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Vol. 26:1 ISSN 0160-8460 March 1998
The Capital District Black History Project: 1990-91, 1992-93
by Geoffrey P. Williams
Thanks to NHPRC regrant funding from the New York State Documentary Heritage Program, the Department of Special Collections and Archives of the University at Albany, State University of New York, was able to survey and collect the records of African Americans in the six-county greater Capital District of New York during 1990-91 and 1992-93. One hundred and seven African-American organizations or individuals were identified and contacted; surveys were conducted of the records held by 20 organizations; and the records of eight African-American organizations, representing a total of 25 cubic feet, were either collected or microfilmed and are currently available to researchers in the University Libraries. Among the records preserved are those of the NAACP, Albany (1968-87) and Schenectady (1949-82) Branches; the Urban League of the Albany Area (1966-87); the Brothers (1966-90), an African-American activist organization that flourished in Albany during the late 1960s and the 1970s; the records of three women's groups, the state-wide Empire State Federation of Women's Clubs (1938-87), and two local branches, the M.C. Lawton Civic and Cultural Club of Albany (1921-87) and the Versatile Club of Troy (1936-89). In addition, as a direct result of the initial survey, the Capital District Coalition Against Apartheid and Racism (1981-95), a multi-ethnic group opposing racism in Albany and favoring majority rule in South Africa, made their records available for microfilming and preservation in 1994.
Front page of The Liberator, a newspaper published by the Brothers, an Albany African-American group, from April 2, 1970, reproducing a cartoon by Darcy, copyright 1969 by Newsday. Photograph courtesy of the Archives, University at Albany, SUNY.
Although African Americans made up a substantial part of the population of Albany and its immediate surroundings during the Dutch and English colonial periods, their percentage of the population declined with the rapid white settlement of upstate New York in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The original African-American population was augmented by late 19th and 20th century migrations from the South. As of the 1990 U.S. Census, African Americans made up 4.7% of the region's population. The greater Capital District is characterized by moderate to small industrial cities (Albany is the largest city, with a population of just over 100,000), large rural areas, and an industrial base that has declined during the 20th century. From the late 1950s through the mid-1980s, the major growth industry was state government employment.
The University at Albany, SUNY, was founded in 1844 as the New York State Normal School and designated one of the four University Centers in the SUNY System in 1962, with a mission to promote research. Historically, the school has been a predominantly white institution drawing its student body from upstate New York. Two African Americans are known to have attended in the 19th century, while in the 20th century there was a gradual increase in the number of African-American students, culminating in dramatic increases dating from the start of the Educational Opportunities Program. We have had a Department of Africana Studies since 1969. At the time of the survey the undergraduate population of the university almost mirrored the ethnic makeup of the state's population (22% minorities, 8% African American), while efforts are being made to bring the graduate population (8% minorities, 4.5% African American) in line with those figures. We have a demand from our faculty and students for primary research materials relating to African Americans to support courses and research. Our department's participation in the Capital District Black History Project was an effort to respond to that internal need.
While the university has markedly changed its ethnic makeup in the last thirty years, the African-American community's perception of the University is that we are overwhelmingly white. In addition, our location in a suburban setting on the outskirts of Albany makes accessibility a problem for the African-American community.
How does a predominantly white university successfully collect the records of African Americans? Of paramount concern to us was the absence of any local African-American institution collecting records. The Schomberg Library assured us that they were busy collecting records in New York City and the immediate vicinity. No other local institution was collecting African American records. Of crucial importance in conducting a successful survey was our repeated statement that the records were needed to support the research interest of our African-American faculty and students. To support that contention, we formed an advisory committee containing university faculty and prominent individuals in the local African-American community, and hired African-American graduate students as project archivists. The down side to using graduate students was that we had three changes in personnel, necessitating constant retraining, and more importantly, breaks in continuity in contacts with the local community. The other major problem was a hiatus in the project during 1991-92, again entailing a loss of contact with the community.
Since the African-American community is small, its organizations were also small, and the records were often scattered. The organizations were predominantly run by volunteers, often out of their own homes. The volunteers generally worked at full-time jobs; consequently, they could not be contacted during the day, and were only available in the evenings and on weekends. Since no institution had previously approached the organizations and solicited their records, their leaders were not used to thinking of their records as having historical value. The primary concern of these organizations in New York State's difficult financial climate of the early 1990s was economic survival and continued functioning, not the potential historical value of their records.
Our survey had to take into account those conditions. The project archivists had to be persistent and extremely flexible. They could not work a nine-to-five shift. Most of their contacts were made during evenings and weekends. Although we conducted publicity and letter-writing campaigns, those brought few responses. The success of the project stemmed from a willingness of project archivists to attend church services, to meet repeatedly with community leaders on their time schedules, and to ask for introductions to other activists, a very time-consuming process. Of paramount importance was our willingness to offer the organizations being surveyed our help in organizing their records. Offering the organization something convinced them of our sincerity and commitment. In the long run, this policy lead to a number of donations.
Gwynne Jenkins, a winner of the University President's Award for Undergraduate Research, 1991, for a paper she wrote using the M.C. Lawton Club Records, examines a volume with club president Juanita Lewis (seated) and project archivist Lisa Stevenson. Photograph courtesy of the Archives, University at Albany, SUNY.
For a predominantly white institution to successfully survey and collect the records of African Americans, it is essential to convince the local community of the value of their records and that their records will be used to further the educational interests of African Americans. You must hire personnel from the community, preferably the local community, have active cooperation from the leaders of the community, and offer the community a service. It is crucial that the survey time-schedule be adapted to the needs of the community being surveyed. Surveyors have to be ready for a very slow courtship process, which may bear few immediate results. The goals should be positive long-term contacts with the African-American community and strong collections of records that will benefit both the collector and the community.
In 1990-91, the project director was Don Skemer, then Head, Department of Special Collections and Archives, and now Keeper of Manuscripts, Princeton University, and the project archivists were La Nina Clayton and Nancy Dawson. In 1992-93, the project director was Geoffrey P. Williams, University Archivist, and the project archivist was Lisa Stevenson.
(Geoffrey P. Williams is University Archivist, the M. E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University at Albany, State University of New York.)
