As a mathematician and physicist, Dr. Ronald Mickens knows the value of research. Apart from his own computational work throughout his career, Dr. Mickens also has a great passion for researching and writing about African American leaders in STEM fields, which led to his interest in why and where individuals donate their personal papers. “The purpose of an archive is to provide access to materials that are used to write history and the stories of people’s lives,” says Dr. Mickens.

Although the Amistad Research Center has been fortunate to preserve Dr. Mickens’ own papers, his first work with the Center came through his placement of the papers of his colleague and mathematician Albert Turner Bharucha-Reid at Amistad in 1985. Both collections are fully organized and available for research. In addition to donating collections, Dr. Mickens also recognizes the ongoing work of an archive like Amistad to preserve and provide access to its collections by donating monetary gifts. Donations to Amistad and four similar institutions on an annual basis are, in Dr. Mickens’ own words, “modest,” but he recognizes that smaller donations build over time.

In 2021, Amistad was pleased to receive a donation by photographer Patricia Goudvis documenting Black agricultural cooperatives and labor organizing throughout the southern states. Goudvis’ photographs were taken during her travels across the South in the summer of 1974, and the original donation consisted of digital files of over 1,200 photographs. The digital collection was processed with the assistance of two interns from the National Museum of African American History and Culture’s Robert F. Smith program last summer and is available for viewing at the Louisiana Digital Library.

The 2022 addition captures rural, working class agricultural life in the form of 35mm negatives, contact sheets and a small number of photographic gelatin prints dating from May to July 1974. The negatives and contact sheets document the Federation of Southern Cooperatives (FSC) in Epes, Alabama, as well as associated farms and cooperatives in Alabama and Georgia. Of note are images of the Green-Hale Sewing Cooperative, the Freedom Quilting Bee and the Southeastern Alabama Self-Help Association (SEASHA) in Alabama; and the Shepherd Broom Factory in Georgia.

Amistad is thrilled to see continuing coverage of our partnership with Black Dance Stories. Thank you to Dance Magazine for spotlighting this important collaboration.  

Amistad’s mission to collect, preserve and provide access to historical documents is made possible by generous donations from individuals, families and organizations. Please consider becoming a recurring donor through our Network for Good page. 

Interested in donating personal papers, organizational records, works of art, books or other materials to Amistad? Please visit our collection development policy available here to learn more about how you may donate, or contact us at 504.862.3222 (ext. 3) or info@amistadresearchcenter.org.

At the start of every summer, Amistad staff members open the Center’s doors to welcome bright new faces wanting to explore the world of archives. Over the course of several weeks, our interns and student assistants learn skills from each of our departments, from processing to reference, that help mold and fine-tune their interests in the field. This year we welcomed back our seasoned assistants Raven Johnson and Khalif Birden, and new interns Saleana Copeland and Jana Ross. Look for updates on their projects and experiences from the interns themselves in our blogs throughout this month!

Our May newsletter reported on a new online exhibition exploring the legacies of African American women through Amistad’s multi-year project, “A Range of Experiences: Documenting African American Women's History and Achievements.” Using the tables in Amistad’s reading room, staff have also curated a physical exhibition to highlight and celebrate some of the women whose collections are involved in this project: opera singer Annabelle Bernard, musician Jessie Covington Dent, writer Alexis De Veaux, historian Antoinette Harrell, civic leader Sybil Morial, visual artist Senga Nengudi, labor activist Maida Springer Kemp and political activist Dorothy Mae Taylor. The idea to mount the tabletop exhibition grew out of the work of artist Kameelah Janan Rasheed, who installed her own artwork on the tables as part of the art triennial Prospect.5. We look forward to exploring other collections in the future through this unique exhibition design.

New Orleans’ WGNO television station sat down with Phillip Cunningham, Amistad’s head of Research Services, to talk about the Emancipation Proclamation and Juneteenth. In Amistad’s archival collections are letters from teachers that visited contraband camps that existed during the Civil War. Enslaved individuals fled to military camps, and organizations like the American Missionary Association (AMA) sent missionaries and teachers to sites all across the South to provide aid to newly freed people. The AMA records at Amistad include letters from teachers in contraband camps, such as those near Washington D.C. and in the Gullah Islands off the coast of South Carolina, writing about the reaction by formerly enslaved people to the reading of the Emancipation Proclamation.

While the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in January 1863, Juneteenth, which became a federal holiday last year, recognizes the two and a half years it took for freedom to reach Galveston, Texas, one of the most remote cities in the Confederacy. Phillip sat with WGNO reporter Christopher Leach to discuss how we define freedom and how the celebration and uncertainty that followed the end of the Civil War were re-ignited after the passage of the Civil Rights Act one hundred years later.

On Wednesday, April 20th, the Amistad Research Center and the Rivers Institute for Contemporary Art & Thought gathered with a community members to engage with artist Helen Cammock and her rich body of work. The Young Dex Brass Band, juniors and graduating seniors at St. Augustine High School, ushered the crowd into the New Orleans Jazz Museum’s Performance Center with a somber dirge as an homage to our city’s deep cultural traditions.

River’s founding director and chief curator Andrea Andersson opened the program with a warm introduction to Cammock and the artists-in-residence program. Andersson and fellow curators Jordan Amirkhani and Jade Flint followed with questions pertaining to Cammock’s research interests in the Amistad’s archival and fine art collections as well as her interest in changing urban and rural landscapes in her work.

The Amistad Research Center received grants from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission and the Institute for Museum and Libraries Services to provide access to the records of Alternate ROOTS and Junebug Productions. These two collections represent powerful expressions of the role of artists and creators within the civil rights movement and other social justice movements. Amistad is honored to receive support to preserve the records of these two important organizations.

Please look forward to future blog posts documenting these projects!