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ANNOUNCING Call for Papers and Panels: “The Fire Every Time: Reframing Black Power across the Twentieth Century and Beyond”

By on February 16, 2012 in Current Events, Special Events

“The Fire Every Time: Reframing Black Power across the Twentieth Century and Beyond”

In the Fall of 2012, the Avery Research Center will host a public history symposium, dialogue, and community event examining the Black Power Movement in the Twentieth Century.

Generally typecast as radical, violent, and ultimately self-defeating, the Black Power Movement has been considered by some as an aberration of the Civil Rights Movement.  Still, others have viewed it as a destructive interruption and a politically ineffectual movement that derailed the civil rights agenda, resulting in white backlash, conservative retrenchment, and urban unrest.

Recent scholarship, however, has begun to rethink the meaning, geographical placement, periodization, and effect of “Black Power”, revealing deep historical roots in black communities and a profound and far more positive legacy than previously indicated. This conference will bring together activists, scholars, and students to review and discuss the Black Power Movement, its manifestations, and continuing impact.

For more information: http://blogs.cofc.edu/averynews/files/2012/02/Avery-Call-for-Papers-Black-Power-2012.pdf

Robert Chase’s Recent Publication

By on January 24, 2012 in Current Events, Publications

Announcing the publication of Dr. Robert Chase’s article “Slaves of the State’ Revolt: Southern Prison Labor and a Prison-Made Civil Rights Movement” in Robert Zieger’s collected anthology, Life and Labor in the New, New South (University Press of Florida 2012).

Dr. Chase, the new public historian at Avery, argues that a prison-made civil rights movement developed across the American South by building on the lessons of George Jackson’s murder in California and the Attica 1971 prison uprising. This article demonstrates how inmates confronted a southern prison modernization narrative with the imagery of slavery and the prisoner as slave. By constructing a prison-made civil rights movement across racial lines behind bars, this inter-racial inmate coalition defied the legal, social, and political definition of prisoners as civilly dead and “slaves of the state.”

Congratulations Robert! I look forward to reading your article as well as those of your colleagues.

Pre-order it now on Amazon

Exhibit: Lorenzo Dow Turner

By on January 6, 2012 in Current Events, Special Events

The pieces for the exhibit arrived yesterday and we are all excited to see it up and to have people come and view it with us next Thursday, Jan 12th.

Exhibit Opening Information

 http://blogs.cofc.edu/averynews/files/2012/01/DowTurnerPostcard.pdf

Exhibit Background Information

The Avery Research Center is excited to host “Word, Shout, Song: Lorenzo Dow Turner Connecting Communities through Language”, the world-class exhibition developed by the Smithsonian Institution’s Anacostia Community Museum, in January 2012. This exhibition is a beautiful and thought-provoking assemblage of artifacts, photographs, and text that documents the life and work of Dr. Lorenzo Dow Turner, whom many scholars consider as the first African-American linguist and the Father of Gullah Studies. It also examines the visceral interconnections between African diasporan cultures on three continents: the Gullah-Geechee communities of South Carolina and Georgia; the Afro-Brazilian community of Bahia, Brazil; and the West African cultures from which the other two were born.

The Turner family had been free for four generations by the time Dow Turner was born in 1890, which helped him pursue a stellar education that included an undergraduate degree from Harvard College and a Ph.D from the University of Chicago. His studies eventually led him to the South Carolina Lowcountry and his introduction to the Gullah language. He immediately began to see similarities between it and various African languages. Turner’s curiosity of a language that sounded much like English, yet was without formal academic study, led him to twenty years of research on the language and its people, including many sojourns to West Africa to expand his research.

Before Dow Turner’s research, the Gullah language was unclassified, unstudied, and considered informal gibberish. Using an inquisitive ear, Turner was able to eventually link Portuguese and English words to their myriad of African roots within Gullah, and “Word, Shout, Song” visually and audibly explains this in a magnificent exhibition
Although born on American soil and free at the time of Dow Turner’s studies, the speakers had retained the past of their enslaved ancestors and beyond to their African heritages. In that vein, the Gullah language is a syncretic fusion of the African, American, and European ties that weave through the speakers’ legacies.

Dow Turner’s research helped bridge the gap between the descendants of the enslaved people on the Lowcountry Sea Islands to the descendants of the enslaved people on the mainland—linguistically as well as culturally. The exhibit chronicles all of the research, trips, recordings, and findings through aural and visual means. To have an exhibit not only of this importance, but also of this stature, come to the College of Charleston is an honor and a landmark.

Various generous donations to the Avery Research Center have made this exhibition possible, including the Office of the President at the College of Charleston, MUSC, the MeadWestvaco Community Development and Land Management Group, the City of Charleston, the Charleston Convention and Visitors Bureau, and the National Park Service.

IMLS Fellow Update

By on October 27, 2011 in Current Events, Processed Collection, Uncategorized

I have been working at the Avery Research Center for about a month now and I have been keeping busy and productive. My progress in the archives and social media are detailed below.

Archives

I have processed and created the finding aids for two collections, the Humane and Friendly Society and the Lecque Family Papers.

The abstract for the Humane and Friendly Society reads:

The Humane and Friendly Society was a benevolent society of free African American men in Charleston, South Carolina. The Society served as a way to provide for widows, orphaned children, a burial place for its members, and it also arranged apprenticeships and educational opportunities for African American men.

The collection consists of administrative materials of the Humane and Friendly Society including meeting minutes, correspondence, and membership lists. Topics of discussion include raising membership dues, care of the graveyard, and the rules of being a member. The record journal notes who paid dues, how long they have been a member of the Society, and where members are buried in Charleston. The plot records include completed and blank application forms.

Before I processed this collection I knew that there were organizations created by African-Americans that assisted the community in many aspects, but this was my first look at a society that was dedicated to helping to bury individuals. Working with this collection allowed me to see how deep racism is; that even in death African-Americans and Caucasians could not be next to each other.  One of the major issues of concerns within the meeting minutes was the cost of membership in relation to the upkeep of the Humane and Friendly Society cemetery (which is located in the Magnolia Complex).

The other collection that I worked on was the Lecque Family Papers. Working with a family collection as opposed to an organizational collection presents different challenges and context in terms of the arrangement and description. Since I am not from the area I did not know who the Lecque family was and why their collection would be here at Avery, but I read the newspaper clippings I began to see the role that the family had in establishing the Liberty Hill community in North Charleston. Most of the collection delves into the history of Liberty Hill and St. Peters’ African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church, but the collection also consists of genealogical information, legal documents, funeral programs, and photographs of the Lecque family. Some of the photos were framed in oval sized frames and Ms. Georgette Mayo and I had to decide if we wanted to take the photos out of the frame or keep it in there. This was a preservation decision, we were not sure if we took the pictures out of the frame if the photo(s) would become damaged.  Ultimately, we decided that the photos should remain in the frames.  In order to obtain a better understanding of the family structure I did genealogical work on the Lecque family using Ancestry.com at the South Carolina Reading Room at the Charleston County Public Library. From there I used census records, the social security index, and draft cards to compile a list of birth and death dates and marriage information.

The collection that I am working on presently is the Prince Hall affiliated Order of the Eastern Star Chapter No. 41 Papers. This collection has been great to work on as I am interested in organizations that women are a part of and kinds of work that they do. The collection consists of administrative records, financial materials, records relating to the O.E.S. rituals and ceremonies, as well as material documenting the activities of Prince Hall Lodge No. 46 (the Charleston Lodge). I will post a full commentary on it when completed.

Social Media

The other activity that has been keeping me busy has been increasing Avery’s social media presence. I have been maintaining the Keep Your Eyes on the Prize blog well as updating Avery’s Facebook page on a daily basis with information about African-American issues, concerns, resources, etc. on a local and national level. From my efforts I have gained more “likes” on the Avery page and made connections with relevant people who are interested in African-American history and culture, historic preservation organizations, and cultural heritage societies locally, South Carolina, and nationally. Through these connections Avery obtains a broader network of supporters and also increases the visibility of the archival collections and encourages people to use our resources. In addition, we promote our programs and staff activities.

Ms. Mayo and I attended a webinar (an online workshop at the College of Charleston’s Addlestone Library) regarding the creation of interactive subject guides (a guide created by archivists and librarians that compiles relevant information about a certain subject/theme for researchers). Historically subject guides were static (i.e. text only), but now with the diverse modes of transmitting information this needs to be changed. The presentation stressed the importance of video, audio, and visual materials as well as including blogs, news feeds, and student created content in these subject guides. I am investigating the possibilities of using these types of subject guides at the Avery Research Center.

A couple of examples of interactive subject guides can be found here:

The presentation can be found online here

If you have any thoughts about what topics and themes you would want to see done as subject guides please comment below.

Graduate Internships at the Avery Research Center

By on October 11, 2011 in Current Events, Oral Histories

Graduate Internships at the Avery Research Center

Hosting Institution: Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture in Charleston, South Carolina

Through its research facilities, museum exhibits, archival collections and numerous outreach programs, the Avery Research Center tells the rich story of the lives and contributions of Africans and African Americans in the Lowcountry and the wider African Diaspora.
Listing Department(s): School of Library and Information Science (USC); History, Historic Preservation, Arts Management (CofC); African American Studies; Urban Studies; Political Science; Sociology; Anthropology; Women’s and Gender Studies; African Studies
Requested Number: 2 Graduate Students
Commitment: Internships begin at the start of the Fall or Spring semester and require at least 10 hours/week for 14 weeks.  Please inquire for information on Summer internships.
Schedule:

 

 The interns must be available for ten hours during the workweek, Monday through Friday, during the hours of 10am to 5pm.

The weekly time commitment may be broken into shifts of 2-5 hours.
Compensation: Academic Credit / Unpaid
Goals: The Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture seeks undergraduate interns to assist in a dynamic and engaging program of collecting, transcribing, and archiving manuscript collections and oral histories. Students will gain professional training and hands-on experience in the collection of oral histories that reveal untold stories of the civil rights revolution; labor and work; gender and African American women; race and the city of Charleston; and struggles for “Black Power” in the American South.  Students will be trained in the professional standards of conducting, transcribing, preserving, and digitizing oral history interviews.  As students work with the material, they will also be encouraged to use our oral history collection to conduct their own research and student papers.
Description: Avery interns will be stationed in the Reading Room to assist the Public Historian with the transcription of oral histories already conducted.  Additionally, interns may have the opportunity to go out into the local community to conduct oral histories of their own, with the oversight and assistance of the Public Historian.

Student interns will also have the opportunity to work with the Director of Archival Services on Avery’s substantial manuscript collections.  Students will assist with reference material, exhibits and tours, archival arrangement, organization, and description.

Each intern will be expected to write at least one publishable blog post on an oral history collection or research topic related to Avery’s archival holdings.  Where possible, the Public Historian will strive for a match between student interests and oral history projects.
Enrichment: Weekly, the Public Historian will have one-on-one meetings with interns to assess the students’ experiences and to discuss the problems, possibilities, and potential richness of their work in oral history.
Evaluation: Students will have mid-term and end-of-term evaluations conducted by the Public Historian.
Feedback: Students will also have the opportunity to provide feedback to the Avery internship program through mid-term and end-of-term evaluations.
To apply or request more information, please contact Avery’s Public Historian, Dr. Robert Chase, at chasert at cofc dot edu.  Interested applicants should include a current resume and cover letter.
 

 

Robert Chase: An Introduction

By on October 11, 2011 in Current Events

The Avery Research Center is excited to welcome the newest member of our team, Robert Chase!  He began working here in September.

Dr. Robert Chase is the public historian at the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture at the College of Charleston.   Dr. Chase specializes in public history, oral history, civil rights and social justice movements, and African American history.   Born in New York City and raised in Washington, DC, Dr. Chase received his MA in history from George Mason University and his PhD in history at the University of Maryland, College Park.  He is the recipient of the University of Maryland’s E.B. and Jean Smith prize for best dissertation in political history.  Previously, Dr. Chase has held postdoctoral fellowships with Southern Methodist University, Case Western Reserve University, and Rutgers University.  His forthcoming manuscript, Civil Rights on the Cell Block: The Prisoners’ Rights Movement and the Construction of the Carceral State, 1945-1990, explores the roots of twentieth century prison growth, inmate society and the coercive relationship between keeper and kept, and the legal struggle between inmates and the state over race, prisoners’ rights, and questions of citizenship.

He is working on inventorying the oral histories that we have in our collection and developing new oral history projects.

More information about him can be found

  1. http://sas.rutgers.edu/news-a-events/feature-archive/1084-post-doctoral-and-new-faculty-fellows-enrich-research-and-teaching 

So when you see him around, say hello!

Honorable Lucille Whipper Goes Back-to-School

By on September 27, 2011 in Current Events, Special Events

Welcome sign on front door of the school

On Friday, September 23, 2011, The College of Charleston’s Avery Research Center cofounder and former South Carolina House Representative, the Honorable Lucille Whipper, went back to school as a part of The HistoryMakers’ Back-to-School initiative.  The initiative aims to educate and inform the younger generations about what life was like before they were

Honorable Lucille Whipper talking to the students

born. The Honorable Whipper spoke to approximately seventy-five fifth-grade students at Springfield Elementary School in Charleston, SC. The students were very attentive, took notes, and were very engaged with Honorable Whipper.  She talked about her childhood in Charleston, her political and social activism while she was in high school, in college, in her career, and later in her life. What really got the students engaged was her discussion of segregation and the various inequalities that faced African Americans both in Charleston and on a national scale. Notably Honorable Whipper stated the struggle for Civil Rights did not just begin in the 1950s/1960s, but dates back further to the efforts to end slavery.

The Honorable Whipper did not just provide history lessons to the students, but also life lessons, such as the importance of respect for both yourself and for others, the need to love and appreciate the talents one has, and the need to give back to those who come behind you while not forgetting those who came before.

Before the presentation, the Honorable Whipper; Ms. Georgette Mayo, the Avery Research Center’s Processing Archivist; and Aaisha Haykal,

Aaisha Haykal preparing to speak

Avery’s History

Makers Fellow; were able to take a tour of the school with the Principal Ms. Blondell B. Adams.

Ms. Mayo doing introductions

The event was also an opportunity to promote the archival and historian professions to the students.  The day before Mrs. Whipper’s visit, the students viewed a brief video about the Avery Research Center.  In her introduction, Ms. Mayo discussed what an archivist does and what an archive collects.

The day would not have been possible without the support of Ms. Adams and Ms. Regina Pinckney Stephens, Springfield Elementary School’s Library Media Specialist, Ms. Fanny

Display in the library

Anthony, the library volunteer, and the student helpers, who arranged for the room and the

audio/visual technology.  Lastly, we want to thank the Honorable Lucille Whipper for taking the time out of her day to participate in the HistoryMakers initiative and the students for their avid attention.

More photos from this event can be found on Avery’s Facebook page.

 

 

 

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