Harold T. Pinkett and the Lonely Crusade of African American Archivists in the Twentieth Century (original) (raw)
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Pinkett's Charges - Recruiting, Retaining, and Mentoring Archivists of Color
The American Archivist, 2017
This article focuses on ethnic and racial diversity in the archival profession. It draws upon the experiences, reflections, and recommendations of twenty-one Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award recipients to suggest ways in which the archival profession, especially the Society of American Archivists, can improve its recruitment, retention, and mentoring of archivists of color. The study’s participants discussed their undergraduate experiences, information and library science (ILS) education, entering the archives field, mentoring relationships, working with ethnically and racially diverse materials and people, the Society of American Archivists, and lessons learned and advice to young archivists. They stressed the importance of networking, professional development, professional organizations, and openness to experimentation. Last, the article suggests five areas for future research.
Archivists who work on African American collections are increasingly more aware that traditional sites of African American agency and autonomy are becoming more unstable. The need to capture the perspectives and histories of these institutions is urgent. The challenges become more acute when communities recognize the need to preserve their legacies but do not have the resources or support to make it happen. African American material culture and history remains at risk of co-optation from large institutions and individuals seeking to monetize and profit from collecting Black collections. Endemic in that process is the risk of these institutions controlling the narrative and inadvertently or deliberately erasing the narratives of these diverse communities from that community's perspective. Cultural memory workers focused on African American collections face numerous challenges: the risk of losing the materials or communities themselves; partnering with organizations and administrations with differing, and perhaps conflicting agendas; working on projects with limited or term funding; and the emotional labor of being a person of color in a predominantly white field trying to support communities that can often reflect their own experiences. How can libraries, museums, and archives bring these communities into the world of archives and empower them to protect and share their stories? How can archivists, particularly those of color, find support within their institutions and the archival profession, to accomplish this work of preserving African American cultural heritage? How can archives support genuinely collaborative projects with diverse Black communities without co-opting their stories and collections? The authors will address these questions in this article, discussing their experiences working with a variety of institutions-predominantly white universities, Black colleges, churches, neighborhoods and families. The authors also include their reflections from their National Conference of African American Librarians panel presentation in August 2017 on these related topics.
American Archivist, 2014
Jim Crow practices touched every aspect of southern life in the middle of the twentieth century. As surviving documentary evidence attests, archives and archivists in the South, particularly in the University of North Carolina system, were deeply implicated in upholding segregation. This article probes that dynamic relationship, stressing the courage of those African American scholars who challenged Jim Crow on quotidian and organizational bases. The history of segregation in archival repositories illuminates four themes. First, it underlines the agency and power wielded by archival professionals; the archives is never a neutral space. Second, it suggests how archival professionals conducted—or failed to conduct—outreach to attract users and to promote use. In this way they betrayed their professional mission by providing lesser forms of access and service to African Americans. Third, the story of Jim Crow archives shows the need for archivists to be held accountable in their record-collecting and recordkeeping practices; it also demonstrates the central importance of diversity in the profession, in the types of records retained, and in their content. Finally, it indicates the necessity of ensuring that a representative documentary trail remains for historians. In short, archivists affect the writing of history as much in the 2010s as they did in the 1950s. The legacy of Jim Crow’s “strange career” in the archives represents a valuable lesson for archival professionals in their pursuit of social justice.
Library Trends, 2016
Despite calls for diversity and minority participation in library and information science (LIS) and archival science, these professions have seen little change in this respect over the past two decades. This paper attempts to connect the archived, enslaved black woman of the French Antilles to the contemporary black woman in the United States. The paucity of archival materials on the first group is reflective of the low incidence of the second group in today's archives profession. That is, the way in which black women of the Americas have been historically misrepresented or not represented at all can be connected to recruitment and retention problems in the archival profession. If black women are not recognized as worthwhile subjects in the archives, and presently not valued as knowers, how can they be accepted as library and archive professionals? If the archives are where origin stories are excavated, black women-through the profession of archival science-have a role to play in the administration and management of archival materials concerning the historical enslavement of black women. The paper will specifically discuss concepts from archival appraisal theory and highlight the ways in which power influences the collection of archival materials. Also, educational and training solutions that include black feminist thought, critical race theory, and cognitive justice are discussed. "What can a niggerwoman do but endure? What can me do but tell the story? Who is there when we recall great womens?"-Marlon James, The Book of Night Women According to the American Library Association's (ALA) 2007 Diversity Counts report and the HistoryMakers' (2013) "Education: Assessment of Need"
Archives, Archivists, and Society
The American Archivist, 1998
In this issue we present two addresses by William J. Maher, immediate past president of the Society of American Archivists. The first address, "Society and Archives," was given as Maher was about to assume his duties as president at SAA's 1997 annual meeting held in Chicago. His presidential address, "Lost in a Disneyfied World: Archivists and Society in Late-Twentieth-Century America," was delivered September 3, 1998, at the annual meeting held in Orlando, Florida. The following texts incorporate subsequent editorial changes made to clarify issues raised by the oral presentations.
Diversity, Recordkeeping, and Archivy
International Journal of Information, Diversity and Inclusion, 2021
Editorial his special issue of IJIDI on "Diversity, Recordkeeping, and Archivy" brings together research from archival scholars, practitioners, and educators working to challenge the persistence of whiteness, classism, sexism, heterosexism, transphobia, and colonizing approaches in archives. As a profession, the field of archives began with a particular Western Imperialist axiology that continues to inform what many archivists value today. These values underpin our methods and practices by presupposing what ought to be in an archive, how we ought to behave as archivists, who is able to access collections, and how we ought to serve those who access our collections. By extension, archival studies has emerged as an academic discipline with a set of tacit assumptions about records and recordkeeping practices that neatly align with this axiology. At present, however, the discipline of archives-sometimes referred to in North America as "archivy"-is experiencing a transformative moment. In part, this seismic shift in our understanding of what archives are, what they do, and who they serve, is part of a larger postmodern moment that has afforded us new tools to critically examine the assumptions that structure our work. This new era is also fueled by, what archival activist Ariel Schudson has called, a "strong feeling of discontent and aggravation" about a "willful and continued lack of representation" of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of colour) in archivy (Schudson, interviewed in On-Call Research Team #1, 2016). One might suggest that those of us working in the global North are witnessing a diversity turn in archives. We are increasingly concerned about representation, both in the profession and in the collections we cultivate, and about building a more inclusive discipline overall. We, the guest editors of this special issue, present a collection of articles that not only contribute to this diversity turn, but also go one step further to challenge the very limitations of 'diversity' as an organizing principle in archivy.
The Elusive Goal of Open and Equal Access, from The Ethical Archivist
was a Harvard graduate student conducting research for his dissertation, he was denied access to several archives reading rooms because of his race. Clearly both a personable and patient scholar, he was able to negotiate with the archives' directors to set up special arrangements and work around the restrictions. Franklin went on to write seventeen books and to receive many honors over the course of his long career. 2 While Franklin ultimately prevailed, undoubtedly, many other people in his situation were simply discouraged and never managed to get around the barrier of inequality. Quite a few important collections in the United States were originally closed to specified categories, such as women, Roman Catholics, Jews, or even just the donor's nephew-restrictions that have since been lifted by more enlightened management. 3
Documenting the Immigrant and Ethnic Experience in American Archives
The American Archivist, 2010
This paper examines the development of ethnic and immigrant archives in the United States since the 1960s. It focuses on the dramatic evolution of “ethnic archiving”―the processes and objectives involved in documenting the immigrant and ethnic experience―and shows how cultural minorities evolved from an object or theme of archival collections to active participants in the creation, appraisal, description, and use of their own archives. A number of factors made this evolution possible: a new political context increasingly responsive to minority rights and cultural diversity, rising interest in social history, and the influence of postmodernist thought on archival theory. New digital technologies have also facilitated the expression and archiving of ethnic voices.
Community-Driven Archives: Conocimiento, Healing, and Justice
Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies, 2021
According to the Arizona Archives Matrix, the Latinx, Black, Asian and Pacific Islander, and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) community currently make up over 42% of Arizona's population but are only represented in 0-2% of known archival collections. Arizona's archives are dominated by white narratives that promote white supremacy, settler colonialism, and dehumanizes Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) living on this land for centuries. This article will share parts of my autoethnography as a Queer Latinx and archivist who is addressing this inequity and erasure by establishing the Community-Driven Archives (CDA) Initiative at Arizona State University with the support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Since the project's inception, I embraced a love ethic that uses Gloria Anzaldúa's path to conocimiento as an epistemological framework for our CDA work. In their book This Bridge We Call Home: Radical Visions for Transformation, Anzaldúa and AnaLouise Keating reflect on how conocimiento, a Spanish word for consciousness and knowledge, can be used to decolonize the mind, body, and soul of marginalized communities. I believe BIPOC and Queer community archivists experience the seven stages of conocimiento as they learn how to preserve their archives, reclaim their narratives, and build a collective memory that heals historical trauma. The undeniable truth is that decolonizing is an act of deep transformative love, courage, and reflection. A predominantly white profession will never decolonize archives because the foundation of most traditional repositories is rooted in white power and systemic racism. In order to truly liberate archives from oppressive theory and practice, there needs to be a redistribution of power and resources which grants marginalized people the authority to lead community-driven archives.