Week 15: Building Bridges

In preparation for next week’s archival workshop and tour, I attended a webinar entitled “Building Bridges #2: Community Outreach.”  The webinar focused on the importance of building and maintaining strong community partnerships and explains why these partnerships are integral to outreach and success.  Collaborations not only help us gain more outreach opportunities, but also help us operate more efficiently (save money) and communicate more effectively. The presenters introduced other benefits of partnerships, which include tapping into community assets/strengths; enabling knowledge and vision sharing; using technology for outreach opportunities; and most importantly, increasing respect for diversity. The webinar concluded with tips of how to find creative ways to be resourceful and how to drive partnerships with purpose, passion, gifts, and without setting limitations.

After the workshop I will leave for the holiday break and take the next “midnight train to Georgia.”

Until next year! Feliz Navidad!

Week 14: It's A Small World

This week began with Amistad’s board meeting, where all staff from each department reported highlights of their recent projects. We also discussed our upcoming acquisitions and processing plans for the Center.  I met several board members and discussed the importance of my fellowship and my involvement as an archival fellow at Amistad, and interestingly, one of the board members was my former undergraduate school history professor. She currently teaches African American Studies at Georgia State University. I never thought I'd run into a former professor at the board meeting. It's a small world!

In addition, my poster proposal, entitled “Black Arts Movement in the South” has been accepted for the 2012 SAA Conference in San Diego!  The presentation will highlight the John O’Neal papers and his involvement with community arts and theater organizations, focusing on black theater in the South. I hope to provide a broader prospective on the political and social issues related to the history of the Southern Black Arts Movement.  I am so excited!

Until next week!

Peace

Week 13: Projects and Community Outreach

Series two of O’Neal’s papers is finally complete! 

This week, I finished processing the community organization series and wrote the second series description of John O’Neal papers to enter into Archon. The series encompasses 2.5 linear feet of materials documenting O’Neal’s contribution as a member of several art and community organizations located in New Orleans and the Southeast, and collected records of over 50 associations.

Second, I met with the Director of Library and Reference Services to discuss two digital collection projects, the submission of the proposals for each project, and the review of metadata for entry into the LOUISiana Digital Library.  The projects will highlight existing collections at Amistad, including the papers of noted civil rights attorney A.P. Tureaud, (dated from circa 1798 – 1929) and printed ephemera produced by civil rights organizations and student groups, documenting several aspects of the civil rights efforts in the United States.

Lastly, I spent the rest of the week preparing for Amistad’s board meeting and preparing to co-lead a tour and archival workshop for the Westbank United Seventh-Day Adventist Church youth group.  We will introduce the youth group to the basics of using archives for effective research and guide them on a tour of the archives and a tour of the "The Revolution Will Not Be..." Print Culture of the Civil Rights Movement Exhibition.

Week 12: Happy Holidays

Week twelve was a short week for me because of the Thanksgiving holiday. During the week, I continued to process the O’Neal papers by arranging the second series, which is almost complete.  I plan to complete this series and write the series description soon...

Happy holidays!

Week 11: Content Analysis

I spent most of my time working on my processing projects and analyzing the content of the materials.  Based upon the many art AND community organizations I discovered in this series, I decided to change the name of the series from community arts organizations to community organizations in order to make the arrangement and series description of the materials easier for researchers. For this purpose, I will continue to identify, analyze the content, and describe materials in this collection deemed to have significant historical value.

Week 10: Process to Progress

Last week was all about processing and planning of future projects at the Center. I continued to work diligently on processing the John O’Neal papers (now approximately 37 linear feet) and participated in Amistad Research Center’s Staff Planning Day. We discussed our organizational goals for 2012, including innovative and effective utilization of the repository’s resources to make them available for use and how to help engage and empower new and existing researchers. I also look forward to curating an exhibition for the first quarter of 2012 and other digitization projects.

Until next week!

Peace

Week 9: Community Arts Organizations

Last week, I was consumed with the mission of processing series two of the John O’Neal papers at the Amistad Research Center. Series two, community arts organizations, comprises documents from arts associations that were mainly located in the South, including Alternate ROOTS, Southern Black Cultural Alliance, the Art Council of Greater New Orleans, and Voices of the New Orleans Movement. Of note are correspondence from Oretha Castle Haley (1939-1987), the cofounder of New Orleans’ Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and an activist for women and human rights. Later in Haley’s career, she established the New Orleans’ Sickle Cell Anemia Foundation.

As I continue to process this large collection, I am sure I will find other documents about community arts organizations and interesting facts to share.

Week 8: Art and Politics

During week eight, I was a “busy bee.” I finally completed the civil rights organizations series for the John O’Neal papers and composed a series description (yeah); attended a digital projects meeting to discuss metadata guidelines; participated in a collection development meeting; and joined fellow co-workers to a book signing on Tulane’s campus.

I decided to process O’Neal’s community arts organizations series as my second adventure! So far, this series encompass files of art and local community organizations in the Southeast and New Orleans, including committee minutes and agendas for Alternate ROOTS (Regional Organization of Theaters South). O’Neal served as a member of the Advancement Advisory Group and on the Board of Directors for Alternate ROOTS, and as an active member of several other community arts organizations in New Orleans.  Alternate ROOTS was created in 1976 by a small group of performing artists who addressed the goals of promoting social change and economic justice through art and cultural democracy in the Southeast.

As a staff, we attended the A.P. Tureaud, Jr. (Alexander Pierre Tureaud, Jr.) and Rachel Emanuel book signing to hear and discuss A More Noble Cause: A.P. Tureaud and the Struggle for Civil Rights in Louisiana. In 1953, A.P. Tureaud Jr. enrolled as a freshman at Louisiana State University, becoming the school's first African American undergraduate student. Co-author, Dr. Rachel Emanuel, is currently a lawyer and professor of the Southern University Law Center.  The authors passionately described the life of New Orleans attorney, A.P. Tureaud, Sr., his contributions as the principal attorney for the New Orleans chapter of the NAACP, and his personal stance as an advocate for integration, not desegregation of public schools.

A.P. Tureaud’s papers are archived at the Amistad Research Center.

Week 7: Fountain Pens

I met with Mr. John O’Neal again to discuss the arrangement of his papers at Amistad. O’Neal identified several documents in his collection for processing, including transcripts of interviews for his book proposal. While working with the Free Southern Theater, O’Neal wrote and directed several plays, and in his free time, O’Neal collected a variety of materials for his book, including personal interviews of civil rights advocates.  O’Neal also mentioned he worked with the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) to establish the Free Southern Theater.

During our meeting, I learned one unique and valuable lesson about fountain pens: never use another writer’s fountain pen.  O’Neal showed me his new fountain pen his wife bought him for his birthday and declared that using a fountain pen plays an important part in defining a writer’s experience.

I wonder if this little life lesson compares to using a painter’s paintbrush or borrowing an archivist’s stainless steel archival spatula. 

But I digress…

Week 6: Black Resistance in the Age of Revolution Conference

I attended the Black Resistance in the Age of Revolution Conference held on the campus of Tulane University. The conference was a symposium commemorating the bicentennial of the 1811 slave uprising in territorial Louisiana, the largest slave rebellion in the history of North America and the United States.

During the opening session, keynote speaker, Professor Maurice Jackson of Georgetown University, presented a paper titled, Haiti, Louisiana and Beyond: The Importance of Slave Rebellion in African American History.  Jackson described slave rebellions among enslaved Africans in the Americas and examined the 1811 slave uprising within the context of Louisiana, Southern, and Caribbean history. He discussed the success of the Haitian Revolution and various eras of revolutionary change that received great attention in popular history, including the revolts of well known slave revolutionaries Gabriel Prosser, Denmark Vesey, and Nat Turner.

Other scholars at the conference presented papers and discussed topics pertaining to the slave rebellion in the 1790s Caribbean; women, gender, and slave rebellion; the regional impact of the Haitian Revolution; and the slave rebels in history and memory.

In addition, the staff of the Amistad Research Center held a special reception for the event, hosting scholars and historians from Tulane University and other academic institutions across the country.

Week 5: Freedom Schools, Ritual Murder, and Black Resistance...

During week five, I continued to arrange O’Neal’s civil rights organizations series and I found another interesting document – a memorandum from the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project Staff that was sent to the Mississippi Freedom School Teachers. The memorandum describes an overview and purpose of the Freedom Schools, which was to provide an educational experience for African American students in Mississippi and the South and foster social and political participation in the Civil Rights Movement.

This week, I attended a play, titled Ritual Murder, at the Ashé Cultural Arts Center. The one-act play centers on an investigation of a murder of a young black man by his best friend in a black bar on a Saturday night in New Orleans. Written more than 30 years ago by Tom Dent, the play is still relevant today in the discussion of seemingly senseless murders. (Note: The Amistad Research Center is the repository for the Tom Dent papers).

Next, I plan to attend the Black Resistance in the Age of Revolution Conference. This symposium commemorates the bicentennial of the 1811 Slave Uprising in Territorial Louisiana. I read the book, American Uprising: The Untold Story of America’s Largest Slave Revolt by Daniel Rasmussen and I am extremely excited to learn more about this subject from other scholars at the symposium.  The conference will be held at Tulane University.

Check back next week for a conference update…

Week 4: Processing O’Neal’s Papers

I finished sorting the John O’Neal papers and began processing his civil rights organizations series. These files encompass reports, correspondence and meeting notes of O’Neal’s involvement with several civil rights organizations.  O’Neal graduated from Southern Illinois University and became a Field Secretary of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Georgia and Mississippi. O’Neal also contributed extensively to voter rights registration efforts with his participation in the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

Of note is a certificate of attendance awarded to John O’Neal in recognition of his participation in the SCLC’s Citizenship School Training Program from August 19 to August 23, 1963.  Citizenship Schools focused on teaching adults to read so they could pass voter registration and other literacy tests…

In my free time, I stroll along the 1.7 mile jogging and bike path through Audubon Park. The park is located directly across from Tulane and Loyola University and was used as a temporary helicopter port and camp for National Guard troops and relief workers after Hurricane Katrina.

Week 3: Meeting History

Week three was AWESOME! I had the honor of meeting Mr. John M. O’Neal and his wife when they stopped by to visit the Amistad Research Center. He was very enthusiastic about the archival processing of his papers. I also participated in the HistoryMakers’ Back-to-School program, where I met blues, rhythm and blues and rock and roll musician, singer, and bandleader, Deacon John Moore, better known as Deacon John. He is a local favorite on the New Orleans music scene. At the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA), Deacon John talked to sixty high school freshmen students about the importance of education and followed his presentation with two crowd-pleasing songs. It was an extraordinary performance of high acclaim!

Week 2: Historical Treasures

As I undertake the mission of surveying the John M. O’Neal papers for processing, I discovered some interesting historical treasures. The John M. O’Neal papers consist of 30 linear feet and document O’Neal’s artistic style and vision as an actor, director, playwright, community and civil rights activist. One finding is the working notes for the development of the Free Southern Theater, which includes the general plan for the theater group, project planning and other writings related to theater productions. O’Neal founded the Free Southern Theater in 1965 as the cultural and educational arm of the Southern Civil Rights Movement. His philosophy is that politics and art are complementary, not opposing terms, and his work has taken him to perform for audiences throughout North America and Europe.

Another discovery is a signed letter from Coretta Scott King and Yolanda King inviting O’Neal to join the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Center’s Institute on Cultural Affairs (ICA) through membership on the Advisory Committee. ICA was one of the ten institutes of the King Center, which sought to use the power of the arts to advance the teachings and methods of Dr. King for nonviolent social change throughout the world community. Mrs. King asked O’Neal to serve as a national and international advocate for the ICA. Members of the committee included artist from a variety of disciplines as well as supporters of the arts. The letter is dated December 17, 1982.

Week 1: Welcome to Amistad!

Flying to New Orleans in the midst of Tropical Storm Lee was extremely frightening. But, after a turbulent voyage and a weekend of heavy rainfall and gusting winds, I began my first day at the Amistad Research Center (ARC) with welcoming smiles.  I received a friendly welcome from the Executive Director of Amistad, Lee Hampton, Director of Processing, Laura Thomson, Director of Library and Reference Services, Christopher Harter, and the Center’s entire staff. After a brief staff meeting, I toured the repository with Laura.

 

My first week at ARC has been educational. There is a lot of valuable material at ARC and researchers can certainly take advantage of over 600 manuscript collections and 200,000 books documenting Africana and ethnic history.  For me, the biggest thing right now is familiarizing myself with the institutional holdings and focusing on my individual projects, including processing the papers of playwright and community activist, John M. O’Neal. 

 

In addition, I appraised two small collections, developed appraisal reports, created container lists and accessioned the records in Archon database management system. One of the collections I appraised provides an extensive view into the life of an African American classical musician.

 

It is interesting work…