that the organisation could raise £2 mil- lion pounds to develop the site, but this could never be reached. In the early 2000s, Black Cultural Archives made two applications to the Heritage Lottery Fund (now National Lottery Fund for Heritage). The first called ‘Documenting the Archives’ created three project archivist posts that lead to the cataloguing of the collections for the first time in the organisation’s history and which made this material easily accessible through the provision of an online catalogue and a reading room service. From here, a successful application of over £4.5 million pounds to the HLF was made that allowed for the organisation to work with Lambeth council to renovate ‘Raleigh Hall,’ a Grade II listed Georgian building that had fallen into disrepair and which had been earmarked by Lambeth Council for renovation for community use. Recently, we have used our platform and space to provide support for those members of the communities who have been caught up in the ongoing ‘Windrush’ scandal and are looking to continue to document, his- toricise and contextualise current events affecting black communities in Britain. Since the early days, we remain indebted to the support of the black communities, particularly when it comes to developing our archives. As outlined, our founders saw the value of collecting historic and contemporary black history at a time when traditional and main- stream organisations saw no value in it. it, a sum that would never be reached and eventually the site was turned over to other uses. The early collecting strategy of the organisation was grouped into four categories, firstly focus- sing on material that reflected “black contemporary life history (1960-pres- ent)”; followed by the “history of black people in Britain (1900s-1950s)”; then “The Atlantic Slave Trade”; and finally “Ancient historic past of black people in Europe (208 AD-1890s).” Under the topic of black contemporary life history, the organisation listed “sculptures, paintings, photographs, letters, news- papers, journals, records, videotapes, motion pictures, films, diaries, minute books, telegrams, costumes, banners, passbooks, passports and dissertations.” The breadth of the collections policies can be understood as an organisation attempting to assert itself within a heritage sector, but also one that did not differentiate between types of material held by different heritage organisations (archives, libraries or museums). Over time our collecting policy has narrowed to a focus on the printed (or digital) material from people or groups who have operated in Britain, with a focus on the twentieth century. We no longer collect objects, unless they form a core part of a
April-May 2022
Black Cultural Archives at Lambeth Country Show. Photo © Black Cultural Archives
larger collection, although we do still retain the objects from our early collecting. Our collections continue to reflect the interests and aspirations of our com- munities, and now form the bedrock for challenging racist historical narratives. We have seen interest in our collections grow over time, resulting in new research that continues to highlight the importance of our collections. The key subject areas that our archive holds are:
l Black Women’s Movement of the late 1970s;
l Black Power in the UK during the late 1960s-early 1980s;
l Black community and policing; l Post-war migration and settlement; l The rise of the ‘race relations’ in Britain;
l The development of anti-racist and mul- ticultural educational initiatives.
We have a large variety of formats, including a large ephemera collection along with our press and periodical collections and oral history collections. We also have a large and expanding library collection and are currently working on processing our backlog of historic (and contemporary) donations. Our digitised and born-digital collections continue to grow, including key oral history collections and during 2020, we had our first experience of rapid digital collecting to mark the summer of Black Lives Matter protests. We are currently working on a Wellcome Trust funded bid to catalogue the papers of feminist and mental health activist, Melba Wilson to
look at bringing equity and social responsi- bility to the cataloguing of potentially sen- sitive materials. This catalogued material, and associated programme of events was launched in March 2022. However, like many organisations we have been affected by the national lock- downs and Covid restrictions, which meant that we had to close our doors for almost a year and severely reduce our opening hours. Whilst we were aware of our limited digital capacity, the lockdowns and restric- tions have highlighted how dependent we are on in-person visits in order to provide access to our materials. As we move out of restrictions we have prioritised working on our digital strategy, digital preservation and digital access to ensure that we can provide materials to those who are unable to travel to London. As part of our ongoing focus on access we will be launching a new catalogue using the ArchivesSpace system, as part of their diversity scheme initiative. We hope that this move to ArchivesSpace will give us greater visibility online and provide us with a framework to better make our growing an important collection available.
Over the past 40 years Black Cultural Archives has continued to collect and make material available that continues to speak to the experiences of black communities in Britain. The current political climate shows us that we have much more work to do and that our work is as important now as it was 40 years ago and so we shall continue to collect, preserve and celebrate the histories of black people in Britain. IP
INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL 43
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60
