Documenting African American Milledgeville Project Workshop Announcement

What Do You Know About UWG Campus History? Public Lectures and Teaching with University Archives

History of UWG Lecture

On October 2, 2018 I had the pleasure of presenting a public lecture on the complex and fascinating history of the University of West Georgia as it evolved from an agricultural & mechanical school to a doctoral-granting research university. This lecture also related information about my work to capture student life in the archives, particularly through the initiative, the Your Organization Lives on @UWG project. Members of the audience were invited to share their recollections of the university.

African-American Churches in West Georgia Community Archives Project

I am really proud to be doing such important work in and with the Carrollton Community. Check out UWG University Communications and Marketing coverage our preliminary project planning with Moore's Chapel United Methodist Church in Carrollton. 

History harvest: UWG archiving history of African-American churches

Community Outreach and Black Church Archives...Still.

In July 2016, I joined the Ingram Library as University Archivist and Assistant Professor at the University of West Georgia. A colleague encouraged me to apply to the position where there was an opportunity for me to create and lead a church-based community archives initiative. I also desperately wanted to move back down South to be closer to family, especially my newborn nephew.

Director of Special Collections and I at History Day

As University Archivist, my work primarily involves capturing, preserving, and making accessible content that is administratively and culturally significant to our campus, the stories of University Life.  I delight in hearing folk thoughtfully share the stories of their lives whether on campus or in the church. I still deeply enjoy doing public outreach to local churches and am thankful that my new position affords me opportunities continue this work. You can take the girl out the seminary library/church but you can't take the seminary library/church out of the girl. 

Just days into my tenure at UWG, I was invited to talk about preserving church records and family papers at Antioch AME Church History Day, Antioch A.M.E. Church has an incredibly rich history, being the first black church to be founded in Decatur, Georgia, after the Civil War (1868). In order to find and preserve the church’s past, members partnered with historians from the University of West Georgia (Center for Public History) and Agnes Scott College to collect, digitize and share records about Antioch. The result is the Antioch A.M.E Digital Archive (http://antiochamehistory.org/archive), an example of the recent turn in archival practice to building “community archives.”

 

At the lectern but never lecturing

I also  participated as a panelist in "Telling Our Own Stories: Developing a Community Archives Project at Antioch A.M.E. Church" at the historic Auburn Avenue Research Library. The panel explored the concept of “community archives,” the genesis and creation of the Antioch A.M.E. Digital Archive, and the opportunities and challenges of partnership between community organizations and academic institutions at the Auburn Avenue Research Library, Atlanta, GA. I contributed perspective on Community Archives and applications for the study of Black Church history in the academy and incorporating local church history in Christian Education at the congregational level.

Check out this article I wrote about Sharing Community Stories http://saportareport.com/sharing-saving-community-stories/

Greene County Archives Exhibit on Relationship Between Payne Theological Seminary and Wilberforce University

In mid-Summer 2015, Payne Theological Seminary partnered with the Greene County Archives & Records Center on a K-12 curriculum and outreach program focusing on local African-American history. Themed lessons include manumission, Wilberforce area family histories and educational opportunities available to African Americans through Wilberforce, Central State, and Payne Theological Seminary.

Payne’s contribution authored by our archival intern and Antioch College student Ciana Ayenu, tells the story of the Seminary's development and change from its founding in 1891 to 1939, when the institution had been established for nearly 50 years. The small exhibit which has just gone “live” features items from the Payne Theological Seminary and A.M.E. Church Archive on the Princeton Theological Commons and un-digitized items from the archives.

To see the exhibit visit Greene County Archives’ Family History Page:
http://www.co.greene.oh.us/index.aspx?NID=952

Final Report of the "Arrangement and Description of the Payne African Methodist Episcopal Church Archive" Grant Project (Ohio Historical Records Advisory Board)

Payne Theological Seminary received funding of $1,960.00 from the Ohio Historical Records Advisory Board to purchase Re: discovery Software Inc. (RSI)’s Proficio Elements archival management software to inventory, arrange, describe and create electronic finding aids for two significant primary source collections by and about the seminary and African Methodist Episcopal Church denomination, The George A. Singleton and Bishop Reverdy C. Ransom Collections.
This final report details Payne's work on Arrangement and Description of the Payne African Methodist Episcopal Church Archive project and significant progress made toward our goal of reprocessing and arranging more than 10 linear ft.1 of holdings from our special collections. Read the report below!

http://www.ohrab.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Payne-Theological-Seminary-Final-Report.pdf

Relabeled and Brand Spanking New Labeled Hollinger Boxes

The expanded Ransom Collection

We will be printing new labels soon! I know the Post-Its are TACKY!

National Park Service Centennial Story Corps Project @ Payne Theological Seminary- November 2, 2015

I'm always seeking after genuine connection. In my personal life and in my professional work, collaboration is the name of the game. 

My friendship with Dr. Joy Kinard, Superintendent of the Colonel Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument is one of the most sincere connections I've established since arriving in the Wilberforce, Ohio area. We've chatted about libraries, museums, African American historical collections, imposter syndrome, God, dating, and have bonded deeply together over being transplants in our new community (Joy moved to Wilberforce in March 2015).   

Library literature and trends in our own institutions have proven that collaboration is both innovative and economically advantageous. When libraries, museums, and institutional archives collaborate we must first determine how a prospective partnership benefits all strategically, economically, socially, intellectually, and culturally? What investments make sense?  Does it advance our institutional goals? Does it serve our constituency well?

When Dr. Kinard told me she was looking for a place to host the NPS Centennial Story Corps Project, I jumped at the opportunity to partner and connect once again. I knew that this would be great a collaboration because the Payne administrators were musing about the Library as a “place to play and pray”. We had also been discussing personal narrative, spiritual formation, and Payne Seminary as a spiritual retreat during our faculty meetings.

 

The Ransom Memorial Library features two meeting rooms for quiet study. During our walk through of the building with Dr. Kinard, it was decided that one of the rooms would serve as a welcome area for attendees. 

The Story Corps program was a WONDERFUL collaboration for Payne. It gave us the opportunity to invite community members into our space, many of whom were visiting for the first time. We also were able to establish relationships (and in some cases strengthen/reimagine) with Wilberforce gatekeepers and learn about existing partnerships in the community. I learned that Dr. Ski, who I had previously known as an ambassador for Payne and the Wilberforce Community, is a celebrated Paul Lawrence Dunbar Scholar. While waiting for to be interviewed Dr. Ski  talked about growing up on the campus of the Historically Black Edward Waters College in Jacksonville, FL where here mother taught. She told us an amazing story about seeing Marian Anderson sing as a young girl. Do you see what happens when folks already primed to tell stories?!?! Oral history just keeps on spilling out! 

I am so glad that Dr. Kinard brought Story Corps to Wilberforce and directly to the Ransom Library doors. It really was an incredible experience. For more information about Story Corps and to see pictures/listen to two of the oral histories captured that day, keep on scrolling! 

The first Interviewees are checked in. Sisters, the Honorable Mayor of Xenia, Marsha Bayless and Payne's very own Marilyn Hatcher, retired Community Outreach Coordinator

Booker/Gooding Interview

89-year-old Jessie Gooding and his 85-year-old friend, Loretta Booker, recall their time at Wilberforce University in Ohio. They discuss its legacy as the oldest private historically black institution in the United States.

Warren Family Interview

91-year-old Harold Warren Jr. tells his son, Lee Warren, about serving as a "Buffalo Solider" duringWW II and his feelings about the Charles Young Buffalo Solider National Monument in Ohio.

In partnership with StoryCorps, the Midwest Region of the National Park Service (NPS) is celebrating the NPS Centennial through sharing and preserving our favorite parks memories. The Stories from the Midwest project will tour our region to record conversations with the local communities, visitors, and employees of the parks, using the StoryCorps interview model: a 40-minute conversation between two people who know each other well.

The NPS Centennial Stories from the Midwest project will: 

• Celebrate the diversity of the National Parks in the Midwest Region, with stops that include parks, monuments, historic sites, and the first National River.

• Create a valuable archive of interviews that individual parks are encouraged to access and use.

• Demonstrate why these “places to play in and pray in” have captivated Americans for 100 years through first-hand, personal stories.

Handy Dandy, what to expect from StoryCorps.org

• Contribute to the centennial goal to connect with and create the next generation of park visitors, supporters, and advocates.

ABOUT THE PARKS CENTENNIAL

The National Park Service and National Park Foundation are working closely with partners and stakeholders across the country to ensure that the Centennial is more than a birthday. We want every American to embrace the opportunities to explore, learn, be inspired or to simply have fun in their 407 national parks, as well as understand how we bring our work, and the national park experience, to them through our community-based recreation, conservation, and historic preservation programs.

ABOUT STORYCORPS

StoryCorps is a national nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide people of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share and preserve the stories of our lives. Since 2003, nearly one hundred thousand everyday people have recorded their stories with StoryCorps; it is one of the largest oral history projects of its kind Several million people listen to StoryCorps’ weekly broadcast on NPR’s Morning Edition. https://storycorps.org/about/