16:01:34 Hotel so I'm gonna hit start now. You can turn it off, Christopher, what you can turn off the script. How do you do that, like live transcript.
16:01:47 Where's on the bottom in the Blackboard. So if it's out of the black bar then it's on the ellipses on more. And then you can go there.
16:01:56 Okay.
16:02:07 Alright folks, so we are recording this session, just so that everyone knows, and thanks so much for being here.
16:02:18 Thank you so much.
16:02:22 Welcome to session number three, urban activism and archives.
16:02:28 Got a couple of things so we'd like to do first, and one of those is to thank scan wide for their sponsorship for this session, and for making the virtual conference possible this year.
16:02:38 So thank you scan wide.
16:02:41 A couple of housekeeping items that we need to talk about is, we're utilizing the live transcript for this session for accessibility purposes. Now, not everybody might want to use that, that tool so if you'd like to either click on the live transcription
16:02:58 button on the bottom and you can hide it, or if you're not using the full screen go over to the ellipses where it says more, and you can hide it from there.
16:03:08 So just wanting to make sure that you get the best possible experience that you can. Okay.
16:03:16 Also, one other piece that I would like to, to remind folks of as we are going through our presentations, we'll do our q amp a sort of at the end. And we really ask that all those folks that really have questions to ask that you use the q amp a tool on
16:03:34 zoom, rather than using chat or anything like that but please use the q amp a, and I'll make sure that I asked your question of our presenters today.
16:03:46 So, once again, thank you for coming to session three. I'm David Grinnell and I'm our moderator today, we have three presenters, and I really look forward to what they have to say.
16:03:59 So, urban activism and archives, so documenting urban activism is a complex endeavor, and many archival programs attempt to do this and are very successful at it.
16:04:11 But the remaining record often reflects sort of an unpredictable condition of the urban living situation, as well as the passion of all the community members for various causes, like the theme for Merricks conference.
16:04:27 The Virtual Conference suffrage legacies civil rights political activism and archives. This session will explore three areas of activism.
16:04:36 But perhaps with a little bit more of a modern twist or more current twist. So, our, our presentations today are going to feature campus activism, environmental activism and justice and labor organizing.
16:04:52 So, today, one of the things I'm going to do is, I will introduce each speaker but I'm going to do that.
16:05:00 Just before each one speaks and so if you will be patient with us as we sort of make these transitions. Okay. Our first speaker today is Chris Anglo Chris is the university archivist and reference library and at the University of the District of Columbia,
16:05:19 where he spent for the past 15 years, but he has been an archivist in library and for over 31 years, and held many degrees, including a ma in history, and ml is a Master's in Public Administration MBA and a JD Chris of courses in located in Washington
16:05:40 DC, but he's lived throughout the United States, including Minnesota, Ohio, Arizona and Texas.
16:05:47 Chris has written several books and articles, including those on archives law, government, history and nonprofit administration.
16:05:55 But perhaps one of the things that Chris is most proud of is the fact that he has built the archives at the University of the District of Columbia from scratch.
16:06:03 So Chris today is going to present on UDC legacy of activism through the archival lens. So we're going to now have, Chris, do his presentation. Thank you, Chris.
16:06:20 Okay, I'm bringing up my screen.
16:06:23 Here we go.
16:06:25 Okay.
16:06:26 Can you see that
16:06:31 looks good. Okay, so that's it I can
16:06:38 show my presentation is archiving uses legacy of our Cubism of activism
16:06:51 and uses archive support so research into UTC is at student activism the UTC archives prioritises documenting student activism and student advocacy of the, of the rights of the underrepresented communities.
16:07:08 Some of the key goals of the UTC archives include to preserve interpret and make available materials on student activism at UDC and can provide context for this.
16:07:19 To do this we have a robust outreach to activists student groups, we use the archiving of student activism still kit tool kit as our model for archiving student art for archiving students Archives and Records.
16:07:36 We proactively reach out to campus activists and organizations, and to propose a long term preservation of their history and stress how this prevents philosophy central information in our meetings with them we explain how their material will be collected
16:07:52 preserved and stored. And we also cover the collecting focus of our archives and how this material fits into the UBC archives as a whole, the activists vision of universities founder, shapes, both UDC and in our archives, your new scene was impacted born
16:08:12 of a sense of social justice activism, where the work of UDC is founder Michaela minor. When 1851 opened a fledgling law school, our bedroom school for young African American women to become teachers because of her efforts, Miss minor faced fears and
16:08:29 some staying backlash from the seas slave holding you late, but due to her on you link tenacity her mission survive and the school thrived Eunice's that we keep in mind you this is history enroll in the community, which shapes our archives.
16:08:47 You see is that historically African American University in Washington DC, and as a project the amount of mergers between predecessor institutions including minor Teachers College Wilson Teachers College DC.
16:09:03 Teachers College and Antioch School of Law. All of these institutions have had their own vision of a social justice mission, which has evolved over time, and many of our students and become activists, because of their experience at UDC.
16:09:20 The civil rights and some of the areas of interest of specific interest to our students are the civil rights era and desegregation and the CTC.
16:09:33 By the end of World War Two students and faculty at the black. Teachers College and white.
16:09:40 Wilson Teachers College, were increasingly supporting merge the merger of the two institutions believing that segregation was immoral and unjust, the president of both minor and Wilson Teachers College also favored the merger.
16:09:59 In 1954, the US Supreme Court and Brown versus Board of Education ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, which led to the merger of these two institutions into a DC district of columbia Teachers College.
16:10:14 So, civil rights era and desegregation, particularly in the experience at DC DC and and minor in Wilson is one of the strong areas of interest still up with our students over at DC at UDC today.
16:10:33 As we go from the civil rights era into late 1960s with the rise about Black Power movement.
16:10:39 Federal City College and will and Washington Technical Institute were born, federal City College earned a reputation for very progressive and even radical education philosophy, and that was said at one time that revolution is the curriculum at Metro City
16:10:59 City College, there's a significant amount of Reacher researcher interest even to this time and federal City College and the role that played in higher education at the time, a federal City College along with love Washington Technical Institute, were
16:11:28 in 1968 to meet the need for public higher education in the district. They were both products of the civil rights era and the Great Society. Prior to this time DC TC was the only public institution of higher education in higher learning in the District
16:11:31 of Columbia. MCC as I mentioned was considered innovative and was even believe radical at the time in terms of both its course offerings and approach to teaching a federal City College also offered one of the first full fledge Black Studies program in
16:11:46 the United States, the Black Panther Party was also active on the FCC canvas and much of the activists legacy of FCC both on the students and
16:11:59 professors and faculty level was carried forward to the new UDC how UDC was formed in 19 6076 went as a merger between federal City College Wi Fi and the CTC.
16:12:14 Other are to a couple of different classes about students protest and student protest and men also an area of high interest to our students. Researchers at UDC.
16:12:27 Some of these concern up schools conditions add up at the various schools such as DC etc. I'm the person I found were 1962, when the Citizens Movement for new DC Teachers College sponsored a march on DC etc students to protest up conditions out that district
16:12:48 district call which is another, which is now called the Wilson building basically our city hall in Washington DC. The protests continued and in 1971 in DC at, etc.
16:13:01 of the campus. So you have some of these up periodic periodic protest about deferred maintenance and pretty fairly appalling conditions that some of our buildings at the time.
16:13:19 Some of these protests also continued after the formation of UDC and again these are things that got UDC regular notice, and also our remain of interest to student activists researchers today.
16:13:37 For example in 1979 UBC alumni march through Washington to a protest a Senate subcommittee refusal to fund Eunice's downtown campus in 1987 student protest protest and deep budget cuts and you say that was a prominent protest and.
16:13:57 And there was a number of these protests, but there are two that are particular notice and attracted quite a bit of national attention. One was in the fall of 1991 student protesters demanded share governance, changes in academic policies and programs,
16:14:12 and the committee and before, before the exam problems regarding UDC is a lot of programs, the students can buy the administration building and demanded the resignation and most of the Board of Trustees and the student protest.
16:14:26 Also temporarily closed up to DC for a while, and six years later the commercial protest and 1996 the student protest and on budget cutbacks proposed by the DC financial control board.
16:14:40 As you may remember the control board was appointed by Congress and mandated to steer. Do you see it through the financial crisis of the 99 days. That's also lead to severe budget cuts at UDC and led to a student protest at UDC.
16:15:01 So,
16:15:01 and there is a number of very high prominence Jepsen student activists protected protesters took on the time including blocking Connecticut Avenue Connecticut Avenue is both a major street going through Northwest DC and an officer is in front of in front
16:15:18 of you, would you say the end because of these cuts UDC was forced to close for three months. So hundreds of our students black traffic in front of the school for several hours to protest budget reductions.
16:15:32 The purpose of these protests, again were to get the attention of both our local officials at the Wilson building, and also our congressional overseers will be going on to more modern times but UDC activists have long been involved in both district and
16:15:53 national issues in 1985 for example, The students have rallied against our fireside and stage manager march from UDC to the South African embassy in 1995, but you see students, many university students participated in the Million Man March, you go on
16:16:12 to modern times for example 20 20th through 2021.
16:16:17 Many university students have been involved in Black Lives Matter and Black Lives Matters protest, and more recently the law school and University Law School, which has been very good about encouraging student activism and organizing protests protests
16:16:29 that organized protest against hate crimes against director that Asian Americans. So, in.
16:16:42 We, the UTC community can need this in support of Black Lives Matter This was in about 2020 and the other picture shows and law school students mark and an active engagement for justice.
16:16:57 This was again, another Black Lives Matter protest, and these are a couple of pictures of the UDC a law school march against Asian Hate, hate crimes in 2021.
16:17:11 So, these are working because student activism is such a major issue with older adults union saying because it's such a major concern of students and faculty in the community as a whole.
16:17:28 And it's also a major concern about about in archives to preserve this history to talk to the people to make sure that the documents come our way. And so it's a, it's a, it's a continuing task and there's so many of these groups that the students are
16:17:42 there for a limited amount of time. So, one of our pasts and all this keeps us busy is trying to keep up with them and make sure that we get the information and preserve their history for the top for posterity and for for future researchers, so that in
16:18:04 ends my presentation and I'm certainly very happy to answer any further questions.
16:18:11 Thank you so much, Chris. Wonderful. Good to hear about activism both in the past, as well as continuing at UDC, and some very much a tradition, and occasionally we get a national attention, whether we like it or not, whether the administration likes
16:18:27 it or not, the students like it or not. Yeah. Very good. Very good.
16:18:32 Thank you so much.
16:18:35 As we continue now I'd like to go. We're going to go on a little different vein. Our second presenter is john Kaczynski John's the archival assistant at the Archives and Special Collections department at the University of Pittsburgh library system at
16:18:50 Pitt john has processed a number of collections from various subject areas, including those of political figures papers a faculty related to the scientific philosophy of arena, as well as records have some professional associations.
16:19:07 Currently john has been leading our migration efforts from our archival management software system archivists toolkit to a space john holds an MLS from here at the University of Pittsburgh masters in, in history from Slippery Rock University and a BA
16:19:23 BA in history from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
16:19:28 John's presentation is going to focus on environmental justice based on the collections housed here at the University of Pittsburgh Archives and Special Collections welcome john.
16:19:40 Okay, thank you David. And thank you Chris to that was very cool.
16:19:54 Right. So, environmental history in the archives at Pitt really begins in the 1940s.
16:20:02 There's evidence of concern over environmental conditions, industrial waste smog etc going all the way back to the 19th century, but it's really at the height of the quote unquote smoky city narrative in the middle 20th century that we can begin to trace
16:20:17 pushback by groups and individuals against poor environmental conditions.
16:20:23 So we have a collection of the smoke investigation activities of the melon Institute of research from 1911 to 1957 Records include investigative studies and Two Smoking air pollution.
16:20:36 Urban urban atmospheric contamination and means of controlling the contamination.
16:20:41 There are also Health Studies and records of the smoke and dust abatement League, a civic organization which was engaged in framing and securing effective regulatory controls.
16:20:51 Change in Pittsburgh was initiated in 1941, when an effective smoke control ordinance was passed in the city.
16:20:58 Unfortunately the onset of World War Two delayed the enactment of the legislation until 1946 smoke control is not forgotten during the intervening years they'll ever immediately after the end of the war lobbying began as a grassroots effort among citizens.
16:21:12 So related to those efforts. We have a collection of what are called the smoke control lantern slides. These are 119 images documenting the city of Pittsburgh in the 1940s and 1950s, before and after smoke control and it says we're past to regulate the
16:21:28 burning of coal views from on or above street level in downtown Pittsburgh before the smoke ordinance portray the city is being written by filth,
16:21:40 several images are confirmed have been taken in the late morning early afternoon times yet you see billowing smoking pollution, we have the impression of dusk, or even night.
16:21:51 So there's a definite stage that's been set in the middle 20th century in Pittsburgh and growing concern over the effects of industrial pollution.
16:22:02 And there really is a unified response to these conditions that are building up in the middle 20th century, and that is best reflected as part of the first Earth Day event in 1970, and the archives at Pitt, we have the records of the Environmental Action
16:22:15 Foundation, a national organization and collection in its scope, which documents the founding of the first Earth Day.
16:22:23 Now last year, April 22 2020, mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of Earth Day.
16:22:29 I had intended to give this presentation at this conference on that day last year but we all know what happened. Unfortunately, So here we are approaching the 51st anniversary.
16:22:41 The first birthday was truly a nationwide event conceptualized by Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin roughly 1500 colleges 10,000 schools all held environmental teachings.
16:22:52 Earth Day 1970 also occurred in churches and temples and city parks and in front of corporate and government buildings.
16:23:00 Though the largest crowds gathered on April 22, many institutions and community celebrated for a week, not just the day. Millions of Americans took part in one critical lasting element of the original event was that it was about Do It Yourself empowerment,
16:23:14 just as much as it was about education or protest or celebration.
16:23:20 Now to provide support the Earth Day staff forum to organizations. Environmental Action, a nonprofit political organization, and the Environmental Action foundation.
16:23:48 to serve as a resource to support the advancement of global solutions the research, education litigation and collective action.
16:23:44 These goals were achieved through funding by government agencies foundation grants and individual members members were garnered through direct mailing advertisements and telemarketing.
16:23:54 One of the most interesting elements of our collection that we've scanned and made available online is the foundations by monthly magazine called Environmental Action.
16:24:02 It promoted environmental education for additional publications, fact sheets and films. It really was a creative way to appeal to popular audiences about new issues that arose out of the New Earth Day movement,
16:24:18 the covers of the magazines alone, some of which I've shared here to a number of things as far as presenting very complex issues and more simple and sometimes entertaining terms.
16:24:26 They also introduce new ideas to the environmental dialogue like the gas guzzler or exposing lies about degradable plastics and a resource like this also shows the formation of a unified political front and agenda that can have environmental issues as
16:24:42 it centerpiece.
16:24:44 So we began to see emphasis placed on advocacy for legislation and regulation at the federal level, through things like these political and election voting guides this one on the right is from the 1984 presidential election.
16:24:57 So these records are really all about shaping what is the environmentally minded voter.
16:25:05 One of the more creative political commentaries in the magazine is called the Dirty Dozen list. This annually spotlighted 12 members of Congress who have the worst environmental records.
16:25:15 so they will put together these illustrations and identify and call out, who specifically the worst offenders and Congress were.
16:25:24 And then a chart inside grading their voting record on new vital environmental legislation that was being introduced so we see all the names listed, and the titles of the proposed legislation.
16:25:33 Below that, and the full view you'd see a full description of a legislative pieces and what their intended outcome would be.
16:25:41 And it is both interesting and disheartening to see that we have some familiar faces, who have been effectively forward and congressional action on the environment for the better part of 40 years.
16:25:56 Although in our friend on the screens defense, his score here of 17% out of a possible 100 for the year ending 1990 would actually put him a top the list, as there were many scores of zero would also note here that legislative pieces where he did receive
16:26:14 a positive environmental grade are clearly of mutual benefit to the oil industry.
16:26:19 So here's to another 40 years I suppose I can hardly wait.
16:26:26 But it's at this point in the archives we really see the dissemination of 20th century environmental movement's on the local level in Pittsburgh, one of the most famous and noteworthy is gasp, the group against smog and pollution
16:26:39 gas was founded as a nonprofit citizens group in 1969 by a group of 43 volunteers to work towards a healthy, sustainable environment.
16:26:48 The group works into the present day to improve environmental standards and the region to educational programs and a quarterly newsletter called hotline.
16:26:55 newsletter called hotline. In the 1970s gasp entered into litigation and federal district court to require Allegheny County to adopt standards based on the Clean Air Act of 1970, and the 1980s gas cooperated with the Environmental Protection Agency and
16:27:10 bringing about enforcement of air quality standards at the US Steel co production facilities, and it's clear and works.
16:27:18 The mission statement of the organization is very simple gospel act to obtain for the residents of Western Pennsylvania clean air, water and land in order to create the healthy, sustainable environment, and quality of life to which we are all entitled.
16:27:32 And as I said, the organization is still active and continues to work to educate the public on questions of pollution and its remediation.
16:27:42 And we can see here gasp and its efforts, generate headlines very early on in the Pittsburgh press representing this new information and awareness about the environment that's growing as an emergency or crisis happening in real time.
16:27:58 But aside from the kind of politics and the more abrasive actions gasp also recognize that sustainable environmental practice and reversal of certain problems was really a generational issue that would take time.
16:28:09 So they developed several items, and it broader younger audiences. A great example we have in the collections is this promotional can have clean air, made like yes.
16:28:20 So it reads that it's delicious. And is especially good for children. And then on the other side it tells you the elements you should not find within the can.
16:28:35 In other words, what should not be in the air that you breathe outside. gasp also develops educational campaigns through its mascot, dirty, dirty, the polluted birdie.
16:28:41 So there's many funny writings about why dirty is dirty is polluted and why the air in Pittsburgh has done that.
16:28:48 On the right hand side is a T shirt transfer that would have been handed out at that time.
16:28:54 Other funny things about 32. I don't have time to read the whole thing off but this is the kind of scientific data the sort of ornithological profile of dirty, if you will, you can see like its distinctive features or its soil plumage bloodshot eyes dirties
16:29:10 characteristic song call really depends on the air pollution index and so forth. So some very entertaining things that were created by gasp.
16:29:21 And one thing that is really interesting in the archives when it comes to groups like gas is that we have many collections from individuals who were involved with the larger organization.
16:29:31 One such collection is Jeanette Williams papers wisdom, was an award winning Baker from the area, who used her talents to create these cookbooks as a fundraiser for gasp
16:29:42 first glance this seems like some kind of low level bake sales but in the record, you find the amount of advertisers and sponsors they got involved with this project and the revenue generated and it really is impressive wisdoms popularity in this regard
16:30:05 And this is again something that was outside of gasps straightforward political action, trying to broaden the appeal and awareness of guests efforts creatively especially to the younger generation.
16:30:16 We also have pictured there. an original cookie cutter that was used in the campaign.
16:30:24 Another very unique collection and individual is Michelle made off made off co founded and was very first president of gasp, she simply couldn't stand the smog in Pittsburgh as a greatly affected her asthma, after she moved here in 1961.
16:30:38 So that's what moved her to action. She had a very unique inactive career, and she's also elected to Pittsburgh City Council in 1978, to which she successfully campaign for reelection.
16:30:50 And as cliche as it sounds a picture really does say 1000 words here on the right, you can see her staging a campaign event.
16:30:57 And we see a diverse group of women literally cleaning city council with brooms one of her primary campaign platforms was incorporating Environmental Action into city and community politics, but she also campaigned on greater minority representation in
16:31:10 city council. So they're literally saying here that they're going to politically clean up city council and literally cleanup pollution from City Council and the city as a whole.
16:31:23 And as an added bonus from the collection on the side we see Michelle made off with Joe Biden circa 1979.
16:31:30 And we have as I've listed many other collections of individuals which in their work in life or involved with environmental work environmental activism, etc.
16:31:39 One thing that is evident just from that listening, is that there are a lot of women involved with this type of work, but a lot of these women we can see in our records are also members of women's organizations like now the national organization of women
16:31:51 to which we also have a regional collection.
16:31:55 Women's activism and leadership is unique, it has its own unique approach emphasis and tactics, and that's the connection that we're really trying to make between these groups like gasp and now.
16:32:07 So it's up to the researcher to draw their own conclusions but we really feel like the creative focus on the younger generation, the ability to better connect racial and ethnic groups is unique to women's history.
16:32:17 And it's something that from the grassroots is successful, all the way up the chain when we talk about changes in government policy, etc.
16:32:26 greenpeace.org captures this connection and a statement, as part of their gender day activities, quote, women play a key role in response to climate change thanks to our knowledge of and leadership in sustainable resource management and leading sustainable
16:32:42 practices at a community level, women's participation at a political level has resulted in greater responsiveness to citizens needs, often increasing cooperation across party and ethnic lines and delivering a more sustainable peace feminism and environmentalism
16:32:58 go hand in hand. Together, they provide a way out of the current global crisis of climate change.
16:33:08 And in our archives we see the growth of issues and community based groups, these groups grow up around specific environmental concerns in certain areas.
16:33:17 But in the records we see the melding of social justice and environmental awareness the beginnings, if you will, of defining what is quote unquote, environmental justice.
16:33:26 One example from this list I can briefly point to is the Ohio River Basin Environmental Council.
16:33:33 So they formed to bring awareness to the environmental consequences of industrialization on Neville Island, which is on the Ohio River west of Pittsburgh.
16:33:41 And they sought to end the approval process that would allow the cosmos cement company to burn hazardous waste as fuel and the cement killing on Neville Island, they ultimately got that hazardous waste burning band on that site in 2001.
16:33:55 But in that collection. On the right we see information that's being collected by the Council, and then weaved into their own localized work.
16:34:03 This is a more national study that's talking about the discovery that industry, business and government are actively researching which groups will provide the quote least resistance to the development of sites and facilities to college pollution.
16:34:17 So this is all about identifying groups and communities to victimize so that hazardous waste sites can be placed at quote politically ideal locations, rather than quote environmentally ideal locations.
16:34:31 And at the bottom. These realizations are so new at the time.
16:34:35 And we're so new for some people, that clearly race is an issue here that did not appear on the original list. So while in certain communities. This is a long standing issue that everyone is well aware of the ideas and dialogue, and many groups, and the
16:34:50 larger environmental movement are just beginning to form,
16:34:57 and a few other smaller concepts we have represented here one is from a group called environmentalists for full employment. This was the mid 20th century movement, it was all about conversion from wartime and defense industry production and the pollution
16:35:08 that it created into new concepts of clean energy.
16:35:12 A lot of the material we see here is geared towards reaching out the laborers who work in defense industries to educate them about clean energy.
16:35:20 And the fact that there is something on the other side in terms of employment.
16:35:23 We see the same discourse in the world today, when we're talking about providing workers with a green job in their industry, if its size down or close think about the Keystone XL pipeline etc.
16:35:35 And even something so simple was food, people familiar with Pittsburgh probably recognize this place. One of my favorite spots the East End food Co Op.
16:35:43 We actually have a small collection to documents the founding of the co op.
16:35:47 And it's in the founding documents, we can see the attempt to bring the environmental impact of food to the forefront.
16:35:53 So environmental impact is considered in product selection, and it also forms a large creative part of the CO ops work in terms of the community education that they provide until the present day.
16:36:09 And we also see the larger development of the statewide networks and collections, like the Sierra Club Pennsylvania chapter records, we see the larger issues brought forth by the national organization, and how those replied on the local level.
16:36:23 And this is something that can be compared and contrasted, an organization like the Sierra Club and Environmental Action both become focused on national political action.
16:36:32 But what tactics do they each employee, and how effective or they groups like the Pennsylvania Environmental Council represent attempts to centralize and coordinate efforts amongst local organizations, we see a variety of different newsletters and publications
16:36:46 that circulate here like the Pennsylvania, environmental network newsletter.
16:36:50 There are seemingly so many different acronyms and different groups that spring up over the course of 50 years and so many activists and movers and shakers that become linked up in these different groups that it really is incredible to see and famously
16:37:04 the Sierra Club had to confront its own history, a progressive organization now, but their founder was exposed as an out and out racist. What that demonstrates to me is what we're touching on in this history as it evolves in the records.
16:37:18 As we shape. What does environmental quote unquote justice actually look like it's not a foregone conclusion. Environmental ism, and Environmental Action.
16:37:28 Do not automatically fit into a definable category of social, economic or political justice.
16:37:36 Rather, it takes the work that these individuals and groups do that builds and shapes these narratives and makes those connections, and there is of course progression and regression along the way.
16:37:50 And finally, as we move beyond the smoky city of Pittsburgh once was, we have archives of groups like the nine mile run Greenway project, and the Three Rivers second nature project that attempted to shape what the next step was going to be really it's
16:38:03 focused on how green redevelopment would look in the area.
16:38:07 A lot of this work has to do with brownfield redevelopment brownfields are by definition property, the expansion redevelopment or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance pollutant or contaminant.
16:38:23 So contaminated area, basically, the nine mile run Greenway project was a brownfield reclamation project conducted between 1995 and 2000. The project was created and coordinated by a group at Carnegie Mellon University studio for creative inquiry, the
16:38:38 records contain material, the documents the nine mile run area around the Managua halal river towards homestead in Pittsburgh, and the transformation from a brownfield site to a usable urban space.
16:38:50 That includes both housing and natural environments.
16:38:53 They published ample opportunity guides like we see in the middle.
16:38:57 These guides are these documented rather workshops that included panel discussions by experts in specific areas such as history, public policy stream remediation ecology and brownfields, the public was invited to attend these discussions which were followed
16:39:11 by opportunities for small group discussions and gathering of information from attendees, this interaction facilitated the collection of oral histories, documents, and other things related to the historical usage of the nine mile run watershed region.
16:39:27 In 1997, the urban redevelopment authority of the city of Pittsburgh acquire the site from Duquesne slag a subsequent owner and propose to build 1200 residential housing units and develop 100 acres of public space sites entire surface area was projected
16:39:43 to be surrounded by a contiguous public space along the stream from Frick park to the Minorca Hill River.
16:39:51 This 238 acre acquisition was the largest in the history of the urban Redevelopment Authority and the project included the largest stream remediation.
16:40:00 I'm sorry stream restoration in the United States by the US Army Corps of Engineers.
16:40:07 So the records really reflect that the redevelopment of the nine mile run area was a collaborative effort between artists, scientists, engineers historians and planners to develop a transferable model for use, and reclaiming other brownfield sites.
16:40:25 its successor project created by the same individuals at Carnegie Mellon called the Three Rivers second nature project built upon that work by creating a green infrastructure, analysis, identifying opportunities for ecological restoration and really understanding
16:40:39 the history and basis for cultural restoration.
16:40:43 That came down to incorporating a lot of public dialogue, doing simple outreach like these river dialogues, looking at how people use the natural spaces and what are the barriers to people making better use of the space.
16:40:57 Both researchers and participants were able to establish understanding about the current status of waterways, including how polluted they were and what was causing it.
16:41:06 Also how the rivers were being used and how the rivers were affecting the surrounding natural environment.
16:41:12 The next step was to see what possible steps could be taken to mitigate or even reverse the detrimental effects of human action, and to open up dialogue on revitalizing the waterways for recreational use.
16:41:25 And it is of course incumbent upon archivists to be informed about what the future of these ideas and these movements, is going to be, what will be the information now that will better inform the next generation of researcher, and we feel that we see
16:41:40 that in a few different areas. One is the Hazelwood green site development.
16:41:45 This is on the former Jones and Laughlin LTV steel mill property in Hazelwood Hazelwood is a neighborhood in Pittsburgh bordered on itself and west by the Managua halal river, and looking at the story that I've linked there below there have already been
16:41:59 some 20 years of plans and documentation come and gone about this ongoing project, and its various hurdles that we will most likely seek to collect and document.
16:42:12 The plan includes thousands of housing units light manufacturing offices and research and development space connected to both, both the Managua halal river and Hazelwood Second Avenue business district estimates range up the $1 billion for the entire
16:42:25 178 acres sites total build out.
16:42:29 And this is all with Riverfront trails and green spaces the centerpieces, and the plan, the advertising is that this will become the number one Brownfield reclamation site in the world, a model for all others, so we'll see what happens.
16:42:46 And we also see groups like the environmental justice exchange, this is run through New Voices for Reproductive Justice Pittsburgh. And it's a community based program for environmental organizations and social justice organizations led by people of color.
16:43:02 And the stated goal here is to promote environmental justice through community organizing and policy advocacy.
16:43:08 So in the advertising that I borrowed from their website. We really see this justice narrative that's been building coming around full circle.
16:43:16 The idea that environmental justice needs diverse leadership, and that it's not exclusive from other movements for social justice, equity, etc. The two are and very well should be connected, and even our current time as we grapple with climate change
16:43:32 as a quote unquote justice issue groups are working to shape what that justice looks like. If helpful resources are being halted by certain groups, if new regulation, put in place as a disparate impact on a certain racial group etc.
16:43:47 Then ask yourself the question, are we achieving environmental justice.
16:43:53 And in closing, as we approach the anniversary of birthday. I did come across the quote on a website, which I really could not restate better myself.
16:44:03 And it really makes you think about where archivists might come in here.
16:44:09 Unfortunately, Earth Day itself is no longer a force for empowerment in many communities, Earth Day has become a green trade fair or a corporate sponsored celebration for kids.
16:44:20 But the story of how the first Earth Day was organized still might inspire environmentalists, to think more creatively about how to build a more powerful movement.
16:44:31 Thank you very much and David I will pass it back to you.
16:44:35 thank you john that was terrific.
16:44:38 It's good to hear about about these activities in these organizations. So, thank you.
16:44:46 Our next presenter is Elizabeth Parker.
16:44:50 Liz is the technical services archivist at the keel center for for labor management and documentation and archives at Cornell University.
16:45:01 Prior to her current position. Liz was the rare road collections project archivists at the keel center. But before coming to Cornell, she worked for four years at the New York Public Library, as an associate archivist for the Puerto Rican community archives.
16:45:17 In addition to her work at excess shunning arranging and describing the kill centers collections list serves and a number of committees around Cornell, that aim to improve and make more accessible, equitable descriptive metadata and subject headings and
16:45:41 to help clarify Content Collection policies for the digital portal. Today, Liz.
16:45:42 Liz his presentation is going to focus on collections held by the keel center that document labor organizing protest strikes and uprising. Liz, the floor is yours.
16:45:55 Thank you. Thank you. moms let me go ahead and share my screen.
16:46:18 Okay.
16:46:20 So, as David very kindly said, I will be discussing
16:46:26 labor labor archives and urban uprisings and some of the collections that we have at Keele that deal with these subjects.
16:46:35 Before I get started on my presentation though I did want to say to give a bland acknowledgement to say that Cornell University is located on the traditional homelands of the guy guy oh whoa whoa No, the coordination.
16:46:50 The guy oh no are members of the how to how demo Sony confederacy and alliance of six sovereign nations with a historic and contemporary presence on this land, the Confederacy predates the establishment of Cornell University, New York State, and the United
16:47:04 States of America.
16:47:06 We want to I want to take this moment to acknowledge the painful history of the guy who go whoa no dispossession and honor the ongoing connection of the guy over 100 people, past and present to their lands and waters.
16:47:20 But this is particularly germane just because I Cornell University is somewhat unique in that it is both a endowed school but it also has a variety of colleges on it that are called statutory schools, and there's their land grant schools, and the land
16:47:40 that was granted to Cornell to form these schools, including the ILR School, which is where the kill Center is located the industrial labor relations school was founded with land granted to them that had been stolen from the congregation.
16:47:58 So, while the land grant
16:48:01 charged and allowed a lot of wonderful things to be done by Cornell.
16:48:06 It also needs to be acknowledged that it only exists because of an act of violence in discussion
16:48:15 and start up to stay on the, I guess, somewhat download is this was a slide I inserted into this presentation last May.
16:48:29 And I did so because my colleagues at Cornell organized a zoom webinar where those of us who have lost our opportunities to present because the global can't pandemic would be able to share our work with our colleagues.
16:48:41 When I was updating this presentation last week, or a couple weeks ago I decided to leave this slide in both as an acknowledgement of the past year.
16:48:50 And as a reminder, how far we might have come but how far we still have to go and then waking up this morning, I have to say that this is dumb dumb is even more relevant after yesterday's events in Minneapolis.
16:49:05 So I'd like to just take a moment of to say that black lives matter to say his name Dante right and to ask for a moment of silence for another life lost.
16:49:20 Thank you.
16:49:23 So I'm going to pivot now to discussing some of the various collections, we Akil house that address different forms of protest and uprising that are all connected to the labor movement on this is going to be sort of a top level discussion of a bunch of
16:49:42 This is going to be sort of a top level discussion of a bunch of different collections and, because as you might imagine, the majority of our labor files collections and records have some element of protest.
16:49:57 And a lot of them are and the majority of them are urban focused protest.
16:50:03 Unfortunately, we do not have as many collections in say rural organizing amongst farmworkers as some other archives nights.
16:50:13 So one of the first things I wanted to call attention to was the collection of a local 1199 which is the National Union of hospital and healthcare employees, and my colleagues even Calico last spring, put up an exhibit called all Labor has dignity, Martin.
16:50:31 Martin Luther King Jr. and the labor movements and amongst our collections, we have a video of Dr. King's last appearance in New York City, which was at Hunter College, and it was part of an event ads promote the poor people's campaign.
16:50:52 And it was during this period that his connection will not during this period but his connection to 1199 was made manifest. And it was carried on after his assassination by his widow Coretta Scott King.
16:51:09 I'm not going to link over to it but a subtitled version of the digitized version of the film is located at this link on the Cornell library websites.
16:51:23 We powers, the local 1199 photograph files the date from 1866 to 1992.
16:51:33 And this again ties into dr king's work, which was in this instance supporting 3000 Hospital workers at seven New York City hospitals including Mount Sinai and Beth Israel.
16:51:53 It was a successful 46 day strike, and then results in. As you can see, 40 Hour Work Week overtime pay grievance filing. And eventually, they were able to receive union recognition in 1962, after 56 day walk out of Brookdale hospital.
16:52:08 What is also wonderful about this collection is we Akil just received a second major donation from local 1199 of their photograph files for their newsletter essentially their newsletter more files from the late 80s so there's some overlap with this collection,
16:52:30 all the way forward to 2018.
16:52:34 The majority of them are actually did it's more it's well it's about a 5050 Digital a session and photograph. Physical photograph and negative donation, but having just started to process that there will be some very interesting.
16:52:54 It will be it will greatly enhance our documentation of various urban strikes and protests over the working New Yorker, specifically those who work in the healthcare industry.
16:53:09 Um, Another thing that keel is very well known for it our collections from the ILGWU. That's the international ladies garment workers union.
16:53:20 And I've linked out on these on these slides, a to a couple of our biggest urban protests that are documented in these collections, and specifically the triangle factory fire.
16:53:46 Let me see if this will let me do this. As I jumped over to the website or am I still ship. It has a website. Perfect. Okay, lovely sorry, um, so as you can see here this is an extensive documentation of the materials given by LGWU to the keel center
16:54:04 to allow for documenting and remembering.
16:54:06 Both the working conditions that the Shirtwaist Factory employees worked under the majority of whom were young women generally immigrants.
16:54:19 and also the fire that claims.
16:54:26 The majority of their lives because of the over cramped conditions, and the lack of any form of safety. I'm not going to click onto these images because some of them are a bit graphic, but it is our way of presenting a very early, and very tragic moment
16:54:49 of the American labor history, but then also the protests that arose out of it.
16:54:59 For people to start striking.
16:55:01 And to demand better working conditions, and also to demand such things as fire escapes and fire doors that worked. because one, a building in southern Manhattan.
16:55:13 That was filled with cotton went up in smoke went up in fire, it went up very very quickly.
16:55:24 Um, and then sort of on the other end of
16:55:29 well on the other end of the 20th century, I guess you could say.
16:55:33 But geographically very close. We also how's the collections of the Chinatown strikes and struggles in the early 80s, which was very specific about the
16:55:48 conditions under which Chinese workers and contractors and Chinese American immigrant workers are laboring under for various clothing companies, and also the rise of sweatshops once again in southern Manhattan.
16:56:06 And what's interesting about that specific group is that may Chen, one of the organizers of the Chinatown strikes and protests recently as I think last month donated an additional just mailed us three more cartons of materials from her time there so I'm
16:56:30 very much looking forward to being able to document her work organizing.
16:56:30 Um, I wanted to just quickly touch on a couple of other collections of interest but I also want to be cognizant of my time, so I won't go as into detail, but we do have the teachers union of the city of New York Records, which includes documentation on
16:56:48 academic free to freedom protests that were in response to the red scares, and red baiting, and some very interesting work on how unions tried to fight back against the McCarthy McCarthyism.
16:57:05 The Kansas City Southern railways company 1933 strike is a scrapbook created by a railway company employee that just documents their experience during during the strike.
16:57:22 And we also have some interesting files of the here organizing in Las Vegas to document strikes at various casinos and hotels.
16:57:35 Mary Jane Barry's local Air Transport division document the stewardesses of Eastern Airlines, joining into joining a strike with alpha, the American or the airline pilot Association, in support of the machinists union against Frank Lorenzo, and Eastern
16:57:55 Airlines in Florida, and what is particularly interesting about this collection is both the extensive documentation of the strike, which was sadly unsuccessful.
16:58:13 And did basically result in the. The end of Eastern Airlines.
16:58:16 But additionally, it includes a lot of documentation about how the stewardess is perhaps had the most successful at perform some of the most successful actions of these strikes, but we're never brought to the table by the pilots, or by the machinists
16:58:34 because they were seeing as frivolous because they were women, predominantly and stewardesses comments the positive side, just to mention other things that are to be found in labor collections that sometimes you wouldn't think of TWSTW collection also
16:58:51 extensively documents. The early age crisis, because it very much impacted stewards and stewardesses for flight attendants.
16:59:00 Sorry I'm looking at the 80s terminology. And additionally, it documents, the failed attempt of New York businessman Donald Trump to open luxury lounges in Florida airports.
16:59:16 And then finally, our jobs with justice audio visual materials is a is 18 cubic feet of video tape, documenting a variety of different actions that job with justice has been involved with over the years, but some of the big ones would be the IMF protests
16:59:34 in Seattle and the early 2000s justice for janitors in the 80s and Communication Workers strike actions, and this is an interesting collection because it includes both
16:59:48 union produced and jobs with justice produced materials but it's also includes extensive documentation of local news coverage of various urban actions and protests.
17:00:03 to get a bit more into detail unfortunately I think this I must apologize for the quality of the the photographs attached to this slide, they were made made them for myself personally and they're a little blurry but this is an account of the Pullman strike
17:00:18 of 1894 which was one of the foundational labor actions that occurred in this country.
17:00:27 And what's very interesting about it is this is the management perspective, we do not have as many of these in our collections.
17:00:36 We have a huge number of labor collections and perspectives from both the rank and file on sort of the organizing unions, but we have much fewer
17:00:51 perspectives from the management side and how, how they were approaching some of these protests, and so the ones that we do have a very interesting, and I do love reading the second paragraph of this, where the American railway union is referred to as
17:01:09 seditious, and then the Isley included the first page of the initial letter in this report but the investigator goes on for about six pages about what a reprobate Eugene Debs is and calls him just about every awful name in the book before going into the
17:01:29 horrific conditions that Pullman workers were forced to endure before they finally started there Wildcat strike in the summer of 8094.
17:01:44 On the other side of the railroad industry, my colleague Stephen Calico and I who I mentioned earlier had done the Labor has dignity, he and I collaborated last February February 2020 to create an exhibit, which we call the other side of the tracks discrimination
17:02:00 and social ability and the railroad industry, which we wanted to document how the labor industry was so and specifically the railroad labor, organizing, was so was instrumental in helping various groups, gain social mobility but also how inherited prejudices,
17:02:22 and white supremacy and structural racism actively stop that from happening. And we came at this from two sides. So one wants to really focus on the work of a Philip brand off who I hope people know the name from his work with Dr.
17:02:42 King on the March on Washington but he was also the president of the Brotherhood, a sleeping Car Porters, which were the, the union that represented the black men and women who worked predominantly on pulling cars to, as, as maids as cleaners as porters.
17:03:06 But it was a.
17:03:18 We felt we wanted to on the one hand really highlights and show the uplifting and positive aspects that these protests and actions.
17:03:31 Both how they were presented and how they were received by the community.
17:03:35 We also had to deal with the flip side, which is
17:03:44 how to present the incidences of racial terror, because in our collections. We also have extensive documentation of a series of three waves of racialized violence against black train men, and specifically trained men brakeman and firemen three different
17:04:04 roles on a railroad, who were actively being murdered by their white colleagues in the 1920s and 30s.
17:04:15 And what we eventually came up with was to say their names. So this is a photograph of a black fireman leaning out watching the clearance of the cars going around the corner.
17:04:26 This is actually in Chicago, it's not down in
17:04:32 these events mostly took place around Memphis.
17:04:36 But we included their names and the brief statement that was included in the internal company documentation of their deaths
17:04:48 pivoting to another collection that we have at kill is the immigrant workers Freedom Ride memorabilia and this one was is an interesting collection, because in addition to presenting how this action, which took place over the summer of 2003.
17:05:12 It also really brought to the fore the ways in which we describe our collections and how problematic that can be, this is a collection that deals with documented and undocumented workers who are fighting for their rights, but if we were to use the LCS
17:05:31 ah subject heading.
17:05:34 subject heading. It would have there, it would be listed as illegal aliens which is a which is problematic on numerous levels.
17:05:44 And so this was a collection that actually.
17:05:47 I ended up using local subject headings vocabulary to enter it into our catalog, as, as, undocumented immigrants.
17:05:57 And it is one of the collections that we used as an example, in some work I did with fellow Technical Services librarians, where we have used our internal tools and internal catalog tools to at least for within our catalog.
17:06:16 Remove the use of illegal aliens and replace it with undocumented immigrants, it is a band aid for a much, much bigger problem but it is something that we are trying to address, as we can.
17:06:31 And then, finally, to move forward one of the best ways we've discovered, or not discovered one of the best ways, I think, and I think a lot of people would agree that going forward is to document urban protest movements and organizing is to take advantage
17:06:50 of web archiving. We currently have four active web archiving collections. Each of these will link out to the difference.
17:07:03 The state of collections. And as you can see, they documents, a couple of very specific areas.
17:07:10 The, the first one was our general
17:07:15 documenting unions, essentially, and some other worker centers and non union but sort of all labor organizations, and the actions they take to advance workers rights killers also home to what was formerly the American textile history museums collections.
17:07:36 And so our curator of that collection has created a textile and garment industry his collection to document what is going on with the textile industry both in the States and abroad,
17:07:52 obviously working coven 19 was very a very specific response to the global pandemic.
17:07:59 And then, interestingly at be out of a discussion that was actually started based on the a version of this presentation I gave internally to Cornell last year, we started talking about what is a police union or what is a Police Association and what are
17:08:15 the differences there.
17:08:17 And so we now have a this was this collection was just launched launched in February of 2021, and we just worked out. Actually we're still working on getting all of the Met descriptive metadata that documents, a selection of websites for both police build
17:08:46 apple and associations unions and also police groups that are focused on
17:08:48 people of color, I'm working as police officers.
17:08:54 Working as police officers. Um, and then finally, I just wanted to end on this image of the Memphis sanitation workers strike which was yr dr king was working during his last
17:09:08 right before he was assassinated and a picture that I actually received from a GoFundMe I supported last spring of the New England, the New England for the New Orleans sanitation workers who were.
17:09:24 Sadly, unsuccessfully striking for protections from coded last summer.
17:09:30 That included some links to some ethical archiving resources, and thank you very much, and I look forward to answering any questions you all might have.
17:09:41 Thank you, Liz.
17:09:45 At this time I'd like to open up the floor for anyone that would like to put questions in the q amp a. I know that I already have one in here that's for john.
17:09:55 So john would you would all of our participants, put their cameras back on and so john we have a question for you and that is.
17:10:05 Are there many materials in your collection that explore the correlation between environmental justice and industrialization and plant closers or correspondence between organized labor and environmental justice activists.
17:10:19 Oh yeah, I'm really.
17:10:23 I didn't want to dive too deep into labor history here I know that was Liz's business and she did a very good job with it.
17:10:31 But one thing I did kind of gloss over in the records that I felt was unique just visually was that group. Environmentalists for full employment, that was a group based out of DC and the records we have are small and more informational but it's all the
17:10:44 different resources that were out there about, you know, really reaching out to people working at, you know, these plants and saying that look there can actually be industries built up around wind and solar and just kind of some funny illustrations and
17:10:59 so forth like I quickly had it up there but there was a wind turbine and it said the wind goes this way so kind of tongue in cheek there but really, that kind of new form of industrial education.
17:11:12 One other collection I know is from Charles Macalester.
17:11:17 He is a historian, and he was a specialized in kind of industrial and labor relations, and that collection is all about deindustrialization in Pittsburgh and kind of the environmental impact so you do see that kind of back and forth between those two
17:11:36 different spheres certainly some correspondence and what have you and even kind of broadening that into other collections. Some of the individuals I talked about like Michelle made off.
17:11:49 I mean I only had so much time here I think the image I had up there made off was her standing in front of a steel foundry with smoke billowing out giving the thumbs down, and her career in Pittsburgh City Council for instance, she was very active in
17:12:02 trying to keep steel jobs in Pittsburgh and she advocated for steel workers rights, so it's not like this is just, you know, trying to abolish industry and Pittsburgh and all pollution is bad rather someone like her is trying to say look, there should
17:12:15 be this new kind of balance between the needs of the labor, and the needs of all people in, in the region or anywhere you know in terms of the environment the air quality and so forth.
17:12:27 So certainly a lot of stuff like that, no doubt, thank you, thank you john Chris we have a question for you.
17:12:35 And that is are you going after faculty that use urban activism collections. And do you have any outreach strategies you'd like to share.
17:12:47 We do work very closely with faculty members, particularly those who teach in history sociology and so on.
17:12:56 We're working very closely with them we share our collections and pay very closely with their research interests, we do have quite a few activist faculty members and we do what we can to serve their interests, find out what their interests are and serve
17:13:16 them. Thank you, Chris, thank you.
17:13:18 Please, if anyone please type in other questions here we've got plenty of time, Liz, if you don't mind, I have a question I'd like to ask you.
17:13:29 You know, I, one of the things I really liked about all of these presentations, was the fact that all of you brought it to today. Something to do with your subject area yours, of activism to current times, at least one of the things that I've often thought
17:13:50 about because you know we've got a pretty hefty labor collection here as well but one of the things that is of interest to me as we continue to hear how union membership in particular continues to go down in the US.
17:14:06 And I'm wondering if you could like maybe just sort of, maybe put some that into some framework of how that has affected sort of the ways in which union activism is happening today in this country.
17:14:21 And if you don't know the answer or don't want to take a stab at it. Please don't.
17:14:29 But I just, I just asked for your opinion as well actually union membership has started going up for the first time over the last, I want to say two years I'd have to double check.
17:14:37 But yes, there has been a lot of very extensive work by organizers to push back against that, that basically a 40 year decline.
17:14:49 I'm not a labor historian, so this is going to get a little bit outside of my area of expertise. But the reality is that in addition to traditional labor organizing which as I said is actually becoming a lot more is really gaining popularity is there
17:15:06 are a lot of sort of what are called all labor I know love that terminology. And so jobs with justice is an example of an organization like that they are not a traditional union but they advocate for and work with organizers to protect workers rights.
17:15:26 And one of the, one of the tricky things I guess about archiving that organizing or tracking and working with that organizing, is that a lot of it, especially given digital publishing and the use of social media, makes it a lot more ephemeral and sometimes
17:15:46 harder to capture. Another great example would be say the Wildcat strikes at the teachers in the southwest for doing today.
17:16:00 Time is, you know, not a thing anymore so I'm not sure but I think it was 29th.
17:16:02 Um, so, but a lot of the organizing was done in closed Facebook groups, for example, so it becomes a question of how do we establish and document. These new types of organizing while still also documenting more traditional organizing.
17:16:17 But, which is perhaps using non traditional publishing methods. So, a couple of colleagues and I at cathode which is the overall library that kills part of have been working on a great lit review of labor and organizing publishing and the ways in which
17:16:32 we can better document, all of the different ways in which that those strategies are seeing fruition and also the maybe reestablishing ties with older unions that are moving into digital publishing spears.
17:16:53 I hope that answers your question I kind of rambled for but no you absolutely did thank you for that I really appreciate that that was a question that I really was very much on my mind for for a while.
17:17:02 And clearly, you know, the teachers union activity in West Virginia has been incredible in the last couple of years. So, Thank you, you know, that's just down the street for from us here in Pittsburgh so yeah and I mean, to your point also the, the original
17:17:18 Pullman strike was a Wildcat strike it was not approved it was the worker saying, you know what we're not doing this anymore.
17:17:25 And I will also say, speaking of West Virginia, the coal miners and the blockading of coal trains until management comes down to talk to them is starting to be a thing again, which I think is great.
17:17:41 Thank you. Thank you.
17:17:43 Please, we've got plenty of time folks that I know that some of you have questions, please, please ask them for our panelists, did a great job. That's for sure.
17:17:54 You know, I just think about sort of these topics.
17:18:00 Campus activism environmentalism environmental justice and, and labor movements and activism. They are so important for us today and absolutely on the cutting edge of what what's going on in the news today and so very important issues so I'm sure some
17:18:23 of you else. Some have questions for us, or what losers presentation, it's amazing really how often arguments are called to further the cause of justice for example, in my case, there is an alumni of ours named Ralph Featherstone, and the story that I'm
17:18:40 going to tell is very similar to the death of Fred Hampton up in Chicago.
17:18:45 Well, Ralph Featherstone was a snake activist and very end when snake became increasingly radicalized and there was a trial MH Ralph brown up in Maryland 1978, Ralph Featherstone was killed in a car bombing incident.
17:19:05 And it was never really positively proved who or what caused some bombing Hoover's FBI and the time some of these people were either
17:19:18 embittered rebels revolutionaries and we're transforming explosives whereas the forensic evidence of the time really caused a lot of that to be in doubt.
17:19:26 So, become a number, and still working the same with others to see what we can do to finally bring some closure to that particular case after over 50 years now, I guess.
17:19:41 Thank you. Thank you.
17:19:45 Well, we only have 10 minutes left so we probably can close out I just, again, thank you all. Oh wait, we've got a good question here. Yay, advocating for social justice can be very emotional.
17:19:57 So how do you reconcile emotion, with academia.
17:20:03 I think any of it, anybody can answer that right.
17:20:06 That's true.
17:20:10 I think it's true that it's emotional and these are highly emotional issues, you pretty much have to keep in mind what wonder what is meant by social justice, you're seeking basically equal opportunities for people, no matter what the social status win
17:20:32 race or gender identity might be, and you're trying to look at them both subjectively and also considering what this means on a personal level as well, to a balanced approach and home balanced and holistic approach to social justice issues, it's important.
17:20:57 With any.
17:20:59 Yeah, my short answer is I don't I do get very emotional talking about and dealing with these things, and I think there's a conversation to be had about the ways in which emotion being described as a bad thing is a form of tone policing and another way
17:21:16 of exclusion of people who are not don't fit a very specific version of what white male says gendered professional behavior is considered because quite frankly, seeing these things should make you angry, it should make you emotional, it should be deeply
17:21:33 upsetting.
17:21:35 I think the trick is more how do you balance those very human reactions. With presenting your collections in a way that allows them to reach the communities that that would, you know, most benefit from having them, and hopefully gain advocate for funding
17:21:57 to better document these activities and finally understand that sometimes going through this stuff can be very emotionally hard and that you need to take some time for self care and maybe step away if you're dealing with a particularly traumatic group
17:22:13 of records, thank you this. Thank you. This we have a question for you, that just came in as well. It says how have you thought about quote unquote documenting the now approach in relation to the labor movement that is currently what at least our web
17:22:33 archiving program is striving to do.
17:22:36 So as I said why the textile industry collection was created by Marcy Farwell, who's our new curator of textile of the textile industry collections.
17:22:50 And we are also looking into the farmers protests and strikes in India, because I was such a major movement, especially in regard to sort of nationalism and the Hindu majority and everything that God is doing and.
17:23:05 And so we do try and be as responsive to document as the now as much as we can but that being said, even though, you know, we're at Cornell we're still, there are five of us, and so it's it's always a balance between what what our capabilities.
17:23:25 And what we can capture in any given moment.
17:23:29 Thank you for that. Appreciate it.
17:23:34 Well, I think you all have done an amazing job. Thank you so much for joining us and and giving your, your perspective on your collections and and your institutions.
17:23:48 You guys do an amazing job and, and I can't thank you enough for for participating in in our session today.
17:23:55 As we close out here just want to remind you that we do have a sponsor so sponsorship is important to us, it may rack. And so, please, please thank our friends and scan wide, and please go to their website if you are looking for a new vendor related to