The Battle for History in The Magic City: Historically Generated Contexts and The Rise of Pluralistic Collecting Institutions in Birmingham, Alabama

Hirschy, Jeff

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/108752 Copy

Description

Title

The Battle for History in The Magic City: Historically Generated Contexts and The Rise of Pluralistic Collecting Institutions in Birmingham, Alabama

Author(s)

Hirschy, Jeff

Issue Date

2020-10-13

Keyword(s)

• Research
• Education
• Social justice
• Civil rights
• History
• Libraries
• Community archives
• Community engagement

Abstract

Across the American South, collecting institutions created by city and state governments and private organizations, preserve and communicate complex local, personal, and regional histories. Each of these institutions, for different reasons, influenced by their particular set of historically generated contexts, emerged to preserve and present this information to their communities. In addition to their individual contexts, each institution has various organizational and community elements, for example mission statements or community support and interest, that helps to drive their relationships with their communities. Throughout the South, these historically generated contexts and institutional elements DO inform how memory institutions interact with their communities and researchers. In Birmingham, Alabama there are many collecting institutions that manage the history, narratives, and stories of that city. Two of the main ones, especially when it comes to the Birmingham Civil Rights Movement, that movement’s aftermath, engagement with their community, and Birmingham’s relationship with social justice, are the Birmingham Public Library Department of Archives and Manuscripts (BPLDAM) and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (BCRI). The goals of each institution revolve around telling the complete story of the history of Birmingham and the Birmingham Civil Rights Movement. This means not falling back on a master narrative like that of Jim Crow and white supremacy but moving towards the goals of a pluralistic historical narrative, pluralistic culture and society, and pluralistic collecting institutions.

Series/Report Name or Number

• Knowledge Management
• Records and Information Management
• Archival Arrangement and Description
• Information Seeking
• Information Use
• Intellectual Freedom Community Engagement
• Archives

Type of Resource

text

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/108752

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