Preserving the History of Slavery and Civil Rights in New Orleans
Photograph of students in the library at Avery Normal Institute in Charleston, South Carolina. From the American Missionary Association Archives Addendum. Image courtesy of the Amistad Research Center.
The Amistad Research Center is a community-based, independent archive that collects, preserves, and makes accessible materials related to the long history of slavery, Civil Rights, and race relations. In addition, the center holds collections documenting the contributions of many other underrepresented groups to the South and the United States more broadly. Since 1978, the National Endowment for the Humanities has supported preservation and exhibition development at the center. Two challenge grants, which helped raise an additional $1.74 million in non-federal funds, have contributed to the center’s work by establishing an endowment for staff positions and research funding.
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Photograph of labor leader and activist Cesar Chavez during a farm workers’ protest in the 1970s. From the American Missionary Association Archives Addendum. Image courtesy of the Amistad Research Center.
Performance by the Free Southern Theater, circa 1970-1978. From the Free Southern Theater Records. Image courtesy of the Amistad Research Center.
Photograph of concert singer William Warfield performing in Lahore, Pakistan, 1958. Image courtesy of the Amistad Research Center.
In past years, NEH funding helped the Amistad Center process large portions of its collections, making it possible for researchers to access local and national organizational records, personal letters, and media related to the Civil Rights Movement. One grant helped the center assess 90 hours of video footage recorded during the 1960s, documenting the responses to Medgar Evers’ murder and the bombing of George Metcalf in Mississippi. With another grant, the center purchased environmental monitoring equipment that helps maintain the safety of the collections in its historic building. Most recently, the center was awarded a grant supporting the organization of records related to the Federation of Southern Cooperatives and Emergency Land Fund. These records document the history of African American land ownership in the South; without dedicated staff time to sort through the collection and document its contents, the records have remained inaccessible for years. Working under the NEH grant, staff have already been able to make portions of the collection available to researchers.
As a community archive, the Amistad Research Center’s priority is to make sure its archives are accessible to the public. The center hosts public events and helps connect local schools with regional history through its Amistad On the Go! program, which introduces students to primary sources and provides in-services for teachers.
