Archival Research on Black History
by Janet Salmons, PhD, Research Community Manager for Sage Research Methods Community
The Sage Research Methods Community focus for Q1 of 2023 is on research design, including identifying problems that merit investigation and finding ethical ways to study them. Research using extant data is an approach to consider, whether as the basis for a review study or the foundation for a broader inquiry. Way back when, I visited archives where white-gloved specialists brought me boxes to review. Fortunately, as more materials are digitized, we can now do extensive archival research from our computers. While some archives require institutional affiliation or permissions to access and use their resources, many are open-access.
Primary source materials allow us to go back and time to see and hear about the first-hand experiences of people who were there. As you can see from the collection featured below, archives can offer data about recent events as well as those long past. They can include contemporaneous writings, letters, diaries, film, oral histories, audio recordings, artwork, artifacts, and photographs.
Protests Against Racism Web Archive
A new web archive collection from the Library of Congress documents the civil unrest sparked by the police murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020. The Protests Against Racism Web Archive contains a selection of websites documenting protests against racism and police brutality against Black people, as well as grass roots movements and activism calling for police reform. The release of the web archive is one of a series of programs and collections marking Black History Month at the Library of Congress.
The new web archive is a selective collection that partially documents websites between June 29 and Aug. 7, 2020. It includes more than 200 web archives.
The collection covers Black Lives Matter protests and others with the same cause but not organized by the Black Lives Matter organization. In addition to coverage of the protests, the collection contains responses, reactions and activism representing several sectors of society, including community organizations, local, state and national governments, professional associations, trade groups, the business community, educational and religious institutions, national sports organizations, civil rights organizations, and others.
How can you use archival materials in research?
See these Sage Research Methods Community posts:
Sage Research Methods Community posts about Black History
This year we need to honor Martin Luther King's legacy with both reflection and action! In this post, find links to lots of original source materials, including documents and recordings.