In May 2014, Indiana University South Bend Archivist and Associate Librarian, Alison Stankrauff collaborated with Joe Sipocz, Manager of Local & Family History Services at the St. Joseph County Public Library, and George Garner, Tours and Collections Coordinator of the IU South Bend Civil Rights Heritage Center. They worked together and were awarded a 2014 Indiana Memory Digitization Grant for their project proposal entitled St. Joseph County African American History Collection.
As part of this project, the website Michiana Memories (http://michianamemory.sjcpl.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/p16827coll4)
was created.
The two institutions, Indiana University South Bend and
the St. Joseph County Public Library have paired the rich content from their
African American historical collections together to make a resource that tells
a more representative story of the South Bend, Indiana area. This is an area
that has been under-documented in general – as a smaller blue collar “rust belt”
Midwestern city. In particular the area’s marginalized communities have not had
their voices heard; this project remedies that.
Some of the items available on the website include photographs
from the Dr. Bernard Streets Collection, which includes photos from the 1880s
until 1999; a nearly complete run of The
Reformer; a South Bend African American newspaper printed 1967 to 1971; and
historical documents and studies on race and housing in South Bend. A more
detailed list of items included in the website is available here: https://www.iusb.edu/library/blog/?p=1050
.
“Digitally scanned, cataloged, and presented together
online, our combined archives document the history more completely than each of
our institutions could do on our own,” said Sipocz. Stankrauff concurs. “Institutions partnering really help
make history more representative and rich. This partnership helps to make that
happen."
The Michiana Memories collection will also be included in
the Indiana Memory (https://digital.library.in.gov/)
and Digital Public Library of America collections (http://dp.la/).
The project had a big public kick-off event the evening
of February 3rd at the Civil Rights Heritage Center on South Bend’s
west side. Attendees had a chance to use the website and enjoy community and
academic presenters such as Ball State University’s Dr. Nicole Etcheson (http://cms.bsu.edu/academics/collegesanddepartments/history/facultyandstaff/faculty/etchesonnicole)
speaking on Southern Indiana’s soldiers of color during the Civil War.
This event was also tied into the South Bend 150th anniversary celebration (http://www.sb150.com/)
– the city’s year-long birthday party, which is full of community
events through all of 2015.
Stankrauff, who is active in local history and a member
of the Civil Rights Heritage Center (https://www.iusb.edu/civil-rights/)
faculty advisory committee, is excited by the impact this collection will have
on the community. “This project helps to tell the full story of Michiana,”
she notes. “It adds the voices and stories of local African Americans and
activists to show the amazing and important history we all share.” The project began in January 2014, when Sipocz contacted
Stankrauff and Garner about applying for the grant. The fact that the three
organizations were working together and combining their resources and skills
was an important part of the grant's success.
“African American and civil rights history get lost all
too often,” said Garner. “To have a state of the art website that allows easy access
to this history for Michiana’s schools, for its universities, and for
researchers across the United States is a huge accomplishment. When we honor
the history of all our communities, we prove that South Bend is a city that
honors its diversity.”
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