some were beaten, sometimes badlyMany times they were ridiculed, cursed and spit uponSome were threatened with death

Not Everyone Can Respond…•“Each week I am anxiously awaiting…•Please don’t think that people are not proud… because they do not respond.•We want to know about our people…•We want to know what is going on…•With the Courier, we can, for the first time, know…”

My Soul Became Stirred….

 “…my hopes once more became exalted and my belief in the ultimate triumph of the good conscience of mankind was restored.”

Letter Addressed to the Courier

The Courier Affects Alabamians…

•“I was stunned…•…minimal effect on Washington•…minimal effect on Alabama Statehouse•One of the best %$#$%# things that ever happened to Alabama and you can be proud that you did something worthwhile…•I wish I could say the same.”

The Southern Courier

After three tumultuous years, The Southern Courier came to an end in December of 1968 due to funding shortfalls.

Many of the staff had continued to work, until the last paper was printed, with little or no financial assistance.

The paper’s influence led to many localized newsletters, thereby assisting in a grass roots campaign for racial equality.

The materials remain in the TU archives

The Hidden Collection: The George Washington Carver Notebooks•Some have concluded that “He did not make any great scientific discoveries nor did he further scientific knowledge to any great extent .” [1]

•However, recent findings within the Tuskegee University Archives dispel such claims

•Found six notebooks containing Carver’s experiments, drawings and observations.

1. Elmer Keihl, et.al. “The Scientific Contributions of George Washington Carver” (Washington: National Park Service, 1961), 28. This document was never released to the general public, although many copies exist throughout the nation.

The Notebooks

Inside the notebooks:

Beautiful Drawings Formulas and Discoveries

Reevaluation of Carver is now in order!

Know your Collections!

Tuskegee University Archives

We seek, not to follow, but to lead and, like our first President, Booker T. Washington, to

provide our students with the best tools to compete in any situation, during any time and

in any country.