There’s a 47-minute VHS recording that features an interview with the 1964 class of Langston High School, a now closed institution that served Johnson City’s Black students beginning in the 1890s. A 1985 masonic newsletter, as well as a 1981 Kingsport Times-News article about the Pro-To Club, a non-profit corporation aimed at promoting the welfare of the region’s Black population, is there, too.
Given to the university more than 20 years ago, the Langston Heritage Group Collection includes a wealth of historical information about Black churches, schools, civic clubs and organizations throughout Washington County from the end of the Civil War to the present.
“The physical collection was first donated to ETSU in 2000, and it has since been accessed in the Archives’ reading room by dozens of researchers who have utilized the materials for scholarly and creative projects,” said Dr. Jeremy A. Smith, director of the Archives of Appalachia. “But digitizing and making this collection available online will push it out to a global audience, providing unprecedented access to this valuable resource while helping to draw attention to an essential but underrepresented part of Johnson City’s history.”
In late 2021, the Archives of Appalachia and B. Carroll Reece Museum received $225,000 in funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, a prestigious grant given to support a project to enhance online access to collections and artifacts that highlight diverse voices in southern Appalachia.
Digitizing this collection is critical, Smith said, but “we know this is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of documenting the rich and varied histories of African Americans in Johnson City and East Tennessee.
“Our hope is to continue partnering with the broader community to add new details and new layers to this vital history, demonstrating the rich cultural diversity that has been present within Appalachia since its earliest days,” he added.
The Archives of Appalachia is actively seeking donations of new collections. If interested, call (423) 439-4338 or email archives@etsu.edu.
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area.
He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit.
Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com. Gary is also the co-founder of infoDJ an innovation research consultancy supporting corporate product and business model teams with just-in-time fact and insight finding.
From the National Library of Medicine Technical Bulletin: Are you a health educator or librarian looking for the best quality consumer health information? MedlinePlus is the National Library of Medicine’s ...
The article linked below was recenly published by The Southeastern Librarian. Title Georgia’s Libraries and the Needs of Patrons Experiencing Homelessness: An Exploratory Study Author Anne Blood Source The Southeastern ...
From the Publication Page Children in America are inie E. Casey Foundation with 50-state data on child well-being. The annual report focuses this year on youth mental health, concurring with ...
From The Scotsman: Within days, libraries across the country had set up initiatives to supply books to citizens sheltering in underground Metro stations, had created centres for refugees displaced within ...
From the Associated Press: A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were ...
From The University of Toronto: Women filmmakers in Canada have often grappled with low budgets, employment scarcity and a lack of recognition. Yet they’ve also built a powerful canon of ...
Alaska: New Head Librarian Declines to Take Job at Embattled Anchorage Library (via Anchorage Daily News) & Mayor’s Pick for Top Anchorage Librarian Declines Job, Leaving Controversial Deputy Director in ...
From ExecutiveGov: Colleen Shogan, a nearly 15-year federal service veteran and currently an executive at the White House Historical Association, has been nominated to serve as the U.S.’ archivist, the ...
From the University of Louisville Libraries: University of Louisville Libraries Archivist Heather Fox is traveling to Whitesburg, KY to assist in cleaning and preserving damaged archives at Appalshop, an arts ...
From the University of Surrey: Augmented reality might allow printed books to make a comeback against the e-book trend, according to researchers from the University of Surrey. Surrey has introduced ...
The article linked below was recently published by International Journal of Communication. Title Twitter and Endorsed (Fake) News: The Influence of Endorsement by Strong Ties, Celebrities, and a User Majority ...