Tell Your Story

The Black Archives encourages individuals and families from black South Florida to tell their story first-hand as to the impact racial segregation had on their lives and the lessons learned during the Jim Crow Era (1896 Plessy v. Ferguson) to the passage of the Civil Rights Legislation beginning in 1964, through such means as oral histories and written narratives, or by donating a collection.

What goes into a Collection?

Collections may be big or small. Our smallest collections are a single folder in size; our largest collection stretches 35 feet if you place all the documents in the collection front to back. Collections can be made up of a single type of material, such as letters or yearbooks, or several types of material. Examples of types of materials commonly found in archival collections include: scrapbooks, yearbooks, correspondence, event programs and invitations, high school graduation ephemera, obituaries and other papers and photographs. Basically, any record (including photographs), collected during the course of your life, can go into a collection.

Donating an Archival Collection

Here are some useful links describing how to donate a collection:

• Starting a Collection at The Black Archives
• A Guide to Donating Your Personal or Family Papers to a Repository
• A Guide to Donating Your Organizational Records to a Repository
• A Guide to Deeds of Gift

To donate an oral history, written narrative or collection to The Black Archives, contact archivist@theblackarchives[dot]org.