The San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum (SAAACAM) has launched a multi-year project alongside its project partner, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C.
San Antonio will be the seventh city visited by the museum’s Community Curation Project, a list that includes Baltimore, Chicago, Denver, Nashville, New Orleans and St. Louis. In each city, representatives of the Smithsonian project work with local groups to digitally archive family photos, films and videos, oral histories and genealogies that are gathered in an online archive accessible to anyone with an internet connection.
San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg was on hand to greet the gathering celebrating the launch last Saturday at St. Philip’s College.
In his introductory comments, Nirenberg praised the project for the depth and reach of its research and preservation, “because the history of our country is locked within the families that share it, and we’ve got to get those families to share their history and preserve it for generations to come.”
Community leaders
During a round of introductions that included all 40 community members present, several announced themselves as alumni of historically Black colleges and universities, like St. Philip’s, and maintained membership in their fraternities and sororities.
SAAACAM had invited prominent members of San Antonio’s Black community to participate in the discussion and workshop to contribute ideas on how to best facilitate this local version of the Smithsonian’s national project.
Among those present were attorney Doris White, Bexar County Court at Law 12 Judge Yolanda Huff, Reverend James Amerson of St. Paul United Methodist Church, community activist Nettie Hinton, dance artist Tanesha Payne, and Charles Gentry of the City of San Antonio’s Office of Historic Preservation.
During introductions, DreamWeek founder Shokare Nakpodia referred to the archiving of Black community histories in San Antonio as “celebrating African American genius.”
A non-extractive process
The family research facet of the Community Curation Project is essentially an extension of work already done on the second floor of the museum in Washington, said Doretha Williams, project facilitator and director of the Smith Center for the Digitization and Curation of African American History.
“The second floor is our Family History Center where people can sign up to have one of our genealogy reference assistants help them with their family history search,” Williams said.
Similarly, Community Curation Project representatives will go out into communities they serve to help Black San Antonians trace their ancestry, while also digitizing family archives through a fully outfitted digitization truck. Anyone participating in the archiving of their family history can have family photos, home movies on film or VHS tape, audio recordings, family recipes, documents and other materials digitized and added to the Smithsonian collection.
However, as Williams and her staff noted, the curation project uses a “non-extractive” process, which means families get to keep their precious mementos. Only the digitized versions will be added to the collection, and participants who bring a thumb drive will receive a digital copy of their personal archives.
History ‘on steroids’
In the months to come, the Community Curation Project will work with SAAACAM and community leaders to plan site visits, digitizing sessions, oral history collection and family history research sessions, Williams said.
Asked how San Antonio became one of seven cities to be visited by the Smithsonian, SAAACAM executive director Deborah Omowale Jarmon said she was made aware of the project during a 2022 Association of State and Local History conference in Buffalo, New York, and suggested her city would be ideal for community curation.
SAAACAM works similarly locally, working to collect oral histories and digitize family histories, documents and other materials relevant to San Antonio Black history, but of the Smithsonian partnership, “will put our work on steroids,” she said. “It will really elevate the work that we’re doing.”
Omowale Jarmon described the importance of such work. “One of the wonderful things about San Antonio is its multiculturalism. What is missing is how all that came to be,” she said, emphasizing that one person’s or one family’s history connects to the story of other families.
“Our stories are connected far more than we know, and what I like to say is we’re telling history through an African American lens. There is no way I could tell my story without telling your story. … I believe that history allows us to build community when it is told holistically, completely, inclusively, truthfully” she said.
During a question-and-answer period at the event, Williams described the overall aim of the Community Curation Project in San Antonio to resounding applause. “Our goal is to make sure that San Antonio … can no longer deny the power of African American history and life in this area.”
Completion of the project is slated for 2027, when San Antonio’s Black history will live online on the National Museum of African American History and Culture’s website.
In the meantime, SAAACAM is looking toward moving from La Villita to its new home in the Kress Building downtown, with a special Smithsonian exhibit The Bias Inside Us set to open October 19 before major renovations begin, Jarmon said.
