Integrating History: A Search-and-Recovery Effort in Alabama Archives.

1. A Search and
Recovery Effort in
Alabama Archives

2. Integrating History

 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 Access
August 15, 2014 * Washington, D.C.

3. The Problem

Separate and Often Unequal
Trinity School, 1911
Limestone County, Ala.
8th District Ag School, ca. 1911
Limestone County, Ala.

4. More Problems

 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

5. The Solutions

 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

6. The Results

 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

7. Limestone
County Archives
Rebekah Davis, Limestone County Archives

Retelling the
Hometown Story

8. 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.”

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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*

12. 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

13. 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

14. A Plan for the Future

 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

15. Susanna Leberman, Huntsville-Madison County Public Library
A Public Library Perspective

17.  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

18. Identifying and
understanding the Problem


19.  Art
 Education
 Portraits
 City Directories
 Genealogy
 Literature
 Religion
 Businesses
 Community

20. Let’s Start a Conversation

21. 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.

22. Public History Exhibits


24. From the Comment Book

25. 

26. 

27. New Collections, New
Stories

28. Bring People together
Start talking
Start listening

29. “Miss Sophie was my
babysitter!”

30. In Many ways, we still are
on the front lines of
history…
Multicultural
North 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.

31. Veronica Henderson, Alabama A&M University and Alabama Black Archives
2014 SAA National Meeting
Washington DC
August 2014

32. Re-discovering our history
University Archives & Special Collections
and State Black Archives, Research Center & Museum

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

34. 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.”

35. 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.

36. State Black Archives,
Research Center &
Museum
James H. Wilson Building
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.”

37. Former Exhibit:
Buffalo Soldiers and the Ignoble Mission
What have we not done?
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?

38. 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!

39. Making those connections…
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.

40. Dana R. Chandler, University Archivist
2014 SAA National Meeting
Washington DC
August 2014

41. Outreach and “Inreach”

 Reaching out to organizations and individuals has helped
to increase our holdings
 Just knowing that we have:
I. Kept and maintained our collections
II. Sought to retrieve what is ours
Reassured and comforted our patrons and supporters
 Actively looking within and processing what we have:
I. Revealed many exciting items that have remained hidden
II. Provided scholars and researchers with new perspectives

42. 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

43. 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

44. 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: Employees
of the Library of Congress contend
that they maintained the copyright
because BTW’s granddaughter gave
it to them.
How can you give something
that does not belong to you?

45. The Revealed Collection: Papers of the Southern
Courier
In April, 2006, journalists who had worked
on the Courier gathered in Montgomery,
Alabama, for a reunion.
Where are the papers…?
•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.
•First revealed to the public in October of
2009, SALA meeting in Dothan, Alabama
•Room was full

46. “…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.

47. “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 badly
Many times they
were ridiculed, cursed
and spit upon
Some were
threatened with death

48. 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…”

49. My Soul Became Stirred….
Letter Addressed to
the Courier
“…my hopes once
more became exalted
and my belief in the
ultimate triumph of the
good conscience of
mankind was restored.”

50. 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.”

51. 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

52. 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.

53. The Notebooks

54. Inside the notebooks:

Beautiful Drawings Formulas and Discoveries
Reevaluation of Carver is now in order!

55. Know your Collections!

56. 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.